Goodbye 2018!

This December I'm seeing a lot of people complain about 2018. Oddly, last December I also saw a lot of people complain about 2017. Amazingly, a few years ago I saw a lot of people complain about 2016. Shockingly, several years ago I saw a lot of people complain about 2015. Notice a pattern here? I do. Basically, people will complain about the end of the year no matter what year it is. I highly doubt that your life is so bad that every year is a bad one.

But if it is, then you have some of the blame for it.

Look everyone has something bad happen to them. Sometimes we can have serval bad things happen to us over a long period of time. But if every year of your life is miserable than yes, you are at fault. You either need to change your outlook on life and stop complaining, or change your circumstances so that your life isn't as miserable as you think it is. If you are an adult, you do have the power in life to change both your outlook and circumstances, unless you are in prison. You just need the backbone and desire to change.

Scripture Sunday 2 Nephi 9:21

Many other passages in the Book of Mormon talk about "hearkening unto His voice" but not many other passages talk about the pain and suffering that He endured in order to save us. Our human minds can not comprehend the amount of agony that He suffered in order to save us-mostly because if we could comprehend it, it would overwhelm us. It almost overwhelmed Him-several times during His passion He asked for the cup to be taken from Him.

It's interesting to me that this passage talks about the pains of "all living creatures", then says "both men, women and children who belong to the family of Adam." Does that mean that there is some kind of salvation for animals? Why did the writer say "all living creatures"then say only "men, women and children and all those who belong to the family of Adam." It seems like the writer, and therefore God, left the door open to their being some kind of eternal life for "creatures".

Life in the 80's meme

Some thoughts about this meme:
1. Walkmans were horrible devices. You could only bring a few tapes with you at one time, thus severely limiting your music selection. I can bring my entire music library with me wherever I go thanks to iTunes.
2. The World Book encyclopedia was dated the moment it came out. Technology allows us to correct our reference books with new, fresh research in an instant.
3. Atari was great, one of my tattoos is the logo. But now we have a much greater selection of video games.
4. Getting caught with notes in class was always a risk, and you can't pass notes to your girlfriend who goes to a different school or to your husband at work. Texting allows you to do so.
5. Writing letters manually took forever, and mailing them even more time. By the time you got  the letter your life might have changed so much and so rapidly you'd need to write a new one.
6.  MTV was cutting edge, but YouTube allows you to watch the videos you want to whenever you want, with no need to listen to obnoxious DJs or wait for hours watching videos you have no desire to see waiting for one you want to see.
7. Do you know how dangerous road maps were to read while you were driving? Plug in your Garmin, let her tell you where to go. Much safer. Also-those things weren't updated as easily as your GPS is.
8. Being able to get a book instantly virtually anywhere in the world has made libraries obsolete. I can read what I want, when I want, where I want.

Technology rules. Stop being so afraid of it.

Album of the weekend

Anvil-Forged in Fire

I never liked this album. It always struck me as having few good songs, but also feeling over produced. It lacks the freshness of Metal on Metal and the purity of Hard and Heavy. However, I've given it another listen recently and while I stand by my original points-it still sounds over produced. 

Anvil is a strange band. They are fairly influential in the thrash metal realm, but very few people outside that fandom know who they are. Even after the movie that came out, they seem to have faded away into obscurity once again. Like many bands, their first few albums were the best. This album isn't as good as Metal on Metal or Hard and Heavy, but check it out if you are into the genre.

Remake of Mary Poppins

This is more about remakes in general, but the remake of Mary Poppins got me thinking-why remake a movie that was nearly perfect in the first place? Before you say "What about the book/musical Wicked?" That's not a remake, it's a retelling, and there is a huge difference. In the outstanding musical Wicked, it tells the story of the Wicked Witch, not Dorothy. While you can argue that the original Wizard of Oz told the story of the Wicked Witch-it's more about Dorothy. 

