Bryce's Ramblings

In Which I Discover the Obvious: Horror is Scary

2013-06-19T12:19:00.000-04:00

When I was about fifteen or sixteen--maybe a tad younger--I was coaxed into watching the made-for-TV movie version of IT by my cousin, Dave. It was at a sleepover, and we watched it right before going to sleep. The movie freaked me out to no extent. I mean, it's not a wonderful version of the book or anything, but it was sufficiently scary to warp my young mind to the point that months later, I still had trouble falling to sleep if an image of a clown flashed through my head by some strange happenstance. (You never know when you're going to think of clowns.) The book's all about a killer thing that takes the shape of a clown and then can pass through walls or windows or anywhere. No wonder I was freaked out.

I'm in my thirties now, though. I wear big boy pants, and I haven't wet the bed in decades. So I decided I was old enough to read the book version of that lovely tale. Why did I decide this? Because I practically worship the ground Stephen King walks on when it comes to writing, and I wanted to see how a really genuinely scary book is put together.

I don't normally like horror, truth be told. I have a fairly active imagination (hello--author), and it doesn't take much for me to be disturbed. That said, I don't seem to be able to turn away from horror movies or horror books. It's like I'm a moth, and I can't stay away from that flame. Hellraiser, Friday the Thirteenth, Nightmare on Elmstreet, Saw . . . there's a whole long list of movies I've watched against my better judgement. I'm just a sucker for punishment.

After all these years since I saw the TV version of IT, one image has stayed with me for all that time. There's a scene where the clown is lurking in the bottom of a sewer grate, and he lures a five year old boy to come close enough to the grate to . . . eat him, I guess. The clown's all friendly at first, and then he goes from zero to evil in about one millisecond. I've had that thought kicking around my head for twenty years. It still scares me.

I started reading IT at bedtime, pretty confident it wouldn't freak me out right away. The first scene of the book? That scene that's been haunting me for twenty years. Thanks, Stephen King. It took me an hour to fall asleep. And I'm still reading the book. Right before bedtime. Because horror. Honestly, sometimes I worry that there's something wrong with my head.

How about you all--anyone read the book? Seen the movie? Love horror? What did you think? Why? Please share.

Diet Update: Week Seventeen

2013-06-18T12:30:00.000-04:00

Week seventeen has arrived, and with it came that dreaded day. The day I had to admit to you all publicly that I didn't lose any weight this week. Not only that, I gained weight. Let's get that out in the open right away. I clocked in at 190.4 this morning. That means I'm up 0.8 pounds for the week.

Some of this is due to the fact that I cheated on my diet hardcore this week. We're talking exotic cheeseburgers, bratwursts, bags of M&Ms, multiple slices of chocolate cake, soda, different varieties of potato salad, ice cream bars . . .

Yeah. All of that and more.

Why in the world did I fall off the wagon to that great an extent? One reason is that there were a couple of parties I went to this past week. A wedding and a (very tame) bachelor party. I didn't want to be That Guy at the party who just nibbled at his food. So I ate along with the best of them. And paid the price. And then there was the wedding, and I just didn't have it in me to diet for that, too.

I'm getting tired of this, people. That's what it all boils down to. I'm now officially a "normal" weight, and being on a diet is just plain no fun. I want to be able to live it up a bit now and then. The writing was on the wall last week, when I started talking about just stopping the diet at 185.

It also didn't help that I was still recovering from being sick, and I haven't felt up to exercising.

The good news is that even with all of that cheating and no exercise, I still only gained 0.8 pounds for the week. Honestly, I'm happy with how much I weigh at the moment. 190 is a fine weight. My only concern is that it's quite close to hitting 195, which would put be back in the "overweight" category. But if I could settle in here and not move any, I'd be content. Cheating as much as I did this week, and only gaining a little? I'm actually okay with that, more or less.

The question then becomes, where do I go from here? I mentioned last week that I want to have a successful transition phase, where I get used to eating a good amount of food--not too little, not too much. I want to stick with that. This weekly blog series has helped me a lot so far, and I'm not ready to give it up just yet, so I think that for the time being, I'll continue the series with the disclaimer that I'm now shooting to stay between 185 and 190. I'd like to lose a bit more weight, and then just maintain.

I plan on doing that by continuing the diet, but giving myself some cheats now and then. I anticipate losing weight, but not as quickly or as much. Hopefully next week I'm below 190 again--back in my "target zone." And we'll see how I do with all of that. I'm also committed to continuing to exercise each day. That's been a very good change for me, and I'd like to keep at it.

So it's all about building good habits for the next month or two. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks to everyone for your help and support through this thing. I've really appreciated it!

Movie Review: Man of Steel

2013-06-17T12:43:00.001-04:00

I went to the late showing of Man of Steel on Saturday night. These days, the movies I see in the theater are limited to movies I feel I *must* see in the theater. A new Superman reboot?

That's a must see in my book.

Historically, I've felt most Superman movies are good. Not great. But decent films. I loved the Richard Donner ones when I was growing up, but I don't think they've aged particularly well. Superman Returns was too weighed down with baggage, although there were parts of the film I really liked.

This new one is a good film, people. It's not a great film--it takes itself a tad too seriously to pull that off, and its action sequences are too long--but it's a solid summer movie, and one I recommend. I'd say it's a 3 star outing, out of 4.

First, the good. The Krypton sequences are really well done and intriguing. Acting was solid across the board. Cavill's a great Superman. Amy Adams does a good job as Lois. The effects are fantastic. I saw it in 2D, but I think it's one where 3D would have added to the experience for what it's worth. The story was intriguing and well done--but I don't want to get into it, as I'd rather keep this review spoiler-free.

The so-so: I found the narrative structure of the movie a tad . . . strange. It splices in events from the past and the present so that in essence, a lot of the movie is spent discovering Superman's history, as opposed to just having it laid out for us. Part of me liked that approach. It kept the origin story interesting. But then again, it also made for a bumpier ride, narratively. I think in the end, it was a wash.

Finally, the bad. Or rather, the not-as-good: Director Zack Snyder found a Christ Analogy hammer somewhere along the way, and he decided to start banging that hammer as hard as he could. Over. And over. You've got a whole scene with Superman talking to a priest, where they lay on the Christ imagery hard and heavy. You've got a big action sequence that starts with Superman basically looking like he's nailed to a cross.

It just felt too heavy handed to be natural. There are interesting parallels between the two stories, granted. Just don't push it so hard, Snyder. And this is coming from a pretty darned believing Christian.

Next up: the action sequences. Joss Whedon talked about how one of the issues he had with The Avengers was that all of the superheroes involved had "punchy powers." And he's right. Iron Man shoots things or punches them. Thor hammers them. Caps punches or shoots. Punch punch punch punch. The Avengers worked because the action sequences were able to put personal flairs on each fight. Make them visually distinct and interesting.

In this movie? It's all punching, all the time. And there's a lot of it. LOTS AND LOTS. By the end of the 2.5 hour movie, I'd seen a solid hour of Superman punching and being punched. Into buildings. Into mountains. Into space. Everywhere. But in the end, it's all punching. And there really wasn't much variation on it. The fighting style was the same. Punch punch punch. It got old.

This movie should have mixed it up, or taken out about a half hour of that.

