Jack is Walking

Carolyn said she definitely considers Jack a walker as of yesterday morning. He is beyond a couple steps - and OH SO CUTE doing it :) Hope you enjoy the vid.

A New Computer...sorta

Last night I moved all of my documents to one of my hard drives and wiped my main drive so that I could reinstall windows on our kitchen computer. Holy Smokes - I love my computer again! The slow processing, overloaded start menu, cluttered desktop - gone, all gone! It is fast, agile, and clean. Bliss I tell you, true bliss. Next time I need (or want) a new PC I'm just going to reinstall windows. Love your computer again, reinstall atrophied software!

Sidney Alvarus Hanks

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For the first time this last Memorial Day I actually did what we are supposed to do on Memorial Day - I took some time to remember those who have gone before and made my life as awesome and lucky as it is. Mom Fisher wanted to go to see her parent's resting place as well as her husband's parent's resting place. Since both were conveniently located near SLC we were able to hit both in a relatively short time.

Anyway, we were in the Salt Lake City Cemetery (where several prominent church members are buried) and I felt inspired to call Mom and then Grandma to find out if we had any relatives buried there. Sure enough a Mr. Sidney Alvarus Hanks and his wife are buried there. And this is their story:

Sidney is Ephraim K's brother. There were 3 Hanks brothers who joined the church, Ephraim and (anyone know the name of the other brother) were introduced to the church by Sidney Alvarus. Anyway, Knowlton(?) was called to go on a mission to the Canary Islands but he passed away during the sea voyage to get there. SO, Sidney chose to serve in his brother's place. He went to serve and did not come home until he had been released (anyone know how long?) He passed away wrangling his cattle when a snow storm came up. Ephraim found him the next spring after the thaw which I'm sure was pleasant.

All in all, a pretty cool story - anyone care to correct my facts. I'm sure they're shoddy at best and I'm afraid I might reveal my rusty memory of Scouting for the Mormons and The Tempered Wind

Jacob Luttrell, Artist who Deserves a Little Attention

I shot a concert for this guy a year or two back and have been a huge fan of his music ever since. I recently pulled out his album "Old Soul" again and popped it in. It was just as enjoyable and catchy as always. Seriously, this guy definitely deserves a bit of attention. He calls his sound Stevie Wonder, and I call his sound Robin Thicke. As a matter of fact I heard the new Robin Thicke song on Last FM the other day and could have sworn it was Luttrell. He has toured with Kelly Clarkson and others but now he is raising a family (cute family I might add) in the church here in Utah. Let me know if you want to hear his stuff and I'll be sure you do :)

Free KFC

I guess Operah bought KFC's new Kentucky Grilled Chicken for everyone in the US (heavily subsidized by KFC, I'm sure). Still, you can print out a coupon for a free 2 piece chicken meal here:
http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090430-tows-kfc-coupon-download

You have to download it by the end of the day on May 6th. I know Grandma loves KFC and for some reason I always think of my friend Krik Meyers when I go there. He was the props master for God's Army II and he smoked more cigarettes in a day than anyone else I've known. Anyway, he would buy a giant bucket of KFC at the beginning of the week and put it in the fridge. I think the only things he consumed throughout the week (besides cigarette smoke) was that bucket of chicken and Mountain Dew. He has at least 12 stints from heart attacks.

Quick thought on Salvation and the Temple

Yesterday I was reading in The Holy Temple by Talmadge and I came across a quote that struck me in a way I had never thought of before. In the Chapter called "The Necessity of Obedience" it reads

"While professing belief in the possibility of a universal salvation, the Church affirms that salvation is assured only on condition of individual compliance with the requirements established by the Redeemer, without whose atoning sacrifice none could be saved."

So, in regular human speak (that's what's so cool about Talmadge, we get to read educated speak) I get this:

'We recognize that everyone COULD by saved [by saved we mean exalted/Celestial kingdom] but the church teaches us that in order to be saved we need to keep the commandments that Christ gave us. That same Christ who, incidentally, makes it so we can even be saved in the first place.'

For some reason I started thinking about the recent exhibition of the temple ceremony on HBO (I had temple on the brain since that's the focus of the book) and the people who say you can be saved just by accepting Christ, your actions should be true to who you are (even if they are in direct violation of the commandments.) And, now I'll break those apart.

