05-23-11 Of doves and scripture stories

So, this post will be a bit random, but I've got a few things I need to write down. First off, Sacrament Meeting was pretty nice this week. We had a youth speaker talk about the first article of faith, followed by a soon-to-be missionary and a recently returned missionary. All were pretty good, but there's one thing about the first talk that's been bouncing around in my head lately. This goes back a week or two when the Priest Quorum was learning about the Holy Ghost. Now, it's a subject that's fairly well known, but we got to go look at it from different angles. What is the Holy Ghost? We read a couple scriptures about times He's made an appearance, and a few of them mentioned Him descending in the form of a dove. Now, since we know he doesn't have a body of flesh and blood, (not to mention the fact that He's not a dove, he's a person) I've always thought that it was just talking figuratively. Still, a few of the scriptures seemed pretty clear about there being a dove. This is where Bro. McCord gave us an interesting idea to think about. I highly doubt that the dove was Him personally, but it could have been that the dove was sent as a sign, a sort of physical confirmation that He was there. I don't know, it's one of those things I know hardly anything about, so I'm just waiting to get to the other side and have it rolled out for me. Kind of like the whole Lamanite skin curse thing. It doesn't really matter to my personal salvation, and I'll get the answer eventually. I the meantime, though, I just figure if I don't go around shooting doves for no reason I should be alright.

The conversation did answer an interesting question though. It turns out that when people go around saying holy -insert inappropriate term relating to biological waste-, they're just talking about dove droppings. It all makes sense now.

Now, I'm not really one for the inappropriate humor, but if there are funny things you can find in the scriptures, I'm all there. (Makes you want to study more and see if you can find them. xD) There's this one story that Bro. Swenson told us about in seminary about his mission. In Taiwan, it can take a while to get used to the language, and some numbers especially sounded similar. So they were teaching this one investigator that was having a hard time accepting the commandments, thinking it was a lot to ask for right away. So, the missionaries recommended that they read 1 Nephi 3:7, which talks about the Lord providing a way to fufill His commandments. Or, that's what they thought they said. In reality, they accidentally said third, instead of first, making it 3 Nephi 3:7, and I'll let you figure it out on your own. Unfortunately, they uh... didn't hear back from that investigator again. Yeah... Hopefully that will be cleared up on the other side.

So uh... I'm relying heavily on dodo birds here. I figure if Heavenly Father made something like them, He must have a sense of humor. A course, they went extinct, so maybe He's changed His mind about some things... I'm gonna burn. It's a real shame too, I've always liked cold weather better.

Anyway, I should go. Hedge, could you wrap things up here?

#o -breaks fortune cookie-

"Never travel by plane over the Pacific." -flips it over- "4 8 15 16 23 42"

-squeak- -gets out keyboard- º'ºº''º'''ºº'–º'' -translation- Only turbulence chewing, cellphone safe– Snail!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . #o . . . . . . . __o"

05-20-11 Let's see if this works

Hmm, it's been a while since I've posted a sketch on here– been a while since I've done anything on here really. Anyway, here are some more recent ones. I've been leaning more towards reference sketching lately than I have in the past, trying a little more life-like style. Don't get me wrong. I still like the manga style, and a lot of it still shows, but I'm trying to get a little more detail into them now. Both of these ones had a couple mistakes in them, but I did what I could in photoshop to clean them up a little. Anyway, enjoy.

Yep. That's it. Still no masterpieces, but it's all a matter of progression, right?

Anyway, I've got some good news. I finally finished backing up my old blog posts. Yay! Not sure that it matters much, but it's always nice to have a copy in case something crazy happens.

On another note, if you ever start drowning, just make sure you're doing it around our 11-year-old scouts. We went over swimming safety and rescues this Wednesday, and I've got to say, I thought they did very well with throwing the line. By the end of it, all of them were able to throw out their line without it getting tangled at all. Those guys are awesome.

Well, that's pretty much it. I'll probably post again some time later, but I think this is good enough for now. Have a great one.

05-19-11 Updates

So, since you already have a detailed and complete account of what life's been up to for the past year or so, I've decided to talk a little more about things that you're probably more interested in anyway.