And as a parting shot, I enjoyed Hans Zimmer's score, but . . . it wasn't John Williams. I think ditching the Superman theme was a mistake, and I wish it was present in the movie. But maybe I'm just a traditionalist.

I guess that makes this review seem more negative than I intended. It's just that it's easy for me to gripe about punching and Christ imagery, and hard for me to praise the pieces I liked without spoiling the movie. Bottom line: It's a Superman movie. A popcorn flick. It's fun, well done, and there are just a few big issues keeping it from completely shining. The best takeaway? I see a very good shot at a revitalized DC Comics emerging from this. I would love to have a Justice League movie . . .

Anyone else already seen this flick? What did you think?

Movie Review: The Frighteners

2013-06-14T12:30:00.000-04:00

Imagine some of your favorite 80s and 90s adventure/sci-fi/fantasy flicks. Back to the Future. Jurassic Park. ET. Movies you just loved to death as a kid or younger person. Now what if I told you there's one you haven't seen before, but is right in the same vein? It even stars Michael J. Fox. And it's directed by Peter Jackson.

Do I have your attention yet?

Good. Because the cover to The Frighteners is just lame. I mean, it's cool from a design-standpoint, but I don't think it represents the movie well at all. It makes it look like a stock horror flick, and this is definitely a light horror comedy.

Now, first a word of caution. It's technically R. Before that turns you off, you should know this is pretty unjustified in this case. There's no nudity or anything, only light swearing (not even the obligatory F word PG13 movies usually have these days). The violence is all cartoony--Men in Black stuff or lighter.

This is not an R-rated film, whatever it might say on the box.

With that out of the way, let me give you the set up. Ghosts are real. Michael J. Fox can see them. And team up with them to con people into getting him to come and perform exorcisms. But then there's this big bad ghost who might be killing people. and it takes an unhealthy interest in Fox. Action and adventure follows.

It really was a blast of a film, and I was so pleased to discover it on Netflix instant. It's not 4 star material or anything, but it's perfect for what it tries to be. Fun. Fast. Entertaining. A very strong 3 star movie, and a perfect popcorn flick. Check it out.

My Third Grader's Special Talent: VIDEO

2013-06-13T12:23:00.000-04:00

To celebrate completing third grade and moving on to the next school, my son's school does a third grade talent show, where students can volunteer to share their talents with the whole school. TRC was all for it. He's been attending rehearsals after school for the past month or so, excitedly looking forward to the big day. I took time off work so I could walk over and watch. The show was pretty impressive: there were piano solos, dance routines, guitar solos, poetry recitals, soccer tricks, and more.

What did TRC decide to do?

Well, how about I just show you. He's the tall one. Here's the video:

That's right. He ran into walls and fell down.

When he told me that was his plan for the talent show, I was kind of stumped. I didn't see how it was a talent. But watching him entertain the whole school this morning? It all clicked together. The kid just loves entertaining people. It was the best darn running-into-walls-and-falling-down display I've seen. :-)

Hard to believe tomorrow's his last day. Third grade, in the record books. Bring on summer.

Writing Update: GET CUPID and THE MEMORY THIEF

2013-06-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Good news, people! I heard back from le agents earlier this week as to a verdict on the first draft of THE MEMORY THIEF. Survey says? We are clear for lift-off. (Trying to think if I can incorporate any other mixed metaphors here. Falling short.) They had some great suggestions for improvements, of course--but overall thought it was a strong first draft.

What does that mean?

It means I've pressed the "pause" button on my rewrite of GET CUPID (which had just passed the 24,000 word mark) to turn my attention to a second draft of THE MEMORY THIEF. I'm typically against doing this sort of project juggling, mainly because I really like to keep momentum when I'm in the middle of a project. So why did I do it in this case?

First off, the GET CUPID rewrite is drastic enough that I thought it would be good to step away from it for a while. When I come back to it, I can reread what I've done and see if it's working as I think it should be. Taking time away from a project can get you some excellent perspective, and that's really vital when doing a third, fourth, or fifth draft. So that's a plus.

In addition, my agent wasn't as keen on the second draft of GET CUPID. (Hence the drastic revision.) So when faced between a choice of which project to work on, I choose the one that people liked the most. The one with the best chance of selling sooner rather than later. It ain't a hard decision.

It also helps that THE MEMORY THIEF is in pretty good shape, as far as drafts go. It's short. It's consistent, and it shouldn't take too much work to polish it up some more.

So that's what I'm doing.

Step one is to reread the whole thing myself--to remind me what the book was like and see what I think needs to be done. Once that's completed, I'll look at the feedback I've gotten to date, and then come up with a list of changes I want to make in the book. Then it's as simple as going down that list and making those changes. I think in this case, the end result will be a tad longer than the book is now. I've got 5,000 or so words to work with, and I think I'll be giving the current book a trim before adding quite a few more words, if that makes sense.

As for the reread, I've decided to do a read aloud to Denisa and TRC. We've been doing to chapters a night, and then I talk to them about things they liked or didn't like from each chapter. So far I've been surprised that the book starts off as slowly as it does. The pacing seemed pretty sluggish in big swathes of the first four chapters. Luckily, that's an easy enough fix to make. I think it comes as a result of me doing a lot of exploring when I start a new book. I end up writing more than necessary as I try to figure out who the characters are and what makes them tick. By the middle and end of the book, with that all figured out, I can get things humming and moving more quickly. This is a common problem in my first drafts, in other words--one I expected to see, but am nevertheless surprised when I notice it. (Especially in this case, where I just finished writing the book a few months ago, and I stepped away from the novel thinking it was pretty tight and zippy.) I'm always happy when I can reread a draft and feel like I'm seeing it for the first time. I really like the feedback I give on books. :-)

Anyway. That's where I am now. I think the reread will take a week or so, and then there will be a few days of figuring out the exact changes I want to make, and then the revision, which I don't imagine will last a month. You never know, of course. In this case, with the book being in as good of shape as it is, I might try to shoot for a more polished draft 2 than I normally go for. That might make sense. The less redrafting I have to do, the better.

Wish me luck!

Diet Update: Week 16

2013-06-11T11:59:00.002-04:00

It's interesting. Back when my diet started, each update I would post about it each week got quite a few hits. People seemed interested to see how I was doing. These days? Not many hits at all. You've all stopped caring, possibly because I keep losing weight? I'm not sure. Just an observation . . .

This week was the first since the diet started that I got well and truly sick. Stuck in bed for five days straight with bronchitis. No fun whatsoever. So that's the first time in four months. Is that less than previously? Maybe. But the fact is that when I'm not sick, I still feel better on average--so even if I still end up getting sick as often as I used to, it'll be a net gain, since I feel better the rest of the time. (Though I do think I'm getting sick less. This last bout was just really nasty and no fun. It happens.)

When I'm sick, I like to eat. Comfort food. I also stop exercising, because, well . . . sick. On the plus side, I don't eat as much. I just want to eat junk. It's a complex equation. What can I say? So the end result can be very fluid.

This week? I lost weight. I'm down to 189.6 pounds. Busted through that 190 mark. That means I've lost 1.4 pounds since last week--24.4 pounds total. Feels great!

