Bryce Moore's Blog, page 37

Artificial Authors

I blogged a while back about advances in artificial intelligence (also here), and I’ve since had a fair bit of fun putting different prompts into ChatGPT and seeing what it comes up with. Not that it’s come up with anything particularly good, but it’s definitely come up with things that are amusing or surprising, considering the source. (This reminds me in many ways of the reaction a child gets for saying something that seems like a child wouldn’t come up with. There’s a lower bar to clear to make someone impressed.)

But I’ve been surprised to see how fast people are pushing the AI envelope, when it comes to creative writing. There have been multiple articles this past week about how some short story magazines are being inundated with submissions written by AI, and how Amazon has a number of books already up that are openly written (and even illustrated!) by AI. (And who knows how many of them are written by AI, but the “authors” are trying to conceal the fact.) Having seen what AI looks like, I didn’t think anyone would be trying to use it for creative projects just yet, but I suppose I shouldn’t have underestimated the willingness of some to try just about anything to make money.

What are my thoughts on this? I actually think that for traditionally published authors, this is going to work out very well for them. If you’re trying to self-publish, things just got a lot (lot) more grim.

Speaking as a reader of many an ebook, I have already noticed that it can be very difficult to tell what might be good and what might be bad, in terms of quality, when it comes to self-published works. Because of that, I’m very reluctant to try anything that’s not published by a traditional imprint. I’ve got a limited amount of time and attention, and I don’t want to waste it reading things I don’t enjoy. With the advent of electronic self-publishing, it felt like just about anyone was coming out with a novel.

Mind you, some of those novels were definitely good. Even great. (The Martian is exhibit A of this, for me.) But even with how “easy” it was to publish a book, there was still the big obstacle of actually writing the book. Even someone churning out pages and pages of drivel would still take a lot of time to actually come up with that drivel, so there was a sort of self-cap on the amount of books that could flood the market.

AI does away with that limiting factor. Now, one person could theoretically “write” a book a week (or even more). If they got it down to a science, they could have AI come up with the cover, the title, the text, and then format the whole thing. In that case, they could “write” as many books as they feel like. It just depends on how many times they want to click the Enter key. Then, the limiting factor becomes how fast Amazon will let someone put a book up for sale, and if they limit that in any way.

So where before, someone might be churning out four books a year on the outside, now a single person could make 200 a year. 300? 400? Many. And they don’t have to worry about actually having any skill. I read an interview by a person who was happy that the 30 page picture book about squirrels he’d “made” (written and illustrated by AI) had made $100 already. It’s not a huge leap to then wonder if he could make $100 per book, why not write 300 books? Then he’s bringing in $30,000 his first year, and it only goes up from there!

Naturally, this isn’t going to scale well. It’s going to end up with ebook spam that almost entirely gets ignored. I expect editors are going to be hating life for a while, until they can reliably come up with a way to filter out AI writing. Even then, they’ll be in an arms race of sorts as “writers” try to come up with ways around that filtering. If Amazon chooses to try and be pickier about what they publish, the same situation will happen there. (I’m not sure that they will, since Amazon makes money either way, but they might, if it makes people stop going to Amazon for anything.)

But once an author has made it through the gauntlet and gotten a book professionally published? I would think things will be a bit brighter for them, mainly because I see more and more people turning to reading only professionally published works. They’ll let the editors be the gatekeepers of quality, and rely on that filtering process (and the review process that’s also been developed) more than they have right now. In other words, the worse the self-pub industry gets, the better things look for the traditional route.

I could be wrong, of course, but I’m not losing any sleep over it right now. It’s funny: it seems like the more advanced our technology gets, the more we’re turning back to how things used to be. Right now, for example, I’m getting tired of having to subscribe to 10 different streaming companies to be able to watch what I want to watch. It feels like it might be nice if someone were to bundle all those companies into a single service, and then I just have to pay one bill. When that happens, we’ll be back to cable TV.

In the meantime, having read a fair bit of AI-generated text, I can safely say I’d rather do just about anything than read an entire book written that way. What do you think?

