Bryce Moore's Blog, page 75

Patriotic Thoughts

I try quite hard (regardless of how it may seem, perhaps) to present as balanced of an outlook on this blog as I can. I try to take into consideration the thoughts and feelings of all potential readers, and so there’s often some topics that I just won’t write about, or which I’ll really tread carefully around, for fear of provoking anyone. And so I was really considering not writing a response to yesterday’s inauguration at all. I realize that there are many who dislike Biden, feel the election was somehow fraudulent, believe this is the continuation of a long slide toward a villainous portrayal of socialism, etc. And I’ve been posting about politics a fair bit the last while. (I wonder why?) Wouldn’t it have been easier to just post a movie review or a fluff piece about breakfast cereals today instead?

Yes.

But at the same time, I use this blog to chronicle how I feel and what I think about different things that happen in our world, and when I’ve got a lot to say, I have a documented hard time shutting up. And yesterday made me feel a whole lot of things. Things I wanted to get down. This shouldn’t be considered an attack on anyone or a judgement on people. This is just my personal response to what I saw yesterday and how I’ve felt over the past four years.

In a nutshell, yesterday made me feel like I could be patriotic again. Like I was proud to be an American, and that there was some real hope for my country’s future. For the past four years, I feel like Trump has really steered hard into the negative stereotypes of America that I’ve seen overseas. The shoot first, me first, xenophobic, ignorant, money-grubbing depictions that have always disappointed me.

But Americans are so much more than that. The parts of America I really love are the brighter aspects. The idealism. The thought that we can change the world and make it better. The hope that there’s no problem we can’t tackle. The celebration of diversity. The refuge for all. Yes, we’re wealthy and occasionally spoiled. Yes, we often don’t take as great of an interest in national affairs as might behoove us, but when push comes to shove, I’ve always thought America would do what was best for everyone, not just itself.

Yesterday, I saw a huge display of diversity and optimism, even in the middle of a pandemic. I saw a fantastic young poet laureate deliver a moving reading of art. I saw music and art celebrated from all across the country. Yes, you could argue that Trump tried to do the same thing at times, but with Trump, it always felt to me like he was going for an America of the past. A white-washed historical relic he wanted to somehow embalm and stick out there on display. If this were pop culture, Trump was the toy collector in Toy Story 2.

For the past four years, the American flag has often been used (in my opinion) as a blunt object. Flown next to Trump flags from the backs of trucks. It felt like you couldn’t be patriotic unless you supported the president, and that (frankly) is ridiculous. The fact that I felt that way is appalling to me, and it took yesterday for me to fully realize how Trump had pulled that trick off. Sure, you can say I was being too sensitive or too whatever, but I don’t believe you can argue how people feel. If someone tells you they’re sad, you can’t tell them they’re wrong.

So it was such a breath of fresh air to finally not have that feeling hanging over me anymore. To know that Biden will no doubt do things I disagree with, but that I can still feel like we’re on the same team, or at the very least that my disagreeing with his policies won’t make me un-American. And doubtless there will be some on the right who say that kind of thinking is just me being a snowflake and too easily triggered or whatever, but we shouldn’t have to apologize when someone else makes us feel less or crazy or wrong.

Anyway. It was a very good day for me yesterday. I’ll return (hopefully) to movie reviews and whatnot tomorrow. But for today, I wanted to at least get that thought down for the record. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you tomorrow.

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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.

Perception Matters

Watching the inauguration coverage today, and it’s naturally different to see how this one is looking compared to the ones I’ve watched in the past. The spartan attendance, the chairs that are spaced out, and (most notably) the masks, masks, masks.

I’ve tried to see the argument made by Trump and Republicans against masks, at least at significant events. The desire to “appear strong” and project a sense of normalcy even in the middle of a global pandemic. But I really believe that was a misguided effort, because like it or not, this time is different than other times. On my way way to work this morning, I listened to an interview with a funeral director in California. They discussed what was different now compared to usual times.

