Bryce Moore's Blog, page 29

How Do You Handle Foreign Languages in Books?

Asking the audience this time. Often when I’m writing, the characters I’m dealing speak more than one language. In Don’t Go to Sleep, Gia and Enzo are both Italian, so there’s no going around it: they’re going to speak Italian at some point. (Likely even more often than I portray in the book.) My approach to date has been to put the foreign words and sentences in exactly as they would say them.

(I used to italicize them, to denote it was a foreign word, but I stopped that when a friend pointed out it made those words too . . . “other.” When I was over in Germany as a missionary, I often peppered German into my speech when I was talking in English. When I did that, it wasn’t as if the word was said with an outrageous German accent. It was just a word like any other word. Italics make it feel like the speaker is changing how they’re speaking, when really, they’re just speaking. Maybe that doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes sense to me, so . . .)

However, I’ve read some responses to the book where people got really frustrated, because they wanted to know exactly what was being said. So every time an Italian section came up, they dutifully typed it into Google Translate to see what was going on. I never thought someone would go to those lengths, mainly because I tried to make sure whenever Italian appeared, its meaning was either implied in context, or the meaning really didn’t make a difference to the book. In my head, the reader would either just see it as “Oh, they’re speaking Italian right now, and I don’t speak Italian” and just keep reading, or else the reader would actually speak Italian, in which case they’d be happy they got to understand some easter eggs.

In the book I’m working on now, the main character doesn’t speak any foreign languages, but he interacts with some characters who are German. Most of the time, I’m peppering in German phrases here or there, although there’s one scene where they speak back and forth in German, specifically so that he doesn’t understand them. I’m not entirely sure how to handle the German in this case.

On the one hand, I speak German, and it wouldn’t be that hard to throw in the full sentences. On the other, my main character doesn’t, so there’s no way he’d be able to tell any of the words, and it’s written in first person. I’ve sort of compromised, adding snippets of real German here and there (to give the reader the same feeling the main character has), and then just saying “They spoke in German some more” at other times, to make it so the reader doesn’t have to feel too frustrated.

But I realize not everyone approaches reading and writing the way I do, so I thought it might help me to hear what other people think about this. Any ways you’ve seen it done that you particularly like or dislike? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Book Review: The Outsider, by Stephen King

I have long admired Stephen King’s ability to create a riveting story. To just set up a premise that demands to be read. I think where he excels the most is in his ability to write characters we care about, and then his willingness to put those characters into extremely difficult situations. From there, he allows the premise to unfold, and he doesn’t shy away from put all those characters through the ringer.

The Outsider is squarely in that sweet spot. I started reading it one evening, and the next thing I knew, it was almost midnight, and I had to get up early for work the next morning. The premise is compelling: a man who’s universally admired around his small community is arrested for a dreadful murder of a young boy. For the first 100 pages or so, King shows us just how iron clad the case is against the man. He also shows us just how surprised the man is to be arrested. It’s almost like you’re reading two different books. There’s no way both narratives could be true.

I won’t give any more description than that, but suffice it to say that from there, King takes those characters and develops them further. Some make good choices. Some make terrible ones. All of those decisions feel consistent with who they are as characters. There are none that just make you feel like it’s the author forcing characters to do what the plot demands.

I’ve asked myself several times over the years, “What is horror?” What makes a book belong in the horror section? I think that many people assume it’s got to be gory and bloody, and King definitely doesn’t shy away from that when those situations arise in his books. But I think what really makes a horror story work for me is there needs to be some level of believability. Sometimes, the most horrific things are the everyday things people do to each other. The casual way people will treat another person’s hopes, dreams, or lives. If it’s a big scary monster doing that, then it’s easier for me to distance myself from what’s going on. If it’s just another person?

Yikes.

I struggle sometimes with King’s endings. They can feel like they are abrupt, or take a turn to the bizarre. The Outsider didn’t have that problem for me. By the time we get to the end, I know what stakes are at play, and I understand enough of what’s going on for the finale to really feel earned and impactful.

So, is this a book you’ll like? On the one hand, it’s definitely horror. It’s got some very intense scenes, and some grisly details. So if that’s something that turns you off, it would be best to just step away. That said, I think many people dismiss horror as a genre out of hand, assuming it’s all machetes and screaming. If they gave it a shot, they might be surprised at just how normal it reads. Certainly no worse than many episodes of CSI, for example.

