Okay..  I've never thought of this before, but, how convenient do you think it was for Samuel to climb up on a wall, built around a city most likely to keep people out?  Yeah, I don't think it could have been that easy.  How often do we find any reason at all to get out of doing what God wants us to do?  Well, God told Samuel he...

So two days ago, I found myself on the same stage with the same band I've been with for the past 5 (or so) years, playing pretty much the same songs. Except, this time, something was different.  As I walked around looking at all of the awesome vehicles on the grounds, there was just something wonderful.  I have no idea how to describe i...

Anyone who knows what Helaman 12 is all about is probably wondering how in the world I could label this chapter as "Happiness".  hehe... Yesterday, I was having a very interesting conversation about happiness with a dear friend of mine, and oddly enough, today's chapter was Helaman 12, which of course, talks all about the frailties...

Amazing...  It's almost unbelievable that in the space of less than 13 years, a whole nation can go from being wicked, to almost dying of hunger, to becoming incredibly righteous and prosperous, and then coming back to being so wicked that the combined armies of the Nephites and Lamanites can't defeat the wicked part of the people. I've bee...

So, a few weeks ago, the studio acquired a Jackson electric guitar and didn't really have any experience with it.  So a good friend and client of the studio came in and messed around a bit with it, and using a great dual-mic technique to get the most out of the amp, we managed to get a very, very nice guitar tone out of it. Soon, it will be ...

So, due to the success we've been having with the studio, we were able to upgrade our two in-studio guitars.  We bought a new black Crafter acoustic guitar, which sounds just awesome.  One of the new Herod The Fink tunes will feature the Crafter, and we're excited to get a final mix to see how it sits within the music. We also bought a ...

Amazing.  A couple of chapters ago, I was commenting on the sad state which Nephi found himself in, and the amazing faith he must have had to remain in a state of faithfulness to God, when everyone around him was wicked. I guess that's the way it goes.  God tries us to our breaking point, careful not to give us trials beyond our capabil...

Seems that the testimony of Nephi against the people of Zarahemlah was centered around their disbelief in Christ.  Interesting that, as soon a Satan has control over a people, Christ is the first doctrine which is attacked. Also the story of the finding of the murderer of Seezoram is interesting through the eyes of the foreknowledge of God.&...

Hey Guys, Okay so its been a really really long time since I last wrote anything.  I just recently remembered my password and that is a really big part of my reason for not writing.  I know this is suppose to be like a diary (right or wrong?), but I would perfer to think that its more of a letter to a best friend (hope that don't sound ...

So...  I remember Nephi coming back to his own people and seeing them in a state of wickedness, but I didn't remember that he had just been on a mission where everyone in the land northward rejected his word, too.  That would be an incredible test of faith in an of itself.  Only the most stalwart followers of God, in my view, could t...

  Poetry 2 with 3 added by Kelly Miller                                                                           &n...

Haven't even started reading this yet, and I know I'm in for a doozie.  Amalickiah, in my estimation, is one of the truest Nehor-ites in existence.  Absolutely no morals, no regard for anyone but himself - even if it means killing many people who he claims to love.  One of the most dispicable humans ever to live on earth.  Now, ...

 So, I haven't been one to get on the 31 days of Thanks in November, just because I generally think it's shallow to do such a thing only in November, as we should be doing it all year round, but that, in itself, is even more shallow, because I've never ended up actually doing anyhting of the sort, ever.  So, this November, in the Spirit o...

Ever since I built my first computer with a K6-2 200MHZ processor back in 1998, I've never looked back.  I've been an AMD guy my whole computing career. Recently, AMD has been having some tough times with their processors, and understandably, people haven't been buying their stuff as much. For what it's worth, I definitely had my doubts ...

Hehe....  I love it when I learn new stuff about Springville. I had no idea that there existed a place in Springville that was absolutely perfect for racing.  Now we're talking 0-80 MPH racing in a straight line.  Nothing curvy or anything like that.  So... Anyway... My co-worker, Steve comes into my office (or rather, the...

 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...

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 was recently reading this article about yet another virus which affects Microsoft.  In reading it, some of the comments below stated such things like, "The patch was already released, so just run your auto-updater and be done with it!".  Seems logical, right? Yeah... Actually, it does.  The exact same mechanism exists ...

After reading this chapter for no more than 30 seconds, I simply must type. I love verse 3. Many, many times have I been in a doctrinal discussion with someone and the other person just can't "get" what a scripture or principle means.  Verse 3 could explain why that happens to us. Some things we just can't understand without th...

An interesting question came to me today, while talking to a good friend at work. The question is simple. It’s based on the premise of two distinct beliefs. 1. LDS faith teaches us that unless the proper ordinances have been performed by those who are in authority to perform such ordinances, one cannot enter into the kingdom of heav...

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...

It's raining outside. ...and I love it. Today was pretty much wonderful from the beginning to the end.  I don't have as much time as I would like to express myself here and now, so I pray my fingers will be fast! Amidst all the stress going on in my life right now, today was definitely a day given to me as a gift.  Possibly to do no...

 So, if you don't know already, I have been one of two people obnoxiously pushing a kickstarter campaign for the last 3 weeks. The newly formed duo (Me, and Jesse Crowley) called "Tiny Boats" has been working on their debut album since early March of this year. Tiny Boats' music could be classified as the energetic...

I got down here to my studio tonight, after playing with the kids, putting Sam to bed, and taking care of a few other odds 'n' ends, and I got to feeling like I should write in my journal.  Not entirely sure about what, but it's been months, if not a few years since I have just sat down to write, with nothing in mind beforehand.  Some of ...

 So, I used to use the -dumpaudio switch in mplayer to get audio extracted from random videos, but now that seems to do not much of anything.  I found this site which had a great explanation of how to get it done a different way, but was a bit out of date.  The newer version is found below: mplayer -vo null -ao pcm:file=audio_file_...

Since I've been job-hopping for the last bit, I've had the chance to install fresh gentoo builds on quite a few 64-bit computers in the last couple of months. I've also been looking at different IDEs for PHP development.  After using jEdit now for close to 5 years, I've gotta say the one which impresses me the most is Zend Studio for Eclips...

Hmmm....  It's hard to write about something so wonderful when I'm not in the mood...  But I've found that when I feel like "blah", and I write about something wonderful, I usually am feeling closer to wonderful when I'm done... So, here goes. First off, I'm at work, so I don't have any pictures, but I'll update it when I get...

*sigh*.....  Where do I ever begin?  I mean....  I shudder when I say this, but, I've been a Microsoft user longer than I've been a Linux user.  What have you done, Microsoft? I'm referring to this "new and improved" piece of software they've recently released called Vista.  In all honesty, I hoped it would fai...

Three things stood out at me during tonight's study session: 1. I wonder where the translation of the plates of Lehi are right now?  I've never read the history of the Chuch, so I don't know if it's documented there, but Joseph Smith had them, and had them returned to him after he lost them.  Did he destroy them?  Are they somewhe...

So, in the business of audio recording, it doesn't get much more fundamental than 1. Room Acoustics, 2. Sound Source, and 3. Microphones. One of those three basics is about to get a serious upgrade here at Advanced Budget Studios. Today, Michael Joly of OktavaMod is modifying two Apex 205 ribbon microphones, and will be shipping them back ear...