Bryce Moore's Blog, page 28

UnMarvelling and UnStarWarsing

I’m a board-certified geek, and proud of it. I read fantasy series that are longer than 10,000 pages. I watch all of Jackson’s Middle Earth movies in a marathon. (The extended versions, naturally.) I have gone to a party dressed as a Slytherin student. In other words, I’m the prime audience for Marvel and Star Wars.

And I’m getting tired.

It’s not that I don’t like Marvel or Star Wars anymore. I like water plenty, but if you give me too much of it, I drown. (Or I get tired of all the rain. Or I complain about the flood. You get the point.) And that’s really where it feels like we’ve gotten to with both Marvel and Star Wars.

Case in point: Ahsoka is now airing week by week on Disney+. You would think that I would be watching each episode, looking forward to hearing what happens next. Instead, I’m . . . ignoring it. Not because I think I’d dislike it. Rather, I feel like in order to enjoy it properly, I’d have to rewatch about a hundred hours of tv episodes and movies, and I just don’t have it in me to do that. Ahsoka is a character introduced in a film (Clone Wars) that was turned into a cartoon (Clone Wars). It’s got characters from a different cartoon (Rebels) and from the movies (Star Wars). It incorporates narratives from a tv show (The Mandalorian). Do you have to watch all of those to “get it”? I’m not sure, but I’m willing to bet it’s made on the assumption that you know who all the characters are and what their backstories are. There will be reveals that are supposed to be shocking, but if you don’t know who’s who and what’s what, you’ll just be left scratching your head.

That’s a problem.

It’s the same problem Marvel’s facing now. I’ve ignored She-Hulk completely. I haven’t seen Ant Man 3. I’ve lost track of who was doing what with who and when and where. And to get back to the point where I can really get it all, I’d have to either rewatch the movies (and the tv shows), or I’d have to read a ton of website summaries.

To enjoy a 2 hour movie.

The thing is, I like all of these things in moderation. I’m even willing to extend the definition of “moderation” to include 10 movies. But once you get much beyond that, I start to get confused. I forget. And this is coming from me, a person who will happily throw himself into a book that’s incomprehensible at first, confident that I’ll figure it out in a hundred pages or so, and that it’ll be worth it when I do.

The Avengers arc in Marvel was fantastic. All those individual movies that ended up tying together into a huge plot arc? I loved it. But we’re beyond that now. I get that it’s tempting to keep falling down the rabbit hole for film makers. They want invested fans who keep coming back again and again. Repeat customers. But at some point, they need to understand they’ve locked in their audience and are actively turning new people away, and alienating old fans. That big audience they had will get smaller and smaller until it’s not worth exploiting any more.

And that’s sad.

I have it happen in books sometimes. Because it can be years between when a series starts and when it finishes, I can lose interest in reading a series that won’t be complete until 15 years from now. Honestly, there are times when I get to feeling that way with some of Brandon Sanderson’s latest books. Getting back up to speed on what’s happening so that I can understand what happens next is a commitment, and when I know I’ll have forgotten a lot of it by the time the next book comes out . . .

It’s tough, because I still love connecting narratives. When I find a show I haven’t seen that’s already complete, and has all that deep back story, it’s a blast to watch. But I’m thinking more and more that there’s a limit to how big these connected universes can get before they get crushed under their own weight. There’s a reason comic books reset themselves fairly regularly.

My hope is that as this narrative form continues to develop, creators will begin to realize the sweet spot, and more will be made in that zone. Series that aren’t too short, but aren’t too long, either. But making things like that costs money, and spending that amount of money can be daunting, since there’s no guarantee of a payoff. We’re seeing the flip side of that with several shows now, where they get canceled before they have a chance to gain traction with an audience.

So I end up feeling like Goldilocks, complaining about series being too short or too long.

Can’t we just have more that are just right?

Tomas Update: Week 14 in Trenčín

Ahojte všetci! It’s actually been a pretty crazy week out here, or at least I hope you all agree. Last week also was but this one was too. 

Tuesday was a very normal Tuesday. I know I said the week was crazy but I’m getting around to it. I actually don’t really have much to say whatsoever about Tuesday. 

Wendesday we managed to get back into contact with someone we were teaching! We had a nice lesson with her and she’s doing well, just life got a little crazy. We also had good ol English class, this time we were explaining something complex but I can’t remember what it was. Although ol reliable is any word with “th,” those are super super hard because that sound literally doesn’t exist in Slovak. Also we noticed that “usually” has a ž in it (written the Slovak way it would be júžuali) so that was cool. 

Thursday highlights were a lesson with Kevin, weekly planning, and a branch council meeting over the phone. Also buying a ridiculous amount of ties for everyone who wanted them at zone conference. Since all the good ties are here, we get orders and then gotta lug em to Blava. Honestly we should start charging a commission, but don’t tell anyone I said that in case I ever do. 

Friday was aforementioned zone conference, we drove over with the APs (assistants to prezident) and had a good day full of trainings, role plays, and good food. Leaves you real tired though because it’s a lot of information. But we came back and then just chilled out a bit, Osborne let me try his fujara (enormous Slovak shepherd flute) and we slept very good that night. 