So seriously, why remake something was nearly perfect in the first place? You can't make it better. The Disney version of the Music Man was horrible-not because the actors are bad, but because it's nearly impossible to top a movie that was already basically fantastic. It's not just musicals that deal with this-it's also horror movies. The 1960 version of Psycho is a landmark movie. The remake, again created by very talented people, is laughably bad.

An expert film critic could write an interesting piece about why movie remakes are virtually always terrible.

I'm back!

I hope everyones Christmas was a good one. The day after Christmas can be a little depressing for people. I understand that, even though I don't agree. To me, I'm glad it's over and I'm glad I can go back to my daily routine. 

If the day after Christmas for you is tough, I'm sorry to hear that-my heart goes out to you. Try to get back into your routine and if you still have the post holiday blues after awhile-change your routine to include something you enjoy doing. 

Christmas Break

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone. I'll be back on the 26th/27th. 

Raw milk

One of the issues in trying to be logically consistent with your politics is that you'll come to conclusions that you don't like. If you don't care about being consistent, than you can twist and turn your politics to suit whatever issue comes your way. Both sides do that, and it's disgusting, but it's not something you should aim for. Being much more sympathetic to the libertarian side than I am anything else, I find myself advocating for your right to do things that I think are repulsive, unhealthy, or just plain asinine. Drinking "raw milk" is one of those things that should be legal, but is a really, really stupid thing to do.

Just because something is "raw" does not mean it's good for you. In fact, eating things that are raw might kill you. E. Coli is not a pleasant thing to consume, and in some cases, it can be deadly. Yes, you can get E.Coli from drinking raw milk. You can get other joyous bacterial infections by drinking raw milk as well. The health benefits are controversial and need to be further investigated, but drinking raw milk is a real stupid idea.

However, it's your body and if you want to go through the agony of getting a bacterial infection, you should be allowed to do so. You shouldn't sue anyone of course-you should be intelligent enough to know the risks before you consume anything-and you should be forced to pay your own hefty medical bills as well. If you can do all that, than drink away.

Album of the weekend

Poison-Open up and say Ahh!

Thinking about this album makes me smile. It's not a legendary album, it's not a hugely influential album, but it's their best and it's also one of the better hair band albums out there. Like all of the hair metal bands, it's somewhat cheesy to listen to today and we've heard all the stories before, but it's still a great album.

Poison embraces the party aspect of rock and roll, but it also has some surprising deeper songs on the album. "Nothing but  Good Time" is a lot like "Living on a Prayer" by Bob Jovi. A song that shows a blue collar guy who is "breaking our backs every day" wanting something more. "Fallen Angel" is now a cliche, and it probably was back then, but it's a great song about a girl going to Los Angeles and getting caught up in the lifestyle. "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" is the standard ballad that every band at the time had to have on their album and as ballads go-it's a touching song about a failing relationship.

If you are of a certain age and into the genre of music, you probably own this album.   It's a good purchase for anyone who likes straight up rock and roll.

FM radio

First off, I get it-no one listens to traditional radio anymore. I sure don't. I usually listen to XM radio, audiobooks or iTunes. Occasionally I'll listen to a sporting event if I'm driving, but I usually listen to those on the XM radio as well.

FM radio is doomed, and I'm not exactly sad that it's leaving. What used to be local, individualized and independent is now largely corporate, lacking identity and repetitive. Every city has their own musical style. For Nashville it's country, for Boston it's ska, for NYC it's many things but punk comes to mind first off. Radio stations used to be part of that style. You'd have DJ's who were given much more freedom to play music they actually enjoyed instead of what was popular. By giving unknown artists airplay it could be hugely beneficial to their careers and put them on the map. Not so today.

So will I be sorry when the day finally comes where the plug is pulled on FM radio? No. I have some happy memories of listening to it on road trips (WAAF/WBCN in Boston come to mind), but I would never go back to the days where we got the majority of our new music on that format.

Class rings

The secretary in my high school told us once that we would regret losing our class rings. She was wrong. I'm not even sure how I got it, maybe my parents bought it for me- but I lost mine about a month after high school and have never thought about it until about two weeks ago when a friend of mines daughter was going to get hers. 

