Good, Better, and Best Music - a brain dump.

I recently went looking for 'better' music to listen to. Not just good music but best music. Music which feeds my soul as well as my interest. Here's a dump of my search.

First, I went to the hymns. Specifically, I loved these recordings which my Mom sent me on my mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8agHyFm1mz0. There is enough variety in the arrangements and the vocals are accessible (not overly classical). Unfortunately, after listening to the first and second albums 30 times or so I wanted to move on and there is a surprising dearth of high quality similar hymn arrangements out there. There are a TON of music only renditions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upgxEQHyz3Y&list=PLpepxoaYeb3NL8YHNJLFAVju0SjVRP3M1, Jenny Oaks Baker, and The Piano Guys) of the hymns out there but I really want the accompanying lyrics. Let's face it, the hymns have some INCREDIBLE words. So I went looking for other recordings.

First foray: MoTab. Some AMAZING music here. I've listened to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaQYQnrPgSM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQPC-SX-Rvw countless times - the entire O Divine Redeemer album is incredible. So, don't get me wrong, I really like choral music but not all choirs are The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and whole albums over and over begin to sound the same to me.

So, we move on. I love a good classical or crossover classical album from time to time and there are some fantastic LDS artists in this space. Nathan Pacheco, Dallyn Vail Balys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWpNfZfcUhw), etc.

Last night Paul Cardall posted this gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0SVPjHc8C0. Hard to beat an endorsement like 'lyrics by David A. Bednar'. So this must be good music (and it is).

What about hymns put into 'Pop' stylings? This sort of bugs me so I'd be curious to hear other thoughts here. When someone performs a song in sacrament meeting and they add pop licks or glottal frye/start/stops it kind of irks me. For example, I could not make it through this cover of I Know that My Redeemer Lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBT4sfxj4V4. The song is a bit too tied to the spirit for me and I just don't enjoy seeing a popular rendition. However, I did like the same group's cover of Come Thou Fount/If You Could Hie to Kolob: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBT4sfxj4V4.

So, does that mean spiritual singers should all be 'classically' trained singers only. Probably not. Consider the hymns covers of Adam Young from Owl City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfQO99HVogE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipl-rLRxOrs. In my opinion these are good - not appropriate for the pulpit, but good listening. Perhaps a bit Evangelical in execution but that's not all bad IMO. (I'll sidebar my comments about mainstream Christian Pop/Rock for now.)

There is another problem here: there are only a few popular hymns which get professional treatment so A LOT of great hymns never get heard except in sacrament meeting - especially all of their verses. To hear these you can actually listen to recordings right through the LDS Library app which is cool but there isn't much styling in the song but you can get the lyrics. It'd be nice to have Music and Lyrics well done together :)

By now, I'm getting to the point where I have a large enough library of classical sounding music to fill hours of Mp3s. But, what about when I'm driving in my car and I want something a bit more 'poppy'. First question - is that even okay? Well, the church sponsors EFY albums for youth and they have had people like Gladys Knight perform at Christmas devotionals - certainly, there is a place for this kind of music. So here's what I found in the uplifting popular music genres:

Of course David Archuleta has been a huge influence on the LDS popular music scene. Songs like Glorious (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTKC8q0JAUw) have kept him VERY popular with LDS audiences (his other solo albums ain't bad either). The unavoidable endorsements of being connected to a Church produced movie and performing at church sponsored events hints at how church leaders feel about this kind of music. So, at least some of his music should be okay. I need to slip in here that David Archuleta and Nathan Pacheco have accomplished something I thought impossible - they produced a version of The Prayer that I enjoyed (this song is WAY too overdone but they do a good job with it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DRLmrboGK4

Hillary Weeks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyX-I-um5Kk) has also been a longtime standby for me in terms of good LDS pop music but her music still sounds somewhat the same as it did back in the 90s. Evolving music to match modern trends is a dangerous and slippery slope but I'm sure one decade did not have the corner on the LDS pop sound.

Which brings up questions like LDS Rap or rock? I know great people taking a swing at this one (Bobby, I'm looking at you) - here's a possible execution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBwM7iCL4k. BTW Archuleta is saying "we out here grinding we working". How many of you feel this crosses the line? Would you want to listen to this? Hm...not sure this is my cup of tea...er...apple cider especially when it veers into songs like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV1CSjxbfqQ. So, where do we go from here?

