Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Pet Peeve Numer 8

So not a lot irritates me and I have shrunken the list down significantly, but there are still a few things that boil me in unpleasant ways.
Number 8 is people who are not willing to stick up for Peter.
The apostle Peter
Maybe you've heard of him.
Man of incredible faith, second person to walk on the water by faith, healer, teacher, resurrected being who helped restore the Priesthood to the Earth....
The list goes on
So why people cannot deal with a few things in his life that they deem "sketchy."
"Why is it so hard to stand behind someone who always stood behind the Lord.
Peter was full of faith. He never faltered. From the day he forsook his nets and boats, his feet never turned away. Even in his moment of denial, he was a near to his Lord as he could be. Let him who would be critical of this apostle put himself in the same place—among the bitterest enemies, persecutors, and assassins—with a growing knowledge of the futility of defending his Lord, whose hour had come. He who had forgiven his crucifiers [see JST Luke 23:34c footnote] also forgave Peter who had denied him."
-President Spencer W. Kimball
I am proud to have him in my Priesthood line of Authority as a great man and Champion of the cause of Truth.
He is my brother and friend.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Monday, November 28, 2011

The Price is Right

So I have wondered recently what is the price of a smile for someone in pain?
It is easy to smile when life is happy, but what does I take to smile even in a good amount of pain if not out right agony.
Very few people can
The price is just too great
But I truly admire those that are willing to pay it.
They know that the price is right
Thank you

Sunday, November 27, 2011

The thing about icebergs is...

You can only see the top 10% and the other 90% is below the water.
I seriously need to have the power to read minds for about one month and sort out everything that I can and then try it on my own from there. It would be like training wheels for a bike (that changes every mechanism every time you turn a corner).
Okay, so I know it wouldn't help, but I can dream. All I know is that guys and girls need to find a better way to have relationship communication or we are both going to be in trouble.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Saturday that never was

Today didn't feel like Saturday,
it felt like no day.
It was awesome!
No day when you have nothing that has to be done
No day when time melds in your hand
No day when you get to focus on the most acutely important items in your life
No days are my favorite
They mean visiting people that I love, not having a schedule and rewinding the clock of life even if just for a day

Black Friday

So Black Friday is supposed to rbe the biggest holiday shopping day of the year, I mean the biggest nation wide brawl of the year.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Experience

I find that experience is great because it gives a blueprint for anyone willing to dissect it.
Everything that you throw up falls down means that you should move out of the downward trajectory of the item you threw upward.
Likewise when we have good experiences we can break down why they were food and try to replicate them or at least provide a good environment to recreate it.
We like how thanksgiving feels so maybe we should, spend time with family, focus on being thankful, eat lots of good food, whatever you do to make it great.
I hope that you learn to rein experience as your slave rather than quake under it as master.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Funny thing to be thankful for

So I enjoy thinking/talking with myself a lot. It is usually a very rewarding experience, in an introspective way. Today I was thinking and talking to myself and as often happens my mind started to spin and then I was left with a logical conundrum. I thought about it for a minute and laughed at myself.
I am thankful that I do not take myself too seriously.
Many people worry and fret about imaginations they make with no loop holes, fearing they are in fact the way things really are.
I am thankful that long ago I learned that I can laugh at myself, not worry about the small stuff and still be happy and enjoy life.
If you can't laugh at yourself then you are taking yourself too seriously.
Find a funny moment to be thankful for.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Thank Full Heart

I love Thanksgiving for lots of reasons and pie is not among the least nor dark turkey meat or Mom's rolls, but even higher than those is the general feeling of people being grateful.
I find myself more grateful as well.
Grateful for small things like a text message conversation with an awesome friend, or meeting up with a friend unexpectedly, or just having a great day for no reason.
Whatever your reason for loving the season remember to be grateful!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Number 1

