Bryce Moore's Blog, page 66

Puerto Rico Bound

I will be taking the week off from the blog next week, as I’m heading to Puerto Rico on Sunday morning. PR was about as international as Denisa and I were willing to get at this point. We picked it because we thought it would be fairly easy to get there and back again. I’ve been surprised, however, at just how complicated the process has been. There’s a rule that everyone coming into the territory has to have a PCR molecular COVID test. These are more robust than the ones you can just drive over to the pharmacy to get. We had to make a special appointment at the hospital to get ours this morning, which could only be done by first getting a referral by our Primary Care Physicians. The test itself wasn’t too bad. Just a thin Q-tip up each nostril until they hit brain.

Assuming we’re both clean (and I expect we are, since we’re both fully vaccinated, and I just barely had my weekly COVID test at the university on Wednesday, which came back negative yesterday), then we have to go to a special Puerto Rican website, register, and upload our negative test results. This will in turn generate a QR code that we’ll be able to then scan when we get to San Juan, which will let us out of the airport.

(For those people who don’t get the test, they can pay fines of up to $300 and then take the test in San Juan, at which point they have to quarantine until the negative result comes back. Puerto Rico ain’t messing around. In addition, there’s an island-wide curfew of 10pm, all indoor business and restaurants are capped at 30% capacity, and I’m sure there are likely some other requirements I’ll discover when I get there and try to actually do anything.)

Still, vacation! I will be stepping away from most electronics as much as I can, with the exception of my revision of THE AXEMAN (now tentatively with a new title that I might share when I get back). That’s due at the beginning of June, and I’ve done the math, and I don’t have time to take a week off and stay sane in the last half of May. So sanity will have to win out over vacationing.

Try not to have too much fun while I’m gone!

Bryce’s First Law: People are Bad at Evaluating Evidence

When I was on my mission in Germany, I had the chance to talk to a lot of people (a lot of people) about things you typically don’t talk to strangers about. Yes, it was really outside my comfort zone, but at the same time, it gave me the opportunity to see how many people think. What reasons they have for doing what they’re doing. How they critique what other people are doing. That all comes from starting a lot of your conversations by introducing yourself and asking, “Would you like to hear a message about Jesus Christ?” (In German, of course. Though I don’t recommend using German if you want to try the same thing here in America. Not many people speak it here, you know.)

One of my big takeaways from that experience (and something that’s been confirmed for me time and time again in the 20+ years since then) is that people do what they want to do. I know this shouldn’t seem like a huge revelation, but it gets a bit deeper when you pair it with the realization that people also want to make the right decision. Very few people sit back and say, “This is a stupid thing I want to do, and it makes no sense, and only an idiot would do it, but I’m going to do it anyway, because it’s what I want to do.” Mind you, I think many of us actually do use that sort of logic as we make any number of decisions every day, but we’ve developed this workaround.

We look for someone or something that tells us what we want to do is actually a good idea, and then we listen to that person or source above any other objections.

In religion, this meant that even people who were looking for a new religion were typically focused on finding a religion that told them that everything they already believed was right. This was frustrating to a 19 year-old missionary, since I was trying to get people to see for a moment that if religion is about the worshipping of a literal, real, existing God, then it might make sense to ask God what He expected out of a religion. That said, I’ve since seen plenty of examples of people using religion as a “something that tell us what we want to do is actually a good idea.” (Religion is very handy like that. You can just tell someone you believe something is the right thing, and there’s really no way of arguing that you don’t believe that. It’s the headache of justifications. If I tell you I have a headache and need to go lie down, how in the world are you going to tell me I don’t? Mind you, God knows if you’re using religion as an excuse or not, so I suppose it’ll all even out in the end, but that doesn’t do us much good in the here and now with people using it as a blunt object to support everything from genocide to bigotry to homophobia to who knows what else.)

But this doesn’t just apply to religion. Look at any number of hot button topics being debated in society these days, and you will find the “look for someone or something that tells us what we want to do is actually a good idea, and then listen to that person or source above any other objections” approach in action. Climate change was decided for many people decades ago. They came upon the “some scientists don’t believe it’s true” argument, and they’ve hung onto that argument like grim death ever since, ignoring any and all additional evidence that the world is slowly turning into a hot tub. Abortion? There are any number of sources out there that will convincingly tell you any facts you want to hear to justify any position you want to take on the matter.

