Savior of the World & Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration

I recently was able to see two productions put on by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Saviour of the World: His Birth and Resurrection and Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration.

Both shows were unique, inspiring and amazingly done.

The Savior of the World: His Birth and Resurrection is a live play done in the Conference Center Theater during the Christmas season. This is a much more intimate setting than the main Conference Center hall. The smaller theater holds 850 people in comparison with the large hall's capacity of 21,000.

I found an excellent review at LDSVideo.com of the soundtrack to this production:

On November 28, 2000, lights in the Conference Center Theater dimmed for the theater's inaugural performance, the premiere of Savior of the World: His Birth and Resurrection. Seven Latter-day Saint writers, under the direction of the Church's presiding leaders, created this sacred musical drama as a testimony and tribute to the Savior during the second millennial anniversary of His birth. In order to incorporate severl Messianic prophecies and the visitations of heavenly beings into the play, the production team devised a simple set: a semicircular, stone colonnade with a railed balcony to represent the heavens. In performance, prophets view scenes as if in vision from atop the colonnade and speak familiar scriptural prophecies. Descending from the colonnade, angelic messengers visit the earth. And in virtually every scene, cast members dressed in white gather on the colonnade to witness the events below -- a poignant reminder of heaven's interest in the lives of all God's children.

Since the production opened, this interest has been keenly felt by audiences totaling nearly a quarter of a million and by more than 800 cast members. At each performance, children, parents and grandparents, many participating together as families and as service missionaries, fill the colonnade and add to the rich tradition of uplifting theater in the Church. Over a century and a half ago, that tradition was established when Brigham Young built the Salt Lake Theater and directed that it be "a place... where holy angels could be, and where the Spirit of God would reign and its influence be felt by every person who should enter" (Deseret News, January 11, 1865).

That Spirit is invited into the Conference Center each Christmas and Easter season. As the events surrounding the Savior's birth are depicted, the Spirit testifies of Christ's divinity. Born a lowly babe as foretold by ancient prophets, He was resurrected and lives again, as witnessed by Mary Magdalene, Peter, and many others. He lives still, and one day He will return to the earth to reign in glory. "Come, Lord Jesus, Come."

I want to add to that review. The show was powerful and a wonderful reminder of the sacred life of the Savior Jesus Christ. I wept various times and was filled with the Spirit as I watched how the lives of those connected with the Savior's birth and resurrection had their lives changed and their faith, testimonies and knowledge of the truth that: God loves us, so He sent His Son.

If you haven't seen Savior of the World: His Birth and Resurrection, I highly recommend that you get tickets next Easter or Christmas, as it is highly effective and well written to give real meaning to both celebrations of the life and mission of Jesus Christ.

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I was also able to go twice to the new movie in the Legacy Theater about the prophet Joseph Smith. This movie was also a tear jerker, testimony builder and helped me to realize in a more profound way that Joseph Smith truly is a prophet of God and that he fulfilled the mission that he was sent to do. That mission could be summarized as: Joseph Smith did what a loving Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost required of him, so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could be restored in its fulness in our day, thus enabling the work of God to go forward, which is to bring to pass the eternal life and immortality of man.

Without a restoration of the gospel, the priesthood authority to perform the ordinances of salvation could not be administered. They are now available to all of God's children through the preaching of the gospel to all the earth by His authorized servants, as well as through the preaching of the gospel to the dead. All of God's children can now receive baptism by those in authority on earth. If they accept the gospel while in this life, they may be baptized into the Church and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. If they are dead, they may be baptized by proxy in holy temples.

There is no other way that God could be just to those who didn't have the opportunity to have the gospel in this life. His plan is a perfect plan of love, justice and mercy to all of His children!

Regarding the movie Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration, I was impressed by how well it was written and how accurate it was to the life as a whole of the prophet's experience in the short time that was available for the film. The entire film lasts only about 68 minutes, and the writers did a good job of mentioning all aspects of the prophet's life by giving specific examples of each type of trial he and the early saints went through without going into details on things that would make the movie longer but be a repeat of some of the same trials.

