Music and Lyrics

Dear Reader, This past week I noticed a dramatic change on the "People you may know" feature of Facebook. There were suddenly several people from work and dozens of people from the classes I am taking this semester. I have always been fascinated by the inner-workings of social media websites and the internet in general, especially when websites try to guess logically what is most interesting and pertinent to one's life. With this being said, today we can chat a little bit about how smart phones play into these features on Facebook and other sites. You see, as I was trying to figure out how Facebook suddenly would systematically figure out my class and work schedule, I realized that last week I had added several different phone numbers to my phone because of classwork with classmates and getting people to cover shifts at work. You see, if you have a smart phone with the Facebook application, especially the Facebook Messenger application, the programs that run those ap

Dear Reader, In the Brigham Young University Chorale, we are singing a song entitled "Precious Lord, Take My Hand." It is a really cool a Capella arrangement that encompasses a plea to the Lord to help us through life. The line "When the Darkness Appears" took on a new light when I was thinking about an aspect of getting to know people. When the darkness appears, there are two things that happen: people open up about themselves more and they are more prone to do irrational things. I'll give a few examples to demonstrate (as always). I'll say again that people tend to open up more after dark. Take, for example, a girl that I took on a few dates a while back. We went out and did activities during the day. The dates were fun and we enjoyed talking to each other. However, I always felt there was something missing. My roommate suggested one evening that I take her out to something after dark. That was the first time the idea popped into my head that people w

Dear Reader, Don't judge if you know what song those lyrics are from. I may or may not have the entire song memorized (Of course, that is the case with lots of songs in my head). Despite the origin of the lyrics and our main topic, that is the truth. I want to be the best at what I do. Although, while thinking about what to do with my life, there came an epiphany. What you want to become and what you want to do are two totally different things.  Let me illustrate with a couple questions and examples. If you are wanting to get good grades in school, do you study in order to get those grades? Or are you one to go be with friends when you should be doing your homework? In other words, to you want to be a good student? Wanting to be a good student is different than wanting to spend time with friends.  Here is another example of being vs. doing. Many members of religious organizations (not just the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) want to be in good standing with God

Dear Reader, The Lord has given each one of us many opportunities, including the time we have in this life. Yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, a young man talked about his experience with tithing in relation to his time. He explained that many people see miracles when they pay their tithing because they are in a situation where they cannot pay their tithing and pay for something else that is really important. These miracles usually occur when the person decides to pay their tithing first. Somehow there is enough for the other things they needed to pay for as well. He took that principle and explained it from a standpoint of the time we have. Just so we are on the same page, the Lord has given a commandment to pay an honest tithe. In other words, one commandment that we have in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is to give one tenth of our annual income to the church for many different things. This young man from yesterday went a little bit into paying tithing