I'm not entirely sure where to even begin with this chapter.  So many good stories are found in this one, which can easily be likened to our own lives and our own times.  Various lessons come to mind.... For example, verses 1 through 3 are a magnificent litmus test of personal righteousness.  When someone comes at you and truthfull...

Ya know... Chatting with good friends has its benefits.  Just like think-tanks and collegeate consortiums are good for concerted cognation, a good conversation with a concerned cohort can be just as contenting. I think I've mentioned this before in my journal, but in talking with a good friend of mine, I hadn't made the connection with just...

After reading this chapter for no more than 30 seconds, I simply must type. I love verse 3. Many, many times have I been in a doctrinal discussion with someone and the other person just can't "get" what a scripture or principle means.  Verse 3 could explain why that happens to us. Some things we just can't understand without th...

When I sit and think about what I just read, the 14th chapter of 1st Nephi is pretty crazy. Just a few points... The majority of the chapter is all about the "mother of abominations" and the "whore of all the earth". I believe it's written here to clarify the impact this (these) church(es) has (have) had upon the plain and...

No, seriously, people...  Microsoft really does care....  loads and loads of caring! They care so much ABOUT MONEY it makes me sick. I just got done reading this article and I'm left with a feeling of sickening "awe" at how greedy Microsoft really is. Lately, I've been following a story about a group of people in a project...

Where do I even begin with this chapter? I remember reading it and understanding it for the first time during my mission.  It was really cool realizing that all of this stuff in this chapter is written about in history books!  It talks about Christopher Columbus discovering America, the Revolutionary War, the Bible, the coming of the Bo...

I had forgotten that in this chapter, Nephi sees the Lord descend from heaven to the people who would be born from Nephi. I put myself in his situation, and quite honestly , I have no idea how I would react.  It would be so supremely surreal - seeing your kids' kids' kids' kids, and then seeing the Savior of the world show himself unto them....

As soon as the angel of God knew Nephi's purpose and desire, the first question he asked him was "Do you believe?". I think that's a fairly important question, which we should ask ourselves each day.  If we are being tempted and we ask ourselves that question, to which we already know the answer, I can promise you the tempter's pow...

First Nephi Ten... I'm not really in a spiritual mood right now, which really is unfortunate because I know this chapter has some spiritual meat to it. One thing I can write, is when I read this chapter during my mission, and even before, I always found myself focusing on Nephi's desire to see the things his father did (in verse 17). He didn'...

Two things for tonight's study: I believe the purpose of this chapter is the same as chapter 6:  To give purpose behind the Book of Mormon.  The things Nephi is writing are things of God - things pertaining to the ministry of the people in those days. I love verse 5.  It reminds me of when Adam was commanded to build an alter and...

The first thing that stood out to me this time around was the anger of Lamoni's father.  Try to place yourself in the situation Lamoni found himself in.  There are so many variables in the situation, it's hard to imagine exactly what was going on with the family undercurrents, but holy cow.  Lamoni's father drew his freaking sword an...

You would think I have an alterior motive for this post, due to the fact that I am currently employed by Nature's Way, but I honestly don't.  I hope you'll see why soon. I can't believe I haven't been told about, offered, showed, or by any other means received information about this product Nature's Way makes until recently. Umcka Cold Car...

 So, I wrote a few days ago how I was able to get my new echo audiofire12 working under gentoo Linux with the old firewire stack.  Well, I couldn't leave well-enough alone, so I tried my hand at updating my kernel and using the new stack.  Turned out there were a few caveats that, without some external help from a great person in the...

I just got done reading, listening to, and watching the general conference talk "Ask In Faith", by Elder David A. Bednar. I must say, having missed the original broadcasting of this conference, I heard all the hype about this talk in the ensuing weeks and months.  It seemed that this talk was all the rage about learning how to &quo...

Sunday March 27, 2011 Hey everyone! It's been a while but I'm back and I have so much to share with you. Lately I've been busy with school. It's really challenging and it's getting down to being time for finals. I just hope that I'll do very well on my finals than I am on my classwork. I also would like to share that I'll be participating in ...

