Bryce Moore's Blog, page 34

In Which I Discover that Yes, You Can Duolingo Too Hard

Back at the beginning of the year, I started doing Duolingo in Czech, mainly because it was a small thing I could do improve myself in a small way. It’s a low commitment threshold, and I’ve stuck with it every day since. My streak is around 115 now, give or take. I’ve actually branched out into other languages. I started Chinese because I’d never had any experience with a tonal language, and I also wanted to see what a non-European writing system was like. Then I added Swedish, because if I’m going to be in Europe in the future at some point, I might as well have another language under my belt. (Plus, I’m an eighth Swedish!)

I’ve discovered a few things in the process. First off, learning another Germanic language is a lot easier than learning a Slavic one. Second, learning a non-Indo-European language is suuuuper difficult. With Swedish, there are a lot of words that I understand already through German or English. Duolingo does a bad job of explaining the underlying rules behind a language (or rather, it doesn’t explain them at all. It’s all conversational-based), so I’m a bit at sea when it comes to the grammar and conjugation of words, but the rest isn’t that bad so far. But with Chinese, I realized just how big of a head start all my Slovak had given me with Czech. Most of what I learn in Czech is at least somewhat familiar to me. I have no starting point in Chinese.

The tones all sound super similar, and the writing system? I’m lost. Each word has a different sign, so you’re basically memorizing not just the sound it makes, but the way to write it. It’s been tough, but tough in a fun way, because I’m a language nerd.

That’s all prelude to the ultimate reason I’m writing today: all that Duolingo’ing has given my thumb tendonitis. Now, much of that is my own fault. I’m competitive by nature, and Duolingo lets you compete against other players and rank up. I discovered if I did exercises faster, I earned more points. So I did many exercises, and I did them fast. Over. And over. Until I basically gave myself a repetitive stress injury.

I’ve toned it down a few notches now (and I’m using my forefinger to type instead of my thumb), but I’m also going to physical therapy to get my thumb feeling better. (A constant reminder that yes, I’m getting older. You know things are grim when you can’t even type on your phone without hurting yourself, and then it takes weeks of exercises to get back to normal.)

We’ll see if I can avoid adding a fourth language. It’s tempting, but I need to be careful about my left thumb. I don’t think I could handle getting both of them out of commission . . .

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Contemplating Europe

The other day, I’d just about had it. There’s been more than a bit of doom and gloom to go around lately, both on a national and a local level. Nationally, I’ve become more and more discouraged with the callous way so many people seem willing to dismiss the concerns of others. The political landscape has changed from one where people had their own ideas, to one where it feels to me like more and more are just taking their ideas from someone else and letting themselves be told what to do and how to think. America’s struggled a lot in the years leading up to COVID, and it’s struggled in different ways since then.

Locally, there’s been a host of issues that I can’t get into. None of them super serious, but all of them draining when they add up.

Ever since my one Plan A fell through and I found myself with no Plan B (back when I was set on being an English Professor), I’ve been a firm believer in always having something lined up for if your first choice doesn’t happen. This time, one of the most frustrating things has been that I’ve felt like I have no real way of making a difference in so many things. I try to do what I can, but there are times that feels far too weak.

So I’ve come up with a Plan B. Something I can work toward if things go pear shaped. People have joked for years about “moving to Canada” if things got too bad in America. I’ve been to Canada, and it’s nice and all, but for some reason the thought of living there doesn’t really do it for me.

Europe, on the other hand? I could get behind Europe. More than half the work’s already done for me, after all. My wife and children are all EU citizens, which means they can move anywhere in the EU and live and work there. Since I’m married to an EU citizen, I can come with them, and I can generally work wherever they end up as well. (I can write books anywhere I live, of course. That’s helpful. Having the New York Public Library select Perfect Place to Die and Don’t Go to Sleep as two of their Spring 2023 Reads for Teens was a pick me up today when I found out.)

This isn’t to say Europe’s not without its problems as well, and it’s not to say I wouldn’t have issues wherever we ended up. But Denisa and I have come very close to moving to Europe before. The biggest obstacle has always been how difficult it might be to move back. I like job security, and hopping from one job to another too quickly isn’t something I’m keen on doing. But at the same time, Denisa’s now lived more than two decades in my home country. If suddenly there were nothing tying us to staying in America? Why not give it a go somewhere closer to her home?

