Oh, man...  I'm still reeling from the video I watched earlier tonight.  I've gotta read my scriptures, though, so.... Here we go. From verse 3 to verse 6 causes me to ponder various questions. If Jesus Christ is the Christ of only this world, then these verses tell us only of the wickedness of the particular nation which crucified ...

As some of you know, in addition to running this site, I also run a site called ldscompanion.org Today, I was rummaging through some of the artwork submitted by my users, when I found this piece. The artwork is well-done, and presents a Biblical message as well as a URL.  Well...  Not being familiar with the URL, I decided to see wh...

About a month ago, our bishop told us that the fast offering fund for the poor people in our ward is running low, and that we should consider giving a generous offering. I thought we should definitely consider doing so, but in the end, I forgot all about it. Today, however, our Bishop dedicated the entire sacrament meeting to the topic of sacri...

The first verse which caught me in the reading of the last half of 2nd Nephi 9 was verse 39. The question came to mind:  "Why would God need to have us "remember" the awfulness of sin?" ...  Well...  The answer is quite simple, really.  Because Satan laces all sorts of lies within the temptation of sin.&nbs...

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. ...

As I read this chapter, I found the question in my head, "why was Nephi prompted to put Isaiah in here?" One thing I'm noticing in this chapter and the last, is the writing style of Isaiah is quite starkly contrasted against the writing of Nephi.  It's wildly poetic. I enjoyed this chapter as much as I did the last.  I didn'...

I wrote for 2nd Nephi 6, that I was having a hard time understanding Isaiah.  Well...  This chapter is nothing but Isaiah, and I thought it was very beautiful. Verses 1-3 are poetry. I immediately thought of a person asking the question: "Where is the Lord now, during my time of suffering and trial?"... ...and this chapter...

I was gonna read something spiritual tonight, but I got sidetracked by American Idol. I started surfing around and before long, I came upon this video which, to me, is both absolutely amazing and freaking hilarious at the same time. I had no idea (although I'm not surprised) that so many people were doing remixes of his song "We Are Brot...

I think this is the first time I'm not really inspired at all to write anything. This is frustrating because I can tell there's a lot of meat to this chapter.  I guess it's partially because I really am not into the whole "gathering of Israel" thing.  That's horrible to say because it's such an integral part of the whole plan ...

I just got back from one of the best races I've been on.  It was awesome. I've only got a bit to write about it, so I'll write as much as I can. I took off around 10:20 tonight to see what kind of damage I could do out on the streets. I was cruising on state street in Orem when I found a Dodge Charger R/T who wanted to play.  The...

Sorry for the long haitus I've taken from blogging, guys.  I guess it doesn't really matter since nobody reads my blog, anyway.. Man...  This new job is really taking me for a loop.  Right now, the only way I can survive without seriously considering other alternatives is to take it a day at a time.  This in no way should sugg...

Some of you may know that I've been working on a Christmas music project called "Herod the Fink" with someone who has been steadily becoming a great friend of mine - Jesse Crowley. This started September of 2009, when he called me up and asked me if I wanted to work on a few Christmas songs he had been cooking up, and I accepted.  We...

This talk really got me thinking about where my heart is. As I've grown older, my pet sins are still doing their best to have their portion of my heart dedicated to them.  I'm still doing my best to assure they don't. Often, I wonder how my life will differ in this aspect 5 or 10 years from now.  Will I still struggle with the same si...

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...

At the beginning of this year, one of the things I wanted to accomplish by next year was to write enough songs to create an album.  So far I have 3 songs I reallly like, and one which I think should be destroyed by fire.  Not too shabby, considering it's only the beginning of February. When I was 26, 1 day after I had broken up with my...

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 ...

The main thing that stuck out in this chapter was obviously the destruction of Ammonihah.  As I've stated in a previous post, I find it so interesting that one of the judges of Ammonihah was the one who mentioned that "even if thou shalt declare this city shall be destroyed in one day, we shall not believe it."  It was as if the...

It might be that I'm a techno-geek, but the first thing I thought of when I read this was "social media".  People went from house to house and "labored exceedingly" all through the night to let it be known where Jesus was going to come the following day. Also interesting are the activities of the people when the arrived t...

One sore spot of AdvancedBudgetStudios was the very, very cheap preamps we've been using.   Well, after much searching, digging, late nights, and crawling through the Internet on my hands and knees, I came upon the deal of a lifetime.  Yup..  I found a brand-spankin' new "Focusrite Octopre Platinum" which we will be ad...

Hmm...  I really like when prophets, like Alma, quote other prophets to make a point.  The best way to keep the doctrine pure is to look the reference up.  Otherwise, it inevitably will be diluted down.  Ain't no doctrine like pure doctrine. Interesting that the quote from Zenos in verses 4-11 is paraphrased beautifully in Alm...

 Another very short one.  If I understand it correctly, the prayer states that by partaking of the water, we are covenanting (or "witnessing") unto God that we will always remember Christ.  I believe a few chapters ago, I wrote quite an entry on the importance of remembering.  As evidenced by the inclusion of it in a w...

 So, this chapter, I hate to say it, wasn't very inspiring to me. I'm not sure if it's the state I'm in, or the chapter itself, or both, but there wasn't too much inspiration going on. I did, however, 3 years ago, begin the journey of reading and writing about each and every chapter in the Book of Mormon, so I've gotta write something, if I ...

Lately, I've been feeling quite the spiritual outpouring from heaven upon me.  It happened about ....  Let's say last Friday (the 10th).  I'm not entirely sure what this means, but I've been happier, more settled emotionally, more productive at work, and ....  Just really anxious to be about a good cause. I think now would be a...

I just got home from Jovi's baby blessing (Brandon and Chloe's first baby) and it was a pretty cool experience. Today was a good day because I thought that it was gonna be .... not good. Yesterday night, I stayed out a bit too late, and thus didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night.  In fact, on my way home, my good friend Steve bought me ...

I love Moroni's strategy.  With God on his side, he seems almost unstoppable. So Ammoron decides to be a jerk about the letter-sending, and what-not, so Moroni's like, "Dude...  You did NOT just say that!  A'ight, then, we'll see who gets to keep prisoners around here!!" Let's see what could have gone wrong with this st...

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...

It feels quite refreshing to be able to understand more than just a couple of verses again.  As I was reading tonight, I realized how much could be written about this chapter.  It's quite full of good doctrine. Here's what I noticed tonight: From verse 1 until 6, Nephi seems to be trying to explain the "hard to understand" n...

I love mythtv. Thank heavens for the wonderful, altruistic people who created such a fantastic program. I also love transcode and mplayer. Equally fantastic programs. Put em' all together and what do you get? An encoded library of your DVDs ready for viewing straight from your hard drive. Here's some tips I've found out. (actually, I'm w...

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've been debating writing this down for quite some time now, but I think it's time now to write it. What I am penning is a more detailed account of what happened this day during my mission. It was April of 1996, two months before I would return home from my 2-year service as a missionary for our Lord Jesus Christ. I was serving in a leade...