The same is true for COVID. Think it’s no big deal? I’ve got some articles and statistics that will confirm that. Think it’s just a shade less bad than bubonic plague? I’m sure we can get you covered for that as well. Want to get vaccinated? Want to not get vaccinated? Want to be vegan? Want to not exercise? Want to drink coffee? Want to not drink coffee? You’re going to be able to find something that will confirm to you that the thing you want to do is actually right and proper and really the best decision to make, all things considered.

Except that’s the thing. All things aren’t being considered, because humans are incredibly bad (on the whole) at evaluating evidence. We’re easily swayed by single examples and exceptions. I’ve talked to numerous people who don’t want to wear seat belts because they knew someone who got trapped in a car wreck because their seatbelt wouldn’t release. So they’ll ignore the mountains of evidence and studies that confirm it’s far safer to wear a seatbelt. With COVID right now, you have people who argue that COVID just isn’t that dangerous, but then they’ll turn around and argue they won’t be vaccinated because those vaccines are too worrisome. On the flip side, you had people who were citing all reputable sources about the importance of mask wearing and COVID precautions who are now refusing to let go of some of those precautions as the vaccine rate increases.

This isn’t a red problem or a blue problem. It isn’t a rich problem or a poor problem. It’s not an educated problem or an ignorance problem. It’s a universal human problem that’s being exacerbated by the fact that there are so many other sources of information out there to provide fodder for justifications.

Of course, it’s one thing to identify a problem, and another to actually do something about it. I have no idea how to combat this principle in every day life. I’d say it would help to share better resources and link to places that have reputable studies, but as I said, there are plenty of places out there that will contradict whatever I link to. People are fond of saying “do the research, you’ll see I’m right,” but just because the random dots you see out there happen to link up to form a shape that’s kind of reminiscent of Scooby Doo if you squint hard doesn’t mean that Hanna Barbera is actually running the universe.

I suppose in the end, all you can really do is try to avoid the problem yourself, and do what you can to help others avoid it as well. If someone really does want to make good, informed decisions, then I believe they’ll win out in the end. Perhaps a good litmus test would be to ask yourself how many times you want to do something and then, after investigating it properly, you end up changing your mind. If the answer to that is “rarely or never,” then you’re likely falling victim to what I’ll call Bryce’s Law (because this is my blog, and I don’t know that anyone’s already named the law. (And even if they have, I can now cite evidence that this has always been called Bryce’s Law . . .)).

How many times have you had a knee-jerk reaction to something, looked into it, and then discovered you were wrong? Again, the correct answer should probably be “frequently.” Or maybe that’s just me, and I’m just typically wrong more often than most . . .

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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 the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That 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.

Screen Size Matters: Bullitt

I first watched Bullitt probably around . . . fifteen years ago? Give or take. I was on a classic movie kick, and I’d heard a lot of great things about the movie, so I checked it out. As I recall, I watched it on my computer screen. It was . . . just okay. I remember telling people I thought the car chase wasn’t all it was hyped up to be. That it action scenes have come a long way since then.

If it weren’t for Daniela’s list that I made her, I probably wouldn’t have watched Bullitt again. However, it was on there, and so last night we sat down to watch it. (Slight aside for a moment to plug HBO Max. I know there are a lot of movie streaming services out there, but I’ve really been impressed with HBO, mainly because of their Turner Classic Movies hub. There are always a slew of really good movies to be found there. Are they the newest? No, but they’re excellent and well worth your while.)

Watching Bullitt on a 105″ screen was a much different experience than watching it on a 13″ screen. Sure, in theory screen size is all relative. If you put a 13″ screen close to your face, isn’t it about the same size as a 105″ screen further away? Yes, and yet definitely no.

For one thing, I was able to really appreciate the unusual camera angles and creative shots that went into the movie. It won an Oscar for Film Editing. It’s directed by Peter Yates, who actually began as a professional race driver, interestingly enough. The plot is well-written, and the soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin (of Mission Impossible theme fame) was excellent. But most of all, seeing the car chase on the big screen just made it feel much more immediate. It’s filmed in San Francisco, and some of the driving in it is just awesome. It helps that the entire movie takes a very realistic approach to everything, so when the action scenes come, they bring a much bigger punch.

Overall, I gave it an 8/10, which is much better than what I remember it being.

