Bryce Moore's Blog, page 289

Board Game Review: Lord of the Rings Living Card Game

I don't review board games very often (mainly because . . . I just haven't), but I've been playing one over the last few weeks that I just had to talk about. First, a bit of background.



I love board games. Not things like Monopoly and Life--although I started with those. No, I'm more into complicated things that have lots of little pieces to keep track of. Settlers of Catan is great, but I've gone on since then. I like big rule books, complicated strategies. I like games that make me think, and think a lot.



The only problem is that these kind of games can be difficult to play. When you have a job, a family, church responsibilities, and the like--and you're trying to coordinate schedules with other players that have the same--it's tricky to find time to get everyone together to play a game that can take upwards of four hours to finish. In Utah, things were easier. I just sacrificed a few hours of sleep to be able to play games. Finding people wasn't a problem, since there were just plain old more people in the area.



Now, things aren't as simple. Western Maine doesn't exactly have a slew of boardgamers, and I don't have a ton of time. Denisa plays some games with me, but she dislikes tricky rules. That's a problem. TRC loves games, but he's still a few years from being able to handle the really big games. So for now, I play Magic with him, and I play some lighter strategy games with Denisa.



Fantasy Flight Games came out with a Lord of the Rings themed card game about six months ago. I love FFG--they're a great company, and they make great games. But this game was special. It can be played solo. Yeah--like strategic solitaire. I read up on it online, and it looked solid, so I asked for it for my birthday.



I love this game.



It totally works as a solitaire experience, but this isn't your standard face card set up. The theme permeates the game. You're battling orcs and spiders, using heroes from the LOTR world. The game is story-based, and it unfolds like a story. I've played probably about ten to fifteen games so far, maybe more--and it keeps staying fun. It's got elements of deck building, letting you sit there and think about what cards would play well with other cards. The games only last 45 minutes, so you can play one and not have to devote hours and hours of your life.



There's no coordinating of schedules, and the game can be played with two people, too. TRC likes to play with me, but the strategy is still a bit beyond him. If you get two games, you can play with up to four people. For where I am in my life right now, this is the perfect game. Better yet, they release periodic updates to it, continuing the story. So if I want, I can be playing this game for a long time to come.



Anyway. The bottom line is that if you're like me--or you like story-based card games--this is definitely a game to pick up. If any of you have any specific questions, let me know. I'm happy to answer anything. Happy gaming!

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When Making an Informed, Unbiased Decision is Impossible

I just got back from the eye doctor's. It's been a few years since I went, but I didn't really think that I needed much in the way of a new prescription. I could see fine--and I even told the eye doctor at length how I could see fine.



Then he showed me what good vision really looks like.



Turns out, I need a new prescription.



This got me thinking (as is often the case). So often in life, I think it's easy to assume that we know everything worth knowing. We're capable, informed individuals, and we don't need to listen to other people, because they're obviously wrong. But if we can just take a bit of time to listen to someone else--to actually see something from their point of view--we find out we were dead wrong (or at least really misguided).


The question then becomes, what do you do next? Do you insist you were right all along, ignoring the new evidence at your own detriment? Or do you admit you were wrong and take advantage of the new insights the new information can give you?



Maybe I'm getting a bit too abstract here. I don't know. All I know is that I thought I could see fine, and it turns out I couldn't. This same experience happened to me when I was ten or so. I'd always gone to the eye doctor every year, and always had great vision. I bragged about how great I could see. And then one year, the doctor said I needed glasses. "Preposterous," I thought. I can see perfectly. Nothing's changed at all.



The first time I put on glasses and walked outside, I was on a New York street. I was amazed at all the details I could pick out. I had forgotten it was possible to see that well. I thought blurry was focused--and the only way to correct that was to turn to someone else and take advantage of the knowledge and information he had available that I didn't.



There's a lesson there to be learned, but I'm not feeling particularly preachy today. Draw your own conclusions, and have a nice Wednesday.

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War of the Mice: A Plug for the Best Mousetrap Yet

[image error]I don't like mice. If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll already know that. You've also no doubt noticed that it's autumn again. And while that means we're done with another summer (yay!) and that the air is filled with the smell of dry leaves (yay!), it also means that those blasted mice are at it in my walls again.



Not cool.



And in my quest for supreme dominance over the field mice, I've turned to social networking. The power of Amazon reviews. I went online, looked at all the different ways of killing mice (and they are legion), and picked out the Snap-E mousetrap (pictured above). Folks, this thing kills mice the way I eat chocolate cake. It relishes it. It makes mouse killing as easy as spelling d-e-a-d.



