Bryce Moore's Blog, page 97
December 23, 2019
Performing in Church
Tomas and DC were asked to perform yesterday for our local congregation’s Christmas program. Well, I suppose it would read better if I wrote “Tomas and DC were volunteered by me to perform,” because I sort of readily threw them under the bus. It’s just they’d done such a good job last time, I thought it would be great for them to have another shot, especially with more months of lessons under their belt. The piece this time was “The First Noel.” The arrangement in our hymnbook turned out to be too tricky in some spots for DC, and I needed to have them do something to spice up the second verse, so I once again dipped my toe into arranging the music myself.
(Side note: the tool I used this time was Muse Score, and I was really impressed with how easy it was to use and compose in it. I have pretty much no composition background. I don’t really get chords at all. I just listen to music, and I can tell when I like something. That’s about it. Muse Score let me listen to the music as I arranged it, and that was a life saver. Then it let me print out specific parts, and tweak as needed. All for free. It was wonderful.)
I didn’t arrange anything too flashy. The basic idea was have the violin play the melody and the cello the bass part, and then for the second verse flip those around, with the violin playing backup to the cello. The trick was that some of the bass part was too much for both Tomas and DC, at least to handle with the short practice time we had left. So I basically asked them what notes and transitions they could comfortably handle, and then I made changes as needed.
However, I felt kind of guilty as I printed off the music and had them play it for the first time. Yes, I was doing some work, but I was making them do something they might not really want to do. So then I decided I might play with them. I still have my tenor sax, but something told me a violin, cello, and tenor saxophone trio . . . might not exactly be a perfect pairing. On the other hand, I also still have the recorder I got in 2nd grade, and the fingers on the recorder are pretty close to the fingerings on a saxophone. And a recorder has a nice renaissance-y flair when it’s paired with the stringed instruments.
So I added a part and made it a trio. We practiced it through a few times, and it ended up going quite well. (Once I realized I had been consistently using the wrong fingering for a note I kept thinking DC was playing sharp. I was playing it flat. Whoops.) The last time I’d performed on the recorder in public was probably my second grade(?) concert in elementary school. A shout out to Mr. Potter, my music teacher back then. He did a wonderful job getting kids excited about music. (Well, at least he did a wonderful job with me. I suppose I can’t vouch for the rest of the kids. I was in second grade . . .)
Anyway, it was fun to perform again, and I’m glad I’ve got kids who are game for it. Maybe we’ll do it again sometime. Merry Christmas, everyone!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
December 20, 2019
Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker Review (No Spoilers)
DC and I went to the first showing of Rise of Skywalker last night, because I’m a firm believer in making myself as immune to spoilers as possible, and because seeing a movie with a bunch of fans in the audience is a great way to experience something like this.
Heading into the movie, I was a bit worried, since the reviews coming in on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic were mixed. (It’s got a 58% on RT and a 54 on Metacritic. Its imdb score is a 6.9 as of this morning.) Force Awakens got an 81% on RT, and Last Jedi got an 85%, so this was markedly worse. What if I went to the movie and thought it was awful, or (maybe worse) just sort of went “meh”?
To cut straight to the chase, I loved the movie. It was a roller coaster of a ride, full of adventure, intrigue, and fantastic special effects. It brought the whole trilogy of trilogies to a rousing conclusion, and I can’t wait to go see it again. (I’m still thinking about parts of it, and I’d like to see it when I’m not constantly worried “Will I stop liking this at some point? Will they screw it up?)
That said, I recognize that Star Wars movies are polarizing, and you should be aware that I seem to be completely in the new series’ wheel house. I had a blast in Solo, and I loved Last Jedi. If you hated either, it’s very possible we just don’t share the same vision for the series. If that’s the case, then I’m sorry, because it appears my enjoyment of the new movies has come at your expense. (But I’m not *that* sorry, because I just love these movies.)