Do I think I’m going to move to Europe anytime soon? Not really. But the idea really appeals to me, and for some reason having that as a Plan B has helped me feel more upbeat about my Plan A. Take something that might seem like a really big problem, and turn it into an opportunity. Where would we live? Think of the possibilities! Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden (I’m an eighth Swedish, after all) . . .

I’d better start on some more DuoLingo languages.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Tomas Update: Week 21 in Žilina

Ahojte všetci! Another week, another week in žilina! And what a week it’s been. I’ll just get right into it I guess.

Tuesday was pretty nice, we got out of the area near where we are normally, saw a cool Porsche, and met a nice lady with her dog who was 15 and had better sweater game than I do.

Wednesday it hailed in the morning! I thought it was like super hard rain by how loud it was, but it was definitely hail. Aside from that, we ended up seeing the same dog lady and the sweater dog. Also some super cool graffiti, and really pretty flower blossoms. The trees here are some kind of different because Maine is never this colorful in spring, and I really like it. All gorgeous yellows and pinks, and the flowers are cool too! Then we met a friend of the sisters’ by chance and he told us all about the námestie (main square) and it’s history, including an orphanage attached to the cool church that was used to hide Jewish children during world war II. He knows a ton about history and I’m not sure how I even understand because I don’t know half those words… Anyways, Wednesday was also our no English day, we made it with a collective 20 words of English from 630am to 9pm (outside of when we had to speak it to those who couldn’t understand). Going a whole day in Slovak is actually easier than I thought and is pretty fun, lots of great practice.

Thursday we went on a little run in the morning like we do… And I took the wrong keys out with us. No problem, but the backup keys were not where we thought they were and had seemed to have disappeared. We hunted for them for a while and managed to find them in another apartment here, they had been moved by accident. Safe to say I am checking my keys a lot closer now because that was a pretty stressful hour looking for the backups, as getting let back in was gonna run us 100€. Close one.

Friday was a small celebration for my birthday, sister Otto made a cake out of my mom’s classic recipe which was soooooo good. She has some sort of magic touch, because if it goes in an oven it always comes out tasting incredible. So thankful for the ottos and their support here in žilina, they really make sure stuff runs smoothly. Also our English class went off as usual, this week we talked about our hobbies and I learned to say “to wash the dishes” in Ukranian: мити посуд. I’ll get it down someday, for now Slovak is probably enough for me. 

Saturday was visiting some members and being outside some more, such a nice day and I even went without a sweater which is new. Then we had game night and I got destroyed in Catan by sister Christensen and met a man that actually used to live in Bangor! I figured I’d never see anyone from Maine as soon as I left but he was super cool and will hopefully come back next week!

Sunday, my birthday, I had to give a talk (same as last year… Not seeing a pattern I like) and so I spoke about hope and the purpose of life. This time I actually managed to make it 15 minutes which is good because I’ve always been too short in the past. I speak pretty frequently here as there aren’t a lot of options. Our friend Kristian came to church too which was super good! I translated out of English to Slovak for him simultaneously when needed, which is way harder and more fun than I figured. I gotta practice because I’d like to do it more. To top off Sunday, we had a lesson with an italian/Slovak family in Čadca, they made us gnocchi and we talked with them for a while. That was super cool and also like the second or third legit missionary style meal I’ve had while I’ve been here, we cook for ourselves pretty frequently. A great birthday present really, can’t ask for much more!

Then today, we went out to the Starý hrad (old Castle, it was used before they built a newer, better one), where I’ve already been but no problems here. We had to wait a bit so we played Frisbee in a field and I got some cool shots on my new nikon which was actually a ton of fun. We took like 400 pictures on the burst mode, lots of cool catches though. Then we hiked up to the top, I got some great landscape shots, and ate pizza at a restaurant before heading home for some Catan again. This time, I won with only like 5 or 6 roads, don’t know how I pulled that off but enemies were made. Just kidding, no mercy in the game but outside is a different story. Or so they say.

Anyways, that’s about it for me. Pictures may be late this week as I have a ton to sort through and I have to figure out how to not absolutely wreck my Google storage when I import off the Nikon.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qYoYaKPmkqFZHoVM7

Thanks for reading or whatever if you made it this far! I’ll see you all next week and thank you for the birthday wishes! Hope you’re all well and enjoying the melting snow.