Saturday we had interviews with Prezident! I realize that doesn’t mean a ton to most of you, but our mission president makes the rounds every while to just talk to us about how we are doing, how our area is doing, and in general get to know us better. He’s a really wise person so I always learn a lot. After interviews we went out to lunch with him and his son (who was actually in online MTC literally right then so that was cool), good luck to Elder Skousen! We had really good burgers. Then another good lesson with Kevin, studies, and an average rest of the day. 

Sunday was absolutely wild. We had 14 people at church! And none of them were from like America but me, so no one was visiting. We had a member from Ukraine who moved here, plus a Ukranian man being taught remotely both come, and it was so cool to see them meet each other and develop a relationship. Also it’s really good we have a Ukranian speaker, we can sorta get the gist but communication is hard even over text with my “Ukranian” (read: Slovak that I’ve translated with Google translate). And just church in general was so much more energetic with that many people there, it was so different. Then after church we went with Kevin to visit a less active member and it went super super well, we are really hoping she will pull up to church this Sunday. Kevin did a really good job and we are very proud of him, he has just progressed so fast (it’s been like 6 months since he was found). That took up most of our day what with also taking trains , but it was totally worth it. She really needed the visit too. 

Then finally Monday we went and visited a castle right around Žilina called Strečno, gets like a 7.5/10 from me. Cool castle, tour felt a bit rushed and the price was weirdly high. Good view though. I’m glad it was good however especially because it was one of the few things I haven’t done around Žilina. We also had to take a ferry to get there which was weird but cool. And we saw some sheep and ducks and a very friendly cat. Cool guy.

In other news we are also having some time set aside to crank out some baby blankets for Ukranian refugees, so I have learned how to crotchet. That’s been kinda fun but man this blanket is big and it’s gonna be a bit. I also keep having the random desire to make myself a sweater when I finish although I am pretty sure that’s not super feasible. We will see. 

Finally, here’s my photos link (I’ll put more up in a bit, still going through em): https://photos.app.goo.gl/GHgGUxN4X6y5nvio8

Hope you’re all well and enjoying the slow transition to fall, I sure am after all this heat. 

S láskou ,

Starší Cundick 

How Valuable is College?

I read a very interesting piece in the New York Times today (“Americans are Losing Faith in the Value of College”), and it provided a fair bit of food for thought. Basically, it outlines how in the last decade, the importance people place on getting a college degree in America has plummeted. Some of this is because of ideologies (Republicans view college as far too liberal), but a whole lot of it is due to the fact that college is just so expensive in this country. Even at a small in-state university like mine, tuition runs around $10,000/year. That’s $40,000 if you graduate in 4 years, and it doesn’t count the other costs, like room and board and books. If you add all of that in, it goes up to $24,000/year. Then, if you subtract the amount of aid you typically get, it goes down to $14,000.

Are you seeing a problem here? Trying to figure out just how much college in America will cost is very difficult. It’s easy to get your head spun around with all the numbers, and that’s when you’re just looking at one university. Try comparing institutions, and it gets even worse. If you get into a Harvard or a Princeton, it actually might cost about the same as other colleges, as long as your parents don’t make too much money, because you’ll get a lot of aid. But if you get into a top tier but not tippy top tier, then it’s going to cost more, because there’s less aid.

You end up having to look at so many different factors, it’s no wonder many people just want to wash their hands of it and forgo college altogether.

For a long time, the adage was that if you went to college, you made a lot more money. That’s still generally true: salaries of college graduates are better than those of non-graduates. But that doesn’t take into account the loans students need to take out to get those degrees. The article points out that depending on your major, many colleges actually end up hurting graduates, not helping. If you’re going into engineering, you can afford the loans. If you get a degree in social work? Not so much.

Personally, I don’t think this situation is helped by the fact that many families and students seem to look at college as a four year break from life. They’ll avoid getting jobs, or else get jobs that don’t really pay much. They’ll rely on the loans to make ends meet, and when a student goes from living at home to living on their own, having control of all of that money can be hard to handle. It’s easy to have it start to feel like Monopoly money.

It isn’t like this in other countries. European nations typically foot the bill for most of college. In France and Germany, college is essentially free. Yes, that’s because taxes are paying for tuition for everyone, but the countries believe having an educated populace will help them all in the long run. It’s hard to argue with that. (Unless you’re obsessing over how liberal colleges are, I suppose. But when one of your main concerns is that people with information will start to get suspicious of your worldview, you might need a stronger worldview. But I won’t go into that in this post.)

When Tomas was getting ready to go to college, he had multiple offers. One place he was strongly considering was going to cost roughly $40,000/year after aid. Compare that to BYU, which costs about $13,500. (Both of those include room and board, which I think can be a bit misleading, honestly. I mean, you’re going to have live and eat somewhere, no matter what. That’s just the cost of life. You have a fair bit of control over how much it costs to live and eat, depending on where you live and what you eat . . .) Would a $160,000 education really be better than a $54,000 education? Since both schools had good engineering programs, the answer was . . . not really.