In any case, I really enjoyed this one of King’s, and I heartily recommend it. 9/10

Ramping Up for Another Semester

The new school year starts at UMF next Monday, and you can definitely feel things churning into gear around here. Summer always feels like a chance to catch my breath and get on top of various projects. It also never (ever) feels long enough, because once we hit this point in the year, it feels like I’m at the top of a rollercoaster, looking down, just before it all takes off.

That’s generally a good thing, because I like being busy, and I like having students back on campus. But it’s also pretty stressful, especially when you remember Denisa is also getting ready to teach new classes. So we’re all just kind of scrambling to get everything done that we need to do, knowing that there’s not going to be time to do it.

Right now, I’m focused on getting the Makerspace situated for the new year. My office is moved, but we’ve got a lot of things to do to really have things ready. Student workers need to be hired. Some of the machines need to be fixed or tweaked. New computers need to be ordered still. (We got some additional funding, but it just barely came through.)

Beyond that, I reach out to faculty about class visits, and to see if they need any particular help with anything they’re teaching this semester. We took some time to look at different spaces in the building, to see if we could lay them out a bit more effectively. (The coffee bar has a brand new furniture arrangement which I think most people will really appreciate.) I’m on several statewide committees looking at library endeavors, from van delivery to new shared databases.

Basically, it just feels like there are a ton of different balls in the air right now, and I know things will only get more hectic next week. Oh, and did I mention I’m on a writing deadline as well? I (still) can’t talk about that yet, but I’ll just say that when I’ve had a full day of a jam packed schedule, coming home and knowing I have to spend an hour or more with my creative hat on is . . . challenging.

Anyway. I don’t really have time to talk about anything else. Just wanted to explain why I might look a bit frazzled over the next while. Wish me luck.

Movie Review: Heaven Can Wait

I first watched Heaven Can Wait when I was a kid. I’m not sure exactly how old I was. Maybe 12? I probably watched it once or twice after that, but it’s been decades since I’ve seen it again. I remembered it generally being pretty decent, though, so I decided to give it a shot for family movie night yesterday. Daniela’s up for just about anything, and as long as things aren’t in black and white, MC will give it a shot.

How’d it do?

As a refresher if it’s been a while (or a description if it’s been never), the movie stars Warren Beatty as an old quarterback for the Rams, who finally seems like he’s about to catch his big break. Life’s looking up, he’s on top of the world . . . and then he dies in a bike crash. When he gets to the afterlife, however, he discovers that he wasn’t actually supposed to die then: the person in charge of collecting his soul jumped the gun, thinking he’d spare Beatty some pain. So Beatty gets to go back to earth in a new body. But he still wants to play in the Super Bowl. The plot spins out from there.

The movie didn’t work for MC much at all. I think the humor and the subject matter weren’t something that really interested her. But the rest of us really enjoyed it. (In fact, as I went to check it out on IMDB after the fact, I discovered it was nominated for 9 Oscars (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Music, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, and Art Direction (Which was the only one it won.))) The plot is surprisingly different, with turns that you don’t really expect. It’s definitely quirky, but not overly so.

Personally, I’m a fan of afterlife movies, and this one fits squarely into that genre, clearly. It’s more on the Defending Your Life side of the spectrum as opposed to the Beetlejuice or Frighteners side of things, but I always find it interesting to see how filmmakers try to picture what things will be like when we die.

Is it perfect? No. It had some elements that felt dated for sure, and there’s a sense to the plot that it didn’t quite get worked out completely. I wondered if it might have been edited awkwardly after the fact. Not that any of that breaks the film in any way, but it kept it at an 8/10 rating for me, instead of higher. Definitely worth your time, even 25 year after it released. It’s on Prime Video now.

Social Media has Calmed Down

I don’t want this post to turn political, because then I’d be causing the very thing I’m noting has changed, but it occurred to me today that either I’ve gotten much better at unfollowing anyone who posts dramatic political links to Facebook, or people in general have stopped posting things beyond normal status updates. Trump has been indicted four times, and I don’t remember a single post about it appearing anywhere other than . . . a rogue Twitter post, perhaps?

