Musings on Life and Living

For those who receive blog updates in their emails, I think there may have been a formatting error with my most recent post. If it appeared as one giant paragraph, I apologise. I think I have fixed the problem. If you would like to read the post without straining your eyes, you can do so here: http://alexandgretch.blogspot.com/2010/04/honouring-law.html If you read the blog online anyway, you probably won't have noticed. If that is the case, please carry on.

The 12th Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, magistrates, in honoring, sustaining, and obeying the law." The 134th Section of the Doctrine & Covenants further outlines some of the basic beliefs of the LDS Church concerning government and laws in general. Of particular interest to me right now are these verses: 1 WE believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society. 2 We believe that no government can exist in peace , except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience , the right and control of property, and the protection of life. 3 We believe that all governments necessarily require civil officers and magistrates to enforce th...

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about this thing that the Salvation Army was doing in Champaign. The concept was pretty simple: A Million Meals for Haiti. The process was equally simple: Numana, Inc. had come up with a simple recipe that would provide basic nutrients for people in famine-like conditions. The Salvation Army and Numana would get the raw materials. Volunteers would make the finished product. The Salvation Army would get the meals delivered to Haiti by the end of the next week. The meals would be packaged in bags that would contain six meals. Each package consisted of (approximately) a cup of ground soybeans, a cup of freeze-dried pinto beans, a teaspoon of multivitamins (powdered), and a cup of rice. (I am not sure of the exact measurements, but it was something like what I have stated.) Add six cups of water and you have enough food for six people for one meal. To prepare the dried goods, we were to form an assembly line with a team of 10-12 people who would package the ...

Some of you may know that I spend a bit of time floating around and posting on what is known somewhat officially as the Bloggernacle. This is the world of Mormon blogging. I was introduced to it initially by my dad, although it was before the concept really existed. One day he showed me a site called "The Cracked Planet of Jeff Lindsay". I went back occasionally, and I would randomly read his blog, Mormanity, which I keep linked on our sidebar on the blog site. A couple of years ago, I was talking with my room-mate, Lars, and he told me about his conversations with folks on some of the Mormon blogs. I returned to Mormanity, and one day noticed some of the other sites he linked, including Times and Seasons and By Common Consent (also linked on our sidebar). One day I posted something, and my sister Amanda called me and said, "Hey, do you post on some Mormon blog or something?" It turns out that one of the contributors to the blog was in Amanda's ward when she was...

I've often heard the advice given that you should try to live your life in such a way that you can look back and have no regrets. As I look back on my life, I would like to say that, when it comes to things that are important, I have followed this advice. I don't have any regrets about any major decisions I have made. I am not sure what the earliest important decision I ever made was. Perhaps it was becoming friends with a boy in my kindergarten class. We were in the same class from kindergarten through third grade. I believe we were in the same class in fifth grade, as well. And we had most of the same classes from 6th grade on through high school. We went through some rough patches, and there was a good three-year period in which we were more associates than friends (at least from my point of view) but, all these years later, we are still friends. And our friendship shaped our friendships with others. Baptism was definitely an important decision, and it is one I will never re...

This post is all Gretchen's fault. Just so you all know. And before I get to the meat of it, I need to explain a few things. First, my wife is a closet Trekkie. Well, not much of a closet one, as she will talk about it at times but, by and large, her love for many things Star Trek is kept pretty quiet. She is quite open about her desire to acquire all of Star Trek Voyager on DVD, though, but that's about it. Second, my best friends way back when I was in fourth and fifth grade were huge Trekkies. I pretended to be one, but inasmuch as Star Trek always aired (and still does, actually), late at night, I never watched the show much. I knew about all the various versions (Star Trek, ST: The Next Generation, ST: Deep Space Nine, ST: Voyager, and the way-awesome-but-ill-fated Enterprise). I have never seen a single one of the TNG movies. I have seen a couple of the Original Series movies. And I have seen the newest installment. So I am a wannabe Trekkie. Which is, now that I think ab...

For those of you who don't know Life is for the birds is online at www.lifeisforthebirds.com