I have multiple degrees in the humanities. I’ve made it work, but Denisa and I also got through college (two undergrad degrees and three graduate degrees) without any debt. If we’d had tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, that would have made things much more difficult. (The average student load debt of a grad is about $28,000, which will cost about $300/month to pay off over ten years. If we had that average for each of those degrees, we’d have been paying $1,500/year. There’s no way we could have afforded that and a house and kids and a car.)

Ideally, college should cost less. In America, the status quo is set up in a way to make it more difficult for people with less to begin to make more. Free college tuition would solve that problem. But if we can’t even agree as a nation that having that as a goal is important, there’s no way we’ll ever get near that. Personally, I believe the anti-college sentiment in America will die down eventually. Unfortunately, by the time that happens, we’ll be quite far behind other countries in terms of the number of college graduates. It will take time to make up that gap. (The “America is Best at Everything” sentiment sadly doesn’t seem to apply to many areas where it would be fantastic if we really tried to be the best . . . )

What are your thoughts on all of this?

How to Be a Good Executive Secretary

(Warning: I can’t imagine this would be interesting to anyone who’s not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you want to read it anyway, go for it. Nothing secret here. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

For some reason, the word on the street is that I do a good job in my church calling as an executive secretary for the stake. I’m a bit stumped by this, honestly, because I feel like all I’m doing is . . . doing the job. My guess is that the typical expectation for an executive secretary is so low that when one of them just shows up and does what the calling’s supposed to do, then people ooh and aah about it. However, I recognize that maybe I’m off on this. It could be that this is one calling that just plays to my strengths so much that I don’t recognize it as being difficult. After all, a big part of it is being organized, and if there’s one thing I am, it’s organized. (Well, not my office. We’re not talking “organized” in terms of “has no clutter,” okay?)

So with that in mind, I thought I’d just briefly talk about what I do in the calling. If that helps someone out there with the same calling, super. If no one reads this, oh well.

First, for those of you who might not know, the Stake Executive Secretary is in charge of a few basic things, per the church handbook:

Meet with the stake presidency and prepare agendas as assigned.Serve as a member of the stake council and attend high council meetings. As directed by the stake presidency, follow up on assignments made in these meetings.Coordinate stake business between the stake presidency, high council, and other stake leaders.Schedule appointments for the stake presidency.Advise the stake presidency of members who are entering the military or are already in military service. Under the direction of the stake presidency, help coordinate Church orientation for stake members who are entering the military.Orient new ward executive secretaries soon after they are called. Provide ongoing instruction as needed.Forward messages received from Church employees and volunteers to the appropriate stake and ward leaders, as instructed by the stake president.

So that’s step one. Read over all those duties, and then . . . do them. Though full disclosure, I have done nothing with the fifth item on the list, and very little with the sixth. (See? I’m already showing I’ve got a ways to go to really do this well.) But as for 1-4 and #7? My approach is pretty straightforward.

“Meet with the stake presidency”: That’s easy. We meet once a week, typically on Wednesday evenings. Simply by showing up to those meetings, I get that part of the job done. Though since I’m there, I try to be a full participant. I give my opinion about different items as they come up on the agenda. I talk plenty in the meetings.

“Prepare agendas as assigned”: This is where it might get tricky for some, but when it comes to figuring out a way to do something with as little work as possible, I’m your huckleberry. I made one agenda waaaaay back when I first started 4 years ago. It was based off the agenda they were already using. It has two main sections. First, a spot to note action items that need to be taken by each individual member of the presidency (President, 1st Counselor, 2nd Counselor, Clerk, Secretary). Second, a spot for new items that need to be discussed. That’s it, in terms of the week to week stuff.

At the beginning of each weekly meeting, I make a copy of the agenda and label it as the agenda for the next week. (All of this is done in Google Docs, because it’s the easiest place to share things.) As we make our way through the current agenda, I delete any action items that are already accomplished. I add any action items that are assigned. I do the same thing for new business. If we talk about something and resolve it, I delete the item. If we don’t, I leave it. By the end of the meeting, I pretty much already have next week’s agenda ready. I email the link to the presidency, and that’s that.

“Serve as a member of the stake council and attend high council meetings“: Again, all you have to do is show up. If you’re an active participant, all the better. (And really, why wouldn’t you want to be an active participant? You’re stuck there for two hours anyway. Might as well make things interesting.

“As directed by the stake presidency, follow up on assignments made in these meetings“: I do the same thing for stake council that I do for stake presidency meetings. I prepare an agenda, and I note down what action items were assigned. The one difference is that I take minutes for stake council, even though that’s technically the Stake Clerk’s job. I’m already keeping note of all these things. Might as well just do it myself instead of losing track of the information if communication breaks down. I see this as being part of “Coordinate stake business between the stake presidency, high council, and other stake leaders.”