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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.

Learning Languages

On New Year’s Eve, one of my friends got a message on his watch. He glanced at it and then said, “Oh! Hold on a sec. I’ve gotta go do my French for the day.” A few minutes later, he was back. “I’ve got a Duolingo streak of over 400 days. Don’t want to break it.”

That got me thinking. My friend has no real connection to French (that I know of). He just wants to learn the language. And here I am, 21 years into being married to a Slovak, and I still just speak caveman Slovak. If he can devote 5 minutes a day to French, couldn’t I do the same for Slovak?

Well, not exactly, it turns out. Duolingo doesn’t have Slovak as an option. However, it does have Czech, and another platform (Mondly) has Slovak. Starting January 1st, I started up with both languages, one per platform. I hit a 51 day streak today.

Am I suddenly fluent in both languages? Not hardly, and I’m not entirely sure how much the apps will really help me master either of them. However, do I know more of each language than I did before? Definitely. Doing it every day helps me to be more aware of the language, and the times I’ve heard Denisa talking to her mom or the kids in Slovak have felt noticeably different, as if I’m understanding more of the individual words, instead of just the general meaning.

I don’t feel like either app does a good job (at all) of helping you learn how to speak the language, but they do a passable job of gradually helping you understand it. It’s also a very easy way to make slow but steady progress with something. If I’d been doing this for 21 years, I’m fairly certain my language skills would be in a much better place.

Of course, there’s also a part of me that wonders if this is just a really weak way of feeling like I’m doing something meaningful. That if I really wanted to be serious about the language, then I’d devote a half hour a day to it, or something like that. I do my best not to listen to that part of me, though. Because I already know exactly what happens when I try to follow its advice: I end up doing nothing. And in my experience, something is infinitely better than nothing.

Go figure.

Any of you on Duolingo? Wanna be friends?

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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 12 in Žilina

Ahojte všetci!

What a week it’s been out here. I’m running out of time but I’ll throw the highlights in:

Elder Noftle got his grinch suit from Trenčín (an heirloom from his trainer) so now we got the green menace in our apartment. I am unsure how to feel about this but it’s safe to say that I’m glad Christmas has come and gone because I don’t know if I’d be able to handle Christmas crankiness. For the record I mean an actual grinch suit, like a green furry thing with a hood with a grinch face on it. Look out world…

Wednesday we had a nice meeting with one of the guys we’re teaching, just a good walk around the city in the nice weather.

Thursday I had my last meeting as a missionary in training so I’m officially out of training which is crazy, I’ve been out here 12 weeks now. I feel ready and I’m excited to continue to work out here. It’s still setting in that like I’m not the youngest out here and neither is Millett but here we are.

Friday we had a foggy visit to Trenčín got district council, I don’t recall being in the city at night so that was cool to see. Hopefully I’ll make my way out there for good at some point, but I’ll just have to wait and see for now. It’s nice that I get to stop by every now and then though, and I’m excited for the anniversary of the country being dedicated for missionary work and the celebration in Trenčín which is like soon I think.

Okay so Saturday and Sunday we headed out to Blava for district conference (all the members met in Blava to have church together, normally this would be called stake conference but we do not have a stake out here so it’s a district). I got to see all the missionaries and a ton of members and it was super cool. Also one of the area 70s (like a church leader) was there too and he told a bunch of good stories in his talks, including having to staple shut a massive hole in his pants at an airport and how that gave him an opportunity to share the gospel with 4 people. Hopefully I don’t have to do the same but “stuff happens” (the main point of his talk). Me, elder noftle and sister bartschi got to play together for the meeting too so that was a great opportunity. That night me, noftle and the ZLs stayed in a vacant church apartment in Blava, but we had to get into the building and we didn’t have the key to get into the lobby so we had to wait for someone to go in and we went in with them. But we got split up so we ended up having g to wait again for another resident to come in. Then that morning we had to get out and wait yet again, we ended up getting a picture with some random lady that kept flirting with us and said we have “pekné zuby” (pretty teeth). I’d heard that was a common occurrence but that was my first time, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be my last. She actually asked us for a picture first weirdly enough. Also she said we looked like the kinda guys that wouldn’t steal anything. You really meet the weirdest people out here.

