Learning to Dance in the Rain

Author Archive

So I watched a prescreen viewing of Superman Returns today. It was alright. The scenes were definitely intense and some thrilling. The scenery and people are much more modern (much more than five years) than they were in the first movies (I only saw Superman I and II). Cell phones and the Internet are popular.  

Unfortunately, so is the family decay. (possible spoiler follows)

Lois Lane has a live-in boyfriend, and they have a kid together. It gets worse. Everyone explains to Superman, including Lois, that “five years is a long time”, and things change. Superman came back to Earth expecting Lois to still be in love with him. She explained with a torn heart that five years is a long time, and she had no idea whether he was coming back.

Well, it turns out that the young kid is Superman’s instead of her Lois’ live-in boyfriend. Hmm… doing the math, I calculate that Lois didn’t wait five years for Superman before hooking up. In fact, she didn’t wait a month. If Lois had a kid by Superman and thought it was Richard’s (her live-in boyfriend), things must have developed awfully fast when Superman disappeared.

It’s a shame how an otherwise great movie can be tainted by modern society’s degrading values.

So we got a ferret to join us in our little condo that we found on Craigs List.  Although it has had its scent glands removed, and the cage is freshly cleaned, the smell very quickly overtook our home, and we are looking for some family who is already accustomed to pets and their smell to take this sweet ferret home with them.

Lessons learned:

1. Visit a potential pet in its current environment before officially adopting it. (i.e. don’t have it delivered sight unseen).
2. Ask for a grace period in which you can return it.
3. Don’t get a pet when you have just a little space for it, where the smell can build up.

I’ve heard this all over the place: “I could care less”.  What does the person usually mean when he/she says this?  That they don’t care, of course. 

But think about it for just a minute: If you could care less, that means you must care something about it already.  I believe that this mis-quoted phrase probably stems from the more correct “I couldn’t care less”, and people just dropped the n’t without thinking about how they were significantly changing its meaning.

I had a co-worker named Kevin several years back who told me that people, in general, don’t like to think.  This is just one small piece of evidence in support of this claim. 

If you have used this phrase, consider thinking about what you say a bit more, please.  Let’s keep the english language a little less confusing to those learning it. 🙂

I don’t know if this phrase pervades outside the LDS culture like it does within it.  It is often embroidered to pictures of Christ.  The idea being portrayed is that life is hard, but it will be worth it because of Christ.

That simple idea is fine, but literally speaking, the saying is false, and its reverse is actually what is true:  Christ did say it would be easy, but he never said it would be worth it.  Think about it.  Can you find a scripture where he does? (literally speaking)

Now, of course Christ believed and taught principles consistent with the idea that yes, of course salvation is “worth it”.  But he also said taking His yoke upon ourselves is easy.  Let’s not get life (which is hard) confused with following Christ (easy). 

And let’s think about these catchy phrases before we allow them to permeate our entire culture.

I have been in many ward choirs.  These are some pointers I have that I believe can apply to every choir director.  I appreciate all choir directors, and I am glad they take their time to serve us.  I certainly do not have the skill to do what they do, and I appreciate their selfless service.  Nevertheless, I believe some improvements could be easily made.  But if you are a choir director please do not take anything personally or as an attack — especially if you are one of my own current or past choir directors!  In other words, these are written more for humor than anything else.  If you do not find it funny, stop reading.