“They’re retconning Last Jedi,” some will say about Rise of Skywalker. Those objections are misguided, I think. The trilogy was created in a way that demand retconning. No one had a whole vision and arc in mind going into it. Abrams set the table in Force Awakens. Johnson brought out a new course in Last Jedi, and now Abrams has brought out the finale here. It’s an approach that could backfire, for sure, but I think it’s one that succeeds as you take what was left for you from the previous movie and create something that works for you from it. In many ways, it gives the series a soap opera-esque feeling, and that might turn some away. Personally, I loved the twists and turns.
Anyway. That’s about all you need from me for a review on this one. It might not be everyone’s cuppa, but I had an absolute blast. As a Film, it’s not perfect, but as an Experience, it’s a 10/10 for me all the way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
December 18, 2019
Delayed Happiness
One of the thing’s that’s the strangest about being an author and being involved in various contract negotiations is that there are a lot of things I just can’t share with most (or any) of my friends. I get a steady trickle of rejection notices, and that’s not exactly something you want to shout from the rooftops, on the off chance someone reads it who’s considering making an offer on one of my projects and then reconsiders that offer based on something I wrote. (Not entirely out of the question, though I acknowledge the odds are slim.) Even setting that remote possibility aside, there’s still something to be said for remaining positive. To use an easy (if slightly distasteful) example, Trump didn’t become President by telling people things how it was. If I wanted to follow his trajectory, I suppose I could just start saying I’m a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author who sells millions of books, and repeat that alternate fact louder whenever people try to question it.
But since I am not Trump, I choose to compromise and just not tell everyone every time I get an email from an editor saying my book was good, but just not good enough. (Those emails are much better than the form rejections.)
Though of course, when I’ve just received a bundle of rejections, and an innocent bystander of an acquaintance asks me the favorite question (“So, are you still writing?), it can take some effort to remind myself that they don’t quite understand what goes in to writing. The nearest comparison I can make is if you know of a couple who are trying to have a large family. They’ve talked about their dream to you. But after years of trying, they still just have one child. Do you go up to them a few years down the line and ask, “So, are you still trying to have children?” It’s a sensitive subject.
On the flip side of this, I don’t get to write about the good or great news until it becomes public, and that’s often months after I found out the good news in the first place. Why? Because it’s one thing to agree to publishing something in principle, but it’s another to have it all in writing, with the precise details ironed out. Those details are important, so you don’t say anything until they’re all set in place. There’s also the very real possibility that the deal falls through, and that feels somehow almost worse than never having the deal in the first place. (MEMORY THIEF comes to mind. Thank goodness that had a happy ending.)
I have several items of good news that I’m sitting on. I’ve been sitting on some of them for months. I hope to be able to share them with you at some point, but a couple of the bits of news ended up vanishing into the ether, and some might be headed that way as well. But if and when I get to tell you, it’ll all be old news to me, though new news to you. I kind of wish I could celebrate news with all of you, right when I found it out, as opposed to dribbling it out bit by bit over a long period of time, but that’s the nature of the beast, I suppose.
So . . . yay for good news that might or might not turn out to be actual good news several months from now? Stay tuned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
December 17, 2019
A Latter-day Saint’s Take on the “Mormon Whistleblower”
When my alarm went off this morning, in my sleep-addled state, I tried to turn it off but instead swiped over to the news. And the first thing I saw was this headline: “Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges.” It turns out reading a headline like that is a really good way to go from sleep-addled to fully awake (not that I’d like to use it on a daily basis). I read the article over, then thumbed around to find the Salt Lake Tribune article on the same topic, finally delving into the full 74 page “expose” both articles referenced.
Not the way I’d planned to spend my morning, but it’s a topic I’m heavily invested in (pun intended), so I couldn’t really help myself. Since it’s something I imagine a fair number of you might be coming across in your daily news grazing, I decided I’d write a response to the piece, anticipating some of my friends wondering what I had to say about it, as their token Latter-day Saint friend.