First off, the staff.
Hubert has taken up a position in one of our outposts in Alaska. He said that it was primarily because the Monkeys were becoming too big of a hassle, but I hear the work load is a lot lighter with this new position. Anyway, he'll be connecting through Skype on occasion, but knowing him, it probably won't be very often. And of course, his fish went with him. Not sure how he'll do with the weather up there, but I heard something about a thermos, so he should be alright.

On the bright side, Hedgy is still here. After months of tracking, he finally managed to bring back the monkeys. A few of them had to be put in isolation to keep them from starting another uprising, but once we found out that the word 'banana' had the same pronunciation as an insult in another language, we were able to calm them down. After that we started working on the translators again. Aside from a few glitches now and then, they seem to work fine.

So, that's everyone. Right now we're mostly–

#o -squeak-

Eh? Oh, sure, put him on.
____
| .O/ .|
| /|__|

Hubert: Hey.

Muncher: You know, we were in the middle of a post here.

Hubert: -shrugs- So?

Muncher: Whatever. So is the fish okay? I wasn't really sure if that thermos idea was going to work.

Hubert: Yeah, he's fine. The thermos thing only worked for a couple of hours. Luckily though, they've got these cool aquarium climate controllers here. He's got a volcano in his fish tank now. It even has a night light.

Muncher: Happy to hear that. Anyway, I've got a post to get–

Hubert: So, did those gremlins break anything yet?

Muncher: You mean the monkeys? No, they're fine. It took a while to get them settled down, but the new translator seems to be helping. Just don't say banana. They still get a little riled up by that. But anyway, I've really got to get back to the blog post. People are staring.

Hubert: Kay. I'll send you a snowball later.
Hubert is offline.

So yeah... Where were we? It doesn't really matter; you guys get the idea. Hedge has been helping a lot in getting things back in order, but I think he's feeling a little overworked. Do you think I should get another hand to help out evenings and weekends? I'll talk to him about it later. For now, though, I've gotta run. See ya.

05-17-11 The REAL year in sixty seconds

Not really sixty seconds; I can't type that fast, but we'll see how fast this can go– okay start!

In 2010, I got to go running through the wilderness with a handcart and the most incredible adopted family I could ask for, fall in love with a hat, climb to the top of half dome and explore the wonders of Yosemite, race to finish planning my Eagle Project while simultaneously participating in our kitchen remodel, organize a group of over thirty people in constructing a deck, removing a concrete fire pit (not in that order), and otherwise remodeling an amphitheater at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center, one of the most awesome places on Earth, and tons of other stuff I couldn't even begin to mention.

Okay, now that you're caught up, I'm late in making breakfast.

In case you're wondering, the real running time was three minutes and forty-two seconds.

PS: And how could I forget? I also received the greatest calling I've ever had, where I get to help teach the eleven-year-old scouts of our troop. Don't forget that one.

05-17-11 Year recap in sixty seconds

So, as seems so common now, I've let a little time go by in between posts. Shame that. But anyway, things are a little behind now, and I'm not really the most energetic about trying to get caught up. This morning though, I was trying to sort through some old emails, and I ran into some old blog posts. You know, the really old ones. The ranting and raving ones. I think I still have some of those. But anyway, after the fifth or six one, I figured it'd probably be a good idea to through in some half-decent posts to try and balance things out.

Before I get to that though, I just want to say: Yes, Mom, you were right. My brief time as SPL was a fairly stressful time for a young scout, a time which inspired a tirade of rants for which the only pride that can be derived is that there weren't many typos. That being said, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I haven't gotten to the point in the old blog posts where things started turning around for me, but just in case I failed to mention it, (not unlikely) I figured now would be a good time to do so. (Or do it again if I already talked about it.)

Coming up with something to do each week for scouts was tough sometimes. I'd look for ideas online, look through requirements for practically anything that we could go over, and I let things get more stressful than they needed to be. Now, in hindsight, it probably would have been a good idea to have one of those meetings be a planning meeting, to go over activities for the next one or two months. And even more importantly, delegation. It's a scary word, but it's powerful.

There was one thing that somehow managed to get into my thick head though. Leadership isn't one-sided. In order to be a true leader, you have to be able to see a group of boys as individuals, and relate to them in such a way that you can know what they need from you. It seems like just when I was beginning to learn that, the ward switch happened and I got released. Even if nothing else was gained from that whole experience though, that one concept was worth all of the worry. Now, whether it was worth having to read through all the rants and complaints that you guys had to go through, that's another story, but in my selfish and self-centered way, I'm glad I got to experience it.