Of course, I'm beginning to see some potential problems. First up is the fact that if I lose much more weight, none of my pants will fit me. They're already fairly baggy as-is. I don't like shopping, and I really don't want to have to buy all new clothes. Secondly, I think it's going to become harder and harder to convince myself that this whole "diet" thing is a good idea the more below 190 I am. My BMI is now 24.4. That's quite safely in the Normal range. My original weight loss goal was 178, so that I could bounce up to 185 and settle in there comfortably.

These days? I'm thinking of getting down to 185 and then just trying to settle in there without the need to go all the way to 178. Ideally, I need to transition to a maintenance diet and keep at it for several months so that I develop good habits. Before, I've always gotten great at dieting, and then I stopped--deciding to "be good" after that. A general "be good" doesn't last long, folks. So I think I need some sustained practice at what "be good" means--and then I need to stick to that. Why force myself to go to 178 (and need to buy more clothes) if I just stop at 185 and actually stay there?

I don't think I'm weaseling out of the diet. If I get to 185, that'll be 29 pounds lost. Maybe I'll shoot for 184, just to make it an even 30. We'll see.

In any case, another successful week. Onward and downward!

Book Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora

2013-06-10T13:40:00.001-04:00

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't know how I missed out on this book when it came out a few years ago. I love me a good heist plot, and an epic fantasy setting to boot? What's not to like? (Warning for some: the language. It's R-rated, which is probably enough to cross the book off some people's lists.)

Maybe some of what turned me off was the title, as stupid as that might sound. It made me think it was some romantic tale about a place in Scotland. Yes, that's how my mind works. In actuality, Locke Lamora is the main character's name. He lies a lot. 'Nuff said.

As with most heist plots, it's really best if you don't know much going into the plot. There are twists, there are turns, there are fun characters, there are bad guys. What made this book stand out particularly for me? For one thing, the world it takes place in is very fully-realized. Setting details were just fantastic, and it had a sense of history throughout the novel that helped give it that extra oomph. The bulk of the novel takes place in a city with a rather elaborate underworld. The city itself was built by beings long since forgotten, and humanity is basically just using the buildings that existed when they found them. So you've got old wonders that are now used for palaces or dens of infamy. If Goodreads let me use half stars, I'd probably give this one 4.5 instead of 5 stars. Some of the magic system seemed a tad too unexplained and nebulous, but I'm willing to overlook that. (It's not like my own magic systems are terribly concrete, after all).

Lynch does a fantastic job establishing the weight of actions in this world. Consequences are very real, and this book is far from a caper, if you get my drift. It did take a little bit for me to be fully engrossed in the work, but once I was, it was a wild ride to the finish.

Highly recommended.

Anyone else out there already have a chance to check it out?

View all my reviews

My Thoughts on the Government Snooping Scandal

2013-06-07T09:46:00.001-04:00

Check this out, people. Imagine a government--any government. You read a front page news story about that government. It's been collecting the phone records for all its citizens. Numbers called, locations called from, duration of the call. For months. And what does this government say when asked by the press about this practice? "Oh, that old program? We've been doing that for *years*."

Because if you've been doing it for years instead of months, it makes everything all better, right?

A few days later, a second revelation is made about this same government. It's managed to get direct access to the servers of most of the major tech companies in the world. Google. Apple. Skype. Microsoft. Yahoo. Facebook. AOL. This access lets them see whatever they want. When pressed about this practice, the government replies, "Oh, that old program? We've been doing that for *years*." It then goes on to assure the people, "We only look for stuff that's from or to foreigners, not citizens." And when asked how the people can be sure that's the case, the government essentially says, "Trust us."

Oh. My. Stars.

This isn't the Russian government, people. This isn't the Saudis. Or the [insert totalitarian government here]. This is the good old US of A. This isn't the Bush Administration, either. That evil bunch of crooks everyone liked to disparage (though a lot of this started under the Bush administration). This isn't Cheney. This is Obama.

Let me put this in Geek, so you'll all understand. Imagine that at the end of Return of the Jedi, right after the Ewok orgy scene, Luke whips out a black hooded robe, puts it on, and then force lightnings everyone to death, unfurling a giant banner that says, "EMPIRE 4 EVER."

Imagine that Frodo hadn't thrown the ring back, and that Middle Earth had a new reign of terror, Hobbit-style.

This is what's going on in America. Right this instant.

When the Verizon thing broke, I was troubled, but I wasn't incensed. Phone records? Shrug. Who I call. When I call them. I have nothing to hide. (But at the back of my mind, I wondered. What if I did? What if I had family over in the Middle East? Or what if I was back in Jerusalem for a while? And some of the calls I made were monitored, and they were to suspicious numbers, and suddenly I'm under way more scrutiny than I have any idea. It's not hard to paint a scenario where even the phone records are far more intrusive than any government has a right to get without a warrant.)

But then this article broke. PRISM? Access to everything I do on Google? My searches, my emails, my anything? My work email is through Google, too. The work email that's supposedly oh so secure. Rife with private information on students? That's snoopable, too.

And the government doesn't even need a warrant. It just promises that it won't snoop on things it's not supposed to.

Why don't I mail them the key to my front door while they're at it? Would they like my bank account information? How about access to my hard drive? Because I TOTALLY TRUST that they're not going to snoop into things they have no right to snoop into.

Oh wait. Check that. I've already been communicating with people outside of the country. Slovakia. Germany. England. Lots of communication. And that means that my information might have been sifted through already. Without a warrant. Without letting me know.

And the justification for this is that THEY'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS, SO IT'S TOTALLY OKAY? (Sorry. Some things in life deserve nothing less than all caps.)

As the New York Times points out, Obama's had a habit of pointing the finger at the Bush Administration whenever he's been called on the floor for distasteful practices. That, or issued a cloud of "I need this information so the terrorists don't win. Trust me." It's your second term, buddy. The time for blaming Daddy is over. Man up, and eat your Wheaties. You're doing this because *you* want to.

And it's just plain wrong.

This is something straight out of a dystopian novel. I can't simply "trust" the government. Not when it does things on this scale. Not when it tries to hide the things it's doing, and then when we find out about them, just says it's for our own good. This is the land of the free, last I checked.

I'm sorry. I'm just outraged, and the rest of the country should be, too. I don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Tea Party, or some other party. If the government wants to be doing something like this, the people have a right to know it's happening, at the bare minimum. They have a right to be able to offer some input on the matter. If you tell us we can't know, because then "the terrorists win" and "the program won't be as effective," tough luck.

The terrorists have already won.

No tinfoil hat here, people. This PRISM thing is huge, and the outcry against better be just as big. And that's all I have to say about that at the moment.

Movie Review: Lincoln

2013-06-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

It's become my specialty: reviewing movies long after everyone else has seen them. I wonder if there's a way to monetize this . . .

Anyway, I finally had the chance to take in one of last years critical favorites: Lincoln. Steven Spielberg. Daniel Day Lewis. Abraham Lincoln. Part of me feels like a review is superfluous. You know exactly what you're getting before you even start the movie, don't you?

Or do you?

The traditional take on a biopic would present the whole of Lincoln's life. You'd see him born, grow up, become a lawyer, become a politician, become president, become (SPOILER!) assassinated.

