The opening talk by President Monson was inspiring.  I love how he talked about his wife, the stories of them meeting, and the fact that her parents were converted to the Gospel by his grandfather's brother.  (I'm amazed he knew that, by looking at his photo!)... Also..  When Pte. Monson said that the presidency loves all those of t...

When I began reading this chapter, I was pretty anxious, internally - for unrelated reasons.  Now, having finished this chapter, I feel very calm and peaceful.  What a great story this chapter tells. While reading, I saw some curious verses, but all of those questions feel relatively meaningless right now.  The thing that matters t...

Hmm....  Another war started by another group of dissenters.  Man alive...  Seems like the story is all the same.  People who want to rule another nation end up being sparked and fed by dissenters of the nation they want to rule (think of Amalickiah)...  *sigh* The latter half of this chapter is a great reminder of what h...

It seems that this chapter is just a informational chapter on the goings on over a space of quite a few years.  Heh... That's pretty general, but there's really not any story-line, or analogy, or deep doctrine here... I did find it interesting how they spoke of using cement, and the sparseness of timber, and such like that.  I wonder wh...

Ya know...  I sure would like to know what the politics of the time were back then.  Helaman's guard was able to single-handedly save the newly-appointed chief judge, by disguise, intellect, and ultimately a firm blade straight through the heart.  Yet, the account says nothing of telling anyone what was happening during the incident....

Interesting that, again, the pride of one man seemed to be the reason of much wickedness and death.  If Paanchi would have just accepted the rule of his own brother because he was voted in by the majority, I'll bet the whole war with Coriantumr wouldn't have happened. That being bad enough, doesn't hold a candle to what happened with Kishkum...

Okay... I forgot that Alma had 63 chapters. This chapter has always just kind of made me raise an eyebrow while reading it.  I must say, I felt the Spirit while reading it, and I know it's true, but I wonder why it was written. Why did Mormon dedicate half a chapter to people "going northward"?  And what about the ships?&nbs...

Reading through Alma 60 and 61, I can vividly imagine what it would be like to live in times like those.  I imagine the cry for freedom being heard through the streets, as neighbors and friends decide to take up arms in defense of our right to worship how we want, and for the protection of our families, traditions, and way of life.  Putti...

Although I probably will never own one of these, it's just awesome that the pony cars are gettin' revved up again.  Ford is definitely gonna bring up the competition with this beast.  Bye-bye imports! http://www.thefordstory.com/smart-technology/the-mustang-5-0-is-back/ Buyah!...

Okay...  I rarely ....  well..  I never have posted something like this before in my blog, but this is getting RIDICULOUS.  This is not getting REDICULOUS.  It is getting R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S It seems like when ever I see that word spelled anywhere on the Internet, it's spelled consistently wrong, and I can't for the life ...

So, the very first thing which came to mind this time around was from the first verse.  Ether seemed to be a fairly amazing person and a great prophet.  So... How did he get to be that way?  I'd love to hear the story of Ether's conversion - especially considering the environment he grew up in - being born in captivity.  Interes...

Okay, people.... I'm here at Truenorth Academy and I just can't shake the feeling of anxiety I have of leaving this place. I'm gonna start my new job at Nature's Way, which by all intents and purposes, should be the job I have for the rest of my life. It pays fantastic, the people seem wonderful.... It's just that the people here at Truenorth ar...

Wow...  It really is amazing what a good night's sleep can do to one's attitude.  I don't know if everyone is affected this way, but man...  Yesterday, it was all I could do to keep myself from just walking away from everyone and going to sleep.  I was irritable, quick to frustration, and a general jerk to pretty much everyone. ...

I just got done lightly scanning over this article before I shook my head in disgust and decided to write this entry. Let me say this first.  I've been professionally employed in web development now for 6 years, and am by no means a genius on the subject, but I think I may have a clue or two. I have absolutely no idea why Bluefish seems to...

