Bryce Moore's Blog, page 95
February 12, 2020
Disney Planning 2020
It’s been a while since we went to Disney World. Over three years, in fact. And that means that it’s time to go again! People sometime ask me for tips on Disney planning when they’re looking at a visit in their future. I have some general ones, but each time I go myself, it feels like there are tons of new decisions to make and things to figure out.
Take this time. I’ve said before that the most economical way to do Disney is just that: to do Disney and nothing else. That means no trips to Universal or Sea World or anywhere else. Disney gets its money out of you in the first few days. The cost for a one day park hopper plus ticket in June is $215. The The cost for a four day is $568. cost for a six day is $615. The cost for an eight day is $653. See a trend there? Each extra day you add at a Disney park beyond the first few just ends up tacking on $20 or so, but the first day will set you back $200+.
So if you just want Disney fun, stick to Disney World and go nowhere else. However, this time around, we had decided we wanted to add Universal to the mix. Yes, it’s a bad decision from a budgetary standpoint. But Muggles need to Muggle, and the only place you can do Harry Potter stuff is at Universal Studios. So it was time to dive into Universal planning.
In order to get the full Harry Potter experience, you need park-to-park passes at Universal. Since we haven’t been in well over a decade, I knew we’d want to do both parks anyway. But I didn’t really want to stay too long at Universal, because doing three or four days at Universal and three or four days at Disney would be the absolute most expensive way of approaching things. Two days at Universal and six at Disney would be cheaper-ish. But let’s be real: adding Universal threw the budget out the window. The new question wasn’t “how can I go do Disney as cheaply as possible,” but rather, “How can I fit in Disney and Universal, go on the rides I want to go on, and do that as economically as I can?”
It would take me forever to go through all the steps I took to find the answer to that, so I’ll just fast forward to the end result:
We’re starting off our trip staying on site at Universal. They’ve got a deal where you can stay at one of their nicer properties and get what amounts to a permanent fast pass at their theme parks, reducing all lines to something like 5-10 minutes. This way, we should be able to do everything we want to at both Universal parks and not have to worry about crowd sizes. Yes, the hotel costs more than what we’re paying for the rest of the trip, but I was able to buy it with Chase points, which gave me a 33% discount, and was essentially free, since I already have the points.I also bought the Universal tickets with Chase points. Again, that gave me the 33% off deal. (This is because I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which lets my points count for 150% of their value when I buy through the Chase portal. Typically this isn’t a great deal, as you can find better discounts elsewhere, but in this case, it turned out to be pretty sweet. I was going to pay the money anyway, and my points turned out to be worth about 1.5 cents per point. Not the best value, but far from the worst.For the Disney part, we bought six day park hopper plus tickets through officialticketcenter.com. Disney just raised their prices this week for these tickets, but you can still get them at the old reduced price through other dealers. (This is why I finally pulled the trigger on the tickets.) One of the days, we’re planning on doing a water park, but I still paid for the sixth day for actual theme park access. Why? Because of fast passes. My plan is to still go to one of the parks in the evening that day, and pick which park based on which fast passes I still want to use up. Going to Disney and waiting in lines is a huge no-no for me, and so I’m trying to use all the tricks I can to avoid it. Paying an extra $20 to be able to go on three of the best rides in a park? Seems like a deal to me.We’ll be staying at the Doubletree Suites at Disney Springs, not on property. Why not on property? Because the Doubletree is twice as big for cheaper. It has a fridge, free breakfast (since I’m a Hilton Diamond member, it gives Denisa and me free breakfast, and we can each bring a kid for free. Maybe we’ll switch off for which kid doesn’t eat free each morning. Not sure.) But yay for a place to store leftovers, since we won’t be doing free disney dining this time. (Tragically, we could have gotten free dining if I’d been more on the ball and bought the trip at the beginning of January. Alas, I was not, and we missed out. I’m not too choked up about it, though. Free dining is a LOT of food, and we’d have had to pay about $1,200 more than what we’re paying for tickets and the hotel, which means “free dining” was actually “eat a ton of food at Disney for six days for $1,200.” That might still end up being a deal, but it depends on how much food we ended up eating . . .Staying at the Doubletree also lets us get access to Fastpasses 60 days in advance, instead of the normal 30 day window you get just buy buying tickets. This increases the odds of getting the fastpasses of our choice, which is key to avoiding those pesky lines.I’ve signed up for Touringplans, a service that shows you which parks are least busy which days, and suggests which rides to go on when–all in an effort to avoid the long ones. I’ve done Ridemax before, but in the intervening years, it seemed like Touringplans has upped their game, while Ridemax stayed stagnant. It was all of $15, so why not?I got my tickets through Southwest, since there’s a direct route from Manchester, and Denisa still has the companion pass, meaning I get to fly for free. Yay for points!