The good news is, there are a ton of good links above to keep exploring out from and we have a handbook to help us discern what's good and bad:

16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

 17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.

Batch convert videos to MP4 - I've done a ton of work so why should you?

Using HandbrakeCLI to create MP4



Both of these use Handbrakecli.exe which is Handbrake's command line interface bundled with Handbrake when you install it. Handbrakecli.exe is, as you might guess, used in the command line (or console, or bash depending on your system).

1. To rip a DVD (or video file) and compress it to MP4:
HandbrakeCLI.exe -i d:\video_ts\ -o videofile.mp4 -b 1200 -B 128 -v -O -d

Explanation starting at the beginning:

Handbrakecli.exe tells the computer to run handbrakecli.exe based on all of the options that follow. NOTE:if you are not in the folder that contains handbrakecli then you need to put in the full path to it - something like "c:\Program Files (x86)\Handbrake\handbrakecli.exe"

-i [options] is the input video/device/folder

-o [options] is the output video file (mp4)

-b [options]is the video bitrate. 1200 is large enough for good quality video. My low quality encodes use -b 800 and sometimes -w 320 which sets the width of the video to 320 (SD is 720 and HD is 1080 or 1440)

-B [options] is the audio bitrate. 128 is CD quality.

-v is...I can't remember

-O optimizes the video for online streaming - it lets you load the beginning of the video before the other parts of the video. Think YouTube with it's loading bar. BTW that is a capital O as in ho ho HO <--

-d deinterlaces the video. Old home movies and some other SD sources usually need this. I use it as needed.


2. Here's a LIFE SAVER I came across and retooled for my collection.
To convert an entire collection of .avi (or other file types) files to .mp4 you can create and run this batch file:

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('DIR /B /S *.avi') DO "C:\Program Files\Handbrake\HandbrakeCLI.exe" -i "%%G" -o "%%G".mp4 -b 1200 -B 128 -v -O -d && DEL "%%G"

To use this, open a notepad document, paste the text above into it and then save as converttomp4.bat. Move the .bat file to the folder where the files reside and then run it (double click). WARNING: THIS WILL DELETE THE ORIGINAL FILE!

The explanation of this is too much for here. The main thing you need to know is that where it says *.avi tells the computer to go (loop) through all of the .avi files in the folder and then DO everything after the word DO. %%G is the variable which carries the name of the current file it is working on so after && you can see it says DEL %%G. This deletes the current file after it is converted.


Other stuff:

For a long time I resisted using Handbrake because of it's Apple slant but, since the Bassett Channel, I have used it almost exclusively for my video conversions. Mind you, this is only for converting TO MP4 which is the current trend in compressed quality videos. The phrase 'current trend' is what inspired me to share the information above because I am in the process of converting MY ENTIRE digital video library over to MP4 and I thought others might like to know how I'm doing it. So here you go.

handbrakecli is Handbrake's Command Line Interface and, for some reason, it rips, converts, and compresses faster than just about anything else I've used. Not only that but it gives you as much or as little control over the conversion as you might want/need. The handbrake UI didn't work for me because the presets weren't exactly what I was looking for and, rather than navigate all of the menus and try to figure out what "Optimized for viewing online" meant I just went to the core of the system and have been much happier...but that doesn't mean you will be...

In any case, I hope this helps all you videophiles out there and, again, let me know if you've got questions or need any help.

Richie

Guess who missed their nap today.

Cordelia's walking too!

She's a quick one! But OH MAN is she cute :)

How to use Kindlegen to create ebooks for your Kindle

Apparently, this has been a pretty popular article so I decided to provide a quick overview if you just want the fast, dirty steps for using kindlegen. If you would like some more detail then read the further explanation below.

1. Get kindlegen here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621

2. Unzip the files to the folder where you keep your ebooks (it's really much easier that way)

3. Open your command line and point to the folder containing your ebooks and kindlegen.

4. Enter the command 'kindlegen.exe ebook.html' where ebook.html is the name of the ebook you want to convert. note: in order for kindlegen to make the conversion the file must be in html format.

