Bryce Moore's Blog, page 44

Obi Wan Season 1: Review

I’m finally catching up with some of the different shows I’ve been missing out on for the last ever, so I assume most people who wanted to watch Obi Wan have already watched it. But for those of you who might have been on the fence and still haven’t pulled the trigger, allow me to save you some time. Overall, I found it better than Boba Fett, but still leaving much to be desired.

The sad thing is that there are some genuinely cool moments sprinkled throughout the series. Some really great lightsaber duels and force battles, but in between is just a bunch of padding that goes nowhere.

With that said, I’m going to head into some spoilers now to discuss just what went wrong for me. If you want to avoid them, stop reading here.

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Okay, so here’s a quick rundown of the bad of the series:

Leia’s whole plot line is way too contrived. She doesn’t come across as a character, she comes across as a device. A reason to get Obi Wan into trouble. She’s being chased by the bad guys, and she randomly does things like run away from Obi Wan for no real reason. Some of this is probably from the fact that getting a solid acting performance from someone so young is very difficult. No one expects much out of Baby Yoda. Little Leia has a higher bar to get over.The Force is wildly inconsistent across Star Wars canon at this point. Darth Vader basically yoinks a spaceship from the sky without breaking a sweat, but then moments later he lets another one go. The first one posed no problem. Why did the second one trip him up? Often the Force comes across as “let’s have some cool special effects now,” without any real rhyme or reason. That’s wearing thin.Weak Obi Wan is just . . . not that fun to watch, it turns out. Some of that might be because when he tried to get his powers back, he always was able to do just enough to do whatever he wanted to do. That’s not really failing, so it never felt like it was a true struggle for him. Yes, he had a showdown with Vader early on that he soundly lost, but he didn’t lose it to any disastrous length. The stakes never felt that big.The inquisitors all felt pretty toothless, with no real character development. So instead it was “weird guy who speaks low and wears a funny hat” and “strange woman with a pointy face.” So what? They made some effort with Reva, but even then, her story was just too little substance to carry what the show seemed to be trying to pull off. Maybe a little less Obi Wan cutting up meat and a little more developing her backstory would have helped?While I’m at it, I’m wondering why in the world stabbing people through the stomach with a lightsaber is even a thing in Star Wars. It doesn’t do a blessed thing to the person, apparently, except slow them down for a while. So if you’re an evil Sith or whatever, wouldn’t you take a moment to lightsaber their face in half, just to be thorough? Seriously. They ought to have a class on that in Sith school and everything. They missed the set up of all time. Obi Wan’s in a pit, and Darth comes to stand over him and stare down. This is where Darth should have said, “It’s over Obi Wan. I have the high ground.” Instead, he just dumps rocks on top of him and walks away, because Darth apparently skipped “how to effectively kill your nemesis” class as well. Sigh.

It was a frustrating show, and after each episode, we generally talked about all the things that irritated us about it. That’s a bad sign. I have higher hopes for Andor, but we’ll see how that goes. Overall, this one was a 4/10. The cool scenes just aren’t enough to make it worth while. Maybe there’s an hour long highlight edit out there that would be awesome . . .

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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.

Weight Check In

I did this glancingly last week, saying COVID had made me gain some weight back, but this week I wanted a real check in: 192.6, which means I’ve lost 1.2 pounds since last week. Honestly, I could have done much better. I keep coming up with reasons for why I shouldn’t have to diet (like, today is my birthday, so why should I diet?), and that shows me my heart really isn’t in it. Which my brain is not happy with at all.

Right now I feel perched on this sort of strange point where I’ve been taking time off from multiple different obligations, and I really feel like I need to dive back into them, but I keep getting scared of the height of the diving platform.

Case in point: writing. I haven’t written anything consistently in the past 3 months, give or take. While there have been some very, very good reasons for that, I also love writing, and I miss it. I am generally happier when I am writing each day. I feel more accomplished, and I like the feeling of building toward something. But writing is something that can be very momentum-based. There’s a lot of effort that goes into getting started up again, or at least it feels that way at the moment. I was happy that yesterday I managed to get my 1,000 words in, and it felt good. But I need a few weeks of that to feel like I’m back in the zone.

My sister (who’s a life coach) talks a lot about “buffering”: things you do when you know you should be doing something else, but you don’t want to do that something else. I’ve been doing a lot of buffering the past while, mainly to escape having to think about some things I’d rather just ignore. (Death of my father. Tomas actually leaving the house. Not insignificant things by any stretch.) And while I believe some allowance can and should be made for me, I also feel like I’ve about used my allowance up. There are always going to be excuses for not doing the things that need to be done, and I’ve always viewed myself as a person who doesn’t like excuses.

