"Is this week already over??"  Wow...  I guess it's Saturday night.  Yup. This week, the studio has been packed.  Full house.  Monday was the only day without sessions, and that was on purpose.  Tuesday through Saturday was full, and that's the way we like it here at Advanced Budget Studios. Yesterday and...

The golden rule seems to have come out of this chapter. The first thing that caught my attention in this chapter is the possible meaning of verses 4 and 5.  the "mote in thy brother's eye" verses.  Some people would interpret this as "live and let live", or "worry about yourself, not others".   To...

So, I haven't written for awhile - mostly because I enjoy writing after a project has been completed.  Well - right now Advanced Budget Studios has quite a few bands in the works, who are going after multi-track demos.  My guess is - we'll be fishing them up around the same time, and let me tell you now - all of em' are going to be awesom...

So, I spent a few minutes today seeing how bare-bones I could get my xorg.conf.  My configuration is 2 23-inch Acer monitors, which are side-by-side using a Radeon HD4850 video card.  I'm using gentoo.  make.conf : VIDEO_CARDS="radeon". Also, I've got one big desktop from the 2 monitors.  Here's the config. ...

The first six verses of this chapter talk about performing your "alms" without fanfare.  I'm caught wondering why this is important.  What's the concept behind the action? Well, I think that's the very essense of it. - "Why are you giving?"  "Why are you charitable?"  Is it so you can appear to be...

 Being the mature one Being the mature one                  I am more mature than my brother and my older sister. I care about my parents. My brother he doesn't seem like he does sometimes because he is always yelling at them or something like that. My sister she is 20 years old and she doesn't g...

So lately, I've been posting little snippets on social networking sites about how awesome I think my wife is.  I really don't know exactly what has been throwing me into this state of absolute gratefulness for her, but it doesn't seem to be slowing down. I guess I'm just having a good hard realization that (only 2nd to God himself) she is th...

You know those types of musicians...  The ones that just "get it".  They don't worry much about writing the music, but rather, it seems to write itself.  Now, I'm not going to put words in his mouth, but it sure seems like this is the case with Alex Bateman. He came in, knew what he wanted, and the way he wanted his reco...

Lately, I've been struggling with readaing my scriptures.  I'm not entirely sure why, but lately, instead of just hunkering down and doing it because I know it needs to be done (and then reaping the Spirit due to my obedience), I've just had the hardest time sitting down and actually doing it. Well.. Today I did.  I opened to 3rd Nephi ...

A while ago, Advanced Budget Studios had the privilege of working with the author of a great book in a voice-over.  The author's name is Phillip Jones, and his book is called Worlds of the Crystal Moon. When I was contacted to help out with the voice-over, I had no idea what to expect, and I wasn't sure what Phillip was expecting, either.&n...

This chapter, to me, is all about following the Spirit. Verses 3 and 5 are among the most potent in all of scripture. "Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do." "...the Holy Ghost ... will show unto you all things what ye should do." Doesn't get any clear...

Well.. Yesterday, I rode home in an airplane for the whole day, but everything was cool.. I rode by David and Sharon that have a 19 year old daughter, Mormon, and single. I didn't get her phone number - just ask me why, I could kick myself. Anyway.. I listened to my music for most of the way home and just enjoyed myself. I actually like flying,...

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...

Okay, people.... I'm here at Truenorth Academy and I just can't shake the feeling of anxiety I have of leaving this place. I'm gonna start my new job at Nature's Way, which by all intents and purposes, should be the job I have for the rest of my life. It pays fantastic, the people seem wonderful.... It's just that the people here at Truenorth ar...

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...

  Poetry by Kelly Miller   THis is dedicated to my son Shawn VanWagen who left on his mission in 2005 and that next week I started writing poetry. It has been a big part of my life since and has kept me very busy.  Also, to President Hinckley and his challenge for the members to read the book of mormon. and to Bernice Hutchenson w...