For example: many characters portrayed in the film were named, while others were not. Oliver Cowdery was depicted helping to translate the Book of Mormon, had dialog, was shown with Joseph as they received the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist, as they baptized each other, and again a few times as the Church was organized. However, his name wasn't mentioned until later in the film when it was said that even Oliver had fallen away, and many others. There was instead a character who was a Blacksmith named Lyman who had struggles of whether he would continue having faith or whether he would struggle through the trials that beset him. He followed Joseph from Ohio to Missouri to Nauvoo and had children killed by mobbers, his home burned and other persecutions. His faith was tested, but at the end when Joseph went to Carthage, he was still with a tearful goodbye. It would have been too hard to do character development and introduction by name of so many people involved in Joseph's life and then have them not be there later. The movie could have easily been a 10 part film of 2 hours each, so I was impressed with how well it was completed. I can imagine how the mother and father of Joseph's wife Emma Hales Smith could have been developed more and Joseph's interactions with them to show how hard it was for Joseph and Emma when Emma's parents didn't approve of their marriage and wouldn't console them when their children died. However, this was shown and done very well within the time available.

The over-all feeling of the movie includes happy times that show how good of a person Joseph was and how much he cared for the human race, and sad times that portray Joseph and the people who followed him as they endure trials. The movie did an excellent job of showing the strong character that Joseph had. It also made a good portrayal of why people followed him. They followed because they learned from him the truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They gained a witness for themselves that what he taught was true. The gospel is simple and can be easily understood. It just makes sense. If your heart is open to the Spirit, and you truly have a desire to be a good person, you must only ask God your father in heaven, and He will tell you through simple but undeniable means that He loves you and wants you to return to Him. That is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is for.

I could tell that even my three young children (ages 6,4,2) could feel the power of the movie. The movie also did a wonderful job at showing the persecution and horrors of what the saints experienced without being graphic. Even the martyrdom of Joseph and his brother Hyrum was shown in a way that all of my kids could watch, and rather than being scarred by the images they see, they will have a memory of what happened and appreciate the sacrifice of the Prophet and Patriarch.

I was able to see the movie twice, and will see it again in a couple of weeks. I recommend that everyone see it.

Well, Hang it all!

With the help of my Dad, we found a way that was simple enough to get the new doorbell wiring down into the basement. Really, I just had to take the wire straight down inside of the wall, but the problem was going to be drilling down through floor joists and stair supports. I didn't have a drill bit that was long enough for that.

Since we are talking about low-voltage wire for the doorbell, and not the normal 120/240V stuff, we decided instead to just make a small hole above and below each board we were going to drill through, and instead just make a trench between the two holes. Then the wire could come out of the wall from the top hole hole, sit in the bottom of the trench and go back into the wall in the bottom hole. Patching up the sheetrock trench will be easier and stronger than patching a large hole in the sheetrock.

Here is a good example to know what I'm talking about:


Here is the longest trench I had to make. This is at the level of the ceiling/floor between above the basement. There was board behind this hole that made us have to make a very long trench. I think it would have been almost impossible to drill a hole through that and fish the wires through it.


So now the problem is that we decided to move over our front entry mirror so that it is more centered between a door and the wall. It was simple enough to measure and eyeball where the center should be, but I should have measured where each sheetrock screw should go because I had one side too low, then I spackled the hole and waited around 24 hours, then I used a level and thought I was drilling a hole that would be just right, but I made a hole that was too high, and had to fill it in with spackle as well. Hopefully today I can make a hole in just the right spot.

After that I'll paint over my spackle and hopefully our front entry will look like nothing ever happened. Michelle will be very happy to have the 'pardon our dust' look gone.

Local fun - with and without Google

Last night we planned on going on 'Mommy-Daddy dates'. That means Michelled takes one or two of the kids and I take one or two, and they get their own special date. Since we have three kids, only one child gets actual one on one time, but since our youngest is only two, it still ends up being that the older child feels like they are getting almost one-on-one attention.

My son chose to use one of his free bowling coupons and go with my wife. He also had a free ice cream cone coupon. He thought that meant that they would just give you the cone, and you'd have to buy the ice cream to put on it! I guess we've taught them well to be wary of consumer advertising.