Of coarse Megamind
I have a special set of connections with Megamind.
I don't know all of them, but some that stick out are as follows
-Evil Genius
-Wants to be good, even though he is good at being bad
-Color Blue (different, but similar that is a story for another time)
-PRESENTATION
-Messing things up and then fixing them but not all the way
-Man with the plan

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Number 2

Coveted spot 2 goes to Tangled
Really close with Number 1, but this is a great movie
-Dreams (I have a dream!)
-Finding new "adventures"
-Living a life that you create
-Humor and great music

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Number 3

How to Train your Dragon
Loved the music and the storyline
-Great story about love and judging others
-I have always been the one to break my mind before my back
-I want a dragon!
-I can make just about anything come together (courtesy of my father's genes)

Friday, November 18, 2011

Number 4

Sorcerer's Apprentice
-I like magic and I believe, however in a different way, that magic is all around us
-He finds a great amount of strength through ingenuity.
-He is a geek

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Number 5

Cars 2 just gets special mention because it was a great time of life and some awesome memories come with that movie.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Shoots and ladders

 So I am really picky when it come to people talking about the salvation of God and Perfection and salvation and I am also really verbal about it with others (including my teachers) when I see something that does not makes sense. 
Every single Latter-Day Saint has seen a picture of stick people looking up at this ladder trying to get to heaven.
I hate this ladder and everything that it represents
Loathe
Strongly about this ladder I cannot be
 
The main crux of what they teach is that you are saved after all that you can do and you have to be climbing on the ladder.
We are saved by grace after all we can do.
That is an amazing scripture that everyone quotes or rather many people mis-quote
After all we can do?
First off we can do nothing in the sense that most people use this. 
"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?"
Secondly after is an interesting word, as in the English language it has 6 tenses
The Spanish version translates, después de hacer cuanto podamos or after making as we
That does not help much
Other items include the fact that "after all"
after all 
1. 
used to emphasize something that should be taken into consideration in spite of what has happened or been said
with the placement of punctuation this does not seem unlikely either
So bottom line. 
Obedience, or what we can do does not pay for salvation or exaltation any more that piano practice pays for piano lessons.
We as Christians hope that we can become more like the Savior, more loving, more kind, more perfect and holy.
We are in a sense practicing to become like Him.
He paid for the lessons.
We become like Him and show our gratitude for His payment by practicing. 
That is all
We can in no way contribute to our salvation through obedience
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
What does He want us to do?
"Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am."
If you do not want to be like the Savior then the answer is simple
Don't practice
If you do, then the answer is simple
Stop complaining and start practicing 
Of coarse it is hard at first
You have no idea what you are doing
The Atonement makes it possible for us to do that, to access the grace or power of God to overcome our natural, evil, carnal self.
We do everything that we do trying to consecrate out lives to Him.
If you are doing to buy a ticket into heaven and are not only saved by grace, but changed by grace, then you will no more want to live with God than you do right now.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

You've got something that I want

Great song! Really Great song!
Human beings are ridiculous.
Really
I thought about the quote from Cool Runnings, "If you are not enough without it, then you will never be enough with it."
It strikes me that this is true in every sense.
A friendly exchange took place with the overall feeling being something like, "...it depends on why a miserable person is feeling miserable. It isn't always as simple as wanting to be happy. If there is a cause, that is an omission of something, then the introduction of what was missing could resolve the state of being miserable."
While we were discussing something different, but altogether related (things you can control that make you happy, I thought that it applies well, and have heard it used to address things that you cannot control)
I think that it is so incredible. 
Most people actually believe this.
The fact that something could actually affect you and who you are.
I guess I am harsh because I am a really big Holocaust junkie
I read books, watch movies, documentaries, talked with survivors, anything that I can learn.
People who literally had everything taken away and not only learned how to survive, but how to thrive in a place where there was no hope, no happiness, no life, no family, no love, no food, nothing.
And yet these amazing people had within themselves what it took to be happy. It is not as easy as wanting to be happy, but yet you do not NEED things to make you happy.
I am not saying that the survivors were happy, I do not know one person who is happy everyday. 
What I am saying is that THINGS or the lack of things will never make you happy.
People who thrived in Auschwitz, thrived after Auschwitz. 
People who barely survived went on barely surviving.
They may not have been happy, jolly all the time, but they learned that they possessed indomitable spirits that no one or thing could possess. They would not give up.
We are prone to give up until things are a certain way, until a group accepts us, until we make more money, until the person we love chooses to love us back
All of those things are superficial.
We have to decide to Carpe Diem regardless of what happens in life.
Make the most of it even if that means having waffles for dinner.
Nothing will ever make a person unhappy that is determined to live each day like they are going to die.
Nothing will make you happy. You have to choose to thrive and not be oppressed when things just don't go your way.
Take responsibility for your actions.
Stop wating.
Be happy! 