Look, you should be proud of your education because it takes a lot of hard work. I'm proud of mine. But I think wearing a class ring after you reach a certain age is sort of pathetic. In fact, I think it's like wearing a high school varsity jacket when you are 25 years old. It screams "loser." 

If you really want to remember your high school years, look in your yearbook (I threw those away too. No regrets). If you want to relive your high school years, watch Freaks and Geeks. If you want to get your jewelry fix on-don't wear a class ring. 

Gene Simmons sued for sexual harassment

Not to make light of a serious subject, but DUH. Gene Simmons is a walking sexual harassment suit, and if you've ever had the misfortune to hear him speak, you'll see very quickly that yes, he's a dirty old man and no, it's not funny anymore. 

Gene fails to comprehend that right now, in 2018, making sexual comments or filthy jokes is walking right up to the line and many times, crossing it. Ignore the fact that he's married and shouldn't be doing that-that's a personal failure.

Gene isn't a stupid man, but he obviously can't comprehend that he's way past his prime and is not the dream date of every woman. He never was, but power is intoxicating and women are attracted to it. His ego is out of control, and since he clearly hasn't heard the word "no" very often he doesn't seem to be able to handle it. That, and he seems to think he is entitled to molest women at free will without consequence.

Time is up for him. If true, hopefully this woman will clean him out.

Bryce Harper

If you have 300 million dollars to spare, you could sign the baseball player Bryce Harper to your favorite team. He's a great player, one of the best in the game, but he's not worth the asking price. His agent is, of course, Scott Boras. Boras is many things but he's not a stupid man. Harper is many things, obnoxious being one of them. The rumor in the baseball world is that Harper is having a hard time finding a team who will sign him to a long term deal for that amount of money.

Baseball general managers and owners might be getting smarter. Long term deals for millions and millions of dollars seldom end well-ask the Angels about Albert Pujols and the Rangers about Alex Rodriguez. Once the signing is announced the team will usually sell a lot more tickets, but the player almost never helps the team to a winning record.

Baseball is a team sport. One guy can have a huge impact on the team in run creation, but he can't pitch, field, and and hit in all nine spots. While the team that signs Harper will probably get an offensive boost in the short term, it won't be worth the money. At all.

Scripture Sunday Jacob 3:2

This is a passage that I don't really agree with. "All those that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God." First off, no one is pure in heart. We are all "sinners in the hands of an angry God." We need to "feast upon His love" simply because we don't deserve it-after all, God is repulsed by our sinful nature. So no, I don't agree with this passage and no, I don't really like it either.

I chose this passage today to prove a point. You don't have to agree with everything in the Book of Mormon or the bible in order to be saved. This passage doesn't effect my belief in Jesus Christ or in him being the Savior-which does effect our salvation. We should not let our disagreements with this or that passage take our eyes off what really matters.

Boy Scouts might declare bankruptcy

The Boy Scouts might have to declare bankruptcy. No, you can't blame "the left" and no, you can't blame the LDS church for leaving them. Whenever an organization declares bankruptcy, there are many reasons. Did their break with the LDS church help them? Of course not. Did their decision to allow girls in help them? Nope. The nail in the coffin was actually sexual assault cases and having to settle them for huge amounts of money. Catholic church-take notes.

I'm not sure they'll go under for this. It's not going to help, a bankruptcy never does, but I'm not sure they'll cease operations because of this. I feel sorry for people who dedicated their lives to Scouting (and I had no idea how important Scouting was to some people) because this is another black eye to the Boy Scouts organization.

Album of the Weekend

New York Dolls-New York Dolls

This is one of the greatest debut albums in music history, if not the greatest. Some music historians of the time period consider the New York Dolls to be the greatest rock/punk/glam band of all time and I tend to agree with them. 

