Young Nerds Convention

Enjoying Some Pizza Before The Show

Friday night we had the opportunity to see and talk with not one but five young adult authors.  And also got to watch one of the most entertaining shows I have seen in a long time.  It was a book launch for Brandon Mull's final book in his Beyonders series (Mull is also author of the popular Fablehaven and Candy Shop Wars series).  Sam, Connie, and I have all read the first two books and Grandma Beth had pre-ordered the last book for Sam for Christmas so we were excited when the book finally arrived this week and extra excited that there was going to be a launch party.

The show was set to start at 7:00 and despite the fact we got there 6:20 we ended up behind three or four hundred people in line to get in.  Everybody had to fit into a high school auditorum, so I was a little stressed that we were not going to make it in, but fortunately we not only made it in, but actually got pretty good seats.


After Brandon Mull's wife gave an introduction, we were surprised to learn that not only was Brandon Mull there, but there were also five other authors:

Christopher Paolini -  "Eragon", The Inheritance Series (This guy is famous for having published Eragon when he was 15)
Richard Paul Evans - "Michael Vey, The Prisoner of Cell 25" series (Also author of the well know "The Christmas Box")
Chad Morris - "The Inventor's Secret" (This is Morris's first book and was just released in 2013 but it has very positive reviews on Good Reads)
Tyler Whitesides - "Janitors" series
Brandon Sanderson - "Mist born" series  and ghost writer for Robert Jordans books that he didn't finish (He is a young adult writer per se, so a lot of kids don't know who he is, but I have read a bunch of his books)


So apparently Chad Morris and Brandon Mull used to be part of a comedy troupe.  And so that comedy troupe did a show as part of the book launch.  It was really pretty hilarious.  I caught a few of the best parts on film.  This first one was a parody of the song "The Misty Mountains" that the dwarves sing in the new "Hobbit" movie.  They kind of did it all of a sudden so I missed the first half, which was the best part, but I caught the second half.  (Sorry my camera phone is not the greatest)

Then later there was a parody of the song "Popular" from the musical "Wicked".

They also had a pretty funny skit with Christopher Paolini going on a dating game show with the characters Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games), Bella (Twilight Series), Éponine (Les Miserables) and Dora the Explorer.  I cannot remember all of what happened, but I do remember everyone laughing hysterically when Dora the Explorer teaches everyone how to say "Liar" in Spanish after Eponine fakes being shot so that Christopher Paolini will hold her tight.

After the show it was time for the book signing.  We crowded towards the signing table to hopefully not have to wait forever to get books signed.  Then they announced that people would come up according to the number on tickets they had handed out when people were waiting in the big line before the show.  They started with the numbers 200-210.  They gave one ticket to each group of people.  So each group of 10 numbers actually represented 20 or 30 people.  We were number 513.  So yeah.  We waited a long time.

Brandon Sanderson wasn't part of the book signing, so he was just hanging out and so I went and talked to him

Fortunately Sam and his buddy Bron had fun running around and there were lots of free posters for them to collect and also there were people dressed up as characters from Brandon Mulls books, so the boys had blast.



Then finally at 11:30 at night.  We got Brandon Mull to sign our books.  He must have already signed 1000 books by the time he got to us, but he was still cheerful and he took time to pose with the boys (He actually smiled better than in this picture, but there were still a hundred people behind us in line, so we didn't try to take another picture.

Ninja Baby

Sometimes at bed time instead of being tired, Jonah becomes wide awake and just wants to run around and play.  This can be very exhausting and sometimes when we are really tired we just go to bed and let him sit in our bed and talk or play or whatever so that we can at least get some kind of rest.  On one such night,  Connie had to get up early the next morning and so I decided I would stay up and watch a show on my laptop while waiting for Jonah to wind down.

Finally, around 11:30 or so he began to get that sleepy look in his eye that told me he just might go to sleep.  So I turned off my show, took him upstairs to his bedroom and laid him in his bed.  He started to cry and to get out of his bed, so I told him I would lay down with him in his bed for a little bit. In the darkness he said, "You hold my hand daddy?"  "Sure mighty Jo' daddy will hold your hand"  Then I took his little hand and he held on tight to mine.  It is one of those moments when even though I was really irritated that he was staying up so late, I just couldn't be mad at him because he was so cute.