All told, that means I paid out of pocket for the Disney hotel and the Disney tickets. The Universal tickets and hotel and airfare were all covered with points. If I had paid for the whole trip without points, it would have cost . . . around $9,000 plus food? That would have been a whole lot of money, and I would have felt quite bad for paying for all of it. By using points, I shaved $5,000 off that cost, which brings it to a much more manageable amount and makes me feel like all those hours figuring out which credit cards to use and get have paid off. (Even if it took almost all my Chase and Southwest points to do it . . .)
Anyway–that’s all I’ve got for you for now. If you have any questions on anything, I’m happy to answer them. I’ll let you know how the trip goes when I get back in July. The biggest questions I still have are how hot it’ll be, and how crowded it will get. It’s been a loooong time since I went to Orlando in summer. I’m hoping all my planning lets me avoid the worst of things, but you never know.
Wish me luck!
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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.
February 11, 2020
Happy Birthday, Daniela!
Believe it or not, but DC is officially 12 years old, which means I think it’s about time I start referring to her on the blog by her actual name, and not just initials. Of course, with Daniela, people have been thinking she’s way older than 12 for quite some time, so it’s about time her age is catching up with her.
These days, Daniela’s focused on a few main activities. She’s a big fan of Nordic skiing, practicing with her team every day after school and going to different races during the week and on the weekend. When she’s not doing that, she loves practicing her cello, and has been known to practice it for over an hour at a stretch without even needing to be asked to start in the first place.
She’s a fairly competitive person, and she loves playing games of pretty much any flavor. One of the things that impresses me most about her, however, is how she’s able to have fun whether she’s winning or losing, and how her desire to win doesn’t make her enjoy things any less when she loses. I don’t know where she inherited that trait, but it definitely wasn’t from me.
She’s not as huge of a Lord of the Rings fan as she was last year, but she still loves watching movies and reading books. No one series stands out more than any other right now, though she still dreams of making it to New Zealand one day.
When she’s not doing cross country skiing, she’s a fan of downhill as well. I was impressed when we were skiing in Utah how game she was to go around with Tomas wherever he was heading. Of course, he’d ski straight down the steepest parts he could find, and Daniela would pause at the top, analyze the hill, and then take the reasonable way down.
She’s also a huge self starter (within reason, for a twelve year old). She’s inherited a big chunk of the goal-focused mindset, and when she has a plan in front of her, she’s great at churning through the different steps and following it through to the end. But she’s also able to do it having fun. I remember on our plane home from Utah this past January, she was able to sit there listening to music and dancing in her seat for hours on end.
On the docket today? She’s going skiing after school, and then we’ll have a family party in the evening. She requested spring rolls and chocolate cake for dessert.
Anyway–if you see her today, wish her a very happy birthday.
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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.
February 10, 2020
2020 Oscars Review
Another year, another Oscars. This time around, I’d seen most of the movies that garnered a slew of nominations. I also just barely panned the movie that won best picture, Parasite. So first, a response to that win.
Some asked me if Parasite’s win means I need to change my review of the movie. Of course I won’t. I stand by my feeling that this is an Emperor’s New Clothes sort of a win. Don’t get me wrong: I was happy to see a non-English language movie gobble up some awards, and I think that’s something that’s been a long time coming. I just wish it had happened with a movie that was better than Parasite.