S láskou, 

Starší Cundick 

Adventures in Boston

Friday, Denisa and I had tickets to go see Wynton Marsalis play jazz in Boston. I’d bought them a few months ago, and I’d been really looking forward to it. We’d lined up things for Daniela and MC (and Ferris), gotten a hotel, planned everything out, and all we had to do was have Friday go right. I had to be in Bangor for a library meeting, so I’d be leaving from that, rushing home to get Denisa, and then hurrying down to Boston, hoping we’d miss the traffic, so that we’d make it to the concert in time.

Everything was going well. My meeting had been successful, and I was looking at getting home maybe a little early, even. Someone called me on the phone, but I didn’t recognize the number, so I let it go to voice mail. When I got home, I went straight to packing, then checked the message.

The concert had been canceled due to illness. (Wynton or someone in the band caught COVID, perhaps?) So just like that, Denisa and I now had everything lined up so we could go down to Boston and . . . hang out for the evening.

That sounded like a missed opportunity, but I looked around and saw My Fair Lady was on tour from Broadway. I checked the tickets. There were cheap ones in not great locations, and expensive ones in better locations. I went with the expensive route. (Ever since I bought the cheap-o tickets to A Gentelman’s Guide to Love and Murder on Broadway, I’ve been a firm believer in getting good seats.) We rushed down and made it with time to spare.

The show was really good. Solid on acting, singing, and playing, though with a musical like My Fair Lady, it’s hard for me to separate it from the film adaptation, which I’ve seen many (many) times. The theater (Boston Opera House) was incredibly ornate. They had a string quartet playing for people as they came up the stairs in the lobby, and it was one of the nicest theaters I’ve been to. It wasn’t Wynton Marsalis, but it was still lots of fun.

For dinner, we ate at a vegetarian place called Life Alive. Denisa really liked it, though it was a tad too healthy for me. We were staying in Cambridge, which was a fun area of the city to be in, right next to MIT and close to Harvard. The student presence was strong. (The hotel was one of the free Marriott nights we get each year with the credit card.)

The next day, we headed to the Boston Temple before making our way back home by way of Portland. Stopped off for Indian food at a place called Taj, and shopped a bit at Trader Joe’s as well. All in all, a great trip, even if it wasn’t exactly what we’d planned. (I’ve got tickets to Sweeney Todd next month. If those fall through, I will be much more disappointed.)

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Television Review: Mandalorian Season Three

Daniela and I finished the third season of the Mandalorian last night, and I wanted to do a brief write up about it. Overall, we both had a blast with the show. Almost without exception, each episode kept itself rocketing along, full of visual spectacle, a great soundtrack, and some very nice action pieces, both on land and in space. The characters were fun, and it was a good time from start to finish.

(Well, almost. There was a random half episode focused on a character I really didn’t care about: a “recovering Imperial.” While it was interesting to see how they were treating people who used to work for the Empire, it was far from riveting, and ultimately didn’t do much for the show at all.)

Were there plot holes? Yes. Plenty of them. Did all of the characters’ decisions make sense? Nope, not really. Did I care? Again, not really. I mean, if you want to start dissecting a show like this, there’s really no stopping. It’s a culture based around people never taking off their helmets, and yet they somehow decide to have a big feast to celebrate something. I’m trying to picture how, exactly, that feast plays out. A bunch of people staring at food, with no one eating it? Everyone grabbing their food and then going off to eat by themselves in a very non-festive manner?

You can’t ask those questions. It would be like trying to analyze a roller coaster ride. The point isn’t to have it all make sense. (“Why am I on this ride? I get off where I got on. I go nowhere. I do nothing.”) The point is to have a fun time, and the Mandalorian does a super job of that.

This season continues the arc of Grogu and the Mandalorian, and it adds in a whole bunch of other Mandalorians for good measure, showing how they’re struggling to re-establish themselves in the universe. No need to give more of a description than that. If you’ve liked the first two seasons, you’ll like this.

If nothing else, this somehow proved (yet again) how big of a letdown Obi Wan and The Book of Boba Fett both were. The action sequences in those were often underwhelming, the plots felt padded to the extreme (so much so that Boba had to insert Mandalorian 2.5 into the middle of the show to make it reach its episode count), and they ultimately failed to deliver on the promises of what they could have been.