Down at the bottom of the weekly agendas I make, I have a section for Stake Council and Unit Leader Training. As the stake presidency comes up with items that need to be addressed in those meetings, I write them down. (See a pattern? Listen for what needs to be done, and then write it down. Delete it as it’s accomplished.) When it’s time to make an agenda for one of those meetings, there’s no need to wonder what we need to talk about. I’ve already got it down.

“Schedule appointments for the stake presidency.”: This took a bit of time to optimize, but like most things, the key was a good spreadsheet. Each month, I find out from the stake presidency what days they’re available for meetings. I then (you guessed it) write those down. I’ve also talked with each of them to find out who they want to meet with on a regular basis. I write that down, too. On one page of the spreadsheet, I have a column for each stake presidency member. There will be a cell that notes their availability, and then under that I break down the actual meetings for them, as I schedule them. On a second tab, I write down all the people they want to meet with regularly, each on their own row. Then above, I label the columns by month. When they meet with someone, I mark it down on that sheet. That way, I know when the last time they’ve met with them is. All I need to do then is see who they haven’t met with recently, and set up those meetings week to week. (I do this for reports from the High Council, as well, to see who has submitted them and who hasn’t.) I add other appointments as necessary and requested.

“Forward messages received from Church employees and volunteers to the appropriate stake and ward leaders, as instructed by the stake president.”: This one is self explanatory. Emails come in, and I forward those emails on.

And that’s about the size of it. Other things I do include looking at the statistics for the stake from week to week, and bring anything noteworthy to the attention of the stake presidency. I email action items to members of the stake council after those meetings, to make sure everyone knows what they’re supposed to do. I set up Zoom rooms for meetings when needed, and I email those links out. If the stake presidency has any overarching goals they want to get done, I keep track of the progress of those goals. To do that, I make sure each goal is tied to a specific metric to track. And then I track that metric.

Really, it all boils down to writing things down, and then following up. Over, and over, and over, and over. (And again, that’s something I’m good at doing.) It can be tricky to stay on top of it all, and the repetition does kind of wear you down from time to time. (Each week, I basically have to reset everything I did the week before, and do it again. I’ve done that over 200 times now . . .)

There’s really no secret to any of it. For keeping track of military members . . . I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing, so I haven’t done anything. That’s on me. For training new executive secretaries, I’ve offered, and usually I’m not taken up on it. I should probably be more assertive with that. I’ll have to think that over. But in the end, you read what the handbook says you’re supposed to do, and then you do it.

What Exactly Do I Do?

As the new semester has started up again, it’s been as busy and hectic as it always is. Every year, I think this is the year when I’m going to be on top of everything heading into September, and every year, I’m anything but. So while I was bemoaning my perpetual state of not-quite-on-top-of-everything, I thought it might be interesting to you all to know just what exactly I’m up to these days. Between work, writing, family, and church, there are a number of balls in the air. How many?

Let’s find out.

Library Director: My main job. I advocate for the library on campus. I manage the budget. I answer far too many emails. I visit classes to do reference instruction. I sit at the reference desk. I attend meetings. I supervise staff members. This is a full time job, but there are a number of hats I wear while I’m at work that make work more . . . worky. Generally, I try to cap work at 40 hours a week. In practice, I fail. (Which once you look at the other things I do as part of my library work, makes sense, I suppose.)Staff Senate President: I’ve been on Staff Senate for the past two years, first as vice president, and now as president for the last year. (This is my second stint doing this three year term.) As part of this, I organize senate meetings, run those meetings, attend leadership council, sit on various committees, meet with the university president once a month, and do my best to stay on top of what the needs are of the staff of the university in general (instead of just the library). I should be moving to past president for the remainder of my term, so hopefully this gets a bit less time intensive.URSUS Directors Committee Chair: UMF is part of a library system that includes all the academic libraries in the University of Maine system, plus the Bangor Public Library, Maine State Library, Portland Public Library, and the Maine Law & Legislative Reference Library. The directors meet once a month (alternating in person and via Zoom). I’m the chair of the group, and have been for the past . . . four years? Maybe more. The COVID era has still messed with my memory. As the chair, I organize the meetings, run the meetings, meet with administrators outside of the meetings, and iron out problems as they arise. We’ve been doing a years-long effort to switch our LMS (Library Management System), which basically means switching out the software we use to organize our collections. I will be in meetings guiding this process every other week until November, and then every week after that until . . . June?UMSL Directors Committee Chair: A subset of URSUS, UMSL is the University of Maine System Libraries. We work together to share resources, advocate for library needs for the system, and cooperate to provide the best library services for the system that we can. There’s a lot of teamwork involved in this effort. As chair, I meet with administrators, organize the meetings, run the meetings, and make sure the different efforts stay on track. We did a years-long strategic planning process that took a bunch of time, but that’s thankfully complete now. (So we just have to implement it . . .) The UMSL directors meet the same days as the URSUS Directors (since there’s so much overlap.)Maine Library Commission Vice Chair: I’ve been on the commission now for about a year and a half, give or take, and vice chair since . . . spring? The commission establishes the policies and operations of the State Library, gives advice and makes recommendations on the expenditure of state and federal funds, and establishes guidelines and policies for statewide library programs. We meet about once a quarter, though as vice chair, I have meetings that come up in between those meetings. I’m also sitting in on two statewide committees that are looking at retooling how libraries cooperate in Maine.Maine Infonet Secretary: Maine Infonet is a statewide non-profit that provides the backbone for many of the statewide library services. (Borrowing between libraries, and the online catalogs most of libraries in Maine use.) This boils down to meeting about every other month in Augusta. I’m also on the finance committee for the group, which is another meeting off and on.Makerspace: We added the Makerspace to the library several years ago. I spend a significant amount of time trying to help it succeed. We just got another $180,000 grant to aid this effort, so I’ve been having meetings around how to put that money to use. The good news is that I’ve edged away from the day-to-day supervision of the space, so that’s taking less time.Building Council: The library also houses the student learning commons, the coffee bar, the digital humanities lab, and IT. I work to keep all of those different endeavors coordinated, and try to make sure information goes between the different groups smoothly and consistently.

