It’s confession time. I suppose I’m prepared to lose friends over this issue, however, I really hope it doesn’t come to that. Many of you may in fact be offended by what I’m about to say because, quite frankly, this post is a result of my visiting your blogs.
So, here goes….I HATE PLAYLISTS ON BLOGS!!!! There I said it. It’s out. I just can’t hide it anymore.
I have never identified a single good reason for having a playlist on a blog. If I wanted to listen to music, I’d go listen to the radio or go to a website that allows me to tune in to my favorite station. But that’s not why I’m visiting your blog. I’m visiting your blog because I want to READ about you and/or your family. I want to know what you’ve been up to lately. I want to follow up on how your latest weekend trip went. I want to know how your kids are doing. But I absolutely do not want to hear a random sampling of your favorite songs. I just don’t.
Many of the blogs I follow do in fact have playlists, and the first thing I do is turn it off. And as if having the playlist in the first place isn’t irksome enough, most of the time I have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find it, then I have to scroll all the way back to the top to read the latest post. GRRRRR!!!! But the absolute worst offense? Putting up a video on your blog for everyone to watch, and then reminding them to first turn off your playlist. DOUBLE GRRRRR!!!! It’s like you’re admitting that you know it’s an annoyance and yet it’s still there.
Am I alone in this fight? Please tell me someone out there is with me on this?
That’s all. I relinquish my soapbox for the day. Have a great weekend everyone.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Gladys Knight
According to Wikipedia, purveyor of all truth and knowledge on the Internet (right?), “Gladys Knight joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1997. She had occasionally teased LDS Church President, the late Gordon B. Hinckley, that his flock needs to inject some "pep" into their music. Knight created and now directs the Mormon-themed choir Saints Unified Voices (http://www.suvchoir.org/). SUV has released a Grammy Award-winning CD titled One Voice, and occasionally performs at Mormon church firesides.”
One such fireside was held in Seattle this past weekend, and Angie and I were able to attend. If I had to sum it all up in one word, I would say “WOW”. If I had to sum it up in a few paragraphs, well, that’s what you’re going to get now.
This was definitely not your typical, run-of-the-mill, LDS fireside. In fact, it was quite uncomfortable at first. After all, have you ever been in the chapel clapping and cheering during I Am a Child of God, Because I Have Been Given Much, and throughout someone’s personal testimony? Have you ever been in a chapel fully decked out with rock band regalia, including keyboards, electric guitars, and speakers bigger than you are? It took some getting used to. I believe I adjusted a little quicker than Angie did. To me it simply felt like I was back in Oklahoma at a typical Baptist service.
As the choir first entered, the music was blaring, everyone was on their feet and many were clapping to the beat. After everyone was settled, the meeting was opened by a local leader who advised, “I felt as if some of the clapping was a bit timid for the occasion. Don’t worry, we’ve checked with Salt lake and they’ve confirmed that this building is structurally sound enough to withstand whatever level of clapping you can attain this evening. So relax, have a good time, and let the choir and Sis. Knight know you appreciate their talents they’ve decided to share with us tonight.”
After that, everyone loosened up. Despite the uneasy feeling at first, the performance of Sis. Knight and the choir was simply amazing, such that one could hardly keep from clapping in beat and applauding at the conclusion of each song. And yet at the same time one would’ve been hard pressed to not feel the spirit that attended throughout the entire performance. The songs were simply amazing. The choir and its members were phenomenal. Throughout the evening there were several soloists who performed, all of which were incredible. There were songs performed in Spanish and Hawaiian (is that the name of the native tongue???) which were beautiful. I just don’t know that there’s anything I can say that will let you fully appreciate how great this event was. As an official fireside there was no charge for attending, however, tickets had to be obtained as there was limited seating available. I don’t think I’ve seen a stake center that full of people before. In short, if any of you hear about this fireside coming to your stake, do yourself a favor and plan on attending. Not in any way to discount the wonderful performances, the highlight of the night by far was hearing Sis. Knight’s personal testimony and conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Here’s a little tidbit of info for any of you mission friends who may be reading this. In the pamphlet of information that was distributed to the wards in promotion of this event, one stake president said, “You can’t emphasize enough what a powerful missionary tool this event is. Until you are there and hear the testimonies of Sis. Knight and her husband, you cannot appreciate the opportunity you are about to be given.” That stake president was none other than Gordon Bean, Stake President of the Oklahoma City South Stake. I couldn’t believe it when I read it. I mean, I can believe it, Bishop Bean was always amazing, and his family is incredible, I was just really surprised to see his name listed there and to know that he’s now the stake president. Anyone who served in the Moore Ward, coming up on about 10 years ago now (yikes I’m old), will know what I’m talking about. The Beans fed the missionaries every week, Tuesday’s if I’m not mistaken. And I don’t just mean that they fed 2 missionaries, they fed all the missionaries in the ward, which, when I was there, numbered no less than 6 at any given time, and was sometimes upwards of 8. My first mission Christmas was spent at the Bean’s home. Every missionary loved the Bean’s and they took care of every missionary. They were every missionaries mission family away from home. I am very happy to see them ever progressing in the Gospel.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
House Pictures
On more than one occasion my life has been threatened due to a lack of pictures of the inside of our house, that we’ve been working on since we moved in. Thus, motivated by nothing more than a desire to save my own life, here are the most recent pics we have:
Dining Room During: Notice the custom 1970’s light fixture. This thing actually pulls down from the ceiling to whatever height you’d prefer at any given time, then releases back into the ceiling when done. You’ll notice too that the wainscoting is not finished in the far right and left corners of the room.