My daughter stuck with something she has done before and decided that she wanted to go get frozen custard at Nielsen's Frozen Custard. Next we went to the library to check out books, and then home to read some of the books and watch the Baby Newton DVD (from Baby Einstein) that we checked out.

Overall, the kids had a great time. I don't even remember having to argue with any of them - at all!

It didn't take Google Local to find Nielsen's, the library or the bowling alley, but it did get me closer to maybe finding a cabinet maker or woodworking shop that might be able to get me a good price on materials for my desk. I may build the desk and then add the drawers, cabinets, sides and trim later. If I bought custom sized cabinet doors, they would really make my desk look nice, and that might take care of the part that I can't do myself. I also wonder if I might not be able to find someone who could do the whole job for me. I would think that would get expensive though... we'll see.

Holey walls Batman! Ding-donging extra doorbell!

My home-office is in our basement. We only have one doorbell, very near the front door where it can be heard fairly well throughout the whole house, except maybe in the outer reaches of the basement. Thus, I miss the doorbell if someone ever comes over, which is a problem if no-one else is home at the time.

So, I resolved to put an additional doorbell in the basement close to my office. I thought I already had a doorbell, which was the main reason I wanted to put one in, but I may have given it away when we moved. So, I went and bought a cheap $7.00 doorbell at The Home Depot.

I searched all over in the basement for where the transformer may be hidden for the doorbell, but I think the previous owner covered it up with sheetrock and paint. (If I had finished the basement, I would have pre-ran the wires for a second doorbell and various other things.) I took off the cover of our chime-box and hooked up my new doorbell in parallel with the existing doorbell. I tried the front and back bells, and they both chime on both chime-boxes, so the transformer must be powerful enough.

Now the trick is to run the wires through the wall down to the location of the second chime box. I have an advantage and disadvantage built into one with the existing chime box being on the wall next to our stairs. Since the basement stairs have a door under them with unfinished walls inside of it, it will be easy for me to run the wire from where the wires come down from above to the wall location where I want to put the new chime box. This might be easier though because the stairs also require more boards to be in the walls right there, which means I have to drill holes through the boards to put the wires through.

In order to drill holes through the boards, I'll need to drill or cut access holes in the sheetrock walls. That means 3 - 4 holes. Luckily I already have spackel, wire mesh and the right paint to patch the holes. It is still a bit of guess work though to figure out where all the holes should go. I've been knocking on walls and measuring rather than using a studfinder. That is a bit tricky when you are going down stairs.

I may ask my dad to come help me out.

Ultimate L-shaped desk for a tall guy's home-office

Ever since I moved here to Layton, UT and have been working out of my home office, I've been settling for two cheap desks side by side to hold my two monitors and three machines. The plan is to eventually buy or build the perfect desk for my environment.

Here are the obstacles:

1. I'm tall. I want any desk I end up with to be slightly taller than the standard desk. I've measured the precise location and height for where a keyboard should be, and I don't want it more or less than a half inch off either way.


2. I would rather use two keyboards and mice for my two computers than use a switch. Lately I've been doing most of my development by SSH from my windows computer, but I think the better setup for more organization is the way I used to do it, where I could keep all my SSH sessions open under one or two main KDE windows on a couple of virtual desktops. That's the main thing I loved about my linux environment, the multiple desktops and putting all my SSH windows under one tabbed window where I know where everthing is. It makes it much easier to manage my 12 different servers if I don't have to open another window and not have it always in a certain place. I have tried various windows programs that gave me multiple desktops, and some SSH programs that have tabs, but none are free and have the features that come with KDE.


3. I need the desk to be an L-shaped desk. I have one corner to put it in where I will be able to look out the window, and yet have a wall behind the main monitor so that I can control the brightness of the wall behind the monitor to reduce the strain on my eyes. An L-shaped desk will also give me the most room for writing / planning as I don't type all day everyday and hope to do more planning before actual programming. The L-shape will also allow me to use my rotating chair to simply switch between machines / monitors. That will allow me the power to control two computers easily at once and have the computer I'm working on directly in front of me so I don't have to strain my neck or arms, etc.

