8th Grade Science

26 questions... missed 3. One I could have gotten right if I had thought about it for a few more seconds. The other two I really didn't know. I'd like to hear how you guys do! (especially Mom the 7th grade science teacher :) )

January 2008 Photos are up!

I have posted photos from January. Included are:

Tyler's Birthday Party



The Utah Auto Expo



Sledding

January 2008

Father-Daughter Talk

I haven't really discussed politics at all, but this thought I'd share this little story that I got forwarded.

Father-Daughter Talk

A young woman was finishing her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and was very much in favor of the "redistribution of wealth."

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth, and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend, Audrey doing?"

She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."

Her father then asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I have worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!"

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Now I know that grades != money, but I thought it was funny in any case :)

Gospel Insight: Not the way we asked

I had the opportunity to teach Gospel Doctrine class last Sunday and as a result really studied the lesson. As I was reading I came across 1 Nephi 7:17-18. Those of us that grew up in the Church have probably read these scriptures over and over and yet each time there is something that impacts us differently.

Here, Nephi is bound by his brothers and some of Ishmael's family on the way back to Lehi's camp. Nephi prays "give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound." No doubt the Lord could do exactly as Nephi requested, but instead "the bands were loosed from off my hands and feet." The result was the same (Nephi was free) but the Lord went about it in his own way.

We learn from other events involving Oliver Cowdrey and the brother of Jared that we should have a plan in mind when going to the Lord, as Nephi did. But equally important is ensuring that we are ready for whatever method the Lord wants to employ to bring about His work.

Gospel Insight: Church Leaders Tech-Aware

I've been meaning to do a post on this since I saw it last month, but better late than never. This is probably old news for some of you but I was struck by the press release about Elder Ballard's graduation address at BYU-H where he said

While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time.

He also commented

How different your world is today. If you read newspapers, the chances are you read them on the Internet. Yours is the world of cyberspace, cell phones that capture video, video downloads and iTunes, social networks like Facebook, text messaging and blogs, hand-helds and podcasts....

This is your world, the world of the future, with inventions undreamed of that will come in your lifetime as they have in mine. How will you use these marvelous inventions? More to the point, how will you use them to further the work of the Lord?

.... may I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration.

The full text of his address can be found here.

So there were two things that stuck me:

1. The Apostles are aware of blogs, Facebook and podcasts! While I doubt that they have much firsthand knowledge, they are obviously aware of these trends and in many cases approving their use in the work of the Church. They are probably the most tech-aware group of old men in the world! For example, the LDS Newsroom has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to get the latest news of the Church (which is how I found out about Elder Ballard's address).
2. Elder Ballard gave an apostolic charge to each of us (especially those of us that are tech-savvy) to blog and to share our testimonies via "new media".

So, here I am with a blog so I have to ask myself "how will [I] use [my blog] to further the work of the Lord?" Now I know that my readership doesn't extend far past my family and close friends, but I do get around 100 visits a month, around 50 unique visitors but I go back to Elder Ballard's comment that "all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them".

As a result, I have decided to start a new "post type", Gospel Insight. Now I'm sure that most of these are not going to be terribly profound or new to anybody, but I figure that I can share insights that I have at Church or throughout the week. Hopefully they will impact somebody, even if that somebody is usually me. As Elder Packer stated in his now famous address The Candle of the Lord, "A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it!"

So hopefully this will allow me to grow my testimony while maybe touching some of you. And I encourage those of you reading this that are LDS that have your own blog to take a minute and share your testimony. And if you aren't LDS, I equally encourage you to share your personal feelings about God with the world via whatever "new media" you participate in.

Cello Nights

Andrew's Junior Recital is on Friday, January 25th at 5:30 pm in the Madsen Recital Hall in the Harris Fine Arts Center (HFAC) on BYU campus. (For those that attended, this is the same place where Brian's recital was.) Here's the program:

Hindemith Unaccompanied Sonata Op. 25 No.3 (1919)
Barber Sonata Op. 6 (1932)
Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations

Hope to see you there!

Andrew's Junior Recital on Facebook

Photos on Jeff's Web Albums

Jeff posted some photos for Nov and Dec that include some of Alex and Tyler while Jeff was here for Thanksgiving.

New Pictures from November and December 2007

Basic Instructions

I use Google Reader (an RSS feed reader/aggregator) to keep track of and read the blogs that I like which means that I don't always actually see the web sites of most of those content publishers. (If you're reading more than three or four blogs regularly, I highly recommend using a feed reader.) But occasionally I'll actually go to those sites and most blogs have a "blogroll" or list of links.

When I found my friend Jake Walkenhorst's blog, he had a link to Basic Instructions, a twice weekly web comic. I hadn't heard of it before so I checked it out and was quickly hooked. It is one of the most consistently funny comics that I've read... for me it's up there with Dilbert. So after about a month of reading it and laughing through the archives of old comics, I've decided to link to it too (see the sidebar under "links").

Here is one of the recent comics to give you a flavor for it. It's probably not for everybody, but I think it's hilarious and figured that I'd share.

On Tyler's Birthday

Here are a few photos from previous Tyler birthdays. My big boy is 3!

Tyler's Birthdays

Frosting from Tyler's Birthday Cake

For anybody that is interested in the recipe for the frosting from Tyler's birthday cake last night, here is a link. Jennifer made it for the first time yesterday and since she was fasting wasn't able to try it when she made it so was happy that it turned out!

Whipped Cream Frosting via All Recipes

Photos to close out 2007

Here are links to the November and December albums. There are a couple new photos in November and all of December. Most of the December ones are our trip to Las Vegas and Christmas :)

Here are a few highlights:











There are many, many more in the albums...

November 2007

December 2007

Hooray for AB!

Unlike some of the other Food Network stars (Emeril with Emeril Live), it appears that Alton Brown was able to work out a deal to keep his current shows/hosting duties with a new three year contract with Food Network. Long live Good Eats and Feasting on Asphalt!

From Alton Brown reups for another three years (Slashfood)