This is also a reminder that seeing movies in actual theaters is even better than seeing them in a home theater. Again, I get the whole “size is relative” argument. But which would be more impressive: seeing a 50 foot colossus from 500 feet away, or seeing a 5 inch action figure from 5 inches away? My proportions might be off, but you get the picture. You can tell your brain “it’s basically the same size” as much as you want, but in the end, you’re not fooling anyone. Maybe if you could watch it in VR, you might be able to create the same sort of effect, but for now, I’m really looking forward to hopefully getting out to the movies again this year.

Marvel movies demand it.

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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 the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That 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.

To All the Paper Towels I’ve Used Before

It’s a well-known fact that not all paper towels are created equal. Some of them have all the absorbent qualities of cardboard, while others are like someone took a sponge and turned it into paper form through the miracle of modern science. The trick, of course, is finding that sweet spot where you’re not paying an arm and a leg for drying your hands, and you’re not just smearing water around while pretending you’re having some sort of an effect. There are bonus points for being environmentally friendly, as well.

And because This Is Important, I figured I’d devote a whole blog post to the topic. Ranking the drying methods out there, from worst to best. I’m going to use a couple of different factors to rate them each. First: ease of use. Second: affordability. Third: effectiveness. Fourth: environmental friendliness. Fifth: ick factor. You know you want to read it . . .

Public Restroom Drying Options

When heading to the bathroom in a public place, I almost always wash my hands. (The times I haven’t are more due to the fact that the sink is broken, or there is no soap, or the very thought of touching the sink convinces me it’ll be much worse in the long run, so I just go find some hand sanitizer instead.) However, there have been plenty of times I choose to just wipe my hands on my pants or air dry them instead. Here are some of the worst options:

Blown Air Dryers: Ease of use (2). Affordability (4). Effectiveness (1-3). Environmental Friendliness (3). Ick Factor (5). There are different types of air dryers. It’s a plus that they just need a press of a button or wave of the hand to get them going, but the thought of using one now (after COVID) leaves much to be desired. There are enough germs in a bathroom already. We really don’t need to make them more airborne. Plus, some air dryers are better than others. At the bottom of the heap are the one’s that don’t really blow much in the way of air. It’s more like a gentle breeze, and you’ll be standing there for the next 10 years before your hands are dry. Then there are the ones that make you stick your hand inside them to activate them, going on the theory that those germs aren’t just going to spread themselves, so it’s more helpful if you put your hands into a spot that can collect the germs and deliver them more efficiently. Then you’ve got the industrial wind machines that try to take your skin off, since skin can’t be wet if it’s not on your body. But blown air dryers really suffer because they are so hyper focused. You can’t wipe a table off with one. You can’t blow your nose with one. (Granted, I haven’t tried to blow my nose with one, but . . . )Hand Towels: Ease of use (5). Affordability (1). Effectiveness (5). Environmental Friendliness (4). Ick Factor (5). I suppose some places think they’re being home-ier by providing real towels to dry hands. I would sooner use a rabid skunk, but maybe some people out there prefer these? When I see a towel in a public bathroom, I can’t help but think what horrors that towel has seen over the last days or weeks. True, there are those funky machines that have towels on some kind of a rolling loop mechanism, where you pull down to expose a new piece of towel, but I’ve always found them more than a little suspect. If I see anything cloth-related, I’ll just wave my hands dry, thank you very much. I don’t care if they’re effective or easy to use. No.Paper Towels: Ease of use (1-5). Affordability (4). Effectiveness (1-5). Environmental Friendliness (3). Ick Factor (1). The good thing about a paper towel is that you know where it’s been. If it’s nice and crisp, you don’t have to worry about the ick factor too much. The problem with them is you never know the experience you’re going to have when you get one. Some of them absorb about as well as a rock. Some of them get drenched after you’ve put about a teaspoon of water into them. Some people solve this problem by just taking about a bakers’ dozen of the paper towels before they start to try to dry their hands, but that really sinks the environmental friendliness score. On the other hand, you can indeed take some of these for using elsewhere, so yay for that. In an ideal world, a public restroom has paper towels that dry your hands with a single towel. That rarely happens.Home OptionsPaper Towels: Ease of use (5). Affordability (2). Effectiveness (5). Environmental Friendliness (2). Ick Factor (1). If money were no object, and I didn’t care about the environment at all, then brand name paper towels would be where it was at. Bounty, baby. The quicker picker upper. My problem is that I hate throwing money away, and I hate just making extra unnecessary waste. Bounty does both of these. I generally compromise by getting the paper towels that are half as wide as the normal ones, and even then I end up tearing those in half to make sure I’m just using what I need. But I still have a hard time using one without thinking that I could have used a cloth napkin or a hand towel instead. That said, there are definitely things you just need a paper towel for. What sort of a monster kills a spider with cloth towel?Cloth Napkins: Ease of use (4). Affordability (2). Effectiveness (4). Environmental Friendliness (2). Ick Factor (3). They definitely get the job done. The big problem here is that they’re often too small, and they tend to get stained after a while, to the point that you debate whether or not they’re really clean, even after they’re straight out of the washing machine. I always feel kind of guilty giving guests cloth napkins unless they’re pristine. (The napkins, not the guests.) Also, these aren’t the cheapest route to go by any means.Hand Towels: Ease of use (5). Affordability (1). Effectiveness (5). Environmental Friendliness (2). Ick Factor (3). I mean, if I had money just coming out of my eyeballs, then I’d use hand towels for everything. Definitely absorbent. They’ll dry pretty much anything you need. But they just aren’t that good for single-use applications. Maybe I just need to get over my inner desire to make each hand towel last as long as humanly possible before I have to wash it . . . Actual Towels: Ease of use (2). Affordability (1). Effectiveness (5). Environmental Friendliness (1). Ick Factor (5). Proof that there can, indeed, be too much of a good thing. For one thing, buying actual towels is neither cheap nor easy to use for most tasks. You’ve just got too much terry. For another, when I go to the bathroom at a friend’s house and all that’s there is their actual towel, I start to get flashbacks to public bathrooms. Just sayin’.