That rounds out the things I do as part of my full-time job. What other things am I doing?

Writing Novels: 1,000 words a day when it’s new prose, 2,000 words a day when it’s revision. That’s a rough goal, but fairly accurate. That usually works out to about an hour a day for me. Sometimes more when it’s tough writing, sometimes less when I’m in the groove. There are times when I’m on deadline for a book, and when that happens, things get more intense. I’m on a deadline right now, and so I’ve been writing more like 2-3 hours a day. I take Sundays off. The good news is that my deadline is 9/12, so for better or worse, I should be able to drop back down to an hour a day soon. I love writing, and I’m not complaining about doing this, but it’s definitely a significant commitment.Writing the Blog: Once a day for each weekday. Sometimes it takes about 15 minutes. Sometimes it takes a lot longer. It depends on the topic. Again, I do it because I enjoy it, but it takes consistent effort.Stake Executive Secretary: This is a church responsibility. It boils down to a meeting each week that lasts 1.5-2.5 hours on Wednesday evenings. Once a month, there’s another meeting on a Thursday that lasts 2 hours. (It’s in Waterville one month, Bangor the next, and Zoom the third, and then it repeats.) In addition to those meetings, I keep track of the schedules for the stake presidency, I organize agendas, take minutes, send out action items, follow up with various assignments, keep track of statistics for the stake, and corral monthly reports that are supposed to come into the stake presidency. Overall, this takes 5-10 hours a week, I would guess. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Magic the Gathering Club Advisor: This is a student club at UMF. I help run an event for them, usually once a week. It’s playing Magic, which I like to do anyway, but it takes a night each week, usually for about 3.5 hours.

I’m pretty sure that covers all of the non-family, non-social related things I’m committed to. I mean, I also spend time with the family and with friends, but I’m not going to break that all down in any way, only to say that I make a concerted effort to keep all of those relationships strong, prioritizing family over friends. I also like to take, you know, breaks each day. Usually to play some video games or watch a movie or TV show. I play chess online. I play Magic: The Gathering online, as well. I’ve got a board gaming group that tries to get together once a month. I host movie nights at my house, and organize a fair number of events. I run a fantasy football league. I follow BYU sports. I read a book a week. I keep a daily journal. I’m doing DuoLingo in Czech and Mondly in Slovak each day. I do the New York Times crossword every day. I read the scriptures daily. I plan out family vacations. I do family history. In past years, I’ve had house construction projects on top of everything else, but I really (really) want to never be in charge of any of that again. I’m okay paying someone to do it, but I just don’t have the time to play an active role in it. Maybe that will change if any of those other duties get smaller. The smart thing for me to do would be to not let it change.

I’ll also note that all of those things I listed come with a mental load beyond the time I’m specifically involved working on them. Thinking through problems. Talking over issues. I don’t do a good job calculating how much time that all takes me, but it’s not insignificant.

However, the bottom line is that when I list everything out like this, it’s much more understandable to me why I feel spread thin at times. How do I stay on top of it all? I keep a very rigorous schedule, and I use Google Calendar a ton. One thing I’m very good at is doing the same thing every single day. That sounds boring to many people, but it means I can compartmentalize all those different efforts and make sure I have time for each of them.

When things are going well, my life feels a lot like the inside of a clock. Gears jammed all over the place, but everything keeps ticking forward. Then again, it also means that when something gets out of whack, everything can get much more complicated.

Thankfully, that doesn’t happen too often . . .

Back to Psychology

The new school year is under way for everyone. MC headed off yesterday to fifth grade, and Daniela started her sophomore year this morning. Denisa’s teaching her second day of classes today, and I’ve already been back on the reference desk, visiting classes, and scheduling research appointments. (Note: the work never ends for me. It’s not like I’ve got a summer vacation. I’ve got more of a “summer of doing something else for part of the time.”)

This year, I’m also going back to another psychology class. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that I basically audited Intro to Psychology a few semesters ago. It was a great experience. I learned a ton, and it helped give me some insights into how I can help Psychology majors do their research more effectively. So I’m giving another class a shot. This time, it’s Personality: Theory and Research. If the past is any predictor of the future, then I’ll probably have a number of thoughts to share.