First, in order to be saved we must keep the commandments - we believe that in order to recieve the knowledge provided in the temple one must also keep the commandments. Following that similarity, presenting the ceremony publicly is like saying salvation should not require obedience either since it negates the requirements of obedience and righteousness to recieve them. But, then again, that statement would be too surprising (see next paragraph). Unfortunately, our world is chocked full of this mentality. Because so much knowledge has become public, we feel we should have the right to know everything on OUR OWN TERMS - all I need is the desire to know about it. Talmadge's statement screamed at me that this simply is not true. Some knowledge must be learned through righteousness and obedience. Hence, the Savior taught in parables - only those with "ears to hear" could hear the deeper meanings. Fortunately, the temple ceremony is the same way. The phrase pearls before swine comes to mind.

Second, if Jesus facilitated our salvation. I mean, he atoned for our sins and rose from the grave - what makes us think that we don't have to do anything in return. But, 'in return' isn't really a good definition of it since it is only a win win action for us to keep the commandments. Win because it improves our own life, and win because it leads to salvation. The concept that we don't have to keep the commandments and God will just 'make everything okay' on the other side is ludicrous and, to a certain degree, contradictory to the concept of an atonement. Then why do so many of us feel this way - that God loves everyone so he will save everyone? It is true that Christ loves us all, no matter what - there is much comfort and peace in that. But "salvation is assured only on condition of individual compliance with the requirements established by the Redeemer, without whose atoning sacrifice none could be saved."

Last.fm

I just thought I’d pass on this nifty website if you haven’t discovered it yet. www.last.fm I don’t listen to a lot of internet radio but recently I find myself going back to this site over and over to find new music. Here’s what I like about it:

• I can listen to stations created by or for bands/musicians that I like and it plays a lot of other music from similar and sometimes unkown artists while mixing in the occasional well knowns. This is great for me because I’m trying to move away from corporate-driven radio and expand beyond the top 40. Plus, if I want something more intellectual I can just put on the beethoven station and I get nonstop classical classics.
• I can create my own radio station (like Pandora Radio) by adding artists that I like and then it will simply cycle through them as if they were in my own library.
• Finaly, it integrates perfectly with my current music player of choice: songbird. Two clicks and I’m listening to my virtual library – not bad.

Pieces

This is a poem that I recently submitted to a local writing contest. It garnered second place which means it (along with the rough draft of my book (I'm still going to send that to you mom)) will be published and available at our local library. Anyway, I thought I'd share :)
Pieces

I am pieces of people I've known.
Stitched experience carefully sewn
And a bit of me is with them too,
not taken, but grafted into who
I have touched like they touched me;
Making of each soul a tapestry.

Though millions of years shall pass away
each patch is still with me e'en today.
Though faded and coarse, still part of me
in a quilted landscape of mem'ry.
Proud of my patches, excepting few
I have yellows, reds, even some blues.

I'm pieces of people I've known
stitched experience carefully sewn
the stuffing's my own
and God gave me bones
From you I choose what part I will use
I'm pieces of people I've known.

The Stupid Brilliance of Star Wars

So I've been sifting through a bunch of public speaking videos of my boss in order to create a demo reel for future public speaking opportunities. She really is a fantastic public speaker and I've included a couple links to her stuff here - but you can watch at your own risk (most of them are classroom settings and kinda slow - but excellent advice for entrepeneurs). ANYWAY, a point she keeps emphasizing is that we should never consider our brilliant ideas too stupid to make realities. So, with all this indoctrination in my head I started watching Star Wars again last night and it's amazing how the stuff we do/think about in our day permeates into everything we do. I was wapped upside the head with the thought "how crazy would this concept sound?"

"Um...it's a story about a space farmer who wants to go to the space academy with his friends and discovers he's one of the few survivors of a long line of space knights - who use swords called light sabers to fight against lasers and a mysterious power simply called "THE FORCE"."

I know, we all think - THAT'S BRILLIANT now. But what about pitching that in the 1970s when there was no Star Wars - what a kakamamee idea! But, what incredible execution - and there's the rub. My boss uses a bunch of examples to point out that execution turns the bizarre into the brilliant including the book "Everybody Poops", the web business Laser Monks, doggles for dogs, and the Wovel (a must see). I quickly realized that I was not the only one who had recognized this bizarre success story:
George Lucas in Love
Robot Chicken (there's some language in this one :( but it's really funny) ()
etc.

