"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...

Last spring, I modified my car - and then modified it again. The 2nd modifications entailed me re-programming (or flashing, or tuning) my car's computer.  One thing I didn't realize at the time was that evidently, a standard protocol for most tuners out there is to turn off the O2 sensors which monitor emissions after the catalytic converter...

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, ...

It's been a while since I just sat down to write about whatever comes out of my fingers.  I now have about an hour of free time, so I think I'm gonna do just that. It's been kind of interesting that in various points in my life, I've wanted to get rid of the thoughts of doing something musical professionally, but it always seems to come back...

I find it interesting how Satan is described throughout scripture. In this chapter, through verses 13 - 20, Satan is seemingly exposed as the weak fraudster he really is.  Verse 16 is quite potent, written from the standpoint of people who were tempted by him, when shown his actual person, are amazed at the frailness of Satan.  They say...

Hi, haven't come to your site in a while. I loved catching up on your scripture reading. I like to get emails from askgramps.com he was the mission pres. at the mtc at some point and you can ask him anything. well what do you think of this... please let me know. Where can I find the account of when Joseph and Samuel Smith went into a room in the h...

Hmm....  I'm wondering how I can write this entry without offending anyone, so... if you are offended by it, I'm sorry.  What is going to be said has to be said, and it will, hopefully, enlighten at least someone. Due to this wonderful blog, I've been feeling quite pensive lately and liking the change.  Midst this change, I asked on...

Yesterday at church, I had a couple of thoughts which I neglected to write down.  I think I'll write them down now. Something I might have written down in my previous scripture studies is my question as to why Lehi's family didn't think about getting the plates of brass / Ishmael's family before they left for the wilderness?  I would th...

Last week, PoeticIntensity decided to join us again, with an interesting concept.  He had spent the previous evening playing some chords, and decided to make a song out of it that evening.  So we spent an hour coming up with the concept, and another 2 hours tracking it.  We then spent a few more minutes mixing it down until it sounde...

 So, a few days ago, a friend of the studio called up and asked if I would help him out with a project.  As he described the project, I grew more and more interested. The project is called "Sacred Sounds: Cathedrals of Europe" The gist of it, is that a group of researchers are going to be travelling around Europe studying th...

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 never noticed that by the way Christ speaks to his father, he is displaying total and complete humility. If Christ submits himself to the will of the Father so willingly and completely, who are we to suppose we are above doing so ourselves? "It is very enlightening and touching to me to consider how Jesus talks to His Father. In His g...

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...

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...

As a S197 Mustang GT owner, I never thought I'd write about this particular subject, but then again... ...I had never actually seen one on the road, either. All I have to say is - Wow. Dodge definitely did their research on this one.  Although it was all due to the success of the S197 mustang body style, of course, but man... That car ...

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...

Not sure what to type, but the video taken was of Luci singing "5 Little Monkeys". Good stuff to have....

I've gotta ask.  Well, before I do, let me preface the question with the scripture found in 1st Nephi 19.  Nephi says he won't write anything unless he thinks it's sacred.  Assuming that the prophets after Mosiah thought the same thing, I've gotta ask.  Why are verses 1 through 19 even here?  I know the Book of Mormon is tr...

I'm not entirely sure what to write.  Half because I'm still reeling, and half because I'm still asleep. I'm now in the International Airport in Las Vegas, heading back home after a trip which put my 5-year anniversary trip to absolute shame.  I'm just shaking my head in disbelief. During the trip, we went and saw the show Ka by Ci...

 So, today I released what has proved to be the best recording of any choir I've ever produced.  It was the UVU Institute's Latter-day Celebration Choir.  The song is "Baby Boy", one I've never heard before. It can be heard by clicking here. (feel free to download, listen, and share as much as you like) This was my fora...

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 ...