It’s not like I haven’t written about church finances and tithing before, but what do I think about these allegations, specifically?
Well, for one thing, I think it’s important to go to the source of the allegations. In this case, the closest we can get is that 74 page document I referenced, which is written by the brother of the whistleblower. I’ll be honest. That document is extremely obtuse. Reading it is about as much fun as jabbing myself in the eye with a spork. It’s got footnotes to the footnotes, with some of those footnotes seeming to be longer than the document itself. More than that, it uses arguments that just aren’t easy to follow or even make sense of, but a few things shine through. First, it’s written by a person who is Not a Fan of the church, which should come as no surprise, considering he’s penning a document clearly intended to hurt the organization. Second, the ultimate accusation comes to “the church has been stockpiling money instead of spending it for charitable causes” and “the church used some money illegally to bolster a church owned insurance company and a partially church owned shopping mall.”
Setting aside my critiques of the document as a whole, these are serious allegations, and they need to be addressed. For the first, that the church has stockpiled $100 billion or so in an account that only accrues wealth and never doles it out, the whistleblower (according to his brother) says the church brings in $6-$7 billion in tithing revenue each year, spends $5-$6 billion of it, and invests the remaining $1 billion. For a church with 15 million members, that figure seems . . . very low. That’s an average of $466/member per year. Remember, tithing in the church is supposed to be 10% of your increase, which would mean church members make on average $389 per month. Even accounting for a worldwide membership, with a significant portion living in poverty, I have a hard time believing that figure. The Tribune article sites an expert who has estimated the annual tithing inflow of the church at more like $35 billion, which seems more logical.
Why does it make a difference? Well, charities regularly stockpile a reserve. Rainy day funds against times of trouble. (It’s something the church actively reinforces to members, always encouraging us to have at least a few months’ worth of money saved up against emergencies. Ideally a year’s worth.) The whistleblower was positioned in a place to directly observe how much money was being invested, so I trust his $1 billion/year figue. $1 billion of $6 billion is saving 16.7%. If the church is spending $5 billion/year, then having $100 billion stockpiled is enough to last it 20 years. On the other hand, $1 billion of $35 billion is saving 2.9%. If the church is spending $34 billion/year, then that $100 billion is enough to last it about 3 years, which seems much more reasonable.
What I mean to say is, the whistleblower’s ultimate figures don’t pass the sniff test, which leads me to question the conclusions he draws from them. I’m not saying he’s making the numbers up, but I wonder how well informed he actually is, and if he sees the whole picture. (Then again, some of this might come down to most of these figures being drawn from the whistleblower’s brother’s 74 page missive which, as I said before, is quite hard to follow. So perhaps there’s a concrete argument to be found here somewhere. I have to assume there is. The whistleblower was regularly charged with keeping track of billions of dollars, so I assume he’s good with numbers . . .)
But even if all the whistleblower’s numbers are true, the main argument (that the church is stockpiling money) is not nearly as damning as his brother might wish. I mean, if the whistleblower had come forward and alleged the church was stockpiling billions and spending it all on hookers and blow, then we’d be talking about some seriously bad decision making. But the big bad in this case seems to be “Church Saving a Lot of Money and Investing It Wisely!” Too wisely, apparently.
That’s a bit flippant. I apologize. We can and should certainly have a discussion about how much is a reasonable amount of cash to have in reserves. Harvard’s endowment is $50 billion. Should a 16 million member, worldwide organization have more, or less than that? If it’s entirely charitable (and thus tax exempt), how much is too much? Does the law say? If it doesn’t, should it? If it does, has the church gone over that amount? (I tend to think the law doesn’t say. Otherwise the whistleblower would have included that in the allegations.) Having a debate and setting a figure is certainly a topic for discussion. But it’s not nearly as problematic as the whistleblower’s brother would like it to be.