What's more, it didn't end there. In the new Perkins Ward, I would eventually become the President of the Teacher's Quorum. It was a much slower pace than before, but I still had things to learn. A lot of that I got to learn from Bro. Foell. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Seminary was where I finally learned to feel comfortable speaking in front of a group, but it was Bro. Foell who helped me feel comfortable speaking face to face. I learned a great deal about self confidence from him. I learned how to look people in the eye from him. But one thing I'll never forget was the way he taught me leadership doesn't end in the meetings. I'm not just responsible for who shows up. I can still remember going on a couple visits to a less active member after BYC, talking with their family and learning their interests. It's true that we weren't really able to get them to come very regularly, but once again in my selfish way, I got learn about reaching out. It doesn't have to be big. It just has to BE. So thanks, Brother Foell. It meant a lot to me. (Thanks to everyone else too, he was just someone I've been thinking about quite a bit over the past few weeks.)

Hmm... This post isn't exactly what I had in mind when I started. Should I follow through with it and work on a different one for the recap? Sure, why not.

I thought I had leadership all figured out. And in some ways, I did. I definitely figured out what I felt were the most important, but there was something missing. Application. Up to that point, the stuff I learned were pretty personal, more for myself than those I held responsibility for. But more recently, that started to change. It started mostly, or most dramatically, with my Eagle Project.

Just figuring out what I wanted to do was difficult, something that Bro. McCord really helped me with. I'd say he picked up right where Bro. Foell left off in my education on leadership. To be a leader, you have to have a plan, know the steps to take, and choose the best course in following those steps. I still remember talking with him about project ideas and having him give me some ideas of who to talk to, then challenging me to contact each of them and get back to him with what I found.

Up to that point, I had followed a few leads and contacted a few organizations, but nothing had really worked. Partly I was just looking in the wrong places. Bro. McCord recommended several organizations to contact, one of which was the Effie Yeaw Nature Center, and we all know (or soon will know) where that went. I also learned about delegation from Bro. McCord. Let's face it, you can't do everything yourself and you won't really be a good leader if you try. That's something I had trouble with. Trust issues... Not really, but I like control. Adding delegation throws in a variable into the equation, and I much rather deal with constants. Starting to go off topic.

Anyway, I won't go into a whole lot of detail of the project. Let's just say that a lot of it was calling people, leaving messages, working around paperwork, visiting different organizations, and completely revising my plans to work around a new complication. And that was before I had to organize the actual work for the project. Was it fun? At the time, I might have eaten you for the question. In hindsight, it was awesome. I especially liked working on the project itself. It was like the final exam of everything I had worked for. Sure it had a few rough points, but just seeing everything slowly come together was incredible. Yeah, that whole delegation thing can really come in handy. I still like to be on the receiving end, rather than have to worry if it'll get done or not, but I won't deny it has its uses.

To conclude this slightly more positive rant, may I just say that Scouting and the Young Men's program are inspired things. It's impossible to look back and say it didn't mean anything. Not if you were paying any amount of attention to what was happening. I just hope that when I'm older, I can be the kind of leaders that I had. Plus Mom! Don't forget Mom! She get's most of these sappy posts though, and even in this one she's implied. I mean, how is anyone to manage anything without an awesome mom?

But the real point is... That's scouting for you. And just in case you've seen some of my earlier posts, let this one set the record straight. Scouting is incredible. It may be tough on occasion, but it's incredible.

-Cue the credits-

08/30/10 Things change

On one point, however, you need not fear. The chances of me blogging again on a regular basis are slim and fleeting. So for the many among us who fear change, feel free to rest easy in the protected harbor of my own laziness.

Unfortunately, it would seem that we're a tad outnumbered at the moment, so give me a little while to address some of the changes that have been happening around here lately. Forgive me, I would prefer the silence just as much as you would, were it not for the small, reoccurring thought that so frequently enters my mind. Not everyone fears change– And they would be a little upset if I failed to even acknowledge some of the events of late.

To put it simply... I don't want to die. So here goes.

If you are even reading this, you are probably already familiar with this blog, and likely as not, you're a relative. That being said, you already know the rules. If you expect this to make any sense whatsoever, don't blame me if you find yourself dismally disappointed. It's your own fault for reading it.