5. Move the newly created .mobi file to your kindle's ebook directory

6. Enjoy a favorite book or new adventure that you've converted yourself :)

For some reason (not so difficult to imagine) there appears to be no simple explanation of how to use Kindlegen on the internet. This amazed me since I would think lots of people would want to convert and add their own ebooks to the Kindle. Kinlegen can be used to do just that. The catch is, it is only available in the command line. This may be intimidating for some but I guarantee it's not that difficult once you understand how it works. Here's what to do.

1. Get the latest version of kindlegen from Amazon's website (available here at the time of writing this article: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621 )

2. Unzip the files to a chosen location

3. At this point your options open up considerably. You can create a very basic book or a very complex book depending on how dirty you want to get with HTML and XML coding. Among the unzipped files you'll find a folder called 'Sample' that contains a complex book (the Kindle User's Guide) with all of the supporting files that would be needed to create it, you can review how this is all set up if you like. For now, I'm going to just go over the basic book option in order to keep this short. If you would like more in depth info on how to create a complex book (linking images and table of contents, etc.) go ahead and comment or email me directly.

4. Okay, in order to create a simple ebook for the kindle you'll need an HTML file of your ebook. If you go to Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org) you can download a TON of out of copyright books in HTML format. You can also use PDFs or txt files you've purchased but you'll need to convert them to html (you can use PDFtoHTML and txt2html respectively to do so). Okay, once you have the HTML file, do yourself a favour and put it into the same folder as Kindlegen.

5. Now, open up your command line. In Windows, go to Start > Run and enter cmd then press enter. In Linux, you should be able to find the terminal under Accessories or some other main menu option. Once open, navigate to the location of Kindlegen.
e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\myname\My Documents\ebooks\Kindlegen\

If you are not familiar with a command line then you are probably in Windows and can get there by entering
c:
cd..
cd Documents and Settings\myname\My Documents\ebooks\Kindlegen

6 Once your command line is pointing to the folder where you have kindlegen and the HTML file (we'll call it ebook.html in our example but you would put in the name of the HTML file you are converting) all you have to do is type

kindlegen.exe ebook.html

For some reason in Linux I had to enter the exact file path so it would be something like this:

/media/disk/Documents/ebooks/kindlegen/kindlegen /media/disk/Documents/ebooks/kindlegen/ebook.html

7. You'll notice that a new file is created in the directory called ebook.mobi. Connect your Kindle to your PC and drop the file into the same folder as your other ebooks.

8. Eject your Kindle, disconnect it and then start the Kindle. If you've done everything correctly you should see the ebook now available in your home screen.

Congrats, you can now take any HTML file you have available to you and create your own ebook for reading on the Kindle. Cheers!


Oh, as a final note - Again, you could get much more in depth in the process and use an OPF and NCX file but you should only need that if you are getting serious about publishing. You can open Kindlegen's help by simply typing kindlegen.exe or kindlegen without any filename following it. This will bring up all of the kindlegen options. Happy reading!

Two videos

I had to share these two. The first video is just a fun glimpse of every day life in the Franklin house - bup....GOOO - and the second is a video the kids and I made together one morning (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa's GeoTrax).

Kindle vs. iPad - Why I like my Kindle and don't need an iPad

With all the hype surrounding the release of the iPad this weekend I thought I'd throw a defense out there for the Kindle. People are erroneously (I hope) calling the iPad the Kindle killer. I disagree since I believe they are devices with different goals and audiences. And, as far as I'm concerned, there are some considerable advantages to the Kindle including e-ink, a literature focus, and free 3G.

The e-ink is wonderful! Truly wonderful. I can't believe I used to read books on my Palm. My eyes thank me every time I choose to read a book instead of work on my laptop now. The iPad will have an LED display which is softer (and longer lasting) than LCD but it still has the high contrast digital appearance. Great for watching videos and surfing the web, not ideal for reading novels. Which is the second main reason I like the idea of the Kindle over the iPad. It is meant to be a reading device.

I have heard and read several complaints about the Kindle's inability to present rich media content like Flash, Javascript, etc. Why? We keep looking for a device that does it all - and the iPad will - but that's not why you buy a Kindle. You buy it to read. And, while I'd love to be able to surf the web, watch my favorite videos and remote into my work computer on it, that is not why I pick up the Kindle. I pick up the Kindle because I want to read. If the Kindle was able to do everything the iPad does I doubt I'd get much reading done. Being the kind of person who likes to hack every last drop out of my 'toys' the Kindle limits me A LOT while still offering plenty of 'tinkering' options and all of those options are literature focused including converting my own ebooks, finding free (project guttenberg) ebooks, and changing the default screen saver images, etc.