Isn't it funny how crazy ideas make such killer products? (Wii...ahem)

edit: Thanks for pointing out that I didn't add these Mom. Here are the links to my boss' presentations:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3401672

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/Winter2008/amy_rees_anderson_27_feb_2008/flash/index.html Feb. 27, 2008

http://www.podtech.net/home/2047/mediconnect-global-ceo-amy-rees-lewis-on-entrepreneurship Feb 6th, 2007

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/FALL2006/amylewis.wmv Dec. 1, 2006

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/Winter2006/AmyReesLewis.wmv Apr. 7, 2006

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/Fall2005/AmyReeseLewis.wmv Sep. 23, 2005

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/March2005/AmyReesLewis.htm Mar. 25, 2005

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/AmyLewis/AmyReesLewis.wmv Oct. 22, 2004

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/AmyLewis/AmyReesLewisquestions.wmv Oct 22, 2004

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/AmyLewis/01-16-04.ppt Jan. 16, 2004

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/AmyLewis/01-16-04.wmv Jan. 16, 2004

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/lectures/presentations/Amy%20Lewis.ppt Oct. 23, 2002

http://ebusiness.byu.edu/video/AmyLewis_files/default.htm Oct 23, 2002

Art

Art is meant to reflect our attempt to capture the divine. Often I have found that art, good art, that is, springs from confusion, questioning, and the artist's attempt to answer the basic Gospel questions of who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. 'Search for truth' infuses the artist's work with passion and feeling. Of course, the obvious problem for a man of faith is this: I know the answers to these questions, my 'search for truth' is minute within the light of the Gospel and the source of answers is developed through my relationship with my Heavenly Father, not my work. SO, back the the thesis statement - the way for a man of faith who is at peace with his surroundings to still find that passion and feeling in his work is a burning desire to not only appreciate the works of God but to reach out in earnest effort to imitate them. To recreate the heavens and the mysteries of the earth. We may know the answers to the 3 big questions but we don't know what they look like, sound like, FEEL like! I want my art to explore those worlds that are just beyond our reach knowing that I can never truly recreate their beauties, but, if for only a moment, I can touch them then I have accomplished what art is truly supposed to do - elevate us beyond the mortal.

Mouse Trap

I killed a mouse that has been holed up in our storage room last weekend which brings my Richie vs house rodent score up to 2 & 0. I'm trying to decide if I should feel bad about that. Apart from Jacque and Gus Gus constantly running through my head from the millionth viewing of Cinderella with Alex :), I just listened to a talk by Hugh B. Nibley where he quotes Brigham Young inviting the grasshoppers to come - he says as long as he has sufficient then he is more than happy to share his excess with the beasts of the earth. Am I wacko for thinking that he might be right? Should I be more than happy to share with a mouse? I mean, we want him out of our house because of diseases carried by rodents and what not - but is it a bad thing to kill him?

On a completely different note, if you are looking to catch and kill a mouse in your house then traditional spring loaded traps with a glob of peanut butter do a great job - just about cut the poor mouse's head in half - yikes!

Books I've Read More Than Once

• The Standard Works by well…you know.
• Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clark
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• The Original Mossflower Trilogy by Brian Jacques (I LOVED this stuff when I was a kid)
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – I read this every Christmas
• Gadiantons and the Silver Sword and Daniel and Nephi by Chris Heimerdinger
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
• The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Is there something else that should be on this list?

I Am Legend – a Real Vampire Novel

I read Twilight a little while back and (sorry girls) it wasn’t a great book. Ever since reading Dracula, the definitive vampire novel, I’ve yet to find another satisfying vampire tale. Most, Twilight included, portray the vampire as an attractive, tragic character so full of beauty and mystique that the opposite sex goes gaga anytime they are in their presence. Hence the rise of Gothic fantasies and bile-inducing romances. Sad. Anyway, back to I Am Legend. I haven’t seen the movie yet but the book can sit comfortably on my bookshelf next to Bram Stoker. It takes a much more scientific approach to vampires while giving them an unquieting appeal and redemption in the end. Having said that, the book is just as much a zombie novel and classic science fiction as it is vampyric. It’s short (170 pages) and well worth the read.

Edit: Just saw the movie last night - it was really well done. Totally different from the story in the book though. I understand why you would have walked out Mom. You probably wouldn't like the book either but it's not as graphic, strangely. But, I think that has a lot to do with a picture says a thousand words. You don't 'see' the zombies in the book. The most disturbing part of the I am Legend experience for me was actually the animated comics included with the DVD about the other survivors. The one that takes place in New Dehli, India and was written by Orson Scott Card was so disturbing, in fact, that I had to watch an episode of the office before going to bed at 1 in the morning. It's not for the faint hearted.

News: Palm (as in Palm Pilots) has one Foot in the Grave

It’s sad but true. Palm, the makers of Palm Pilots for over a decade is facing some serious financial issues. If the Palm Pre doesn’t slam dunk the market like they are projecting then the aging PDA (remember that acronym) maker may disappear. It has posted some severe losses in the first quarter this year and it’s Palm Pro for business didn’t do nearly as well as they probably hoped. Everyone is holding out for their promised crown jewel: the Palm Pre. Let’s hope it’s awesome!