These aren't your human have a heart traps. But hey--no glue is involved, so I feel almost like a mouse humanitarian. They're easy to set, and I have yet to have a mouse eat the bait (peanut butter) and escape to tell his mousy friends. It's a piece of cake to unload them and get them set up for business again, too. Just pull down on the lever that's sticking straight up. No need to soil your hands with dead mouse germs.



I've caught 5 mice in about 5 days.



I know that they'll all be gone once it starts to freeze enough outside--I just have to keep reminding myself of that fact. Until you've listened to a mouse rustling around inside your walls at two in the morning, you don't know what creepy means.



Just sayin'.

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Movie Review: X-Men First Class

Denisa and I watched X-Men: First Class this weekend, and I'm happy to say we both enjoyed it. It's fast paced, has a cool alternate history take on the Cuban Missile Crisis, good actors, a fun script, great effects. A very good example of a superhero movie done right. Three stars, easy. Maybe three and a half. (On a side note, I feel like the recent flux of superhero movies is a good thing and a bad thing. A lot of good, solid movies are coming out--good. But they're all coming out together--bad. It's like coming across a great apple pie when you've already eaten a seven course meal. That apple pie could be fantastic, but you're just not going to want to eat it. Part of me wants to hold off on some of these superhero movies until after Hollywood decides they don't make any money--just so I can have something to tide me over until Hollywood then later revisits that decision and starts making good superhero movies again.)



Of course, part of me also has to wonder why it was that I enjoyed the movie so much--especially when I knew how most of it was going to turn out. If you're an X-Men fan, then you know that this is all about the origins of the X-Men, and you know certain things are going to happen. Beast is going to become Beast. Charles and Erik will have a falling out. That helmet that Shaw is sporting all through the film? Erik will end up with it. None of this is a big surprise (well, the director took some liberties with some of the comic canon, but such is life), and yet it's interesting watching it all play out.



Why is this?



I suppose it's the same thing that makes movies like Apollo 13 and Titanic also interesting. You know how it's going to end, but you want to find out how it gets to that ending. The latest Star Trek movie did the same thing--showing the audience how the status quo became so status. So much of the time, we assume that the reason we watch something is to find out what happens next. I don't think that's really the case. We watch something to see how the characters respond and react to various situations. We want to know why, not just what. Why is way more important in many ways.



Think about the questions kids ask. Why is way more popular than what. "Why is the sky blue?" "Why did that happen?" Even when there's a what question, it's followed up almost inevitably by a why. "What are you doing?" "Why?"



Seen in this light, a lot of the actual plot of a movie or book doesn't matter--as long as the characters are interesting and respond consistently to the events of the plot. As an author, sometimes I want to increase the tension in a book or scene by keeping some elements of the plot secret--thinking that the big reveal when they become public knowledge will be a great, memorable moment. But that's sort of what M. Night Shyamalan tried to build his career as a director on. How did that work out for him?



If your characters are strong and believable, and they're in real danger (physical, emotional, or whatever), that's all the tension your plot really needs to provide. That's not saying that having a twisty turny plot won't help--but you can't do it the other way around. You can't have a twisty turny plot with crummy characters and hope to hold your audience enthralled.



Or are there exceptions I'm not thinking of? Speak up!



And on a final note, Matthew Vaughn (the director) has now officially become a Director I am Following Closely. Mainly because of his four movies, I've seen and really enjoyed all four. X-Men, Kick-Ass, Stardust, and Layer Cake. Those are four really strong movies. He hasn't had a dud yet. Not even a middling movie, in my book. Bravo, sir. What have you got for me next?

Writing Group-less Again

[image error]When I left Utah, one of the few things I really regretted leaving behind (other than family--have to get that disclaimer in here) was my writing group. I'd been going to it weekly for more than four years, and I had no idea what I'd do for writerly contact when I moved out to Maine. For the first three years or so, the answer was simple: nothing. I wrote on my own. Once I was finished, I'd send what I'd written out to some alpha and beta readers, and then I'd revise my books in great big chunks. This worked okay, but I really missed the week to week camaraderie of a writing group. People who are there to tear you down when you're getting too puffed up, and build you up when you start getting too down. The chance to read and evaluate other people's work on a week to week basis is just as important (I think) as the chance to get your own work evaluated. You learn something from critiquing others that it's difficult to learn on your own.



So I went and made a writing group with a few friends.



And for a year and a half, things went pretty well. We skyped every other week, and for the last few months we'd upped it to every week. It wasn't as good as face to face, but it was pretty darned close.



It's done now. Not from some messy break up or anything. No yelling. No hurt feelings (that I'm aware of, at least). Just . . . people getting busy. We lost one member a while ago to that, and when a second had to bow out as well, it was down to three of us. I didn't feel like three was a doable number to continue the group.