He’s got a three week minimum waiting list to accept new bodies. (I can’t think of a nicer way to say it than that.) He has to turn down hospitals that are overrunning with the deceased. I get that some are still trying to insist this is overblown. That COVID has a 98% recovery rate, so why are we making a big deal about it? But even with all the quarantining and social distancing and mask wearing, we’re still having hospitals needing to bring in refrigeration units to store bodies until they can be buried. No part of that is “normal.” Over 400,000 people in the US have died. Over 2 million across the globe. But I’ve been making that argument (along with many others) for months and months. I’m not sure what else can be done to persuade people who don’t want to be persuaded.

Which is why things like seeing this different inauguration feel significant for me. Seeing all those masks and all those social distancing measures help visibly show the nation that it’s okay for this to be different. That it’s okay to wear a mask. What I’m seeing in the inauguration is very much in line with what my life has been like at the university since September. And the great thing in the fall was that I saw we could still have classes and still have some semblance of normalcy, even with all the changes.

Anyway. Just some of the thoughts going through my head as I watch today. I could say a whole lot more, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

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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.

What to Do about Trump?

Assuming nothing goes horribly wrong (knock on wood), tomorrow will be Donald Trump’s last day in office. (And even if something does go horribly wrong, actually. If something were to happen to Biden between now and then, Harris would be president. If something were to happen to her, Pelosi would be president. Under no scenario does Trump remain president at this point.) With his recent second impeachment and his departure, the question then turns to “What do we do about him now?”

I know some are calling for the impeachment trial to happen quickly, and some are calling for Biden to pardon him. My personal preference is that we . . . just ignore him, as far as the impeachment goes. Don’t pardon him. Don’t try him. Don’t even mention him for the next 100 days when it comes to all of that. We have far too many other more important things to be focusing on than wasting another second of the country’s time on that man.

That doesn’t mean I want him absolved of everything he might have done. However, we have a justice system that can continue to operate very well without the need for the Senate or the House to get involved. If he’s committed crimes in the past, let those crimes go through the normal avenues, now that he’ll be a normal citizen again. No doubt the news organizations will get themselves into a froth over the proceedings, but hopefully the people leading our country will not.

Did Trump do all the things his detractors claim he did? I have no idea. I’ve read a whole lot of news articles about the man, and I’ve read a whole lot about those claims, but I recognize I wasn’t involved in any of them, and I have no real way of telling who’s right and who’s wrong. But again, that’s what we have courts for, right?

Ultimately, I’d like to move forward and not even think about Donald Trump again. Every second focusing on him gives him the thing he seems to crave more than anything else: attention. And it takes our eye off the other things that we need to be putting our efforts to instead. Distributing the vaccine. Helping the economy. Looking out for those who have lost their jobs. Shoring up our infrastructure. Doing something about climate change. You name it. There are so many other things to work on solving.

That said, I recognize that the things Trump has stood for and the people who he has emboldened aren’t going anywhere. There’s still the very real threat of them coming back to power, whether under Trump himself or under a new leader. That’s a concern we need to continue to address along with the rest of the troubles, so it’s not like we can just ignore the whole issue. But I believe once we can stop wasting all our energy about this one individual, much of that has a good chance of slinking back under the rock it’s been crouched under for the last few decades. Hopefully that will in turn help weaken it. Deprive it of sunlight and energy, and it will wither instead of flourish.

Much of that is probably up to Republicans at this point. It’s their house they need to get into order, and I hope they do it. But for now, at least, I want the country to move on and get to work.

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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.

There are No Happily Ever Afters

First, let me lead off by saying that I don’t think this post is a negative one. At least, that’s not where I think it’ll end up. But it’s going to start off pretty gloomy. I mean, just look at the title up there. No happily ever afters? You mean fairy tales have been lying to me all this time?

If it were just fairy tales, then I don’t think it would be as big of a deal, but our culture is in many ways saturated with a happily ever after mentality, primarily because of the pop culture we consume. I love movies and books (obviously), but almost all stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. And when you watch or read story after story after story with endings, it’s easy to get to the point where you start waiting for the end of the story you’re living.