My biggest regret is that the show’s hampered by its budget, so it can’t really give us the planet-wide battles that are implied. Instead of a real army of Mandalorians, we see something like fifty. People keep attacking planets, but those planets are really nothing more than “a single city on that planet.” It would be like someone invading Earth, but really just focusing on Schenectady. (It’s also funny how many times they go to a planet to find someone, and find them . . . in the same city everyone’s always in. Maybe Schenectady’s a happening place?)

But there I go, thinking too much about it again. Don’t do that. Turn it on. Sit back. Enjoy. 8/10.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Tomas Update: Week 19-20 in Žilina

Ahojte všetci! Sorry it’s been a while, we had a weird pday on saturday last week so I didn’t end up writing. Anyways, I’m low on time so I’ll just throw out the highlights:

Last Saturday we had a big ol zone pday, we learned how to play rugby and played some Frisbee and soccer. I was super muddy and also we got dog poop on the football but it was really fun! Then after we ate some Hawaiian food which was really really good. Such a fun day and I’m glad it all came together.

That Easter Sunday we actually had 3 people come to church too which was great, things are moving here along with our English classes (which are enormous right now) and the sisters here just getting work done. That and Banská Bystrica had 2 more baptisms this past Saturday! Change is in the air.

Had a really cool exchange with the zone leaders too, we talked to quite a few people in some random suburb of žilina. A man evil laughed when I complimented his dog, we watched a guy spit farther than I’ve ever seen, and ate lunch with tap Kofola in a bowling alley in a dying mall of all places. What a day. 

I made the family orange roll recipe and I thankfully didn’t mess them up too bad but they did not turn out like they usually do… Probably something to do with my lack of a rolling pin. Tasted good though! Also saw a trabant that day.

Then for pday just barely we went to Považská Bystrica to check out the castle there and also I bought a camera (again… But this time digital) for a really good deal. We will see if I keep it, if it’s not worth it I’ll just out it up for sale again. The ruins were cool there and the view was great.

Okay I think that’s like all I can really out together this week, I promise next week will be more normal. It gets hard to remember the more time goes by. Hopefully you’re all well, here is the photos link as usual:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qYoYaKPmkqFZHoVM7

S láskou, 

Starší Cundick 

No More Single Digits: More Thoughts on Parenting

It’s official. As of this morning, our house has no more people with ages in the single digits. MC is 10, and she’s been looking forward to today for weeks (in true MC fashion). She has the week off (because Maine schools give students a week long break twice after Christmas, supposedly so the kids in the north could help with potato harvests, back in the day), so she’s living it up for the whole week.

It’s always fun to see my kids grow and watch as their interests develop over time. MC can be super focused on whatever project she’s working on, and she’s got the patience to stick with them over time. She made a rubber band bracelet that’s probably something like 7 yards long. She loves playing Minecraft and Zelda (and is always a sucker for any video game that’s handy), and watches Netflix with abandon. She loves to build things, and she’s way into puzzles.

I see some of myself in each of my kids, though with three, different parts of me come out at different times. Sometimes that’s a good thing. When they’re doing things the way I would do them (and experience has taught me that particular way is good), then yay! When they’re making the same mistakes I make? That’s rougher, especially since there’s no real way to convince them that I’ve already been down that path, and they don’t need to do it too. Then there’s times that you wish they would do things the way you would do them, and it’s frustrating to see them make different choices.

Not that any of that has to do with MC’s birthday, or anything that she’s doing right now. Rather, it’s been a learning experience for me, as I’ve had to discover (lo and behold) that my way isn’t always the right way, and that other approaches can be as good or better. That’s something you don’t really get the chance to learn through a relationship other than a parent. With every other interaction in my life, I was never “in charge” of that person. I can’t tell my friends what to do (well, I can, but it doesn’t work out that well), and the same goes for family. Children, on the other hand, are people you at least theoretically have some control over. Finding the balance between giving them free rein and giving them the guidance they need to succeed is a tricky thing. With Tomas, I think we were much more heavy handed than was helpful. It just seemed to make sense: if you want it done right, make sure they do it the right way. But you see over time that simply doing everything you can to make your child succeed doesn’t actually help them in the long run, since they also need to learn how to get things done on their own. (Not that Tomas doesn’t know how to get things done on his own, but if I’d laid off a bit, he would have had an easier time of it, I think.)