Anyway. This is just a long way of talking about some of why I’m futzing around instead of getting serious about getting my weight down some. Sure, I’m not overweight at the moment, but I’m one holiday season away from being there, and (would you look at that?) I’ve got one holiday season looming ever closer in the future . . .

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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.

Starší Cundick

It’s official. Last night Tomas came up with me to Bangor to be set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Denisa and the girls couldn’t make it up, since MC has been sick for the past while, and we’re trying to get her feeling better as soon as possible.

So now we have a missionary living in our house for the next two weeks. I’m still not entirely sure how that will work. I know he’s got classes each day but Sunday, but I’m not sure when they run. There’s only one other missionary learning Slovak in his group, so that should be . . . interesting? I’m not sure how they’ll handle someone who has no Slovak experience at all and someone who’s really just lacking the vocabulary. But his companion is in Arizona, so I think they’re trying to split the difference in terms of timing the classes.

When he’s at home, he doesn’t need a companion, but when he leaves our home, he has to be with Denisa or me the whole time. He gets a P-Day, which I believe is Wednesday. I’m not sure what exactly he’ll do on P-Day, since I’m at work all day, and Denisa has class as well. Then again, this really only goes until October 4th, when I’ll drive him to the airport and he’ll head off to the MTC in Provo.

I know many missionaries write weekly letters and send them out to people who gave email addresses for that. Tomas and I talked it over, and the way we’ll handle it is I’ll have him write a guest post each week that will keep people informed about what he’s up to. I believe his P-days are on Wednesdays, but we’ll see when he actually is able to send those letters.

Either which way, I’ll be interested to come home today and find out how the online training is going. Thanks to all of you for your kind words of support and encouragement for him. I know he appreciates them.

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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.

COVID: Round Two

I missed last week’s weigh-in post, because COVID threw everything out the window. I was feeling sick enough that trying to diet on top of feeling that way just wasn’t something I was willing to subject myself to. Then, we went on a quick trip to NYC, which meant eating different food again. The good news is that this morning I was still 193.8, so I didn’t put on much weight over the two weeks.

Now that I’ve been through COVID twice, I have a bit more personal experience with how it affects me. The first time lasted two weeks, but in hindsight, I think that’s because I took Paxlovid. It helped me feel better while I was taking it, but once I was off it, COVID came right back. This time, I didn’t bother with it at all, since I’m low risk, double vaxxed, etc. I feel like I’ve gotten better much more quickly, though it’s admittedly a small sample size. If I were in a high risk group, I’d be much more inclined to take Paxlovid, since it’s real focus is helping you avoid serious symptoms.

This round of COVID all started with Denisa feeling a bit under the weather. She tested consistently, and each time it came back negative, so we all chalked it up to a late summer cold. MC had been sniffling as well, and so it was an easy assumption to make that Denisa had whatever MC had. (MC had also been testing negative.) Then Denisa took one last test, since she wasn’t better yet. Positive.

At that point, I think the damage had been done. Daniela was feeling sick, but she said she wasn’t that bad, and she was testing negative. She went to school masked, and even ran three miles for cross country practice. That evening, she tested positive. I had stayed home just in case, and I tested positive the same night.

For me, the sickness has gone pretty much the same path both times. It started with a scratchy throat, as if I had to clear it but couldn’t. From there, I had trouble sleeping, my muscles ached, and I had a bad headache. Then the fatigue kicked in. Overall, I felt really bad just one day this time, and not great for about two or three more days.

In case you’re wondering, these days if you get COVID, you’re required to quarantine 5 days from the day you first have symptoms. (It doesn’t matter when you test positive. Just when the symptoms started: that’s considered “day 0.”) After those 5 days, if you’ve been fever free for 24 hours and your symptoms are improving, you can be in public, masked. That stage lasts for another 5 days, at which point you’re good to go. So I have to wear a mask until Friday, but it seems like a sensible precaution to take.

(Surprisingly, we’ve gotten grief from some people about wearing masks in public. Apparently they assume we’re doing it because we’re scared? I don’t quite understand it. What possesses people to make them feel the need to criticize people they don’t know well, for doing something that doesn’t affect them in any real way?)

