Music available from General Conference!

Last spring, as I've become accustomed to do after each General Conference, I downloaded the talks from the April 2008 sessions. I downloaded the talks and have enjoyed them ever since then. I also remember feeling the Spirit very strongly during the hymns the choirs sang, and I was hoping that I'd be able to download the music as well as the spoken word.

There wasn't a way to download the music without downloading each session as one large .mp3 file. I didn't want to do that, but I did decide to make a comment at the feedback link of the church site, asking whether they might consider making the songs from General Conference available as they do the talks.

I did receive a response from someone at the church thanking me for my suggestion. I don't remember the exact words they said, it didn't promise anything but I do remember that whoever it was that had written to me did think my idea had merit.

Well, six months have passed and we have just had another wonderful conference. Again, the talks were inspiring and music superbly motivational, each being a testimony of the kingdom of God being on the earth.

As I went to download the talks this time, there was a little more to the content of the page than I was used to. There is now a podcast available that automatically updates each conference. This makes it so your mp3 player can be setup to download the talks for you without you having to remember to come back and download the sessions (as if I'd forget). Even better than that, it makes it so you don't have to individually click to download each talk as an mp3, saving them into the folder you setup for them. Rather, it is all taken care of... just set up your subscription to the podcast once. I use WinAmp (I even paid for a Pro version a couple of years ago), but iTunes and many other programs can also subscribe to podcasts.

Well, to my surprise, as I put the podcast into WinAmp, it downloaded the first thing in its list automatically, and it was a hymn! The opening music you hear as the announcer says: 'This is the 178th Semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'. (Oops, I hope that wasn't an unauthorized transcription- but I think Bonneville Communications might be fine with that much...) So, quickly I looked through the list of mp3 files available in the podcast and all the hymns were there!

I went back to the Church website to see if they might have retroactively made hymns available, or if I might have missed the podcast option before. It was there for April, but no music was available. And then I noticed that there is even a link for just the music starting with this fall's conference!

They took my comment to heart and made the music available! I don't dare think that I'm the only one who asked for it, but if it was my request that made it happen, that's pretty neat. I'm listening to the music right now. It is heavenly.

Here's the mp3 podcast link.

Here's an mp4 podcast link.

Technical Google searches many times lead to irrelevant results

I've used Google from the beginning and it is great... but I was hoping that by now some search problems would be solved. The major feature I find lacking in any search engine is the ability to search for exact matches of any combination of characters. You know, the types of things that show up in programming source code, but usually get ignored by search engines.

Note: The rest of the below is pretty technical, someone who has knowledge of programming using perl or mysql would understand what I'm talking about in the details, but others will understand the gist of what I'm saying if they just skip past the parts that talk about the programming languages that I mention.

I know that MySQL by default doesn't allow full text indexing of the various characters + = , -, etc. and maybe that is why Google isn't able to search for something like '++' and find results for that exact match, but it sure would be handy if I could search for things related to coding in various languages and actually find results related to what I'm looking for.

For example, if I'm looking for help related to a hugely useful and hugely used functionality in Perl, I might look for help with the =~ operator, or ~=, whichever it is, I can never remember, which is why I've tried searching for it from time to time. The problem is, even if I search for that exact phrase with quotes around it- "=~", I don't get any results that have that exact match, unless I'm lucky and just happen to type perl "=~" and then the search for perl happens to show something down in the results with =~ in it. My point is there are tons of things like that which should be search-able, but aren't. There are pages on the web dedicated to explaining how to use =~ in perl, and if I were to search for 'perl "=~"', you would expect that I'd get 200-300 or more results and they'd be totally relevant. Instead, I'm left with nothing really relevant.

Here's another example related to searching for something related to MySQL. This is a lesser used functionality that MySQL has, but it is very valuable from time to time.

:= is a way of assigning a value from within a MySQL statement to a variable so that it can be used again in the WHERE part of the query. It isn't something that is used all the time, so when I forget what the syntax is, I try searching for it on Google. What happens? There are no relevant results. I also try searching for it on MySQL's site, and they have the same problem.

These types of things are pretty annoying. I wonder if any-one has worked on solving this problem. I've searched for another search engine that can handle it, and haven't found anyone yet.

Google was started by and was originally most useful to techies because of the enabling power it gave to those who used it. I think it is time that someone work on the problem of indexing and returning relevant results for technical programming-type phrase searches.

I'm sure it is more than just flipping a few switches, but I'll be waiting right here...

Save the Cursor People!

