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...

Holy moly. I'm not sure I can type everything I need to, but I'm gonna try. I gave my two-weeks today at Truenorth Academy after talking with two people at Nature's Way to make certain the offer they are making me. I'm not exactly sure where this decision will lead me, but after praying and doing some analysis of our own, Sarah and I believe t...

If you have had an email account for more than a month, chances are you get more spam than you get legitimate email. Well, I have an email account which averages about 500 spams per day.  I don't really care about this account, but that's beside the point. Even though I usually never give spam mails a second thought, today I decided to c...

At Advanced Budget Studios, we certainly can take an idea and create a masterpiece from nothing, but what if you've already got a great recording, but you just need that certain something to make it really stand out?  In the case of the G and M Project, they already a great recording of their song, Heartbreaker, but it wasn't quite where they ...

 So, this chapter seems to be about the rise and fall of the people, and the rulers who ruled both in righteousness and wickedness. It seems to mow through a genration with each verse that goes by - very quickly.  I guess this chapter would be a good one to illustrate the Lord's prophets making promises, and then keeping them through la...

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 run a server in my home.  It's nothing more than a hobby-type server that runs gentoo Linux, a couple of web-sites, my myth-tv installation for my home-theater, and all the family files.  I also have about 150 compressed movies on there, all of which can certainly take up a lot of hard drive space. I started this project back in 2004...

Ya know...  Sometimes I hate open source.  Most times I love it, but sometimes I hate it. I recently updated my gentoo gnome installation to 2.24.2, and didn't think much of it.  I then tried to connect my Nikon S210 digital camera to my usb port and perform the simple task of importing photos.  I have done this probably 100 t...

mesa u said in ur last blog that u didnt feel like writing that best b a fase i wont let u quit cause u could become a really famouse poet so if u quit then i quit this site and wont tlak to u deal or no deal like the show christine p.s.i aint joking ill quit talking to u..........eventually.........hopefully..........maybe..........not.........

Ya know... I didn't know if I was going to blog about anything this weekend, but something just happened definitely blog-worthy.  Nothing insane, but something that I think people might find interesting. You know, I've always heard that cats have nine lives, but I've always kind of been the one to keep that in check.  No, I don't shoot ...

Due to recent events in my life, I've been feeling a little like the waves constantly lapping at the shore - in motion or at unrest.  I know the sounds of the ocean usually bring a feeling of peace, but .... not if you're in the water.... :) Anyway...  This feeling of unrest has brought on a bunch of thoughts and ponderings to me as I'...

Ya know...  I thought that with 4.5 hours of sleep last night, I'd feel a heckuva lot sleepier than I do.  I guess miracles do happen. Since our wonderful Samuel was born, my wife and I have been getting considerably less sleep than we otherwise would.  This is to be expected; it comes with the whole package of parenthood. I ha...

Where do I even begin?  Well...  The craziness began on Thursday of last week, so I'll start there. *THURSDAY: Every year, my uncle Cloy and Evelyn Jones have a family reunion intended for their family.  I'm not entirely sure why, but my parent's family has been invited to this reunion for a long time.  Some years we go, som...

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, ...

Last Saturday, I woke up much earlier than I should have in order to go down and help my good friend Scott wash his cars, in preparation for his selling them. After washing his other two cars, we decided to wash my car, and to be honest, I was a bit skeptical as to how this "great new car washing" system would work.  Well...  ...

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...

Quite a few people have been wondering how they can get RSS feeds which are specific to the individual users of ILoveMyJournal.com.  Until now, they couldn't. ILoveMyJournal.com now has feeds which will contain public posts from only the user you're interested in! To get it, you simply click on the RSS feed logo found within the user's blo...

The new lamp for my projector arrived today and much rejoicing was heard among the land. Since our lamp burned out 5-8 months ago, we've been using a TV to entertain our kids, providing them with movies and TV cartoons and all the other goodness with which MythTV blesses our lives. With the return of our lamp, I wanted a way to extend the life ...

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 ...

"Some are lost because they are different. They feel as though they don’t belong. Perhaps because they are different, they find themselves slipping away from the flock. They may look, act, think, and speak differently than those around them and that sometimes causes them to assume they don’t fit in. They conclude that they are not...

Since I began using Ardour to record music, (and more music), I've always managed to have the same problem crop up, year after year.  The symptoms of this problem are annoying to say the least. I'm running all my audio through an M-Audio 1010 digital interface and I use envy24control to monitor and adjust the channels via. software.  I ...