On the other hand, the allegation that the church spent around 2% of its war chest to prop up an insurance company and a shopping mall, if true, is more worrisome. According to the whistleblower, the church used tithing money for this, something church leaders specifically said they weren’t doing. “Thou shalt not lie” applies to church leaders as much as it does to members, and if this claim pans out, then that would upset me. But again, I wonder how big a picture this whistleblower had of the whole operation. The church has (many) lawyers, and it’s got more than enough money to spend. Why dip into this account illegally for something that it apparently has oodles of money to cover in other ways? The pieces of the argument don’t add up.
But naturally, whenever something like this comes up in the news, you’ve got an instant crowd gathering with torches and pitchforks, angry about the church. I get that people have issues with my religion. Its approach to gay marriage, equal rights, and other issues upsets and hurts many. But the allegations people like to trot out in these cases (that the church is defrauding millions of people out of their hard earned money) just aren’t founded on anything reasonable. Who profits off this? Do the allegations say the church president secretly bought an underground lair, where he swims around in ill-gotten profits, Scrooge McDuck-style? The closest critics can come to real critiques is that the upper echelons of church leadership get a yearly stipend. The figure I’ve seen lobbed around is $160,000/year, which, granted, is more than I make and more than a whole lot of people make. But at the same time, for most of those men, it’s a whole lot less than they would have been making if they hadn’t quit their job to devote their whole time to the church.
I’ve seen these men. Met them. Talked to them. President Hinckley lived in my grandparent’s condominium complex when he was a member of the First Presidency. I stayed in that complex many times, and I’d run into him in the elevator from time to time. “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” it wasn’t, but it was a nice place and close to downtown. It had a pool. I liked that.
These men are going around the world, busy almost all of the time. Critics say they’re taking “church-paid vacations.” If I had to do the things these men have to do on these “vacations,” you’d have to pay me a whole lot more. Let me get the supposed plan right.
Step One: Convince members to pay 10% of their income to the church.Step Two: Become a leader in that churchStep Three: Take a huge pay cutStep Four: Work until you die, with no retirement, but live in a pretty good condo, and live a comfortable upper middle class lifestyle
I could go on, but I don’t have time for it. In the end, these allegations come across as interesting, but not nearly as interesting as the whistleblower’s brother would like. If some of them pan out, and it turns out the church has been breaking the law, I’d like to think it was unintentional. If it was intentional, I’d like to think it didn’t go all the way to the top. If it went all the way to the top, this wouldn’t be the first time a church leader has made mistakes, and it won’t be the last. We don’t believe our leaders are infallible. But to really alarm me, you’re going to have to find the hidden pleasure palace the leaders are all hanging out in, where they break all the commandments while they ridicule the chumps who pay their tithing. And I just don’t see that happening.
Anyway. If you’ve got questions, I’m happy to answer as best I can. Just keep things civil, as always.
December 16, 2019
The Ease of Bad Decisions
I have made some very poor choices over the course of my life. I imagine everyone feels the same way, and it’s likely a justified feeling. (Just being honest here, folks.) Yet somehow, it’s still easy to look at the bad decisions other people are making and marvel at how in the world they’re able to make such choices when the “right answer” is so clear. More than that: people continue to make bad decisions even after they’re given the choice to stop making them. They persist in those decisions, instead. Why is that?
As I’ve thought about the problem, I’ve come up with a few explanations. First of all, I don’t believe anyone just makes a bad choice, knowing it’s a bad choice, just because they want to make a bad choice. Instead, everyone I’ve talked to, and all the bad choices I can think of in my own life, all indicate people have reasons for the choices they make. Reasons that seem to justify the bad choice at the time. It reminds me of a quote from Arrested Development. Tobias, failed therapist, is talking to his wife about potential solutions for their rocky marriage:
Tobias: You know, Lindsay, as a therapist, I have advised a number of couples to explore an open relationship where the couple remains emotionally committed, but free to explore extra-marital encounters.