As I’ve read the many good reviews of the movie, I keep seeing people say they loved it because it was “such a ride.” They had no idea what would happen next, and they just enjoyed the whirlwind twists and turns. I actually felt that was a gimmick of the movie, and not anything to write home about. There’s a fine line to walk to make a plot unpredictable but still rewarding. I mean, you could start a movie out with Mary Poppins and then have Russia nuke Cherry Tree Lane about a third of the way through, turning the rest of the movie into a Mad Max-ian rush through a horrific wasteland, as Mary tries to save Jane and Michael from child slavers. No one would see that “twist” coming, but . . . so what? The unpredictable plots I love are the ones that I kick myself for not guessing. Where the underlying hints are there for what came later, but it’s still surprising when it happens.
That wasn’t Parasite.
I personally worry that now that it’s won Best Picture, many more mainstream people will watch it, and it will become another example to them of why Oscar movies are stupid, and foreign movies are as well. Which would be a shame, because both statements are patently untrue.
But anyway. This post isn’t intended to be another critique of Parasite. There’s plenty to say about the rest of the awards ceremony. I’ll handle that as a series of bullets:
There was no host again this year. I know this is a new trend happening with a number of awards shows. I didn’t miss the host last year, but this year . . . I thought the show really meandered quite a bit. It’s like they didn’t want to pay for a host, but still wanted the host elements in place. Having Steve Martin and Chris Rock do a standup schtick at the beginning felt tacked on (and not very funny). The opening musical number was rushed, and then dragged, a strange feeling for a strange number. All in all, the whole evening felt like it had been thrown together by Frankenstein, and it gave it all a haphazard feeling I didn’t like.The Best Song numbers were also all over the place. Elton John’s was . . . fine. I don’t think I’m going to be listening to it again. Randy Newman’s song had all of two verses, but it felt like it went on for ten. I enjoyed the Frozen II number with the multilingual Elsas, but then again, I was a linguistics major. The song from Harriet was moving and well done, but it just highlighted how weak some of the other presentations were. I know many wondered why Eminem of all people showed up, but to me, that was a stark reminder of songs that were actually good and impactful, and how far most of the others were from that standard. I thought Eminem’s surprise visit was one of the highlights of the show.Overall, I got 15/24 of my picks, which is a good sign in my book. It means (to me) that the awards aren’t all going according to what people guessed would happen. (Though then again, this year I let my personal opinions of the movie sway me, which might be a reason I did worse than usual. Not sure about that one.) But all told, I like it when no one movie sweeps the show. Parasite won four awards, but that’s as close to a sweep as we got. Yay.I really wish they would mute the audience when they do the In Memoriam. I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue to say it. Clapping for people who have died is tonally wrong, and I hate how it also turns into a popularity contest for those who have died the past year. (And as a side note, why in the world did Kobe Bryant get a spot in the segment? I look him up on IMDB, and he did produce a TV series, but movies? Surely this segment shouldn’t just turn into “people we liked who died this year, even if they have nothing to do with movies,” should it?) ***EDIT*** The illustrious Justin Longhurst pointed out that Bryant actually won an Oscar for an animated adaptation of his poem “Dear Basketball.” It’s totally fine to honor previous Oscar winners at the Oscars (duh), and I officially withdraw my critique.I’m not a big fashionista or anything, but can we all agree that Kristen Wiig’s lasagna dress should never be repeated? I mean, I couldn’t remember who wore it last night, and all I had to do was google “lasagna dress: to find out I wasn’t along in my opinion . . .Acceptance speeches were all over the place. I enjoyed Laura Dern’s quite a lot, and I liked the slew of Parasite speeches. Joaquin Phoenix’s speech was . . . unique and rambling. And a reminder that people feel impassioned about all sorts of causes.We didn’t do a full blown party this time around. It was too close to Groundhog Day to really feel the need for it. But I did make brownies and buy a slew of toppings, so we had an impromptu Brownie Sundae Sunday, which went over well with the kids. I won the Oscar the Grouch hat by a mile this time. DC was closest to me with 8. Poor MC managed to somehow get none of her picks right, which I actually think takes a knack. I mean, most of the categories had 5 nominees. Just picking at random, you should get 1/5 of your selections right, which would put you around 4 or 5.I dream of them actually sticking to an 11pm finish one of these years. You just can’t tell me it’s not possible to hand out 24 awards in 3 hours. I was plenty tired by the end of the show, and I just wanted it to be over.