Take, for example, the story of COVID. It fits easily into any number of disaster movies, and so it’s not a big leap to try and assume it will follow the same arc of those movies. Disease is discovered. Disease wrecks havoc. Cure is found. Disease is vanquished. Fade to black. But in reality, it doesn’t work out that way. When exactly would the “fade to black” have kicked in? When the vaccine was found? It wasn’t done yet. The vaccines still had to be tested. How about when the vaccines were tested and confirmed 90%+ effective? Nope, still not done. The vaccines had to be administered. How about when they’re administered? Well, just look at what a mess that’s been in America to date to see how well that’s worked out. You could have made an entire second narrative, starting with the “happily ever after” of the vaccine being effective and then focused around the huge problems of actually getting the cure administered.

And even once we iron those wrinkles out, at what point is it “over”? I don’t know that there will be one.

This isn’t isolated to world-changing events, either. It’s very easy to assume you’ll get your “happily ever after” when long-sought for moments arrive. When you graduate, perhaps. When you marry. When you get a job. When you get a book deal. When you win the lottery. When you reach that goal you’ve been waiting a long time to reach. But if you take a look back at all those potential “happily ever afters,” I think you’ll note that it wasn’t, in fact, happy from then on. You don’t get a job, or you miss a promotion, or you lose the job, or your boss is a bone-head, or you squander your lottery money, or your book tanks, or your spouse is annoying, and on and on and on.

Happily ever after just doesn’t come.

So how in the world is this not depressing?

Over a hundred years ago, newspaper columnist Jenkin Lloyd Jones wrote, “There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks, to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and ravishing wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear, the divorce courts are jammed.

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just ordinary people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. . . .

Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”

This speaks in many ways to what I’ve concluded as well. It’s important to celebrate the victories you get when you get them, but at the same time keep in mind that those victories are not endings. That the page will turn, and new challenges will continue.

I read recently that “the lie outlives the liar.” You can remove a liar from office, but you can’t remove the lies they persuaded people to believe as easily. The people who attacked the Capitol last week aren’t going to suddenly decide that what they did was wrong. (Though it’s been amusing to me to see how many of them have now spoken up after their arrests to explain that they were really just there to watch what was going on, and that they personally weren’t protesting anything. They walked through open doors. They picked up zip ties they ran across, and were looking for a policeman to return them to. Many many excuses . . . )

Trump will be out of office next week. It becomes that much more important for us to continue to press for truth and transparency from our leaders. To not let the Democrats now do all the things they reviled Republicans for doing for the past four years. To not assume we’ve reached our happily ever after.

Likewise, we need to keep pressing for people to social distance and to wear masks, even though a vaccine is currently being administered. Thousands of people continue to die every day, and hundreds of thousands continue to contract the disease.

In our personal lives, it’s important to not wait for some big life changing event to begin making changes or taking action. It’s easy to say to yourself, “I’ll do that when COVID is over,” or decide to delay things until something else is in place. Sure, sometimes you have to do that. I’ve got a kitchen renovation I really want to do, and money to do it with, but I’ve been hesitating (and will continue to hesitate) until I have more certainty about what the future holds. Committing tens of thousands of dollars to cabinets and countertops when there’s a decent chance you’ll need that money for food and clothing doesn’t seem like a good call.

But I also believe there will always be reasons to not do things you want to do, just as there will always be the temptation to plan up to a point and then assume all your troubles will be over. That just doesn’t happen. But it does mean we can choose to act today to make changes we want to see happen. Just because there isn’t a happily ever after doesn’t mean those mile markers aren’t important. It means we can be happy now, and the happiness we have now can be extended to the happiness we’ll have in the future.

I don’t know. Maybe the post ended up being bleak anyway. I suppose it all depends on how you read it. Just know that for me, as I look at it, knowing there’s no happily ever after motivates me to be find happiness in the present. To not wait for some outside thing to change, but to be the change I want to see. Take that thought for what it’s worth.