Like this one, from last class.

Dr. Maybury went around the room taking attendance, and asking people to talk about the traits they look for when they’re trying to tell what someone’s personality is like. There were soooo many. (So many) What people wear, how they talk, what they do with their eyes, how they stand, what their sense of humor is like, what their pets are like, who their friends are, what movies or books they like to watch or read.

As an author, I sometimes really struggle with coming up with blocking for how characters should act in a scene, and I think this helped me realize why. I just don’t pay attention to so many of those things. What people wear? I don’t think it even crosses my mind usually to notice. Actually, as I write about it, I think that’s not quite right. It’s not that I don’t pay attention to all of those traits, because I generally think I’m a pretty good judge of character. However, I approach it the same way I approach how I fix computers. I barrel through it to get to the end result, and then I have no real memory of the steps I took to get there.

In other words, I’ll walk away from an interaction with some insight into the person. I can talk about my conclusions, and maybe I can remember why I had those for the first bit, but a day or two later? All that I’m left with is the memory of what I thought about them.

But the students were so right. So many of the things we do can show people what sort of person we are. The next time I’m writing a scene, I’m going to try to not just think, “Okay, what does the character do with their arms now?” Instead, I’m going to focus on trying to think “How does the character show their personality?”

I think that might end up with much better results.

Advanced Ethernetting

I wrote a while ago about upgrading my internet speeds at home. When I did that, I swapped out my Eero, as well, all of it in hopes that I’d be able to get a steady, consistent speed up in my movie room. (The internet comes into the house in the office, where I have my main computer. The movie room is on the complete other side of the house, and it’s where almost all of the streaming is done, plus video game consoles. Having bad internet there is . . . much less than good.)

Unfortunately, my 1843 house’s walls proved too much even for more powerful Eeros, and I just haven’t been able to get speeds up in the movie room to a consistently good level. (I’m paying for 1gbps, which I get in the office. In the movie room, I’ve been lucky to crack 100mbps.) This meant I needed to go to more drastic measures.

What sort of measures, you ask?

Well, drilling through the floor and running an ethernet cable through my basement and crawlspace, then drilling through a wall and running the cable through the garage, and then drilling through another floor and running it to the movie room. All of which I did yesterday. And because I didn’t want to have to drill enormous holes, I bought ethernet cable that didn’t have the connectors attached, which meant I needed to learn how to do that.

Yesterday didn’t run as smoothly as I’d hoped. Lessons learned?

When running wires, you need to feed the wire through the various obstacles as you go. Trying to attach it to things after the fact is . . . less than helpful.Putting on ethernet connectors really isn’t rocket science, but it does help to be able to tell the difference between the color blue and the color green. I thought I was good at that. My ethernet wiring skills beg to differ.When feeding out ethernet cord from a big spool, start with the end that’s in the middle of the spool, not the end that’s on the outside of it. Or else hook the spool up to something that will let it spin. Unless, of course, you like untangling wire.Untangling wire that’s 250 feet long is less fun than you’d think it would be.

The good news is that when I checked speeds, I’m already up to 550mbps in the movie room. I’m not sure why it’s not higher, and there are some things I could troubleshoot, but for now, that’s plenty fast, and I’m happy to have it finally done.

The better news is that I hopefully don’t have to go back down to my basement anytime soon.

The best news is that I’m done being in the crawlspace. Me no likely crawlspaces.

Am I planning on going into business networking stuff together? Definitely not. But it’s nice to remember that there are multiple DIY skill sets out there. I may not be particularly strong in the “construction” or “mechanic” areas, but if you’re looking for “computer” or “A/V set up,” I can hold my own.

Tomas Update: Week 13 in Trenčín

Ahojte všetci! I missed a week but I’m back. I’ll just get right into it:

Tuesday we had a pretty average day, but Magic night was in a neighboring town called Košeca which was interesting to see. Nothing standout from Tuesday though so

Wednesday was also pretty average, English class we had to explain its/it’s and some other complex things, the more I teach it the more I understand how wacky of a language it is. Like more than half the time things aren’t pronounced as they’re spelled at all, and I’m glad I just kinda know how it works. 

Thursday continued being very hot as the week kinda has been, so classic Slovak summer. We had a lot of inside time that day since we were on for teaching the online Bible club we run, but it went well. On top of that it was planning day, so lots of setup work and not much to say. Although near the end of the day when we were just about to leave the church building, a man just like walked in (wild, considering that at that hour the front door to the building building is locked) and apparently he is a member from Ukraine that was living in Púchov, a city with no church presence, and had just recently moved to Trenčín and heard our English class was that day (old info we left on the front door, we really should change that). We got his contact and although he hasn’t responded yet, we are really hoping we can help him out. I’m glad we stayed in Trenčín for that evening though because the original plan was to go to Žilina that instead and if we had we wouldn’t have been there. 