On the one hand, this makes me very happy, because it really felt like social media was just making everything worse, especially over COVID. The thing that was supposed to be connecting us all together was instead making it easier for everyone to be angry with each other. I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly not why I signed up for a social media account in the first place, so yay for that.

On the other hand, I tend to think the reason these posts have stopped appearing has something to do with the fact that people no longer feel there’s much point to it. Or maybe that’s just me projecting onto the rest of you. I used to write a fair number of posts on hot button topics, mainly because I thought writing something might do some good. I haven’t had the desire to do that in quite some time, as I have a hard time picturing something I might say that might make anyone think differently than they already do.

That is . . . not so good.

It’s not that I want people arguing pointlessly, but I definitely don’t want everyone just ignoring each other and no longer listening to anyone who might disagree with them. But when disagreeing with someone gets you labeled with a mean word and then unfriended, it makes total sense that people would just stop talking. In any healthy relationship, you need discussion. If a couple clams up and just starts ignoring certain aspects of their lives, that’s usually a big red flag.

Do I have a solution to this? Maybe. I definitely don’t want a return to people bickering with acquaintances or flat out strangers online. That does no one any good. But we need to get back to how things were like before social media and text messaging. Get back to actually talking to people. Face to face is ideal, but I’d settle for Zoom or on the phone. We need to get back in the habit of being friends with people who disagree with us, even on important issues.

Some of this feels like I’m a technophobe yelling at people to get off my lawn, but if you know me, then you know I’m anything but anti-technology. It just feels to me like we’ve really struggled to connect again at the same level that we did before COVID. It’s like we all built little silos over those months, and when we could come out of them, we decided that they were actually much more comfortable, and why bother. Or, again, perhaps that’s just me. I try to think back on what I did pre-2020 and compare it to what I do now. Is there anything appreciably different? I can’t honestly tell.

Do any of you have thoughts or observations on this? I’d love some other reads.

2023 Vacation Report: At the Rodeo

When Daniela realized we were heading to Utah once again, one item she had high on her list of things she wanted to do was “go to a rodeo.” Now, I’ve taken her to a rodeo before, but she was much younger and didn’t remember it. When I was growing up, I went to the Oakley Rodeo each summer when I went out to Utah. Was it something I loved with a passion? Not really. It was fun to be there with my cousins, and it was very different from things I did on the east coast, but it wasn’t something I was hooked on for life. Since growing up, I’d been back once (when I took Daniela and Tomas years before.)

MC and Denisa thought it would be fun as well, so it was decided. We’d go to a rodeo. Of course, I delayed getting tickets and by the time I was looking for them, the Oakley Rodeo was sold out. (Well, technically I could have bought tickets that were being resold for $300/seat, but . . . I don’t like rodeos that much. However, by the power of Google, I found tickets to the West Jordan Stampede on July 4th for a whopping $8/seat. That’s something I could get behind. They’d even have fireworks after, so we could be all patriotic and stuff.

The day of the rodeo arrived, and off we all went. MC and Daniela had a great time looking at the horses, and MC was excited to see what this all would be like. This is where I think I kind of failed as a parent. Rodeos are just something I take for granted. Explaining what a rodeo is like would be like explaining to someone about grass. There’s no real need to do it. But when you’re a ten-year-old girl from Maine, you most definitely do not know what to expect from a rodeo.

The rodeo ceremonies started with a big long speech about how awesome America was. This shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone. Not to typecast rodeo fans, but they tend to skew just a touch toward the conservative side, and patriotism is kind of a big deal to that crowd. (For the record, I love my country too. I just don’t believe there’s a worldwide contest for “Best Country,” and if there were, I don’t think America would be sweeping the categories.) But this was a rodeo, and it was the Fourth of July.

From there, they had a rodeo clown who was warming up the audience with some jokes. Let’s just say the jokes were . . . less than respectful than they could have been. Certainly no one would accuse that clown of being woke. If anything, he was slept. Not as slept as he could have been, but pretty darn drowsy.

But enough of that. The actual rodeo started with a sheep riding competition, where they put little kids (geared up with enough padding to protect an egg in a hailstorm) on sheep and then let the sheep go to see how long the kids could stay on the sheep. It’s like bull riding, but not. About half of the attempts ended with the kid in tears, and all of them ended after maybe two seconds of actual riding.