All told, I didn’t find the night to be too compelling. Like I said, it lacked unity, and with its deconstructed nature, I started to question which things they decided to keep and if they were all really necessary. That said, I still had a nice evening. What were your thoughts?
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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.
February 7, 2020
Movie Review: Parasite
Parasite is a movie I’d been looking forward to seeing for quite a while. I’d heard so much about it, although in hindsight, it might have raised a red flag that while I’d heard a lot about the movie, I’d heard next to nothing as to what it was about, if that makes sense.
Denisa and I finished it yesterday. There were definitely things to like about the film, but overall I found it . . .overrated. Seriously overrated. I don’t think this movie would be making a splash at all if it weren’t for the fact that it’s foreign and somehow the snowball effect has taken over, so that people are talking about it as a phenomenon, and not as an actual film. (Though full disclaimer, I also really disliked Snowpiercer, the director’s earlier flash in the pan film, so perhaps I just don’t like his style.)
The film focuses on the story of a family of con men who turn their focus to a rich family across town, slowly taking over various servant positions in their household without letting on that they’re all related. And then things take a big zig to the left, but I won’t get into that right now. It’s definitely funny in parts, tense in others, and bewildering in more.
Why didn’t I really like it? It meandered, for one thing. It had no real central “oomph” to the story. I had a hard time relating to any of the characters, which (again) might be due to a lack of cultural understanding on my part. Perhaps if I were more familiar with South Korean norms and social structure, more of this would have made sense. But a movie shouldn’t have to rely on those to really zing. (Similarly, I’m sure I would have liked Once Upon a Time in Hollywood even more if I were more up to speed on all the references Tarantino kept throwing in, but the movie still worked well without that knowledge. That’s not the case here.)
I found the plot haphazard, the acting so-so, the ultimate conflicts contrived. It’s the #26 movie on IMDB right now? How? Why? I found nothing in it to warrant it getting such rave reviews. It’s a glorified art house movie, and I feel like this one’s a real case of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Was it bad? I’m still kind of on the fence on that one. There were pieces of good things in it. It certainly wasn’t predictable, but neither is a rabid pit bull. Lack of predictability doesn’t make something good. In the end, I think I’d give it a 3/10. (Remember, a 5/10 for me is neutral. It’s a movie I sat through and just sort of . . . experienced. Didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it. Lukewarm.) Parasite had things that I liked. Parts that I was really engaged in, and for that, it doesn’t get a lower rating. But taken as a whole, I didn’t really enjoy it. I have no desire to watch it again. No desire to recommend it to anyone.
And I’ll be really disappointed if it lurches its way out of the Oscars with any awards in hand.
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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.
February 6, 2020
Adventures in Role-Playing Online
While I was out in Utah, I had the chance to do something I certainly had never thought I’d end up doing. My friend Dan Wells has started an online roleplaying group with some of his author friends. Typecast RPG essentially has him DM the other authors as they play through different campaigns he designs for them, all of it done on camera, live on Twitch and then stored on YouTube for later viewing. Dan asked me if I’d be up for playing through a session, and I happily agreed, even though my experience doing actual tabletop RPGs is quite limited.
Me being me, I agreed to do it, added it to my calendar, and then thought nothing more of it until about an hour before it was supposed to start and I was actually on site, meeting the other authors. (Who are the authors? Glad you asked. Howard Tayler (who writes the Shlock Mercenary web comic), Brian McClellan (author of the excellent Powder Mage series), Mari Murdock (author of some of Fantasy Flight Games’ Legend of the Five Rings series), and Ethan Sproat (Director of Proposal Development at Utah Valley University). Charlie Holmberg (author of the Paper Magician series and others) was away on a trip, so she wasn’t in the session I participated in.
I got there, asked a bit about what ruleset we were using (D&D 5e), chatted for a little about what was happening in the storyline and where my character fit in, and then we were off and running. All told, the episode ran about two and a half hours, and you can see me in all my glory here:
What was it like? Well, the episode I was on turned out to be very exposition-heavy, meaning that there were a lot of huge, world altering reveals that meant a whole ton to anyone who’d been following along with the campaign, but left me fairly confused and fifth-wheely. Imagine if Frodo’s distant cousin showed up during the Council of Elrond, popping in for a visit while he was in the area, and then suckered into attending the long meeting. He might be a good fighter, but there wasn’t much cause to actually fight anything at any point. (Even though I did get to punch the lights out of one person. Natural 20!)
