Confrontation and contention has always been an interesting thing for me.  For one, I hate it and I don't know how to deal with it.  I'm a passionate person in every sense of the word.  The moment I feel like I'm being attacked, it's everything I have to do to keep my head level and my blood from boiling.  Unfortunately, this ke...

The first thing that stood out to me this time around was the anger of Lamoni's father.  Try to place yourself in the situation Lamoni found himself in.  There are so many variables in the situation, it's hard to imagine exactly what was going on with the family undercurrents, but holy cow.  Lamoni's father drew his freaking sword an...

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 been awhile since I continued on in my quest to read and write about each and every chapter in the Book of Mormon, but, I'm still at it!  I'm gonna finish!  Here's Alma 18: The first thing I notice this time around is something I don't think I've ever noticed before. In order to feel badly about doing something, you have to at le...

Lately, I've been viewing a few Disney flicks on DVD.  I got Bolt and Bedtime Stories.  Because I usually rent them on redbox and can only have them for a day, I will rip them, and then when I get around to it, I'll watch em' then delete them.  No problems with that, as far as I can see.  I rent them to view them once, and that'...

Lately, I've been getting a lot of feedback concerning lost entries from I Love My Journal.  Occasionally, I would even lose one myself. The session timer for ILoveMyJournal.com is set to 2 hours, which means that you can stay logged in to the stie for 2 hours without being logged out due to inactivity. I initially thought was long enough,...

I've been debating on whether or not to write about this, and if I write about it, whether or not to make it public. Well... As you can see, I decided to make it public.  and to write about it. I came to work two days ago with the intent on working on the last of the original PHP projects still having a chance on making it through the me...

So lately I haven't had any major projects going on involving programming, and I started to miss it, so I decided to act upon a thought I had about a month ago. That thought consisted of me wanting a definitive answer to my almost 10,000-photo collection of digital images which seems to keep growing, and staying totally unorganized. So, two day...

Well...  Yesterday, a friend of mine had told me he had the privilege of being formally taught how to tune a snare drum. I read what he had to say (he posted it on facebook, so if you're not his friend, I imagine you can't read it, but here's the link anyway) So, today, I went and investigated a bit of whether I could get the proper tool...

The beginning of this chapter is one of my favorites.  I love verse 2 and 3. True friendship, at least in my case, is always born of spiritual origin.  The friends I've had that have lasted have always had a solid spiritual foundation.  And yes... Finding that old friends have kept the faith and increased in the knowledge of the Lo...

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....

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...

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. ...

 Woo, baby, am I tired! One thing that I often think about while pondering the Gospel is how blessed I am to live in a time where the fulness of the Gospel is available - and not only available, but I was born into a practicing family, and have made the life choices necessary for me to continue worthy to obtain the blessings given to God's c...

One thing I noticed while reading verses 7 through 11, apart from the torn emotions of all the people, was what caused their emotion. Why did they feel so "amazed" and fille with "pain and anguish", and with "exceedingly great joy"?  Well... When was the last time you felt filled with pain and anguish for some...

I had a real good day at church yesterday, I did talk to the Bishop and got things setteled.  My ex left me alone so nothing hapend there, the only thing I did not like about it was that in our seminary class some one came and nocked on the door every few seconds and would run down the hallway. Then all the leaders botherd me about trying to f...

So...  Interesting that one of the reasons cited for Heth's righteousness is his remembering what the Lord had done for his people, specirfically, bringing Jared and his kin over the ocean.  There has got to be something behind the whole "remember what the Lord has done for you" thing, and living a righteous life.  Heck.. E...

 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 ...

Ya know... I think these chapters are meant to teach us how frail the hearts of men are.  Okay... Here's a good question..  How long did it take the Nephites to go from "seeing the sign of the birth of Jesus Christ" (this is *Christ* we're talking about here.  *The Messiah*.  How long did it take them from seeing that ...

I know a lot of the posts this year have been on the spiritual topic, but, I write about the events of my life, and so I guess this is what ya get. Today was awesome. If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that today I sang in the choir, gave a talk in sacrament meeting, and taught the 15-16 year old doctrine class. It was wonderful. ...

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...

Ya know, I thought up until now that verse 6 refers only to the people under the reign of king Lamoni.  Evidently, it was everyone under the king of the entire Lamanite nation.  Amazing, amazing missionary work. Heh... Yeah... In reading the rest of the chapter, it pretty much names exactly the cities which were converted.  I guess...

I just arrived home from a most splendid 3-hour church meeting. Yesterday morning I got a call from the elders' quorum president, in which he asked me to teach the priesthood lesson today.  I said yes, and got the information I needed to teach. The lesson was on "Obedience Born of Faith in God".  Well...  I spent about 5 ...

Two days ago, after I got done with the Salt Flats, Steve and I went over to something which previously I had never even heard of before.  It's called the "Dew Tour". The event is in Salt Lake City and runs for 4 days during which the best skaters and bikers in the country come and compete. I was only there for maybe 4 hours, but...

I just finished putting my 5-year-old and my 3-year-old to bed. Earlier today, they both went to the dentist to have a check-up, and for Luci, it was a semi-traumatic experience.  She did really good, but at one point, she was seriously distraught about this gun-looking thing which sprayed water everywhere, and the vacuum they were going to ...

One thing I noticed while reading verses 7 through 11, apart from the torn emotions of all the people, was what caused their emotion. Why did they feel so "amazed" and fille with "pain and anguish", and with "exceedingly great joy"?  Well... When was the last time you felt filled with pain and anguish for some...

Before I even begin reading this chapter, I've gotta let you know that this chapter intimidates me.  It is so doctrinally rich, I'm seriously getting anxious just thinking about having to decipher its contents here and now.  I know this anxiety is unfounded because I know that God answers prayers, and I've prayed, so... Let's get to it. ...

Interesting that the council invites the entire Nephite people in the land of Nephi to join in the discussion about how they should free themselves.  I wonder why they make a point to note that. Also, it's very cool that Mosiah received them with joy, although I can't find any reason that they should have done otherwise. This seems like a ...

Man, something must be up with the ward I attend, because even though I've been going to the same ward for the last 3 years, the past 6 weeks have been..... very spiritually nourishing. I'm not saying that until then, it wasn't wonderful, but I've never loved going to church as much as I have during the past 6 weeks.  It's weird.  I'm ...

Yup...  I'm one of em'.  I'm a geek.  I'm probably not as geeky as the geekiest of geeks, but I've managed to stay employed as a computer programmer for more than 5 years now.  I also spend pretty much every moment of my spare time on my computer at home.  I have geek friends and ... well...  I enjoy technology.  ...