Denisa was Not Amused.

Which I get. I certainly wouldn’t plop one of my kids down on a sheep, regardless of the amount of padding. (Well, not when they were half the size of the sheep, at least. If Tomas or Daniela wants to get on a sheep now, more power to ’em.) Did it seem super safe? Not really. But then again, this was a rodeo. Compared to bull riding, this was a jaunty stroll through the countryside.

Then they went straight to calf roping. It was at this stage of the rodeo that the wheels fell off the “This will be a fun family activity” bus. MC was very much not happy with people throwing ropes around calves, then jerking them off their legs and typing those legs together. She grew less happy with every calf. (I really should have explained what a rodeo was better. Half of having a fun time is having the right expectations. Maybe more.) Denisa was already eyeing the exit, and I wouldn’t really have objected to leaving. (The tickets were $8, remember, and I’ve seen many rodeos.) However, I also knew Daniela very much wanted to see the rodeo, and would be less than pleased to duck out early.

This is why having two parents at an event makes things easier. Denisa took MC and headed to a nearby playground, and the event transition from a “Fun Family Activity” to a “Daddy Daughter Date” with Daniela. (That’s a lot of Ds.) Thankfully, things got back on track at that point. Denisa and MC were happy, Daniela was happy, and I was just fine.

It’s a good thing MC left when she did. Yes, the barrel racing was exciting, and I think she would have liked that, but she didn’t see the bull riding. In general, I have no beef with rodeos. All of the events are very focused around things people who raise cattle have to do to raise cattle well. I know where meat comes from, and I know what that involves. However, I’m stumped when it comes to bull riding. As near as I can tell, bull riding started on a dare, and that dare has continued to this day. We saw around ten attempts at staying on the bull for the whole time. I think one was successful. The other nine almost died. Nothing says “fun family time” like watching a man voluntarily get on 2,000 pounds of leather-encased rage, and then poking that bundle of anger with a stick.

The rodeo finished, and we met back up for the fireworks. Is Daniela a new convert to rodeos? Not really. I think she felt about it the same as I do. They’re fine and all, but we’re not heading out to buy our cowboy hats and boots and belt buckles just yet.

Tomas Update: Week 11 in Trenčín

Ahojte vsetci! It’s me again. Another wonderful week in Trenčín! And another one that feels like we did simultaneously everything and not that much. I’ll get into it:

Tuesday we FINALLY got a working washing machine!! It took forever to show up but it works and we have clean clothing now. We had to wait most of the day which was fairly frustrating and then there was miscommunication between us and the delivery company so we had to take the old one out and down the stairs by ourselves. We did it but also I accidentally forgot the keys inside the apartment so we had to call our neighbor Michal to have him let us back in, and he was so cool he ended up also helping us get our super heavy new washer up two flights of stairs and inside. That was really helpful because I don’t think we woulda managed, the washer was very heavy. After that fiasco we went and played magic as is usual on Tuesdays, got stomped by good ol Mimeoplasm yet again although I got in a win too. And that was Tuesday. 

Wednesday we got up at 5 so we could leave 5.30 to go to the hospital for Goodares check in after last week or whenever that was that we went, and then proceeded to spend the ENTIRE day in the hospital. Literally 6.00-13.00.  It was terrible. Felt like an eternity and also like an hour. Very weird energy. The way the system works here for that kinda stuff is wack, we had to get to the check-in window at 6.00 to get one of 10 numbers that guaranteed us getting in. So we pull up at 6.40, we were 11 so they told us to wait, then we waited until 7.00 when the doctor actually showed up, and they proceeded to take ~30 minutes per person (more for some) and some more people showed up as well and somehow managed to cut us in line. So we sit there for 7 hours, it’s a 5min appointment, and we are free. 1/10 experience. Would not recommend. Next time we get there early early and save 5 hours. 

Thursday was thankfully pretty average. Really nothing super crazy to talk about but trust me that is a good thing after the previous two days…

Friday the cool thing we did was go and visit a cemetery where allegedly some relatives were buried, we didn’t manage to find the headstones but we did find another entirely unrelated Križan unless I am wrong. Also a very pretty sunset that day. 