Lindsay: Well, did it work for those people?
Tobias: No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but … But it might work for us.
We’re all like Tobias at times. We acknowledge that something almost never works for anyone else, and then we turn around and decide it’ll probably work for us. We’re the exception, after all, because we each know how exceptional we really are.
But beyond that, we make bad decisions (and continue to make them) because they’re so easy to make. Some of this is because we’ve unintentionally trained ourselves to believe otherwise. In the movies, bad decisions are accompanied by ominous music. Time seems to slow down. They’re portrayed as fundamentally different than other decisions. Often they have fairly immediate repercussions. So surely if we were to approach making an epically bad decision in real life, the same things would happen. There’d be a way of realizing we’re about to really mess up.
Except that’s not how it works. There’s not even a virtual speed bump. Ruining a friendship, saying a horrible thing, betraying a trust: all of these happen as easily as swatting a fly. One moment it’s alive, and the next it’s dead, and the world keeps right on spinning.
Once we’ve made a bad decision of that magnitude, other bad decisions often follow as we try to shield ourselves from any fallout from that decision. We begin to justify the choice. “That person didn’t really deserve my trust, after all.” “It wasn’t that bad.” “I’ll never do it again.” “As long as no one finds out . . .”
In this way, life is a lot like a complex board game state. At the beginning of a game, choices are easy because there aren’t a lot of ramifications you need to think through when you make a decision. But once those decisions are all in play, and they’re mixed around with decisions other people have been making, then anything you do can affect and be affected by all sorts of other factors. Bad decisions have a tendency to spiral out of control as you try to shield yourself from the consequences of those decisions.
The flippant answer is “Just don’t make bad decisions,” but my post today is mainly a reminder that we all make bad choices, and one of the best ways I have to handle other people’s bad decisions is to remind myself of that fact and remember the times I’ve made mistakes of my own. That can in turn inspire me to be a bit more forgiving of other people’s mistakes, just as I would hope people would be forgiving of mine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
December 13, 2019
Updating Your Life
I’m not a huge fan of updates. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. I’m a fan of having updated, but I don’t like the actual updating process itself. Take computers, for example. I’m a big fan of having all the new bells and whistles that come with an update. Security fixes are great to have, and I realize how necessary they are. But the actual updating process? It feels like every day my computer is telling me it needs to update. Some of those updates just take a minute or two. Some of them end up taking an hour or more. When I have other things I need to be doing, I don’t feel like I have time to just sit around watching my computer be useless for an hour plus.
So each time that “Updates are ready for your computer” alert shows up, it takes me all of five seconds to click “remind me tomorrow,” as if by tomorrow I’m magically going to see that alert and think, “Oh boy! I get to update my computer today!” Each day, I kick the can one day farther down the road, which probably goes a fair way toward explaining why, when I finally give in and agree to the updates, it takes so long for those updates to run their course.
My question to myself today is: do I do the same thing in my life? Sometimes there are things going on that I know I need to work on. Chores that need doing. Bad habits I’ve slipped into, and good habits I’ve slipped out of. I’ll get a periodic reminder of the need to update my life, but typically I feel so busy, I dismiss the reminder. “I don’t have time for that.” “It’s not that important.” And so I kick the can down the road and try not to think of it.
Until inevitably it all spirals out of control to the point where I feel like I absolutely must work on things, and by then, there’s so much to work on, it can be overwhelming. This applies to everything from personal relationships to weight to clutter around the house to just about anything else.
Let’s face it: keeping things in order takes hard work. There always feels like there’s something vital we need to get done this instant, and so it’s really tempting to shove off the things that don’t feel as immediate. But in the grand scheme of things, those things that don’t feel as immediate often end up helping us get done the things that feel so vital. (That’s a pretty densely packed sentence. Sorry.)