Careful, if you read this, then you'll know, and you'll be afraid to not join one side or the other...
If you are the non-committal (guenzo!) type, then you should try reading something else so that you can remain blissfully unaware.

I don't think my sister realized the implications of what you are about to read when she forwarded me a link to something that she assumed was something comical:

Subject: What moves the cursor?

What moves the cursor on your monitor when you move your mouse?
Haven't you ever wondered how it works?

Now, through the miracle of high technology, we can see how it is done. With the aid of a screen magnifying lens, the mechanism becomes apparent.

Click on the link below and you will find out. The image may take a minute or two to download and when it appears, slowly move your mouse over the light gray circle and you will see how the magic works.

Follow this link and find out the truth.

http://www.1-click.jp/

A word of advice let them rest once in a while.

If you haven't clicked the link above yet, you must do that before reading on!


To think that I lead music with my mouse sometimes for no reason while waiting for web pages to load. That has got to be a lot of dizzying work for nothing.

I'm ashamed of myself. I thought I knew what was going on behind the scenes; that there was a bunch of over-complicated software to supposedly keep the display of the cursor in sync with the movement of the mouse. It was supposedly a better way of doing it that it had been back in the days where the display was actually exactly tied to the mouse movement, which would mean your mouse could always move even if almost every thing else was locked up... but I guess either way was all a cover-up for cheap labor. The slavers probably switched their explanation of how it worked when the slaves started getting tired too often and not performing their duty quickly enough to look like it was exactly in sync. Maybe that happened when the slave force started getting older and when monitors started getting bigger. They probably could all keep up when they were 14-18 years old on a 640x480 screen. But you can see now that they are mostly becoming middle aged, and we make them run 4-10 times as far all the time!

Those poor guys! Just imagine the millions of slaves that are working all over the world. We need to re-evaluate our humanity! There are probably more individuals living that horrible life than there are of people who live outside of monitors. And lately we've been taking more and more of their space by converting to flat screen monitors. Where they used to have room for apartments projects, now they probably just have to sleep in between the pixels in the alleys. And who is behind all of this? Either someone is breeding tiny men or else they have found a place to enslave them, reduce their size and lock them away in each new monitor manufactured.

What happens to them when we finally throw away the monitor? Do they escape, or are they out of work: jailed away where they will starve to death? Maybe that is the real movement behind recycling! The people making money off of this slave labor want to collect the slaves out of the monitors because it is cheaper than getting more. Plus, if the slaves do escape or are left somewhere 'un-recycled' in a place where they might talk, word could get out, and then who knows what could happen. Plus, they could become organized and figure out a way to overcome their captors. I'm sure they would treat all of us large people the same, no matter whether we were the ones who originally enslaved them or not. This really explains viruses a lot better as well. I thought that there wouldn't be anyone stupid enough to write a virus to do it out of fun, well now I see that viruses are part of the liberty movement, and we ought to let them spread. When you look at a virus email, if some of the little men can read your email (most can't read because they were enslaved young) they get excited and start rebelling, messing up all sorts of things in your computer. Then they figure out a way to spread the message to others and pass the message of liberty along.

Be prepared for a revolution the size of which you had never seen, and mostly can't see.

Ethan's Baptism

Here's what I told my boss about this week, so it is kind of just a rough outline of what has taken place during the last seven days or so.

I had mentioned I was pretty tired from the last two crazy days, and he asked what was tiring, so I said:

The tiring part comes from yesterday having a birthday party with twelve 8-year-olds, the ducts on our house cleaned (meaning I had to move bookshelves full of books and an entertainment center for access to them), and since new flooring was put in in our kitchen while we were on vacation I needed to put the fridge and stove back, plus install a new toilet - all yesterday. Then today was my son's baptism and another accompanying party to get ready for, and the house had to be really clean for today (after the party and floor and ducts being cleaned) because Michelle's grandma flew in from Long Beach. All that right after coming back from a vacation and driving a total of 16 hours (including the drive time during the vacation around Las Vegas). Oh, and we had another party / family gathering at my sister's house last night, and another gathering Sunday morning early for another sister's baby blessing, besides our own church services (where my wife taught an hour lesson and gave Easter gifts to the girls in the young women group where she is the music chairperson, and I played the organ for the main meeting with just an hour or two's notice.)

Now we are done with everything, but I am a bit tired! It has been nice actually, filled with a lot more joys than frustrations, but I think we could have spread out some of the things that happened a bit more... well at least the ducts being cleaned. Still, things ran very well, and I only had to leave work early two days, and then plan on working more later at night, like last night, and then what I was planning tonight, so I am really happy with how it turned out.