I'm sad it's done, but I'm not upset at all at the members who had to bow out. They have genuinely busy lives, and real life has to trump writing life. It's the way it goes. I'd do the same thing if I were in their shoes.



Is it done for good? Not necessarily. I'm still open to a writing group, and I know of two other excellent writers and critiquers who are open to it, too. Skype lets you meet wherever--it's just a matter of coordinating the times. But at the same time, I'm not just looking for any old writing group member. I don't really care about the caliber of their writing. I'm willing to read just about anything, and give it as good a critique as I can. No--what I really care about is their critique of my work. Having a writing group each week where I put in a solid critique on someone's writing, only to get back a "This was really good" comment in return is less than useful. I've also had critiques in the past (not from writing group members of mine--but from creative writing classes, which functioned in much the same way) that ranged from "I'm not your target audience, so I refuse to critique this" to "You must be a terrible person, if you thought a character like this up." So yeah--I don't just want any critiquer.



But how in the world do I manage to find a good critiquer long distance? When I was in Provo, it was much easier--there are a ton of writers in the area, mainly due to the fact that BYU has a really strong sci-fi/fantasy-friendly writing program (despite their best efforts at times to kill it--silly BYU). The university where I currently work also has a writing program, but it's pretty anti-genre fiction, which puts a damper on using it as a place to find more readers.



And I really don't want to take any friends into my group unless I've seen their critiques first. But how do you tell a friend that? "Yeah, I know we're best buds. But I want you to critique this chapter first, and then I'll tell you if you can join my uberleet writing group." Something tells me that might not go over so well.



Anyway. Writing group. It's not totally dead yet. We're going to try (hopefully) to reconvene in January. I'll be sending out some feelers to various contacts to see if any of my already tried-and-true writing group members is interested in getting the band back together. (Actually, if you're reading this, and you're a former writing group member of mine, consider this a "me putting out feelers to see if you want to join a Skype writing group." Email me if you want to chat.)



Actually, if any of you reading this might be interested in joining a Skype writing group, contact me. Just be aware that before I'd be willing to add you, I'd like to have you critique something. And you have to promise not to be offended if the whole writing group thing doesn't pan out.



In the meantime, at least I still have my alpha and beta readers. And on the plus side, I'm at the revision stage of a book, not the first draft stage. There's some time to find more group members. We'll see what happens. Stephen King's out here in Maine. I wonder if he's looking for a writing group member. :-)



Then again, maybe I'll just accept a job as a caretaker at an isolated hotel that shuts down for the winter. I could bring my family, and I could have my son ride through the halls of the hotel on his tricycle. Yeah. And I'll spend every day typing on an old fashioned type writer. Except I'll make some time for some fun, because after all: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.



Yeah.



That's the ticket.

Writing Group-less Again

[image error]When I left Utah, one of the few things I really regretted leaving behind (other than family--have to get that disclaimer in here) was my writing group. I'd been going to it weekly for more than four years, and I had no idea what I'd do for writerly contact when I moved out to Maine. For the first three years or so, the answer was simple: nothing. I wrote on my own. Once I was finished, I'd send what I'd written out to some alpha and beta readers, and then I'd revise my books in great big chunks. This worked okay, but I really missed the week to week camaraderie of a writing group. People who are there to tear you down when you're getting too puffed up, and build you up when you start getting too down. The chance to read and evaluate other people's work on a week to week basis is just as important (I think) as the chance to get your own work evaluated. You learn something from critiquing others that it's difficult to learn on your own.



So I went and made a writing group with a few friends.



And for a year and a half, things went pretty well. We skyped every other week, and for the last few months we'd upped it to every week. It wasn't as good as face to face, but it was pretty darned close.



It's done now. Not from some messy break up or anything. No yelling. No hurt feelings (that I'm aware of, at least). Just . . . people getting busy. We lost one member a while ago to that, and when a second had to bow out as well, it was down to three of us. I didn't feel like three was a doable number to continue the group.



I'm sad it's done, but I'm not upset at all at the members who had to bow out. They have genuinely busy lives, and real life has to trump writing life. It's the way it goes. I'd do the same thing if I were in their shoes.



