Bryce Moore's Blog, page 251

Thoughts on Minecraft

So a certain friend got me hooked on Minecraft earlier this week. Not that I really blame him. I'd heard plenty about how awesome the game was from many many different sources. But up until a chat I had with him over Facebook, Minecraft had always seemed . . . pointless. Playing with virtual Legos online. Whoa boy. Hold me back.



But the way he described it made it sound actually interesting. How did he manage to do that? To make something sound appealing when it had had no appeal whatsoever before? Let's observe:

Me: is it any fun?

Him: Yes, a lot

Me: TRC really wants to explore it
Why is it fun?
I don't get it

Him:I really didn't get it before I got it
:-)
Someone used to show me all the time
And I'd be like "wow, a glorified Sims"
Or unglorified

Me: :-)

Him: Plus it's open-ended

Me: But isn't it just like playing with virtual legos?

Him: So you don't even have an objective
Well, one thing that makes it different, at least in survival mode
Is the necessity to find certain resources

Me: Find em or die?

Him: "Survival mode"
[You can] put it on the easiest setting so there are no monsters

Me: There are monsters?

:-)

Him: Oh yes
They come out at night



Me: How do you kill them?



Him: So you better have a house built by then



Me: By throwing bricks?



Him: You have to craft weapons

And that's the other thing that's fun



Me: Suddenly this is sounding interesting.

this is all I need . . .



It went on from there, with him explaining about how there's a crafting system in the game, and unexplored dungeons you have no idea exist, and monster to slay in those dungeons, and treasure to find, and--and--and--



I bought the game.



I've now played it a fair bit, and I can definitely say it's a unique experience. I've had a good time playing it, although it's unlike any game I've ever played. For one thing, there are no instructions. You're plopped in the middle of a Lego world with nothing. There are tons of things you can do, but the game relies on you either discovering those through trial and error or else turning to the message boards and discovering them through the Minecraft community.



I'm not honestly sure how I feel about that. I love the sense of discovering something for myself--but how do you discover something if you don't even know it exists? You can do magic in Minecraft? Really? How? There's a "big boss"? Where? In a way, it's even more frustrating to know the awesome things are there--you just can't know about them unless you search.



That said, TRC has also been playing, and I've discovered something else about him and myself through watching him. He's not afraid of failure at all. He's willing to try anything and keep on trying until it works, and he enjoys the process.



Case in point. It's sometimes easy to get lost in the Minecraft world, so I spent a long time building a huge tower in my world, brick by brick, making sure there was a way for me to get down without dying. Because dying is bad. I was very happy with my efforts, but it took some time.



TRC did it in a fraction of the time. How? He discovered that if you die, you always respawn in the same spot. So he built a tower one brick wide, straight up into the sky, as far as he could go, with him on top of the tower.



Then he jumped off.



Yes, he died. But he also ended up in the same place I did, with the same stuff I did, much more efficiently.



TRC is way more open to experimentation. He's happy to sit trying different combinations of materials to see if any of them make anything, as opposed to me, who rushes to the internet to just find the dang recipes. TRC loves this game in a way I can't seem to really catch on to. I enjoy it, and there are things I really like, but after a bit of playing, I start to wonder why I'm playing, and I decide to do something else. TRC? He just loves the experience. Seeing what he can build. Discovering new things. He made a house that's nice, neat, and orderly. I carved out a bit of a cave and then went spelunking.



For that reason alone--the sheer number of ways to play the game--it's worth a look. It's also notable that it's always expanding and getting refined. There didn't use to be monsters. That's new. The game's evolving over time, and that's fascinating.



The question is, am I evolving along with it?

Please Help a Fantasy Author in Need: David Farland Book Bomb

You might remember me talking about Dave Wolverton over the years--aka David Farland. When I got back to BYU after my mission, I took a class on writing fantasy and science fiction from Dave. It was one of the main things that got me thinking I could actually succeed as an author. Dave has a great way of making the insurmountable seem very doable. He's a great teacher, and a great author, having written a veritable slew of books, from The Courtship of Princess Leia to The Runelords series. He's been a real mentor to many authors, from Brandon Sanderson to James Dashner to Dan Wells and more. The man truly is a scholar and a gentleman.



Last week, his son Ben was in a longboarding accident. He's 16 years old, and he suffered severe brain trauma and is still in a coma. One thing authors don't have access to is the nice company insurance policies many people enjoy. The medical bills for this accident are going to be real doozies. With that in mind, a book bomb has been organized for Dave.



