Bryce Moore's Blog, page 220

Split Decisions: Too Much Time and So Little To Do (Strike That–Reverse It)

(Bonus cool points to you if you recognize the movie pic)

The Utah trip soldiers forward. All the fam is still healthy and relatively happy, which is great. While there are a lot of things about Utah that I don’t love, I certainly have a lot of family and friends out here, which leads me to today’s topic. Even being here for 16 days, I’m not able to see everyone I wish I could see, let alone spend the amount of time with everyone that I wish I could spend. Even today, I’ve got two competing family reunions at the same time. No way to do both, so I have to pick one and stick with it.

I’m not a huge fan of casual acquaintances. The friends that I have are people I like to spend time with–lots of time. Board game time. Movie time. Eating time. I really don’t like the feeling of dropping by for a brief visit and then zooming off to the next appointment–it feels too much like business, if that makes sense. And yet because I have a finite amount of time while I’m out here, that’s what a lot of my visits feel like they turn into.

I’ve thought about switching things up–doing something where I tell people where I am, and if they want to come see me, they can. But then again, that’s pretty much what happened at my sister’s wedding reception the other night. I saw tons and tons of people I love and would love to talk to and spend time with, and I didn’t spend more than 15 minutes with any of them.

Not cool.

I know there are worse problems to have, and I didn’t intend this post to be a “Woe is me–I’m so popular!” sort of thing. But this blog is where I go to express some of my frustrations now and then, so you get the chance to read all about it.

Anyway. In about an hour I’m off to the next family reunion. First time I’ll have been with all my siblings on this side of the family in 22 years. High time, and a year in the planning. Hopefully it goes well. We’ll be going to the Oakley Rodeo tonight, and then various sites around the mountains and Provo over the next few days. I already took TRC and DC up to Timpanogos Cave with one sister and her fam this morning. Had a smashing time.

I suppose in the end what I need to do is just enjoy the time I have with the people I can squeeze in, and do my best not to worry about all the missed opportunities I had to pass up. Glass is half full vs half empty, and all that inspirational stuff. Either which way, if I didn’t get to see you yet–or didn’t get to see enough of you–know that I’m sorry my time isn’t more plentiful.

And you can always visit me in Maine.

Edge of Tomorrow Review (and then SPOILERS Discussion)

I had the chance to head out to see Edge of Tomorrow this past weekend. It had been hyped up quite a bit ahead of time, and I was worried it wasn’t going to be able to quite pull off those expectations. Groundhog Day meets Independence Day? It sounded too good to be true.

The plot is straightforward: aliens invade earth, and Tom Cruise is living the same day over and over at the same time. Instead of using that power to woo Andie MacDowell, he decides to perfect his exoskeleton suit fighting skills to save the world. (It would be a tough call for me–Andie vs Exoskeleton. Hard decisions.) Action ensues.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. In fact, it was headed for a 9.5/10 rating for me–maybe even the mythical 10/10. It’s tough when I get in a situation like that in the theater. Sort of like watching a complete no-hitter in process. Perfection is so hard to pull off.

Did it do it this time?

Well, I’m giving it an 8/10–so there’s your answer. Sad that it didn’t get there, but still a great movie. Very worthy of your movie theater dollars, and a lot of fun from start to finish.

Why just an 8? For that, I need a big SPOILERS disclaimer.

Ready?

The end just kind of blew up for me. It had me right up until the final reset. Tom Cruise blows up the big bad thing, he gets covered in its blood, and then we jump back to the beginning of the movie. Except now all the aliens are dead? What?

This makes absolutely no sense, and is completely inconsistent with the “magic system” they set up in the film. When time is reset, it’s reset for everyone else but the one person who gets reset. Humans and aliens alike. To have it reset a final time, but now have the aliens conveniently dead . . .

Yuck.

Yes, I get that it’s all fantasy to begin with. It’s not like we understand the technology that makes time getting reset possible. So yes, it could be this somehow works. But because we don’t know that it’s possible, it feels like a total copout to me.

And I’m not done.

Because you also have Tom showing up to see the girl for the last first time, and we’re supposed to assume they live happily ever after. This doesn’t work for me at all.

