Bryce Moore's Blog, page 315

My Thoughts on BYU's Independence

So it's official now: BYU is leaving the Mountain West and becoming independent in football, joining the West Coast Conference in most other sports. I've read a lot of analysis about this, and I've thought a fair bit, and I have to say that overall, I'm very happy with the decision. Here are the pros and cons, as I see them:



Pros

More control over our direction
We get out of that lousy mtn. channel. Seriously--how hard has it been to find BYU games these days? They're on one of like four...

Off to School

TRC went off to school this morning. Time for first grade. I'll admit that today didn't seem nearly as momentous as last year (was it really already a year ago!?!), but I was still pretty proud of him. Last year I remember him being so excited to get on the school bus for the first time. He was bouncing up and down. This time, it was all old hat to him. Last year, he couldn't read. This year, he read over 200 books this past summer. So crazy to see how fast he's growing up.



I'm really happy ...

Book Review: The Way of Kings (Spoiler Free)

I had the opportunity to read an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of a book a lot of people out there probably want to get their hands on, and I thought, "Hey! Here's a chance to review something in a timely fashion." So I read through all 1000 pages of said book, and I'm here today to review it for you. Aren't you lucky?



What is it?



It's the first book in a planned ten (count 'em, ten) book epic fantasy by Brandon Sanderson, fantasy author extraordinaire. He's well known for his Mistborn series,...

The Saga Continues

More work on the house yesterday. It turned out to be a bit more than I was anticipating, work-wise. The goal was to nail the floorboards down (with some spiffy square head nails I'd gotten, since it's all face nailed with the old nails), then sand and stain it. Naturally, things didn't go all as anticipated. For one thing, when I nailed the floorboards down, they got lower than the surrounding boards. I'd shimmed them to the right height, but maybe my shims broke. Not sure what happened, but...

Movie Review: Spiderwick Chronicles

It's been a while since I did a movie review, so why not one for this fine Thursday? Watched Spiderwick Chronicles with Denisa and TRC the other day, and came away thoroughly unimpressed. Not that I was really expecting that much from the movie--everything I'd read about it said it was middling at best. But it's YA fantasy, and I thought I might as well give it a shot.



Really, I think my biggest gripe with it was how disappointing it was. It had a lot of potential for greatness. The effects ...

Adventures in Home Repair

Now that I'm back from vacation, the time has come for me to put up or shut up when it comes to all the different home repair and improvement projects I've had on my slate for this summer. The tools are purchased, some supplies are already available, and I'm running out of summer. So I decided to take my first step yesterday by repairing a piece of flooring in my entryway. Back when I took out all the vinyl flooring that had been there (revealing the original wood floor beneath), I'd noticed ...

Back from Vacation

It's true: I'm back. And I'm now caught up with blogs, more or less caught up with emails (still around 15 in my work email and 30 in my personal) and more or less unpacked. Of course, I've fallen behind on decluttering, and I have a ton to do around the house still, and don't get me started on that whole diet thing. (Note to self: a week of driving across the country, eating to stay occupied and awake, doth not a successful diet make.)



And in the middle of all of this, I haven't blogged in ...

A Quick Update

Look at this! I'm actually getting a chance to check in with a quick blog post. I'm out here in Utah, scrambling around doing all sorts of things. Things like going down to Provo and checking out the dinosaur museum and the Bean Museum. Getting my grandfather's car in Payson. Visiting with family. Visiting with more family. That sort of stuff. I've been taking lots of pictures and video, but I can't get my iPad to connect to the wireless here, so I'm sort of incommunicado for now. It's not yo...

Few Days Off

I'm terribly sorry, folks, but I am literally going insane with the amount of work I have to get done in the next week. The blog's just going to have to get put on the back burner for a bit. I'll post when I have time, but don't hold your breath. Besides--I just gave you an entire ebook yesterday. That should buy me some time off, right?

Buy My E-Book! (Or at least review it)

Hello all! It gives me great pleasure to announce that I have successfully created an eBook. For those of you who don't know, I wrote what is likely the world's only alpaca fantasy novel about four years ago. Filled with adventure, talking alpacas, prophetic mice and caverns of doom. A book that Kirkus Discoveries called "a cute, well-written and suspenseful animal-adventure story" and "a charming, enjoyable read."



What in the world would inspire me to write an alpaca fantasy novel? Well, th...