Okay anyways today for pday we went and hiked to a castle, I took most pictures on my film camera so expect those in a while. Met up with Trenčín and Banská Bystrica so a lot of us on the hike. It was fun if a little icy. 

As usual, photos link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qYoYaKPmkqFZHoVM7

Hope everyone’s well, I’m loving it out here and enjoying the slightly spring like weather I guess. 

Love you all, 

Starší Cundick

On Activist Fandom

Last week, the new Harry Potter video game, Hogwarts Legacy, premiered on a variety of platforms. It’s a game that’s been highly anticipated by many, and from the reviews, it sounds like it’s a lot of fun. At the same time, since it’s Harry Potter, and JK Rowling has come under a lot of fire for her statements around trans rights, it’s a game that’s been more than a bit of a lightning rod. There are many who are boycotting the game, since they don’t want to support any of Rowling’s efforts.

This is a trend that has gained momentum over the past decade. I saw it particularly around feelings for Donald Trump. There were people ready to ditch any friend who voted for Donald Trump, or who expressed any amount of approval for anything he did. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a well-established anti-Trumper, and I have a very hard time understanding why anyone can support him. But I’m also not ready to label anyone who does a bigot. (That they support a bigot, sure. But I recognize there are all sorts of decisions that go into politics. It’s anything but a black and white issue.) It’s one thing to be against something personally. It’s very different to be against anyone who expresses any support for that thing you’re against, yet this is something that keeps coming up.

I’ve read diatribes by people speaking out against anyone who buys a Brandon Sanderson book, since he pays tithing to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which means that any money that goes toward him goes to support a “hate group.” I can understand disliking the church. I can understand disliking an author who supports that church, if your dislike for the church is intense enough, but once we’re to the point where we’re labeling anyone who reads one of that author’s books as a bigot or some other insult, I think we’re off the deep end.

I’ve written before about how I try to separate the art from the artist. I love Woody Allen movies. I love Michael Jackson songs. I am not necessarily big fans of those two artists as individuals, however. (Though I realize in both situations, things are . . . thorny.) I’m not a big supporter of Scientology, but I loved Top Gun: Maverick, and I didn’t try to accuse anyone who went and saw it of being Scientologists, since they were supporting Tom Cruise. JK Rowling’s statements on trans rights are also thorny, and I think anyone who labels them as completely transphobic is being overly reductive. Yet at the same time, I recognize how sensitive of a subject that is, and how little of it I understand. I certainly wouldn’t fault someone for having huge issues with her, and I definitely believe her tone has been extremely callous and dismissive at times to an extent that’s very hurtful. She’s categorically terrible at arguing.

But I would never tell anyone not to buy and enjoy a Harry Potter game or a Brandon Sanderson book, or any other piece of art or entertainment. Because where does it end? Do I need to do a full background check of all the people involved in a movie or a book or a game, along with a full discovery of where they invest their money, before I’ll allow myself (or others) the luxury of enjoying that movie or book or game?

Every time something like that happens, it drives us further apart. It’s bad enough to label someone based on their actions. To reduce them to nothing more than a stereotype because of something they did or said. But to do the same thing for something they bought or enjoyed? It’s stopped making sense, and it makes people who disagree with that mentality that much more willing to do the same (to dismiss and stereotype) to the people advocating for it.

Fact: there are literally no perfect people on this earth. They’ve all made mistakes. Some mistakes are bigger than others. Some mistakes we know about. Some we don’t. We will never be able to know someone’s a genuinely good person, especially if all we know of that person is what we read in the news and online. So it’s highly likely we’re buying or watching or reading or listening to something that was created by a person who has deeply hurt or upset another person or people. But I recognize I too have deeply hurt or upset people. If I’m willing to cut myself some slack, it’s only right that I extend that slack cutting to other people.