In any case, MC never tested positive, and Tomas didn’t ever feel sick or test positive at all. Quarantining slowly morphed over the stretch of time. First Denisa was in her room, completely alone. Then Daniela and I got it, so we took over the movie room, where Denisa could be unmasked, leaving Tomas and MC to roam the rest of the house. In many ways, I think they felt more like the ones quarantined by the end, just because they were outnumbered.

The good news is that we all seem to be past it now. Here’s hoping it stays that way.

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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

Dual Citizens

This past weekend, Denisa and I took the family down to New York City for a quick there and back again trip that’s been a long time coming. When we were first married, all our attention was on getting Denisa her US citizenship. It was a long process, filled with many hoops to jump through and fees to be paid, but we got through it all after . . . five years or so? I can’t honestly remember.

But once we had children, we always wanted them to get their Slovak citizenship to go along with their American passports. Naturally, that took quite a bit of hoop jumping and fee paying as well. Denisa’s been the driving force behind it all, and while she and the kids were over in Slovakia this past summer, she got a lot of the process completed. It helped to have a person in Trenčín office who was actually nice and willing to help shepherd her through the process. Fun things like getting birth certificates officially translated and filling out the right forms and paying the right fees.

To top it all off, you have to go in person to the Slovak Consulate that oversees where you live in America. There are two consulates in the US. One’s in New York City, and one’s in Washington DC. (I’m glad we don’t live in California . . .) Maine falls under NYC’s umbrella, so that’s where we had to go. They have very specific windows when you can come. (Monday – Wednesday 10am-12pm and Monday – Thursday 2pm-4pm.) You make an appointment weeks in advance, and you’d better be there.

Since Tomas is essentially gone as of next Monday, we had a very small window to get this all completed. (We couldn’t make an appointment until we had the paperwork in hand, and that didn’t arrive from Slovakia until mid-August, at which point all of the August openings were full.) If we wanted the girls to miss as little school as possible, it would have to be the 12th.

It helps that I’m familiar with NYC and how to get around it. We drove down on Saturday and came home right after the appointment yesterday. Traffic was, as expected, a nightmare, but the actual visit at the consulate was very straightforward. Denisa had all her paperwork completed correctly, the person she submitted it to was nice, and a few photos later, it’s all complete. The kids should get their passports in the mail in a few weeks.

Of course, this is just the first step. From what I know in movies, people are really supposed to have at least six or seven passports, ideally with different aliases and a stack of cash in different currencies, all tucked into the floorboards of their house. But the way I figure, Denisa and I are providing our kids with a good head start toward that goal.

In all seriousness, I see this as very advantageous for my kids. As Slovak citizens, they are also EU citizens. They can travel, live, work, and retire anywhere in the EU, without restrictions. They have the chance to go to universities in the EU for free or reduced tuition. They have access to universal healthcare across the EU. Will they use any of these advantages? I have no idea, but they *could* use them if they want to. (Tomas certainly might, when he’s over in Slovakia for the next two years.)

Now the only trick is to keep renewing those passports, as if they lapse, you have to begin the process all over again. (Denisa actually had to do it for herself at the same time she was doing it for the kids. It’s not fun.) But the passports are good for 10 years for those 18 years old and up, and 5 years for those younger than 18. I suppose there are worse things than having to go to New York City every so often. (Especially if you can actually plan the trip in advance . . . )

And for those of you wondering if I could become a Slovak citizen: yes, if we lived in Slovakia for 5 years, I could. It’s harder for a non-Slovak than for a Slovak, obviously . . .

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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.

The Bathroom Begins!

And here we are. September and another home renovation project. This time, we’re working on the downstairs bathroom. (The only bathroom we had, back in the day.) As we’ve renovated the rest of the house, bit by bit rooms that were just fine have become rooms that need renovation to keep up with the upgrades we’ve been making elsewhere. (Which makes sense. Those rooms are now at least 15 years old, if they were renovated right before we moved in.)

Up until now, the downstairs bathroom has been more and more neglected, to the point that none of the kids even wanted to use it to shower. It’s always also served as the laundry room, and it’s right off the kitchen, and we’d really love a bit of separation of the bathroom from the kitchen. That bathroom is quite spacious–more than what we need out of the room, now that there’s a second bathroom.

So what’s the plan? We’re going to turn that one big bathroom into two smaller rooms. Coming in from the kitchen, you’ll first come to a laundry room (we’re going to stack our washer and dryer) that has a sink and storage cabinets. Beyond that will be a small bathroom with a tub and sink. It’ll be a much smaller bathroom, but it’s a bathroom, not a gymnasium.