Monday, November 14, 2011

Fear

However funny when I think it is related with my soreness and tiredness from the turkey bowl. 
People can sometimes lose all sense of themselves when they are afraid. 
Like thinking that I was actually going to hurt them even though I scream like a warrior and act big.
Enough said. 
I am bemused.
Fear though seems interesting. People show have no reason to fear, or what you would expect as no reason to fear still have fear because they do not fully trust God. 
I find that funny because no matter how much you worry about a said event it either will come to pass or it will not. 
Those are the only two options.
I can strive and do everything in my power to effect my contribution and effect my personal growth or lack thereof through the process, but worrying about it much like crying about it, never really fixes anything.
Emotional value and other factors may play in, but the finality of what happens is not effected.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Early Christmas Present

So I am not going to join the Christmas in November rampage, and in all actuality this little to do with it, it just seemed fitting.
I thought that I would take the next little bit to talk about Stake Conference as it was a fantastic time and revelatory experience for me. 
It really was like an early Christmas present. I got to spend the entire day in meetings, and learning about myself. I think that it is interesting to hear people talk about meetings in different ways. They go stir-crazy, they lose focus and they get nothing out of them are common responses. I feel that I can appreciate those responses being ADD myself. 
I also find that there are ways to over come it. I probably drive some of those people crazy because I shift. 
I find that I can concentrate much better if I go in certain positions.
I can concentrate in each position for 10 minutes and then move to a new position. 
Hence it probably drives people nuts. 
Other simple things like taking notes, participating, being well rested. These all culminate in the ability to enoy a meeting.
The most important is the focus.
I go to meetings to worship the Savior and the gain revelation. 
I find that with most things in life, the less you worry about you and the more that you worry about someone else, the better off you are.
The differences between a good meeting and a bad meeting is what I take to it, what I expect to get from it, and what I do to actively participate during.
Now you can't very well participate in an extroverted manner when someone else is talking, but you can engage yourself in the topic, you can teach yourself, and you can take the Holy Ghost for your guide as to what you need to learn. 
It is easier to do things that were once hard.
I hope you enjoy these next few bouts of Stake Conference Highlights and other "Random thoughts that come throughout life."


Saturday, November 12, 2011

An insturment

I hope you enjoy this video/talk

speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7908

11-11-11

A magical day in the lives of some.
I hope. 
I like to make my own magic for the most part though.
There are places where I go to refill my magic most certainly.
But the rest of the time it is just deciding that a day is going to be magical.
Music is key. 
My music machine is like an appendage. Not that I really have to have it, but it makes life nice.
I can always find something that gets me feeling in a groove and amplifies my feelings do that they can become powerful. 
However you make you day magical, do yourself a favor and don't wait for the next 11-11-11 to have a magical day.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I felt much better since I gave up hope

I read this on a bumper sticker and thought, "that is counter-intuitive."
I hope that you never give up hope, but only hope will not bring you the happiness that you seek either.
Hope is a very powerful emotion capable of doing lots of things, but happiness is not hope. Happiness is more of gratitude mixed with hope, with a profound sense of eternal destiny and meaning, and most of all obedience to the commandments of God. 
I find that it is ironic that lots of people think that it is possible to be happy without obeying the commandments of God. 
That is counter-intuitive. 
The way to happiness is by keeping commandments designed to make us happy.
Hope makes an anchor to the souls of men. 
Gratitude gives us God's proper place in our lives.
Divine Nature gives us our proper place in our lives.
Obedience gives us meaning and something to strive for. 
"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God..."
Let us be happy. There is truly nothing better.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Learning and learning

