I'm taking a church history class by Susan Easton Black this semester and some family members wanted to hear the recordings that I take during class so i am going to post some online for a few people to listen to. Sister Black really knows her stuff. Enjoy :)
"Brigham Young had only 11.5 days of formal schooling, and so you wonder why our college is named after him...but after you get to know him there is no one you would be prouder to have your university named after." -earlier lecture
Clocking in at the second longest-running espionage series in television history, 24 is my favorite TV show. In 2008, Empire magazine ranked 24 as the sixth greatest TV series of all time. I just finished season 7 and have officially watched every episode ever made. The series is about protecting America from terrorist attacks. It has a lot of gunfights, political leverage, and ethical issues. I watch it because I like seeing someone who won’t ever give up or back down to someone threatening his country. It is riddled with plot twists and always keeps you guessing intellectually. I get so into the series. I’ve never been so emotionally attached to anything on TV before. One of the main issues of this season is that Jack was brought under trial for torturing a terrorist in order to get information to save the people the bomb would have killed. I like this segment from the last part of the season. Jack is dying because he sacrificed himself and stopped a bio-weapon at the cost of exposing himself.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
This past week I had the opportunity to see my dear friend Kirtley get baptized. It was a tough road with unique challenges, and she did it without the support of her parents and many of her friends. But in the end it was worth it. Sometimes you realize that one of the best things about life is seeing people change for the better. It's worth more than money; and, to tell the truth, I don't think its something that you see happen very often.
Kirtley has been through a lot in her life. She used to believe in God and was active in a church until her parents got divorced while she was in high school. Then she lost her faith and started to go downhill.
Here is a part of a letter she wrote to me a few weeks ago: "...Thank you for sharing your religion with me. It has made me interested and helped me find my life back again. I finally know my purpose and what I am supposed to do with my life. I know I can handle anything as long as I have my faith in my heavenly father. Thank you." -Kirtley
"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." -D&C 18:10
This comes from one of my favorite movies, A Beautiful Mind. John Nash came up with the Nash Equilibrium, which I learned about last year in my 300 level Econ class. His works today are used in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations, and have provided insight into today’s market economics, computing, artificial intelligence, accounting and military theory. The funny thing is that he had schizophrenia, and most people thought him crazy.
Sometimes you look at what people do or say and it just doesn’t make sense to you. It just doesn’t. But you can’t always see things from their perspective. One of the things you learn in Economics is that people do everything for a reason. The hardest part in convincing someone or in just understanding them is figuring out why they act how they do, and what reasons they have for it. Sometimes those reasons are wrong or perhaps non-existent, but to those people they are as real as anything else.
So when someone doesn’t act like you think they should, or does something that just doesn’t make sense, you have to try and see what reasons they might have for doing it, and then you can change them.
I have always loved learning about the founding fathers and they are some of my biggest heroes ever. The more I learn about them the more I am convinced that they were led by God. Here's a clip that i like. If there's something wrong, and you have the ability to take action, you also have the responsibility to take action. That's what they did, and we see their legacy today.
So I barely got around to watching the movie Angels & Demons. I wanted to watch it because it is one of my favorite books ever written. The book shows the power of physics, faith, symbols, intelligence, and has some incredibly interesting plot twists. You never know who is the really an angel and who is really a demon. It portrays the conflict between science and religion. Sometimes I think you just couldn’t write a book better than that.
Well, just like it is with everything else, the movie wasn’t half as good as the book. It couldn’t quite portray the emotion, passion, or sense of serene power that enthralls the reader. But, I thought the soundtrack was beautiful. Here’s a short clip from one of the songs. Hans Zimmer never ceases to amaze. He also created the music for Gladiator, Batman, some of Pirates, and many others.
My region of APX is doing a March Madness competition for sales.It gives everyone a little more competitive edge and makes you try a little harder.I think its pretty fun. You go head to head with someone for 3 days and whoever gets the most sales (or points) wins.
They picked the 64 best veterans and the 64 best first year reps and then create brackets and give the winners of each round prizes.I am in the first year bracket and didn’t do that good during the qualifying week and so I got a 10th seed.But, I did just beat the guy that I was going against who was a number 7 seed.Next week I play the number 2 seed.I did a lot better than him last week so I’m not worried.
All I got for winning the first round was a t-shirt, but the prizes get bigger from here on out.