Imagine if in Groundhog Day, Bill Murray wakes up one day earlier, and that breaks the cycle. He loves Andie MacDowell, and he rushes to go to her side. What does she do? I’m betting she slaps him silly and calls for a straitjacket. She doesn’t know him. She thinks he’s a jerk, if anything. He hasn’t had the chance to prove himself to her yet.

The final reset wipes out all the character building he’s managed to pull off in her eyes.

What’s extra frustrating to me is that this is a fantasy movie. The fix would be so simple: just have them survive the final showdown. Have them both not die. No need for a final reset. The world is saved, they can be happy, and all is well with the world.

Talk about dropping the ball at the end of a movie.

I still liked it in spite of that flub, but it was quite the disappointment. Have you seen it? Disagree? Am I being too harsh? Let me know . . .

WesterCon Bound

As I was getting ready for my trip, I received an email from the organizers of WesterCon, wondering if I’d be up for coming to present. It’s a con happening in Utah, so the odds of me being able to actually go were slim to–wait a minute! It was right during my trip that I already had planned, paid, and almost packed for. So the answer was a cheery, “Sure!”

I’ve been waiting to really publicize my attendance until I had all the pieces in place. That time has come, so I can now say that if you’d like to see me this coming Saturday and Sunday, you have not one, not two, but THREE opportunities to do so.

Saturday 1:00pm–Literacy and Science Fiction: “There was a lot of fuss made about the sales of the Harry Potter books and what it said for children’s literacy and reading. Did it encourage kids to read? Will it have any long term positive effects? What can we do to encourage reading?”
Saturday 6:00pm–Tag Team Jeopardy and the Avenue of Awesomeness: “Author book signing and rotating jeopardy panels for your enjoyment – see how the authors let their fun out.”
Sunday 1:00pm–ePublishing Short Stories and Poetry: “As magazines featuring short fiction fade, the internet is becoming a place to showcase shorter works. But what is the best way to present your work?”

There’s going to be a slew of great authors around at this con, including many of my friends (which makes them even *greater* authors). Plus, it’s being held in conjunction with FantasyCon, which sounds like it’ll be awesome in its own right. If you’re a geek and in the Utah area, you owe it to yourself to come on out and have some fun.

Let me know if you’re going to be there, and I’ll keep an eye out for you!

Guest Post: Writing is Hard Work

A long time writing friend of mine, Janci Patterson, just came out with a new book: Everything’s Fine. I’ve read it in workshops over the years and am happy it’s finally seeing the light of day. Also very intriguing to me is the fact that Janci’s gone with the self-publishing route for this book. She hired an actual real-life editor and cover designer, and she printed physical books in addition to going the ebook route. It’s something I’ve toyed with doing over the years, but Janci stopped toying and started doing. She’s here today to give some insight into the process and the resolve it took to pull off. Read and enjoy, and please do give Everything’s Fine a gander to see if it’s up your alley.

Now turning the rest of the time over to Janci:

For a long time, I was afraid of self-publishing. Most of my fears were bound up in this one issue: I knew it would be an intense amount of work.

Avoiding work was not a new thing for me. I didn’t really learn to revise until after I’d written my sixth novel. Up to that point, I’d finish a book, run it through writing group, and I’d look at all the problems it had, and I’d declare: “It would be easier to just write another book!” This avoidance of work was how I came to have six unpublishable novels, a pile of rejections, and several years’ worth of revision ahead of me before I got to draft any more.

It was only standing in the middle of that mess, looking back, that I finally realized this important truth: writing is a lot of work. Maximizing the process for ease is a fool’s errand.

This isn’t to say that I intentionally make things harder on myself. But I no longer let myself consider the magnitude of the work when I make decisions about how to write. Instead, I focus on what the story needs, what would make the book better, what will make me a stronger writer, what will help me learn new skills. I frequently look at the demands of a revision and say to myself, “I’m not a good enough writer to pull this off!” And then I go to work, turning myself into a person who can. When I do, I come out of the process as changed as the novel is.

So it was with Everything’s Fine. It became abundantly clear to me that I needed to self-publish it, and when I started to move in that direction, lots of work lined up before me to be done. This is the final gift that Everything’s Fine gave me: it turned me into a self-publisher. Was it a lot of work? Yes! Was it more work than publishing in New York? Actually, for me, it was almost exactly the same. Was it worth it?