Friday we headed out Žilina, our train was a half hour late. I went on exchanges with Elder Rigby, (surprise reappearance from transfer 3) and we spent the whole day in Martin, a neighboring city. Literally everything that could go wrong did and we had like 0 time for most things, but it was a very fun exchange and great to see people I used to teach and know. Highlights included very good pizza, reading a Slovak history book in a giant library, seeing members in the area, and the return to Martin (we did not get soaked this time, last time Rigby and I were there it POURED all day). We hit traffic on the way home too, but still managed to crank out some halušky that evening so we ate good. 

Saturday was a similarly busy, bustling day. Still in Žilina, we started by hitting a court at 8.15 for the sports morning there, where I got absolutely demolished in soccer by Peter. These darn Europeans and their innate soccer skills always wreck us. After that we headed back to the apartment, showered, and went to district council which was a pretty good one if I do say so myself. Then lunch from Sister Otto and me and Goodare had to rush home to make it to a hike we had with some members later that day, which was very nice but left us totally beat after soccer too. Another crazy, but fun day. Oh also that evening we met a Ukranian man to drop off a Russian and Ukrainian Book of Mormon, he is being taught remotely by some of our native Ukranian speakers in Czechia so shout-out to Uherské Hradište. His name is Roman and he is such a sincere, thankful, and kinda man! He couldn’t make it to church this week but will be coming starting next week. 

Sunday was thankfully a little more reserved, but still lots of work. As usual we rolled up to church 8.15 (it starts 9.30 but we have to set it all up) and made sure music was ready, the meeting was planned, and the building was ready. We had about 10 of us this week which was nice. Sacrament meeting was great, Kevin gave his FIRST TALK and knocked it out if the park, we are very proud of him! That day actually marked 6 months since he initially talked to missionaries so a very appropriate milestone. He is chillin in Czechia at a YSA (young single adult) activity and loving that too. He’s so cool. After church we had a meeting with the branch prezident, then had lunch at like 14. A homeless man bailed on us at 15 but we kinda expected that, so it’s okay. Then studies and I made butter chicken that night. 

Monday we went out to Čachtice, the vampire lady castle. I was there 5 years ago actually and they have repaired a ton of it in that time. It was cool to see and a nice lil hike even if we got stuck in Višňové for 45 minutes (and the ONE restaurant in town was closed). Took some good pictures which will come later. Then we grabbed lunch in Nové Mesto nad Váhom, highly recommend the bageteria next to the station if anyone happens to be there for some reason. We made it home, I let Goodare give me a haircut (don’t worry, just the sides but with zone conference coming I kinda needed one and we forgot to make appointments). Also that evening I saw an R35 which was pretty cool. 

And that’ll about do it for this week! Writing it all out a lot actually happened. Other updates include us getting new cards that have contactless payment which should be cool. And then overall I’m just doing well out here and excited for the future, Trenčín is doin good. 

Pictures album as usual (updates coming later today when I sort and edit) : https://photos.app.goo.gl/GHgGUxN4X6y5nvio8

Hope you’re all well and “excited” to start school again! I can’t wait to see my first Slovak fall (jeseň) and how it compares to the King of Autumn, Maine. 

S láskou,

Starší Cundick 

Church Talk: Finding Personal Peace

Quick intro: This talk isn’t by me, this time. Denisa was asked to speak yesterday, and I thought it was great, so I got her permission to share it with you all. So here you go!

I grew up in a family and culture that used language pretty directly and without many of what linguists call “hedges”. Hedges are words we use to soften the message we are trying to get through like when we want someone to do something. For example, instead of saying: Help me with this job. (5 words). Adding some hedges would sound like: When you have a minute, could you possibly help me with this job? (13 words). I am pretty positive, many would judge the first version as at least somewhat rude and the second one as polite. Left to my own devices, I am quite likely to use direct language, rather than hedged language. Because of this directness that comes from growing up in my family, and in Slovakia, I can often shrug things (such as criticism directed at me) off, but sometimes words of others can really hurt.

This became evident in my life some time ago when words of another person really cut deep. Someone I knew made it their mission to tell me how wrong I was. Now, I know I am not always or even often right; I make mistakes just like the rest of us. In this particular example, harsh words were used to make “my wrongness” stick. For several days after this interaction I couldn’t think about anything but the cutting words. If I was doing something that required all of my attention, I was fine, but as soon as I did something that allowed my mind to roam freely, it would go back to what the person said and I would keep replaying this in my mind. I noticed even things that I normally do to clear my mind and help me relax like walking our dog, or working in the garden, became stressful. It got so bad that I could almost not think of anything else. It was at this LOW point that I decided I needed to get serious and turn to God to pray for help. In one of my prayers I asked him to take the hurt and the pain away–in fact I was asking for the Atonement to take effect in my life. Christ didn’t only die for our sins, but also for our pain, hurt, and anguish as we learn in Isaiah 53:4 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:”. In his wisdom, God knew that some of our experiences would be beyond what we could bear ourselves. 

Elder Bednar in a devotional in 2001 explained the powerful role of the  atonement in our lives. It is not there for us to ask to simply change what is. He said, 

“As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon.”