After about fifteen or twenty minutes and after almost falling asleep myself, I felt his hand go limp and I knew that he was asleep.  Very carefully, I climbed out of his bed.  I stood and watched him for a minute to make sure he stayed asleep, because often he feels when you leave the bed and then wakes up crying.  After I was sure he was really asleep, I realized I had to use the potty.  So I quietly slipped into the bathroom that is right next to Jonah's room and did a quick pit stop.  As I left the bathroom I stopped and listened at Jonah's door to make sure the sound of the toilet hadn't woken him up.  I didn't hear him crying or anything, so I made my way through the dark house, down the stairs, through the living room, down the hall, and into my bedroom.

As I made my way in the dark towards my bed, all of a sudden I heard a child's cry come from the bed and Connie say, "It's okay, you're okay, lie down"

"OH MAN!" I thought, "Grace or Sam must have had a nightmare or something while I was in Jonah's room, I am not going to get any sleep tonight"

"Who's in our bed?" I asked Connie.

"It's just Jonah," replied Connie.

"Wait, what?" I asked perplexed, "How is that possible?  I just left him in his room a minute ago"

I stood there confused for a minute and decided Connie must be mistaken.


"It can't be Jonah, I was just in his room he was totally asleep and I was just in the bathroom 30 seconds and didn't hear any crying or walking or anything."

But after turning on a light I was able to visually confirm, that in fact it was Jonah.  Or at least a baby that looked just like Jonah. Maybe my mind was just addled because it was so late and I was really tired.  But this truly freaked me out for a minute.  I debated in my head, should I go look upstairs and see if Jonah was still in his bed?  What would I do if he was still up there and there was some other baby in our bed?  What if there was a rip in the time-space continuum and now there were two Jonahs? These frightening possibilities were more than I wanted to deal with at the moment.  So I just decided that if there were now two Jonahs, I would just deal with it in the morning.  So I crawled into bed and went to sleep.


Morning came and when it did, I could only find one Jonah in our house.  Which was quite a relief.  In fact since a rip in the time space continuum had been eliminated as a possibility, I decided the only other possible explanation is that Jonah is a natural born ninja.  After fully faking me out that he was asleep, in the 30 seconds that I was in the bathroom he made it down the upstairs hallway, downstairs, down the downstairs hall, into our room and into our bed.  All this was done in complete darkness and without a sound.  You can't teach that.  If that kid is not destined to be a ninja, I don't know who is.

Year In Review 2012

For those in the family not on facebook, here is our 2012 year in review

Saturday Night Tradition, Ravioli Edition

A while back, we started a tradition where I cook dinner on Saturday nights to give Connie a break.  Usually I end up cooking some variation of pasta.  For some reason it the only thing I can think of to make.  And the kids usually like it.  Fortunately there are hundreds of variations of pasta to make, so I haven't run out of ideas yet.

For Christmas, I had bought Connie a Ravioli form for making home made Ravioli.  When Sam heard about this, he was so excited.  He loves Ravioli and was ecstatic about the idea that we could make our very own.  So this Sunday, ("Wait!" you may be saying to yourself, "didn't you say that cooked on Saturday nights?"  Well sometimes it works out that it ends up being Sunday nights, but it would have made a really long title to call it the Saturday Night but Sometimes Sunday Night Tradition, Ravioli Edition).  Anyway, so this Sunday, Sam and I decided to make Ravioli completely from scratch.

First, we used the power of the interwebs to find this recipe: http://food.meltingonline.com/sausage-ravioli-with-sage-brown-butter .  Then we set to work.  The first thing up was to make the filling.  Sam had never cooked meat before, so I showed him how to break up sausage at it cooked so that the filling wouldn't have to big of chunks.