I’ll admit, I was tempted to mess everything up a couple of times, particularly when they were all gathered around and the big bad evil dude was detailing just how evil he really was. I wanted to just start trying to stab him to see what happened, but I decided I wouldn’t give into the whim, and I held myself back. Didn’t want to ruin their whole story.
Would I do it again? You bet! I had a fun time, even if most of it was just spectating. I think it would be a blast to do more regularly, and if I could carve out time in my schedule, it would be a great way to spend it. Will it ever happen again, though? Not likely. There are many, many things I love about Maine, but if staying in the thick of the fantasy writing scene had been my big goal, then leaving Utah was a huge mistake.
In any case, thanks to Dan for having me on, and to the rest of the gang for putting up with my newbness. If any of what I’ve written sounds appealing to you, I encourage you to check out Typecast RPG on YouTube and Twitch.
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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.
February 5, 2020
Movie Review: Joker
I’ve been putting off watching this movie for quite some time, mainly concerned it was just going to be a disturbing downer of a film. I’m already skittish about the way violence is glorified in media, and I’d read a number of articles critiquing this film for encouraging more violence. But it’s one thing to read an article about a movie, and it’s another to actually watch it. So I decided to skip the State of the Union and watch a different Joker, instead.
It’s an impactful film. One that manages to both make a statement and entertain at the same time, though I use the term “entertain” loosely. It’s definitely disturbing, and I actually found it interesting that I chose to watch it instead of Trump, because in many ways, the message of the movie applies just as much to Trump as it does to violence, mass shootings, and many of today’s societal problems. But more on that in a bit.
The movie traces the downward arc of a man’s descent into madness. A Joker origin story that matches up well with all the superhero origin stories we’ve been inundated with over the years. While it might not have been as fun to watch as seeing Spiderman rise to the challenge and become a real hero, in many ways it is perhaps a more “important” arc to study. How do people become monsters?
It’s comforting to just pass it off as something that happens on its own. That people are born horrific, and so they deserve to be locked up once they reveal how terrible they really are. And it’s the route almost always used in superhero movies. The villain is the villain. They’ll get a few scenes to try and justify their behavior loosely, but the main focus is on what the hero does to win.
The thing is, it’s easy to pass off people we don’t know as villainous. As soon as it’s someone we’re acquainted with, who we know well, then dismissing them lightly becomes much more difficult. This applies to entire peoples as much as it does to individuals. It’s much easier to vilify “the gays” or “the illegals” (or, for that matter, “the Republicans”) when they’re held at arms’ length. When you don’t actually know any of them, and instead can stereotype to your heart’s content.
Joker in this movie is not a sane man, but he’s a man who’s at least been trying to do the right thing. Going to therapy. Taking his medication. Trying to live his dreams. And he’s a man who’s been let down by society time and time again. Can we understand why he snaps in the end and embraces the arch-villain he becomes? Perhaps, at least to an extent. But the more important takeaway for me is just how much Gotham is responsible for the creation of the Joker.
In this way, America is also responsible for its greatest problems. For its bigotry. Mass shootings. Inequality. For Donald Trump. He didn’t come out of nowhere. He ascended to where he is now because we let him. Encouraged him, even. Some of us did it (and continue to do it) actively, whether by voting for him (for whatever reason), campaigning for him, sharing his speeches, wearing his hats, etc. Some of us did it indirectly. Watching his television show back when it was on. Thinking he’d be a good candidate to go against Clinton, because he’d be an “easy win.” Ignoring him and hoping he’ll go away.
It’s important to remember that all of the troubles Trump represents for so many aren’t exclusive to the man. Voting him out of office (or back into office) won’t make those problems go away. He’s the symptom, not the cause, just as Joker is the result of the garbage Gotham wasn’t willing to handle. The problems that were easier to just gloss over than actually deal with. The garbage strike in the movie just brings this fact up to the surface. You can ignore the trash, but it all ends up somewhere. When the system shuts down, it just makes it harder to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Does the movie glorify violence? I don’t think so. Quite the contrary, though of course that won’t be the case for some of its viewers. Just as Arthur Fleck can sit through a stand up routine and laugh at all the wrong times, there are people out there who will view this movie and walk away thinking Joker is a hero. That’s troubling, but it’s all the more reason for the movie to be seen and understood, because those are the people we need to figure out how to help, or at least how to contain, so that they remain at the Arthur Fleck level and never reach Joker status.