Saturdayw as another crazy one, we started off with our standard train to Žilina for our weekly meeting. We ended up meeting a really cool guy named Martin who was aware of us from our family history program. Talked to him for an hour, gave him a Book of Mormon, and set up another time to meet. He was super excited and thought it was really cool that we provide the services we do, just overall a great guy. Anyways when we got to Žilina we found out we only had like 50 minutes, which is fun because I’m in charge of running those. It worked out fine, but having more time like we usually do would have been nice. Anyways, me and Goodare have some time to burn before our train so we go grab lunch and attempt to buy some garam masala for Indian food (the shop was closed) and we are walking back to the train station, then get stopped by some non-denominational people trying to get us to convert to Jesus I guess? I was kinda confused because I literally wear a little tag with Jesus’ name on it so you’d figure I was aware of who he is and all, but they were also very pushy. Not a great interaction, and not sure what they were really trying to do, they wouldn’t even let us go when we said we had a train to catch. After we extracted ourselves there, ANOTHER set of guys stops us and talk us into a pushup 1v1 for an ad they were doing, so I won some “gamer” multivitamins. They taste weird. Then we had some homeless guys curse us out on our way to the train, talked to a bunch of English speakers, and finally made it home after almost melting on that train. What a morning. To finish we cleaned the church building, practiced piano and violin for a little bit, and headed home. 

Sunday was uneventful again, besides an old inactive member coming back which was cool. Hopefully she keeps coming. I also made sugar cookies and I even made green frosting because no one could stop me. They taste pretty good. 

Then today we headed back out to Žilina, visited Lietava Castle for my 3rd time, got indian food, played a round of Catan, and we are on the train back as I write. A pretty good day, great views, but it was very very hot. Then again it is summer and at least the sun was out. 

All right that’s about it, I did get my camera back from it’s extended stay in Prague this week so I will have some sweet pictures. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GHgGUxN4X6y5nvio8

Hope you’re all doing well and having fun doing all the cool stuff there is to do just kinda everywhere. I’m still doing great out here and wouldn’t give it up for anything. 

S láskou,

Starší Cundick 

Television Review: Silo Season 1

When I saw Apple was adapting Hugh Howey’s Silo series into a show, I immediately added the show to my “to watch” list. For one thing, I really enjoyed the books. For another, they’re one of Denisa’s favorite series, and I knew she’d be all over an adaptation. Of course, any time you’re dealing with an adaptation of something you love, you run the risk of . . . not loving the changes they made. So I was both excited and apprehensive. So much so that we decided to hold off watching it until we could binge it all at once.

I’m glad we held off, if for nothing more than the fact that we blazed through the series in record time, and we had a blast doing so.

If you’re not familiar with the source material, it’s about a group of around 10,000 people who live inside a giant metal silo. Maybe 140 levels in all, with each level being quite tall. So we’re squarely in the “post-apocalyptic” genre, with the twist here being that the people of the Silo have no idea why they’re there, other than that they’ve been told it’s not safe to go outside. Their only window to the outside world is a camera that looks out into the surrounding. Every so often, someone is sentenced to go outside the Silo, and so people get to watch as they leave . . .

And then drop dead.

It’s a great book, full of twists and turns all a very memorable setting, with strong characters. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.

And if you haven’t watched the TV show, you definitely should. It was superbly done. The Silo comes alive on screen. It looks like a place that’s been run non-stop for over a hundred years, with little in the way of long term repairs. It’s grimy and claustrophobic, and just wonderful. The acting is great, the plot is spot on, and it doesn’t waste time with episodes that don’t make significant progress. It’s TV-MA for language and violence. 9.5/10.

Give it a shot.

And as an aside, as I look over my list of movies and television watched over the year, I’m seeing a couple of trends. First, I don’t think I’m watching as much as I used to watch (believe it or not). This likely has to do directly with the fact that I’ve just gotten busier, as has my family. Something’s had to go, and that “thing” has been media. This makes me sad, because I both love watching movies and television, and I also feel like it’s helpful to me as an author.