Honestly, I think I’m still quite traumatized from our infamous kitchen renovation last year. But this one is going to be different for a number of reasons:

Tomas is going to be the main helper. He doesn’t leave on his mission for two whole weeks, and it’s not like he’s got anything else going on. It’ll also be great experience for him. I wish I’d known more about construction before I bought this house, that’s for sure.It’s a much smaller room. Like an eighth the size of the kitchen. Smaller = easier, if for nothing other than the amount of time it takes to do things to the whole room. (Like painting, for example.)We already have (almost) all of the stuff to do the renovation. I imagine there are some things we’ll still have to pick up. But the toilet, sinks, tub, vanity, and the like are all in my garage. (It’ll be lovely to be done with the project, since we’ll also be cleaning out the garage at the same time. Bonus!)We did most of the legwork on the tricky stuff when we did the kitchen. The water and electrical are mostly good to go. (Knock on wood.)

I anticipate surprises. But this has been a long time coming, and once we’re through with it, I’m through with renovation for at least a year. Yesterday Tomas and I cleaned out the old bathroom, putting all the stuff into our living room, right next to the stuff that’s still there from the kitchen redo. Once our house is renovated, we’re going to have to spend some serious time on getting that room together.

Always something . . .

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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.

Saying No to Myself

With the start of a new semester, I’m once again scrambling around, trying to stay on top of things. It’s not overwhelming (yet, at least), and I know from experience that all it takes is some time for me to get into a groove and find the right rhythm. I’m a firm believe in finding a place/time for everything, and then sticking to that schedule fairly religiously. I’ve also been working on getting better at saying no to things.

I’ve always been quite good at saying no when it’s something I know I won’t be able to accomplish. I’m all for under promising and over delivering, and I feel that overall I’ve avoided making commitments I can’t see through. One area where I still struggle with this, however, is when it comes to goals.

This might sound silly to many of you, and it feels silly to me to admit it, but I have such a huge issue side stepping personal goals. If you’ve read the blog for a long time, you know I have a lot of those goals at any one point. 1,000 words of creative writing each day. A blog post every weekday. Read 1 book a week. Spend time with each of my children and Denisa each day (individually, if at all possible). Keep a daily journal. Stay on top of my weight. Exercise for 30 minutes each day. And that’s just some of them.

I’m a completionist at heart, and when I don’t find time in my day to get every one of those goals checked off my list, it really eats at me. Yes, I know that I’m the only person who would know, and the only one who would likely care. But I think at the back of my head, imposter syndrome is just hanging out, telling me that if I miss any of those goals, everything will fall apart. If I don’t write 1,000 words or blog each day, then next thing I know, I’ll not be writing or blogging at all. It’s as if skipping any one of those things will screw everything up.

Theoretically, I know that’s not the truth. I’ve been writing every day since . . . 2002? Something like that. I’m not going to break a 20 year habit just because I skipped out on a busy day. But it’s one thing to recognize that, and another thing to convince myself that it’s okay to actually hit the pause button on a goal–and then feel at peace with that.

I’m working on it, though. I believe I’d be a happier Bryce if I could get to the point where the goals are strong guidelines, and not rock solid commitments that I have to keep or else. Because all I’ve been doing over the years is adding onto them bit by bit, while at the same time increasing my commitments elsewhere.

I don’t have much of a point other than that general observation. If it’s something I struggle with, I imagine some of you might struggle with it too. So let me be the first to remind you that it’s okay to go easy on yourself, especially when times are difficult. When I was in Pennsylvania for 3.5 weeks, I didn’t write a single word. I just couldn’t tap into any creativity. I still felt bad about it, but I didn’t feel as bad as I would have earlier, so here’s hoping I’m making progress . . .

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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.

Requisite Diet Update

I forgot to post yesterday, thinking I’d last posted on Wednesday of last week. (It should generally be on Wednesdays going forward.) I’ve done a fair job with the diet this past while. It’s easy to tell by how hungry I am, generally speaking. (At least at the beginning, when I’m transitioning away from an unhealthy lifestyle.) I ate too many cookies on Saturday evening, but we had company over, and they brought cookies. What was I supposed to do? Be rude? Refuse their cookies? (And their ice cream, because they brought ice cream. Did I mention that?)

No. I am nothing if not polite, so I ate their ice cream and five (or six) of their cookies, just to show how nice I am. Eat your heart out, Emily Post.