I haven’t bought Hogwart’s Legacy yet, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, and I’d like to try it out. If I do, I’ll sleep soundly at night. I don’t think less of the people who decide they don’t want to play it. But if they try to extend that decision to everyone else, it no longer makes sense to me.

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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 11 in Žilina

Ahojte všetci! This week’s been pretty good, hopefully I can remember all that’s happened. I guess I’ll just get right into it:

So this week we tried to film out little “why we are here” videos for Facebook (basically so that the people we add don’t think we’re like bots or whatever) but after like an hour in the – 10c weather we found out the mic wasn’t working. We got a new battery after getting the wrong kind and it still wasn’t working. Turns out it’s the adapter – neither of us has an aux port so like we had to use a USB c to aux kinda deal but I guess even though a mic is just a reverse speaker most of those adapters are only built to work one way. Fun to find out. Anyways we don’t actually have the videos yet, working on it.

I did manage to fix my camera (so far??). Just painted over the hole in the fabric with some fabric paint and it didn’t seem to let any light in when I checked so hopefully this roll of film comes out better. Black and white this time which is exciting (and also like a third of the price of color). Hopefully I can get some good pictures out of it but I don’t really know how it’s gonna go. However I can feel okay taking more pictures because they’re way cheaper so I’ll get results faster. We will see.

Thursday there was some weird folklore kinda procession through town that like had a guy with a whip and everything, not sure what that was about but seemed kinda cool. Also we got elder Noftle’s film developed and back so I have some pictures off his Zenit E from ’80. They turned out good, no issues with his camera.

Friday we made halušky, a traditional Slovak dish that’s basically potato dumplings with some meat mixed in and bryndza (sheep cheese). Very cheap to make and super filling and tasty. I am getting used to the bryndza, didn’t have that at home but the taste is growing on me.

Saturday we had a nice valentines party for the branch and decorated cookies, then had game night. We have the German version of Skull King if anyone knows it, very fun game. 

Okay that gets us to today, we went out to Trenčín to be with the elders there. We went to the big ol mall, almost played laser tag, got some really good sushi (although I can’t judge quality, it was my first time) and saw the 179 a.d. Roman inscription that’s in a hotel there. We also got milkshakes at the McDonald’s drive through which was like kinda weird, haven’t done anything like that in like six months. A very fun day and I’m glad we could go out and see the city.

Okay well that’s about it, I guess I’ll also update you on my Cyrillic. I can like kinda sound out words now, and I have an 8 day streak on duolingo. Just kinda a fun thing to do. It looks a lot more complicated than it is. Also I’m using my guitar now, hoping to learn some fingerstyle hymns and stuff.

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

Hope everyone is well at home, shout out to Daniela turning 15 and the Mt. Blue nordic team at KVACs. The cold here is leaving already which is nice but also kinda weird. Anyway, that’s about it for my rambling this week.

Love you all, 

Starší Cundick 

Clean Bill of Health

Each year, my university requires me to go get an annual physical. Well, I suppose it’s not technically “required,” but if I don’t go, then my insurance rates spike. So it’s kind of like the police don’t “require” me to go the speed limit, but if I don’t, then I have to pay more money. (Not an exact analogy, but you get the point.) For a while, they just had me do a “health coach session,” but that pretty much boiled down to me telling a person on the phone that I didn’t smoke or drink, and then finding out I should lose a bit of weight and be sure to get more sleep. Nothing really earth shattering, and I questioned if it was worth anything (other than keeping my insurance rates low, which obviously isn’t nothing).

So I switched over to physicals, and I’m pretty happy that I did, all things considered. While I generally feel healthy, it’s nice to get confirmation of that once a year, and I get to ask a doctor all the things I’ve been wondering about (such as, “Is this mole on my nose just a mole, or something I should be worried about? Answer? Just a mole.)