I could go on and on about this movie, and that’s a sign of how strong it is. How, then, do I rate it? There, I’m torn. It’s in the 9-10/10 range. Is it perfect? I’m not sure. It leaves a terrible aftertaste, and it feels slimy to give a movie like that a 10, but that’s the point, isn’t it? As I think over the various aspects of the movie, I have a hard time finding faults. The acting is tremendous. Joaquin Phoenix does a superb job inhabiting that role. The direction and production are all spot on. If there is a flaw, it’s that it’s predictable in many ways. Some of that is to be expected, but some of it just didn’t quite line up. (Specifically, I’m thinking of the way the film handled Fleck’s girlfriend, though I won’t say more than that.)
So in the end, I think I’ll give it a 9.5, but it’s awfully close. Should you watch it? I’d argue yes, though you should be aware it’s R for scattered language, some very violent scenes, and its disturbing nature throughout. Will it win Oscars? It might. I could see Best Actor, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup as being the likeliest categories, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pick up a few more. I doubt it will be a sweep.
I’m running out of days to watch the rest, but I’m going to keep trying. Up next is Parasite. Not sure when I’ll be able to catch it, though . . .
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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.
February 3, 2020
Efficiency Tip of the Day: Digital Calendars
As I was gearing up for another packed week, I was looking at my calendar this morning, and it occurred to me just how extensively I use it to keep my life in order. I’ve written a lot about my To Do lists and my use of goals to get work done, but I think I’ve shortchanged the extent I use my Google Calendars to stay on top of all my commitments. I don’t think I’d be able to be nearly as efficient if I didn’t use them, and more and more, if something doesn’t make it onto my calendar, it doesn’t get done. (For better or worse . . . )
I have two separate calendars I keep track of at the most basic level. The first is my personal calendar, where I keep all my commitments for home and church. Whether I have to pick the kids up from school, I’ve got tickets for a show, or there’s a church meeting across the state I need to attend, all I need to do (theoretically) is glance at my personal calendar, and I know what needs doing. I will take some time at the beginning of the week to see what’s coming up, and then I get prepared for it.
The great thing about this is that I can add something to my calendar and then not use any brain cells to keep track of it until it’s at a point where I need to worry about it. Of course, this can be both good and bad. Yesterday I realized I’d bought tickets for Denisa and me to go see The Color Purple in Orono this evening. Yay! It’s the calendaring equivalent of finding $20 in your winter coat pocket that you stuck there last year. On the flip side, this morning I realized there were some items I was supposed to put on my calendar for my new church responsibilities. They didn’t make it there, so I didn’t send out an email that was supposed to go out a few weeks ago. Being an effective calendar user can sometimes give you a false sense of confidence, but you need to remember that your calendar is only as good as you let it be.
My second calendar is my work calendar, and I really rely on it a ton, in the same manner I use my personal calendar. All appointments and commitments go on there, and I (almost) never forget one. I love being able to set up recurring meetings, or being able to add something months in advance and have it there waiting for me when the time comes to schedule or plan.
Denisa is a firm believer in a paper calendar, and I know those can be great as well, but for me, I don’t think I could go back to one. For one thing, my work and personal calendars share information with each other. I can see them both at the same time (color coded, naturally) to see when I might have conflicts come up. For another, I can share those calendars with other people, and they can share their calendars with me. I suppose if I really wanted to get things going, I could try to encourage my kids to all go digital as well. Planning out our week can sometimes stress me out, just because there are so many different moving pieces, and sometimes items come up out of nowhere, and I have to put them on my beautifully arranged calendar somehow, even if there isn’t any space for them at first glance. But I realize I can’t inflict my personal calendaring approach on other people, no matter if I might like to.