Some friends of mine just had their first baby, and the father has asked me for advice multiple times. That, plus this birthday, has gotten me into a very reflective frame of mind. So much of parenting advice seems to conflict with itself, and I think some of that is because parenting is full of self-correction. You go too far one way, and then you have to compensate in the other. Back and forth, back and forth, and you do your best to do it right. And when you finally “figure it out” with one kid, you realize that each kid is different, and you have to figure it out all over again with the next.

So my advice might be totally wrong for a different child, but how is that helpful advice? In the end, here’s what I’ve come up for that might be universally applicable to parenting:

Keep your relationship with your spouse strong. Assuming it’s a good, healthy one to begin with, the best thing for a family will be for that husband/wife relation to be the core of it. Spouse comes before child, though that might seem counterintuitive. Kids come and go. Your spouse does not. The two of you raise the child together. If you’re not on the same page, everything else is going to get much, much more difficult.Communication is key. Telling a kid “because I said so” might seem to work for a while, but there will come a time when that won’t cut it anymore, and if you don’t have any better reason for why you’re asking them to do something, then maybe you shouldn’t be asking them to do it.Consistency helps an awful lot. Consistency between what you and your spouse tell your child. Consistency in house rules. Consistency in expectations. That said . . . It’s okay to admit you’re wrong. In fact, it’s important. You will make mistakes. That’s okay. Kids need to know how to handle mistakes, and you can show them by example. So if there’s a rule you’ve made that’s not working, have a conversation about it, and change course. A family is a living thing. It will need to change and adapt over time.Be their parent, not their friend. It’s not that you’re supposed to be friends with your kids, but parents aren’t friends. They’re like friends, but different. As a parent, you will have to do things at times that no friend will do. You have to be the bad guy. You have to enforce rules. And you have to have your kid’s respect so that those rules will be followed.You need your kids to know they will be accepted and loved no matter what. You might not always love what they’re doing, but you still love them. If your kid makes a mistake, they need to know they can tell you, and you’re not going to overreact. Otherwise, they just won’t tell you. Secret mistakes have a habit of becoming much, much larger mistakes. You need to do things together, even if the thing they want to do isn’t something you’d normally want to do. One of the biggest ways to show love is to give your time to someone else. Not begrudgingly, but because you genuinely want to do what they want to do. By spending time with them, you’ll know them much better, and they’ll know you. Yes, you have to make money to support the family, but you also have to invest a whole lot of time. Without that time investment, everything else suffers.

I’m sure I could go on for a while longer on my soapbox, but that’s all I’ve got time for now. I have definitely not done all of those things perfectly, but I think I’ve always had those as the goal. I do wonder what things I’ve done as a parent will be the things my kids later on swear that they’ll do differently, because they didn’t like it. I’m sure there’s a list, but I’m not sure that I actually want to ever see it . . .

In any case, happy birthday, MC!

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Activism and the Church

I often like to go into each General Conference (a twice-a-year church wide meeting where church leaders give talks on a variety of topics) with a specific question in mind. We believe these people are led by God. What’s the point of modern day revelation if it doesn’t answer the questions you have about the modern day? Honestly, I have yet to do this and not come away from the meetings with a better understanding or feeling about whatever it was I needed clarification about.

This time, I had one real issue that’s been on my thoughts a lot. I’m tired. Tired of feeling like there are problems in the church that aren’t being addressed. Tired of having discussions with friends and family in the church who are struggling. Tired of trying to help them keep their faith. Tired of trying to help guide my children through difficult topics where the church’s stance can seem to conflict with itself. For the last several conferences, I’d hoped there would be a talk that would address these issues head on, since it’s felt to me like they just get ignored. So this time, that was my focus. I prayed I would hear something that would help me understand this better, and handle it better.

If you don’t know much about General Conference, it’s a lot of meetings. Three 2 hour broadcasts on Saturday and two 2 hour broadcasts on Sunday. We watch all of them in my family. It’s honestly a nice weekend where you get to just sit and relax, work on some small projects if you have them, and pretend that you didn’t take a nap now and then in the middle of the talks. By the end of it, I’m always pretty conferenced out. But I really wanted an answer on this issue, so I did my best to stay alert. I even took notes, which I often do not. Anything to keep focused, since I didn’t want to miss something that might help answer my question.