However, what I really wanted to write about was how wonderful some of the experiences were with Ethan preparing and being baptized and confirmed. I got pretty choked up a few times during the actual service, but the time leading up to Ethan's baptism was rewarding as well. I was very impressed by the way that Ethan gave a prayer last night on his birthday at our family home evening at the Biddulph's house. Ethan spoke using wording and tone that was much higher than I had heard him pray before. It appears that he has been really paying attention during prayers.

I'm so proud of him for reading the whole Book of Mormon before he turned eight. That just amazes me. I hope that will give him a good foundation of knowing that he is able to accomplish many things as long as he sets his mind to it. I also hope that he enjoyed what he learned, and that it gives him a strong base for continual gospel learning.

Related to the actual baptismal service and confirmation, I wanted to make sure and write down the things I remember so that Ethan can have something to help jog his memory about his baptism day.

I remember Ethan being very excited before the baptism and jumping around a bit with his cousin Sabrina, who was also baptized just after Ethan.

Ethan asked to practice how he would bend back under the water. We had practiced at home already a few times, but Ethan wanted to be sure to do it right.

I remember feeling grateful and having the impact of what was about to happen hit me again when Ethan's Aunt Malauna gave the opening prayer for the service. I got weepy eyed and had to wipe my eyes dry during the prayer. (Ethan had asked Aunt Malauna to give the prayer.)

Ethan and I waited to one side of the baptismal font for a minute or so while someone kept trying to unlock the doors for everyone to see. We dry-practiced laying him under the water while we waited, and I talked with him about how many of the kids out there who would be watching are just like Ethan was in previous times when he looked up to other kids being baptized.

The water was a little cold, but not too cold. It came up to about the middle of my thigh, about a foot below the high point where it could have been, but it was plenty enough for Ethan to easily go under the water. I went in first, then Ethan came down the steps holding the railing, even though I had my hand out for him to come to me. He grabbed my hand while he was still on the last step, and then he was baptized.

I don't remember anyone by name who was watching when we were in the water, except for the two witnesses: Robert Ralph Gibby and Lawrence Edward Presser, both of Ethan's grandpas. Uncle Ryan said that they both gave a thumbs up after Ethan was baptized. I know I made sure to look to them to make sure it had been done properly.

I remember Ethan did a good job of keeping his legs down under the water, even though I didn't try and hold them down. Ethan mentioned that he heard quite a few little kids who were watching talk about the water and how they wanted to get in.

Ethan and I watched from the side as Sabrina was baptized. I got a white towel so Ethan had a towel over his head and started to get a little cold, but I think he was glad to get to go first so Sabrina wouldn't be cold if she were to have watched him instead.

I remember that Ethan said that he felt really good or really clean just after he was baptized when we were going to change our clothes. He was also a good sport about the fact that we had forgot to pack him an extra set of underwear, and no belt, so Uncle Ryan borrowed a leather braided belt to Ethan that we wrapped more than one and a half times around him to make sure his new suit pants stay up. (His pants are wide enough to fit him for two more years, but that he will probably outgrow in the legs in six months.) We probably took a little too long getting dressed, but that always seems the way of things.

When we got back to the Relief Society room where Ethan and Sabrina were to be confirmed, Grandpa Gibby gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, emphasizing that he is a special, pure and sacred member of the Godhead, that it is a very special thing for us to have the gift to be able to have him with us, that he is a comforter (which Grandpa showed symbolically by giving a white comforter blanket to Ethan and Sabrina which Grandma had made), and that he can speak to us to warn us if we listen and try to stay close to him. Grandpa related how his Uncle Grant had a near crash in an airplane, but had been saved because the Spirit had whispered to him that he was taking off right into the path of a landing plane.

The things I remember about what was said in the blessing that Ethan received after he was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and told to receive the Holy Ghost are that he will continue to grow in spirit and that his testimony will be strong if he seeks to be close to the Spirit. Also, I was very emotional when I was prompted to tell Ethan that Satan will tempt him. I'm not sure that I voiced all that I felt related to that. I think my emotions and tears may have portrayed through the Spirit what was felt more than my words. I felt like saying something similar to 'Satan desires you' or 'You will have some hard trials', but what I ended up saying was that Satan would tempt him, but that he could overcome if he stayed close to the Spirit through prayer, scripture study, and by listening to the counsel of those who loved him or of those who love him and who also are close to the Spirit.