Yes.

I cannot express how excited I am to hold Everything’s Fine in my hands–a real, live book that I can share with other people. A hundred times I was sure that would never happen, and yet here it is, a product I’m proud of. There’s nothing easy about that, but there’s something so incredibly satisfying about it.

So go, writers! Work! It’s hard, and sometimes it’s miserable, but it’s also awesome.

Really, isn’t that what work is all about?

Milkshake Assumptions: When the Unchangeable Changes

This post isn’t the controversial one you might be thinking I’ve had brimming up inside me for the last few days. (That post is there, but I honestly doubt it’ll ever see the light of day. I’m on vacation, and I have no desire whatsoever to put up with the comment shenanigans I’d have to police if and when I posted it.) No, this post is on something much simpler.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I have a tendency to make assumptions about the world based on the limited information available to me. Often, those assumptions get along just fine. Every now and then, I’m reminded that that’s all they were all along: assumptions.

What leads me to these deep thoughts while on vacation? I went back to BYU yesterday, and things were different. Basic, unalterable truths had changed. My worldview was rocked to the very core of its foundations. What caused this mental earthquake?

I went to buy a milkshake at the Cougar Eat, and THEY DON’T SELL MILKSHAKES THERE ANY MOAR!!!1!1!!

I’m a simple man, full of simple wants and needs. High up on that list is the desire to get a good milkshake from the BYU Creamery whenever I’m in town. It’s convenient, and it’s not too expensive, and it was really hot yesterday. I spent quite some time looking forward to that milkshake, and then it was ripped from my hopes and dreams and stomped on. You could buy ice cream. Sundaes. Pastries.

But no milkshakes.

Not even at the creamery up by DT (which doesn’t exist anymore and has been replaced by actual good looking buildings as opposed to giant lego bricks with cafeteria lunch trays on every window). But I don’t care about big changes. I expect those. It’s the smaller things that I just assume would never ever change. Things like milkshakes.

I went to BYU for ten years. For all of those years, milkshakes were available in the same place. They’d always been there. There was no reason to imagine that would ever change,

And yet it did.

Obviously it wasn’t quite as upsetting as I’m making it out to be here, but I’m exaggerating to make a point. I had what I felt was sufficient experience to be able to make conclusions about how life was going to go. This isn’t the only time I’ve encountered this phenomenon. Often it happens when I see high school friends doing or saying something they “would never” do or say in my experience. (Actually, as I think about it, it seems most of my world-rocking surprises pop up around things I did or people I knew when I was younger. Time seems to last much longer when you’re younger. Two years can be an eternity. These days, I would never make an assumption about something based on two years of experience. Well, not an assumption at the most basic level. Not a milkshake assumption. But you get used to how things are growing up, and you just accept certain things as fact that in reality could change at any moment.)

The good news is that I adapted. I had a sundae instead of a milkshake. And while the sundae wasn’t quite as good as what I was wanting, it was still yummy and cool and relaxing on a hot summer day.

Where am I going with this post? I think my basic thought boils down to this: we all experience life differently. Those experiences lead us to believe that certain things are rock solid truths that will never change. This can be something as simple as a milkshake or as complex as an entire worldview. From time to time we discover the “rock” in “rock solid” is squishier than we’d like to believe. This comes back to my trenches post from a few days ago.

Never give up the right to be wrong. (I might be stealing this thought from someone’s comment on Facebook a week or two ago. I tried to see who it was, and I couldn’t find it. If it was yours, congrats! Great idea. If it was no one’s, ain’t I smart?) What I mean by that is don’t be so insistent on always being right that you ignore the fact you may be wrong. At the same time, try to avoid going around shoving other people’s faces into their own “wrong.” Because nothing feels sillier than telling people you don’t want to eat a milkshake downtown because they’ve got better milkshakes at the Cougar Eat, only to find out they don’t anymore.

There’s a good point in there somewhere, even if I’m not sure I finally connected all the dots just right. But that’s all the energy and time I’ve got for finding the point today. I’ll leave it to you to do some dot connecting on your own. Have a nice Thursday.