So what’s the solution? What’s the one towel to rule them all? I’m afraid the search continues, for me. So far, the most universal towel option I’ve found happens to typically be “wipe your hands on your pants.” Unfortunately, this has a very low Wife Tolerance Rating, which often ends up being the most critical score of all.

How about you? Got any good towel tips, or horror stories of what to avoid? Please share.

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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 the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That 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.

So Much Time and So Little To Do

Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you.

I’m really starting to stress at everything that needs to happen in the next month or so. Stressing to the point that I’m making multiple lists to try and remind myself that I’m really making progress on getting things done. It’s not really working, which is why I end up making even more lists. I’m not sure what the logic is there, but right this second, I don’t think I’m thinking very logically.

So I’m in jettison mode, and for today, one of the things getting jettisoned is a quality blog post. Instead, I leave you with this fine clip of Oompa-Loompas lecturing you about how you ought to behave. I think a lot of life’s woes could probably be reduced if we just had a team of Oompa-Loompas around to shame-sing at us whenever we made big blunders. (Seriously. Can you imagine the sort of song routines they would have come up with for the entirety of 2020?)

Here’s hoping tomorrow’s brighter.

Officially Vaccinated: What Next?

As of about an hour ago, it’s been two weeks since Denisa and I got our second COVID vaccine shot. Which means (theoretically) we can start going back to some of our old routines. It’s surprising to me how many things that used to seem very normal and not that stressful are now giving me low level anxiety (or worse). For example, I used to plan trips all the time. I don’t love flying (a well-established fact with long-time blog readers), but I love traveling enough to overcome my dislike of flying. The lack of travel was a real blow during COVID, and so it was high on my list of things to do as soon as I could.

I’m not one to shirk from doing something just because it’s making me anxious, and it was Denisa and my 20th anniversary just a week ago. So we’re heading to Puerto Rico next Sunday for a five night stay. That’s right! I’m finally using all these free Marriott room reservations we had stockpiled from credit card rewards, and we used up all of the credit I had with American Airlines from getting two trips canceled. We’ll be staying at a resort on the beach in San Juan, and we’ve got tours booked to hike through the rain forest, go kayak in a bioluminescent bay, snorkel, and scuba dive. These are all definitely things we haven’t been able to do in Maine, and so I’m really looking forward to it.

