Bryce Moore's Blog, page 227

Cosmos’s Assault on Religion

Whoa boy. I know what some of you are thinking, and I want to rein that in before this gets off on the wrong foot. I’ve never considered myself to be a frothing at the mouth anti-science sort of a chap. Yay science. I believe evolution. I believe in the scientific method. So if you’re here to have some bobble-head reassure you that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs are imaginary or whatever, move along to the next blog, thank you. And if you’re here to yell at me because SCIENCE, same thing.

I want this to be a rational, polite discussion.

Why? Because like many of you, I was really excited to hear they were running a new version of Cosmos. And like (I assume) many of you, I’ve seen the first two episodes. (Streaming on Fox’s iPad app, since I like watching them with my kids, and I like being able to watch when and where I want). I love fostering my children’s love of exploration and knowledge, and this seemed like a great way to do that.

What I wasn’t expecting was for a full third of the first episode to be focused on how awful the Catholic church (and religion in general) was, historically speaking. And then in episode 2, the continued subtheme about how fundamentally flawed religion is didn’t go over too well with me either. Let me take each of those on one at a time.

First, I don’t think any sane person is going to argue successfully that religion has a perfect track record over the years, especially when it comes to nurturing inquisitive minds. Point taken. But I’d expected Cosmos to be about the wonders of the universe. The marvels of discovery. To spend so much time focused on the story of a monk who’s constantly oppressed by those evil evil churchy types . . . seemed like the wrong place to put your focus. It’s a missed opportunity. There’s so much awesome out there to focus on. That 15 minutes or whatever you spent focused on that meant that I got 15 minutes less of black holes or string theory or god particles.

I get it. Science feels a need to get back at religion for what’s been done to it over the centuries. And many sciencey types like to do a bit of chest thumping about how awesome science is and what a fairy tale God is. To me, you don’t make your point by rubbing people’s noses in what you aren’t. There’s no need to muck rake here. If you’re so awesomely right, then show us that, and let us figure out the rest on our own.

The same thing about the presentation on evolution. Yes, I know it’s a hot button topic. Yes, I realize that there are people out there who want to dismiss it as a whole and talk about “theory” this and “incomplete” that. But at the same time, the show made such a big deal about how great science is because “It’s okay for us to admit we don’t know something” (I don’t have the exact quote here, sorry–it’s along those lines), but it seems to me science is often unwilling to allow people of faith the same leeway.

I am fully confident that there are things being presented as fact today in schools and by science that will one day be deemed over-simplistic, misguided, or just plain wrong by scientists in future. Science is far from infallible. So let’s follow that bit about glass houses and stones, eh?

I’m watching the show with my kids, as I said. And I paused it after the big talk about how evolution happens over billions of years and how it can all function without any guidance whatsoever. How things are all just random, and how yada yada yada. And I asked my son what he thought of that. He wasn’t sure what to say. The kid’s only 9, after all. So I asked another question. “Does God exist?”

“Yeah,” he said. It was the safe answer.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

He thought about it some, still not sure what to say.

“Have you ever prayed?” I asked.

He nodded.

“And were your prayers answered?”

Another nod. He and I have had numerous talks about prayer and faith and finding out for yourself what to believe. It was nice to be able to draw on that experience during this talk.

“There you go,” I said. “Your prayers were answered. You know from personal experience that prayer is real, that God hears you and helps you.” I went on to talk about how I don’t understand everything, but I’m a firm believer in the scientific method–with the disclaimer that I don’t believe it’s the only way to acquire truth and knowledge. If we all went about insisting on using the scientific method all of the time, none of us would get anywhere. At some point in time, we have to read what other people have discovered. Learn from their truths and not just our own. Yes, we can and should put those truths to the test, but one of the big ways we’ve advanced so far scientifically is that science is a team sport.

The same holds true for religion. If there’s a God, and He hears and answers prayers, there should be a way to put that to the test. For me, it’s been following the doctrines and teachings of the Mormon church. Certain promises are made to the faithful. I’ve seen in my personal life and experiences that those things really work. Prayer is a fact for me, not a theory or a new agey puff of incense.

I went to college at BYU, a church owned and operated school. Evolution was taught in my biology class. It wasn’t dismissed or ridiculed. It was accepted as-is. How does evolution match up with what I know of God? I don’t know. I’m not God, and I’m also not smart enough to be able to know everything about evolution. But again, it’s okay to admit you don’t know something. There are tons of mysteries science has to do the same thing with: shrug its shoulders, say “I don’t know” and work on figuring out what the solutions might be.

Why does evolution have to exclude a creator? Why does it have to be random–what’s to say it isn’t guided by someone or some thing?

I don’t know. And I’m okay with that. I’m going to keep watching Cosmos. I love learning new things, and I’ve enjoyed a lot of the explanations on the show. I’ll keep having my kids watch it. I’m not threatened by truth and the search for truth. I’m confident that one day it will all make sense. For now, I’d just appreciate it if Cosmos played to its strengths (the awesome presentation of the potential of the universe) and left the interpretation and spin control out of the picture. People like me don’t need it, and people who are frothing-at-the-mouth aren’t going to listen to it.

Book Review: Words of Radiance

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Epic fantasy is epic. I know that should go without saying, but it’s important to get that out there at the start of this review. Because Sanderson isn’t mucking about with fantasy here. The Stormlight Archive is epic at its most epic-ness. If you’re not in for the whole shebang, then this isn’t up your alley. What’s the whole shebang? An entirely different world that doesn’t just need a map to make sense of–it needs an almanac. Something to tell what all the animals and plants do, what the nations are and how their government each runs. Lucky for us, Sanderson’s recruited a team of artists to help him present his vision, but the fact remains: if all of these things sound daunting and uninteresting to you, then move along please.

Because they sound awesome to me.

I’ve always loved epic fantasy, from the days when I’d go into a public library and go looking for the thickest books I could find that didn’t start with the word Webster’s in the title. I love getting into a new world and seeing how it all works together. I love learning new names and checking family histories and wondering about connections and possible theories for why characters might be doing certain things.

Words of Radiance is very much at the head of that movement. A continual push by authors to make their worlds more complex. More intricate. More involved.

I loved the first book (Way of KIngs), though I wondered how the series would work as a whole. I knew from interviews with Brandon that he planned each to have its own flair. Would that affect what I thought of the later books? Would he be able to match the awesome he brought to the table in the first?

I’m so relieved to be able to say yes on all counts.

Words of Radiance is more Shallan’s book than Kaladin’s, mainly because it fills in her back story and helps us understand where she’s coming from. I could try to sum up what’s happening in these books, but anytime you take epic and reduce it to a paragraph, it sounds contrived and uninteresting. Just know that this book picks up right where the last one left off, continuing on the story of the struggle of a nation against a mysterious upcoming threat to the world. There’s assassins, intrigue, magic, battles, and plenty of elaborate action scenes.

I’ve read some critiques that complained the book bogged down in the middle some. That it dwelled in some of the details too much. To me, people who make that complaint don’t fully understand that epic fantasy is what it is *because* of the way it dwells on those details. But perhaps that’s just me.

In any case, if you’re looking for an excellent, in-depth read that will take a good chunk of your life and attention for the next week or two (at least), then look no further. My only gripe is that I can’t read the next part right now. Hopefully the next book comes faster than this one, now that Sanderson has the Wheel of Time out of his system.

Bring on the epic!

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Writing Lessons Learned from Frozen

I finally joined the rest of the world and watched Frozen yesterday. We’d meant to catch it in the theaters, but it never happened, so it had to wait until we could buy it on Bluray. What did I think?

It was a cute movie and a lot of fun to watch. I really enjoyed the musical numbers and was encouraged that Disney might have found another great songwriting team to turn to for their music. The characters were funny and light, the animation was gorgeous, and it was an adventurous romp with enough humor to keep things clipping at a fast pace. Some great actions scenes peppered throughout.

However, one thing that pretty much stunk in the movie was the plot. Once you get beyond the music and the animation and the characters, and you start to look at what’s actually happening in the film, I couldn’t help but shake my head in confusion–which makes sense, considering how long the movie was in development limbo.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead (assuming there are still some people out there who also haven’t seen the movie.)