For me, if Palm goes, it would be the passing of an era for sure. I remember when businessmen all carried the latest Palm device, sitting in airports with their trendy stylii and bluetooth headsets. Sad to think that those days have given way to iPhone totin’ and blackberry emailin’. Dad and Rob still swear by the Treo and, to be quite honest, I have to swear by my Tungsten. Apart from appearance (which Apple dominates), Palm offers some of the best media software out there, IMO. TCPMP, Palm Fiction, and Astroware/Popcap are apps I still use almost every day. It does everything (well almost everything) that all of the new media players do; just without the glitz and touch-y screens…wait, it pioneered the touch screen. With a plethora of excellent applications already available from third party vendors, Palm could probably be saved if the Pre delivers. If not, well…it’s been a fun run Palm.

Your Head A 'Splode!!!

It’s appropriate that this blog is about my brain because right now I feel like it is about to explode. Over the last couple of days I have started trying to tackle twitter, facebook, youtube, rss, and blogging. I kinda feel like that Nazi woman at the end of the Indiana Jones – so much knowledge my head ‘splode! Honestly, right now there is a DILUGE of information available to us. I was telling Carolyn about all this news/networking garbage and she asked the simplest question ever: “Do you really need all of this stuff?” It got me thinking – I’m trying to keep up with all of the morphing media outlets to stay on top of what’s going on in our world but maybe that’s impossible (and, quite frankly, stupid. I mean look at what happened to that Nazi Galadriel!). Is it worth trying to stay on top of all this stuff??? Why can’t I just get the morning paper and read it over breakfast…

…I’m going to go take some advil.

Parsley - herb or garnish?

We recently bought a bunch of cilantro for cooking (salsa mostly, but also for offsetting raw kale flavor in salad – try it, it’s yummy!). Upon opening the bag when we got home we discovered that we had bought a bunch of parsley instead of cilantro and had no planned recipes to use it. AAAAaahhh!! For some reason I was yoked with the task of not wasting all of this fresh green so, I have now added it to hamburgers (in the meat), beef rice stuff, and roast turkey rub. Not bad…but probably not the best. Does anyone know of a really good use for parsley besides on the side of your plate at Denny’s?

Celestial Sounds

What kind of music will we listen to in heaven? Will it all be Mo-Tab and Hymns? Is there a place for electric instruments at all? I wonder because I've been trying to improve my listening habits (sorry 97.1 ZHT) and want to know what habits I should start planning on forever. Oh, this was also fueled by my brother Kevin's profoundly simple question: "would you allow your kids to listen to heavy metal?"

Priestcraft and Deseret Book

Many of you know that I have long struggled trying to reconcile the conflict of interest presented by Deseret Book. Is it a for profit business or a holy library - easy answer, right? It's both. But how can an entity serve God and Mammon? Deseret Book seems to walk this line very closely. Are the books on sale being written, advertised, and sold to uplift and inspire or to make money? //P.S. I really wonder about this one when their books is advertised RIGHT after conference (usually several times) - I work in a marketing department, don't try to tell me that isn't prime advertising space.//

Furthermore, this question became especially distressing to me when The Church purchased Deseret Book a little while back. I have mulled it over and over and over again. I've asked people I respect what their opinions are and usually the answers were the same (which means they were probably right). I always got a "you're reading way too much into it, kid" kinda response. But the question continued to bug me. I might think more about this than most because I've thought about writing my own LDS fiction and deeply contemplated how, why, or if I should publish it. My discomfort reached an all time high when I decided to buy a copy of The History of the Church. You know, the large volume set referenced in the introduction to almost every section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Surely something referenced so often in canonized scripture would be sold at wholesale prices similar to the Missionary Library. Nope. The only available set in print is $200 and leatherbound. Ack! So I called them up and asked for an alternative. They recommended Gospel Link. I thought "Oh yeah, that program with like 5,000 books. I suppose I could buy a CD to get them." But I couldn't find Gospel Link anywhere on their website - at least not the software. The only available Gospel Link library is a pay-per-month Gospel Link service and website. Really, $5 a month is not much for so much knowledge...but I just couldn't bring myself to add yet another monthly expense to our bills. Especially since I know the financial reasons companies use monthly payments - it MAKES THEM MORE MONEY.