Today, I just reflected on how grateful I am that right now, all my answers were good one. Bad cholesterol? Good. Good cholesterol? Good. Blood pressure? Good. Pulse? Good. Weight? Good. Lungs? Good. Heart? Good. You get the picture. I’m getting old enough now to realize how “good” isn’t always a given, and how things can go from “good” to “not good” relatively quickly. So the fact that today was a “good” day is definitely something to celebrate. Not that things were “bad” before, but they’ve definitely have been worse at times, and I’m grateful they’re not anymore.

I’m also grateful for insurance that lets me go get a physical and not worry about costs. I still very much wish America would fix its healthcare system, but I’m lucky that when I wish that, it’s a wish I have for other people, because my personal situation is peachy. Again, I know that’s not the case for many, and so I’m trying to focus on appreciating the things I have that sometimes I take for granted.

Anyway. Nothing profound for you today. Just a general gratitude post. I’m also grateful it’s Friday, and I’ve got a weekend in front of me. Hope yours is a good one!

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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: Willow Season 1

I’m a fan of the original Willow. Is it the best fantasy movie out there? No. But for its time, it did a great job of actually being a good fantasy movie, and those were hard to find. So when I heard Disney was making a sequel to the movie as a television series, I was pretty excited. More so when I heard Warwick Davis would be involved. The preview looked great.

And then I started hearing very mixed reviews. Not enough to turn me away from watching it, but it took me a bit to get around to it. Sadly, the series ultimately ended up being a disappointment for a number of reasons.

First, a bit of a summary. The show takes place around 20 years after the movie. Evil begins to threaten the world again, and the baby from the movie (Elora Danan) is supposed to somehow save the world. The only trouble? No one’s really sure who she is anymore, since she was put into hiding. Willow is now a great sorcerer, and he shows up to find her and help her save everyone. Sounds like a solid premise, right?

Things go off the rails right away because the show just can’t decide what kind of show it wants to be when it grows up. On the one hand, a lot of time, attention, and effort is put in to building a lived in fantasy universe. One with real weight. A quest that’s Important. But then the show also seems to want to be a lighthearted comedy with modern day banter and sensibilities. It’s a dichotomy that goes through the whole show, and it only gets worse as the show goes on. The characters don’t feel consistent. The mood feels all over the place. Even the soundtrack can’t make up its mind, going from stirring orchestral music to . . . cover versions of Black Hole Sun?

Those aren’t the only difficulties. The characters themselves are extremely grating. There’s really only one character worth watching (Boorman). The rest are different shades of annoying. Willow goes from being a wizard reluctant to use any of his powers because the cost is just too great (going so far as to let someone die before he’ll do anything) to a wizard who just zaps things left and right to look cool by the end of the show. There are romances that feel extremely forced, and a plot you can see coming from a mile away.

In the end, there just isn’t much for me to recommend the movie. Boorman is a very good character and a lot of fun. The effects are strong. The covers of modern music are cool. But that’s not a reason to watch a show. I’ll pass, thanks very much. 4/10

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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 10 in Žilina

Ahojte všetci! Writing this one on the train again. It’s been yet another crazy week, and it’s wild that it’s Monday again. The days can be kinda slow but the weeks go by soooo fast. Okay, here’s the stuff we did this week:

First off, we went out to Blava (Bratislava, the capital) for an exchange with the elders there. We were out that way because Elder Noftle had to do his medical work for his visa and so did the elders there so we went and got that done (got up at 5 for it). We got to see the fun classic really old hospital buildings and they all got to get xrayed by this guy that was like in a separate room and just filing people in from three different little little locker rooms. Everyone would just go in, get told “nedýchaj” (don’t breathe) and that was that. Pretty classic experience for like all the missionaries I guess. The same guy has been on the xray for years. Besides that, me and Elder Waisath went and taught at an English speaking school and just presented about the church to some students in a religion class. They were actually super respectful and it was a decent experience. Putting together the slides how that day reminded me of like school projects which was fun. After that we hit the streets for a bit and didn’t get much success but the city is pretty. Got some good photos. Also some lady came by and really liked the picture of Mary we had out front from the Christmas display because “it was the best Pana Maria she’d ever seen” so we sent her the link to the video it’s from. Then we managed to miss our train back so we got stuck there for 2 more hours but we got chicken Alfredo out of it so basically a plus. Read Pán Prsteňov (Lord of the Rings) on the train back. That was a long day and like 6 miles of walking.