The Advantages of a Later Time Zone

One thing that being back in Utah has reminded me of is how there are some definite perks to living a few hours behind the East Coast. Sure, while you’re in the East, there are benefits, as well–you get to see live events when they’re actually happening, as opposed to having them on tape delay. You have a head start on the rest of the country, and that’s all fine and good . . .

Unless you don’t really want a head start.

I’ve been enjoying being able to sleep through the boring part of the news cycle. Let the rest of the country worry about getting things up and running. By the time I wake up (still at 7am–jet lag won’t let me sleep later yet), all of my news sites are fully online and I can check out what’s happening with no need to wait or deal with fluff until the good stuff comes out.

And how about sports? Fantastic. Did you know the World Cup comes on two hours earlier in the day here? 10am start time is a much better time than noon, especially when you’re on vacation.

Actually, come to think of it, maybe I’m conflating “time zone” with “being on vacation.” I might have to think that through some more.

In the mean time, the vacation’s going well. Ate some good Mexican food yesterday (with all you can drink Horchata, limeade, strawberry lemonade, and more), visited with old friends, and even got some writing done. On today’s agenda? A trip to wander around BYU, with maybe some world cup watching peppered in there somewhere.

Not bad, friends. Not bad at all.

The Power of a Captive Audience

Flew out to Utah yesterday, and for once the trip went fairly smoothly. Delayed by about an hour, but for Bryce standards, that almost deserves a gold star. No soccer teams. The kids were well behaved throughout. Even MC handled it all like a champ, though she didn’t sleep hardly at all–true to form for all of our kids on planes, which is true to form to me, so perhaps that’s where they get it.

This also meant I was at the mercies of the travel gods when it came to what sort of entertainment I’d be able to consume. (Well, not entirely–I’d loaded the iPads with some movies for the kids. Because it’s one thing to be bored yourself, but it’s an entirely different thing to be stuck with two bored kids for the whole day.) I watched two movies that I probably wouldn’t have watched otherwise. Well, one that I definitely wouldn’t have, and one that I probably wouldn’t have.

First up was Standing Up, a teen drama about two kids (boy and girl) who get bullied at summer camp. Not exactly up my alley. It’s got one strike against it right off for being a drama. The movie starts out with both kids getting taken off to an island, stripped, and abandoned. That’s the point where I was faced with a tough decision: which would be less pleasurable? Sitting on a bus watching the road for two hours, or watching this movie?

Life is full of tough decisions.

In the end, I decided the nice thing about watching a sappy movie would be that anytime I got really bored, I could just look out the window and remind myself that I had nothing better to do.

The movie turned out okay, more or less. Compared to the alternative, certainly. Still, it was almost devoid of humor, and its plot hinged on adults making really silly decisions. It’s based on The Goats, a YA book that’s been well received. I hope it’s better than the movie, plot-wise. Then again, the movie was well acted, and it wasn’t one of those horrendous movies where people (SPOILERS!) all die at the end. So there’s that going for it. I’d give it a 5.5/10, though people who go for these kinds of movies will likely rate it higher.

Second was on the plane, where I discovered Delta had the genius idea of putting personal entertainment units in each seat . . . and then charging for any movie you tried to watch on them. (Thanks, Delta. That was fun explaining it to my kids.) However, after some trial and experimentation, I found out you could watch TV channels for free. So the kids watched Cartoon Network and I watched FX, which was showing This Means War.

Talk about a horrendous premise. Two BFF spies meet and fall for the same girl, and decide to use her as a playing field of sorts to see who could get her to fall for them. I don’t know–maybe I was just in a bad mood because of the plane ride, but it seemed like such a sexist movie. And of course Reese is okay with everything at the end.

Predictable from start to finish. Weak attempts at humor. Deplorable morals. Not a good movie at all.

But better than sitting on an airplane remembering that I’m sitting on an airplane.

4/10. Avoid.

Watching lame movies kind of makes me want to watch something excellent to get that bad taste out of my mouth. Might be in for a bit of quality Netflixing today . . .

Utah Bound

Super mega awesome points to you if you can get the link between that picture there and the topic of this blog post.

