Indifference

Today I received an email from my grandparents (my real-father's parents) that said "Your Dad!!!" in the subject line. My first reaction, before reading the email, was, "Is he dead?" Thoughts of a drug overdose crossed my mind. All the body of the email said was to call them collect. I used our cell phone, so no collect call. My grandma answered and I asked what was going on. She told me my dad has cancer in his spine and it's terminal. She explained that it has spread and that it's too far along for chemo, so the doctor's are setting him up with morphine that he can administer at home. The doctor has given him a year to live, but my grandma thinks it will be less (she is a nurse...she does have some knowledge of these things). Was I filled with grief or sadness?, no. Was I angry or happy?, no. I could tell that my grandma was crying at several points, but still nothing on my end. I'm not sure what I am feeling, so I'm labeling it indifference. This is a man I have not had contact with in almost 20 years. Since my parent's divorced when I was 5, there really has not been much contact, but my mom took us to visit him when I was 9. In a way, I would like to go see him...maybe for closure. But what do I say?... "Sorry you're dying." I do have some good memories of him, but they are plagued with memories that are not good. I didn't really expect this. I thought it would be that once my grand-parents passed, all ties would pretty much be gone. Hmmm...it would be a nice road trip...seeing as they live in Montana. We'll see what we do.

PCAT

I finally got my PCAT scores. They actually came in the mail while we were in Sacramento and they were waiting in the mailbox when we got home late Saturday night. This is the first opportunity I've had to do any blogging. The company that gives the test just provides the scores, they don't interpret them in any way because each school that requires the PCAT decides on their own what kinds of scores they will accept. So here they are. I will list the category and the percentile
Verbal Ability 95
Biology 88
Reading Comprehension 73
Quantitative Ability 84
Chemistry 68
Composite (overall) 88

Writing Scores:
Conventions of Language 3.0
Problem Solving 3.0
(both of those scores are above the mean score for all tests taken that day at that location, but I can't remember what the max score possible is)

Kindle

Have you heard about Amazon's Kindle 2.0? Its a super-thin, super-light-weight ebook reader that can hold over 1500 books and uses 3G networks to download anywhere, anytime without monthly fees, or service plans. Sounds awesome, right? I thought so. Being the technophile I am, I wanted to get my hands on one and check it out. One of my professors loves his and says he's even been able to download his textbooks onto the device. It can even read to you and books cost about $9.99 to download. Sounds amazing! Even "Dear Leader" (BHO) seems to think so because I found this item about Barry wanting to give one to every school child. Never mind the fact that, as the blog points out, one minute he says the country is broke, the next minute he says he wants to spend $299.00 (retail price on Amazon.com) each for EVERY school child.

It forced me to start thinking why he thinks this contraption is so important that he wants every school child to have one but not a word about every child having a calculator (Even a TI-89 Titanium graphing calculator costs half that much on Amazon.com and a graphing calculator of that ability is over kill for any school child. The much more likely TI-30X IIS is less than $15 each at Walmart.) Then I figured it out, and all my worst fears about this administration (or should I say reign?) started coming back to the front of my mind.

Now, I like to think I'm a pretty optimistic guy, a little cynical, but optimistic. These last seven months have really been changing that. I also enjoy entertaining a conspiracy theory every now and then but the one I stumbled across and figured out seems so plausible, and likely, that it's scary. Have I piqued your interest, yet? Think along the lines of 1984, We, and Fahrenheit 451 all rolled into one. Have you figured it out? (btw, I have read all three of these and recommend them to everyone)

According to the articles you can follow from this page, Amazon, or any entity (i.e government) with access, can add, delete, or change content on the Kindle at any time without telling you or asking permission. Furthermore, "Amazon knows what books you have on your Kindle, and, in theory, it can even know the book you are currently reading, and even the last page you’ve read on each of the books you own."

If Dear Leader has his way, not only will everyone in the coming generation be forced into Universal Healthcare (which, might I add, will pay for abortions and outlines mandatory counseling for senior citizens concerning "alternatives to end of life care" i.e. a counselor trying to convince you to refuse treatment because you're old instead of fighting for your life and seeking medical treatment) but the White House (or wherever he decides to move his capital city when he takes supreme command) will have a direct line of access to our school children via the kindle. They will decide what content is downloaded and when. The only hope against it would be for parents to manually delete content themselves. But whose to say that the government won't just put it right back on, or, in the future when dictatorial intentions are more overt, if we will even retain any ability to control the content on the Kindle. "But Obama isn't that sinister" you say? My only response is that he is left-handed.

Nephite Pride Cycle

On our way back to Chico from Sacramento last night, Corrina and I were discussing many things and Corrina had an epiphany that we were then able to elaborate. She said something along the lines that we can see parrallels between events in the Book of Mormon and what is happening to the USA today, specifically regarding Heavenly Father's promise regarding the land. IT was an amazing moment of clarity and understanding that I thus expanded on it with regards to the Nephite pride cycle. What we came up with follows:
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In innumerable places within the Book of Mormon, the Lord promises the prophet at the time "inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land, but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence." (cf. 2Ne. 1:20) That promise isn't exclusive of the Nephites or even of antiquity. The Book of Mormon, remember, was written for OUR day.

Additionally, the term "Nephite Pride Cycle" is a misnomer. There is nothing uniquely Nephite about it. What it should be called is "The Curse of the Promised Land". Just as it says in the Book of Mormon:

11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things (emphasis added). If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
15 And to bring about his eternal purpose in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.

Any time a people is given the blessing of receiving a promised land, the curse that follows inevitably with is is the pride cycle. You are given a land just for you, you get prideful about it, you get slothful, you get destroyed, you repent, it starts all over. The Nephites weren't the only ones that this happened to. It happened to the Jaredites thousands of years before Lehi. It may have even happened to the Mulekites, although they kept no records so we're not really sure. It happened to the Israelites when they were given their Promised Land. The author of the Proverbs said it succinctly:

18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

And we would all be very naive if we thought that we, as citizens of the United States, are immune from this curse. Nephi saw our day and received a revelation of the colonizing and founding of this country. Could we not then say that we were given this as a promised land?

12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.

13 And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.

14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten.

15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain.

16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.

We have become prideful and slothful and are letting the central government take more and more power away from the citizenry. And what has the government been doing with this power? sowing the seeds of destruction: spending money it doesn't have, bowing down to dictators, refusing to admit that we have enemies, shirking its responsibility to be a force to be reckoned with on the global stage. The list goes on and on. Let me know what you think. Am I right? Am I off base? Let me know

Fooled by the Media

We parked next to this car at our local Costco and when we noticed the bumper stickers, Corrina said "Now that's something to blog about." Boy is she right. Either this lady has drunk so much of Obama's Kool-Aid that she doesn't realize exactly how fooled by the media she is, or she is just as evil and socialist as the current administration. I'm not sure which is worse.