Break this down for me. You’ve got two sisters who love each other. One of them accidentally injures her sister one time with her magic, and so the solution is to keep the apart, shuttered away from each other and the rest of the world, for something like 15 years? My kids accidentally injure each other almost every day. According to this reasoning, they probably shouldn’t go out in public for the next two centuries.

But fine. Parents do strange things. Let’s give the movie a pass on that one. What happens next? At the sister’s coronation, she reveals she’s got this ice power, and it freaks everybody out, so she runs off to make an ice castle in a far off mountaintop, turning quasi-evil in the process and accidentally freezing her kingdom. What is she afraid of? I’m not sure. Bad . . . stuff happening? That already happened? I don’t know.

And there are trolls involved somehow in all of this?

Face it, people. The plot is one big mess from start to finish. Because let’s skip to the end of the movie–glossing over all the other bumps along the way–when the cure for Anna’s frozen heart is . . . an act of true love given by . . . herself? What? Where’s the character arc here? Anna was great all along. There was nothing she needed to do. She already loved her sister, a fact that had been established in several musical numbers. Her sister loved her. So why did Anna have to do something special to cure herself?

A mess.

AND EVEN AFTER THAT, you’ve got Anna cured, and Elsa still has all her evil uncontrollable powers, and everything’s looking grim, and then Elsa exclaims, “Of course! Love!” And just like that, she’s able to turn those powers to awesome use and make everybody love her.

I ought to try that trick when I’m writing sometime. If I paint myself into a corner I can’t get out of, I’ll just have a character shout out, “Of course! Groundhogs!” And then skip to the denouement. Problem solved.

That said, I still think the movie is a 7 out of 10. It works as a movie. Why? Because we’re not watching the movie for plot. The plot doesn’t drive the film. The characters, songs, humor, tone, and animation awesomeness drive the film. Criticizing the plot too much is like picking on a Saturday Night Live sketch because it wasn’t deep enough. Which made me realize that sometimes as an author, I try to cram too much into a book. I try to make it be everything to everyone, and sometimes it’s just better to know what you’re trying to be, and be excellent at that thing.

And that’s my movie review and writing thought of the day.

Jogging in Place: As Close to “Exercise” as I Get

That’s right, people. I’ve started exercising regularly. For a while I was walking up and down my staircase to get exercise, but that got boring. My current “program”?

I jog in place.

Once the fifteen feet of snow in my front yard melts, I might go jogging in earnest, but for now, I decided I needed something that I could do easily, anytime, with no preparation or equipment. My only requirement was that it be something that gets my heart rate up. I’m not worried about strength training or flexibility–just something that makes me exert myself that I can do every day.

Jogging in place fits the bill. I browse the internet while I do it, watching YouTube or reading books, or playing computer games. It’s fairly mindless, and with a pedometer it’s easy for me to see how long I’ve been going. Currently I do a minimum of 5,000 steps a day. I’ve found that (so far, at least) I feel better when I do it. Sort of like running the wood stove hot for a few minutes to burn out the creosote from the chimney. (Maybe that analogy doesn’t work if you don’t understand wood stove-ese . . .) But getting my heart rate up for that half hour or so each day helps me stay focused the rest of the day, and there have been a few times I’ve worried I was getting sick, and then I got better. (A far cry from what usually happens, which is I worry I’m getting sick, and then I’m sick for ten days.)

It’s certainly possible I’ve just gotten lucky on the whole sick thing for now, but even if/when I do get sick, I plan to go back to this jogging thing when I get better. Like I said–it’s easy. I can do it when I watch movies at night, even.

Yes, when spring arrives, I’ll probably head outside some of the time, although outside has heat and bugs–two things Bryce doesn’t like. And while I feel like an idiot jogging in place in my living room, I don’t really mind that much. My family has learned to accept the fact that I do strange bizarre things on a regular basis.

It’s helpful to manage people’s expectations.

Anyway. If you drive past the house and see a tall gangly guy bobbing up and down in the kitchen, now you know what’s going on.

Yay exercise.

