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...

Okay...  I remember having read this awhile ago and cross-referencing Alma 16:10 about the destruction of the city of Ammonihah in one day, but I didn't remember that it wasn't a prophet who said that.  It was one of the non-believers.  One of the people who was trying to refute what Alma was talking about up and said, "yo,...

I just finished reading Alma 7 and, once again, am in a state of mind which makes it hard to actually get any spiritual nourishment from it.  I'm not entirely sure what's going on with me now-a-days, but I don't really like it all that much. Anyway...  Here goes with what I got from the chapter (it being among the best chapters in the ...

From the beginning of this chapter, it's obvious that Christ means business when he makes covenants.  Causing entire books to be written, and then keeping 100% of everything that is written means something. I wonder why the people thought that Christ's coming "destroyed" the prophets?  Interesting. I love verse 9.  &q...

Yesterday at church, I had a couple of thoughts which I neglected to write down.  I think I'll write them down now. Something I might have written down in my previous scripture studies is my question as to why Lehi's family didn't think about getting the plates of brass / Ishmael's family before they left for the wilderness?  I would th...

Last week, PoeticIntensity decided to join us again, with an interesting concept.  He had spent the previous evening playing some chords, and decided to make a song out of it that evening.  So we spent an hour coming up with the concept, and another 2 hours tracking it.  We then spent a few more minutes mixing it down until it sounde...

Today I anticipated changing the clutch on Ryan's 1995 Mustang GT for about 3 hours.  I got up at 7:30 to do it, and I'm writing this about 2 hours after we finished.  Needless to say, it was an all-day adventure - and holy cow, were we dirty. I didn't have the sense to take a picture of both of us before I took a shower, but I did of ...

Ya know...  Sometimes I hate open source.  Most times I love it, but sometimes I hate it. I recently updated my gentoo gnome installation to 2.24.2, and didn't think much of it.  I then tried to connect my Nikon S210 digital camera to my usb port and perform the simple task of importing photos.  I have done this probably 100 t...

One thing which caught my eye this time, was the phrase, "I know that if ye are brought up in the way ye should go ye will not depart from it." I had to stop and read the sentence 4 or 5 times, just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. The footnotes on that sentence seem to confirm the vague meaning I'm deriving from it as well. ...

I just got done following this story and it's got me thinking about some of the problems we have in today's society. I'm not quite as empassioned about this as I thought I would be, but rather, I find myself thinking about the problems caused by people's thoughtless actions. Is it wrong to voice your opinion about your disgust at the military...

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'...

Holy moly. I'm not sure I can type everything I need to, but I'm gonna try. I gave my two-weeks today at Truenorth Academy after talking with two people at Nature's Way to make certain the offer they are making me. I'm not exactly sure where this decision will lead me, but after praying and doing some analysis of our own, Sarah and I believe t...

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...

Okay...  I remember having read this awhile ago and cross-referencing Alma 16:10 about the destruction of the city of Ammonihah in one day, but I didn't remember that it wasn't a prophet who said that.  It was one of the non-believers.  One of the people who was trying to refute what Alma was talking about up and said, "yo,...

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...

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...

I just got done reading an excerpt on Sony's new "open", "non-DRM" solution to downloading their music legally. As I understand it, you have to go to a store, buy some sort of card for $12.99 which has a magic code on it, get the code, go to a website, enter the code, and then you are able to download one of their whole 37 alb...

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: '...

While Elder Scott was talking about the justice of the Father, I couldn't help but remember a very simple conversation I had with a childhood friend named Jared Peck. He was talking about scenarios of people hurting the ones he loved, and how he would get back at them.  I sat and made the required remarks such as, "oh", and "y...

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....