So we had the cookie incident, and I broke down and had some peanut M&Ms that were hanging around the house, but other than that, I’ve done a pretty good job. It’s always hard to go back to eating healthy, just because (as I’ve said many times before) food is my main stress reliever. So when the start of the semester rolls around and things are pretty hectic, it’s bad timing to suddenly cut that out of my life. However, eating too much food also makes me feel less than good, so in the end it evens out.

The net result of all of this? I was down to 195.2 today, which puts me back into “normal weight” territory, if only by a hair. 4.8 pounds down in a week. That’s an awful lot for a week, but the beginning of a diet always goes fast. I expect it to slow down a fair bit this coming week. (But maybe if I actually avoid cookies . . .)

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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.

Back to School: 2022 Edition

And they’re off! MC and Daniela started school today, heading into fourth grade and ninth grade, respectively. (Denisa also started her latest semester, though I have no idea how many this makes for her.) It feels like I’ve written so many of these over the years, that writing new blog posts about the first day of school no longer really have much for me to say.

Writing that, part of me feels bad for MC. By the time she’s going through all her “firsts,” they’re “thirds” for Denisa and me. That does tend to take away some of the shine and attention those events garner. When I think of Tomas heading off to Kindergarten for the first time or going to Middle School, all of those things were huge steps, and we made a big fuss out of them, simply because we were so clueless about what was coming, so we had to make a big fuss as we tried to understand them.

On the other hand, MC also very much benefits from that experience Denisa and I already have accumulated. We know what to expect as MC goes from grade to grade, and we can help her much more than we could help Tomas. He broke ground, and groundbreakers get a lot of attention. But the people who come after those groundbreakers are able to go even further because of the easier path they have at the beginning.

Either way, a first day is a first day, and it’s to be celebrated. Things are pretty crazy and hectic for me as well, as with the start of the semester comes all sorts of new things I have to balance. (Trying to get the Makerspace up and running, but we just got two brand new machines that no one knows how to use. Guess who’s figuring it out? I printed a picture on my phone case yesterday, and today I was laser cutting puzzle pieces.) It’s been fun to see all of your first day of school pictures. And it’s a huge relief that this year seems (at the moment) to be mostly back to normal-ish, which is about all I’m expecting these days.

Happy Tuesday!

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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.

BYU Can and Should Do Better

I was very upset to hear about the incident at the BYU Women’s Volleyball game on Friday evening. In case you haven’t heard about it, in a game against Duke, someone in the student section kept yelling racial slurs at one of the Duke players every time she served. (The N-word.) It apparently progressed to the point that they were also threatening to hurt them after the game. It got to the point that a security officer came to stand next to the Duke bench. After the game, BYU investigated the issue, identified the person who had been yelling the slurs (who turned out to not be a student) and banned them from all future BYU athletic events.

Too little, too late.

I wasn’t at the game, and I haven’t seen any footage of what went on, but I have a very hard time understanding how it got to that point. If someone is in the crowd yelling obscenities, and it’s established enough during the game to have officials post a guard by the bench, how does that happen? Either no serious attempt was made to find the offender, or no one in the crowd around the offender was willing or ready to point out who was doing it.

Perhaps the person yelling was just a monster of a human being. So physically imposing no one wanted to publicly be the one to point him out. I’ve certainly had some run ins with some mouth breathers over the years, and I wouldn’t always be jumping at the gun to get any more involved with them than I had to be. However, it wouldn’t have been difficult to “go to the bathroom” and talk to security out of sight of the offender. I have a hard time understanding how the person managed to continue to be unidentified.

Honestly, what I would have liked to see at BYU is for them to stop the game and not continue until the person was identified and thrown out. If the person couldn’t be identified, then the game could have continued without spectators. BYU should be much more sensitive to this because of the church’s thorny past with racism. Having this come out in the news only serves to have people think, “Yup. That makes sense for BYU.” (Though this isn’t just about the publicity. It’s about doing the right thing, when the right thing seems like such a clear thing to do.)

I’m a longtime, huge fan of BYU sports. And I understand that our players (and our fanbase) are not perfect by any stretch, but at the same time, I’d really like us to be doing better. I expect better, at least within the confines of the game. That means treating the opposite team with respect and kindness. That means playing a clean game and not resorting to dirty tricks. It’s a standard that BYU has fallen short of in the past, and it’s more than a little discouraging to have it happen again, particularly when it ends up involving the fan base, the students, and the administration, and it’s something that from the sound of it was such an obvious thing that had to be addressed immediately.

Saying “we have to do better” sounds like a bunch of empty words when we’re in 2022 and we’re dealing with a situation like that. We should have never gotten anywhere near where this ended up.

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