Dining Room During: Notice the custom 1970’s light fixture. This thing actually pulls down from the ceiling to whatever height you’d prefer at any given time, then releases back into the ceiling when done. You’ll notice too that the wainscoting is not finished in the far right and left corners of the room.
Dining Room After: New ceiling fan, wainscoting finished, trimwork completed, and a few decorative touches finally hung.
Living Room After: New paint, new baseboards, old window (that has been replaced now), insert taken out of fireplace, new area rug, again with the decorative touches hung on the wall.
Office After: New paint, new baseboards, old window (which you can’t see and which has been replaced now anyway), new blinds. The desk is around the corner to the left.
Boy’s Room After: New paint, new chair rail around the room, new baseboards, old window (which you can’t see and which has been replaced now anyway), new blinds, new curtains, new rug, and new big boy bed for Luke (we finally had room to pick up the matching twin bed from my parent’s house).
Master Bedroom After: New paint, new baseboards, old window (which you can’t see and which has been replaced now anyway), new blinds (also can’t see), new curtains (again, can’t see), new rugs. This picture is taken from the doorway of our ½ bathroom (sorry, no pics of that either).
Main Bathroom After: New paint, new shower rod, new shower curtain, new floor, new toilet (seat that is), new vanity (barely seen), and new mirror (not seen).
As yet unseen: The entire downstairs wherein is contained a family room/play room/ TV viewing area, 2 unfinished bedrooms, 1 unfinished bathroom, and 1 unfinished laundry room.
So there you have it. That’s our house. Having just had all the windows replaced on Sep. 22nd, I’m sure there will be some “new window” pictures coming sometime down the road.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Command
Command is a fairly strong word. By definition it reads:
1. To direct with specific authority or prerogative; order.
2. To require authoritatively; demand.
3. To have or exercise authority or control over, be master of; have at one’s bidding or disposal.
This past weekend I attended the Saturday night Priesthood session of General Conference, as all good Mormom boys ages 12 and older are to do. I tend to rather enjoy the Priesthood session as I find that those who speak usually don’t sugar-coat things so much for the guys, the way they do when there are women and children present. It’s a time for great directness, leaving little room for wavering or doubt, in regards to the way one should be living his life.
At any rate, on Saturday night, President Monson shared a couple of fairly humorous stories, one of which I’ll be sharing here today, but both of which I immediately went home and shared with my family.
President Monson related the following story that happened to a friend of his, Bro. Borrup (sp?), as he was a fighter pilot during WWII. Bro. Borrup was assigned to a high risk mission to take out an oil refinery somewhere in the South Pacific. This mission was to be the longest flight as yet attempted by the military, and Bro. Borrup knew right away that he would be assigned to this detail. As it turns out he was assigned, and they did take fire to the point where all on board had to jump from the plane. Bro. Borrup landed in the water, attempted in vain to inflate his life raft, passed out, came to enough to attempt again to inflate his raft, and this time being successful, had just enough energy to climb into the raft before passing out again. He awoke and found that he had 2 comrades with him. They tethered their rafts together and floated for 3 days in enemy territory without food or water. How they were not seen by the numerous enemy ships and planes was the first miracle noted by Bro. Borrup. His 2 companions asked Bro. Borrup if he prayed. He noted that indeed he does pray, and that indeed he’d been praying almost continuously since he’d awoken.