Then the recipe called for a shallot.  I didn't know what a shallot was.  So I yelled up to Connie who was upstairs: "What's a shawl-ought?"
"A What?"
"A shawl-ought or maybe it is french a shawl-a? The recipe calls for it"
"I don't know what you are talking about, I'll come look"
Connie came down and looked at the recipe and then laughed.  "It's called a shall-it" she said kindly.  Then she pulled one out from the fridge.  Sam looked at it and declared "We are not putting that in the ravioli, I hate onions."
"It's not an onion, it's a shawl-ought," I said matter of factly.
"It kind of looks like an onion," said Sam.
"Don't worry it is not an onion," I said, "if it was an onion the recipe would have said onion.  Don't worry I am sure it will taste great."
Now one thing you need to know about Sam is that he hates onions.  If even thinks there is a possibility that there are onions in something, he won't eat it.  The thing is, I know that most of the time the thought of onions are far worse to him than him actually eating an onion.  I wasn't sure how different a shallot tasted from an onion, but I was pretty sure if he gave it a try without the preconceived notion that it was going to terrible that he would probably like it.  Fortunately, Sam was convinced that it was not actually an onion and I was able to put the shallot into the filling.

After the making the filling, we moved on to the making the dough for the ravioli.  This is the hardest and most time consuming part. We called in an expert for this part.  Connie showed us how to add just a 1/4 of a teaspoon of water at a time to the dough to get exactly the right consistency.  You want the dough to not be too flaky and falling apart, but if you add too much water, it gets too sticky and will stick the pasta press and your hands and everything else. Once we had the dough the right consistency , We sent the dough through the pasta press half a dozen times until it was perfectly smooth.





Next we used the ravioli form to actually make the raviolli

Then I told Sam it was time to make the sauce.  Once again Sam began to protest.  "I hate sauce.  They put sauce on the Ravioli at school and it is so gross"
"Sam," I said, "This isn't a red sauce, I promise you will like it"
"No I hate sauce, I don't care what kind it is"
"Do you hate bacon?" I said
"No, I love bacon," replied Sam.
"Well this sauce has pancetta, which is like extra good italian bacon".
I continued, "Do you hate butter?"
"No I love butter," replied Sam.
"Well this sauce is basically just pancetta, butter, and sage" I said, "Does that sound gross?"
"I didn't know that could be a sauce," said Sam.
"Yup," I said, "It is awesome sauce" (this was a little joke with a double meaning because I often say something is 'awesome sauce' when it is something is cool).
Sam was convinced that we should put the sauce on the ravioli.

When it was all said and done, it took us about two hours to do it all.  But it was well worth the work, both for the bonding time with Sam and because these Ravioli were in fact awesome sauce.  They were extremely delicious and I would recommend this recipe to anyone.  If you don't have time to make the ravioli yourself I would still recommend buying some at the store and making the butter and pancetta sauce.  buon appetito!

The Park City Point 2 Point

The Park City Point 2 Point is a 78 mile mountain bike race with ~14,000 vertical climbing and 90% single track.  My race didn't turn out as I would have liked, but I figure at least I can get a story out of it.  I want to experiment with different types of writing, so I decided to present this story in the style of a list of facebook updates/tweets/text messages.