There is pre-New York Dolls music and there is a post-New York Dolls music. The style, the lyrical content and of course the music was vastly ahead of it's time and influenced Kiss, the Ramones and virtually every hair band from the late 70's to the early 90's.  Looking back it is amazing to think that they did all that and they only created two albums during their brief time in the 70's. 


I'm stunned I haven't posted this yet as my Album of the weekend, but a search shows that I have not. 

LDS Deadpool poster

There is a petition going around to stop Marvel comics from using a certain Deadpool image that mocks a painting of Christ that LDS find sacred.  If you know anything about comics/comic movies you'll know that Deadpool has a zany and dark sense of humor that some of us adore. This isn't blasphemy, it's Deadpool being Deadpool. LDS signing the petition mean well, and like always their hearts are in the right place-but they need to chill.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, censorship never works. Never. All it will do is cause more attention to be given to what you are trying to forbid others to see.  I didn't even know about this until someone told me about the petition-no, I didn't sign it.

Everyone is a snowflake. Everyone. From liberals to conservatives to atheists to believers. We all have our "grab the sword and battle" issues that we feel strongly about. LDS of course have every right to sign petitions, refuse to read Marvel comics or see Marvel movies-but Marvel also has every right to let Deadpool be Deadpool.

Baby it's cold outside

Radio stations are pulling the classic Christmas song and at first glance, they might have a point. After all, the lyrics sound sort of creepy and the song has not aged well. Sure, you could argue that it's more flirty and fun than disturbing or uncomfortable, but I can actually see both sides of this argument. Banning this song is not part of the overall "War on Christmas" (which doesn't exist, but anyway) but it is capitulating to political correctness.

What I find fascinating is that no one complaining about this song has the :: ahem :: backbone to complain about filthy rap lyrics. That would be politically incorrect and might get you accused of being racist, so that door won't be opened. It's much easier to show your MeToo side and protest something that all your friends agree with.

In junior high school, a teacher called my parents to show her concern about the musicians I listened to. She was worried about the lyrics to Ozzy Osbourne and other heavy metal performers I loved so much. My parents were worried about it too, so I lied to them and hid several of my cassette tapes. No regrets, heavy metal kept me sane back then.  I then made it a point to seek out music that had darker lyrics to see why it was so taboo. Banning things didn't work for them-I developed a lifelong love of heavy metal, and that poor teacher had no idea what she was doing.

Banning things straight out almost never works.

Update on my running/working out more.

So, here's my latest workout post.

You'll notice that timing isn't very good. I admit that it isn't. However earlier in the year I couldn't run a half mile, and now I've been able to run for three miles and not 1) die of a heart attack or 2) contemplate suicide due to exhaustion afterwards. For me, running three miles is a huge accomplishment and frankly, I'm proud of it no matter how bad the timing is.

Kareem Hunt

Another NFL player was caught on tape savagely attacking a woman. It's disgusting, and the NFL has a serious problem with domestic violence. The Chiefs released him, and any team that signs him should be universally critiqued. In fact, I can't imagine a team going through the PR disaster that signing him would entail. 

It came out that the woman who was attacked might have used a racial slur. That's disgusting, repulsive, and abhorrent-but it doesn't warrant getting attacked. If someone uses that language, you should fire back. With your words. Assaulting someone just for what they said is incredibly disturbing. 

Would I feel different if it was two men? Probably. Two guys gotta fight sometimes and racial slurs are certainly fighting words. Even then though, violence is rarely the answer.

Scripture Sunday 2 Nephi 7:10-11

This passage talks about something that isn't spoken much in this culture-fear of the Lord. "Who is among you that fear the Lord, that obey the voice of his servant and that walk in the darkness and hath no light?" We a lot of talking today from the pulpit about how the Lord is "love" and He is, but He is also to be feared. I get the feeling that for thousands of years that God was someone only to be feared. Luther thought God was a judgement God, and the prophets of the book of Mormon also thought the same thing. Generally speaking, when we fear something we don't want to cross or disobey it, and when it comes to the Lord, even in 2018, those are things we should remember.