Vodnik March Madness

Imagine my surprise the other day when, in the middle of perusing a Kindle sale in search of a new book to read, I came across my own book on sale. For the rest of the month, Amazon has decided to knock VODNIK down to $1.99 on Kindle, and promote it as part of their big sale effort for the month. Pretty cool, I say. It’s the sort of thing that could really feed on itself–as more people buy the book, it could (theoretically) rise up the ranks of the sale until it pops up near the top of its categories. (Strangely, it’s listed in the “Children’s Fiction” section, not the “YA Fiction” section, which probably doesn’t help matters . . . It’s also not listed in “Fantasy”. Anyone smarter than I have suggestions on how to rectify that?)

But in any case, feel free to pass information on that sale to anyone you think might be interested.

In the meantime, it’s also high time for a little March Madness. As always, I’m doing a blog group for fans of me, my family, my blog, my writing–anybody who wants to join. I have no idea what I’ll do for a prize this year. Perhaps I’ll leave it up to the winner. Some potential ideas I’ve had:

Blog entry on a topic of their choice, written by yours truly. (I’ve done this in the past, lauding the winner and detailing how much better they are than I.)
The opportunity to write a guest post, plugging anything they’d like to
I’ll read and critique a chapter or short story for them
Or anything else within reason.

I do reserve the right to veto some proposals, but I’m open to just about anything. Writing a post about how awesome the Red Sox are, or how great the Utes are? Sure–I’d do that. It’s a win-win folks! And if I win? You don’t risk a thing. I’ll just write a post about how awesome I was to win.

So anyway–to join the fun, go , fill out your bracket, and join my group.

Group: Bryce’s Ramblings

Password: vodnik

Come one, come all! The more the merrier. Let the madness commence! (Fill out and join by Thursday morning, or it’ll be too late!)

Happy Birthday, Denisa

When you’ve been blogging for as long as I have, you start to have some topics that you’ve covered fairly well in the past, and so you shy away from repeating them. Or at least, you think you’ve covered them fairly well in the past. Imagine my horror when I looked back over my years of blogging and discovered that I’d never taken the time on my wife’s birthday to devote a blog post to wishing her Many Happy Returns of the Day. I guess I always just assumed I’d done it last year, so I didn’t want to repeat myself.

I shall rectify that right now.

Because what I was planning on blogging about either which way was the fact that some topics just never lose interest. People are always like that. You experience them new each day. True, sometimes you might try to classify them–to make assumptions about what they’ll do or say. But people never fail to surprise you. Do things you didn’t think they would.

Denisa and I have been together for quite some time now, and each year is different than the last. Through them all, she’s been an awesome partner to have. She’s incredibly multitalented and diverse, able to do so many things well that I can’t do well at all. She’s a fantastic cook, wonderful teacher, superb mother–you run out of synonyms for “excellent” really quickly with her. She’s compassionate, thoughtful, cheerful–she’s practically the Boy Scout Law incarnate. Just with fewer merit badges–or a higher concentration of the cool ones.

She’s willing to put up with living with me, which means far more pop culture than I think she ever knowlngly signed up for, and while I go to the occasional dance with her, she’s watched the entire series runs of Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, Firefly, and even some Star Trek with me–not to mention numerous viewings of Lord of the Rings, and the perpetual Groundhog Day celebration. I think if you’d asked her before she met me if she would do all of that, she would have laughed in your face. This is the woman who still hasn’t seen Return of the Jedi, after all. And yet she’s watched them all and even likes talking about them.

That’s dedication and love, folks.

So everyone join me in wishing her a very happy birthday. She generally doesn’t like it when I draw too much attention to her, so I suppose I really ought to wrap this up. I’m probably already going to get in trouble for posting the picture of her and her birthday cake. She’ll object to it being bad lighting, or a bad angle. What she doesn’t seem to understand sometimes is that she’s gorgeous and lovely in any lighting and from any angle. And besides–what’s a happy birthday blog post without a picture of a cake? I ask you!

You’re the best, Denisa. I love you.