A book bomb is a concerted effort to get a lot of people to buy a specific book all at the same time. The idea is that all those people buying books brings the book to the attention of more people, who then buy the book, too. Ideally, it starts popping up in Amazon's top 100 list, which can make a real difference. Dave's most recent book is Nightingale, and that's the one everyone has agreed to "bomb." It looks like the print-copies of the book are already sold out on Amazon (buying the used copies from other sellers won't help--none of that money will go to Dave). Buy the Kindle edition if you have an eReader. If you don't, consider buying some of his other books. I've read most of them and have enjoyed them all.  The Runelords has a great magic system--it's epic fantasy in the best sense of the word.



Please do what you can to pass this word on to as many people as you can. It's a way you can support a great author and also get some great books at the same time. Best wishes and prayers for you and your family, Dave!

Diet Update: Week 7

Someone's stealing time from me. I'm sure of it. There's no way I'm up to week 7 already, is there? And yet my blog is proof. 7 weeks down. How did this one go?



At first, it went epically. The first few days of the week, I was losing a pound or more a day, and sub-200 was in my sights. And then, Saturday happened. What happened Saturday?



I ate out for all three meals.



Eating somewhere other than home is death for this diet of mine. I have no idea how many calories I'm eating. Portion size goes out the window. I'll think I'm going light, only to discover I've eaten much more than I'd planned.



I knew this, and so I was trying to be very good. I only had fruit for breakfast. For lunch, I had lots of vegetables in addition to some sandwiches and a small dessert. I didn't go back for seconds. For dinner, I had two pieces of pizza. Not even huge pieces.



I gained two pounds.



Then again, this was to be expected. I was losing weight far faster than I wanted to, really--and I felt like I was ahead of the game. Like I was registering loss that wasn't really accurate. So this helped with some course correction. I no longer feel like I'm lower than where I really am.



Health-wise, I continue to feel pretty darned good. I did have a brief stint with extreme fatigue last week, but I can't help but think that might have something to do with being sick of this diet, worried about the baby coming, and generally be stressed from other things going on in my life. As far as all out sick goes, I have yet to be sick since I started this diet. That's a very good thing.



And now for the numbers: 201.4. That means I've lost a pound this week, bringing my total to 12.6 pounds total. Not bad for a bad week. I'm continuing to exercise, and I really think it's something I might keep doing once the diet's done. It helps me cope with stress better, and I almost always feel better after exercising than I did before. That's big.



So onward we go. Will this be the week I break 200? Time will tell . . .

James Bond Comes to Netflix Instant

I'm a James Bond fan. Everyone should be. I remember my dad first telling me that I'd like Bond movies when I was "old enough," and they sounded like they were tailor made for me: spies, gadgets, explosions? The girl stuff wasn't interesting just yet (not old enough, remember?), but I wanted to see these movies.


I forget how old I was when I first saw a Bond movie. I'm pretty sure it was Thunderball. I'm also certain that half or 75% of the innuendo sailed right past me. I was there for one thing and one thing alone: gadgets. Action. Awesomeness. (I guess that's three things, actually . . .)



And since that first Bond film, I've watched them all. Numerous times. I've been able to evaluate new Bonds against old Bonds, contrast the title songs, evaluate the gadgets. I look forward to when I'll be able to introduce TRC to James Bond--but he's not old enough yet. :-)



This is all just to say that DID YOU KNOW OLD SCHOOL CONNERY BOND IS AVAILABLE ON INSTANT WATCH NOW?


What are you still doing reading this blog post? You should be watching them right this instant. Denisa and I watched Dr. No Saturday evening. It had been a while since I saw it. My thoughts?



Action movies have changed quite a bit over the years.



It was slower paced than I'd like. The gadgets weren't awesome. At all. (Non-existent, really.) But the glimmers of the Bond I know and love are there. The theme song. The car. Moneypenny. Martinis. As I explained it to Denisa, it all had to start somewhere.



Dr. No isn't my favorite Bond. But it's a great start to the series. If you haven't seen any vintage Bonds, you owe it to yourself to watch them.



I look forward to watching more in the days to come.

Baby Update Time

We're getting down to crunch time here, folks. The baby's scheduled to come in a few weeks, though from what I gather, that basically means she could come at any time now. And more and more people are starting their conversations with me now by asking, "How's the baby doing? How's Denisa?" So I thought maybe writing up a blog post to answer those popular questions would be appropriate.