But in any case, I’m heading off to Utah today. Over the next while, I don’t know how often I’ll actually be able to post. I’ve got some posts written and ready to go, and that might be enough, but you never can tell. Some of the time I’ll have internet access, and some of the time I won’t.

Either which way, hooray for summer vacations. While I’m out there, I’ll be multitripping in the extreme. That’s a word I just made up. It means I’ll be doing many different things that are all worthy of a single trip in and of themselves. In this case, that means two family reunions, a wedding reception for my sister, and attending a fantasy conference (WesterCon, where rumor has it I’ll be presenting. I’ll let you know what panels I’ll be on if/when I find out, but plan on seeing me there Saturday and Sunday if you’re looking to say howdy.)

All that stands between me and that is a plane ride. My theory this time is that with the entire soccer world focused on Brazil, I should be free to go about my flying unmolested by soccer team antics. (Hat tip inside joke to longtime readers.)

Wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Not much time to write today. I’m off to a board meeting (with ice cream, which makes board meetings infinitely better, in my experience), but I wanted to jot a quick note on a simple topic. Do you ever have days where you’re just dreading what’s going to happen? It’s not that the individual things are terrifying. I’m not talking about major surgeries or enormous trials (or maybe I am)–but mainly just things you know you have to do but don’t really want to do, and they’re all piled up on one day of nastiness?

I don’t have days like that too often, but sometimes I do. Sometimes I have days on the calendar that I can see coming from weeks away, and I don’t look forward to them at all. (Who does?) But the wonderful thing is that those days come, and you live through them, and then at the end of the day–sixteen or so simple hours later–that day is over. Those things? They’re done.

And the feeling then is one of the greatest in the world. Knowing that what you weren’t looking forward to is now something you only have to look back on.

Of course, sometimes things don’t go well during that day of awful, and so it’s a bit of a different experience. But when you’re a worrier like me, it’s rare that things go worse than you expected. Maybe the lesson I should be learning here is that I shouldn’t dread some days as much as I do. But we’re all going to have tough days, no matter how little we try to worry.

Anyway. Just a little thought for the day while I head out and get board with ice cream. Have a great weekend, everybody. Catch you on the flip side!

The Heimlich Maneuver Saves the Day

Had a bit of a scary situation this past weekend. I was with the fam at a barbecue when MC started making some very strange sounds. At first I thought she was just playing or screeching, but it was clear within seconds that she was in distress and having a lot of trouble breathing. Denisa had been feeding her small pieces of mango right before, so it seemed likely MC was choking.

I’ve always been surprised at how different emergencies are in reality than what you’d expect them to be. On television and in the movies, you’ve got lots of visual and aural cues to get you prepped for an emergency. It’s been foreshadowed ahead of time. You’ve got tense music going in the background. Plenty of stuff to prepare you as a viewer for what’s going to happen.

It doesn’t happen like that in life. In real life, one minute you’re sitting there munching on a hamburger, and the next your fourteen month old daughter is close to choking to death. I looked around quickly for help, amazed that everyone else at the event could just be living their lives while I was in panic mode. (Not their fault–no one else knew what was happening. Again, no tense music to tip them all off, right?)

I picked MC up, turned her around in my arms so she was facing away from me, supported her body with one hand, and then did a mini-Heimlich maneuver on her. Two thrusts was all it took for the piece of mango to come shooting out, and from there Denisa and I shifted into “comfort your upset baby” mode.

Crisis averted.

That’s the second time I’ve used the Heimlich Maneuver in my life. Both times I feel like I potentially saved a life, and in conversations with Denisa after the fact I realized that she didn’t know how to do it. It’s something so simple, and I’m amazed it can be the difference between someone living and dying. (At the same time, I was intrigued to see as I did a bit of research for this post that there’s some debate as to whether the Heimlich is really the way to go in choking situations. Apparently it can cause internal damage. I’m not a medical professional (so my advice on this is just my own personal experience), but I know that because the maneuver is so simple, it’s been easy for me to remember. Like I said, I feel like it’s saved two lives now. It still gets my thumbs up.

In any case, I thought I’d pass on a few videos to you, just as a reminder about what you can do when someone’s choking around you. I hope you never need to know, but knowing is much better than not. I know I’ve got some medical professional types who read this blog. Anyone have anything to add?