By the time the fifth session rolled around, I was still coming up empty. I did my best in the fifth session, but I began to drift off, especially toward the last half of the meeting. I did perk up a little at the third to last talk, given by Elder Ahmad Corbitt, since he used to work for my parents, and I’ve known him/known of him for a long time. So it was interesting to see him giving a talk on such a big platform. Even then, I lost focus after a few minutes. I couldn’t even really tell you what his talk was about.

Then, out of nowhere, a single sentence really jumped out at me. “Parents, if your child struggles with a gospel principle or prophetic teaching, please resist any type of evil speaking or activism toward the Church or its leaders. These lesser, secular approaches are beneath you and can be lethal to the long-term faithfulness of your child.”

Honestly, my first reaction was to bristle. Here I’d been looking for an answer this whole conference, and when something close to what I wanted to know about came up, it was just to say I shouldn’t criticize or try to change anything? Just keep on going on, as if there were no problem at all? I hadn’t been listening to his talk for a bit, so perhaps I’d missed some context to the statement. Being a librarian, my first instinct was to research it and see what else Elder Corbitt might have said about the topic. Googling “Corbitt activism” brought me to this article right off. In it, it’s clear Elder Corbitt wasn’t speaking out of context. He goes so far as to say that activism toward the church is one of the biggest traps used today to undermine faith.

Again, my first instinct was to dismiss the claim. How could wanting people to improve be a bad thing? Wasn’t this just telling people to shut up, even if there are valid issues? Shouldn’t we be doing everything we can to fix those issues? But as I kept reading, and as I kept thinking about the issue, my opinion changed to the point that I was in complete agreement with it. He breaks the typical process down into three steps, showing how it can be harmful:

“Focus the rising generation and the valiant generally away from the doctrine of Christ and onto real or imagined unfairness or injustice in the Lord’s Church and the imperfections of its leaders.“Use this shift in focus to stir up feelings of disillusionment, annoyance, resentment, anger and hatred toward Church policies, declarations, proclamations, principles, doctrines and eventually leaders.“Manipulate these negative impulses to instigate the use of worldly or secular activism or advocacy rather than the doctrine of Christ to effect change in the kingdom of God.”

He also clarified, “Please do not misunderstand. I am not at all saying ATC’s causes are not important or good or often pursued in good faith,” he said. “A light bulb must be changed to avoid darkness and restore light. My simple point is a hammer is not the right tool for that job. All needed and appropriate changes in the kingdom of God are God’s work to bring to pass.”

As I looked back on my issues with this topic, and on the arc I’d seen friends and loved ones travel, this really resonated with me. Once you start looking at one problem, turning all your efforts to change it or fix it, then you start to see other issues you also feel need fixing. Your focus shifts away from faith and toward criticism. You ignore all the good things about your church and judge it solely by the bad things. And after all, shouldn’t a church that claims to be true not have any bad things at all? Shouldn’t it be perfect?

Except I know it isn’t perfect, and the church itself teaches that. The people leading it are people. The people practicing it are people. And people have problems. If I have a friend who has one or two issues I don’t agree with, I don’t toss my friend out on their ear. I appreciate them for the good qualities they have.

Does the church have issues? Yes. Do I wish those issues were fixed? Yes. Do I know how to fix them? No. So what do I do about it? I will continue to do what I’ve been doing: try to practice my faith to the best of my abilities. Try to be forgiving and welcoming of everyone, regardless of their politics or orientation or pronouns or any thing else. And I’ll extend that forgiveness and understanding to church leaders, who I genuinely believe are trying their best to make the right decision and lead the church accordingly.

I realize this whole train of thought won’t help everyone. I also understand there will be a good chunk of people who start bandying about words like “blind faith.” I have no real refutation against it, except to say this. Before General Conference at the beginning of this month, I’d been upset about this for quite some time. I prayed for a way to understand it, and through this talk, something clicked for me in a way it hadn’t before. And now I’m not conflicted about it anymore. I have a much better idea how to talk to friends and family during those difficult discussions. How to give my children advice as they need it.

My prayer was answered, not in the way I expected at all, but answered nonetheless. Even with me snoozing when I should have been paying attention.