In the end, I came to an answer that I felt very good about. I will purchase a monthly service for Gospel literature when and ONLY WHEN I have exhausted all of my free resources. This includes all of the literature (scriptures, magazines, conference talks, etc) available through lds.org, all of the talks on ksl.com, the videos provided through kbyu and byutv and all of the books available through project guttenberg (awesome btw) and literature.org, etc. Since I know I have NOT exhausted those resources - not even close - I am content that I will not need to make a purchase at Deseret Book any time soon. Problem solved...for me. But what about the Deseret Book/Priestcraft conflict?

Well, last night while I was thinking about this relationship I finally came to an answer that makes sense to me: The Church purchased Deseret Book in order to ensure that it DID NOT become a wolf's den of priestcraft. Now, I'm sure Deseret Book started out with only the best intentions in mind but as soon as it became a viable revenue stream it could only be a matter of time before someone would start focusing more on the money than the message. I'm thinking The Church stepped in to stop that. Still, I'm sure there are LDS and 'Jack-LDS' authors who target Deseret Book because it's easier to get published in the smaller market and sell lots of books to faith seeking suckers...er...I mean members. To me the combo leaves a bad taste in my mouth - as it probably did with The Church. So rather than allow it to run out of control (LDS film making - ahem) they decided to wrangle it in so that they could protect members from an inevitable outlet for priestcraft. Does preistcraft still happen there - sure, though everyone involved will surely deny it. It's a business, but at least the church can keep it from getting crazy out of hand.

So here's my rules when shopping for LDS branded media:
1. Is it published by The Church itself? If not, always take it with a grain of salt because IT IS NOT 100% DOCTRINE, no matter the author.
2. Along with #1 - always try to have the Holy Ghost in order to discern what is written for commercial success and what is written for spiritual success.
3. Never, EVER allow the study of any book to replace study of the scriptures
4. Remember that quality requires time and that the artist, author, or musician had to spend a lot of their personal time to create it (so suck it up and pay for it) but remember it's not 100% doctrine.
5. I always have to remember that my testimony was bolstered during my formative years by some excellent LDS media. Heimerdinger's work most notably combined with LDS Pop music greats like Michael McClean (sp?), Kurt Bestor, and Kenneth Cope. I can't deny or despise that.
6. Is the purchase a popular / required item for the current Mormon Pop-culture trends? If so, don't buy it until it's out of fashion so as to buy it for a real purpose.
7. "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

A Remarkable Life

What is it that makes a life remarkable?

I was just listening to an excellent musical compilation called The Ghosts of Gardener Village and one of the lyrics goes "the tales I tell are meaningless if there's not a soul around." I began to think - what is it that makes us pass on the tales of our predecessors? And, how do we do it in a way that will continue past our children? For example, why do all Bassetts know the stories about Ephraim K. Hanks but very few even know who Archibald McPhail is? Is it because other people besides our family tell the stories of Ephraim K. Hanks or made a painting of him...or was he just that remarkable of a man?

I think there is no doubt that he was an incredible man - but somehow his stories have lived on. Why? Sure, his life had some awesome stories - like saving the Martin and Willey handcart companies with a miraculously lost buffalo or shaving his whole face upon request from Brigham Young. But, I would guess most people have at least a few such amazing tales from their lives. So, the question is what kind of stories get passed on and how do we record them? The other day I told the story about Dad feeding an Australian dog a kangaroo steak laced with M80. I also told the story of Aunt Jann almost killing off my mother (accidentally on purpose) when they were kids. These are some great stories about MY family. But, will these stories make it past me? Or will they end with my telling of them?

How do we immortalize the amazing stories of our ancestors so that our kids don’t just know where to find them but they actually know them? By telling them more often? By writing them in a book? As the last song on the Ghosts of Gardener Village goes “Don’t let them be forgotten. Don’t let their memories fade away. If we let them be forgotten we’re denying their tomorrows and our yesterdays.”

Bird's Nest Soup

Aunt Dee gave us a copy of the Planet Earth series (BBC version for aficionados) and we just watched the cave episode. Yikes! Above and beyond all the gooey, creepy, crawly stuff was the description of cave swift. More particularly, the cave swift's nest and 'the measure of it's creation.' First of all, the nest is made from saliva. Yeah, bird spit. THEN people harvest it for a Chinese delicacy called bird's nest soup. Truer to its name than I had ever imagined. And, yes, we did eat this while we lived in Singapore...and I loved it! Don't vomit on your keyboard here but I have a sick desire to taste this once again now that I know what it's made of. That's right - bring on the bird's spit and bless the crazy Chinaman who thought "I bet I could boil that bird's house and eat it."

The Room in Richie's Brain

Basically there is always something going on in the RAM of my brain - this blog is that stuff.