This isn't that movie. This movie could actually be more appropriately titled, The Thirteenth Amendment. Of course, who in their right mind would want to watch a 2.5 hour movie about that? They'd really be missing out, actually. I had no idea the passage of that amendment was difficult at all. (Yes, this proves what an idiot I am when it comes to history, I suppose. But come on--no Southern states were there for the debate. So you had a bunch of Northern politicians debating whether or not the US should allow slavery. Preaching to the choir, right? Wrong, apparently. Very wrong.)

Even more laudable, the history presented in the film is good enough that not all historians criticized it. Some actually even praised it. So you're not just getting the Hollywood-ized version of history. You're getting some of what actually happened. (More or less.)

The acting is, of course, superb. I wouldn't be surprised it I heard that Daniel Day Lewis had eschewed running water, deodorant, and air conditioning throughout the course of filming, just so he could remain in character. The man really is an incredible actor. There's a reason he's won Best Actor three times now. Tommy Lee Jones also does a remarkable job as Thaddeus Stevens. The directing is spot on (of course), and the pacing is as good as a film of this sort can hope to have. (I mean, it's an historical film. Don't expect tons of explosions and pyrotechnics. Although it still had some pacing issues, even for a film of this nature. I found the beginning and denouement to be on the clunky side.)

So if you haven't seen the movie yet because you don't want the old Lincoln biopic, then rest assured this is much much more than that. 3.5 stars. Highly recommended.

Revision is a Jigsaw Puzzle With No Picture

2013-06-05T13:32:00.000-04:00

I'm in the middle of revising GET CUPID at the moment. I've made some comments about it on my social media sites, if you've been following along. It's a biggie. The second draft of the book was 109,000 words long. I'm shooting to have the third draft come in at 60,000 words. (Of course, I'm shooting for that knowing that I almost always end up longer than my goal. So because I want the final thing to be in the 70,000 word range, I'm focusing on 60,000 words as the goal. I know this seems stupid, but this is how my brain works. Deal with it.)

When I'm approaching a revision of this size, it can be pretty daunting. Honestly, part of me just wants to throw everything out and start over fresh. I'm restructuring the whole thing, taking out characters, chapters, plot elements--you name it. Wouldn't it just be easier to write a new book? It probably would be. So why don't I?

Well, for one thing, this is a book I've put a lot of work into it. I like it. I see that it has potential, and so I want to put in the effort I need to in order to realize that potential. I realize this might not be the best of reasons to do a revision. There's such a thing as a sunk cost--sometimes it's better to just walk away from an investment. But while the task is daunting, I think it'll take me less time to revise this than it would to write it from scratch. So it's not that bad. My goal is to be done by the end of August. Two months ain't much, from a writing perspective. I've got to be writing something while I'm waiting for feedback on THE MEMORY THIEF, for example. Revision is a great project for that.

Plus, there are big chunks of this book that I'm very happy with as-is. I could rewrite them, sure--but my gut tells me that would take longer. I could be wrong on this. I suppose there's no real way to know.

I've tried several approaches to the revision so far, and nothing has been a home run as yet. At first I thought I'd be able to just re-outline the plot, and then start with a fresh document and begin cutting and pasting sections in as they come up in the new and improved plot. And I've stuck to that more or less, but as I go through, I keep having to toss out pieces of that plot when I discover something else needs to change drastically.

Case in point:

GET CUPID is a heist book. The original concept was Ocean's 11 meets Mistborn. Contemporary setting, magic specialist crooks. Young adult fun. It's been tweaked a bit since then. Now it's more Ocean's 11 meets Harry Potter. A bit more whimsical, and there's a school involved. (Long story.) In the original plot, one of the crooks is a spirit-walker named Luke, who only speaks in Star Wars quotes. I really liked Luke. He was a fun character. Some people really liked him, too. Others didn't like him at all. For the revision, I decided to keep Luke in, but tone down on the Star Wars a bunch. Bring him closer to the middle of the road.

One of the main villains of the book was Raphe, the twin brother of Eldin, the protagonist. A really nasty piece of work. For the revision, I decided to take Raphe and make him neither a twin nor a really big antagonist. He became a loan shark who Eldin owes money to, and that outstanding loan becomes one of the main reasons the plot gets going. It's an engine that was supposed to drive the book. But as I wrote the beginning, I discovered that Raphe-as-engine only works if some serious time is devoted to Raphe. He had to be built up and developed some to make him important.

Fine. I did that. I built him up, and all felt right with the world. Then I got to the point where Eldin is supposed to have a brief confrontation with Raphe--something to "seal the deal," as far as the engine goes. Really solidify that Eldin has to take a certain job in order to get free from Raphe. It looked like it would work fine when I was planning it, but I discovered a problem when I was writing it:

After I'd spent so much time building up Raphe to be strong enough to work as an engine for the plot of the book, he was suddenly out of the picture for almost all of it. It went from "Raphe is a big problem" to "Raphe is that guy we don't have to worry about for the next 2/3 of the novel."

This doesn't work. It felt wrong. When I'm working on plot or writing (particularly during the revision process), so much of what I do comes down to feeling. It's like a jigsaw puzzle with no picture. I've got all these individual pieces, and I know they fit together somehow. I keep turning them around, comparing them to other pieces, looking for something that fits. That just clicks together. Sometimes I might think I've found it, and then later on I discover something else that fits even better.

That's what happened with Raphe. I was in the middle of that scene, knowing that Raphe had to do more. Be more. And then it hit me: Raphe would insist on coming with the others on the heist. This is something Eldin would hate hate hate. But it's something that felt right. And it works on a lot of different levels: it increases tension throughout the book, it lets Raphe be more important, it complicates life for Eldin. It just clicked all at once. I wanted to do it.

But then I had to look at the implications. If Raphe is with the gang for the heist, he needs to fill a role. Imagine if in Oceans 11, a Ben Affleck suddenly pops up in the plot, hanging around and doing nothing but being a nuisance. That wouldn't work at all. So Raphe had to have a Purpose. I could tweak the plot, of course. Come up with some reasons for him to be there. Some roles only he could fill. But that felt wrong. That's complicating things *too* much.

On the other hand, I could also make Raphe become one of the other characters. Erase that character from existence, and have Raphe assume his responsibilities and abilities, but keep his own personality. And there was Luke, just kicking around, quoting Star Wars movies and not really doing much else.

Sorry Luke. It just felt right to eradicate any mention of you from the book.

Of course, once I made that change, then a bunch of the plot I had retooled had to be worked through again. You see why it's a complex problem? It's only made trickier by the fact that the more I work with this, the harder it becomes to really be able to tell the effect my changes are having. Once I've been revising a book for a while, it's hard for me to know if I'm making it better. That's where readers come in. Once this revision is all done, I'll need fresh readers to look at it and tell me how it's doing. That'll be a chance to step back and see if the picture my puzzle pieces made is one worth viewing.

In the meantime, I just keep going by feel--trusting my instincts. It's a really nebulous way to do a revision, but it's what's working for me at the moment, and if there's one thing I've found during my years writing, it's that I should use what works for me. So there you have it.