How's the baby doing? Fine. I know that much more than I've known how any of my other children have been doing before they were born. Denisa and I have had to go down to Portland once a week for ultrasounds. We get to go down again today, actually. (I use the word "get" on purpose. I'm trying to remind myself it's great we have insurance and can keep tabs on the baby like this at such a low cost to us--other than gas money and the time, we haven't had to pay anything for this pregnancy. I know other people aren't as lucky, and I'm very grateful for that. Still, those 4 hour round trips do tend to get old after a while . . . )



One of the ultrasounds detected a slightly high blood flow rate in the baby's brain. Hence the weekly visits. But all the subsequent ultrasounds have been normal. So yay for that. We know that as of two weeks ago, the baby was already 7 pounds. So she's not going to be teeny. But really, she's doing fine. Loves kicking.



How's Denisa doing? As well as can be expected for a woman who's 38.5 weeks pregnant. She's got permanent heartburn, can't sleep well, can't get comfortable, is sick of maternity clothes, and really wants the baby out out out. But she's healthy and was even still baking this week. The woman's a champ.



Oh--and the other popular question: Do you have a name picked out? And the answer is, "Yes." But we're not going to tell you until the baby's here. So quit asking.



The not-as-popular question: How am I doing? I mean about the baby. Don't get me wrong--I know that how I'm doing about this isn't nearly as important as the other two questions, but I'll be honest here. (As opposed to me never being honest on this blog ever, right?) I'm worried. Not worried about the baby. Not worried about Denisa. (Beyond the natural paternal worries to make sure they're okay. I mean I'm not worried they're not doing okay.)



No--I'm worried about me. It's been five years since we had a baby in this house. That's a long time to be out of practice doing something. We had things down to a pretty great routine the last few years. TRC and DC are doing great, Denisa had the bread thing going and was adding some teaching, my writing was going well. I know a baby's going to disrupt all that. And I want the disruption, but I'm a man who likes his routines. I don't like things I'm not in any control over, and I have no control over what's coming. When will baby come? Who knows? What kind of a baby is she going to be? Who knows? Will she sleep well? Eat well? Will the other kids do okay with a third kid? Will Denisa be okay?



I don't like unknowns, and that's a whole bunch of them all at once. Will I handle three children?



I feel fairly confident that all will be well, but it's still daunting. I'm much happier and confident when I'm in the middle of a problem or a situation. The anticipation of something . . . not my favorite thing.



Anyway--there you have it. A fairly complete update on the status of Baby 3. When will she show up? Stay tuned . . .

Netflix Instant Review: Romantics Anonymous

Sometimes I just adore Netflix Instant. Of course, other times I feel like there's nothing to watch, but usually I find that's a personal attitude problem, not reality. Case in point: Romantics Anonymous. An obscure French romantic comedy starring no one I've ever heard of, directed by no one I've heard of, and with a really boring looking cover?



Without Netflix, there's no way I would have watched this movie. Even the movie summary didn't really hook me:

Love and chocolates may yet win the day in this delightful romantic comedy, which follows the slow-burn romance of talented chocolatier Angélique and chocolate-factory owner Jean-René, lonely souls who secretly share a debilitating anxiety disorder.

Nothing there really grabbed hold of me and said WATCH ME. "Slow Burn" is often codespeak for "boring," after all. But it was late in the evening, and Denisa wanted a funny movie (her typical request). Netflix told me I was going to give this one about 4.2 stars out of 5, and it was short. We gave it a shot.



I'm very glad we did. It really was "delightful." The premise is simple: two people, both are intensely afraid of meeting other people and having to interact with them, find themselves in a middle of a relationship. Meanwhile, they're trying to save a floundering chocolate shop. Also, the leading lady has a serious Sound of Music-fixation with Maria. (This is never said aloud in the movie, but she's always singing the French version of "I Have Confidence," and there's even a clever recreation of Maria's number as she goes off to be the nanny of the Von Trapp clan.)



It was a lot of fun.



Note that it's unrated, but this is not One of Those French Movies you have to worry about. Probably PG13, but on the lighter side of that. 3.5 stars out of 4.

Adventures in Middle School

Middle school gets a really bad rap, and I've never been one to try and correct it. My memories of middle school are not all fond ones, to say the least. When I experienced it first hand, I came away feeling like a lot of kids at that age tend to be mean and vindictive--not because they're actually mean and vindictive, but because they're all trying to figure out who they are still. That much uncertainty mixed with hormones and the social stratus of school is a recipe for disaster.