What’s more, for me, each one of those “I’ll do this later” decisions ends up only adding to my stress levels. When I get that “Your computer needs updating” message and ignore it, that reminder doesn’t just disappear into the ether. It’s still loitering around in the back of my mind, reminding me there’s another thing I need to take care of, just like the piles on my dresser remind me I need to clean them each time I glance at my dresser. Putting off little decisions to later isn’t a big deal, but put off enough of them, and they can snowball into a general feeling of being overwhelmed.
So I know (in theory) that I should do the updates to my life as they arise. I should watch what I eat. Spend time with each of the kids. Focus on decluttering something each day. I have a vision of what my life could be like if I just did everything the way I planned to. The reality is a pretty stark contrast to that ideal, though. I’d like to think I’m getting better at it over the years, but sometimes I wonder if that’s really the case.
I don’t have any lifehacks for you today. No grand approaches to getting things actually “updated.” All I’ve got is the concept. The reminder that taking that time when it comes is better than putting it off. Just because something’s not going to light on fire in the next five minutes doesn’t make it less important if you keep in mind that the fire it might light could take you hours, days, or weeks to put out.
Anyway. I’m off to take my Prius into the shop. It has a safety recall on it that I’ve been putting off far too long. Maybe I’ll update my computer while I’m in the waiting room . . .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
December 12, 2019
Favorite Holiday Recipes?
I’m about ready to get into some holiday baking. There comes a point where you decide to throw diets and avoiding sugar to the wind and just revel in as much chocolate, peppermint, and egg nog as you can, until you wake up in a random gutter on New Year’s morning, groggy and not quite sure why you’ve got maraschino cherry stains all over your shirt. (Don’t tell me that’s only just happened to me!)
So as I get ready for this round of baking, I was wondering what recipes you consider your “must bake” each year. What foods make it so that the holidays are the holidays?
For me, I absolutely must make chocolate fudge. It’s not an elaborate recipe: just the one found on the Marshmallow Fluff container. I think it’s something very similar to this one. Boil butter, evaporated milk, and sugar, add chocolate and fluff, then let it cool. Simple and delicious.
I’ve made peppermint bark the last few years as well, though again, I just melt chocolate, add some peppermint extract, and then put it in a mold and sprinkle crushed peppermints on top of it. Caramels are another favorite I try to make every year, though they’re trickier. I can never seem to get them to just the right level of hard but still a bit gooey. (Probably because I’m lazy and never use a candy thermometer . . .)
Denisa bakes a ton of cookies, which are always delicious. And I typically make some orange rolls, but I make those throughout the year, and they’re not necessarily “Christmas” food.
What do you make, however? What are your go-to recipes that the holidays just wouldn’t be complete without? I’d love to get some ideas for other things to try this year. Because present-me always assumes that future-me will have way more time than past-me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
December 11, 2019
Trolling in 2020
I used to have a theory about online interactions. If people identified who they were, then they were much less likely to behave poorly online. Facebook’s open nature, with people clearly being identified, would tamp down the tendency of people to turn into trolls.
Maybe that was true at some point in the past. It doesn’t seem to be true today.
Today, I see people much more comfortable to say whatever pops into their head, with the only limiting factor (for most bad comments) seeming to be the likelihood of people ever meeting in real life. Facebook is simply so large, and some of the comment chains so big, that I believe people feel comfortably anonymous to the point that having their actual identity attached to a comment is no longer a deterrent.
Case in point: a friend’s brother posted a video of him and his wife announcing their adoption of two children. It’s been quite a popular post, with the video getting millions of views. He’s got Crouzon Syndrome, which left his face somewhat deformed. While many of the comments were positive, some people took jabs at his appearance. Other people then took even worse jabs at the people who had made the original jabs. In my book, both are clearly out of line.