One day they saw a U.S. submarine approaching. They thought for sure they’d been rescued. But to their dismay the submarine continued on right past them. A little while later the submarine approached again, and this time it again went right past them. At that time, Bro. Borrup relates that he heard a voice in his head tell him, “You have the Priesthood. Command that submarine to return and pick you up.” So that’s what he did. And immediately the sumbmarine returned and picked up the 3 fighter pilots. The captain of the submarine relayed that he had no idea the 3 pilots were lost at sea, and indeed had not been on any sort of rescue mission to pick them up. He all of a sudden simply knew that they were there and needed rescuing.
I returned home after the session to the wonderful smell of stew and biscuits that Angie had made for dinner. I relayed this story to Angie and the boys as we ate. They too thought it was comical to simply command a submarine to rescue you. Okay, Angie and Austin thought it was funny, Luke just laughs whenever anyone else is laughing.
A little while later, as we were preparing for bed, Angie had the boys in our room putting them into their pajamas, while I was brushing my teeth. This is the conversation I overheard:
Austin: “Mom, can I tell you a question?” (He likes to tell questions, not ask them).
Angie: “Sure.”
Austin: “Mom, I command you to go get me a biscuit.”
I spent the next few minutes cleaning the toothpaste off the bathroom mirror while Austin received an important lesson about how he did not yet have the Priesthood, and that even if he did he couldn’t go around commanding people, least of all his mother, to do things for him that he wanted done, that the Priesthood is only to be used for blessing other people’s lives, and that we would soon be having a Family Home Evening lesson to help us all understand more about the Priesthood and its proper uses.
1. To direct with specific authority or prerogative; order.
2. To require authoritatively; demand.
3. To have or exercise authority or control over, be master of; have at one’s bidding or disposal.
This past weekend I attended the Saturday night Priesthood session of General Conference, as all good Mormom boys ages 12 and older are to do. I tend to rather enjoy the Priesthood session as I find that those who speak usually don’t sugar-coat things so much for the guys, the way they do when there are women and children present. It’s a time for great directness, leaving little room for wavering or doubt, in regards to the way one should be living his life.
At any rate, on Saturday night, President Monson shared a couple of fairly humorous stories, one of which I’ll be sharing here today, but both of which I immediately went home and shared with my family.
President Monson related the following story that happened to a friend of his, Bro. Borrup (sp?), as he was a fighter pilot during WWII. Bro. Borrup was assigned to a high risk mission to take out an oil refinery somewhere in the South Pacific. This mission was to be the longest flight as yet attempted by the military, and Bro. Borrup knew right away that he would be assigned to this detail. As it turns out he was assigned, and they did take fire to the point where all on board had to jump from the plane. Bro. Borrup landed in the water, attempted in vain to inflate his life raft, passed out, came to enough to attempt again to inflate his raft, and this time being successful, had just enough energy to climb into the raft before passing out again. He awoke and found that he had 2 comrades with him. They tethered their rafts together and floated for 3 days in enemy territory without food or water. How they were not seen by the numerous enemy ships and planes was the first miracle noted by Bro. Borrup. His 2 companions asked Bro. Borrup if he prayed. He noted that indeed he does pray, and that indeed he’d been praying almost continuously since he’d awoken.
One day they saw a U.S. submarine approaching. They thought for sure they’d been rescued. But to their dismay the submarine continued on right past them. A little while later the submarine approached again, and this time it again went right past them. At that time, Bro. Borrup relates that he heard a voice in his head tell him, “You have the Priesthood. Command that submarine to return and pick you up.” So that’s what he did. And immediately the sumbmarine returned and picked up the 3 fighter pilots. The captain of the submarine relayed that he had no idea the 3 pilots were lost at sea, and indeed had not been on any sort of rescue mission to pick them up. He all of a sudden simply knew that they were there and needed rescuing.
I returned home after the session to the wonderful smell of stew and biscuits that Angie had made for dinner. I relayed this story to Angie and the boys as we ate. They too thought it was comical to simply command a submarine to rescue you. Okay, Angie and Austin thought it was funny, Luke just laughs whenever anyone else is laughing.
A little while later, as we were preparing for bed, Angie had the boys in our room putting them into their pajamas, while I was brushing my teeth. This is the conversation I overheard:
Austin: “Mom, can I tell you a question?” (He likes to tell questions, not ask them).
Angie: “Sure.”
Austin: “Mom, I command you to go get me a biscuit.”
I spent the next few minutes cleaning the toothpaste off the bathroom mirror while Austin received an important lesson about how he did not yet have the Priesthood, and that even if he did he couldn’t go around commanding people, least of all his mother, to do things for him that he wanted done, that the Priesthood is only to be used for blessing other people’s lives, and that we would soon be having a Family Home Evening lesson to help us all understand more about the Priesthood and its proper uses.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