Television Review: Physical 100

Okay, I’ll admit it. Back in the day, I was a big fan of American Gladiator. Sure, some of it was that I liked seeing people dodge tennis balls, but I also just liked seeing people go one on one in different, unusual competitions. So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that when Physical 100 came across my Netflix suggestion queue, I was at least intrigued. It’s a South Korean show that looks kind of like a non-lethal version of Squid Game. They assembled 100 super strong/athletic people from across the country, and then they pit them against each other in a series of five different challenges.

I had to at least watch the first few minutes. It’s in my contract, somewhere.

For the first while, it seemed like it wasn’t really going to go anywhere. They spent a good amount of time introducing the competitors, and I knew none of them. They all knew each other, though. Watching their responses when another competitor came into the game was entertaining, and all the contestants were super enthusiastic and respectful to each other, which kept me hanging around. I had to at least watch the first competition to see how it played out.

And here we are now, with me firmly hooked on the show. Is it complex or life altering? Nope. But it’s surprising just how much drama and suspense can arise from simple premises. Establish the rules of the game, and then see how people match up to the rules. (This is also seen in many of the games on Survivor. Even simple ones like “stand on this log for as long as you can” turn into games that I really enjoy watching.) It’s also fun to be surprised along with the contestants as you find out what each new challenge will be.

I haven’t finished it yet, and usually I wait until I’m done with a show to review it, but in this case, I don’t see the point. It’s got a formula down, and that formula works wonderfully. My bet is most of you out there wouldn’t think about giving the show a second glance. If that’s the case, I think you should reconsider. So far all the bouts have been surprisingly respectful, with some of them even bordering on heartwarming, if you can believe it. It’s good clean fun from start to finish, and it’s pretty incredible what some of the contestants are able to pull off. (True, when it starts off, it focuses on each contestant’s body more than it needs to, but I suppose it’s just trying to prove to you how fit these people really are. It helps that there’s such a variety. There are men and women. Baseball players, gymnasts, strong men, dancers, and more. With some of them, you wonder how in the world they’ll ever make it past the first round. And then you’re shocked when they do.)

If you’re looking for some very watchable, easy on the brain television, look no farther. 8/10.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Book Review: The Frugal Wizard’s Guide to Surviving Medieval England

I often have people ask me if they should read any books by Brandon Sanderson. It seems like sometimes people feel that if enough other people like something, maybe they’re missing out if they’re not liking it as well. I always tell them that Brandon’s books aren’t for everyone. Most of them are very Epic fantasy, meaning you’d better be ready to learn a lot of character names and figure out a whole new magic system fairly quickly (or at least be okay with the fact that for the first long while, you won’t understand what’s happening). That said, they’re also very accessible, as far as epic fantasy goes. Brandon writes to be understood, and I very much appreciate that.

His books also sometimes start slow for people. It can take a while for them to really get going, though the climax of each book is always (IMO) worth it. Still, not everyone likes his style or his genre or some of his specific books. And yet the questions keep coming.

Most people end up asking where they should start. “If I just read one, which one should it be?” I suppose because they figure that way they’ll get a taste for him and see what they think. Of course, that also means that most of his books are tossed out as candidates, because so many of them are parts of series. I have long recommended Skyward as a go-to Sanderson book for everyone, though it’s a bit of an anomaly, as it’s science fiction instead of fantasy. The Rithmatist is a good one if you’re looking for light YA fun.

I can now add something that’s just as accessible, and a bit more grown up. The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England was a joy to read. It’s the second of his “year of Sanderson” books: the ones he wrote in secret over the pandemic. It’s a very fast read, it’s fantasy (though with a big dose of science fiction), it’s aimed at a grown up audience, it’s not part of a series, and it’s just a lot of fun. It also works as a great gateway book for his other works. Yes, there’s a learning curve to the magic system. Yes, it starts a bit slower. Yes, it’s got a great pay off.

In other words, if you read this and like it, then there’s a good shot you’ll like some of his other books, or that you’ll at least give them long enough to see if you like them or not.

What’s the premise? Basically it’s fantasy Jason Bourne. A man wakes up in medieval England with no memory of who he is or how he got there. It seems like he might have some sort of military background. There are other mysterious things about himself he doesn’t understand. Also, it appears some people want him dead.

I had a great time with it. 9/10, and I recommend it to just about anyone wanting a fun read.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.