Just in case you haven't heard the latest about Tiny Boats' debut album release, a good friend of the studio, Matt Mylroie, a music producer in Florida, had these good words to say about The Broken Vessels. A portion is quoted below, where the full review can be found here. "This album is hard to describe, but it is a fantastic blend of ...

Well...  I haven't written in awhile, and quite a bit is coming to a head soon, so I thought I'd just site down and write whatever comes out.  It may be a novel, it may end right now. Lately I've been focusing a lot of my time on music.  Our band Mimic, is in the process of getting gigs around Utah, so I've built a website for us,...

I feel very connected with this talk.  He speaks of the importance of remembering those special experiences we have with the Spirit which enrich our testimonies.  Some of the quotes I love from this talk are as follows: Our personal journey through life provides us with many special experiences that become building blocks of faith and t...

Well today my maw had this big Womens class about an hour away from here. So me and my family took her up there and we spent the few hours at the mall :-) We don't go to the mall to much cuz it's so far away! But I ain't t so sure I like it all that much, I ain't a people person my self. But it's ok some times. While I was there some very funny thi...

It's been awhile since I continued on in my quest to read and write about each and every chapter in the Book of Mormon, but, I'm still at it!  I'm gonna finish!  Here's Alma 18: The first thing I notice this time around is something I don't think I've ever noticed before. In order to feel badly about doing something, you have to at le...

I'm still kind of in awe of it all, but ....  holy cow..  Samuel Jason Jones has arrived! We got into the car around 4:30pm after Sarah had been in labor since around 6:00am.  Wow... What a trooper. We arrived here at the hospital at 5:00pm anticipating his arrival around 10:00pm or so...  Yeah right...  Samuel had ot...

Okay... So with the latest update to xorg-server (I think it was 6.5), xdm stopped loading XFCE4 and I couldn't get it to load anything but TWM. Here was the problem: Somehow, an important file got removed.  The file is this one: /etc/env.d/90xsession The contents of the file is simply: XSESSION="Xfce4" With that...

 I should be way more tired than I am. I just got done praying, and a day before that I had just got done sinning.  You know the kind I'm talking about.   It's the kind you really need to rid yourself of.  The kind that always keeps creeping around, finding an idle brain-cell to occupy...  So, yeah...  Hundreds, if n...

While my wife and I were watching The Office tonight, we got wind of President Obama being on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, so we decided to stay up to watch it. Well, I just got done watching it, and before I forget, I have to write down some initial thoughts. To begin, I am by absolutely no means whatsoever any source of any credible politi...

To start things off, I’ve been doing a bit of research on Christianity due to a friend I have at my place of employment. In my research I came upon the wonderful debate on whether or not members of the LDS church are “Christians”. The arguments pointed out were surprisingly well-worded and easy to understand. One of the main on...

I got married like a bit more than 5 years ago, and I'm lovin' it. But, during those five years, I've had some footage gracefully shot and donated to me by my friend Ty Swartzlander on my wedding day.  On that day, Ty told me he was going to put something together and give it to me later, but instead, I told him I'd really, really, real...

One way I really enjoy reading the scriptures is from a very empathetic point of view.  I find I learn more when I study, if I try to imagine what would *really* be going on if I were actually within the scripture. Chapter 4 is perfect for this.  Reading somewhat between the lines of the first part of this chapter allows us to imagine ...

Approximately 4 years ago, sometime during the summer, from time to time I would go outside our back door and lay out on the concrete slab and look up at the stars.  We had been in our home about 7 years and had no intention of moving, or changing, or doing anything but doing what we were doing.  I was in love with my wife, trying my best...

Alright... This is insane. On Friday (2 days ago), we were here in California, and my cell phone was in the van. Unbeknownst to me, Andrea Clifford from Natures Way called around 11:00am, telling me that they were done with the 2nd-round interviews and wanted to talk to me concerning the web developer position. I got that message around 4:20....