Okay after that we had a pretty regular day and then after that we had zone conference which is when everyone from the zone (in this case just all of Slovakia) meets in Trenčín to like talk about doing missionary work. It snowed a ton that day so it’s really nice out now. Besides that we talked about workinhg with the members here more, budgeting, improving our teaching skills, and the “Long Kroj Line” which is just remembering the legacy of missionaries here (which goes back to 1884 weirdly enough). That was fun and we got to see everyone as usual, plus me and Elder Noftle performed with Sister Openshaw without rehearsing at all due to train times. Fun to see everyone though.

The day after that, President Skousen (the president of the mission here) spent the day with us in Žilina. We had a really good pancake lunch and then proceeded to get absolutely roasted in like the best way possible about how we plan our weeks here. He’s go very high expectations but like in a good way, the kind that make you want to be the best that you can. Our planning is gonna be way better from here. Then he helped us teach Peter which was super cool and it was a really good lesson. Hopefully we can continue to do lessons like he did, a great example.

Okay then after that we had a pretty regular day but we did manage to make it out to a members house here who we hadn’t seen at all since I got here. It was good to see her. Also the town she was in was pretty with all the snow and her house was like the most Slovak cottage I’d seen in a while. 

Okay then today we headed out to Banská Bystrica to go and sled on bags for a while, that was fun and I’ve missed snow. We also grabbed pizza and just admired the view from the hill there. I’ll add those to the photos. 

Other little things throughout the week:

I’m trying to learn Cyrillic on duolingo because I figure it would be kinda useful, also maybe some Ukrainian phrases since we meet Ukrainians a lot actually. 

There’s some cool water damage in the church building (which has walls now inside, it used to be all open) which I guess always comes back.

Hopefully I’m gonna fix my camera today and out some more film through it. 

Anyways, that’s about it for this week. I’m still doing really good out here and I love being in Slovakia as usual. Hopefully everyone is okay back home with all the insane cold and everything. As usual, the link for my photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qYoYaKPmkqFZHoVM7

Love you all, 

Starší Cundick 

Extreme Cold in Maine

Over the weekend, it got pretty darn chilly here in Maine. How chilly? On Friday night, the temperature dropped to 21 below 0F, with a windchill of 50 below. The high never got above 0 during the day, and the wind was vicious the whole time. I love me some winter, but I can pass on the temps that cold.

This was the first bout of really cold weather we’ve dealt with since the kitchen renovation. Back before we renovated, we knew where there were potential trouble spots, and we would take measures to avoid frozen pipes there. (“Measures” really boils down to a couple of approaches: open the cabinet doors so the pipes get more heat and/or leave the sinks dripping. Moving water doesn’t freeze.) But I didn’t really know where we might have trouble with the newly remodeled kitchen. Theoretically, we shouldn’t have had any. The pipes were all well away from exterior walls, so all should be fine. And throughout the day, it was.

Then at 11:30pm, Denisa went to check the kitchen sink, and the hot and cold were both frozen. No water at all. The problem with this is that I wasn’t sure where the pipes might have frozen. Back when we first moved into the house and our pipes froze, we paid to have a plumber come fix it. He used a hairdryer for fifteen minutes, and we paid $100+ for the privilege. Ever since then, I’ve done it myself. (I had no idea professional hair drying was so lucrative!) But if you don’t know where to point the hair dryer, it makes things more complicated.

For the first while, I pointed it at the pipes underneath the sink cabinet. My best theory was there was a draft where the kitchen wall meets the floor down there, but after a half hour, nothing was moving, and I was beginning to wonder what we might do. That spot is completely boxed in, so it’s not like I could rip it open to get to it. So instead, I took a loooong extension cord and headed into the crawl space.