Look at it this way: it’s Friday! Weekend! We can be happy about the weekend while still acknowledging that a new week will begin in just a few short days. That’s no reason not to enjoy the weekend, however . . .

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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.

The Problem with Fictional Dystopias

I read Animal Farm just barely, the first time I’ve ever read it. (Somehow I missed it when I was going through high school, though I know that’s when many people first encounter it.) It’s a very good book, and it makes some excellent observations on how politics often works out. It also presents a very bleak view of the whole process.

(I just realized I assumed everyone is familiar with Animal Farm, but that’s likely not the case. For those of you who aren’t, it’s another book by George Orwell (of 1984 fame), about a farm where the animals revolt against humans and end up running the farm on their own. They come up with their own system of government and set out to make a utopia for all animals. Things don’t really go according to plan . . . )

I’ve taken some time to read or re-read a number of dystopian novels over the past while. Animal Farm. The Handmaid’s Tale. 1984. And a ton of dystopias in YA, such as Hunger Games. It’s been scary how prescient so many of these books have been. Written well before the events of the present day, they’ve still managed to guess a lot of the techniques and arguments that would be made by people in an effort to essentially create these sorts of dystopian states. Some of that is undoubtedly because there’s a long history of people trying to grab more power for themselves, and those approaches don’t really tend to change that much over time.

Which made me wonder why more people don’t see it for what they are. 1984 stands out in particular for today’s troubles. It seems like such a clear takedown of Trump and what he’s tried to do. Why can’t other people see that?

As I’ve thought about it, I think the trouble stems from the fact that it’s much simpler to see good and bad when you’re looking at it through a story. The pigs in Animal Farm are clearly bad. So are the deluded people in District 1. You’re presented with an obvious problem, and you have a protagonist who’s working against that problem.

In the real world, you don’t get those clear delineations. I know plenty of people who really disliked Obama, for example, and saw many things to object to. So when people are reading a book, they tend to naturally associate with the main character. It becomes very difficult to recognize the traits of the villain in yourself. My friend Dan Wells observed that America is essentially District 1, for example, and I think he was really onto something there. So you’ve got a case where a bunch of District 1 citizens are reading about the evils of District 1, unable to recognize the fact that they themselves are District 1.

This is in no way a Republican or Democrat problem. I think this is a general tendency of people, to think the best of themselves and be much more ready to see the worst in other people. I’m sure I do it, and I’m sure the Biden administration will fall victim to it, though I’d like to think they won’t quite revel in it to the extent that the Trump administration has . . .

What can we do about it? I’d say the biggest thing we can do is to regularly check ourselves. Think about what we’re doing and why, and ask ourselves how we’re doing on a broad scale. Regular, honest self-reflection is something that would help many, many people improve, and if you improve as a people, you improve as a country.

The easiest way to know that you’re not being honest enough with yourself is when you think you’re 100% right. When you see the other side as totally villainous, and your side as completely virtuous. I think it would be fascinating to write a book from the point of view of a District 1 person. Someone who’s totally drank the kool-aid and is convinced they’re right. Of course, I’m not sure how readable and interesting that book would be. Imagine Harry Potter from Umbridge’s point of view. I tend to think they’d view it as a tragedy, or be very frustrated that the villain ends up winning.

Perhaps a more interesting approach would be a book that alternates between viewpoint characters, with a District 1 person contrasted with a District 12 person. The easy way out would be to have the District 1 person realize at the end of the book that they were wrong and District 12 was right. The more accurate, true to life approach would be to have both of them realize they were right and wrong.

(I might have to think about that idea some more. It really appeals to me . . .)

Anyway. Just some dystopian related thoughts I’m having as we’re all living through the current dystopia of our lives. Happy Wednesday, everybody!

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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.

The Best (and Worst) Media I Consumed in 2020

A little bit later than I’d like this year, but the wonderful thing about logging everything I read and watch is that it’s a pretty simple thing to look back and sum things up whenever I choose to do it.