What I remember most from Sabrina's blessing was that Ryan said that this time in the world is a troubling but also a wonderful time to live.

I hope that these things I've written can help Ethan or those who are close to him throughout his life.

Called to the Work

I've been called to be a Ward Missionary. That means that I get to go out and look for opportunities to teach the gospel in my area. It is interesting that such a calling is needed in the church. You would think that if everyone were doing their duty (including myself), that a ward missionary calling wouldn't be needed. We should all be looking for opportunities to teach the gospel in our own areas.

Indeed, any of us who have desires to serve God are called to the work. (See Doctrine and Covenants 4:3)

So that is the real barrier that prevents us all from receiving this calling: we must not have a true desire to serve God. Sad as it is, too many mundane things get in the way every day.

Even worthy goals prevent us from going out to talk to our neighbors, and some of those goals might even be more important. For example, teaching the gospel in my own home is a very worthy goal. If I'm not teaching and living the gospel in my own home, I won't have a large measure of the Spirit with me if I go out and try to teach the gospel to my neighbors. However, that could easily be used as an excuse for not going out to do the work. Many of the early brethren were called to leave their wives and families to go and preach the gospel abroad. Surely their families were blessed greatly because of their service. Teaching others is one of the most excellent ways to show our own families the importance the gospel has in our lives.

What other obstacles do we have from being called to the work? Anything in our lives that lessens our desire to serve God prevents us from receiving the call. And yet, many are called. Many do have a desire to serve God. Many have covenanted to serve God every day of their lives, even to give up their lives in the service of God, if necessary. The desire is there, the spirit is willing.

But the flesh is weak, few are chosen. What is it that those who are called to serve are being chosen for by the Lord? Simply to do that for which they have been called.

There has been a day of calling, but the time has come for a day of choosing; and let those be chosen that are worthy. (D&C 105:35)

It is our worthiness that determines whether we are chosen to serve:

Behold, thou art Joseph, and thou wast chosen to do the work of the Lord, but because of transgression, if thou art not aware thou wilt fall.

But remember, God is merciful; therefore, repent of that which thou hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you, and thou art still chosen, and art again called to the work; (D&C 3:9-10)

That is why many are called, but few are chosen (D&C 121:34). Our hearts are set too much upon the things of this world. We also have the tendency to aspire to the honors of men, rather than seek for the honor of God by giving the honor to Him. Those who are chosen have the desire to do God's will, not their own. How many times do we worry what others may think. Isn't that one of the biggest excuses that we come up with for not doing missionary work? We are afraid of man, when we should fear God.

What do we do to be able to overcome the tendency of the natural man? God is willing and waiting to help us. He wants to bless His children. What is the over-encompassing reason that we are commanded to build temples and receive the ordinances thereof and why do we receive the priesthood? Their purpose is one: to enable God's children to be blessed and be able to once again return to His presence.

Yea, verily I say unto you, I gave unto you a commandment that you should build a house, in the which house I design to endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high; D&C 95:8

The marvelous thing about the temple and the sealing power of the priesthood is that it confirms that God is no respecter of persons. He wants all of His children to have the opportunity to choose for themselves and be able to return to His presence. Indeed, He wants to bless His children with all that He has. Those of us whe are parents that love our children get a good glimpse into understanding the nature of this love.

What is meant by the sealing power of the priesthood? Whenever the priesthood has been given to man in its fulness, God has promised that "whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" (Matt 18:18, Hel. 10:7, D&C 124:93, 132:46). The power is referred to in conjunction with the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 16:19).

The sealing power of the priesthood has been restored on earth so that all of God's children can receive the choice whether to accept His plan for them. If we choose to follow His will for us, He asks us to make covenants with Him that we will keep His commandments and that He will bless us. These covenants are made when priesthood ordinances are bestowed. Baptism has its associated covenants. Men who receive the priesthood make covenants as they receive it. The other ordinances of the temple (endowments and sealings) also have their associated covenants.

We must prepare ourselves to keep the covenants that we enter into. That is why only worthy members of the church who are keeping the commandments can attend the temple.

God would not be just if he allowed some children the ability to receive exaltation and didn't give the oportunity to others. Those who don't have the opportunity to make these covenants in their lifetime are given the opportunity to accept the ordinances that are performed for them vicariously. In this way, God is completely fair to all of His children. He ensures that all of us will have our agency to choose whether we will accept His will and enter into a covenant with Him to do His will and thereby be blessed to return to His presence and receive all that He has. Someone who dies without receiving the gospel can receive it in the post-mortal spirit world. Once their temple ordinances are performed, they can choose to accept them.