• It is 6 in the morning and it raining with tons of lightening and thunder and race is supposed to start in an hour.
• We're at the race start.  There is going to be a meeting around 7 to decide what to do.
• The rain is slowing down, maybe the race will still happen.
• They had a vote and it was voted we would start the race around 8 instead of postponing until another day.  They are going to skip the first 12 mile loop because it is a clay mud bog.
• It is 8:15 and they are starting the race
• After a mile on the road, 350 of us are trying to get onto some single track at the same time. Major traffic jam. 
• Finally onto the single track.  Everyone is riding wheel to wheel.  If someone slips in the mud, you have to react really fast and go around or else a big pile up happens.
• One hour down, only 8-9 to go. Things are going pretty well, I am covered in mud, but the temperature is nice and cool and it is a fun trail.
• Hmmm, my rear shifter is giving me fits.  It is jammed with mud. I can shift into easier gears, but when I try to shift into harder gears, it takes it a minute or two to down shift.
• #@!$%$, cannot shift into harder gears at all now.  I am stuck in the granny gear.  At least I can shift into a harder gear in the front.
• I wish I had a cadence sensor so I could see how fast I am spinning on the flats and downhills. 
• I have been with the same group of people for a while now.  We are at a nice steady pace and it is much less stressful than a short 1-2 hour XC race.
• Dang, just crashed when the guy in front of me stalled on a rock and I tried to go around.  Fortunately, no bike or body injuries.
• Wow, it is sure beautiful out here.  There is a lake in the distance and a mist hanging over all the mountains.
• Man this spinning is killing me, I cannot get any frickin' speed.  It is like those dreams when you are trying to run fast and you don't go anywhere.
• I reached the first pit stop.  I am eating a lot of food.  I tried to get the dirt out of my rear deraiuller so I can shift.  I have 4 hours and 45 minutes to get to the next pit stop.  Hopefully I will be able shift better now.
• Heading up the team big bear climb, sometimes I can shift if I click the shifter and then do a hard pedal kick.  Sometimes not.
• #@$@#%@#$%$@%#$#@%, I was trying to get my chain to shift and my front wheel got on the wrong side of a log and I crashed.  My derailleur is stuck in the spokes.
• Finally go my derauller out, but now my chain keeps falling between the spokes and the rear gears.  I don't know if I bent my rear derailleur or what.
• OK, I figured out if I shift my shifter so it is one below where I really want it will more or less stay on the right gear.
• I am looking at the time and how far I have left and it is going to be a close one.  Time to rip my guts out and go as fast as I can. I am pretty hashed, but if I can just make the cut off to the second pit stop, I can do a death march to the end.
• Man this climb is taking forever, hopefully I can make up time on the downhill.
• Holy $@$%#@$#, this downhill is rocky twisty and slippery, the clock is ticking too fast.
• Finally a bit of faster trail, I think I can still make it. I am burying myself trying to keep a decent pace.
• Hmmm, I turned onto a dirt road, and now I a haven't seen a course marker for a while.  The course has been pretty well marked, so I am probably just being paranoid.
• #%$#@%@#$%^@%, I am in some neighborhood.  This cannot be right.  It has started to hail.
• I'm trying to figure out where I am with the GPS on my phone, but the screen is wet on my hands are muddy and the touch screen is not working.
• #@$!@#$!#@$,!#@$!@#$!#@$!@#$,!#@$^%$&&*#%^%$^#%$^#$%... $%@$#%#$^%#@$%$@#...
• $@#%@#$%@#$%@#$%#@$%...
• @#$%$%....
• @#^%#^%#$%#$^#$%^%$...
• $#@%$. Finally got the GPS working.  I am way off course. #@$!#@. I only have an hour and a half to make  the cut off.  It is going to take me a half hour with a big climb to get back to the course.  And then if I go all out about two hours to ride the next pit stop.  There is no way in @#$% I can make the cut off.
• #!@$@#$. There is no way for me to finish the race. I have decided to ride to the next pit via the road which is only a few miles.  I am so cold and hungry.  This bites.
• I found Connie at the pit stop.  She has brought me lots of food and water and a jacket.  I am done.
• I am consulting with Connie about maybe riding the last 21 mile section of the course.  I wouldn't feel good crossing the finish line knowing I had skipped about 15 miles of the course. But on the other hand maybe I could skip the finish line but at least be able to say I finished a greater percentage of the ride.
• I finally decided I will do the last section even though it will count as a DNF.  I will just go around the finishing line at the end.
• I'm going up a big climb. My legs feel okay.  Not great, but not horrible.  The food and water and rest has revived them a little.
• I have made it about half way up the first climb of the last section.  The rain is starting to pour down.  There is lightening too.
• I just counted the time between the lightening and the thunder.  !#@$, it is only a mile away.  Should I keep going?
• I am sitting here trying to decide what to do.  Even if it wasn't pouring rain, this was going to be a death march.  Now it is going to be a hypothermic death march and a very real physical danger from lightening.  Is it worth it for a DNF?
• I am sliding back down the trail now.  I decided a DNF is not worth it.  I am physically and emotionally exhausted.  I will have to try again some other time.