That said, it was still stressful to make out all the reservations and plan a schedule again. You’d think it’d be just like getting back on a bike, and I suppose it is. However, for that comment to make sense, you need to know about the time I was on my mission in Germany and was suddenly confronted with living in a city (Gotha) where the Elders had always used bikes to get around. My new companion asked me if I could ride, and I said of course. But I hadn’t biked since . . . middle school? I don’t know. It had been a while. He hopped on his bike and sped off. I teetered onto mine and tried to catch up. And it was true! I could still maintain my balance on a bike. But then I saw he’d stopped abruptly by a mailbox to send a letter, and I discovered I couldn’t remember how to stop a bike. I tried backpedaling (old habits die hard) to no avail. The bike had handbrakes. And I distinctly remembered being told never to use one of those brakes to stop fast. I couldn’t remember which one. In the heat of the moment, I panicked and chose at random.

I chose poorly.

I jammed on the front brake, and my front tire came to an abrupt halt, launching me up and over my handlebards onto the sidewalk. I ruined a pair of suit pants that day. (Good thing my suit came with two. I’d ruin the other pair a few weeks later in another bike accident. When my companion was transferred a month later, I hid both bikes in a closet and didn’t mention to my new companion that we had them. We walked from then on . . .)

So yes. Planning trips really is just like riding a bike.

In any case, the trip’s planned now, and I’ve got other irons in the fire for future trips. Out to Utah. Down to Boston. Down to Pennsylvania. Over to Machias. Camping. I will wear a mask and follow any social distancing/testing rules I need to when I go to these places, and I’m definitely wondering how stressed I’m going to be flying (with strangers!) after all this time, but I’m very much looking forward to being somewhere farther than an hour’s drive away from my house.

I realize the pandemic is far from over, especially when I look at the horrific things going on in India at the moment. But I still have to celebrate the progress that’s happening locally and personally. Hopefully there’s more and more of that in the days to come.

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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 the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That 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.

YARPP: Related Posts

Cabinets: Purchased!

I first posted about getting ready to renovate our kitchen back in September of 2018. At the time, I noted we had the basic plan in place for the layout of the room, but we were a bit daunted by how big of a project this was going to be. It might take a year to really get ready for it. (Ha ha ha.) In November of 2019, I wrote about how I was finally getting ready to move forward with cabinet selection and purchase. (Ha ha ha.) I had found an online cabinet company that would send us Ready To Assemble (RTA) cabinets, and it seemed like that would be cheaper than going with buying cabinets pre-made. In July 2020, I wrote about still gearing up for those renovations, and maybe looking at that fall to do them. (Ha ha ha.) I could have sworn I wrote a post in September or so, talking about how Denisa and I went to Lowe’s to do a consultation around cabinets, but I can’t find it now. We’d talked to friends who swore that would be cheaper and easier than RTA, and the consultation was free, so . . .

Yesterday, we finally ordered and paid for the cabinets. We did end up getting them from Lowe’s instead of the online company I’d found. Why? For one thing, they were less expensive. I’m not surprised it was hard for me to tell that at first. Figuring out just how expensive cabinets will be from Lowe’s is a bewildering process. It’s hard to find the prices anywhere, and when I’d guesstimated the cost, I hadn’t realized that Lowe’s discounts their cabinets. Heavily. So the price you see on the surface ends up being much less than the price you pay.

For example, our cabinets ended up being 40% off the final price, plus 50% off the stain we chose. Lowe’s was running a 30% off sale (that seems to be pretty much permanent, judging from the fact that every time I checked on the price over the last year, the sale was always running). We got that extra 10% off by applying for a Lowe’s credit card, which typically gives you 5% off at Lowe’s, but for cabinets this week, they were doubling that.

So the Lowe’s cabinets are less expensive, they’re the same quality as what I was looking at online in terms of construction, they’ll arrive pre-assembled, and I don’t have to worry about them anymore. I also had someone who actually knew what they were talking about help me design the layout. Maxwell was our assistant at the Augusta Lowe’s, and I was very happy with the help he gave us and how patient and courteous he was. That made a complicated process that much easier to handle. (All told, I think we spent 8 hours in that store over three different visits, picking out wood types, stains, layout, features, and all.)

For the record, we went with rustic alder for the wood choice, with a stain that will make it slightly darker and give it a matte finish. Our current kitchen has 7 drawers and basically 8 cabinets. The new one will have something like 13 drawers and 14 cabinets. It’s hard to match it up one to one, but we’re going to have many more storage options. I was worried the increased cost of lumber right now would have made them more expensive, but apparently that isn’t the case. The lead time, however, has gone from 4-8 weeks to 16 weeks, which might have been a problem if we were planning to do this soon, but we’re not going to start until August, so it’s not nearly as big of a deal.

