The End of the Sidewalk

About a year ago, I posted a story about my caffeine addiction. See, caffeine didn’t affect me or bother me when I was younger, but as I get older, I get more sensitive to the stuff. I used to drink a couple cans of diet Pepsi a day, and the included caffeine was enough to feed my addiction, but if I ever missed a day, I’d sure feel it.

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It’s called Irony, get used to it.

Clickbait Drives me CRAZY! For those of you who don’t know, Clickbait are the worst headlines imaginable where the writer tries to be as clever as possible to get you to click the link so they can get the Ad Revenue from your visit. 

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I have to confess, I didn’t watch the Academy Awards last night. The problem with the Academy Awards is that it’s an award event that is forced upon the people. They cancel our television shows and they hype it up when we, the people, didn’t have anything to do with who got nominated for an award and don’t have a say on who wins an award, yet the Academy Award is regarded as the most elite of awards. If you ask me, the People’s Choice award should be lauded as the most elite, since it was chosen by the people who ultimately give these directors, actors, sound and special effect guys their jobs. The Academy doesn’t pay to see the movies.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like some of the actors that won. JK Simmons was very overdue for an award of any type, and I’m glad he won almost every type of award for his role in whatever movie he was in. I had never heard of it, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Oh, yeah, it only grossed $12 million, yet won scads of awards. Why? American Sniper has grossed nearly $450 Million, yet it only won one award (best sound? gimme a break), I think that it should have won every award it was nominated for, and more. 

I’ll leave it there: The Academy Awards are a joke. All the wrong roles won all the wrong categories. And the roles that made a difference in the industry go largely unnoticed. Let’s get these stupid insider award shows off the television and only broadcast those where the people have had a say in the winners. Let’s replace the Academy Awards with People’s Choice for Movies. Let’s replace the Emmy’s with People’s Choice for Television. Let’s replace the Tony’s with People’s Choice for Theatre. Lets replace the Grammy’s with People’s Choice for Music. After all, if the people don’t have a choice, we shouldn’t allow them to take over our world.

rhettandlink:

baeism:

omgthatdressxx:

How to Pack Luggage?

I could have used this 3 weeks ago

The organization! Whoa

I’m gonna need this tomorrow…

Monday Something: Like A Girl. I love this message. I have two daughters who I expect to be strong and confident. Lets get the connotation of the phrase Like a Girl to mean something positive rather than something negative. 

I’m going to start something inspired by reading Single Dad Laughing today. I’m going to try to write something every Monday. I can’t promise the subject, or how it will sound, but I will write something every Monday…. now if I could just come up with a good name for the series. More on that as we go.

This week, I’d like to address  a message I read on a poster-board today. Almost every afternoon, I go for a walk around Salt Lake City. I need a break from my computer and a stroll around the block is a good way to spin off some stress. Today, I was walking down the sidewalk when I saw a gentleman with a poster board with the words “Jesus is not Mormon” written on it in huge letters. Thinking back now, I wish I would have stopped to help him dispel this rumor with him.

I agree, Jesus is not Mormon. And for those of you Latter-Day Saints who are reading this, I hope you agree. This is something that has bothered me for a while, and while I understand people’s confusion, I need to publicly declare that I am not Mormon either.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know who I am; I know God’s plan…. Sorry, habit.

Q. Who is Mormon? I served my mission in south Florida. I was asked many many many times (yes, that many manys) “who is Mormon?” A lot of the public knows members of the LDS church as Mormons because we consider The Book of Mormon as scripture. And the Church for a long time referred to us as “The Mormons” in their media. I was even asked on my mission if we worshipped Joseph Smith, to which I took off my little black name tag and made the person read the name of the church. It's not the church of Joseph Smith. We worship Jesus Christ. He is our Lord and our Redeemer. 

A. Mormon is the name of a prophet/historian. The Book of Mormon was written by a group of people who left Jerusalem about 600 years before the birth of Christ. They were members of the house of Isreal, and they were religious in keeping the Law of Moses. They traveled for many days, and after several years, established a new civilization in the American continents. They lived and grew their civilization over many centuries, and approximately 400 years after the birth of Christ, one of their prophets was named Mormon. He was a historian of sorts and had received all the records from the previous prophets from the time their fathers left Jerusalem down to the birth of Christ, and then from then till he died around year 400 AD. He was a man. He was not Jesus Christ. He was simply a prophet of God.

