A Curious Instrument

As a matter of disclosure, I am not a Republican. Before most of you scamper off in the face of a Limbaugh "program caller", I also have no love for Democratic ideals or either of the potential Dem candidates. Actually, I am not a member of any political party and am a registered "Independent" at the local courthouse. Hopefully, I won't be perceived as some underhanded double-agent of your political enemies trying to snooker you. I truly want to help you, my beleaguered friends of the Republican Establishment! Okay, you Rep leaders don't like Trump but he is winning in the polls. If you try to undermine him and replace him with someone more to your liking, you likely alienate the disgruntled (at you?) majority that keep pulling the large wins in for the Donald, against your supreme political wisdom. What is a misunderstood, under-appreciated, and apparently ineffectual major party apparatus to do? Some people say to undermine Trump, quietly help Hill, an...

Every now and again, I write fiction.  Then for some unfathomable reason, I give it away.  Today, you can read my first published short story right here .  If you like it, please pass the link around to others by commenting and "liking" it on Facebook.  If you want to support my writing, you can purchase the Kindle version of "The Miracle of the Quilt" which is the first story in The Joys of Autism and Christian Ethos e-book. If you like "The Miracle of the Quilt", you will absolutely love my best story ever, Rachel and her Knight in Shining Armor , also available as an e-book. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy " The Miracle of the Quilt "!

So, I am flying through Houston on my way to a training in San Diego and I look up from eating something in a waiting area and I see this guy and say to myself, "That sure looks like Richard Stallman."  I just keep looking and he flips open his laptop (a little Thinkpad, good choice) and there are FSF stickers on it.  "Oh, my," I think, "It IS Richard Stallman!" Now you probably don't know RMS, but you can look him up on Wikipedia:   Richard M. Stallman . He is a virtual god in the free software movement and was either the original writer or major contributor to a lot of GNU software that I use everyday.  He might even be more famous for being a catalyst behind the GPL: the GNU General Public License that applies to the Linux kernel and the bulk of open-source (don't use that term in front of him) or "free as in freedom" software. It wasn't enough to just note that I might have sighted him.  I walked up (pretty bold move for me) a...

When circumstances permit, I often walk to work. I did it as a WIC Nutritionist in Tucumcari (1 mile), a SysAdmin for ENMU in Portales (5 miles) , and a Linux Support person at Dell in Oklahoma City (4 miles). I cannot do it now as I am about 15 miles from work, but I was always looking for good things to listen to as I walk (when I am not recording my scattered, heretical thoughts). If you like TED talks , you must understand that I think they are a mixed bag of psychobabble with some nice gems.  If you want far more intelligent presentations that are consistently high-quality, I will happily point you to the excellent Long Now Seminars that are sponsored by the Long Now Foundation . As always, there are many times that I disagree with concepts spoken about, but it never fails to get me thinking! Forward and Upward!

The entire 15th chapter of the Book of Luke  is a study in the attitude that we should have about "the lost". Each of us as gospel teachers have a duty to seek out these "lost" sons and daughters of God and help them find the joy that the gospel brings.  Sometimes, that person doesn't come to church or may not feel welcome there. You may even find that our "lost" class members are present but, for whatever reason, they are still somewhat lost to the principles that can bless their lives. May I offer a personal experience of reaching out to some "lost" brothers? In 1999, I was working at a correctional facility in a remote place in New Mexico. One of the men incarcerated there found out I was LDS and asked if I could arrange for an LDS gospel class at the prison much like several other religious groups were providing. I worked with the facility chaplain and arrangements were made for a time and classroom for weekly gospel sessions. As an em...

Everyone wants advice about how to live their lives, right? What better source than Alma the Younger, former bad boy, Chief  Judge, mega-missionary, and a recipient of the "hey, he got translated" prize? After clarifying that resurrection is an incorruptible restoration of ourselves, good or bad, Alma give some advice to his wayward son, Coriantion, in Alma 41:14. be merciful to others; deal justly; judge righteously; and do good continually.  He says that if we do these things, we will get them in return in the resurrection.  In his words, they will be "restored unto you again, and you will have good rewarded unto you again." So, you want a nice afterlife? Alma's advice is to learn to spread niceness around during life and it will come back to you in the hereafter!  

The "one-a-day" study plods on and I am to the chapter where Alma is telling his son Corianton about how the resurrection works from his perspective. Of course, I am now interjecting my thoughts on the subject from my perspective as well, so as Alma did, "...I give it as my opinion..." ( Alma 40:20 ). One has to recall that Alma lived before the coming of Jesus Christ, so his perspective on it is different than those of us that live after Jesus himself was resurrected. Alma uses the phrase "first resurrection" in this context to mean the resurrection of the people that happens somewhat immediately after Christ's resurrection and involved those who lived before Christ, like Alma himself. Often, we, from our perspective, talk of the "first resurrection" as the one that is next in coming on the time-line, the resurrection of the repentant previous to judgement, which has not yet begun. I suppose we call it "first" because others wi...