Veronica Mars Review and Thoughts on the Kickstarter Experience

I Kickstarted the Veronica Mars movie back in the day, along with tens of thousands of other people. It was a series I adored, and the thought of getting it back–even for a few hours–was too good to pass up. So I ponied up $35, which would give me “insider info” on the production, a t-shirt, some stickers, and a digital download of the film when it was released. At the same time, I realized I was taking a risk.

The movie could be junk.

Honestly, I’m a bit cautious of Kickstarters, because I’ve got this thing called a budget. Gotta watch them nickels and dimes, you know? And while it’s easy to make any concept look awesome on paper, you often don’t find out how good something really is until it’s in your hands. I’ve seen plenty of great concept board games on Kickstarter, but I’ve held back from pulling the trigger to support them. I’ve only got so much closet space, and I tend to devote myself to games that *are* awesome, as opposed to ones that *might be* awesome.

Why did I make an exception for Veronica? I actually don’t see it as an exception. It was already a tried and true product, as far as I was concerned. It was being done by the same creator, same cast. I’d seen three seasons and loved them. So it was much less of a risk than it could have been. (Though I suppose still a risk. See the Star Wars prequels . . .)

Days turned into months, and the movie finally came out. The actual downloading experience left some to be desired. I wanted to watch it on my TV through my Apple TV or PS3, but the movie was only available on Flixster (to redeem my free download), and there’s no way to get that on PS3 or AppleTV, and it wouldn’t let me broadcast it from my iPad to my TV via AirPlay. So I was stuck watching it on a laptop screen. Not ideal, but I think I actually watched a lot of the series on a laptop screen, so I suppose bonus points for nostalgia?

How was the movie itself?

I loved it, though it’s hard for me to judge it from a non-fan perspective, meaning I have no idea if you’d like it if you weren’t already a fan of the show to begin with. But you know what? That’s exactly what it should be like, in my opinion. The movie existed because fans paid for it to exist. So it has a prime audience: make all its fans happy. If they’d been throwing in too much to appeal to non-fans, I’d have been irritated. Instead, we got the same tone, same characters, same snark, same tensions as the first three seasons, now in an easy-to-watch season four (kind of)!

(If you’re not a fan, what should you expect? A snarky main character girl PI who sets out to solve a murder case. Light tone. Humor. Fun. You really ought to watch the TV show, though. Where have you been?)

Kickstarter is great for a number of reasons. It allows content creators to fund projects that wouldn’t get funded otherwise. It allows speculators to get a great deal on new technology that might (or might not) be awesome. It allows authors and artists to fund projects they’d like to make but haven’t been able to get funded through normal channels. I’d love to see some more projects like this coming down the pike–shows that disappeared too soon. Books that need sequels.

Am I happy with my $35? Well, I’m not sure if I would have bought a Veronica Mars movie normally. I’d likely have waited for it to come out on Netflix or Instant Watch, though I might have gone to theaters to see it if there was a chance I’d miss it. It’s a movie I wouldn’t have wanted to miss, but wouldn’t necessarily have seen opening weekend, if that makes sense. So if this had come through normal channels, I likely would have paid around $15 for Denisa and me to see it. I could buy it on iTunes now for $20.

So I essentially paid an extra $15 for a cheap t-shirt. In that light, it was a mistake. But more importantly, if we hadn’t all paid the money, the movie might not have been made. $15 to make sure it got made was a steal.

Then again . . . part of me worries about movie studios looking to cash in on this sort of thing in the future. Movie studios have lots of money. They shouldn’t need us to pay them up front to make movies we all want to see. I’d think Kickstarting a movie or show would be an exception, not the rule. As long as it stays like that, I’m good with the idea.

How about you? Seen the film already? What did you think?

THE MEMORY THIEF is Finished

(Okay–I’ll admit it. The image for this post is a bit of a stretch. But it’s hard to keep coming up with new images for books that don’t even have covers yet, you know? Cut me some slack.)

I got the email from my agent last night, and I’m polishing off a few rough spots today, but THE MEMORY THIEF is done. What does “done” mean? It means my agents have read it and given it the green light to go out on submission.