2020 was (obviously) a strange year. I had to really force myself to get to my 52 books for the year, probably because unless a book was really gripping, I had a hard time focusing on reading. Distractions like a global pandemic seem to do that to me. Go figure. But I got there, and I actually broke my page number record (since I’ve been keeping track.) I took some time to see how everything has shaken out for me from a media perspective over the past several years (since I started logging.) Here’s an overview:

YearBooksPagesMoviesTV Seasons20153816,4011483620163814,137913820175218,628883320185218,699682620195221,009573920205221,27712629

I was really surprised to see how many movies and TV seasons I used to watch. If I’m wondering where I’ve been carving out all the time I’ve needed to do the other things on my plate, it’s clear at least one area that’s been winnowed down.

I’m not honestly sure what I think about that, really. On the one hand, it’s easy to say movies and television are extraneous, and so what if I stop watching as many. On the other, I’ve always thought of myself as both a well-watched AND a well-read person, and I’m particularly troubled to see the number of movies dipping so precipitously. Then again, I do believe some of what used to be movies is being turned into full blown television shows, so I suppose there’s some mushiness to those boundaries. It’s interesting to me that, in times of stress, I turned to more movies as escape. Movies are wonderful, because you consume them all at one sitting. No long term commitment. I might begin to think about adding a movie goal, but I’m not sure about it, so I’m not going to just yet.

Clearly my reading goal is stretching me, since I keep getting to 52 and no higher. Though it’s interesting to see how I’ve begun to take on bigger books, with that total of pages read creeping up each year.

Anyway. That’s it from a bird’s eye point of view. What did I think about the actual things I read and watched? As usual, I’ll give you my 10s and 9s for each, and then for film and television I’ll give you my worst. (Out of professional courtesy, I don’t tell people about the books I really disliked, though I might make some broad comments about them.)

NOTE: These are organized first by number score, and then within that by when I watched them, from earliest in the year to latest. I’m not putting the individual scores in order.

Best Books of 2020:

The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood (10/10)Gardens of the Moon, by Steven Erikson (10/10)Memories of Ice, by Steven Erikson (10/10)Underlord, by Will Wight (9/10)The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis (9/10)Wintersteel, by Will Wight (9/10)

Honorable Mentions (8.5/10)

Lost and Found, by Orson Scott CardThe Last Emperox, by John ScalziUncrowned, by Will Wight

Best Movies and TV Seasons of 2020:

1917 (10/10)The Two Popes (10/10)Up (10/10)His Girl Friday (10/10)12 Angry Men (10/10)Pirates of Penzance (10/10)Inglorious Basterds (10/10)The Queen’s Gambit (season 1) (10/10)No Country for Old Men (10/10)It’s a Wonderful Life (10/10)A Marriage Story (9.5/10)Joker (9.5/10)The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (season 3) (9.5/10)The Producers (original) (9.5/10)Rear Window (9.5/10)Hamilton (9.5/10)Ghostbusters (original) (9.5/10)Bugsy Malone (9/10)Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (9/10)The Good Place (season 5) (9/10)Strange Brew (9/10)Titanic (9/10)The Walk (9/10)The Martian (9/10)Stranger Things (season 1) 9/10The Muppet Movie (9/10)Stranger Things (season 3) 9/10Big (9/10)WALL-E (9/10)Field of Dreams (9/10)Interstellar (9/10)West Side Story (9/10)Chariots of Fire (9/10)Moonstruck (9/10)The Great Escape (9/10)The Philadelphia Story (9/10)O Brother, Where Art Thou? (9/10)Bringing Up Baby (9/10)Miller’s Crossing (9/10)Soul (9/10)

Honorable Mentions (8.5/10)

ContagionUHFArgoKnives OutMy Man GodfreyRoman HolidaySabrina (original)The Last CrusadeDark (season 1)Raising ArizonaUmbrella Academy (season 2)A Knight’s TaleThe Twelfth Man

You’ll note that my viewing was pretty stacked, mainly because I was rewatching classic movies with Daniela, and it’s hard to go wrong with those. But I didn’t just watch good movies:

