Sitting here pondering what to write. I could write about a synopsis of 1st Nephi, which I finished last night, or I could just dive into 2nd Nephi.  I think I'll do the latter. Verse 6 could be quite the controversial verse, for people who didn't like the Spanish conquest, or Christopher Colombus.  Yet, the verse still is what the ...

Recently I was reading from scriptures.lds.org and decided it could be improved to make it easier to read. Here is what it looks like normally. A couple things bugged me. Narrow text is generally easier to read. So, I made it more narrow. Also, the superscript letters that signify a footnote throw off the line spacing. I figured out a cool l...

I'm kind of distracted now due to external crud, but one of the verses jumped out at me.  Verses 7 and 8... I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the Spanish conquest, as it came to the Americas.  I have combating feelings toward the whole history of what happened. The "Indians" found here in America were the posterity...

I think that most of this chapter is talking about the gathering of the tribes of Israel, although I could be completely and totally offbase.  This is one of the chapters which I probably wouldn't write about had I not made a resolution to write about each and every chapter from the Book of Mormon. Pretty difficult to understand right now. ...

I've often wondered why Nephi included the portions of scripture containing the writings of Isaiah. I remember one time during my mission when I was reading the stuff in 2nd Nephi and it actually made sense, but I didn't write any of it down, so.... it still makes no sense to me. Only one verse out of this chapter gave me any inspiration at all...

A few minutes ago, I visited my favorite weather-forecasting website and I saw something I thought I should document, just because it doesn't happen very often.  I saw a 7-day forcast that looked like this: I think it may snow tonight! :) Anyway... My mustang isn't liking life very much right now.  It's so freakin' dirty.  ...

Ya know, I love verse 6, and verses like it (2nd Nephi 4, for example).  The reason is quite simple. Sometimes it's hard to remember that prophets are people, too.  They're just subject to Satan's temptations and mistakes and errors and such as we are.  Verses like this remind me that they aren't perfect, and it brings them down to...

I don't think that ever you will find any words of righteousness associated with Laman and Lemuel, not once, but twice, within 4 verses more than in this chapter alone. Not sure why that stood out at me this time, but once in verse 1 and again in verse 4, Nephi said that Laman and Lemuel were on good behavior.  I thought I'd take time to suc...

I find it so interesting that Nephi, in all cases I can think of, when stating how hard things can get, always follows it up with how blessed they are.  I believe Nephi was how I would like to, and am trying to be like.  He recognizes things are bad, yet always finishes on an optimistic note.  Personally, I beleve grounded optimism c...

I just got up from a nap I was taking due to my going to bed at 4:00am this morning and the first words my wife told me after coming up stairs was "President Hinckley died a few hours ago." I'm not one to get upset at death.  For some reason, I've never had a problem with people dying.  The one thought which makes this even ea...

A week ago, an acquaintance of mine from my highschool days, Matt Harker, was hit and killed while biking to work.  A day later, a friend contacted me and wondered if he could use the studio to produce a song in Matt's memory.  Although I didn't know Matt very well, I knew him well enough to know he was the type of person who did his best...

Ya know...  The first thing that hit me while beginning this chapter was this:  How in the world did Noah get selected to be king? I mean, really.  Verse 1 lets us know Zeniff had at least two sons.  Could his other son be that much worse than Noah was?  Burning a prophet of God at the stake?  C'mon...  I w...

Hi.  I'm trying out this new journaling website. It really rocks because my husband built it and he's like ... super smart.... and super cool... and super AWESOME. I'm really tired right now so....  I'm gonna end this now....

I just got done making the video for this entry, so take a look if you've got a high speed Internet connection. Today was the 2nd day of the Ed Roth Memorial Reunion held in Manti, UT. There were finksters-a-plenty there on Friday, but even more on Saturday.  I lost count of how many Rat Finks I saw. So, because the days were packed, ...

Yup.. Today was my first day at the new job. Now, if anyone has gone through a lot of jobs with the honest intent of keeping every one he had, it's me. I've just had the luck of getting "let go" because of downsizing or whatever. Anyway... Usually, the first day on the job entails signing a bunch of paperwork and settling in. Today was anything but...

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 ...

Well...  All I can really say today is: "Thank heavens for time." The reason I say that, is because if it weren't for time, we'd never get over our sicknesses, and holy crud, I'm about done with this one. Today was the first day Sarah really felt good enough to be home with the kids happy, and healthy for the most part, and if she...

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...

This chapter was good to read.  I felt the spirit quite a bit.  Some insights I had this time around were interesting... I really wish I knew how much Alma knew about the Gospel before he was converted by Abinadi.  Regardless of how much he knew, it's interesting that each decision Alma makes with his little city of people he broug...

My brother and I are really close with each other. We usually go out of town with our parents. Since we only have each other (because we are the only children that our parents has), we see to it that we will have many happy memories with together. We have different likes and dislikes when it comes to having a fun time. He loves swimming and I don&r...

Hmm.... I enjoyed this talk, but I'm not entirely sure what to write about it. The three aspects of gaining a burning testimony of light and truth given are completely true: Learn True Doctrine Gain Pure Testimony Live Gospel Courageously I remember something my mission president said about the first one.  He said som...

 So, this chapter was a bit like the last, only worse.  Blood, carnage, war, and death throughout pretty much every verse. One of the beginning verses, though, caught my attention.  The one that says that people couldn't go to sleep at night, without losing their treasures, even to the point where they had to sleep with weapons to ...

This morning I woke up and just was in a good mood...  Feeling very grateful for lots of things...  So, I decided to make a video of it all, and I think it turned out okay. Just a jumble of thoughts and emotions from yours truly. Enjoy.  ...

Ya know... Chatting with good friends has its benefits.  Just like think-tanks and collegeate consortiums are good for concerted cognation, a good conversation with a concerned cohort can be just as contenting. I think I've mentioned this before in my journal, but in talking with a good friend of mine, I hadn't made the connection with just...

Holy cow, there's some weird crap on the Internet. I was just sifting through Youtube for some comic relief from the daily grind when I wondered where in the world Marilyn Manson had gone.  When I was younger, I was pretty much disgusted and amazed at the slim amount of MM media I was exposed to.  I haven't heard anything about him for y...

Ya know...  I think this little line from this chapter (verse 5) which, I believe could apply to anyone, anywhere, and would be a great little line to post on your wall, and look at every day. "And now there was nothing in all the land to hinder the people from prospering continually, except they should fall into transgression" ...

I'm so glad that the vacations for the Jones family for 2007 are OVER! Holy cow, I'm quite done with driving in a car with two kids who love screaming.  Anyway... Yesterday, we woke up, got some quick breakfast, and then got in the car to head out to see 3 people take on the LOTOJA bike race (I assume LOTOJA means "LOgan TO JAckson&...

Just thought I'd let ya all know that I did something yesterday that I haven't done in years, if I've ever done it before at all.. Turns out I had band practice for two bands on the same night.  So, beginning at 4:30, and lasting until 11:30, I was at band practice. I don't think I've ever played the drums for 7 hours straight.  My ha...

I was just up holding you, Collin.  You awoke for some reason after we put you to bed, and I decided to be the one to go see what was the matter. As I picked up your stiff body, muscles taught by some uknown fear, I sensed a connection between you and I which I haven't felt before. You put your little head on my shoulder and continued to rid...

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...