Does it mean I won’t have to revise it again? No clue. If we find an editor or two interested in picking it up, then chances are that she or he will want some changes done to it, at which point I’ll go once more into the breach. I’ll tackle that happy occurrence if and when it happens.

But one thing I’ve learned as a writer: you need to celebrate milestones. GET CUPID never got to this point. THE MEMORY THIEF has, and I’m very excited about it. I’ll keep you up to date on what happens next, of course. For now, here’s a link to my web page about the book, now updated with the completed chart of the book’s writing process, tracking it from the first time I had the idea for the book to where we stand now.

Ode to a Snowblower

When I first moved to Maine, I had very little real experience in dealing with snow using anything other than a shovel. I knew of snowblowers in theory, but I decided the bestthing to do for truly massive amounts of snow would be to get a snow blade attachment for my lawn tractor.

Big mistake.

That first winter was a nightmare. I discovered my lawn tractor didn’t have good enough traction to really push the snow very far, so I bought chains for the tires. When that still didn’t work, I bought wheel weights to try and dig into the snow more. No matter what I did, the snow just wouldn’t move. Once those snow banks were set, they became bitter piles of ice that weren’t moving without dynamite or a flame thrower.

So I went with the snowblower, thinking it had to get better. And boy did it ever.

We’ve been watching some family movies the last few weeks–gifts I’d made for Denisa for Christmas. And one of the things that’s stunned me is how little snow we had that first year. Don’t get me wrong–we had plenty of snow. But we didn’t have nearly as much snow as I remembered us having. In my mind, we’d had feet upon feet of the white stuff, but then when I saw the videos from that first year and compared them to what we’ve got out in front of our house now . . . I think we have more now.

Why don’t I feel like I’m going crazy with all the snow? It’s all about that wonderful snowblower. We get a big storm, I wait for it to end, and then I waltz out, start it up, and a half hour later my driveway is snow free and ready for driving. It can handle up to 18 inches at a time or so, and it’s really a workhorse. I love it.

Now, that doesn’t give me complete snow-immunity, of course. Both of my cars don’t drive particularly well in slick conditions. If money were no object, I’d love to get something with four wheel drive or all wheel drive, which would diminish some of the white-knuckled experiences I’ve had over the past seven years or so. But still, if I had to point to one thing that’s had the biggest impact on these Maine winters, my snowblower would be it.

I loves it!

(Even on days like today, when I had to go through 3 foot drifts with it. It takes multiple passes, and it’s harder to do than a normal storm, but it still beats a shovel.)

A New Calling for Ze Wife

Longtime readers (and Mormons) know that Mormons periodically get new assignments at church. Responsibilities they’re given to make sure everything’s running smoothly. I’ve had several since I moved to Maine, and most of them required me to go to extra leadership meetings while Denisa stayed at home with the kids.

Not so anymore.

I’m still a part-time seminary teacher, but Denisa just became the Primary President. What does that mean, if you don’t know? She’s in charge of the kids’ teaching at church–all youth 18 months to 12 years old. Here’s the wikipedia entry for what the organization does, and here’s the official website, if you’re curious.

What does this mean for us on a day to day and week to week basis? It means Denisa will be much busier at church, for one thing. She’ll also need to have presidency meetings during the week, and need to stay for leadership meetings after church about twice a month. Bottom line is that what was a busy life only promises to get busier, and I was already freaking out over how busy and crazy our lives were before this came along.

So why am I strangely calm about the whole thing?

Ultimately it’s because Denisa and I prayed about it and felt strongly that this was the right thing to do. If there’s one thing my thirty plus years on this earth have taught me, it’s that it works out–especially when I’ve prayed about things ahead of time and feel strongly about it. Call religion the opiate of the masses if you will, but I’ve seen what it does for me and what guidance through prayer can accomplish, and that’s why I’m at peace with this.

I guarantee you one thing: if this extra business had been for any other reason, we wouldn’t have even had to blink an eye. We would have turned it down. We’re pretty much at full capacity. No room in the inn, folks. But things will work out, and I’m confident of it.

Besides, at this point my family needs every single blessing God might want to send our way.

Anyway, best of wishes for Denisa–I’m sure she’ll do a great job!