Mitt Romney Drops Out, Endorses President Obama

In a surprise move,  Today Mitt Romney announced that he was dropping out of the presidential race and would be endorsing Barrack Obama's bid for reelection.
"After a lot of thought, I decided 'You know Obamacare is a lot like Romneycare' and I like a lot of things Obama has done, so why waste any more money on this election and besides being president sounds pretty stressful"

The Hunger Games Movie Review

So, the Hunger Games movie finally came out.  I was a little nervous about going to go see it because I thought they might do a bad job of it as so many movie adaptions of books do.  I tried to set my exceptions really low.

My first worry was that it would focus mainly on the love triangle and that it would just be a variation of the insipid Twilight movies.  As it was, I think they did the love triangle really well.  They showed it, but did not put it center stage.  In fact I really liked how subtly they did it.  They never really show Gale and Katniss as a couple, but more as good friends, but the jealously was clear in the brief moment we see Gale watching the Hunger Games and sees Katniss and Peeta together.  I also liked how they subtly showed that Katniss's affection for Peeta was part real and part show.  I though the brief note from Haymitch "You call that a kiss?" made it clear she needed and was putting on somewhat of an act, but her risking her life for Peeta showed she also cared enough to try to save him.

I was also worried that they might just make it into an action movie, where Katniss was just a totally trashing kicking super hero.  If they had done that, I think it would have been completely contrary to one of the messages of the book, which was a critic on society's glorification of violence and the entertainment value we get from it.  I liked how the movie made the violence disorienting and fast without being overly gory or bloody.  I heard some people complain that it should have been more graphic to truly portray how horrific it was.  I even read one review that said it lacked "moral courage" because it didn't make the violence more explicit.  But I think that if even the very idea of these kids killing each other isn't horrific enough for you, then maybe you have become too desensitized to violence.   I thought Katniss's actions in response to Rue's death were more than adequate to portray the horror of the violence.

Another thing that I thought was interesting regarding the violence of the movie is reading reviews and comments saying the whole premise of the hunger games was unbelievable.  How could any society not only sanction kids killing kids, but also find it entertaining?  Unfortunately, I find it very believable.  I look at how much entertainment people (including myself sometimes) get from watching violent action movies.  Or how many reality tv shows there are that are based on people taking advantage of each other and fighting and backbiting.  I hear about places in Africa where children are being forced to serve as soldiers and were soldiers are told to rape woman and children of other tribes.  I see how as a society we often see people from other countries as the "bad guys" and care a lot more about the death of people from our own country than the death of civilians in other countries.  All these things make me think that a society that sponsored something like the hunger games is totally believable.

Another aspect I liked about the movie was how it told some back stories without taking up much time but with enough detail to help us understand what was going on.  For example, the story of what happened to Katniss's father and what happened in the aftermath of his death was told in a comment made by Katniss to her mom as she was being taken away and then by a short flashback when Katniss was hallucinating.  Also the story of Katniss and Peeta's encounter at the baker was told with few words and a few short scenes.

One final aspect I liked were the supporting actors. I thought Woody Harrelson did an excellent job portraying Haymitch as a man who tried to feign indifference and drank to forget about the horrors of winning the Hunger games, but who ultimately cared about the tributes and wanted to do what he could for them.  I also though Stanley Tucci was great as Caesar Flickerman.  He was the right amount of cheesy showman mixed with the right amount of awkward when troubling subjects came up.  I also liked how the used him to do the play by play to explain things that would have been otherwise hard to explain outside of a book (for example, the description of the tracker jackets).  I also like how they didn't do a lot of exposition about how Katniss's and Peeta attempting to eat the berries was spitting in the face of the Capital and telling it that they could not be forced to lose their humanity and kill each other.

And last and probably least, there were a few things I didn't like.  I thought they did a good job of showing how poor district 12 was, but thought it strange that in the first scenes Katniss has such a nice leather jacket in such pristine condition.  And the first 10 minutes was all shaky-cam and was kind of making me sick.  I didn't mind it later in the action scenes, but the first part seemed like the camera man was just drunk and didn't add anything to the scenes.

So, just in case you can't tell, I thought the Hunger Games movie was very well done.  I think even if I had set my expectations high, I would not have been disappointed.  So go and see it.  Unless you under 17-18.  Then only go see it if you have read the books and have your parents permission and are smart enough to realize that is not cool when kids get slaughtered (some reviews I read reported being in audiences of teens where people were cheering when other tributes died)