Diet Update: Week 15

2013-06-04T12:00:00.000-04:00

This week, I got serious about the diet again. Exercise. Food. The whole shebang. There were a few meals that weren't strictly budgeted--I didn't keep track of calories during them--and that didn't help, but when you have company in town, sometimes that has to come before dieting 100%. But really, it felt like I was "DIETING" again--hungry quite a bit of the time, actively not eating a lot of what I wished I could be eating.

No fun.

Then again, the fact that it felt different probably goes to show just how not well I was following my diet previous to that.

So it wasn't a fun week, but it *was* a successful one. I clocked in this morning at 191, which gives me 2 pounds lost this week, and 23 pounds overall. That sounds like a lot of weight, even though when I look at myself in the mirror, it still seems like I've got a fair bit to go. 13 pounds until my goal weight. We'll see how that goes.

I did see a picture of myself on Sunday, and I was surprised by how thin I looked. That was a nice touch to my day. I don't want to be a stick or anything--just healthy. I feel like I'm there already, honestly--but I've been this weight before, and it was all too easy to go back to overweight. Hence the onward and downward mentality.

13 pounds left . . .

Two Fallen Trees and a Downed Electrical Line Later . . .

2013-06-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

Denisa and I went off with family yesterday to do a little exploring. The agenda was simple: head up to the Wire Bridge in New Portland, have a light picnic, and then come back home again. There were scattered thunderstorms forecast for the area, but it had been pretty hot, humid, and rain-free for the weekend, so we weren't really worried.

On the drive up, I noticed heavy dark thunderclouds to the north, ripe with jagged bolts of lightning. "That looks . . . interesting," I told Denisa. She concurred. But I'm not one to let a few clouds spoil a plan, so on we went.

The wire bridge was cool as always. You can get the whole thing swinging from side to side if you kick it just right with your feet. It's like you're on a huge swing, and it can make you motion sick really easily. After illustrating this principle, we went down to the picnic area to have some food. (Because nothing says "Let's eat!" like motion sickness.)

Enter thunder, stage left.

We ate quickly--some of Denisa's great bread, along with meat and cheese. But the thunder picked up, and it started sporadically sprinkling, so it was deemed a Good Idea to start packing up and heading out. We'd taken two cars. My father took everyone but Denisa, MC and me and headed off back to home base. Denisa needed to feed MC, so the three of us stayed behind.

And then things got crazy. Like, wind-ripping-through-the-trees, hail-coming-down-everywhere, garbage-cans-flying-through-the-air, torrential rain crazy. The clouds were swirling above us, and I couldn't help wonder if there might be a tornado in the area (and it turned out there were tornado warnings, as a matter of fact . . . )

It was an interesting afternoon, but Denisa and I waited it out, and we managed not to get squished by any falling trees. Yay!

On the way home, we were soon stopped by firetrucks. A tree had fallen across the main road back to civilization. It had downed a power line in the process. The road was impassable, and was likely to remain such for quite some time. There was an alternate route, but it was on dirt roads and 20 miles out of our way. However, company was over, the kids were with said company, and so we decided to try the detour, despite the fact that we'd never driven there before. (This is how many horror movies begin. I understand why now.)

Off we went, using our trusty GPS and our trustier road map of Maine. We pieced together the route, and things were going okay. Sure, there was still End of Times lightning arcing across the sky, but that just set the mood. We were delayed, but okay.

And then we came to another downed tree in the middle of the dirt road. No firetrucks this time (but no power lines, either.)

Friends, there are times when you just accept what the universe is telling you. When you resign yourself to never getting home at a decent hour, and just decide to take a nap in the car.

This was not one of those times.

Denisa and I got out of the car in the middle of the storm, walked up to that tree (which was probably 1.5 feet in diameter at the base), and moved it.

That was the plan, at any rate. We managed to move the tip of it some. (Newsflash: trees are heavy. Even for librarians.) But no matter how far we moved it, it had a tendency to spring back into place. (Newsflash: trees are springy. Even for authors.) But if we gave up, that meant a long ride back to another downed tree. There wasn't really a second detour option.

Drawing on herculean strength (and possibly the Powers of Greyskull), I held the tree back far enough for Denisa to get in the car and drive around it. Because what's a Sunday if you don't get to Hulk out once in a while?

We made it home. No one died.

Mission successful.

What did you do on *your* Sunday? :-)

Rocksmith: Getting Better By Not Practicing

2013-05-31T12:30:00.000-04:00

I had an interesting experience the other day. With all the busy-ness in my life, it's been several months since I've been able to play guitar. Part of me was really dreading picking it up again, knowing that the amount of no practicing I'd been doing was bound to hurt me. I'd been playing almost every day, and then I'd stopped for weeks and weeks. Because I didn't want to face the fact that I'd gotten worse, I was even less motivated to start playing again. Stupid, but there you have it. Having Rocksmith would make it even easier to tell that I'd gotten worse. It keeps track of your "score" for each individual song. I would be forced to see the fruits of my laziness in a very quantifiable way.

Still, eventually I just really wanted to pick up a guitar and get playing again. So I braved the scorn of my video game, picked up my bass, and started up Rocksmith. I played my first song, going with something easy after all this time: Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out. I played through the song, having a blast, and then waited for the verdict. When it came, I couldn't believe my eyes.

I'd improved my score significantly.

I tried a harder song. And then another. And another. I switched over to electric guitar and did the same thing. Almost every time, I got the same result: I beat my previous score. I wasn't even that rusty. There were some tricky spots that I'd practiced a lot before I stopped playing, and those were troublesome again, but as far as the basics of playing went? Somehow by doing nothing for a few months, I'd become a better guitar and bass player.

I wonder if there's been some sort of scientific study on this. Something that shows that the brain sometimes needs time to process new skills to improve at them? I have no idea. All I know is that I don't need to hang my head in shame in front of my video game, and that feels great.

And I've said it before and I'll say it again: if anyone's looking for a fantastic way to learn to play the electric bass or guitar, they should look no further than Rocksmith. I love love love that game, both as a game and a teaching tool. Can't give it high enough marks.

Thoughts on Arrested Development Season 4

2013-05-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

I'm a huge Arrested Development fan. I'd been looking forward to the show's return since the day it was canceled and went off the air, hoping against hope that one day it might rise in glory again. So when Netflix brought it back from the dead, I was overjoyed. I've been looking forward to new episodes since it was announced. As most of you know, those episodes came online Sunday. There are 15 of them. I've now watched 12.

Warning: some serious nerding out ahead. If you're not an AD fan, then this probably isn't the blog post for you. If you are an AD fan, then I'll do my best not to spoil anything for you. Ready?

Honestly, at first I was kind of disappointed with the season. The first episode was okay, but everyone was different. Lindsay looked very different. (Nose job? Botox?) George Michael was older. Tobias was fatter. Maeby was older, too. Somehow in my head, I'd envisioned a return to the exact same show I've loved so much over the years.

And of course that's not possible.

But it wasn't just the characters looking different. The show itself seemed changed. One of the strengths of the original series was how the shows were done individually. Things that weren't funny at first set up things that were hilarious later on, as the show began to flesh out each storyline, adding layer and layer of references to plot elements, pop culture tidbits, character development--it all just builds until by the end, everything explodes in a fountain of awesome.