(Seriously. Another pet peeve is Doodle polls, a tool used by many (including myself) to determine when you can schedule a meeting. You put in a bunch of potential times and have people mark off which times they can meet. But if everyone was just using the same calendaring system, you could have technology take care of all of that mess. Just note who you want to have at the meeting and ask it to find times when everyone is free. But maybe Democrats and Republicans will get along before everyone starts using calendars that much . . .)
Still, I realize there are always ways to improve. Maybe you’ve got a killer calendaring approach that would work even better for me. I’m open to suggestions. How do you stay on top of your schedule, planning-wise? 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.
January 31, 2020
Midlife Crisis?
Back on New Years Eve for our family’s party, we all looked back at what we’d done the past decade and where we thought we’d be a decade from now. We started with MC, who hadn’t even been here for the whole decade. “Coming into existence” is a pretty big accomplishment, and by the end of the next decade, she’ll be dating and in high school. DC went from 1 to 11 (take that, Spinal Tap!), and she’ll be in college, possibly returned from a mission by the end of this next decade. Tomas was in elementary school, and now he’s a sophomore. Within a decade he’ll be doing all sorts of huge things. College. Mission. Maybe even married. He could be a father by the end of the decade.
Then we came to me. I got a fair bit done this last decade, no doubt. Several promotions. MLA President. Published my first novel (and my second!). There was lots to look back on and feel good about. When I turned my focus on what lay ahead, however . . .
“Ten years from now, I think I’ll be doing pretty much what I’m doing now. Director of the library. Writing books on the side. And that’s about it.”
Somehow it felt pretty depressing to say that, and it’s a statement that’s stuck with me ever since we discussed it. On the one hand, it’s nothing to be too upset about. I love my life, and I think I’ve got a great thing going out here in Maine. But on the other hand, it all feels so . . . set. Like my kids are going to be out doing interesting exciting things, and I’m just going to Groundhog Day my way through life. I love the movie, but the thought of living it for the next ten years isn’t the rosiest thought I’ve had recently.
This isn’t supposed to be a complainy post. But at the same time, I guess I can relate in many ways to what people feel when they hit their midlife crisis. You go from all sorts of exciting things. Big, huge changes. And then it’s just keep on trucking, year after year. You start to look at things you could do to really shake things up. Get a different job? Switch career paths? Go live in a yurt?
For the last several months, I’ve just felt a bit at sea whenever I’ve had downtime and nothing to think about. I’ve felt like a lot of what I’ve been doing is just . . . stuff I’ve done before. I’ve tried to figure out why that is. Am I burned out? Depressed? I don’t have any real answers, other than this observation about remembering that New Years Eve discussion.
I like to challenge myself. I feel best when I’m actively involved solving problems. I like playing games that make me think. I’d rather play a new game with a new ruleset to figure out than to play a game I’ve played time and time again. When I’m writing, I write books that are significantly different from books I’ve written before, each time. When I get to the point that I feel like I know what’s coming and how to handle it too well, I can get bored and lose interest. That’s not a good thing, but it’s something I know about myself.
The trick for me, then, is to find new ways to reach. I don’t feel like the same old same old as a writer. I feel like there are still many ways I can become better and improve. How do I take that same feeling and apply it in other areas of my life? At work, or at home, or with my hobbies. I tend to think if I set good goals, I can get over this speed bump, but some of the problem is at times I don’t even really feel like meeting my goals. (That’s very out of character for me.)
I think the biggest helpful thought I’ve had in dealing with this right now is something I’ve learned writing books. The middle is always the hardest part of just about anything. Beginnings are full of discovery and excitement. Endings are thrilling and flashy. But the middle of a story is what makes or breaks a book. You get through that easy beginning and find out just what sort of a book you’re dealing with. And in order to have a flashy ending, it’s key that the middle is all done just right. You don’t get an emotional oomph at the end without a whole ton of work in that middle. Actually writing the middle is really tough, though. It’s hard to tell where you are at times. Hard to feel like you’re making progress. But if you bear down and push forward, you hit a point where it all starts popping again.
That’s me right now. I see no reason to make any wild changes. Don’t look to see me riding a Harley any time soon, for instance. But I wanted to try and get my thoughts down, and I’d be curious to hear what other people have experienced like this, and how they handled it. Thanks for reading!
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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.