Is it done for good? Not necessarily. I'm still open to a writing group, and I know of two other excellent writers and critiquers who are open to it, too. Skype lets you meet wherever--it's just a matter of coordinating the times. But at the same time, I'm not just looking for any old writing group member. I don't really care about the caliber of their writing. I'm willing to read just about anything, and give it as good a critique as I can. No--what I really care about is their critique of my work. Having a writing group each week where I put in a solid critique on someone's writing, only to get back a "This was really good" comment in return is less than useful. I've also had critiques in the past (not from writing group members of mine--but from creative writing classes, which functioned in much the same way) that ranged from "I'm not your target audience, so I refuse to critique this" to "You must be a terrible person, if you thought a character like this up." So yeah--I don't just want any critiquer.



But how in the world do I manage to find a good critiquer long distance? When I was in Provo, it was much easier--there are a ton of writers in the area, mainly due to the fact that BYU has a really strong sci-fi/fantasy-friendly writing program (despite their best efforts at times to kill it--silly BYU). The university where I currently work also has a writing program, but it's pretty anti-genre fiction, which puts a damper on using it as a place to find more readers.



And I really don't want to take any friends into my group unless I've seen their critiques first. But how do you tell a friend that? "Yeah, I know we're best buds. But I want you to critique this chapter first, and then I'll tell you if you can join my uberleet writing group." Something tells me that might not go over so well.



Anyway. Writing group. It's not totally dead yet. We're going to try (hopefully) to reconvene in January. I'll be sending out some feelers to various contacts to see if any of my already tried-and-true writing group members is interested in getting the band back together. (Actually, if you're reading this, and you're a former writing group member of mine, consider this a "me putting out feelers to see if you want to join a Skype writing group." Email me if you want to chat.)



Actually, if any of you reading this might be interested in joining a Skype writing group, contact me. Just be aware that before I'd be willing to add you, I'd like to have you critique something. And you have to promise not to be offended if the whole writing group thing doesn't pan out.



In the meantime, at least I still have my alpha and beta readers. And on the plus side, I'm at the revision stage of a book, not the first draft stage. There's some time to find more group members. We'll see what happens. Stephen King's out here in Maine. I wonder if he's looking for a writing group member. :-)



Then again, maybe I'll just accept a job as a caretaker at an isolated hotel that shuts down for the winter. I could bring my family, and I could have my son ride through the halls of the hotel on his tricycle. Yeah. And I'll spend every day typing on an old fashioned type writer. Except I'll make some time for some fun, because after all: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.



Yeah.



That's the ticket.

In Which My iPad Tries to Give Me an Ulcer

iOS 5. I've been looking forward to it since it was announced. A major upgrade for my precious precious iPad. And now it's here. And what did the update do?



It wiped my iPad clean. Completely gone. Everything I had on the thing. All my apps. (I had a lot of apps.) My music. My movies. My notes. All I can think of is this:






Just switch out the turkey with my iPad, me with the dad, and Apple with the dogs, and you've got my feelings toward Apple right now, summed up perfectly.

"The heavenly aroma still hung in the house. But it was gone, all gone! No turkey! No turkey sandwiches! No turkey salad! No turkey gravy! Turkey Hash! Turkey a la King! Or gallons of turkey soup! Gone, ALL GONE!"

Thankfully, I backed up my journal, so that's not gone. And my music and movies are all on my computer, so I can get that back. And my apps (all those apps) are all redownloadable. But we're talking gigs and gigs o' apps. That's a lot of download time. Thank goodness I work at a place with a really fast internet connection.



So forgive me if I don't have a good review of iOS 5 just yet. I'm sure it's the bee's knees, but I sort of kind of have to get my iPad in order before I can really evaluate it.



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DC: Off to Preschool

Last night we took the fam over to the preschool open house. That's right: it's time for DC to traipse off to preschool. TRC has actually been looking forward to this day for a while, since ever since he left preschool, he's wanted to go back. He discovered yesterday that the toys he thought were so cool back then . . . are still pretty darn cool now. But as excited as he was, it's nothing compared to the sheer enthusiasm and rapture DC had when she realized the day was finally at hand.



I just heard back from Denisa today, and the first day went swimmingly well. DC didn't even look back--she was just ready to go go go. She even called me after she was done, and left a message on my phone. What did she learn? Darned if I know. I had a hard time understanding her on the phone. But for sheer excitement, she can't be beat.



Hard to believe she's already going to preschool. Already older than TRC was when we first moved here. I don't have a ton of time to post today (busy day at work), but I just thought I'd share the enthusiasm. Congrats, DC! Here's hoping you still like school ten years from now. :-)

The Wonders of Dropbox

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[Reprinted from my Library Blog]



Like
many of you, I hadn't made the plunge into online storage. I'd heard
about it, of course--that thing where you can sign up with a company and
they provide you with some space online for free, letting you store
files there. And if you paid them money, they'd let you store even
*more* files there. But I have a couple of Gmail accounts, and I get
free storage there. If I really needed to store something online, I
could just email it to myself, or upload it to Google Docs, and I'd be
able to get it when I wanted it.