At this point, the cabinet’s are ordered, the fridge is here, the dishwasher’s here . . . Let’s put it this way: if we don’t renovate the kitchen this fall, we’re going to have an awful lot of boxes around the house for way too long.

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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 the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That 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.

Movie Review: The Four Feathers (1939)

Daniela and I have been working our way through different movies some more, and the evolution of pacing in movies is an issue that I keep seeing pop up in some of the older movies. Today’s case in point is the 1939 film, The Four Feathers. It’s got a 7.5 on IMDB and is a good movie at heart, but it’s got several issues with pacing that really bring it down in my book, simply because film has gotten better at keeping a story going in the 80 years since this movie came out.

In the film, a man resigns his post in the army right before Britain goes back to war in the Sudan. He gives many sound reasons for wanting to be done, but he eventually admits his main one was that he was scared of going to war. Four of his friends each send him a white feather, a symbol of cowardice. He decides to earn his way back into their good graces by proving he’s courageous after all.

There are some things about the movie I really enjoy. In the course of the film, one of his friends goes blind, and the main character ends up saving his life, but never reveals it was him who saved it. There’s a scene where this is revealed, and it’s really moving and well done. You can also tell that a lot of effort went in to making the film as realistic and engaging as possible (for it’s time.)

But there are a slew of things that drag the film down. Long stretches where they do little other than show riders on horses racing to battle, or people pulling ships up a river. Some of the characters’ actions just aren’t well conveyed, so they do things that don’t make sense, which can make them come across as dense. These days, action movies have learned enough about how to tell a compelling story that they’d be able to show the same things happening in a fraction of the time, leaving more room for real tension and suspense to flourish.

I’ve seen the movie was remade with Heath Ledger in the starring role, and I think I’m going to have to give it a try, just to see what they did with it. I know very often people accuse Hollywood of making pointless remakes, but there are definitely films where a remake can bring a movie to a new audience successfully.

But how do you review a film like this one? To me, I have to stick with using the same metric I use to evaluate any movie. Grading it on a curve doesn’t seem to make sense to me. Yes, it took place much earlier in history, and so it’s at a disadvantage of sorts, but it’s still just plain boring in many parts. (This is the same beef I have with Citizen Kane. I can recognize the huge influence it played on the future of film while at the same time admitting it’s just not very captivating by today’s standards.) In the end, I gave this one a 6.5/10, which was a let down. I’d seen it before years ago, and I remembered it being much better.

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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 the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That 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.

Running on Empty

In many ways, everything since 2020 began feels like it’s been going in circles. I’ll feel like I’m finally getting through whatever tough thing I’ve been dealing with at the moment, only to somehow find myself at a loss yet again the next day or week or month. I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but one of the sad truths of the pandemic is that so many of us are wearing thin, it becomes that much more difficult to find the wherewithal to pitch in and help someone else out when you see they’re in need of it. For one thing, it’s hard to be aware of people other than yourself when you feel like you’re in crisis mode, and for another, even if you can identify someone else needs help, you quite likely feel like there’s nothing you have to offer them except commiseration.

(Commiseration. There’s a word for you that pretty much sums all this up. From Latin, pretty much meaning “to be wretched with.”)

In fact, if I had to think of a movie scene that sums up what I’ve been feeling like for the last long while, it would have to be the Griswolds in London, even if that’s a tad too international for expressing “stuck in the same thing over and over.” Still, there’s a desperation you get here that you don’t even really get in Groundhog Day . . .

Usually I like to end these sort of posts on a bright note of some sort. “It’s going to get better, because it has to, right?” I do still believe that, contrary to all evidence of the past year and more. But it can be awfully difficult to keep reminding myself of that fact.

I know I’m low on patience especially. I’m not nearly as understanding and long tempered as I usually am. If I see someone doing or saying something I think is foolish or wrong, I’m much too quick to jump to conclusions, take offense, or make a snippy comment that’s far from warranted. To make things even more frustrating, I can tell I’m doing it when I do it, and yet I still find myself doing it anyway. Sigh.

I suppose the bright spot would be to picture how much practice I’m getting in on trying to be kind and patient and forgiving even under these circumstances. When this pandemic is finally over and so many of the current stressors are behind us, think about how much better we’re going to be at handling everyday life! (Right?)

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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 the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That 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.