This season wasn't like that. The next few episodes just didn't seem to be coming together. Had I been wrong? Had I built my hopes up too high? Another thing I noticed--the original was 100% an ensemble show. You need to have all the characters together to have the real funny happen. Gob by himself or George Michael alone, or George, Sr--they needed each other to act as foils. With this new season's focus on an individual character each episode, a lot of that ensemble feel seemed to be missing.

I was beginning to lose faith. To doubt.

But then episode 5 (a Tobias episode) hit, and it was hilarious. And I kept watching. And bit by bit, it dawned on me.

Season 4 isn't a season at all. It's one extremely long episode. 7 hours or so. And just like with the original, the funny afterburners don't kick in right away. It takes time to lay the foundation. So the first few episodes are all about setting up the rest of the show. You literally have a punch line given in the first episode that isn't even remotely funny until the 12th--6 hours or so later.

Arrested Development took the formula of the original show, and they changed it. Exploded it for a new platform. Binge watching. People can and do watch hours of a show each night, not just a half hour or an hour here or there, once a week. The show could afford to work on a much more macro scale than it was before. And it needed to in order to succeed. The show's stars are too big these days. Scheduling must have been a nightmare. They couldn't do it like they used to, so they found a new way to get it done.

My faith in the show is restored. I've been loving the episodes, and I look forward to rewatching them and getting even more of the funny out of them. I'm also very curious to see where this type of show takes the future of serial programming. I really do think it's a fundamentally different approach, much more of a hybrid between a movie and a TV show. True, shows like Lost and 24 have already been doing that sort of thing, but it's just getting more and more complex. AD is certainly the first comedy I can recall that's attempted it.

Anyway--there are my thoughts. I'd love to hear what other AD fans are thinking of the show. Please share!

Lessons Learned While Fishing: Try Not to be Stupid

2013-05-29T11:30:00.000-04:00

I went out with some friends fishing yesterday, taking along TRC and DC for the ride. It was a different type of fishing than I'd done before. More like hunting, really. We were out on a lake in a canoe, and we were hunting bass. You look down into the water, searching for spots where the bass are laying eggs at this time of year. From what I understand, the male bass just hover over their spot, protecting it from anything they think might be dangerous.

Such as a bare hook.

You find the bass, you lower the hook, the bass sees it, bites it, you reel in. Did the bass get away? No worries--he swims right back to his spot and resumes guarding. Lower the hook. Reel in again. As I told someone else, it really felt like I'd found a cheat code for fishing. (Of course, it felt this way because the friend I was with is insanely good with a canoe paddle. He also knows just what to look for when searching for these egg-laying spots. After a while I got so I could tell them apart, too. But you need the water to be perfectly still so that you can see to the bottom. Polarized sunglasses would also help. Plus, knowing how to stand in a canoe and not tip over. Really, it was more my friend fishing than me, even though he never lowered a hook once. He had to keep maneuvering the canoe against the wind, keeping us over the bass. I have no idea how he managed to do it. I had a fantastic time--as did TRC and DC--but this is not a fishing expedition I could do on my own. Maybe if there were absolutely no wind . . . )

Anyway. We caught three bass in the space of an hour and a half or so. I caught the first, TRC the second, and my friend's daughter the third. They were each around 17 inches long, weighing around 3 or 3.5 pounds. A great afternoon expedition.

But as is often the case when I'm fishing, I couldn't help but think about some life lessons in the middle of the trip. There are the obvious ones--like DC complaining she was bored in the middle of the trip. We're out on a canoe on a picturesque lake in Maine, a gorgeous spring afternoon, there's a rainbow in the sky, loons swimming by, and bass being caught. And she's bored. Lesson learned? Appreciate what you have when you have it. But like I said, that's the easy lesson.

I was watching these bass as we caught them, amazed that something could be that predictable. It's very paternal of the fish, I'll grant them that. (And before you think we're awful human beings for doing this to the poor fishies, realize that the bass in this particular lake aren't supposed to be there. They were illegally stocked a while ago, and the state fish biologists would really prefer it if fishermen could eradicate all the bass. Hence this approach is actually helpful for the environment of that lake, as I understand it. But I digress.) It just was stunning that a fish could make the same exact mistake, over and over and over. Biting the hook must have hurt. It struggled like anything to get away once it was hooked, but it just couldn't not bite that hook the next time.

Stupid fish.

But then I looked at myself. At my dieting (which is always on my mind these days). In many ways, don't I do the same thing as that fish? I see a brownie. I know I shouldn't eat it. I eat it anyway. And brownies are just the easy example. There are lots of things I do that I know I shouldn't do. Stay up too late watching movies. Don't clean the house. Snap at my family. Slack off on my goals--you name it. I know I'd be happier if I didn't do those things, but when they're right there in front of me, I just can't seem to help myself.

I bite the bare hook.

There's hope, however. We found one last fish--a fourth. He was there over his eggs, protecting them the same as the other three had. The kids had all caught their fish, so I was casting again. I placed the hook perfectly. The fish went right up to it, looked at it, and then swam away. I thought I must have done something wrong, so I tried again. And again. I hit the fish in the back with the hook. I bobbed it up and down appealingly. The fish wasn't having any of it. We tried for twenty minutes, and then went elsewhere.

That fish is my hero. I want to be that fish.

It's good to have goals in life . . .

Diet Update: Week 14

2013-05-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

I have a confession to make. I've been getting sloppy with my diet. Yes, I think there are some good reasons why that's the case, but it's still a fact. Somehow over these 14 weeks, I've stopped being as rigid in counting those calories. Instead of weighing everything, I've been rounding. Estimating.

And in those estimations, I'm afraid I've been rather generous to myself. To make things worse, I've been seeing my daily calorie intake go up from around 1600 to around 2000. Still technically below my goal, but higher than it needs to be.

As a result, where I used to be 3 weeks ahead of where I wanted to be, I was only a day ahead as of yesterday. That's a trend that just won't work. In fact, as of yesterday, I hadn't lost any weight for the week. So I had to somehow get through a barbecue day and somehow lose weight.

I played tennis for two hours, mowed the lawn, and went fishing. I ate only 1600 calories.

And I lost a pound. Yay! So now I'm at 192.8. Total lost on this diet: 21.2 pounds. Pounds to go: 14.8.

I'm hopeful that approaching my diet with a renewed commitment to following the rules rigidly will help me keep those pounds going down. Weight loss leveled off for a good 2 or 3 weeks, and I want to correct that. That said, it's tough to keep doing this week after week. Honestly, if I didn't have the accountability of this blog, I think I might have given up several times over the course of this ride. So yay for accountability.

In the "good news" department, I played tennis for 2 hours yesterday, and I didn't feel winded and awful during the experience. I love playing tennis, but the last few years I've played, it's been a wheezy affair. It looks like regular exercise helps with that. Go figure. :-)

Anyway--that's it for this week. Onward and downward!

Some Thoughts on the Pixar Rules

2013-05-24T12:30:00.000-04:00

A friend linked me to a post on Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling--something I'd come across a while ago, and hadn't really responded to at the time. But I'm currently in "editing and revising" mode, and it spoke to me in a different way this time, and I wanted to get some thoughts down on virtual paper.

These are great rules--principles to keep in mind when you're creating a story. I wish I could have them all mastered, but I don't.