First off, making snide remarks about how someone looks is so juvenile, I don’t think it deserves a response. If people have managed to limp through life deluding themselves into thinking they’re funny or justified by doing this, that says much more about who they are themselves than it does about who they’re trying to make fun of. I’m sure people do this to other people in person as well, because some people are just horrendous. It still makes me sad. (Especially since barbed comments have a way of sticking with us for far longer than compliments. I could get 100 good reviews of a book. The one that’ll stick with me is the one that hated it, however. Because we all suffer from impostor syndrome to one extent or another. We’re all worried we’re not nearly “with it” as other people think, and those mean comments (we then worry) are just what everyone’s actually thinking. It’s not true, but it’s hard to get your subconscious to believe that . . .)
But then there’s this mob mentality that comes out as soon as someone steps out of line and says something mean or out of place. It’s like people take any rude or out of place remark as justification to be as mean and spiteful as they want to be. It happens all the time on Twitter. It happens when people write things years ago that might have made sense at the time, but no longer are seen in the same light. Any straying from the accepted, and the mob shows up with torches and pitchforks, ready to kill the beast.
Do some of those original trolls “deserve” the treatment they get? I suppose you could argue they do, though I’d say certainly not to the extent that’s dished out on them. Every time this sort of back and forth happens, I think it gets worse. Each side begins to feel more and more justified saying mean, spiteful things to the other. And because all of it’s happening online between people who almost certainly will never meet in person, it’s only that much worse.
When you consider that some of these “people” might be nothing more than sock puppets created to further split a divided nation apart, you begin to see how easily manipulated this whole approach is.
So what can we do about it? I have a few suggestions.
Don’t have conversations with strangers online. Don’t make or read comments about news stories or social media posts, unless they’re about posts made or shared by your actual friends. If a friend links to a story, I’ll comment in their individual linked post, but I won’t comment or read any of the comments in the original post it links to, if that makes sense.If you have something extensive to say, make your own post. Dealing with the fallout of back and forth bickering on your social media wall can be really draining, and it’s unfair to stick that all on someone else. You get to dip in and out of another person’s feed at will. They don’t get that luxury. Don’t feed the trolls. If someone shows up and makes a snide remark to you, let it go. Or do what I do, and just post a GIF of someone doing an eye roll. Usually that’s all those comments are worth.Delete comments that are out of line on your own wall. It’s your feed. Weed it. If you wouldn’t tolerate someone saying something in person, don’t let them get away with it online. Not when it’s on your own wall. (When it’s on their wall, see my next comment.)If I find my interactions with a person are being negatively affected by the way they behave and speak on social media, I hide that person. I don’t unfriend them, I just remove their ability to continue to damage our relationship. I know this one might be unpopular with some. (They’re showing they’re a terrible person. Why would I still be friends with them?!?) I have only unfriended someone once, and that was because they continued to pepper my wall with comments I vehemently disagreed with, even after I had hidden them. My hope is people I’ve hidden will somehow come around by reading my posts. Unfriending them shuts off that possibility. Just call me a cockeyed optimist.
These rules have helped me stay sane on Facebook. I’m not nearly as active on Twitter or Instagram, so I have no idea how well they’d transition to those platforms. But I do know you need to come up with something that works for you, whatever it is. Something that helps guide you through what can at times be tricky situations to maneuver. What rules have some of you developed? I’d be interested in different approaches.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
December 10, 2019
Book Review: Starsight
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely adored the first book of Brandon Sanderson’s new Cytonic Series, Skyward. If I could have given it an 11/10, I would have. It became my go-to recommendation for anyone looking for something good to read, regardless of what genre they preferred. It was just that good. So naturally I was excited (and a tad apprehensive) when the sequel was released. Usually, you’d figure I’d just be excited, but when a book is that good, I begin to worry I’ll be let down by the followup.
