Sometimes I read the scriptures because doing so fills me with the Spirit.  Today was one of those times.  I need the spirit tonight. This chapter is loaded with details on the Sacrament and serving the Sacrament in congregations. Favorite verse was 32, "Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places ...

Wow...  3rd Nephi 17.  This has been one of my top 5 all-time favorite scriptural chapters since I first read it when I was 14.  I love it. The first 6 verses, to me, envelop the love Christ has for us, and the appreciation He must feel when we show our grattitude toward Him.  There were no words uttered by his audience, yet H...

Wow, it's been a long time since I last studied my scriptures. The first thing which caught my attention is the phrase, "if it so be that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen me and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father in my name, that they may receive a knowledge of you by the Holy Ghost".   I guess that...

Thanks to the wonders of technology, Advanced Budget Studios now proudly accepts all major credit cards! In other news, we haven't posted much because we're taking it easy during the holidays.  We'll start crankin' out the serious tunes again in January.  (If you have sessions scheduled for November or December, no worries... We'll stil...

Saturday November 13, 2010 This moring i go up and ate breakfast. Took a shower and headed on to the womens conference at Living Word Church. It was real nice. The worship and message was good. My mom got to me the choir director  My sister won a big Hershey's candy bar. But what I liked most about the conference was the tables &nbs...

Man... I'm so tired right now, but I've just gotta write about this. Tonight was the first show Jesse and I put on in the little "House Concert" tour we're going on. It was very low-key, but when the time came to play, the people just kept pouring in.  At the end of the show was the only time I had the sense to count how many peo...

Okay, friend, family, and others.  I just wanted to let you know that the season has finally arrived! Jesse and I have been working all year long on Herod the Fink's 2nd studio album.  We are so excited to announce that it's finally available for purchase! The album has eight songs on it, and all of them are awesome.  I'll post...

So, we've been busy at the studio lately.   So much so, I've neglected to update the site's samples.   We've got a few new ones up, and so I thought I'd let everyone know a bit about em'. ScramJet : Tread Softly  -  ScramJet is a band out of Salt Lake City, dead-set on bringing their musical vision to life.  They kn...

So the Wisdom teeth came out this morning. I was awake and numb, and it was okay. It really doesn't hurt much at all and I'm just taking Motrin. I feel pretty good. I'm really excited that I will be able to make it to Sacrament on Sunday and I also have a quick interview for my patriarchal blessing!!!!! Which I really don't want to miss. I f...

So I'm sure many of you know that I've been working on a new project this year called "Herod the Fink".  We built a new site for it, and update the project's blog semi-regularly.  The site has music, photos, videos, and more, so you can get familiar with us, and know what to expect when we invade your living rooms... Yes... Y...

Hmm....  I'm wondering how I can write this entry without offending anyone, so... if you are offended by it, I'm sorry.  What is going to be said has to be said, and it will, hopefully, enlighten at least someone. Due to this wonderful blog, I've been feeling quite pensive lately and liking the change.  Midst this change, I asked on...

I noticed in this chapter that even though many threatenings were made to the king of the land of Jershon (most likely an Ammonite), he didn't seem to care at all.  His concentration was on the many poor people of the Zoramites who were coming to his city. Eventually, I believe this action was the tipping point for the wars forthcoming throu...

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...

Today, an audio file was sent to me in an email.  This audio was compressed and encoded using the aac codec for compression and wrapped in m4a.  In order to use it, I had to convert this file to a wav format.  Usually, I receive files in mp3, ogg, or flac file types, and use lame, oggdec, or flac to decode them back to wav.  Wit...

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...

I recently wrote a piece about how much I miss the things that used to come so easily before I had children. Although everything I wrote is true, writing that article caused me to reflect on how lucky I am to be a parent at all. The things which I now miss due to parenthood are luxuries related to selfishness.  The things I enjoy because...

A little less than a month ago, my best friend's wife called me and told me she was planning a birthday party for her hubby.  Well, Scott being my best friend and all, I thought this was a fantastic idea!  After that, I didn't think too terribly much about it. A couple of days after that, I remember Scott telling me that he really want...

An interesting question came to me today, while talking to a good friend at work. The question is simple. It’s based on the premise of two distinct beliefs. 1. LDS faith teaches us that unless the proper ordinances have been performed by those who are in authority to perform such ordinances, one cannot enter into the kingdom of heav...

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...

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'...

"God's people have not always been worthy of the marvelous experience we have shared today. The Apostles, after the Ascension of Christ, continued to exercise the keys He left with them. But because of disobedience and loss of faith by the members, the Apostles died without the keys being passed on to successors. We call that tragic episode &q...

I saw a good movie the other day.  It's called "Meet The Robinsons". If you haven't seen it yet, and you like movies which actually have a moral (kind of tough to find now-a-days), I'd highly recommend it. A specific part of the movie caught my attention and is the cause for this entry.  The part basically consists of a li...

Soon after I began recording audio, I had a feeling I would be in the pursuit of an unattainable goal.  Finding that "perfect" recording space, or even creating that "perfect" recording would be difficult, if not entirely impossible. 10 years after I began, I was able to pour my heart and soul into a new recording space, ...

My job has me creating a website derived from data housed in an Oracle database. It's getting to the point now where we're going to co-locate the server and press the big green button. Well... My boss came in today asking about the connection between my postgresql database from which the website runs, and Oracle from which Postgres is populated...

 So, a few days ago, a friend of the studio called up and asked if I would help him out with a project.  As he described the project, I grew more and more interested. The project is called "Sacred Sounds: Cathedrals of Europe" The gist of it, is that a group of researchers are going to be travelling around Europe studying th...

So...  Yeah... Holy cow.  I started writing this as a Facebook update, and quickly realized ther was too much to say, so, into the blog it goes! The bottom line is - We are back in business, people! As of right now, the new studio is close to being finished, but the good news is - we can record.  I've got 3 channels wired up, a...

I've never noticed that by the way Christ speaks to his father, he is displaying total and complete humility. If Christ submits himself to the will of the Father so willingly and completely, who are we to suppose we are above doing so ourselves? "It is very enlightening and touching to me to consider how Jesus talks to His Father. In His g...

**UPDATED ARTICLE HERE** (for using the new firewire stack) Okay.  I got my new Echo Audiofire12 3 days ago, and I now have it fully functioning on all 12 ports.  I don't have MIDI working yet, but I haven't really tried on that one. Here's what I did to get it working. First, I'm using the 2.6.33-rt kernel. I enabled the OLD FIRE...

Last Friday, we had the awesome opportunity to meet a fairly incredible group of girls.  They call themselves The Blue Aces, and after having listened to them strum a few chords, I'd say they've earned their title. Their manager contacted me after hearing a few samples from Advanced Budget Studios, and was interested in getting a pilot song...

"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...