So I am weird. 
Not that that was news to anyone, but just to establish that for the post
There is learning and then there is learning.
One of the things that I like to do is that I really like taking classes from the same teacher over and over and over.
I know that some of you are thinking that that sounds a lot like your nightmares.
I am not talking about college classes though (my only thought, intent and purpose were to get in and get out as fast, and painlessly as possible).
I am talking about institute classes
Spiritual learning.
Most of us are adept in one form or another to learning from books, but if you haven't noticed yet there is no book for life. 
No handbook, no instruction manual, no parts list, no spec sheet. 
Nothing.
So what are we to do?
The scriptures say that we must take the Holy Spirit for our guide and go.
Great. That was super helpful.
Obviously listening to the Spirit is key. 
That is not a strong suit of mine anyway.
Still not helping.
So seriously what to do.
I decided to practice.
When you go to class and hear something new it is easy to take away something insightful.
When you go to class and hear the same thing with the same slides, and the same jokes, and the same stories....
Is it quite so easy?
That has been my personal challenge.
I take classes over and over and over from the same teachers, who teach the same thing, give or take, so that I can learn how to learn new things from old material. 
The material and the teacher no longer do the teaching.
If I am to learn anything then I have to rely on the spirit to teach me everything that I need to know.
His insight becomes priceless, not just a "bonus."
I have to learn through the spirit because the teacher can no longer teach me anything.
It forces my growth in new ways that I would have never reached.
So if you see me in your institute class and the teacher seems to know me really well. 
That is because they do.
This isn't my first rodeo.
However you do it, you need to find ways to learn from the Spirit, for "He will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance."
That is pretty amazing.
We just need to find our way in to the radio station.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Well I realize the Sherlock is not the perfect person (cocaine is not a huge plus in my book), and he acknowledges that he has faults a-plenty, I think that there is much to learn about the sleuth from Baker Street. Pick up a story and give it a read through. It just might change your outlook.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Nothing is ever as it seems

I find that life has many interesting things that people find boring simply because they have a fixed view of them. Physics is like that for me. Physics is something that i do not truly understand enough to master the subject, but I know that if I think something out without really thinking about it then make a conjecture about that thing, then take the exact opposite of the conjecture that I am really quite close to understanding physics. 
Holmes does that in a lot of ways. He takes the things that people count as obvious and then discards them. He works with what people have not considered first and then finds that the most common place answers and obvious facts, can really point in a hundred directions. The obscure facts are the one that are fast in finding the answer and the obvious facts fit that explanation as well as the truth.
Don't judge a book by it's cover, it is the intricacy of a person that defines them and you will find more often than not fits the obvious facts that you thought were their entire story.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Bridling your passions

A very Book of Mormon phrase and partially continued from my last post but not really.
Holmes has perfect control over his emotions. They never cloud his judgement. 
His eccentricities become his power because he has learned balance (except for a few things that will be in later posts).
His emotions likewise become his weapon because he has harnessed their power. 
People are very powerful, but often act like a thousand pin pricks instead of a spear.
Instead of concentrated our power and letting that concentration become our new power, we feel that our little contributions in life are sufficient. 
The truth is that we realize that in order to bridle our passion into the true force that it can be it is going to require a great amount of effort and we are lazy.
Holmes being the Master of his own emotions becomes the master of others'. 
Only as we order our passions, much like a garden that is over-grown, will our passions serve any productive purpose.