Q. Why is Jesus not Mormon? First and foremost, Jesus is a separate person just as I am not Tim McGraw. Mormon and Jesus are two distinct individuals. That is why he is not Mormon. Now I’m not stupid, I know what he was trying to say: Jesus is not a member of the Mormon Church?

A. Jesus is not a member of the Mormon Church. He is the leader of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We worship Jesus Christ. We read from the Bible. When I was in 9th grade, I brought my scriptures to school with me once. I remember a girl accusing me that. “You guys don’t believe in the Bible.” I was so happy that I could open my Bible to the cover page and asked her to read it. It clearly says “Holy Bible” in huge letters. Yes, Virginia, Latter-Day Saints believe in the Bible.

If you read my entry from a couple days ago, entitled “The Unbeatable Position”, you’ll remember that Latter-Day Saints believe almost everything that other Christian religions teach. We believe in repentance, confession, baptism, doing good to all men, reading the scriptures, living the 10 commandments, etc. We are Christians in every sense of the word.

We differ in that we believe that the Heavens are not closed. We believe that God revealed His gospel to prophets in ancient times, Both the stick of Judah (the Bible) and the Stick of Joseph (the Book of Mormon), and we believe that He still reveals His will to the people of this world. Just as a tripod cannot stand without three legs, So too the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be told in one book. In the Bible, we read that “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2. cor. 13:1). We believe that the first witness of Jesus Christ is recounted in the Bible. We also believe that the Book of Mormon is a witness if Jesus Christ. Its subtitle even states “Another testimony of Jesus Christ." 

From the second book in the Book of Mormon, it says ”And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.“ (2 Nephi 25:26). 

So, Jesus Christ is not Mormon, He is our Savior and Redeemer, and without Him, we would all be lost. He is the source of our salvation, and He the literal son of our Heavenly Father, and He is our elder brother.

Before I start talking about what the Unbeatable Position is, I first have say that I did not come up with the Unbeatable Position. While I was on my mission in Florida, I came across a teaching pamphlet which included a lot of what I’m going to share here. I don’t have the pamphlet with me as I’m typing this, but I’m almost completely certain that I still have it somewhere with my mission things.

One more thing, The unbeatable position is not a teaching tool! I can’t stress this enough. I tried to use it on my mission as a teaching tool, but it almost always leads to a bible-bashing session with the other person. It should only be used as a last resort. The Spirit cannot teach when there is contention (See 3 Ne. 11:29), and there usually is contention when using the Unbeatable Position. That being said, sometimes it is possible to use, but use your good judgement. So, here it is. The Unbeatable Position:

When someone tells you that you’re not going to Heaven, simply ask the person, “According to your beliefs, what do I have to do to get into Heaven?”

Get out a pen and some paper and help them draft a list of requirements. If the person is devout in their beliefs, they should be able to come up with a reasonable list of requirements without much help from you. The important part is to make sure it is their list of requirements according to their beliefs, not yours.That’s it! Now comes the fun part, Resolving Concerns. In order to work through the Unbeatable Position, I’ve gone ahead and listed some typical things you might see on their list. I’ve numbered my list so that I can reference the points later.

1. Believe in Jesus Christ and accept him as your personal savior, Declare that Jesus is Lord.
2. Love the Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost
3. Obey the Ten Commandments
4. Confess your sins / Repent
5. Do good works
6. Attend Church regularly
7. Pray regularly
8. Read in the Scriptures
9. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ / Receive the Holy 
10. Partake of the Sacrament

If your person is unable to come up with a list, WikiHow has this list which you can use as a starting point. The final part of the unbeatable position is to declare to the person, “According to your beliefs, I’m going to Heaven.” But, how can that be? Let me explain, and I’ll use the list from above.to justify how I am going to Heaven.