Why would I want or need anything else?



Well, a friend invited me to Dropbox,
and my eyes have been opened. Dropbox is an ideal tool for sharing
files between computers (whether with yourself or collaborating on a
project with a friend or colleague), as well as for automatically
backing up important files.



Allow me to explain.



When
you sign up with Dropbox, they give you 2GB of storage space (plus
250MB more if you sign up using the helpful link above--aren't I nice?).
You install the Dropbox program on your computer, and then it acts just
like a typical folder. You can save files there, copy them there,
change them there--it all happens just as if you were saving and
altering your files normally. The trick is that when you make those
changes, Dropbox keeps a current copy of everything in your Dropbox
file--and they stick it online where you can access it from anywhere. So
if you write a big long paper on your laptop, but then you want to work
on it some more at school (and you don't have your laptop with you),
you just log on to Dropbox and are off and running.



What's
great is that it does all of this automatically. You don't have to
remind yourself to make a backup. Once you have Dropbox working, it runs
by itself. Beautiful.



It does wonders if you're
collaborating on a project with someone else and want to share files.
Yes, you could use Google Docs (which is a great collaboration tool).
But what if you want to view a bunch of pictures, or have access to a
number of files? You can share a Dropbox folder. Now, anything one
person puts in is seen by everyone else who shares the folder. You're
even notified when something changes or is added. Super convenient,
super easy.



Dropbox even has apps for iPhone, iPad,
Android, and Blackberry--so you can work on a document on your computer,
then go and access it on your iPad. No need to email it anywhere or
save it specially. It just works.



Anyway, I just
thought I'd take a moment to let you all know about the wonders of
online file storage. The fact that this is all free is mind blowing to
me. I've been using it for a good half year or so now, and I haven't
been plagued by spam--I haven't had a single speed bump.



What about you? Have you used a program like this before? Any thoughts or suggestions? Speak up!

The Next Three Days: Realism in Pop Culture

Denisa and I watched The Next Three Days last week, a movie that focuses on the efforts of a college English professor to free his wife from prison. It's directed by Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Casino Royale) and stars Russell Crowe.



First off, the review in a nutshell: Fantastic movie. Three and a half stars, easy. One of the most intense suspense/thrillers I've seen in quite a while. We both really enjoyed it.



Now that that's out of the way, I can talk about what's on my mind. The premise (college English professor tries to free his wife from prison) could have gone in so many different directions. I mean, you could have a comedy with that premise, with the main character doing a series of idiotic things, only to keep making things worse. You could have an Oceans 11 sort of a romp, with the characters just being so darn brilliant that you as a viewer just sit back and enjoy them doing brilliant, witty things. Or you could have what this movie was: a white-knuckle ride where you have no idea what will happen next.



Why is that? Why can the same premise provide so many different levels of film? As I thought about it, I've decided it comes down to the degree realism is allowed to penetrate the movie's plot and script. In a comedy, there's going to be very little in the way of realism. Consequences will only pop up when they have a punchline. Audiences understand this, and so they don't usually get too irate when the comedy has something unrealistic in it. (Think Pink Panther movies) (This is actually one of the reasons I hate Life is Beautiful, the movie about the guy who tries to convince his son that the concentration camp they're in isn't so bad, after all. The movie has very little realism throughout it--until (SPOILER) he dies at the end. The movie's great, but the ending stinks--mainly because it wasn't a realistic movie, until they decide to sucker punch the audience at the end. Blech.)



But I digress.



The Next Three Days works as a thriller because it has very real consequences. We see quite clearly what will happen to Russell Crowe if his plans go wrong. He'll go to prison. He might be shot. His son will be an orphan. The stakes are very high. The realism and tension is further heightened by the fact that Crowe has no super powers. He's smart, but he has no underworld connections. He needs to get fake passports? Great. How in the world does he do that? I mean, how would *you* do it? If I suddenly needed some, I haven't the faintest idea how I would get them.



Crowe tries to solve his problem as best he can, with the resources available. It's easy to relate to him and put yourself in his shoes--as opposed to an action film, where the main character essentially becomes Superman, able to do incredible feats and only come out with a few bruises. One trick to having a successful movie (in my humble opinion) is to be consistent in the reality level. If Crowe were suddenly to reveal that he had ninja training (1/2 way into the movie), it would hurt the film a great deal. The movie is good because it forces Crowe to work the problem through with the resources he has available, and those resources are clearly defined right from the beginning.



Anyway. That's all I have time for now. Happy Columbus Day, everyone. :-)

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