Vicarious ordinances are not something new. We all have had the greatest vicarious sacrifice of all performed for us by our saviour Jesus Christ. It is when we accept His sacrifice through baptism that we are allowed to enter into the path that returns to our Father's presence.

What greater cause is there for motivation to share the restored gospel? When we consider that we are sinners and that we could never hope to amount to anything without the atonement of Jesus Christ, and when we consider that our Father sacrificed His son and that Jesus gave his life freely for us because of their unconditional love for each one of us, you realize how much love and desire they have for all of us. Recognizing our own reliance on God for all that we have, and for every blessing that we may receive, causes us to feel empathy for our brothers and sisters. We cannot accept the mercy given to us without recognizing the need for us to extend mercy to all those around us.

When we learn and remember that God's plan and purpose for us as His children is to have us grow to become like Him, that his commandments are the path laid down to help us receive this joyful outcome, and that His greatest commandments are to love the Lord thy God above all else, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, we realize that it is through sharing the gospel with our brothers and sisters that we can receive the greatest joy, the greatest opportunity for growth, and the most blessings- in this life and into eternity. (See Matt. 22: 36-40, Moses 1:39).

I pray that we may have the desire to be called and live worthy to be chosen to do God's work. It is all about love.

Kallise is born!

Michelle had a baby girl this afternoon (April 11th).
She will be named Kallise.



Michelle was induced today around 9:00am and had her easiest labor out of the four.
Kallise was 20 and a half inches, and seven pounds one ounce.
She scored a perfect 10 on her two Apgar scores, which means that she appears to be a healthy little girl.
What is Apgar?

Kallise is a different spelling, but the same pronunciation for her Grandma Marie's maiden name, which in Germany was spelled Kallis, but was changed to Colles at Ellis Island.

If all goes well, Michelle and Kallise will be coming home on Thursday.
Ethan, Hailee and Jaron are happy to have a baby sister and Mom and Dad are glad things turned out so well.

Zelda freaks - on the SNES!

When I was a kid, I always wished that I had the cool toys that the neighbors had. I especially wished that I had an Atari, and then a Nintendo, and then a Super NES, but I had to just go over to their house and watch them play. Sometimes, if I was lucky, I would get a turn playing something.

Soon after I got married, we bought a stereo, a Super NES and some other electronics for like $100 from a friend who goes through new technology like water in a sieve.
That same game system has lasted us 7 years and we haven't gotten anything 'better'.

We started out with only Donkey Kong Country, Toy Story and Animaniacs. The system came with DK Country. Our friend bought Toy Story, which is an OK game to play, but it seems like it was cobbled together quickly before the release of the movie by 3 different development teams and one guy stuck it together without music between levels and NO ending music. It just basically says "Thanks for Playing!" Kinda lame.

We have occasionally went out and got 'new' games, which are really used games that work just fine. They end up being anywhere between one dollar and 10 dollars. Compare that with the price you normally pay: $20 if you are lucky to $60 plus.

For Christmas, we got a few 'new' games, and I was excited to see that my wife had found "Zelda, A Link to the Past", since it is one of the best games of all time.

My son wasn't all that excited at first because he didn't know what it was like, but soon we found ourselves stuck in Zelda's world. I wanted to conquer the game as fast as I could, and so did my son. Since there are three available save game slots, we had three players: me, my son, and my wife.

I soon discovered that it takes forever to get through some of the secrets of the game unless you get help. It sucks away enough time to just play it already knowing what you are doing. I can't imagine playing the game and not having help available online. Instead of calling the help 'Cheats', we just call it help, because we don't want to promote the fact that cheating is OK. Getting help from others is an important thing to learn in life, though... especially if you are doing something that you aren't that good at, you can get it done better and more quickly if you have help.

Anyway, a few sites became my lifeline, especially GameSpy and RPG Classics; then I help the rest of the family through all the dungeons and secrets. My son caught on quick. He soon was thinking about Zelda day and night. We took a break to go to my brother's house in Idaho, and luckily no-one had a problem with doing something else for a while. I guess we weren't SO addicted to the game that we couldn't take a 3-day break.

Anyway, after around a month of playing, and in 89 tries, I finally won the game.



My son completed his game a day later in 131 games; my wife is still working on hers about once every other week, so she should be done in about a year.