In order to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (or the Mormons), you must be baptized, but before you can be baptized, you must be interviewed by an Elder of the church (either a missionary, bishop, branch president, etc) to determine if you meet the requirements for baptism. In that interview, you must establish that you meet the following:

• That you believe in and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That you love Him and have accepted Him as your savior ^[1,2]
• That you keep the commandments ^[3]
• That you've repented of your sins and that you do good works. ^[4,5]
• That you attend church regularly ^[6]
• That you've prayed and received a testimony of the Lord and His Church ^[7]
• That you read regularly in the Scriptures ^[8]

Now, at this point, even before baptism, we've marked off most of the list above. Once someone has this interview, if they are found worthy of baptism, they’ll be baptized by immersion and then receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, just like in the bible ^[9]. Finally, after baptism, at church every week, Mormons partake of the Sacrament ^[10].

Therefore, according to the list above, Mormons are going to go to Heaven, but Latter Day Saints believe in doing more than the minimum, and we don’t believe that God will take away our salvation if we do more than the minimum requirements.

When using the Unbeatable Position, you’ll have to adapt your discussion to the list that both you and your friend make, but if they’re Christian, even the rules set forth by their own religion say that Mormons are going to Heaven.

There is one thing that might get in the way, and that’s the concept of Authority. Occasionally, you’ll have someone tell you that the ordinances must be done by the proper authority. You must then ask them how someone gets their authority. Many protestants believe that you can get your authority to preach or baptize by attending a religious school and receiving a degree in preaching or theology, but an ecclesiastical college does not have the authority to grant someone else the authority to perform ordinances in the name of God. That power can only come from God. So, they’re left without a leg to stand on. 

The only Christian religion that has any footing on the subject of authority are the Catholics. If the Catholics truly do have apostolic succession from Peter down through the Pope today, then they are the true religion and the Mormons are not. If there was a break in the apostolic succession, then a restoration of the authority was necessary and Joseph Smith did restore the authority. That’s it, It’s either the Catholics or the Mormons. The protestants can’t have the authority because they either apostatized from the true authority of the Catholics when they broke away or the Catholics never had it to begin with. The same goes for the apostate groups from the Mormon church: they either lost their authority when they split from the church or the Mormons never had it.

This is the Unbeatable Position.

There is a fundamental difference between Liberals and Conservatives that I’m going to share with you today. Ann Coulter said once that “a liberal is just a conservative without facts or logic.” and I tend to agree with her.

A liberal is a child who has never grown up. My kids fight and bicker, and when they don’t get their way, they come running to me, or my wife, and tattle on the other. They’re always looking for someone else to deal the punishment that they believe the other deserves.

In the same way my kids tattle on each other, liberals run to their lawyers and their judges to seek “justice” simply because someone hurt their feelings. Well, I have some bad news for you, and it comes from 7-year-old me: “The bad news is life goes on.”

The world can be a bitter place. There are always going to be people who do not agree with you. There are bullies who are going to make you feel like crap, but don’t get me started about bullies. That’ll get its own blog someday. Instead of running to your lawyer and suing someone because they pointed a finger and laughed at you, man up and walk away.

I suggest solving problems with businesses in what I’ve dubbed the capitalist way. If you don’t know what capitalism is: its basically the notion that money makes more money. Many business can tell how well they are doing against their competition simply by looking at their ledgers. More money in the bank means more people appreciate the service that they give. If their numbers go down month over month, it’s a clear indicator that something is off in their business practice and they’ll have to change.

This country was founded on freedom, and I believe that business owners do, indeed, reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, just as business in at-will states can terminate employment for any reason or no reason at all. In a capitalist world, a business owner can conduct his business any way that he sees fit. If you like it, you’re invited to patronize his establishment, If you don’t like it, then the answer is not to run to your lawyer and force the business to change to meet your views. The Capitalist Way says that you simply find another establishment that provides a similar service and give your money to them. Speaking with your pocketbook and visiting their competition is a good way to stick it to the man..

If you have not exchanged money with a business owner, then there is no contract. Let’s say, for example, you need some concrete poured at your house. You don’t walk up to the first concrete supplier and order from them. You shop around; you order from the one who gives you the best value for your dollar. They may not be the cheapest, but whoever does the job in the way you think it should be done wins the contract.