The clearance there is less than two feet, so I army crawled my way down and got everything set up, then started hair drying bends in the pipe. (Bends freeze before straight spots, or at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe.) It took a while, but slow and steady wins the race. By 12:40 or so, we had water moving again. Enough to discover the pipes to the dishwasher (off that sink) had also frozen.

Once again, it was trial and error to see where I needed to warm the thing up, but by 1:30, everything was thawed, I was showered (that crawlspace is tres nasty) and back in bed. Not the funnest way to spend an evening, but I’m grateful we found the freeze before anything could get really damaged. The sink shouldn’t be a problem now that I know it might freeze. We’ll just let it drip as well. The dishwasher’s a bit more problematic, but we’ve had temps down to -9F and it’s been fine. It seems it was just the extreme cold and the wind that did the damage.

Other people in the area were not as lucky. Burst pipes and power outages. Also house fires, because any time you’re trying to take extreme measures to keep your house warm, things might go awry. It was very cold.

And now today it’s going to be 41F. Go figure.

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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.

Revisiting Mistborn

To start the year off, I decided to reread the Mistborn series, but as I headed into the first trilogy, I realized that I’ve never actually read the final version of them. I read them chapter by chapter as we workshopped them in writing group over several years. And in my head since then, they never changed, so there are things that Brandon edited before publication that I never realized got edited.

This has led to a very interesting experience. I think it’s the first set of books that I’ve read in print where I can point to different sections and know what sort of an impact writing group had on them. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by mentioning these things (If I am, Brandon, I can take this post down), but here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:

I remember having a long debate in writing group about Vin killing the wolfhound. In the first draft, she just went up to the dog and pewter-punched it in the head, killing it instantly. I can’t remember if anyone other than me had an issue with it, but I was very less than pleased with the killing of a dog in-scene, by our heroine. We talked about what animals you could and couldn’t hurt. There were some who were squarely in the “anything but a cat is fair game” crowd, but I stuck to my guns. No killing dogs, if I’m supposed to like the character later on. This is ironic, of course, because I now kill people regularly in my novels. But note: I haven’t killed any dogs! In my head, Vin’s been a dog killer all this time, and now I realize she’s been falsely maligned. (Although I will also admit now that having OreSeur kill the dog instead also feels strange. I mean, Vin must have really held back to avoid killing the dog, and it feels out of character for her to hold back from doing it. So maybe Brandon was right, after all? Actually, what the scene really needed was a long flashback explaining how much Vin always loved dogs, and how a dog once saved her life on the streets, and so she’d made a solemn vow never to kill a pooch. That would have fixed it . . . )Kelsier will always been pronounced with a French accent for me. It was a long running joke that he was outrageously French. I’m disappointed that it was never canonized, but I suppose it’s something I’ll have to learn to live with.There’s a big twist in book 2. Brandon’s very keen on setting one thing up and then doing something unexpected, and that goes all the way back to his early books. In Well of Ascension, a big part of the book is devoted to “who is the spy?” Vin bounces back and forth between suspecting just about everyone. I remember when we read the first draft, as soon as it came to light that there was a spy, that I said in writing group who I thought it was and how it went down. It turns out I was 100% correct. I’m not sure if Brandon tweaked anything in the later drafts, because I still remembered who the spy was, and so couldn’t really tell if it was harder to guess.

It’s been a lot of fun to revisit the book, since there are many memories tied up in it. Back then, we were workshopping Cavern of Babel at the same time, and there was another long-running joke about what a Mistborn llama would be like. Some of the time we were at Brandon’s house, down in his basement. He had a huge bean bag that was a very popular spot to sit, and a parakeet who would make a guest appearance now and then. (No parrots). Then for a bit we met in my apartment, and we finished workshopping things over at Sally Taylor’s house.

I miss writing group. It wasn’t just about the writing. We had a lot of fun times, and I became close friends with everyone. Many times we’d head out to eat after a session. Mama Chu’s. Spaghetti Factory. Good times. Moving to Maine was wonderful in many ways, but that’s definitely one area it was much less than great.

Anyway, just thought I’d share. (Oh–and Happy Groundhog Day!)

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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, and I’m now putting up chapters from 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.