The problem I run into is that I don't think about rules when I'm writing. I don't sit down and say "Don't do this--it breaks rule 42." In some ways, I can't help but think my writing would be better if I took the time to think about those little details. But in other ways, I think my writing would be ruined.

One of the worst obstacles I have to get over whenever I'm writing is my natural inclination to dismiss what I'm writing as bad. I'll get something down on paper, and I'll just think it's awful. Chock full of flaws. And here's the thing--the more rules I try to keep in mind at the same time, the more I think what I've written is garbage.

I wonder sometimes how I'll be as a writer farther down the road, when I have even more practice. I do think I'm getting better, and that it's a craft that can be honed and refined over the years. I think I might get to the point where some of the things that I have to consciously force myself to do now come naturally to me in the future. For example, right now I have to really work hard to get all the descriptions of a scene in and do it well. What does the setting sound like? Smell like? What's the temperature? Things that really transport a reader to a place, but do it in a way that isn't jarring or intrusive. That's just plain hard for me to do. I'm better at it than I was, but still . . .

When I get to the point that I'm better at that--that I have more consistent practice with it--maybe I'll be able to start focusing on some other elements of writing. Step by step. A process.

So on the one hand, I love things like these Pixar Rules. They're simple statements I agree with. But on the other hand, I often have to do my best to ignore them. If I have one more rule in the back of my mind, nagging at me to follow it . . . it just might be too much.

Thoughts?

Writing: Talent vs. Good

2013-05-23T12:29:00.002-04:00

An author friend posted a link on Twitter to an essay focused on the differences between talented writing and good writing. It's an interesting read, and one I'd like to discuss a bit at length here, if you don't mind reading it over so that you can be better informed as I discuss it.

Done? Good.

This is an interesting debate, mainly because in my opinion, so much of the debate rests in an area that's a matter of personal taste. One person might read a story and think, "That was an awesome, incredible book." Another might read it and think it was drivel. As far as I'm concerned, both people can be right at the same time. It's art, and that's how art rolls, folks.

Case in point: The Great Gatsby. Dan Wells and I had an epic Candy Land duel a year or so ago over whether or not Gatsby is a great piece of literature. I love that book and think it's brilliant? Dan? Not so much. (Candy Land says I'm right, though. So there.) But seriously, we can both be right. Both positions are defensible. In the end, it's like having an argument over vanilla vs. chocolate. (Although why are we even arguing? Chocolate wins, easy schmeasy.)

If two English grads can't even agree on good old F. Scott, how can we hope to have a real debate over talent vs. good writing. According to the article, good writing is well constructed and passable. It's readable. It conveys a message accurately and efficiently. But it lacks that certain "something" that only truly talented writers have.

Hogwash, as far as I'm concerned, and I'll give you another good reason--we can't even all agree on what's bad writing.

Next case in point: The DaVinci Code. Tons of people will do their best to deride it, but it sold boatloads of copies, and it made Dan Brown a huge figure in pop literature. Is it "bad"? Is it "good"? It all depends on the measuring stick, and that measuring stick is going to have different numbers on it, depending on whose it is. Telling someone they like "bad" literature seems like a really base thing to do. It cuts a person to the core, dismissing their judgement. I'm against that.

So Talented vs. Good seems like a non-debate to me. I do think the terms both have merit, but I look at them in a different light. Talented writers are good right off the bat. It comes easier to them. I think of it in the same terms as I thought of musical ability in high school. Some of my friends were clearly just better players at an instrument than others. They didn't have to work as hard to be as good, if that makes sense. Other people could get to that same level, but they had to work harder to get there.

In the end, I just keep asking myself, "Does any of it matter?" To me as a reader, does it matter if I find one particular author talented and one just plain good? Not really. What's the difference? I'll read what I want to read, when I want to read it. Period.

To me as a writer, does it matter? No. All the worrying in the world won't make me one iota more talented than I might be otherwise. All that I can control is how much effort I put into my writing. What I do to make myself better. Better--that's the word I can focus on. I want to be a better writer tomorrow than I am today. That's something I have control over. Whether at the end of that process, I started out as good or talented or whatever . . . none of that matters.

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

Cleaning Out the Netflix Queue

2013-05-22T12:30:00.000-04:00

My Netflix queue has gotten out of control. Big time. It's well over 200 titles long, and that's just kind of ridiculous. It doesn't help that a lot of titles on there are ones that have been on there for years. I've found that once I pass over a title often enough, I stop thinking of it as a "potentially good movie"--even though I obviously thought it would be a good movie at some point in time. After all, I was the one who stuck it on that list in the first place, right?

So I'm weeding out the list. It's taking some time, and I'm having to do it over the course of several days, just because I don't have that much free time available to me right now, and this feels an awful lot like work.

I've started by taking off the low rated movies. If Netflix thinks I'm going to give it less than three out of five stars, then the odds are low that I'll every actually want to watch that movie. There will always be something I want to watch more. So off it goes! Then I'm taking off the ones that I'm not dying to see--that I know Denisa has no desire to see, either. We watch almost all of these movies together, so unless something's "Must See" for me, it needs to go off that list if I know Denisa isn't going to want to watch it.

Through this approach, I've been able to get the list down below 200 now. That's progress, right? I'm not sure where I'll go from here. Part of me is really close to just deleting the whole list and starting from scratch. Limit myself to a queue of about 10 or so in instant and DVD, respectively. Then I could let myself add another 5 movies once 5 of the movies that are on the list get watched.

Anyone else out there a Netflix junkie? How do you decide what to watch when? All ideas are welcome!

Diet Update: Week Thirteen

2013-05-21T11:30:00.000-04:00

Another week in the record books. I've been doing this diet for something like 90 days now. That's a lot of days. No wonder I'm sick of it. (I particularly miss baking, which is usually a quick and easy way for me to do something with my hands and feel creative for an hour or so. Hard to do that and stick to my diet, though, so I've refrained for the most part.)

More free meals at the cafeteria this week, but the good news is that those days are gone. School's out for summer, and the cafeteria is closed. :-) I should be settling back into some regular eating habits, which will help the diet tremendously.

Exercise hasn't been quite as consistent--at least not in an "this is really exercise and hard work" sort of vein. I've stacked some wood, done some yard work, and gone fishing with TRC multiple times. The good news is that I'm doing a much better job of doing something physical each day. It's just not necessarily helping me lose weight. Then again, I'm not exercising to lose weight. I'm losing weight and exercising so that I feel better and get sick less often. And in that respect, things are going great. I have yet to get really sick for days at a time since I've started this program. Yay for that.

And now, to numbers. I'm ecstatic to announce I'm 193.8 pounds this morning. That might seem like a random number to you all, but it's of great significance to me. It's the very border of "Normal" on the BMI scale. That's right, folks. As of this morning, I'm officially normal again. No longer overweight. 24.9.

This means the diet has transitioned from a "don't be overweight" goal to one of "be more firmly planted in the 'normal' category goal." A subtle shift, perhaps, but one with meaning to me. From here on out, the main goal is to not get back into that overweight category. My ultimate goal is 178 pounds--so that I can have plenty of buffer room. I'd like to settle in at 185. So there's still a ways to go, but I'm definitely making progress.

Yay for that.

Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness (Spoiler-Free)

2013-05-20T11:00:00.000-04:00

Besides having one of the harder to understand titles this summer (Is it "Star Trek Into Darkness" or just "Into Darkness"? I really can't tell . . . ), the latest Star Trek movie was one I've been very excited to see. JJ Abrams did a great job with the first one, in my opinion, and I've liked his stuff overall. Plus, Benedict Cumberbatch. Win, right?

So I went to see it by myself, knowing that Denisa and I won't be in theaters until MC is old enough to get babysat. (I've vowed never to be the parent with the screaming baby in the theater. I've stayed true to that vow for two kids, and I'm not about to go back on it with the third.)

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, although I think I might be seeing lens flares for the next few weeks. (Seriously, JJ. Tone down the lens flares. It'll still look futuristic without them--promise.)

The plot is simple: Star Trek. I don't want to give away any more than that. If you liked the first JJ Abrams flavored Trek, you'll like this one. If you're a long-time Trekkie . . . I don't know what you'll think. It depends on what sort of a Trekkie you are. Some of you will love this. Some will loathe it. But if you're That Sort of Trekkie, you're going to see it one way or another, so I suppose my review doesn't matter.

There are twists and turns. Nods to original Trek movies and episodes. One minor complaint I'd have is that because I was familiar with the original material, it was pretty easy to guess what was going to happen--right down to how certain scenes would play out and be blocked. But even then, I enjoyed the spin those scenes took, and so it was all groovy more or less.

The action scenes are very explodey. It's an exciting movie through and through, so top marks for that. This is definitely one of those movies where paying some to see it on a big screen is worth it. Three and a half stars out of four. Definitely check it out.

(And in other news, I really want to do some mashups of movies. What I mean is Cumberbatch is going to be playing Smaug later this year. How awesome would it be to have Smaug be the villain of Star Trek Into Darkness? And then you have Sylar as Spock, Shaun as Scottie, Harold as Sulu--see where I'm going here? Best. Movie. Ever.

Is technology far enough on that we can make this happen? Now? Make it so!)

On Emergencies and Tragedies

2013-05-17T12:00:00.000-04:00

So while I was at my library meeting yesterday, someone had a seizure or a stroke--I'm not entirely sure which. It happened suddenly, with no warning at all. I hear they're feeling better, which is a relief, but it was--needless to say--a pretty upsetting experience for all involved. And it's been something I keep going over in my mind. Which means I need to write about it to try and understand it a bit better. Bear with me, or skip today's post. Your call.

It's so easy to live life with certain assumptions in place. Assumptions about continued health. No serious accidents. That we are more or less in control of our fate. Experiences like the one I witnessed yesterday go a long way to disrupting your willingness to make those assumptions, at least for a few days.

When you get down to it, life is full of risk. There's always the risk of tragedy striking at any time and at any place. I've seen this happen in my life and in the life of my friends--particularly now that Facebook is around and I'm in touch with so many more people on a daily or weekly basis. I've seen friends lose children, lose jobs, lose their health. I've seen friends disappear from a social network, only to find out a month or a year later that they died. In an instant, everything can be different.

I remember when I was living in Utah, Denisa and I were staying with my aunt and uncle. It was on the agreement that should my cousin need to move back to live with them, Denisa and I would need to find a different place to live. I really didn't handle that uncertainty well at first. The idea that at any moment, I might be forced to scramble to find alternatives. And I basically asked my aunt "what if I have to move out tomorrow?"

Her answer has stuck with me. She just shook her head, shrugged, and said, "What if a meteorite strikes the house? What if we have a fire? What if you get in an accident?" Her point was clear: we can spend all day worrying about the "What ifs." There are tons of things to worry about, after all. So many ways life can just be changed forever in a moment. But if you're focused on all those what ifs all the time, then you're never going to get any real living done. You'll be too focused on preparing for every eventuality that you miss out on all the opportunities to be happy.

This isn't something I do too well with. I don't like change. I don't like it when things don't go according to plan--even little things. If I have a plan for an evening, and it gets altered, that upsets me. I'm that kind of a guy. But I'm beginning to learn that it's a waste of time to worry about every eventuality. Something might pop up. I can worry about it when it does.

At the same time, I do think it's important to live your life as much as you can when you can. Enjoy the happy times, because there will be sad times that come along, too. Trying to prepare in advance for all the potential sad just makes you miss out on the happy.

And that's my deep thought for you today. Go out and do something you enjoy this weekend or this evening. Spend time with friends, family, or on yourself. Time is like money. You can only spend it when you have it. Saving some is good, but save too much too often and you can end up never having the chance to enjoy it.

Library Meeting--Bye Bye Blog Time

2013-05-16T09:11:00.000-04:00

I'm off in Augusta at a library meeting today. One I just found out I'm running. :-) In other news, no real time to blog, so I'll leave you all on your own this one time. I'll try to make it up to you tomorrow. Promise!

Vice President of the Maine Library Association

2013-05-15T13:30:00.000-04:00

I mentioned a week or so ago that I would have some big news this week. And I don't like to disappoint, so here it is. I've been nominated to be the Vice President of the Maine Library Association (MLA). And when I say "nominated," I mean "asked." Apparently the way the organization traditionally runs is to have officers run unopposed. So while there'll be a vote in June, it's between me and nobody. (I'm really hoping that's a vote I can win . . . )

This is an opportunity that kind of came out of the blue for me. I've been the Chair of the Central Maine Library District (a regional group that focuses on the needs of all libraries--public, school, academic, and specialty--in the region) for the past year or two, and part of that means I've been involved in discussions about the future of Maine libraries. When I go to a meeting, I speak up.

Apparently I spoke up too much. :-)

So what does this mean? It means that starting in June, I'll be Vice President of the association, followed by President for the two years after that, and then Past President for the two years after that. It was a six year commitment. MLA focuses on helping libraries and librarians throughout the state of Maine. It's the Maine chapter of ALA (the American Library Association).

Why me? Well, aside from the fact that I speak my mind (and apparently that's a good thing in LibraryLand), I'm both young(ish) and an academic librarian. The MLA is making a concerted effort to reach out to all libraries. Having an academic librarian involved in leadership will hopefully help that endeavor.

I have strong feelings about libraries and their perception in today's society. You've got boneheads left and right claiming that libraries are out of date, that books are dinosaurs, that librarians are going the way of the dodo. I personally feel that libraries have never been more important than they are now. There's so much information out there, and in my ideal world, libraries and librarians are there to guide you through that information.

Maine libraries are in a bit of disarray at the moment. Budget cuts hit us hard, and everyone's been scrambling to keep things running. With that focus on the individual libraries, the overarching goals of libraries as a whole have slipped to the wayside for the past while. My hope is that MLA can help bring that focus back. That we can get libraries collaborating more extensively with one another. I accepted the nomination with that in mind--that I could somehow contribute to that. (Well, my *first* hope was that it would get me into the Inner Circle of librarians, and I'd be taken to that room in DC where they're storing the Ark of the Covenant. That has yet to happen. Maybe once I'm actually elected?)

In any case, there you have it. My big news. Because I wasn't busy enough already, right? I'm excited for the opportunity, and hopeful I can do a good job. Time will tell . . .