Now let’s talk about wedding cakes. There was a story in the news recently about a man who owned a bakery in Denver who was sued because he wouldn’t bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple; it went against his beliefs. Again, I say if no money had exchanged hands, there was no contract. The baker politely declined taking on the job. He still offered them any other baked goods, but he didn’t want his reputation associated with a wedding against his beliefs. The couple ran to their lawyer and sued him. You can read about his story here or here.

Again, I can’t emphasize this enough: The Capitalist Way says you cordially accept his position, and then take your money to his competitor. I guarantee that there is another cake shop in his neighborhood who would gladly bake you a cake and probably do it cheaper to garner your business.

The problem with this world is that people think that litigation is the answer to solve all their problems. It’s interesting the irony in the baker’s story. He did not force his beliefs on the homosexual couple, just shared it with them. But they ran out and got a judge’s signature to force their beliefs on him. Do the liberals not see the irony here? It totally confuses me.

Now, I am not attacking the couple who levied this lawsuit on the baker. I have several friends who believe in same-gender marriage and, even though I don’t believe it in, I don’t force my beliefs on them. There’s always going to be groups of people who will never see eye to eye. The answer is not to force your beliefs on the other guy, but to shake hands and part ways. Life is too short to try to convince everyone that they’re wrong. It is far less stressful to simply walk away from that which brings you down and surround yourself with what builds you up.

The capitalist way says that if the baker is indeed wrong, he’ll see it when all of his business walks away. It’s far more fair for him to have to change his policy if his profits fall below his operating cost than to present him with a paper with a judge’s signature.

Remember to solve your problems the capitalist way, and leave the lawyers to their wills.

We are a somewhat musical family. Both my wife and I played instruments growing up, my daughter currently excels in playing the piano, and I am a self-proclaimed audiophile. I love listening to music. In my teens, I joined both Columbia House and BMG music’s monthly music subscription. For about $20 a month, I was introduced to new music when the monthly CDs arrived in my mailbox. Some of the songs were good, some not so good, but most expanded my horizons and have allowed me to enjoy all varieties of music. My collection now includes every genre from classical to metal to country to bubblegum.

A while ago, my wife was teaching a lesson on music appreciation to the youth in our church, and during her research she ran across a new trend in the music world that some have dubbed the loudness war. If you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, it is the trend of removing all dynamics from music and cranking all levels to max for the entire duration of the song.

My wife and I love the theatre. We try to go a few times a year. This year, for instance, we’re going to Broadway Across America’s production of Wicked. We’ve seen it before and it is easily in our top three favorite plays! And when you go to the theater, it’s all about dynamics; some parts of the songs are quieter and then the music swells and the chorus booms and the experience is magical. This is the power of dynamics.

When I was in piano lessons as a kid, my teacher made me focus on dynamics all the dang time.I have been singing in choirs since my childhood and every choir director has pounded that home as well… work on dynamics. There is a reason composers use those little lines, the effect is awesome. However, big music labels have since done away with dynamics. 

This can most easily experienced in “remasters” of music by popular artists. If you rip a song from a album that came out in the  70s or 80s (the farther back you go, the more noticeable), and then download the “remastered” mp3 from Amazon or iTunes, you can open both files in a tool like Audacity and you’ll see how during the remastering process, they’ve gone ahead and cranked up the gain everywhere.

The only place where the loudness war hasn’t struck is in the, aforementioned, theatre. Sure, you can’t muck with the gain during a live performance, but the dynamics generally remain mostly untouched on the soundtrack, so if you go to Amazon and download the original production of Les Miserables, Wicked, Sweeney Todd or even The Lion King, you’ll be able to experience music with most of the dynamics still in tact.

Cheers,
Topher.

I have been riding the commuter bus for nearly 8 years now. I started riding the bus when a company I worked for years ago subsidized the the monthly pass at the same rate that they paid for parking for their employees. It was a great deal, I could park my car at the park'n'ride and ride the bus in; all was great. Fewer miles on the car meant the health of the car went up. However, There are some unwritten rules of commuter bus riding that I am now going to put into writing. Basically because they’re common sense rules that very few people actually follow. It’s called common courtesy, people! Have you never heard of that?