crazy

I wanted to post with full faculties as much as possible because lunacy is a fairly disconcerting topic.
Most people when they hear eccentric imagine a crazy, white-haired person who lives like a hobbit, with this weird obsession. 
That is mostly true
I am kidding.
That is not anywhere near true
Holmes is an eccentric about lots of things.
The truth is that at the core that an eccentric person has found what everyone has been searching for. They know the answer to the age old question, "What is the purpose of life?"
Asked mostly in jest, eccentric people have an answer unlike post others.
The reason that I like eccentric people is that they are passionate about something. Once you have learned to be passionate about something then you can be passionate about almost anything.
People who are not eccentric, first off are liars, and second off, have hidden the feelings of passion so they become lifeless. 
Eccentricity is a good thing, as long as it is metered in a productive way.
Just like anything your passion can kill you unless you become the master of it.
So don't kill the horse (eccentricities) just bridle it.

Friday, November 4, 2011

knowledge vs intellect

I do not believe that I was being redundantly repetitive using both knowledge and intellect to describe Sherlock Holmes. Knowledge is the know of something and intellect the using it. I may know that if you leave a pail with straw and food covered in a barn that there will be mice in it and no food given time. Intellect is the ability to see that the mice did not spontaneously generate from the cheese. 
I think that it is a rare thing that people have both knowledge and intellect. The reason that comes with intellect is usually subdued by greater knowledge, not enhanced. 
Sherlock Holmes mentions that he does not postulate theories without facts because you then suit theory to fact instead of taking the facts at face value and assigning them their proper place.
I think of our ability to judge. We know something about someone and start to make rash judgements about that person based upon the little that we know. Then when confronted with the truth and it no longer fits our knowledge we simply adjust the truth to fit. It prevents people from seeing the amazing person sitting next to them. I wish you knowledge and power as illustrated by 
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathways to peace; Taking, as He did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him.
Forever in the next.
Amen

Thursday, November 3, 2011

How very observant

I love how there is always a bit here and there in Sherlock Holmes' tales where he makes what appear to be incredible conclusions based on absolutely nothing.
He then goes on to tell them how he deduced what he knew. 
One thing that he tells Watson on occasion is that, "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear."
Sherlock is in the same room and hears and sees the same things as his companions but he observes. 
One of my favorite is a simple how many stairs are there to come up here? You don't know, neither did I. Then I become more observant. I have a respectable memory and started putting it to good use. I could find things that were lost because when I saw them they were not lost. But when they became lost I could find them. Seeing went from an endless flood of visual information to millions of facts coming through my optic nervous system in a constant stream. Taking notice of things around you. 
The most important part is that it taught me how to be happier. 
I went from existing to thriving. I could stop to notice things that most people take for granted, and appreciate it. That in turn helped me to appreciate life.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Elementary

"You will not apply my precept," he said, shaking his head. "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? We know that he did not come through the door, the window, or the chimney. We also know that he could not have been concealed in the room, as there is no concealment possible. When, then, did he come?"
     The Sign of the Four, ch. 6 (1890)
I won't spoil it for you, as it is rather fantastic and I love Sherlock Holmes stories. 
Sherlock has always been for me a very good kind of role model. I love how he can observe and his keen knowledge and intellect. He is eccentric in a lot of ways. He has complete control over his emotions to the ability that he can reason in logic without interference. He can simplify things that are very complex. He finds things reversed from the way that many people see them because he knows from experience that the common conception is really a misconception.
I hope to be like him in a lot of ways and not like him in a lot of ways.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Death

I wonder some times if I am the only one that ever thinks about dying/death. It is a reality that faces all of us at one point or another. I have often thought that it is the one thing left in life that I have yet to experience and thus it would be the last epic adventure. I don't hope that I die, but I have thought that it would be cool to have one of those "die and come back to life" experiences. Just thought that I would through that out there. 
P.S.
I don't need any kind of counseling for depression, or suicide, etc. I really do love life, I just also think that death would be pretty cool too. It is really the only thing that I have never done in an eternal kind of way. I am kind of looking forward to it in a lot of ways. But again I am really happy to be here with all my great friends and my great life.