I also like verse eleven-"Behold all ye that kindle fire, compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled" Clearly, Isiah (And this part of the Book of Mormon comes from the Book of Isiah) is talking about the fire of the Lord, and to walk in which direction it leads you

Kevin Hart out as Oscars host

Um, I'm not even sure who Kevin Hart is, but apparently he was the scheduled host of the Oscars but some anti gay statements he made have come back to haunt him. He has voluntarily stepped down instead of going through the walk of shame and begging for forgiveness. The Oscars, and Kevin Hart are of no interest to me. The SJW's claiming another victim are of great interest to me.

The bar for banning someone because of what they said should be incredibly high. Just making a joke about homosexuals, white people, black people, Hispanic people, Asian people or the like should not be grounds for barring you from hosting the Oscars or having a career. Is there a line you don't cross? Of course there is-and I'm not saying Kevin Hart didn't cross it. I have no idea if he did or not.

I've said it before, and I apologize but it needs to be restated. Given enough evidence, I could make anyone out to be a scumbag. Yes, even you reading this. You've said things in the heat of the moment that are stupid, offensive, rude and sometimes even worse. Do you want that held against you? Do you want to lose your job over it? It's a dangerous world we are living in.

Album of the weekend

Guns and Roses-Use Your Illusion I

Use Your Illusions I and II might be the best rock albums from their era. I already covered the second one, and it's time to talk about the first. Another great album from a band that shined so brightly for such a short time.

As mentioned while discussing the second one, this album also has a bi-polar feel. The ballad "Don't Cry" and bizarre "Coma" and the cover of "Live and Let Die" originally by Paul McCartney don't really fit in with a tradaional rock album, especially a traditional Guns and Roses album, but that doesn't spoil the overall feeling of the album. Everyone likes and remembers November Rain, but I get the feeling that when the door is closed, November Rain isn't played that often. It's just too long, but does have an ending that gets more intense an meaningful. For a ballad, it's not bad though. My personal favorite song off this album is "Don't Damn Me", a powerful free speech ballad.

This album isn't as good as the second, but it's still worth a download.

Parent shaming?

I may have the terminology wrong, but when I say "parent shaming" I mean another couple looking down on a parent for disciplining their child in a way they may not approve of. Also, even if it has to be said, yes, abuse is wrong and should be condemned in the strongest term. However, yelling at your child isn't abuse. Especially if your child is about to do something really stupid-like try to enter water that could be filled alligators.

I was at Disney recently-a place famous for children acting up and parents sometimes being at the end of their rope. I saw a child (no, I can't estimate age and I'm terrible with that anyway) about to run to a pond near the hotel we were staying at. The parent yelled at the kid, ran after them, and gave them a slap on the rear. A younger couple near me (strangers to me) saw the interaction and commented to one another that the mother shouldn't have done what she did.

Look, I'm not a parent, but a light slap on the butt to prevent a child from running into a pool of water that might have an alligator in it is not overkill. At all. In fact, hopefully it'll teach that child not to do the same stupid thing again. No, I'm not in favor of spanking, but since I'm not a parent I could never tell you how or what to do in that case. Even if I was a parent, it's not up to me to tell you how to discipline your child. It's not up to you either, to be honest.

NBA Age limit

As of right now, there is an age limit to play in the NBA. You must be 19 years old. It's always struck me as bit odd-an eighteen year old can enter into the job market and get a job based on their skills and abilities-which granted, at age 18, isn't much-but you are a legal adult at that age. Why do you have to play college basketball or go a different route?

My personal view is that someone at age 18 is not mature enough physically or emotionally to play professional sports at the highest level. For every Kobe Bryant there is a Korleone Young and James Lang. However it is not up to me to tell NBA teams who to draft-they should be free to pick and choose who they'd like on their team.

I don't have any sympathy at all for the NCAA. They've shown time and time again how corrupt they are. The schools also make enormous money from their sports programs and sure, while they provide the athletes with a "free" education, the athletes could be making much more if they went professional. For some athletes who lack the skill needed to play professional basketball, college might be a good idea. For those athletes who can compete right away at the highest level, they should have that option.

