I'm not entirely sure where to even begin with this chapter.  So many good stories are found in this one, which can easily be likened to our own lives and our own times.  Various lessons come to mind.... For example, verses 1 through 3 are a magnificent litmus test of personal righteousness.  When someone comes at you and truthfull...

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...

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...

When I sit and think about what I just read, the 14th chapter of 1st Nephi is pretty crazy. Just a few points... The majority of the chapter is all about the "mother of abominations" and the "whore of all the earth". I believe it's written here to clarify the impact this (these) church(es) has (have) had upon the plain and...

No, seriously, people...  Microsoft really does care....  loads and loads of caring! They care so much ABOUT MONEY it makes me sick. I just got done reading this article and I'm left with a feeling of sickening "awe" at how greedy Microsoft really is. Lately, I've been following a story about a group of people in a project...

Where do I even begin with this chapter? I remember reading it and understanding it for the first time during my mission.  It was really cool realizing that all of this stuff in this chapter is written about in history books!  It talks about Christopher Columbus discovering America, the Revolutionary War, the Bible, the coming of the Bo...

I had forgotten that in this chapter, Nephi sees the Lord descend from heaven to the people who would be born from Nephi. I put myself in his situation, and quite honestly , I have no idea how I would react.  It would be so supremely surreal - seeing your kids' kids' kids' kids, and then seeing the Savior of the world show himself unto them....

As soon as the angel of God knew Nephi's purpose and desire, the first question he asked him was "Do you believe?". I think that's a fairly important question, which we should ask ourselves each day.  If we are being tempted and we ask ourselves that question, to which we already know the answer, I can promise you the tempter's pow...

First Nephi Ten... I'm not really in a spiritual mood right now, which really is unfortunate because I know this chapter has some spiritual meat to it. One thing I can write, is when I read this chapter during my mission, and even before, I always found myself focusing on Nephi's desire to see the things his father did (in verse 17). He didn'...

Two things for tonight's study: I believe the purpose of this chapter is the same as chapter 6:  To give purpose behind the Book of Mormon.  The things Nephi is writing are things of God - things pertaining to the ministry of the people in those days. I love verse 5.  It reminds me of when Adam was commanded to build an alter and...

This weekend is a powwow, everybody knows I'm gonna be there! I'll be dacning until my legs give out, then I'll dance some more! Fancy shawl isthe BEST kinda of dance, I 'm  so able to be me and to be free , the feeling of the wind  in my hair as I bounce of the ground.... It almost feels like heaven! This year knowing no was likely to ...

Although I use the Internet and Linux to make a living, there's still a bunch I have to learn.  One of those things happens to be the most popular ad affiliate program in the world. Last week, I was doing a bit of research, and found that I could be making a bit of money using google adsense.  Enough to get rich?  Heavens no, but ...

 Man...  I've been so busy recording good music lately, I haven't had any time to let you all know what has been going on. It's no secret that the studio uses Ardour as it's main digital audio workstation.  So far, the program has been superb in its stability, scalability, and features to help create great music. Recently, howeve...

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...

Those who know me will find this post a bit ... unlike my typical post. This is mainly because I have a pretty passionate stance on DRM, OSS, Microsoft, Linux, and religion.  (I hate DRM, love OSS, hate Microsoft, love Linux, and I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Anyway...  I have a few words to say ab...

Heh....  If you know me at all, you probably know a couple of things about me (in no particular order): I love Linux and gentoo I own a 2007 Mustang GT I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I really loathe the idea of DRM. Now, before I get into the details,  DRM just makes me sick.  I ha...

I just spent 20 minutes trying to find a good console-based mp3 tag editor in gentoo, and was surprisingly fruitless in doing so. After using the wonderful "equery belongs" command tied to an editor I use on my server (but couldn't remember where it came from), the program mp3blaster came up. Although mp3blaster claims to just be an m...

The spirit of this talk came to me about 1/3 of the way through reading it. It spoke to me of an immense gratitude which I feel for being a member of this church.  Not only is it this church, but it is His church.  I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the same church which Jesus Christ himself set up when he was ...

Last night, I watched a recording of American Idol, and since I have the myth system set to record 10 minutes previous to the beginning of the show, I had recorded the last 10 minutes of a show called "Moment Of Truth". The whole premise of this show is to take a polygraph (lie-detector) test previous to the show, and then go on live TV...

 Not too much to write about on this one.  I guess I could try to memorize all the relationships mentioned.  hehe. Genealogy must have been pretty important back then (pretty important now-a-days, too), because they mentioned that it would be possible for us to have the history of the entire world up to that time.  Interesting...

ILoveMyJournal announces the formal inauguration of editable entries! Yes, you heard right, folks!  You can now edit any entry you have previously entered here at ILMJ.  You can do this from two pages. First, Please make sure you are in your private journal, not in your blog.  All blog entries are also displayed within your pri...

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 often wondered why Nephi included the portions of scripture containing the writings of Isaiah. I remember one time during my mission when I was reading the stuff in 2nd Nephi and it actually made sense, but I didn't write any of it down, so.... it still makes no sense to me. Only one verse out of this chapter gave me any inspiration at all...

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...

Concerning world events, I'll be the first to say that I'm a pretty naive guy.  I keep up on stuff that's important to me, but not too much more.  I realize that this is somewhat of a flaw, so I am trying to involve myself much more with the world. That said, on the morning of Sept 10, 2001 - if you asked me what the "world trade ...

I'm always slightly dumbfounded while pondering on the things that wicked men come up with to justify the signs given by prophets... "Oh no, we can't hit this guy who is telling us we're wicked, so he must have a devil!  GET HIM!" "Oh my!  All these miracles that are happening just as the prophets said they would - can'...

I simply must blog about this - quickly. When I arrived home from a trip through some pretty insane snow tonight, I simply had to test a theory I had about my 2007 Mustang GT's headlights vs. fog-lights.  (Apart from the chance to drive like a maniac in the snow, which I absolutely love) So, I get my car going about 25 down a very lowly-li...

It's 2:00am and I'm sitting down here writing and recording music.  I'm trying to do some really relaxed "Trance" music, and .... I'm not entirely sure how it's gonna turn out, but it feels good being able to record music again. I don't even have a name for the song I've been working on for the last month, but... it'll come when it'...

Ya know...  I didn't quite know what to write about today, but I knew I had to write about something.  Some days, I've just got to write. Fasting.  Fasting, to me, is simply going without food or water for a duration of time with the purpose of showing God I am willing to sacrifice something which is very important to me, having h...

Reading these two chapters didn't leave me with much spiritual insight, as I didn't understand much of it. That said, I did, however, really feel the Spirit while reading them.  I yearned to know what the words meant.  I wanted to study them more....  Oddly enough,  I find myself wanting to study them more, yet kind of scared ...