When I first thought of praying, I thought of immediate relief. I wanted to feel good NOW, but what happened was that with passing time and my continual praying (and prayers of those around me who knew about this challenge in my life) I gradually started to feel better and had more strength to take my mind away from thinking and rethinking about the sharp words that were making me so sad. I received the boost I needed to change the situation I was in.

Our words, whether spoken, hand-written or typed, have power. They can take down or build up those around us. They can be remembered for years by those we hurt and by those we lift up. They can destroy confidence and make life miserable, or they can inspire people. 

President Nelson in his recent General Conference talk titled Peacemakers Needed challenged us: “Today, I am asking us to interact with others in a higher, holier way. Please listen carefully. “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy”10 that we can say about another person—whether to his face or behind her back—that should be our standard of communication.”

President Nelson adds, “The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers.6”

About 35 years ago, when I was a teen, I had the opportunity to meet some church members at a yoga camp. This was still during socialism, a time when many churches were not allowed to operate in Slovakia, in fact, going to any kind of church could get the attention of the authorities who could make your life difficult. The church members I met couldn’t speak about the church or anything religious. But, if you paid close attention, you would notice that their countenances were glowing. They were happy, kind, and peaceful people. As I got to know them more, I could feel that they were also joyous about something. It was the gospel, precisely what they couldn’t talk about. I watched their interactions with others and listened to what they taught. Without knowing they belonged to any kind of an organization (besides that they practiced yoga), I wanted to be like them. I didn’t know this at the time, but thinking about it now, I know they behaved like followers of Jesus Christ would. They emulated the kind of behavior that the Prophet invited us to embrace.

Just a couple of days ago I had the opportunity to learn about the process involved in obtaining the land and the permission to build the first stake center in the Czech Republic. The church member who spoke about the process was a friend, a leader from those old yoga camps–Martin Pilka–one of the people I remembered watching, wondering how it was that he was so peaceful and glowing. He is now a newly called Area Seventy. As he told about the 23-year-effort to secure land and to get permission for a stake center to be built in Prague, he spoke of many interactions with government and civic leaders who were not always friendly or happy to be approached about our church. He conducted himself with faith and worked on growing relationships that could allow him and the church he represented to reach the big goal. The process wasn’t straightforward and included several times when great effort and faith were rewarded with disappointment. He could’ve chosen to get bitter or overreact, instead he continued in faith knowing that God was leading this work. His peaceful countenance I noticed 35 years ago undoubtedly helped him get through the many challenging situations the process brought.

Ever since those yoga camps and meeting the first church members, I have wondered what people who meet me by chance would remember about me. Would they be impressed with my own personal light, or would they catch me arguing with others peppering them with sharp words? President Nelson’s invitation to be peacemakers is simple, yet it can take great effort to do.  He said, “Let us as a people become a true light on the hill—a light that “cannot be hid.”23 Let us show that there is a peaceful, respectful way to resolve complex issues and an enlightened way to work out disagreements. As you demonstrate the charity that true followers of Jesus Christ manifest, the Lord will magnify your efforts beyond your loftiest imagination.”

It is my prayer that I can be a peacemaker. Those who know me, might know that it is not my natural inclination, but I know I can do better. 

Welcome to College Remarks

Later today, I’ve been asked to give a very brief speech to the new freshmen coming to campus, as Staff Senate President. Never let a good speech go to waste, I say. Especially when I need something to blog about. So here you go: a sneak peek before I even give it.

Hello! On behalf of the staff members here at UMF, I’m happy to welcome you to campus. As you’ve been getting ready to come to Farmington, you might have had a number of thoughts going through your mind. What will your classes be like? Will you get along with your roommate? Exactly how much homework will you have to do? I’d imagine one of the things you haven’t asked yourself is, “What will the staff be like?” In fact, you might even be wondering now what exactly the staff do at UMF. A better question would be “What don’t the staff do?”

Janitors, groundskeepers, counselors, librarians, coaches, advisors, IT, public safety, the fitness center, registration, student jobs, financial aid, tutoring, internships, study abroad, activities and more. Some of us even teach classes from time to time.

When I went to college, I had firm plans. I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted to major in. I took a job at the library because I heard it paid well, and my sister had already gotten a job there first, so I had an in. I never thought for a moment I might one day end up a librarian, but the years I worked in the library introduced me to library staff members who helped me through college. Taught me how to research more effectively. Showed me how to help others, and inspired me to change my plans.

What I mean to say is that university staff often end up having as big of an impact on students as professors, and the impact of staff-driven activities can be one of the highlights of your time at college.

You’ve come here to learn. To get ready for a career. While you’re here, don’t forget that not all learning happens inside a classroom. And also remember that the tuition you pay isn’t just for the classrooms and the professors. It’s for everything you see around you. In the coming weeks, months, and years, there might be times when you’re struggling. When that happens, don’t forget that there is a whole network of staff support here, waiting to help you. You don’t have to do this alone. In fact, it’s better if you learn how to ask for help.