However, a second trend I’m seeing is that television series are steadily eating into the movies I watch. Years ago, I’d watch a season of TV here and there, but most of my watching was all about the movies. These days, there are just so many great shows to watch, that it’s hard to find time to watch movies, it seems. It helps that when you find a really good show, it’s good for 10 hours or more of watching, whereas a great movie can just net you about 2 or 3 hours. (Then again, it’s a much lower commitment, with a movie . . .)

Not that any of this has to do with Silo, other than the fact that here’s another TV show I loved.

Movie Review: Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Most of the time a movie or a tv show has to be on my list for me to decide to watch it. Not that I literally add the movies to a list, but I know which ones I’ve made a mental note about wanting to watch, and which I haven’t. But every so often I decide to throw caution to the wind and just watch something that’s not in my queue. Sometimes it fails spectacularly. Now and then, I find an absolute gem.

I’d heard of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris mainly through watching the Oscars. From that, I had an idea it was about some sort of housewife or regular person who goes to do something with fashion. (There’s only so much about a movie you can learn through 5 second snippets peppered throughout a three plus hour program.) And actually, now that I look at it, it was just nominated for Best Costume Design, so really it’s impressive that I remembered it at all.

A month ago, I was looking for something new to watch with Denisa and Daniela. Something different than what we normally watch. Daniela was in the mood for a classic, but I was coming up empty in the Classics I Want to Watch Right Now department. However, Mrs. Harris popped up in my movie surfing. Daniela likes fashion, so . . . I stopped thinking and just decided to go with it. I’m so glad I did, because the movie was absolutely lovely.

I wasn’t too far off in my understanding of the movie. Mrs. Harris is a maid in 1950s London. She’s overworked, but big-hearted. One day she sees a couture Dior dress, and she decides she wants to one day buy one for herself, even though they cost an astronomical amount. The movie plays out from there, though I don’t want to give anything else away.

At its heart, it’s a wish-fulfillment movie. Is it plausible? Well, probably not. But you watch it, and you wish the world might be more like it’s portrayed in the film. It’s rated PG, so it’s suitable for the whole family, though I don’t know that MC would have found it very riveting. But if you’ve got kids 12 and over and want a good escape into a very positive film, you should definitely give this one a shot. It’s on Prime Video. 9/10.

Moving Offices

When I graduated with my Masters in Library Science, getting a job was difficult. I applied to 50 places in the space of a few months, and almost all of those came back with a decided “no.” When I took the job of Information Technology Librarian at the University of Maine at Farmington, I didn’t really have an idea of what it would entail. I just knew it took two different things I was good at (tech and libraries) and jammed them together. I had an office right on the main floor of the library, and I spent most of my time keeping all the computers in the library in working order, and wrangling the web page.

I actually only ended up in that role for a little over a year (though looking back on it, it feels much longer). My supervisor left the university, and after a few bumps in the road, I was promoted to her position. (Library Information Services Manager, if you’re playing along at home.) With the job move, I moved up to the third floor. I didn’t imagine I’d move again any time soon. And yet, five and a half years later there was another big disruption in the library. When the dust settled, I had a new title (Manager of Instructional and Research Services). I also moved back to my old office on the main floor.

When I became Library Director three years later, I kept the same office. No real need to move it, as I’d already been doing most of what I’d be doing as director. I’ve been the director for over six years now, and once again, I’m moving my office. (No job title change this time, though. Four jobs at the same library is enough, I think.)

Back in 2020, we expanded our Makerspace, and we’re still in the process of getting it more established and well-known in the community. As part of that effort, we’re moving a staff person over to directly supervise it as one of their main job duties. (I’ve been supervising it sort of by accident since it started, thanks in no small part to COVID.) My old office was right next to it, so that was the logical place to have the staff person move.

So if you’re on campus and looking for me, just ask at the front desk and they’ll tell you how to find me. I’m tucked away on the second floor now, though hopefully I’ll return to the main floor in the not-too-distant future.

Actually moving the office has proven to be a bit of a pain. I’m a stuff magnet. Leave me for nine years in one room, and there’s going to be a fair bit of stuff that accumulates around me in that time. It involved a fair bit of ferrying things back and forth, which is fine, but also sorting through memories, which is often something I’d just rather not do. The good news is it’s all done for now, and my hope is that when I move the next time, I’ll have enough time to sort through everything properly, and only bring the things I really want to hold on to.

What do you suppose the odds of that are?