Finally, you get free 3G on the Kindle. This sounds REALLY amazing and somewhat unbelievable which it is...to a point. The combination of the 3G with the e-ink reigns in the possibilities of wirelessly exploring the web all day while still keeping you connected to your preferred reading material. It makes it so you always have something to read as well as allowing you to explore new reading material. The 3G wireless on the Kindle makes me feel like I am essentially holding a bottomless portable library without distracting me from the purpose of the device.

So, am I an iPad hater and just painting the Kindle all kinds of rosy? Not hardly! I salivate with the rest over the upcoming installment of the iPod family. They are fantastic devices with tons of potential. So much so that I expect they'll replace a lot of user's laptops/netbooks. On top of all that, they are just so dang cool! And, the Kindle has plenty of limitations (most notably the inability to backlight your books). But, bottom line, stop this preposterous debate about the iPad killing the Kindle - they are two totally different products with totally different goals. I sure hope the Kindle doesn't go away since there are few things which make reading more important or more fun.

Great FREE Software (a.k.a. Great Open Source Alternatives)

These programs eventually find their way onto every computer I work on. They are FANTASTIC programs I confidently recommend.

The Gimp (Photoshop alternative) www.gimp.org. Don't let the name fool you - this program is powerful! Whenever a new feature comes out in Photoshop the feature is not far behind in Gimp (if not ahead of Adobe). It has everything you need for photo editing from color adjustment to special effects. It's layout is very similar to Photoshop. If you can't have Photoshop or don't want to pay for the annual upgrade then this program is an awesome second.

Pros: MUCH smaller and faster install, including a portable version that can run off a thumb drive. Easily extendable with addons. Constantly being upgraded and tweaked. Tons of online community support. No 3 tools in 1 button which drives me nuts in Photoshop.

Cons: Algorithms for fine tune adjustments are much better in Photoshop - especially with skin tone. No adjustment layer.

Making the switch: The hardest thing to get used to is the 3 window interface. All of the menu items you are looking for are at the top of the window with the image in it.

Open Office (Microsoft Office alternative) www.openoffice.org. I know Dad isn't crazy about open office, and yes, it has it's flaws but it is the best alternative to Microsoft Office with a couple perks that make me choose it OVER Microsoft office often, namely PDF export. In an idustry that is constantly changing and adding formats the ability to lock a document into PDF s essential and they got this right! I also like how all of the different programs in the suite work together. The Calc (Excel alternative) program has a lot of the big boy features like using external data sources and pivot tables. It's also super web friendly for people who flirt with composing / coding for the web.

Pros: PDF Export. Import/export tons of different file types. Solid office suite including a word processor, spreadsheets, database, and drawing program.

Cons: Still a little kludgey and buggy. The fact that it requires Java is my biggest frustration. If you don't use it on a regular basis it will be SLOW when you first run it after a while.

Making the switch: This switch should actually be pretty smooth. A lot of the functions and interfaces are very similar to MS Office. Base is a little tricky to navigate the first time but so is Access :P

note: IF you don't have the space (or Java) and you need office apps then AbiWord and Gnumeric fit the bill nicely for a word processor and spreadsheet programs (respectively). Really. They're great. PS this document is being written in AbiWord.

Inkscape (Illustrator alternative) - This program is AWESOME and they just keep making it better. If you know anything about scalable vector graphics or want to learn more about them then you should check out this program. Inkscape is meant to be an image drawing program whereas Photoshop and The Gimp are meant to be image editing programs. It also handles PDFs nicely which most other programs won't do.

Pros: Great PDF handling and a lot of great editing functions. Excellent tutorials bundled with the install (through the Help menu).

Cons: Written to be navigated by keyboard shortcuts which can irk the casual user.

Making the switch: This switch shouldn't be too bad if you are already familiar with Illustrator. As a matter of fact, I think the transition is a lot of fun. Exploring all of the features in Inkscape can take some time but it's worth it.

