Okay..  I've never thought of this before, but, how convenient do you think it was for Samuel to climb up on a wall, built around a city most likely to keep people out?  Yeah, I don't think it could have been that easy.  How often do we find any reason at all to get out of doing what God wants us to do?  Well, God told Samuel he...

So two days ago, I found myself on the same stage with the same band I've been with for the past 5 (or so) years, playing pretty much the same songs. Except, this time, something was different.  As I walked around looking at all of the awesome vehicles on the grounds, there was just something wonderful.  I have no idea how to describe i...

Anyone who knows what Helaman 12 is all about is probably wondering how in the world I could label this chapter as "Happiness".  hehe... Yesterday, I was having a very interesting conversation about happiness with a dear friend of mine, and oddly enough, today's chapter was Helaman 12, which of course, talks all about the frailties...

Amazing...  It's almost unbelievable that in the space of less than 13 years, a whole nation can go from being wicked, to almost dying of hunger, to becoming incredibly righteous and prosperous, and then coming back to being so wicked that the combined armies of the Nephites and Lamanites can't defeat the wicked part of the people. I've bee...

So, a few weeks ago, the studio acquired a Jackson electric guitar and didn't really have any experience with it.  So a good friend and client of the studio came in and messed around a bit with it, and using a great dual-mic technique to get the most out of the amp, we managed to get a very, very nice guitar tone out of it. Soon, it will be ...

So, due to the success we've been having with the studio, we were able to upgrade our two in-studio guitars.  We bought a new black Crafter acoustic guitar, which sounds just awesome.  One of the new Herod The Fink tunes will feature the Crafter, and we're excited to get a final mix to see how it sits within the music. We also bought a ...

Amazing.  A couple of chapters ago, I was commenting on the sad state which Nephi found himself in, and the amazing faith he must have had to remain in a state of faithfulness to God, when everyone around him was wicked. I guess that's the way it goes.  God tries us to our breaking point, careful not to give us trials beyond our capabil...

Seems that the testimony of Nephi against the people of Zarahemlah was centered around their disbelief in Christ.  Interesting that, as soon a Satan has control over a people, Christ is the first doctrine which is attacked. Also the story of the finding of the murderer of Seezoram is interesting through the eyes of the foreknowledge of God.&...

Hey Guys, Okay so its been a really really long time since I last wrote anything.  I just recently remembered my password and that is a really big part of my reason for not writing.  I know this is suppose to be like a diary (right or wrong?), but I would perfer to think that its more of a letter to a best friend (hope that don't sound ...

So...  I remember Nephi coming back to his own people and seeing them in a state of wickedness, but I didn't remember that he had just been on a mission where everyone in the land northward rejected his word, too.  That would be an incredible test of faith in an of itself.  Only the most stalwart followers of God, in my view, could t...

 My apologies for not writing lately.  I assure you, it's because I've been too busy recording! So...  Updates:  As some of you know, for now, 100% of the money which comes into this studio, stays in the studio, which means all the proceeds from your recordings go directly back into ways to make your recordings even better. &...

This time through Mosiah 3, I had a few interruptions, so I wasn't able to concentrate as much as I would have liked, but family really does come first, so, ya gotta do what ya gotta do... Anyway..  Mosiah 3, to me, this time rang loudly of what the Atonement of Jesus Christ is all about.  It speaks of who needs the Atonement, who is c...

OK girls camp is coming up fast. I have had a hard time with my Young womens teachers, The two I have a rearlly hard time with are not going, well one is. We have this fund raiser to get the money for camp, I'm  going to auction off what I'm best at :-) LOL! I'm doing two reflexioalgy foot massages each is an hour. My hands are gonna die B-) B...

I haven't written in awhile, so I thought I'd just kind of ramble and see where my mind goes. Lately, I've been working on a new layout for ILoveMyJournal, as well as quite a few structural changes.  The desire to make this site better came when my little bro. wrote a pretty personal and inspiring entry, and about the same time, my posted we...

So, these chapters are pretty small, but for some reason, I think there's quite a significance in this one.  Not quite sure if I've found it yet, but the reason I think this, is - originally, this text was not included in the scripture - and it is Christ talking himself.  I wonder why Moroni felt the need, or was inspired to include it?&n...

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 about the east coast or any other coast, but the clam chowder from the west coast at the Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey California is ....  is....  well...  it's clam chowder the way it was meant to be. Today was a day full of driving in rush-hour-esque conditions, getting the hotel arranged at Monterey, CA. ...

Things that impressed me for this chapter were different than any time I've read it before (that I can remember), and that, being as simple as it is, is a testament to me as to why we should continue reading the Book of Mormon throughout our entire lives. Interesting how Laman and Lemuel consider the spiritual visions of Lehi to be "foolishn...

 Today, I woke up at 6:00am, after getting a maximum of 4 hours of sleep (and it would only be 4 hours if I wasn't woken up in the middle of the night multiple times, which I was, so it was actually less) I prayed before I went to bed that I would be able to survive the day and get everything done that needed doing. Anyway, I woke up at 6,...

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...

Ya know...  I thought that with 4.5 hours of sleep last night, I'd feel a heckuva lot sleepier than I do.  I guess miracles do happen. Since our wonderful Samuel was born, my wife and I have been getting considerably less sleep than we otherwise would.  This is to be expected; it comes with the whole package of parenthood. I ha...

*sigh*.....  Where do I ever begin?  I mean....  I shudder when I say this, but, I've been a Microsoft user longer than I've been a Linux user.  What have you done, Microsoft? I'm referring to this "new and improved" piece of software they've recently released called Vista.  In all honesty, I hoped it would fai...

 So, I noticed I haven't blogged about studio things lately, and I need to get with it. With that, let me just say this: Yeah...  See that picture there?   One of those babies are now in use at Art City Sound, and although it's a bit preliminary right now, as I've only had it 1 day, I can with certainty say, "The drums from ...

I got down here to my studio tonight, after playing with the kids, putting Sam to bed, and taking care of a few other odds 'n' ends, and I got to feeling like I should write in my journal.  Not entirely sure about what, but it's been months, if not a few years since I have just sat down to write, with nothing in mind beforehand.  Some of ...

I just got done making the video for this entry, so take a look if you've got a high speed Internet connection. Today was the 2nd day of the Ed Roth Memorial Reunion held in Manti, UT. There were finksters-a-plenty there on Friday, but even more on Saturday.  I lost count of how many Rat Finks I saw. So, because the days were packed, ...

 So, I haven't been one to get on the 31 days of Thanks in November, just because I generally think it's shallow to do such a thing only in November, as we should be doing it all year round, but that, in itself, is even more shallow, because I've never ended up actually doing anyhting of the sort, ever.  So, this November, in the Spirit o...

Verse which popped out at me this time around was verse 1. This is probably the best illustration in all of scripture of how the Spirit works among people. When someone speaks according to the Spirit of God, the Spirit breaks all barriers of communication and carries the message through a language agnostic medium which all hearts understand. ...

 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_...

I've gotta ask.  Well, before I do, let me preface the question with the scripture found in 1st Nephi 19.  Nephi says he won't write anything unless he thinks it's sacred.  Assuming that the prophets after Mosiah thought the same thing, I've gotta ask.  Why are verses 1 through 19 even here?  I know the Book of Mormon is tr...

Brother Packer's talk about everyone in the church being the same, and no office being more important than the other was very inspirational to me this conference, along with Thomas S. Monson's talk about Sister Patton and the talk he gave in 1969 concerning her and the death of her son in the Navy. I feel inspired as I sit here listening to the l...