Worst Movies and TV Seasons of 2020:

Scoob (1/10)The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (2/10)Parasite (3/10)Succession (season 1) (3/10)The Hate U Give (4/10)

Dishonorable Mention (5/10)

The Hobbit (Rankin/Bass)The Sorceror’s Stone The Chamber of Secrets

Yes, a 5/10 is technically a wash in my rating scheme. It means I neither liked nor disliked the movie. However, since I generally only finish movies I like, and I don’t rate movies (or TV seasons) I don’t finish, my rating generally skews toward the higher end of the scale. So getting a 5/10 is a sign that I have no real desire to watch the movie again . . .

As for books, did I read anything a 5 or below? Just two, and nothing that was too-too terrible.

An adapted screenplay-turned-novel by a famous author in the 40s (4/10)A classic novel by another famous counterculture author (5/10)

And there you have it. Quite the sampling over the course of the year. I really enjoyed revisiting the classic movies, and I hope to get back to that sometime in the next bit.

Watch or read anything great (or terrible) yourself?

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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.

New Blinds!

Yes, we’ve come to the point in my life where getting new blinds for the house is a Big Accomplishment. Twenty years ago, I wouldn’t have thought I’d reach this point until I was past retirement age, but time does funny things to you, and our old curtains were getting long in the tooth. Plus, I had no idea just how complex it would be getting new blinds.

For one thing, there are about a gazillion different types of blinds you can go with. Blinds, rollers, shades, curtains, and more. And what about color? What about design? What about fabric or material? For a man who likes committing to any one thing about as much as he likes going to the dentist, that’s way too many choices. And even once you’ve made your choice, there are a thousand different places to buy the dang things. Which is the best place to get them?

Look, folks. I’m a librarian. I like straightforward research questions with straightforward answers. “What are the best blinds for me to purchase” seems like the first, but it doesn’t have anything like the second. That said, I still gave it the old college try. It helped that Denisa made the choice with me.

In the end, we went with double-celled, light-blocking cellular shades, and we bought them from cellularwindowshades.com. Why did we make those choices? We liked the fact that these shades add some good insulation to your windows. We liked the company because they had straightforward videos describing how to measure and install the shades, and explanations about what to look for in a good shade. It also helped that they were doing 50% off for the holidays. (They’re still doing 40% off, and no, I’m not being paid at all for this endorsement. I just liked their shades.)

Unfortunately, I discovered that even once you’ve decided on which shades to get and where to get them, actually ordering them is a pain and a half. It took a whole day of my vacation, running around with a tape measure to double and then triple check sizing. If I screwed this up, it would be on me. There were false starts, where we thought we could get one kind of shade, but discovered we couldn’t (our windows aren’t level enough). There were misunderstandings about what dimensions they needed exactly. There were existential crises where I had to figure out what kind of draw string mechanism was best. (For the record, we went with the rather stupidly-named “smoothy cord loop” option, and I’m happy with the decision.)

After all of that, it still cost over $2,000 to get 16 shades for our house, and we didn’t even get all the windows covered. (We’re waiting on construction changes for some of the others. One day, kitchen. One day!)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, the blinds came on Saturday, and I discovered it’s one thing to order the blinds. It’s another to install them. By the end, I was a blind installing machine, but it took a day to get there, and a fair bit of on-the-job learning. It also took a long time to take off the old curtains. (Anyone need some triple-layer, insulated, blackout curtains? One side of some of them are sun bleached, but the other side is pretty solid, and they still do a great job darkening and insulating a room. They’d come with all the hardware as well. Just saying . . .)

The good news is that all the blinds are up, and we’re all very happy with them. Plus, if I ever need a side job, I could probably become a “window blind consultant and installer.” So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

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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.

A New Buy Nothing Group

Denisa has long been a firm believer in doing what she can to help the environment and improve the world around her. She’s taken the kids out each Earth Day to go pick up trash along our street, she’s taught classes at UMF around reducing waste, and she’s been an active participant in different online groups about the topic. She upped her game a few days ago, however, deciding to take the step from being a participant to being a leader, despite the fact that it was a step that put her out of her comfort zone.