DVDFlick including FFMPEG and ImgBurn (Nero alternative) - I also have a warm place in my heart for DVDFlick. It will burn just about any file type (including youtube FLVs) to DVD and when you need a video DVD burned in a snap it does the trick. It uses FFMPEG which is an AWESOME open source media format converter whose drawback is it requires getting your hands dirty in the command line :). ImgBurn, which is a great .iso creator and burner is also bundled with DVDFlick.

Pros: Handles transcoding/burning a huge variety of file types. Simple, easy interface. Small install with great results.

Cons: VERY limited menu abilities.

Making the switch: This is a great program to install for burning fast DVDs. The new burning software bundled with Vista and 7 will probably trump this program as we move forward (sad, I love this program).

VLC Media Player (Windows Media Player supplement) - there are so many video formats out there right now, it sure is nice to have a player that will play just about anything you throw at it. Rob called this the swiss army knife of media players and it is exactly that. I kept it on our media pc for emergencies and one night we couldn't get anything to play a scratched DVD which is quite possibly the most frustrating thing to happen when you're looking forward to a good movie! I opened the disk in VLC and it played like a charm. We've run every DVD on it ever since.

Pros: The swiss army knife of media players -plays EVERYTHING right out of the box. If it can't then it'll sure give it a try. Some awesome uses for the advanced user.

Cons: Interface is not so great nor intuitive. I can't really see making this my primary media player but it sure is useful.

Making the switch: Don't switch completely. Keep WMP or iTunes in the drawer as your primary player. Use VLC when you need utility.

Firefox (Internet Explorer alternative) - there are tons of good browsers out there - Opera, Chrome, and IE7+ to name a few. Out of all of these Firefox remains my favorite and I'll tell you why: function. Chrome wins for form, Opera wins for speed, but I just use firefox more because it's more useful. The addons are more mature and directed at people who are serious about exploring the power of the web. Surfing the web without Adblock Plus is a nightmare for me now and the web dev toolbar has been incredible for dissecting complicated code. Plus, it is easily skinnable now :). 2 thumbs up for Firefox

Pros: Solid interface with TONS of addons. Maintains a great balance of power and ease.

Cons: It's getting slow. It's cool but it's getting a bit too big for it's britches - stay free, stay strong!

Making the switch: this transition is quite possibly the most fun. Mozilla has branded itself and its product well which makes you feel like you are freeing yourself and exploring a whole new web experience.

Notepad++ (Notepad alternative) - If you write any code at all then this is the program for you. It's teeny and automatically color codes your text based on the language you are writing in. It automatically launches your code into the compiler and/or browser.

Pros: Helpful auto-formatting and handy across many MANY different coding languages.

Cons: There's nothing really negative about this program. It does what it does and does it well.

Making the switch: If you're switching from notepad to this then there is nothing but bright horizons for you. Switch now!

PDF Creator (Print to file alternative) - Have you ever wanted to turn the document you're working on into a PDF. This program will do it! It actually installs as a printer on your computer and anything you can print you can make into a PDF.

Pros: It works with every program that prints. It does a great job of creating PDFs.

Cons: It tries to install a toolbar at the same time as the install which really bugs me. On occasion it doesn't turn out the same appearance that your document has. Having said that, it works pretty darn well most of the time.

A few extras I'd like to mention include:

Mediacoder - gives you control over almost every aspect of media conversion. It even has different install versions for different types of media.

Lightscreen is a VERY handy screenshot tool that rus in the background and lets you take shots of the entire screen, the active window, or an area you can define at the time of the screenshot.

uTorrent - if you know what a torrent is then this is THE only option I would EVER recommend ussing. The u stands for micro by the way.

VirtualBox - Excellent, and I mean EXCELLENT virtual machine. If you want to install multiple operating systems on your machine you should check this out.

Blender 3d - I might throw Google Sketchup in with this but I prefer Blender. It is a 3d modeling and animating suite. Incredibly powerful for what it is. It's a lot to bite off if you don't know what you're doing.

DVDShrink - rips DVDs but, more importantly it will encode and burn DVD files that are too big so that they fit onto a regular 4.3 GB DVD.

DVDDecrypter - my preference for ripping DVDs. It has several different ripping modes including an .iso mode. It also uses ImgBurn to burn .iso files.

AutoGK - uses FFMPEG to convert just about any file type to XVID or DIVX .avi files.

Jack is Talking

Here is his famous "uhn?" as well as his newest word.

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!