Oscars 2021 Thoughts

I have always enjoyed watching the Oscars, but I must say that they have seemed to really struggle for the past few years. Part of it seems to stem from this sort of existential crisis they seem caught up in, questioning why they exist and what they should do about it. It’s been rightly pointed out that the Oscars have been historically very, very white to an extent that’s made the awards more than a little problematic. So I’m all for them taking steps to try and rectify that issue. However, at the same time they’ve been doing that, they’ve also been fussing around with practically every other dial they’ve got out there. Different hosts. Multiple hosts. No hosts. Focus on films. Focus on film makers. Downplay the glamor. Hype up the glamor. Be funny. Be not funny.

And meanwhile, the ratings get worse year after year, and they keep running around wondering what they’re supposed to do to stop the ratings slide.

This year’s show was . . . not good. This isn’t really because of COVID. I went into it recognizing that social distancing was going to make for a different production, and I was okay with all of that. Yay masks. Fine with a smaller crowd. But I’d also heard they were going to focus more on films, which was also great in my book. Instead, they focused heavily on providing a little snippet of information about each nominee (typically), and then let those nominees give their acceptance speeches for almost as long as they wanted, without any orchestra to play them off the stage. There was no opening to speak of. No significant number of skits or anything to really break up anything, with the exception of a trivia thing, in memoriam, and some humanitarian awards. They even had the musical numbers for best song all done in the lead up before the actual show started.

And the event still went 17 minutes longer than it was scheduled to.

Look, I understand that the Oscars are an award show. But this one focused on the awards and really skimped on the show. I can’t imagine the vast majority of people who tuned in for a bit thought it was riveting television. Certainly not Super Bowl level of entertainment. Even a bad Super Bowl game is still more engaging than what was on the Oscars last night. “Come watch over three hours of people thanking their loved ones and giving impromptu political or social justice speeches, peppered with ads!” If you love cinema and love knowing all the ins and outs of who’s doing what, then maybe this was the bee’s knees. Or if you’ve seen all the different movies and are genuinely interested in the outcomes, then this might have been more engaging. But for the average layperson? This was Snoozeville.

To me, the answer isn’t that difficult as soon as you realize what the question is. “How in the world can we make three hours of television focused on the best movies of the past year interesting for people to watch?” Well, you start by actually focusing on the movies. Show me more clips. Heck, even showing trailers for each show would be better than giving out snippets of info about each of the nominees.

“But all these movies aren’t popular with the general public!” True. So then are we harmed at all by having the evening lean into the “movies of the past year” theme, and highlight some of the more popular movies that came out then. There’s just so much to do with movies. So many movies made. So many movies to celebrate. And instead we get a procession of people making speeches that go on for too long, in areas so many people just don’t care about.

I’m not trying to say all the awards don’t matter. I love every aspect of film making, and I do keep track of who won Best Cinematography or Sound Design, and I try to check them out, because that really interests me. But I recognize I’m in the minority. Each year there’s this pull between “The Oscars are too boring and so no one is watching them” and “But the awards really matter, and it’s important we give people the chance to make acceptance speeches.” And the more I think about it, the less I think it’s possible that those two problems can be solved. Because we just saw what a show looks like when it’s all acceptance speeches and all about the film makers, and it was the first time they’ve had under 10 million viewers.

If we keep that trend up, the Oscars won’t matter at all, because no one will watch and no one will care. (It’s already heading that way as is.)

So something has to change, and I’d be totally fine with that something being “the winners come up, get their statue, and then go backstage to make their acceptance speeches, which can be watched online or on a different channel.” Obviously that’s quite extreme, and I wouldn’t say it’s the only option. But 60 seconds of mic time and then it cuts dead no matter what might also be an approach . . .

I didn’t miss the stupid schticks they’d do before they announced each winner. The fake banter between the presenters. That’s all stuff that can be moved elsewhere. I also kind of liked having the musical numbers peppered in the pre-show, just to free up some more air time. But all that air time can be filled with things other than “people talking about stuff most people don’t care about,” even if it’s stuff the people involved with really care a lot about.

Let’s put it this way: when I was growing up, the Oscars was an event. I’d stay up late for it and look forward to it each year. My kids tuned out this year about fifteen minutes in. It was just too boring. That’s a bad sign, if I’m in the “I want the Oscars to matter” crowd . . .

What did you think about the show? Did you even watch it?

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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 the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That 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.