On the surface, the Buy Nothing Project seems pretty straightforward: it’s got to be about a bunch of people either trying to get free stuff or avoiding buying new stuff to reduce waste. That’s what I assumed when Denisa first started talking about it, at least. But it turns out it’s much more than that. The idea is to use social media as a tool for connecting communities, eliminating needless purchases, helping other people, and making new friends. That sounds like a really ambitious goal for a group, but this video gives a good overview about it:

They’re very specific about the rules for the group. For one thing, people are limited to belonging to one group only, determined by their geography. (This helps avoid anyone just joining a bunch of groups and going around trying to score free stuff.) You’re allowed to post things you’re looking to give away or things you’re looking to get. No money or bartering for anything. They’re all supposed to be essentially gifts. And what was most surprising to me, the groups are intended to be fairly small: 1,000 people or less.

The reason is simple: the group hopes to connect people. To get people to know their neighbors and start doing nice things for them. (It’s not just about giving away free things. It also encourages people to post expressions of gratitude or offer services like teaching a skill or helping with a chore.) If the group gets too large, then it’s both unwieldy to manage, and the close knit community can’t really flourish as well. With that in mind, they suggest limiting the geographical footprint of any one group to 10-25,000 residents.

Denisa loved the idea, but there was one big problem: no group existed in our area. Maine has a few, but if you live outside those boundaries, you’re not allowed to join. So Denisa reached out to find out about how to go about creating a new official group for the Buy Nothing Project. The Buy Nothing Mt. Blue Area, ME Facebook group was born, and she’s working on drumming up interest now. She thought limiting to the school district was a natural boundary most people already recognize in the area. It’s people who are already connected through schools, after all. So that means that towns like Jay or Strong are out of range, unfortunately, but if you live in the Mt. Blue school district and any of this sounds interesting, I encourage you to give it a shot. If you live outside that area, then check to see if there’s a group already in your area. If there isn’t, you could always form one!

Social media doesn’t have to be a divisive thing, and I really like the idea of it being used for community building this way. Denisa’s been doing a ton of research on how to make a successful group and how to make the page as useful as possible, and it’s been nice to see her start diving into the ins and outs of a platform, since that’s usually something she’s shied away from. Go check it out, and join if you meet the criteria.

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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.

Dismay at a Lack of Empathy

I’m behind on work, so I don’t have much time to post today. I did, however, want to step in to just offer one observation on something tangentially related to the [points wildly at everything that’s happened in the past year or more] that we’ve all been going through.

Like many of you, I’ve been shocked by much of what we’ve undergone as a country. COVID, Black Lives Matter protests, insurrection, quarantines, and more. In many ways, I feel like I’ve been walking through one long gauntlet of events that in any other year would have been considered THE defining event of the year, except they’ve all been rolled into one in a way that makes them all feel like par for the course.

And so I think it makes sense that I’m struggling. Struggling to keep a positive outlook. Struggling to help my children get through all of this and still stay sane. (Remember how horrid middle school was? Now think about trying to do it in 2020. My middle school years were a cake walk in comparison.) Struggling to keep my creative writing going. Struggling to maintain my friendships even during social distancing.

I’m trying to keep in mind that everyone in the country (and the world) is struggling as well, but there is one area where I’m particularly disappointed in what I see as a shortfall in far more people than I would have thought heading into all this.

It feels to me like many people have a severe lack of empathy. I don’t know any other way to put it. People who are looking at the almost 1.9 million people who have died of COVID this year (370,000 in the US alone) and dismiss them. Who look at the hurt so many people of color were (and are) feeling earlier this year, and dismiss the protests or condemn them. Who watched the insurrection at the Capitol yesterday and say that it’s no big deal and being overblown.

Because as upsetting as all of this has been to me, the gaslighting attitude that’s been pointed at me by some has only made it worse. The way some will casually shrug it off and tell me I’m overreacting, or worse yet, dismiss it with some pithy saying.

