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...

So, when I started the re-design of my studio website, I knew I would need sliders, but I didn't realize how many unconfigurable, and generally static sliders were out there.  I must have gone through 5 iterations of sliders before I found one that matches my needs (and probably will be the go-to slider for any project I work on in the future)...

For some reason, I love the commandment of paying tithing.  It's probably one of the top 10 commandments of which I have a burning testimony. I love this quote (as well as Jacob 2:19) "President Heber J. Grant stated, “I want to say to you, if you will be honest with the Lord, paying your tithing and keeping His commandments, He...

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...

Here I am again, in my bed typing in my journal on my laptop. Ya know, life is really good. Life has dealt me a bunch of cards which I interpret as being quite possibly the "straight flush" of life. Has it been easy? Nah. But I can't complain - nope, not one bit. Now, then.. on with the story. In my last entry, I briefly mentioned that my g...

We've been trying to get into the habit of having Famiily Home Evening together as a family, and tonight Sarah planned a splendid lesson that would have been enjoyed much more if I wouldn't have been ill, and dead-tired. But... such is the life of a husband/father/bread winner. :) Anyway... After the lesson, she wanted all of us to write down ...

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...

About 2 years ago I got this hairbrained idea to use mythtv to create a computer-based full-media center for my basement home theater.  At the time, I had a sweet side-job which was paying me nicely, so I had the means to do pretty much exactly what I wanted. I had a couple of things for which I wanted to use the basement, namely 1. My Home...

We just got back from a wonderful dinner at The Old Fisherman's Grotto on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey California. The halibut was quite wonderful, but not nearly as good as the side-dish of clam chowder I got.  It really was fantastic. If you're ever in Monterey, CA, you simply have to get a bowl of that chowder.  It's quite amazing....

I don't even know where to begin on this one.  Maybe I'll start by screaming in frustration due to Microsoft's complete incompetence.....  or is it incompetence?  Maybe, and more likely, it's completely calculated, thought-through, planned, and executed.... Apparently, Microsoft sent out an "automatic update" to all XP a...

About a week ago, I began thinking I needed another project.  I really was getting to thinking about how I spend my time, and how I can better use the time I have. Nothing popped out at me, until yesterday. Yesterday, I got a call from one of the people in my ward, and he asked me if I would teach the 15-16 year olds in their gospel doctri...

I've been pondering on how I am to write about this without seeming haughty or prideful, because quite honestly, I feel nothing more than blessed beyond words. When I was offered this job, it just felt right.  Six months previous to my being offered this job, I was offered another job in SLC which seemed right in every aspect but the fact th...

Ya know... I didn't know if I was going to blog about anything this weekend, but something just happened definitely blog-worthy.  Nothing insane, but something that I think people might find interesting. You know, I've always heard that cats have nine lives, but I've always kind of been the one to keep that in check.  No, I don't shoot ...

Hehe....  I was looking at this site yesterday while I was browsing around my new RSS feed stuff.  I didn't get past game number 4. I've never been one to spend a lot of time playing online flash-based games, but I have to admit, Desktop Tower Defense is pretty darned amazing.  Amazingly addictive, I mean. If you have a couple ...

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...

It's good to be back.  I feel like I really got a lot out of this chapter.  It could be simply because this chapter has a couple of verses which always seem to prick my heart.  Maybe, maybe not.  Anyway... It seems this chapter is all about love.  One of the verses found here is so poignant, it pricks my heart every time...

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...

 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...

 So I wasn't really interested in getting yet another member of my little growing studio family, but I couldn't help but get this one after playing it at the local music store.  Found it on a killer sale at samash, so I pulled the trigger. Available to all studio clients for recording. Isn't she gorgeous? She sounds awesome, too....

 So, I thought I'd write something down that happened today. For those of you who know me, I'm a pretty laid-back, easy-going type of guy. My wife and I went to sleep quite late, mostly because we couldn't stop talking and laughing with one another (not an uncommon occurrence, unfortunately), and also unfortunately, we were woken up early ...

Okay..  So I installed Ubuntu on my brother's computer about 3 weeks ago, and he has been loving it!  Before that, he had been using gentoo with me as his personal admin, which I didn't mind because he rarely needed it, and when he did, it was usually a 10-30 minute fix, no problem. So, he liked it so much, and from what I could tell, ...