Since I've let this go for so long, it is practically impossible for me to even consider fitting all that has happened into a single post. So... I won't. I might make more posts later, but to be fair to my fellow change-fearing readers, I commit to nothing. For now, though, I'll hit the big topic around here: Our kitchen no longer exists.

A little back story for this. Our house is not exactly what one would call well kept. It's been in desperate straits for decades, and it has only been in the recent years that it has made any progress at all. There are, however, still many things needing to be fixed. The terror of all terrors was, of course, the kitchen. Mom was often fond of saying that "If any man in a uniform ever saw our kitchen, it would be condemned." Not too far off the mark, really.

Well, some weeks back, a member of the Bishopric told her that the Bishop had offered to help fix it up. Needless to say, this took a little while to sink in, but when it did, the gratitude we all felt was incredible. It's not often you expect to be the recipient of service, especially of something this large. There are blessings to living in the Gospel that I don't think I fully understand. Seeing how willing people are to help really expresses to me how close a ward family can be. I mean, I've always enjoyed giving service, but being on the other end and seeing the selflessness of the people serving really helps me understand better what the love of Christ really is. In a way, I almost appreciate this new understanding as much or more than the service itself. Don't get me wrong, the idea of a kitchen without a floor that's falling apart is amazing, but that's only temporal. If I'm not stupid and forget, I can keep this new found feeling forever.

It's awesome, I'll just say that.

But this isn't really what people wanted to know. Or at least, not what the people swarming facebook wanted to know. So, here's the update.

Demo started Thursday. Bro. Brown, Bro. De la Cruz, and Bishop came over and with a little help from David and I, they pretty much ripped the kitchen to shreds– and it was AWESOME. The counters were gone, a section of the wall was removed, and the floor was pulled up down to the sub-floor. Along the way, we met a few surprises. Some good, some bad. The good news was that the floor itself was actually pretty good, minus the gaping hole in it. It's actually fairly sturdy. It was just the top part that was going bad. And even the hole would be fairly easy to fix. On the flip side, removing the section of the wall between the dining room and the kitchen would be a little harder than we thought. You see, it had wires in it, and the people who put them there didn't seem to know what they were doing. From what we can tell, they ripped out part of the wall, but didn't properly handle the wiring that was already in it, so that would mean a little extra work. But again, luckily the floor was good, meaning that we wouldn't need to do nearly as many repairs as we thought, so it kind of evens out. So anyway, that pretty much concludes that day. All that happened after that was clean up, although Bro. Altop did come by in the evening and replaced some of the plumbing to the sink. That was fun to see.

On Friday, most of the big repairs were made. The frame surrounding the hole was improved, making the wood that rested on top of it much less... interesting. In addition, the wires in the walls were moved around, and Bishop did an awesome job of figuring out how they all got connected and where they went. Plus, with the wall gone, some of the framing around the doorway changed, so they put in some new supports to make it less likely to collapse. Now granted, it probably wouldn't have collapsed the way it used to be, but this is much better. Also, since we were going ahead of schedule, Mom and Bro. De la Cruz were also able to go out and get the materials we would be needing to put together the kitchen.

On Saturday, we got to spend the day scrubbing and sanding cabinets, cleaning up debris, and doing a little cleaning on the ceiling and stove cover. It was nice to see the improvements, but it kind of took a little while. And needless to say, we were very happy to be finished for the day.

Today, the kitchen really started coming together. We put down Hardie Board (Or whatever you call it), finished up most of the electrical, and put in some of the dry wall. But the day isn't over yet, so I've got to go. I'll add some more updates and probably put up some pictures later. But for now, I'll leave you to wonder why you ever missed reading this in the first place.

See ya!

02-13-10 Branch by branch

So, it's a slow progress, but I'm working on getting the trees ready to fall, mainly by ridding them of their precious limbs. The one we took down today was a little tricky, since it was grown tangled into the branches of the baby tree, a tree we kind of wanted to keep alive... Anyway, Joe helped out with the guide ropes, and eventually we got the thing on the ground. Now mom wants it cut up. Might put that off a little... Anyway, things went well, and I learned again the values of the taut-line and bowline. Oddly enough, we rigged up a perfect pulley system by accident. Now I just have to remember how we did it so I can use it again.

I haven't posted in a while, but I don't think I can promise that that will change. I'll work on it, but it's not likely. Still, life is good, and I'll post again... sometime. See ya.