Bryce Moore's Blog, page 333

Netflix on Hold

Dear Netflix,

I love you, but we need to take a break. It's not you--it's me. I have too much going on in my life, what with house repair, the new fall television shows (Fringe, Mythbusters and Amazing Race), and some good old fashioned World of Warcraft--not to mention familial duties, church stuff . . . I'm booked. So we'll get back together soon, but for now, I'm not paying for movies I have no time to watch.

No worries, Netflix--winter is coming.

Sincerely,

Bryce

Talking to Strangers

For those of you who might not be aware of the fact, I dislike talking to people I don't know. Which doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense, since I'm a chatty person by nature. (True story: on my mission in Germany, I talked on the phone to my family for over 9 hours. Or was it 7? It was a long time, regardless. We were only allowed two phone calls a year, and I got every ounce out of 'em. Plus, I had two phone calls to make, one to my Pennsylvania family, and one to my Utah family. But sti...

Sports and Bryce

Most times of the year, I don't really care that much for sports. I mean, I certainly don't play it at all, and I rarely watch it. Professional sports don't particularly intrigue me. Sure, I can take an NBA game now and then, and the Superbowl is nice, and I'll follow along to see how the Eagles are doing each week. But that's about it. Even baseball is usually a passing interest. But there are a few times when my watching habits border on obsessive. March Madness, for one thing. Any time the...

Variable Ratio Reinforcement

Today I had the chance to go to a psychology class I'm assisting as a librarian this semester. Basically, I was sitting in on the class so I had a complete idea of what their assignment was going to consist of, thus enabling me to help the students better with their research when the time came for them to start on their papers. Fascinating class. It was all about ways to encourage or discourage behavior based on rewards or punishment. Basic concept: if you want to get someone to do something ...

Allow Me to Vent

Nothing serious for today's vent. Just a minor annoyance. What is it? I hate those sharp pointy things that they use at the dentist's to scrape your teeth. I hate everything about them. I hate the sound they make, the feeling they give you as they grate against your bicuspids, the sharp jab they give your gums now and then. Surely, after all these advances in science and medicine, there must be something better to use to clean teeth with. Isn't this why we invented lasers? Come on, dentists! ...

Writing and Football Plays

I'm still neck deep in the planning stages of my next book. Each time I think I have it plotted enough, I try to start writing, only to discover that nope--it still needs more work. Today I came across a thought that I wanted to share. It seems to me that writing books is a lot like calling football plays. (This likely just shows what's on my mind a lot these days.) With football plays, there are a couple of approaches. On the one hand, you can come up with strikingly new plays--trick plays t...

House Work, Dentists and a Review of Zombieland

A variety of updates for you today. First off, an update on the house: the chimney has started to rise again. Four layers of bricks were added yesterday, and from what DKC tells me, more layers are going up even as we speak. Or read. Or write. Or . . . whatever. As for the barn, we've decided not to paint it this year. The temperatures here in Maine have dropped sharply, and we don't want to paint it, only to have it go sour and have to redo it in a year or two or three. So we're focusing ins...

Three Lessons Learned Whilst Moving a Piano

Lesson number one: pianos are heavy. An old upright can weigh between 500 and 1000 pounds. Even if you have five grown men there to lift it, it won't be a cake walk.

Lesson number two: pianos are large. When you're trying to get them out of a house, and the door is only slightly larger than the piano, you can't expect people to hold it on the sides. Just on the ends. Also, there's only room for one person on each end. This also counts when you're moving the piano into a house.

Lesson number thr...

I'm Exhausted

Lying in bed right now trying to recuperate from my day. Just moved a late Nineteenth Century piano into my living room. It was a very generous gift from a co-worker, and it's going to look gorgeous in there. But it was quite the ordeal getting it in. Thankfully, no one broke anything, and it's still in one piece. Now to get it tuned and start practicing again. In addition to that, I worked another four hours on my house today--got rid of more bad fascia, and got it ready for the new to go up...

And in the Good News Department

I know I can dwell on the bad sometimes too much, so it's nice for me to give some good news now and then, just to switch things up a bit. With all the work on the house that's been cropping up, we've been looking at our dwindling finances wondering how we'd manage to keep some savings alive. It now looks like I'll be teaching 3 more classes this summer, which will go a long way toward replenishing our savings account and give us a nice buffer again. Plus, I really enjoy teaching, so it's nic...