I went to bed yesterday around 9:00pm, and I should have learned by now that when I go to bed that early, I wake up about 3 hours later and am up for half the night. So, I might as well see what I can hack out in my journal. Lately, I've been pondering how I can be more of an example to those around me.  An example of what?  I'm not...

In response to this talk, I catch myself wondering how many degrees off I am.  Everyone makes mistakes, and I know the mistakes I make, and I wonder how far I am from the iron rod. I'm fairly certain I can figure this out quite easily through prayer, and if need be, receive the needed help to get back to where I should be. Good solid talk,...

The beginning of this talk was set by talking about the experience President Gordon B. Hinckley had as a deacon.  He spoke of the moving power of the men singing "Praise To The Man", at a Stake Priesthood Meeting. While reading that experience, my mind immediately turned back to a very similar experience I had when beginning my mis...

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 ...

Today I was commissioned to create an FTP server here at work.  Through persistent pestering of the hideously insecure nature of FTP in general, my boss let me dedicate an entire server just for the company's need to FTP.  This was to negate the possibility of any hacking of the web server, should the FTP server be compromised.  It's...

Pondering on the words of Elder Burgess, I am led down a thought process a bit different than where his talk went. I've been noticing that we as humans define ourselves quite differently, and most do it subconsciously, than we think we do. The whole concept of "defining oneself" baffled me some years ago. My parents and my church ta...

For the last two children, I've been relatively relaxed with the rest of my life, so I was eagerly awaiting and up-to-date with the happenings of our pregnancy. This time around, I'm quite busy otherwise, and this ultrasound crept up on me. I'm also quite amazed at the technology which wraps around the medical field.  At the last portion of ...

Not sure what to type, but the video taken was of Luci singing "5 Little Monkeys". Good stuff to have....

Not much more to say, other than what was in the video.  I'm trying now to work out the best bitrate to video quality trade-off with FLV files. I plan on having a bit of fun with this new camera in the ensuing weeks. I'm amazed at the technology with which these new cameras / camcorders are built....

So Anyone ever heard of Paul Michael Glaser? He is like the best actor! Well next to Johnny Depp. But any way my Pa loves him, in high school he and his best friend were called "Starsky and Hutch" because they acted so much like the real Starsky and hutch. My PA was Starsky, and to this day is called that! he owns all the old tv shows on ...

I believe that Sherem is the first "villain" of the Book of Mormon after Laman and Lemuel, who could be considered an "anti-christ".  Not 100% sure, but I don't remember anything standing out in 1st or 2nd Nephi.  This guy reminds me of Nehor, Korihor, and Amalickiah. Some points of interest this time around are: ...

I thought I had to substitute teach the 15-16 year old class today, so I prepared it this morning, only to find out I didn't. That's okay, because the gospel doctrine teacher we have is amazing, and I got to sit in his class! Omni.... One of the best lines of this chapter is in verse 2.  "I myself am a wicked man".  I'm...

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...

In this day of rampant immorality and addictive pornography, parents have a sacred responsibility to teach their children the importance of God in their lives. Those evils, so highly destructive of divine potential, are to be strictly shunned by children of God. When a child needs correction, you might ask yourself, “What can I say or do t...

Hmm....  I'm kind of tired right now, but I figured I needed to read some scriptures... This time around, I realize how being under the rule of a tyrant would be absolutely horrible.  In this case, Alma was under the rule of one (or more) of the Amulonites - which were his wicked peers when they were the king's priests.  Talk about...

I've just gotta say....  Man alive, I love open source.  I've also gotta pay my dues. ILMJ uses a wonderful open source editor called fckeditor.  It is simply amazing.  I haven't done much with it, but without it - this website wouldn't even be close to being usable yet. I just got done configuring the image-upload process, an...

Soon after I began recording audio, I had a feeling I would be in the pursuit of an unattainable goal.  Finding that "perfect" recording space, or even creating that "perfect" recording would be difficult, if not entirely impossible. 10 years after I began, I was able to pour my heart and soul into a new recording space, ...

Man, I need to write more about spiritual stuff.  I've been slacking a bit. Anyway, the talk given about the Book of Mormon by Elder Christensen was really a good one. It brought back sweet memories of my life.  Early on, during my mission, I taught a family who had been been searching for the Book of Mormon for years.  Of course...

Today was pretty laid back.  We watched one session of conference (Annie and Craig were gracious enough to let us watch it on their TV), played a lot of Brandon's new Wii, and went to a park which was pretty cool. Other than that, today was .... average. Here are some pics of the park. Collin found some guy who was quite nice, flying ...

Man... At work, I've got .... well.. I was gonna say dilemma, but... it's not a dilemma because I know of a way out. My dilemma is, I've gotta have a website functional by Friday, which means I've got two days to get it to work. The database we're connecting to (postgres on gentoo, thank heavens) has a table with more than 12 million rows in it....

Chapter 29 of Alma is such a good chapter - on so many levels, too. How would it feel like to want the good of mankind so badly, that it caused you to take time to carve your feelings out in brass plates?  Putting all the doctrine of this wonderful chapter aside, the beginning verses give me a tiny glimpse into the type of desires living a p...

Man...  I've been having mixed emotions about the oncoming trip to California for a number of reasons.  I mean, this trip really has been putting both me and my wife through the ringer.  First, I got a new job, and am being quite challenged by my new tasks there.  Taking time off to go on a vacation right now isn't the best idea...

There are portions of this chapter where I think it is referring to our day, or the latter-days.  I'm not sure, though. Man, to understand this Isaiah stuff, I've really gotta be in a super-spiritual, "yearning after truth", mood or it just doesn't make much sense. The latter verses I find interesting simply because they are so f...

Ya know, I'm not a very good critic in so many areas, simply becuase I'm not very picky.  I like lots of kinds of food, I like lots of kinds of music, I get along with lots of types of people, etc...  But, I simply must write about this. Sitting here trying to figure out how to start this review is quite daunting considering the ma...

Onward and upward towards the goal of finishing the whole Book of Mormon, writing about each and every chapter, by the end of this year. This chapter was all about war, and strategy.  I didn't find anything particularly enlightening about it, yet I firmly believe that each and every word written in the Book of Mormon has a meaning - and will...

Interesting that, again, the pride of one man seemed to be the reason of much wickedness and death.  If Paanchi would have just accepted the rule of his own brother because he was voted in by the majority, I'll bet the whole war with Coriantumr wouldn't have happened. That being bad enough, doesn't hold a candle to what happened with Kishkum...

A couple of hours ago, I finished meeting with two wonderful people.  Bill Gillane and Lisa Spurrier.  They were here for a couple of hours creating a voice recording for a very intriguing book called "Crystal Moon", written by Phillip Jones. All I gotta say is, I believe I'm gonna start reading the book, after hearing Bill Gi...

Very interesting that they took the time to tell us that Ammon not only rehearsed what King Benjamin said to the Nephites, but that he then explained it to them that they might understand it.  Not sure why that struck me this time, but it did. (verse 3) According to verse 13, a man who can look into and see (and translate), is a seer.  ...

 Man... This chapter was brutal.  Wars, wickedness, and death.  Seems to me that this is the result of giving power to Satan, letting him run rampant.  Hating your neighbor and wanting to kill him for the sake of being bloodthirsty.  So terribly sad, and unfortunate. Interesting in verse 5 that Mormon writes that the wick...

Thanks to the wonders of technology, Advanced Budget Studios now proudly accepts all major credit cards! In other news, we haven't posted much because we're taking it easy during the holidays.  We'll start crankin' out the serious tunes again in January.  (If you have sessions scheduled for November or December, no worries... We'll stil...