The past two Tuesdays, I was slated to go back to middle school. This time as an author, to speak with more than a hundred students about writing, where ideas come from, Vodnik--you name it.



I was not really looking forward to the experience.



Don't get me wrong. No one had to twist my arm to get me to agree to go. But as much as I might seem to enjoy speaking in public, I dread it every time. Even teaching a class. It's not that I have a bad time once I'm up there talking--it's the lead up to it. Knowing I'll have to be talking in front of strangers. I don't know why this is, but there you have it. And speaking in front of middle schoolers? I had no idea what to expect.



The actual experience was a real pleasure.



The students were attentive, they'd brought questions, quite a few had read Vodnik and had interesting observations about the plot. For four 20 minute sessions, students had written down three questions each on notecards. I was handed the cards and went through them one by one, answering questions I'd never seen before in my life. It was actually a lot of fun. I got to talk about everything from talking alpacas to my love of steak to the other books I'm writing.



Sure, there were some kids who didn't seem like they were to jazzed I was there. But most of them were actively engaged the whole time. There was a rush on Vodnik cards after each session. Demands for where they could buy my t-shirt. That kind of thing. It was a blast. Much better than my memories of middle school were.



So all told, I've very glad I went, and I hope to be able to do it again. I'm considering opening up offers to have me do Skype visits to public and school libraries that have a copy of my book. I think I'd probably want them to be prepared for the visit in the same way these classes were prepared. They'd read excerpts, had specific questions--it was very smooth and easy for me to do it. Anyone else out there experiment with Skype visits already? I'd do in person ones, but my time is so tight . . .



Thoughts?

Diet Update: Week 6

Week six? Week six! How did it get to be week six already?



The diet trudges on. I think I'm getting this starvation thing down pretty good now. Most days I only eat about 700 calories before dinner. Then I eat a normal sized dinner, and a dessert, and all is well with the world. 1500 calories a day or so, plus the half hour of exercise.



This week I did get sick, but it was some strange thing where I woke up really dizzy. I used to get that kind of thing back when I lived in Utah. I think I was just too tired this time. I went back to bed, slept for 3 more hours, and felt mostly better by the time I got up. (Actually, I'd only eaten 1100 calories the day before, so I'm thinking that might have had something to do with it, too. Don't worry--I'm not doing that again. I really don't want to starve.)



Other than that, I also had Easter dinner. Denisa made it German-style. Red cabbage, pork roast, spaetzle, and gravy, plus jello for the kids and then European-style pudding for dessert. I weighed things like a mad man though, and I kept myself under 1900 calories for the day. Success!



I'm now down to (drumroll, please) 202.4 pounds. That's 2.2 pounds lost since last week, and 11.6 pounds lost overall! I think the number's a bit generous. The Scale Gods were with me this morning, and I anticipate going up some when I weigh in tomorrow. Still, I'm very pleased with that progress. My body seems to be playing ball with me, and it's going good. Getting to under 200 is in my sights. And then . . . only 22 more pounds. Sheesh!



Still, I've gone from a BMI of 27.5 to a BMI of 26 this morning. That's real progress, any way you slice it. 8.4 pounds to go until I'm not overweight anymore, and from there, it's just trying to get myself more firmly in the "Normal" category, so that it's harder to fall off the wagon again.



Wish me luck!

No Fooling: Vodnik Won Another Award!

So the last week or so was a pretty big highpoint, authorly-speaking. Vodnik won a Westchester Fiction Award, and then a few days later, I found out it won the Association of Mormon Letters Award for Young Adult Fiction. Here's what the blog post had to say about Vodnik:

If you’ve ever wondered what the rules are for death, or whether a water sprite and a fire spirit have a chance together, and especially if you are fascinated by Slovakian myths and legends, then Bryce Moore’s VODNIK is the book for you. A combination of coming of age story with a mythical heroic quest, Vodnik is a unique examination of life for an American teen of Roma (gypsy) descent in contemporary Slovakia. Together we learn that death has a sense of humor, that water sprites are not to be trusted and that a good training regimen can turn a victim into a victor! I thoroughly enjoyed Moore’s debut novel.

Yeah. Warm fuzzies all over in the Bryce household.