Vigilante justice at it's finest

In NYC, a woman was arrested for strangling a guy into unconsciousness for grabbing her bottom. Unfortunately, she strangled the wrong guy.  I get it, we all love vigilante justice, but it's not so pretty when you attack the wrong guy, is it? Oh, and by the way-the guy who really did grab her bum should be arrested for sexual assault. So no, I'm not in favor of men acting like pigs and getting away with it.

What the woman did was much worse. As disgusting as an uninvited slap on the bum is (and it is disgusting) it's not going to kill someone. In fact, it's more annoying then deadly. To repeat myself (because this is not a point I wish to be misunderstood) the "man" who did it should have been arrested immediately and brought up on sexual assault charges. However, he doesn't deserve to die for it.

And neither does a totally innocent man. Lets say she strangled the guy into unconsciousness (and she did) and he eventually passed out, hit his head against something and died. Guess what? She will correctly be brought up in manslaughter charges.

We fear the justice system. We fear that justice will not be solved after we've been wronged in some way. While that's unfortunate and true in some cases, it's much worse to take the law into your own hands and pretend you are Dirty Harry.

Addiction counseling

When a doctor or a group claims to have the cure for something-treat it with a high degree of skepticism. No, there is no cure for cancer and no, no one is holding it back or keeping it in secret. I've noticed that people hawking addiction cures can be incredibly offensive about how they market their product. No, no addiction cure, even ones based in religion and even ones based in my religion, is 100% effective. If they were, than everyone would use it.

When something works people generally flock to it, usually by word of mouth. iPhones are incredibly popular because they work. Blackberries have sort of died out because they don't work as well as the other alternatives. Peach pits do not cure cancer and no one uses them to do so. Chemo, all though it has horrible side effects, treats cancer the best way possible that we know of right now, so people generally treat cancer with it.

Addiction treatments are notoriously difficult. Some work on a minority of people, some don't work at all, and some claim to magically cure all addictions with the push of a button. No addict wants to be addicted, and if one treatment really did work 85% of the time, then all addicts would flock to it. That doesn't happen, so I'm intensely skeptical of any addiction treatment that claims a high success rate.

Scripture Sunday Mosiah 2:22

Oh, the famous passage where is starts off by saying "All that He requires of you is to keep His commandments and He has promised you that if ye would keep His commandments, you shall prosper in the land." Sure, He is talking to a large group of people though his prophets, but in reality, this is also a deeply personal passage.

"All that He requires of you is to keep His commandments". Um, that's actually a huge requirement and it's extremely difficult. There is a famous joke where Moses comes off the mountain carrying the tablets for the Ten Commandments. He tells the Israelites, "The good news is that I've talked him down to ten, but adultery is still on the list." Ha ha. All the commandments are incredibly difficult to follow, from adultery to weekly church attendance. So "All that He requires" is actually quite challenging and if anyone tells you otherwise, they are lying or they aren't following the commandments very well.

The good news is that if you do keep the commandments, the Lord will bless you and you will prosper. That doesn't mean that everyone who prospers is keeping the commandments-that would be naive to think so-but blessings come in different forms. It's always good to remember that if you obey Him and do your best to follow His commandments, blessings will come in one form or another.,

NFL Ratings

Apparently the NFL isn't really suffering anymore. Ratings are skyrocketing, according to this report.  I thought this would happen-eventually temper tantrums end, and people usually don't have the energy to boycott something for a prolonged period of time. We are still talking about the National Anthem protest, but not as much as before. The ratings went down for a bit, but have clearly bounced back. Attendance might be suffering if the local team is struggling (Tampa, my local team, are giving away free tickets. Not a good sign)  but other than that the NFL has rebounded.

Is the NFL in the clear? Oh, God no. Between CTE, domestic violence and yes, national anthem protests they still have major problems that aren't going away-but at this point, viewers aren't going away either.