Man...  I can only imagine what Ammon's joy truly felt like.  After reading D&C 18:15-16, I begin to see why Ammon fainted due to overwhelming joy so many times throughout his mission.  Dedicating a full chapter to nothing but the rejoicing of Ammon seems perfectly reasonable. I always thought his brothers were kind of rude to ...

Any web developer who has been in the craft for more than a couple of days realizes how often forms are used in web development.  Well...  Where forms are used, form methods are used, and one of the crazily irritating problems with forms using a "POST" method is the fact that when the "back" button is pressed after lea...

ILoveMyJournal announces the formal inauguration of editable entries! Yes, you heard right, folks!  You can now edit any entry you have previously entered here at ILMJ.  You can do this from two pages. First, Please make sure you are in your private journal, not in your blog.  All blog entries are also displayed within your pri...

Two things for tonight's study: I believe the purpose of this chapter is the same as chapter 6:  To give purpose behind the Book of Mormon.  The things Nephi is writing are things of God - things pertaining to the ministry of the people in those days. I love verse 5.  It reminds me of when Adam was commanded to build an alter and...

My wife and I got a dutch oven set about a month ago. We finally decided to try it out. We have both seen and helped with dutch oven cooking before, but have never done it without the help of someone more experienced. Problem #1 You need to get the coals lit before you can cook anything. I tried a couple methods to get them started. Pile o...

Due to recent events in my life, I've been feeling a little like the waves constantly lapping at the shore - in motion or at unrest.  I know the sounds of the ocean usually bring a feeling of peace, but .... not if you're in the water.... :) Anyway...  This feeling of unrest has brought on a bunch of thoughts and ponderings to me as I'...

It's 2:00am and I'm sitting down here writing and recording music.  I'm trying to do some really relaxed "Trance" music, and .... I'm not entirely sure how it's gonna turn out, but it feels good being able to record music again. I don't even have a name for the song I've been working on for the last month, but... it'll come when it'...

I'm always slightly dumbfounded while pondering on the things that wicked men come up with to justify the signs given by prophets... "Oh no, we can't hit this guy who is telling us we're wicked, so he must have a devil!  GET HIM!" "Oh my!  All these miracles that are happening just as the prophets said they would - can'...

Reading these two chapters didn't leave me with much spiritual insight, as I didn't understand much of it. That said, I did, however, really feel the Spirit while reading them.  I yearned to know what the words meant.  I wanted to study them more....  Oddly enough,  I find myself wanting to study them more, yet kind of scared ...

Surprisingly... I'm not sure if it's because of my attitude or what, but I believe I got a bit more out of this chapter than I have for the rest of the Isaiah stuff. I'm not 100% sure what the branch is that comes out of the root of Jesse, but I've been told that is refers to the prophet Joseph Smith (D&C 113). I also believe that when it s...

Heh....  If you know me at all, you probably know a couple of things about me (in no particular order): I love Linux and gentoo I own a 2007 Mustang GT I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I really loathe the idea of DRM. Now, before I get into the details,  DRM just makes me sick.  I ha...

ILoveMyJournal announces the formal inauguration of editable entries! Yes, you heard right, folks!  You can now edit any entry you have previously entered here at ILMJ.  You can do this from two pages. First, Please make sure you are in your private journal, not in your blog.  All blog entries are also displayed within your pri...

To have that taken away which is precious to you usually results in one of two things.  Either you do what is required to get back what was taken from you, or you devalue the thing which was taken, justifying its absence. About three years ago, for one reason alone, my Temple recommend was revoked from me and the ensuing years caused me to ...

Yes!  You can now comment on public blog entries at ILoveMyJournal.com! I wrote the whole process from scratch, so some of the methods used to keep bots away might be new to you.  Here's the skinny: First off, nothing is required except the comment and the human-test answer.  I'm not sure if this is gonna stick or not, but I co...

I find it interesting how Satan is described throughout scripture. In this chapter, through verses 13 - 20, Satan is seemingly exposed as the weak fraudster he really is.  Verse 16 is quite potent, written from the standpoint of people who were tempted by him, when shown his actual person, are amazed at the frailness of Satan.  They say...