And yes, this is the piece of awesome I found out about last week that I couldn't share until today. (And no--it really isn't some sort of strange April Fool's routine.) After I posted about it on Facebook and Twitter, people started guessing what the good news might be, ranging from a movie deal to a new book to a Newbery award. When I saw those guesses, I decided maybe I was setting everyone up for disappointment when they discovered the reality. But in the end, I also decided I didn't care. :-)



When I was out in Utah working at the libraries at BYU and Orem, I became familiar with many of the different awards out there on the local scene. The one I thought Vodnik had the most reasonable shot of winning was the Whitney Award. It's fairly new, they regularly have honor books (which means even if you don't win, you still have a shot of at least getting a mention)--it seemed more up Vodnik's path. Smaller press, first book, author no longer lives in Utah. The AML Award seemed like a long shot. It's more firmly established (dating back to the 70s), there's often only one winner, with no honors books, and just look at some of the past winners: Robison Wells for Variant, Ally Condie for Matched, Brandon Mull for Fablehaven, Shannon Hale for Princess Academy, Louise Plummer (my former teacher at BYU)--the list goes on and on. Winners in other categories include Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Doug Thayer, Gerald Lund, Nancy Fulda, Steven Walker, Eugene England, Dean Hughes, Leslie Norris, Neal A. Maxwell, Rick Walton, David Farland, Richard Cracroft--you might not recognize all those names, but I do. These are people I've looked up to for a long time. Teachers, scholars, writers--you name it.



I write about Mormon issues on my blog now and then. (In fact, they're typically my most popular posts, for some strange reason.) People joke sometimes that there's a "Mormon mafia" in the publishing industry. And while that's just not true, it *is* true that a lot of us keep tabs on each other. We know who else is Mormon, and a lot of us know each other personally. (And let's face it--statistically speaking, the YA fantasy genre is just chock full of Mormons. Far more successful Mormons in there than you'd figure there would be, based on how few Mormons there are in the general population.) Why do I care? I don't really know. Probably because growing up on the East Coast, where there were so few Mormons, it was important to me to know I wasn't the only one out there. That other people believed the same things I did, and maybe even didn't get made fun of for believing them.



(Don't get me wrong. I'm not Mormon because Scott Card is, or Gladys Knight, or whoever. But I've posted about it before--we all seem to want some sort of external validation from time to time. Someone or something that shows "I'm not completely nuts." Knowing there are other people like us out there . . . it's comforting sometimes.)



Anyway, the AML Award was one I was aware of and one I respected. I never even thought for a moment Vodnik would have a shot of winning it, and I was just floored when it did. When you spend years of your life looking up to a certain group of people, and then suddenly find yourself somehow officially included in that group . . . it's the very definition of a Red Letter Day.



So I'm extremely happy to be able to announce it publicly now and share the new with you all. My thanks to the Association of Mormon Letters. It's a great honor.



Go Vodnik! :-)

Board Game Review: Dominion

Played a new game (to TRC, not to Denisa and me) yesterday evening: Dominion. This is actually a game Denisa and I have played quite a bit, and since TRC likes Magic: The Gathering, I thought he might be up for another card-based game. DC played with us, on Denisa's team.



Dominion, for those of you who don't know, is a deck building game. You all start with the same amount of resources, and then you spend those resources to "buy" other cards, that then let you get more resources, buy more cards, penalize other players--a whole variety of things. By the end of the game, everyone can end up with drastically different decks, depending on the strategy you choose to employ.



I enjoy the game a lot because it gives you the sense of a collectible card game like Magic, without the need to actually shell out money for the cards. The popular cards are gobbled up pretty quickly as players all buy their favorites, but there are less popular cards that can be exploited, if you can just figure out the right way to "break" them. Better yet, the game has a ton of replay value. The base game comes with 25 different kinds of cards, and you only use 10 of those card types each game. You can either choose the 10 yourself to try and make the game dynamic, or randomize selection to make the game unique. In addition to that, there are multiple expansions that give even more deck options.



How did it run with an 8 year old?



Very well. At the end of the game, Denisa came in first, TRC came in second, and I finished a distant third. TRC loved it, and he told us he wants us to play again as soon as possible.



In summary, Dominion is a great game for 2-4 players. One game lasts around 30 minutes once everyone knows what they're doing, so it doesn't take forever to play, either. The artwork could use some help (I still think it's kind of rinky-dink), but if you look past that, you'll find a game that can offer a lot of entertainment for a wide variety of ages.