Hehe.... According to this verse, I guess even Lamanites can learn! "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith God has made us free!" Yeah... I think I'm gonna have that made into a poster, and hang it on my wall or something. The big message of this chapter, and the few preceeding it, for me, would have to be "Rely on The Lord for y...

Due to the amazing success Advanced Budget Studios has had in the short time since opening, we've added a few new toys to the studio.  We now employ an Audix D6 kick microphone, which adds some serious punch to any acoustic drum tracks. We also now have some serious firepower on acoustic guitars and drum overheads.  We've acquired a mat...

Yet another great strategy-based chapter.   I'm kind of tired right now, and this chapter wasn't really loaded with doctrinal insights, but I will say that if there's any question about whether or not obedience has its rewards, you'll have to read verses 21-27.  Definitely makes me want to both learn about and obey my Heavenly Father...

We recently had the pleasure of working with The Blue Aces again, and as expected, they were stellar.  This time around, however, they recorded an acoustic song which really contrasts the versatility in their song-writing.  The song is called "One Of The Heart" and should be available soon. Lookin' forward to doing more work w...

Ya know...  The explanations of the strategy of war really is interesting to me.  But when I come across verses like these, I simply can't help but get chills. I actually tear up when reading these verses.  I guess it's kind of the whole underdog syndrome.  Ya know... When there's a conflict, or a competition, and the odds are...

With all that I've noticed about making covenants this time around, I can't help but notice that this chapter has some very interesting words. I really do wonder where the line is with covenants we make.  In the days of the Book of Mormon, people would rather die than lie or break a covenant.  This is made abundantly clear with the eali...

I love Moroni's strategy.  With God on his side, he seems almost unstoppable. So Ammoron decides to be a jerk about the letter-sending, and what-not, so Moroni's like, "Dude...  You did NOT just say that!  A'ight, then, we'll see who gets to keep prisoners around here!!" Let's see what could have gone wrong with this st...

Since the studio's new shining star arrived, we've been having a lot of fun around here.  To be honest, the guy who was good enough to sell us our new MXL V77, couldn't say enough about this microphone, which unfortunately is no longer in production, so when it arrived, I had my hopes up quite high - possibly too high. So, after two successf...

Wow...  Moroni doesn't mix words, does he...  Reading this through as much of an objective filter as possible, I'd say there's some serious judgements going on.  Moroni blatantly calls Ammoron a "child of hell", and tells him that his brother went to hell.  heh...  Pretty gutsy, if ya ask me.  Going off of wh...

So, a little over a week ago, I made a phone call on an offer I simply couldn't refuse...  A person online was claiming to be selling a MXL V77 tube microphone brand-new in-the-box for incredibly cheap.  This microphone didn't mean much to me at the time, but something intrigued me about it.  After 20 minutes or so with google, I kne...

Lately, I've been struggling with readaing my scriptures.  I'm not entirely sure why, but lately, instead of just hunkering down and doing it because I know it needs to be done (and then reaping the Spirit due to my obedience), I've just had the hardest time sitting down and actually doing it. Well.. Today I did.  I opened to 3rd Nephi ...

 Okay...  I think it's time I wrote something.  The last everyone knew, I was jobless, on welfare, losing hope in humanity, depressed, bordering on despair, and a little bit sad, too. Well...  Although it's not perfect, I do have a job now.  My wonderful long-time friend Scott Morris happened to mention to his boss that ...

About a month ago, I came upon this video, which you simply must watch.  It's basically a re-make of videos previously posted about a pretty animated Steve Ballmer (Microsoft's CEO) put to music, and hacked up beautifully. At the time I watched it, I didn't think much of it.  It was funny, and it was Steve Ballmer.  Hooray. But...

Just encountered this list:  Seems like a good list for those of you who are considering Linux as an alternative to Windows. Just a quick FYI....

Verse 7 caught my attention this time around.  The beginning of the verse is as follows: "And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby;" The context is referring to the scriptures the sons of King Benjamin had access to.  This verse reminds me quite a bit of Mosiah...

Wow....  Ya know those news stories about that sickness being spread by people in swimming pools this summer?  Well... I've got one thing to say about em': BELIEVE THEM.  THEY'RE TRUE. I'm just getting over a sickness that pretty much was a worst case scenario of what they explain as a parasite called "cryptosporidium", w...

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...

 So...  Here's a thought for ya.  Mormon had seen the end of his people.  He knew the Nephites were going to be destroyed, and not only that, he knew how and when they were going to be destroyed.  Verse 6 confirms this by relating, "...and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people".   He knew his people...

Ya know...  After reading this through, with the previous chapters I've read in mind, I think I'm understanding a bit more about what Abinadi is talking about. The wicked priests quote him the scripture in Isaiah which says that prophets are supposed to proclaim peace in order to basically tell Abinadi off, because he was definitely not proc...

Heh....   My wonderful 3-year-old daughter Luci loves to sleep with her parents.  Her dad doesn't sleep very much anymore, and because of this, he has to watch his caffeine consumption or he'll get addicted to it. Heh.... Caffeine...  That brings up some interesting history. Due to my personal beliefs and what people taught me...

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...

Upon beginning this study session, I found myself quite uninterested in doing pretty much anything.  Maybe it's just because I'm tired....  or maybe it's because I just finished one of my projects at work, thus putting me between projects again.  Who knows... When I got to verse 3, though, I found a gem of a scripture that I had fo...

Verses 5 and 6 are cause for simple reinforcement that external events do not necessarily cause internal changes.  Yes, they had a horrific war which caused the death of so many husbands, fathers, sons, etc...  And yes, that caused a lot of people to become baptized.... but, that didn't seem to matter much.  The very next year, it se...

Interesting that in verses 22 and 23, Amulek states that if they got rid of the righteous, they would ultimately be destroyed.  That's a sad prophecy, which unfortunately comes true.  They not only got rid of the righteous, they killed them - and swift was the judgement of God upon this whole city. That's it for this chapter....

 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...

An interesting concept was brought up during an interesting class I had on Sunday. Last year, I went to the normal gospel doctrine class almost all year and enjoyed almost every class.  We had a fabulous teacher who really brought the class alive with discussion about interesting concepts.  Never once was a spirit of contention fall up...

My marriage, or rather, the marriage I have entered into with my sweetheart for the last 7 years, hasn't really been that bad.  In fact, I'd say we're definitely on the upper-hand of "marital happiness" as far as the national statistics go. There are quite a few reasons for this, I'd say.  One is definitely that I feel I'm giv...

One thing that comes to mind while reading the first verses of this chapter is, "If I were a queen, and my servants brought me my unconscious husband, I'd immediately want to know who did it." - and Ammon did it.  That doesn't make much sense to me.  Obviously the times of the Book of Mormon were , uh, different, so that could e...

I just finished reading through this talk, and it brought some thoughts to mind... With Elder Walker's example of his grandparents displaying a photo of the First Presidency, I totally agree with the analogy, "Years later I concluded that displaying the picture of the First Presidency was equivalent to Joshua’s beautiful expression: '...

First, a question. In verse 15, Nephi states that he delights in the scriptures, and that he writes them according to the spirit.  Well...  That leads me to question whether or not he realized he was a prophet or not.  Very interesting, and possibly stupid, question (maybe he already knew about D&C 68:4). Now, the chunk of ...