Rule #1: Let the ladies on the bus first. This is the only exception to rule #2. If there is a lady waiting for the bus, let her on first. Chivalry is not dead, and don’t shove her out of the way so you can get a better seat. Especially in the cold, snow, or rain.

Rule #2: Board the bus in the order you arrived at the stop. It disgusts me when someone who arrives late barges onto the bus, cutting off others who have been patiently waiting. The bus won’t leave without you, you can let those of us who have been waiting the longest board first.

Rule #3: Check behind you before throwing your seat into the farthest reclining position. This goes for plane commuters as well. Nothing is more annoying than your laptop being closed by the jerk sitting in the seat in front of you. That being said, if you are fully reclined and someone sits down behind you, Lift your seat up. Be nice to your fellow commuters (psst…. this is called courtesy…. look it up).

Rule #4: If you aren’t using a laptop, don’t take the biggest seats. sure, you arrived before someone else and think you deserve the seat with the greatest space, but have you ever tried to do your work on a laptop that is mostly closed? As I type this, my knuckles are bumping against my screen because the guy sitting in the laptop seat is fully reclined and napping. C'mon dude, Some of us would like to open our laptops to work. You can nap in a smaller seat.

Rule #5: Don’t get upset if someone glances over your shoulder at what you’re doing. I’m an aspiring author. I work on my novel while commuting. I have met several other very nice and people because they glanced over my shoulder and saw what I was doing. One lady was an author and play-write that I met while traveling on a business trip to New York. I never got her name, but we had a wonderful talk about the publishing world and the competition that exists, all because she asked what I was writing.

Rule #6: Your carry-on bags don’t need their own seat. With very few exceptions (you shouldn’t be doing a week’s worth of grocery shopping using the bus anyway), your carry-on pack shouldn’t be so big that it requires its own seat. If you are riding a small inner-city run bus, then some leniency should be given, but if riding a commuter coach, there are overhead bins or outside under-belly storage bins for such packages. Put them in there. 

Rule #7: You do not need two seats… scoot in! If you’re so anti-social, that you need to take both/all seats in your row, perhaps you shouldn’t be riding the bus anyway. If you’re taking two seats (either by laying down or otherwise occupying a second seat, see rule #6), you are a douche. Again, there are situations where this rule need to be treated with a bit of leniency. If the rider is in a wheelchair (duh), or if they are otherwise incapacitated (think walker, crutches, foul-smelling), then some discretion should be taken. 

This rule list doesn’t just go for the riders, I have a couple rules for the bus drivers as well.

Driver Rule #1: Don’t turn off the internet when you drive into town. I pay $200 a month for my commute pass, and that pass comes with the express amenity of internet access. Just because we’re getting close to the inner-city stops doesn’t mean we are done using the internet. This didn’t bother me as much when I only paid $25/year for my subsidized pass, but now that I am working for a new company that doesn’t pay a dime for commuting or parking, it bothers me when a service I’m paying for is disabled.

Driver Rule #2: Stop at the marked bus stop. On the route I ride, they’ve made some adjustments to stops. They’ve removed some stops and moved others farther down the road, yet all the drivers still stop at the removed stops or stop at the prior location of the stop. One of the stops was moved closer to the intersection crosswalk so that when riders get off, they can make it to the intersection and cross at the next light change. But the driver doesn’t stop there. No, the driver continues another quarter mile or so down the road to where the stop used to be. C'mon driver. The stop was moved for a reason. Please honor it.

Driver Rule #3: If you see a guy busting his butt chasing down your bus, wait for the guy. I see this day in and day out. The bus arrives early (sometimes more than 5 minutes early) to their stop, and commuters who know the schedule are perhaps a half-block away. The commuter breaks out in an all-out run to catch the bus, but the driver drives away as the poor soul reaches the stop. Driver! You have Mirrors, If you drive away when someone is running with all their heart to catch your bus, and you’re early to the stop anyways, You are the problem. It’s no wonder that riders don’t like drivers sometimes. If you’re even 1 minute early to a stop, wait the minute for the people who are expecting you to be at your stop at the schedule! GOSH!

I’m done. If you are a commuter and feel I’ve missed a rule, please leave it in the comments below.