It’s true that Starsight isn’t at the same level as Skyward, but to use that as the measuring stick would really be unfair. It was one of my favorite books of the decade. Starsight is still a great read, and totally worth your time (though you definitely should read Skyward first). I’d post the summary, but I don’t want to spoil anyone, and the first book has some significant plot points that play into the second book. You almost can’t talk about the plot of the second without spoiling the first. So in broad strokes: science fiction. Space ship dog fights. Salvation of humanity. That sort of thing, but also on a very personal level. It’s one girl’s dream to become something more than what she’s allowed by society to be. That’s what set the first book apart from the rest. The personal story, and how it connects to the greater whole.
So what’s strong about the second book? As with all of Brandon’s works, the ending is fantastic. It’s one of the reasons I’m such a Sanderson fan. Too many times, a book starts off with a fantastic premise but just can’t deliver in the end. The finale is confusing or rushed or just feels tacked on. With a Sanderson book, you know your time investment is going somewhere. The last two thirds of this book just blazed by for me.
He also takes the time to explore some other civilizations in the novel, presenting what they might be like and how they might think. It’s one of the reasons I’m drawn to fantasy and science fiction: the chance to look at the world through completely different lenses. I don’t want to get into any more specifics, though, to avoid spoilers.
I did feel like the set up phase of this book went on longer than I would have liked. Spensa’s goals are clear, but not fully informed. It takes a good deal of time to get the pieces in place for that climax to really pop, and I didn’t find that setup time as engaging. Perhaps if I’d read the first one recently, it would have worked better. I struggled to remember who some of the characters were, and where things had been left at the end of the first.
But in the end, a review of a sequel sort of presupposes you liked the first. So what you really want to know is, “Is the second worth it?” In this case, most definitely. It takes the series some place new and exciting, and it left me eagerly anticipating the next book. 9/10. Check it out!
View all my reviews
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
December 9, 2019
A Taste of Farmington on Chester Greenwood Day
I’ve been going to Chester Greenwood parades since I first moved to Maine. A celebration of the town local who invented earmuffs? Who can’t get behind a thing like that? Though I will say that after nine or ten parade sessions, even the novelty of cars decorated with earmuffs can grow old. That said, it’s always been something to do, and the kids have been in it a number of times, so no complaints here.
This year, however, I heard about something they’d started last year (or the year before? I’m not sure.) It’s called the Taste of Farmington (sponsored by the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce), and it was a program where you paid $5 and got a voucher that could be redeemed once at 14 different restaurants and stores around Farmington, each of which would be offering something to sample. I figured it would be something small and snackish, but 14 of those can add up, and it seemed like something that would be fun to do with friends or family. This year, we gave it a shot.
Oh. My. Goodness. It was so much food.
I don’t think my mind properly comprehended just how much “14” is. True, some of the places just had something tiny to sample. A cookie and a bit of hot chocolate. A small cup of soup. But some of the places had a whole spread. Chips, a wrap, and soup. Soup and a chicken slider and a smoothie. We were with some friends, and a few of us made a pact: if they offered it to us, we would eat it. (We did have to make exceptions for three items: a beer sample, cup of coffee, and tea, which we had to pass up for religious reasons.) But by the end, I felt more full than I do at Thanksgiving.
It was a great idea for the businesses too, as there were a number of places I went that I had never gone before, even after being here for as long as I have been. Some of those places put on a real show, and I’ll definitely be coming back. Our favorites for the day were The Homestead (which served a delicious curry and a sample of chocolate pie), The Downtown Press Cafe (chocolate peppermint cookie and a to-die-for hot chocolate), and The Beaver Lodge (chicken slider, smoothie, and soup).
Will we do this again? In a heartbeat. I hope they do it every year. Could it be improved? Maaaaybe? A few of the stores were pretty swamped with people who were coming by to participate, so traffic flow could be improved. All told, it took us 2.5 hours to do the whole tour, and we were going pretty fast from place to place. There’s only so fast you can eat, though.
If you haven’t heard of this, put it on your mental To Do list for next Chester Greenwood Day. You’ll thank me later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