It's been a while since I just sat down to write about whatever comes out of my fingers.  I now have about an hour of free time, so I think I'm gonna do just that. It's been kind of interesting that in various points in my life, I've wanted to get rid of the thoughts of doing something musical professionally, but it always seems to come back...

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...

A couple of weeks ago, I spent some time in my car driving to and from Salt Lake City.  During the trip, I had the opportunity to listen to one of the best talks on Women's Roles in the LDS faith.  I was so impressed by the contents of this talk, I had to listen to the entire thing twice. Both times, both my heart and my eyes were fille...

I was brought up in a good, wholesome LDS home where abuse wasn't even thought about.  I didn't even know abuse was a word until I learned about it from others. I went to church, had a good time, and generally enjoyed a wonderful family life. During my teenage years, I started thinking about spirituality for no apparent reason.  I star...

Well, right now I have quite a lot on my mind to tell you, so I've got to decide which to tell you first. I guess I'll start yesterday. Yesterday was Codell Bingham Sims' wedding. Let me just tell you that this is the first wedding I've been to that has been thoroughly fun. It was GREAT! The sealing in the Temple was nothing short of amazing....

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...

Within the first 5 verses of this chapter, I'm reminded again of how a person works who is truly interested in God's commandments. Lehi was commanded of the Lord to have his sons return to Jerusalem to get the plates of brass from Laban. Telling Laman and Lemuel would most certainly have some consequences in that they would automatically assu...

I'm still kind of in awe of it all, but ....  holy cow..  Samuel Jason Jones has arrived! We got into the car around 4:30pm after Sarah had been in labor since around 6:00am.  Wow... What a trooper. We arrived here at the hospital at 5:00pm anticipating his arrival around 10:00pm or so...  Yeah right...  Samuel had ot...

I just got done reading about and listening to a wonderful audio-bite from good ol' Steve Ballmer.  Honestly, I don't understand why Microsoft keeps him employed. Anyway...  According to Mr. Ballmer, Linux is no longer free.  So, with that in mind, please do not try to download Linux from here, or here, or here, or here, or here, o...

Okay...  This sucks.  I just spent the last 10 minutes typing up a nice novel on how today was spent, and I then proceeded to accidentally delete it.  How unfortunate.  Let's see if I can do it again. ....nope.  Sorry...  I'm tired, and it's late (it's now 12:30am), and I've got to get up tomorrow morning. Suffic...

Okay...  So, this isn't gonna be the rant that you thought it was by the title.  With the little time I have, I couldn't come up with a better one... So, the story is - I had just eaten a delicious burger at Coney's, when on my way home, I happened to turn on Rush Limbaugh.  He was talking about this new "cloud" technolog...

In chatting with my friend Steve, I realized I haven't yet given any details as to my trip to Green Bay this week, so, before this weekend comes, I figured I had better write something. Day 3 (Wednesday) went pretty smooth.  I woke up with a high level of sleep deficiency (surprise, surprise), and went out to the office for the last time.&n...

Update:  Due to the popularity of this post, some people are having a hard time viewing the video posted above.  If it won't play for you, simply wait until the gray progress bar has filled 1/4 to 1/2 of the way before you press play.  That should do the trick. Yesterday I took the day off work to go to my bother's sealing to his w...

I just got done lightly scanning over this article before I shook my head in disgust and decided to write this entry. Let me say this first.  I've been professionally employed in web development now for 6 years, and am by no means a genius on the subject, but I think I may have a clue or two. I have absolutely no idea why Bluefish seems to...

"Yielding Our Hearts to God"  or   "Change of Heart" - Man, I love this talk. I wish I could tell you all how much this talk means to me.  When I heard it the first time, I was with noisy kids, so I didn't get much out of it, but the next time I listened to it was during lunch, and I was alone.  I...

 Yup..  Today was awesome.  I had a 13.5 hour session, and it was just amazing.  The song creation process was a bit difficult at times, but little-by-little the song formed, and both me and my client (Jed Lefevre) were kind of dumbfounded at the end result.  In the first hour, we had a piano track, and that was it. At th...