I made up plans for exactly how I would build a desk that would suit my needs.
It would be strong, functional and exactly the right height width and depth. The problem is that it wouldn't be easy for me to make it look nice. I'm not a carpenter and I'm sure the desk would probably end up looking kind of plain if I were to build it myself. Maybe that wouldn't be bad, and I do have a couple of ideas for sprucing it up, but nothing that would be really easy. It would be hard for me to do things like custom cabinet doors and such without paying for them to be made separately. The big benefit of making it myself is that I could do it for $100 - $200. That is way less than what I have to pay for something the same size and exact dimensions I want (if I can even find it) anywhere else that I've looked.

There are a few desks I've considered:

Bush Desk


Bestar desk

Note that neither desk has legs at the corner that would prevent me from swinging my legs back and forth under the whole thing. Some desks have a leg or legs right at the corner and that is not OK with me.

I would also want to change the design of any pull-out keyboard holder so that it is at the exact position and height that I would want. I don't know if either of these desks would allow me to do that.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Will you share your hacker's IP with me?

This might be quite off-topic from more of my recent posts, but it is just another aspect of my life. I am the Technology Director for a company with less than 10 full time employees and a two person IT department. That means I'm also a Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, Abuse Administrator, etc.

This past week marked the anniversary of the use of a program I designed that would help me to carry out my administrative duties more easily. I used to review the LogWatch emails from my RedHat linux systems daily and would send out emails to the attacking systems' administrators and their upstream providers (ISPs). Every day I would send 5-10 emails because my systems are almost constantly under attack by script-kiddie attempts to login to my systems. They basically try common usernames and passwords to see if they can login to the machine and use it for their own dastardly purposes.

The program basically:
1) gathers attackers IP addresses from login logs
2) looks up the abuse contact information for each IP
3) puts together an abuse report email to send to the abuse contacts
4) sends the abuse report email to the abuse contacts, with a copy to my Hosting company so they can use the information to stop future attacks (although I think I do more work than their whole abuse department)
5) outputs a log of steps 1-4 and emails it to me and my tech team

This process has been working fairly well and the perl script that we have works well on our RedHat systems parsing the /var/log/secure log and automatically doing what I used to spend a half an hour a day on.

I have now began another project to block the IP address (and sometimes the IP ranges) of attackers so that they can't even attempt to hack any of my networks or machines. This is still a mostly manual process that takes me from a half hour to an hour. I look at the IP address of the people who tried to login and failed, usually the number of attempts for any particular attacker range from 10 to several hundred or even thousands of login attempts. The higher the number of attempts, the faster I want to block them, since they are taking up a small portion of my resources.

So I've modified a whois lookup script to be able to store the IP address, IP range, abuse contact, whois host (whois.apnic.net, whois.arin.net, whois.afrinic.net, whois.ripe.net, etc.), date of incident, hostname of attacked machine, and source country of the attack. Most of the attacks come from other countries. I currently don't have any websites that require someone to connect from Asia or Africa, so I just block whole ranges of foreign universities and ISPs, etc. from where I'm being attacked so that something like it won't happen again (my other script already notifies them of the attack, and if they get back to me, I may unblock them).

What I want to automate next:
1) Automatically add entries into my database of attacks from all my systems.
2) Automatically publish IPs and IP ranges to my iptables block lists to all my systems.

Here is where I ask the question: Would you like to share your hacker's IP with me?
I think a distributed network of hacking information would be beneficial to sysadmins everywhere, similar to RBLs for spam, it would be great to setup a Realtime Block List for hackers. In fact I don't see any reason why the same software that some of the other RBLs use couldn't be ported for the purpose. Maybe I'm out of it and something already exists for it. I don't know that it would though, because not near as many people are aware of the hacking problems that happen, because they don't see the evidence of it in their email box every day.

However, if we were to block attackers from being able to keep getting more compromised machines by stopping them at their source, there would be far less machines from which attackers could launch their email spam campaigns. I think this effort would reap large benefits for all corporations. (Although it might put a few sysadmins out of a job if they let the secret out.) I'm one system administrator that would be glad to pass my abuse administrator duties to an automatic program. I'm also sure that pooling our information together will reap the most benefits for everyone.

Halloween handouts

Here's your treat for Halloween: