Before I even begin reading this one, I've gotta say that 2nd Nephi 2 is one of the power-doctrine chapters.  I'll be surprised if I can get through reading this today. Verse 2 contains an interesting phrase:  Consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.  This brings to mind quite a few cross-references, but can you imagine how much...

Sitting here pondering what to write. I could write about a synopsis of 1st Nephi, which I finished last night, or I could just dive into 2nd Nephi.  I think I'll do the latter. Verse 6 could be quite the controversial verse, for people who didn't like the Spanish conquest, or Christopher Colombus.  Yet, the verse still is what the ...

I'm kind of distracted now due to external crud, but one of the verses jumped out at me.  Verses 7 and 8... I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the Spanish conquest, as it came to the Americas.  I have combating feelings toward the whole history of what happened. The "Indians" found here in America were the posterity...

I think that most of this chapter is talking about the gathering of the tribes of Israel, although I could be completely and totally offbase.  This is one of the chapters which I probably wouldn't write about had I not made a resolution to write about each and every chapter from the Book of Mormon. Pretty difficult to understand right now. ...

I've often wondered why Nephi included the portions of scripture containing the writings of Isaiah. I remember one time during my mission when I was reading the stuff in 2nd Nephi and it actually made sense, but I didn't write any of it down, so.... it still makes no sense to me. Only one verse out of this chapter gave me any inspiration at all...

A few minutes ago, I visited my favorite weather-forecasting website and I saw something I thought I should document, just because it doesn't happen very often.  I saw a 7-day forcast that looked like this: I think it may snow tonight! :) Anyway... My mustang isn't liking life very much right now.  It's so freakin' dirty.  ...

Ya know, I love verse 6, and verses like it (2nd Nephi 4, for example).  The reason is quite simple. Sometimes it's hard to remember that prophets are people, too.  They're just subject to Satan's temptations and mistakes and errors and such as we are.  Verses like this remind me that they aren't perfect, and it brings them down to...

I don't think that ever you will find any words of righteousness associated with Laman and Lemuel, not once, but twice, within 4 verses more than in this chapter alone. Not sure why that stood out at me this time, but once in verse 1 and again in verse 4, Nephi said that Laman and Lemuel were on good behavior.  I thought I'd take time to suc...

I find it so interesting that Nephi, in all cases I can think of, when stating how hard things can get, always follows it up with how blessed they are.  I believe Nephi was how I would like to, and am trying to be like.  He recognizes things are bad, yet always finishes on an optimistic note.  Personally, I beleve grounded optimism c...

I just got up from a nap I was taking due to my going to bed at 4:00am this morning and the first words my wife told me after coming up stairs was "President Hinckley died a few hours ago." I'm not one to get upset at death.  For some reason, I've never had a problem with people dying.  The one thought which makes this even ea...

I just got done reading this article in which Dan Glickman states some figures on how the Hollywood box office did in 2007. With all of the cracking down and spazmic hooplah the RIAA / MPAA has been spewing, you'd think the figures quoted in this article would be something akin to "worst year ever, due to piracy!" or "box office s...

 So...  I thought I'd be going to bed, but here I am. When the Spirit directed me to come down and write down my testimony, I wasn't (and still am not) quite sure what to write.  This certainly isn't due to a lack of testimony comparative to other times I've done this, but rather quite the exact opposite.  It is because my tes...

Reading the beginning of this chapter, I knew this was where the Lamanites and Nephites would enter into free commerce with one another.  When everyone is living by the same righteous standards, there is no need for distrust, or geographical boundaries, or anything else which comes from people living selfishly.  Honest living of the Gospe...

 So, I used to use the -dumpaudio switch in mplayer to get audio extracted from random videos, but now that seems to do not much of anything.  I found this site which had a great explanation of how to get it done a different way, but was a bit out of date.  The newer version is found below: mplayer -vo null -ao pcm:file=audio_file_...

Today's not over, but while the kids are taking naps, I thought I'd see what I could do to write about this day so far. First off - I *love* Monterey.  Last night, I don't think I got a whole lot of sleep, but notwithstanding that, I still woke up in an incredibly good mood due to the crisp salty air, the perfect temperature (around 60-68 deg...

I am by no means a "versatile programmer" in the general sense of the word.  I know of many programmers who are much more well versed in various languages and best practices methodology.  In fact, I am not even a computer science graduate, and I don't have a masters degree in anything. *BUT* I do have a lot of experience i...

Among the discussions I've had of the scriptures, this one is always a fun one. "When God says that the earth is gonna burn, does he mean it literally?  Are the wicked really gonna burn at the second coming?" Honestly, for me, I have enough scriptural evidence to convince me to respond in the affirmative. Thoughts? Also - I'm...

Interesting that I should choose to read this today, because my wife and I were talking a bit about the 2nd coming last weekend.  The second coming shall be like a "refiner's fire", which, of course, is meant to purify - or to burn out impurities.  That which abides by the law is sanctified by the same.  A talk I once heard...

I wrote for 2nd Nephi 6, that I was having a hard time understanding Isaiah.  Well...  This chapter is nothing but Isaiah, and I thought it was very beautiful. Verses 1-3 are poetry. I immediately thought of a person asking the question: "Where is the Lord now, during my time of suffering and trial?"... ...and this chapter...

I wasn't in the best of moods while reading this, this morning, but I must say that it helped me gain a bit of focus for the job hunt this morning. The principle that jumped out at me this time around was that of humility.  Going through the pain that is sometimes required to bring about humility just might be the thing that saves your soul....

I just returned from a family vacation at "Down-At-A" water-park with all my immediate family (minus Andrea) and had a blast. During the evening of the first night, the discussion was lulling a bit, so Curtis and I decided to begin discussing some doctrinal points of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During this discussion, both Curtis and I ...

Hmm...  I really like when prophets, like Alma, quote other prophets to make a point.  The best way to keep the doctrine pure is to look the reference up.  Otherwise, it inevitably will be diluted down.  Ain't no doctrine like pure doctrine. Interesting that the quote from Zenos in verses 4-11 is paraphrased beautifully in Alm...

 Man... This chapter was brutal.  Wars, wickedness, and death.  Seems to me that this is the result of giving power to Satan, letting him run rampant.  Hating your neighbor and wanting to kill him for the sake of being bloodthirsty.  So terribly sad, and unfortunate. Interesting in verse 5 that Mormon writes that the wick...

Yup... You heard it right.  You can now add images to your journal entries at I Love My Journal.  Here's how: Simply click on the "write" button when you first come to the site. Then you log in, if you haven't already, by providing your username and password. After a successful login, you'll be presented with the following ...

I just got done watching, listening, and reading the last talk of the morning conference session of Sunday this year, and President Monson is indeed our prophet. Nothing in particular spoke anything specific to me.... Well... That's not true.  The following paragraph hit home a bit, "Mortality is a period of testing, a time to prove o...

Setting your heart upon the glory of the world has always seemed like a bad idea to me, but then again, for most of my life I've been kind of the odd-man-out.  heh..  My own siblings have mentioned to me that they "don't get me".  Most people would consider this a bad thing, but for me, it's been life.  The desire to &...

Well... I put this in the "Current Events" category primarily because it's really late, and I'm kinda caffeinated.  Other than that, life is pretty normal. Let's see here...  My birthday.  I don't usually write about my birthday, but I don't know why I don't.  I really should.  Maybe it's because my birthdays r...

 Figuring out the mood and temprament of Moroni while he writes this is tough.  The things he writes about are horrific.  The Lamanites have killed his entire race, his family, and his father.  The "state of the union", as it were, was "continual warefare, bloodshed, and violence."   He had to be depress...

Those who know me will find this post a bit ... unlike my typical post. This is mainly because I have a pretty passionate stance on DRM, OSS, Microsoft, Linux, and religion.  (I hate DRM, love OSS, hate Microsoft, love Linux, and I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Anyway...  I have a few words to say ab...

One question comes to mind this time reading chapter 14 and the beginning of 15. Why in the world did Abinadi think these priests could understand what he was talking about? An interesting perspective can be had when the audience of each scripture is considered. The thing I don't get about these chapters (14 and 15), is that the doctrine A...