I understand many of these events have had political undertones, and that there are multiple ways to view them. I genuinely try to understand people who disagree with me on any number of topics, and I try to see things from their point of view. I’ll admit to being worn down to the point that my tolerance for this attitude has gotten much, much shorter lately. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get upset anymore when people continue to take that approach, whether it’s with me or my friends.

Yesterday was traumatic for me, even as far away from the events as I was. It was likely the same for many of you. And the one thing we don’t need in that situation is to have someone come by and tell us we’re wrong for feeling upset. If a child falls and scrapes a knee, do you comfort the child, or tell them there are plenty of people dying of cancer, so they should really suck it up?

I don’t know who my audience for this post is. The people who already feel what I’ve been going through already know all about it, and the people who have been casually dismissing all that pain seem to be past the point of caring. I always thought “being a kind person” was a pretty low bar. It doesn’t really cost me anything other than discomfort now and then. Sort of like putting on a mask when I’m out in public. It’s not a big reach. And I realize that we all have different capacities for kindness, and troubling times can use up those capacities much more quickly.

But I hadn’t expected them to wear out as fast as they did.

So maybe the next time someone is expressing how upset or hurt they are on social media, or how shocked or disappointed, if you’re tempted to speak up, ask a few simple questions:

Do I know this person well enough so that my words would really be helpful?Is what I’m about to say really going to help them, or is it only going to antagonize them?Am I posting to help them feel better, or to help myself feel better?

Almost all of the time, if the answer to either of the first two questions is no, then you shouldn’t post anything at all. If the answer to the third is yes, then ask yourself how good a friend or contact you are with that person to begin with.

This is one case where “literally saying nothing at all” is free, and it would actively help the other person far more than any one liner you’ve cooked up in the last five seconds. It might be about a topic you’re passionate about. It might be something you’re convinced you’re right on. But trying to engage people when they’re upset by leading with the argument that they’re actually not upset (or upset for false reasons) is far worse than just keeping your comment to yourself.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

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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.

Some Glimmers of Political Hope, Followed by Horror

I fully realize that there’s a lot going on in our country today, with many citizens convinced the election was rigged, others convinced Trump is doing his best to steal the election, and even more doubt being stirred up by the election in Georgia. Listening to Trump’s diatribe against the election and seeing all the protestors in DC right now really disappoints me, and would typically leave me feeling despondent.

However.

I also see some areas that actually give me hope. First, there’s the fact that Georgia held a run off election that essentially confirmed what had happened in the first election in that state (a state whose electoral votes are being accused as being rigged today). Sure, Trump tried to claim that Democrats just rigged the election a second time, because they got away with it the first time, and doubtless there will be a significant number of Trump supporters who believe him. But to me, the runoff election showed the country is still working and will continue to work after Trump is gone. (Though the process to have Trump leave is far rockier than I would like.)

But more than that election, I’m encouraged to hear Republican politicians finally speak out strongly against this charade of pretending the election is rigged. Mitch McConnell is far from my favorite politician. (Very, very far. I believe much of the harm Trump has done to the country couldn’t have been done without McConnell’s support.) But to hear him get up and call for this effort to be voted down was really encouraging. Toomey, Romney. and other Senators–seeing members of the party finally take public stances against all of this is at least something.

And yet.

Even as I was writing this, the debate on the Senate floor was interrupted as Trump protesters swarmed the Capitol. I literally watched as thousands of them flooded the grounds, with some of them even going into the rotunda itself. And sure, watching many of them makes them look like nothing more than bemused Americans, filming everything with their phone cameras and taking pictures of what they’re doing. But I also realize that all it would take in a situation like that would be for a few confrontations for it all to spiral out of control. It was deeply troubling to watch. Evacuating members of the House and Senate? Evacuating the Vice President?

Trump has consistently lied about the election, pushing people the believe things without any real proof. I worry what might happen today and even more what might happen tonight.

Can we just have this over with already? I don’t know what else to say. I’m speechless, and it’s happening on live television.