January 30, 2020
Movie Review: The Irishman
You’d think that with all the movie watching I’ve been doing over the last bit, I’d have watched the bulk of the nominees for the Oscars. You’d be wrong. Of the 124 different nominations, I’ve now seen 49 of them. Clearly I’m not going to reach my goal. (Not with Groundhog Day and the Super Bowl coming up, eating into my viewing time.) But that’s okay. I’ll have seen way more than I would have seen without the goal, and that’s something.
Up today is The Irishman, which really ought to count for like 3 movies all on its own. This is a looooooooooooong movie. How long? Three and a half hours long. We’re talking “eight minutes longer than Return of the King” long. Is it all warranted? Read on.
If you don’t know, it’s a Martin Scorsese piece, featuring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci (who came out of retirement just to play the role). It follows the supposed real life story of Frank Sheeran, a hitman for the mafia back in the 70s. Through the use of digital wizardry, all the characters play themselves at various times in their lives. They make them (much) younger for some scenes and (a fair bit) older for others. It’s not seamless, though. There were a number of times the tricks they were using to de-age the characters got in the way of the storytelling for me, and that’s a problem.
Another problem? I didn’t really feel like there was anything significantly new in this movie. It’s a gangster movie. Another one. It’s longer than Goodfellas or The Departed, but it’s not nearly as good. The length did nothing to justifiably improve the experience for me, though granted I watched it over several days (due to me, you know, having a life). And yes, it’s Scorsese returning to gangster movies, and yes, it’s Pacino and De Niro and Pesci, but . . . I don’t think I’ll remember anything noteworthy from it other than how long it was. It was interesting to see a take on what happened to Jimmy Hoffa (played by Pacino in the movie), but still, nothing to warrant me sticking with it.
Don’t get me wrong. it’s not bad by any stretch. In fact, it’s quite good. I gave it an 7/10. The acting, writing, and directing are all top notch, but it’s like going on a ride you’ve been on a bunch of times before. There wasn’t anything new for me to dig into. I can understand why it’s nominated a bunch, but I’ll be honestly surprised if it wins anything. It didn’t excel head and shoulders in any one category. It was just very good in all of them.
Should a movie be penalized for simply being excellent? If it’s a retelling of a familiar trope, maybe. For me, it needs to stand out more for me to want to recommend it to others. Even if you like gangster movies, I think you’d be better served watching Goodfellas (2.5 hours) and then the pilot for Boardwalk Empire (1 hour), both of which were directed by Scorsese, rather than watching this behemoth.
In other words, unless you really feel the need, this is an Oscar nominated movie you can feel free to skip.
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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.
January 29, 2020
Movie Review: The Two Popes
In my continuing quest to watch as many Oscars contenders as possible before the big night, Denisa and I checked out another one with multiple nominations. The Two Popes is streaming on Netflix, and it’s got nominations for Best Actor, Support Actor, and Adapted Screenplay. I think it’s a movie I probably would have skipped completely were it not for this goal, and I’m very glad I didn’t skip it, since I thought it was tremendous.
It’s a strange duck of a movie, though. The vast bulk of it consists of two people talking to each other, often in different languages. Anthony Hopkins plays Pope Benedict, and Jonathan Pryce plays the lead, Pope Francis. It follows the course of events that led to Benedict becoming pope and eventually stepping down as pope, replace by Pope Francis. With a description like that, you’d think it would be fairly dry.
It’s anything but.
Don’t get me wrong. This is definitely a “thinking person’s” movie. The closest film I can compare it to is My Dinner with Andre. The two men discuss many different very deep topics, and I loved how it analyzed faith and what it means to follow God. The writing is excellent throughout. It’s hard to make two people talking about abstract thought compelling, so it’s a testament to how good this movie is that I was so engrossed. (True, some of that might be because I’m very interested in the topic, but still.)
I would say this is a movie not to be missed, particularly if you’re interested in the current status of faith in the modern world, and what it means to make “the right decision.” The acting is great, but it’s the writing that really sparkled for me. I gave it a 10/10. It’s rated PG-13, but with the exception of a few violent scenes (shown as flashbacks in Pope Francis’s life), it’s about as tame a movie as you can find.
Definitely check it out.
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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.