1. End choir practice at the scheduled time, and not a minute later.  Consider ending early if you are at a convenient stopping place.
2. One or two people do not constitute a majority.  When you ask “Shall we sing it one more time?” and only one or two people respond affirmatively, that means that everyone else is silently responding “no”.  Ditto for “Do you want to stand?”
3. Leaning over a first row choir member to conduct directly to the third row makes people nervous.
4. Don’t specifically invite “all members, including those who can’t sing” to choir.  Those who can sing become less enthused about attending themselves.  Choirs should sound pleasant.
5. Consider singing the music as it is written.  It is perfectly acceptable to sing a hymn out of the book without stuffing as much variety as possible (or more so!) into the verses with unison/parts/harmony or new verses. 
6. If you have limited practice time before the performance, consider simplifying the selection before you call an extra weeknight rehearsal.
7. Never, never say “Let’s sing it just once more(, I promise).”  I have never met a choir director who lived up to that promise even once, so do not even pretend you will live up to it.  You tease us with the concept of getting home to eat, then we practice the piece three more times.
8. Give the choir time to talk to each other.  Singing can be an inspiring experience, and singing with people you know and love greatly enhances that.  Just two or three minutes per rehearsal of “talk with your neighbor” time can go a long way to putting smiles on the choir’s faces both for rehearsals and for performances.  We will probably pay more attention when you are talking as well.
9. When working with a small section of the choir, invite the others to sit down.
10. Do not ask us whether we want to sit with the congregation or in the choir loft for the rest of the meeting.  We will be divided anyway, just tell us what to do.  We will do what you say.

I suppose I should mention that I am the primary developer behind the RELATE Institute web site.  It utilizes C#, ASP.NET, XSLT, XSL-FO.  It is divided into several class libraries and an ASP.NET web front-end.  A significant class library behind the site is about to be open-sourced so I can work on it even after I leave to work for Microsoft.  Almost all the lessons that I post on my JMPInline blog comes from my developing RELATE.

Microsoft flew me up for a second round of interviews last week.  I interviewed with the Sparkle team and the .NET Compact Framework team.  Tonight I received an email from my recruiter congratulating me on an offer from the .NET Compact Framework team.  How exciting!

Details pending a phone call next Monday.

This is a rant about BYU’s bike policy.

BYU has a list of rules posted all over campus about where and how bikes can ride and park.  Many of them are reasonable.  The really annoying one is that we can only park our bikes at installed bike racks.  There are too few of them, and they are not in the right places.  Depending on where you are on campus, you might have to park your bike 1-2 buildings away in order to get to where you are going because no bike rack is closer.  The worst thing though is that the racks that are there are too small.  During the school year, the bike rack between the Kimball Tower and the McKay building is so full that it is literally impossible to tie a bike up on the rack.  So what can you do besides park 3 buildings away?  I have tried tying my bike up to a nearby handrail or tree when no space was available on the bike rack.  I made sure it would not be in anyone’s way.  And I’ve gotten warnings stuck on my bike by the campus police telling me I could get a fine for doing this again.

Stupid.  This university already has a serious car parking problem.  They could alleviate much of it by providing enough bike racks to encourage more bicycles.  There have been many days where I took the bus just because I figured I could not compete for space at the bike racks.  It’s more friendly to the environment for me to take a bike.  BYU should encourage this behavior.

These are some thoughts from the talk “The Doer of our Deeds and the Speaker of our Words” by M. Catherine Thomas.

“Is
it not obvious that we, created out of the very stuff of truth and
permeated by his power, cannot live against our own natures of light
and truth and intelligence without setting up conflict and spiritual
dis-ease within ourselves? The quality of our emotional and spiritual
existence is absolutely governed by divine law, and whether or not we
know about these laws, or observe them, we are continually and
profoundly affected by them. I suggest that at the base of much low
self-esteem lies not only spiritual conflict but a deep
selfdisapproval, whether conscious or not, over neglect of the
spiritual laws that govern happiness and freedom.”

True
true. We are at the core spiritual beings who rejoiced when Heavenly
Father presented this plan to us for coming to earth.

“Often
doors have closed before us that seemed to lead to the opportunities we
thought we had to have. We assumed that the closed door was a
reflection of some inadequacy in ourselves. But perhaps the closed door
had nothing to do with whether we were good or bad or capable or
incompetent. Rather, a loving Father shapes, even now, our path
according to a prearranged, premortal covenant.”

As a
missionary I was twice in a situation where I was a zone leader and
“demoted” to a district leader. Both times I partly resented the
change. Both times I later saw the wisdom behind the assignment.

I have become aware of how demanding of attention the self is. What a lot of prayer
and deliberate living it will take for me to remove my self as the force in my life. I
have
become aware that all my sins rise out of the self-absorption of my
heart—impulses rising like the ticking of a clock in their persistent
quest for self-promotion, self-defense, and self-gratification. It
seems as though a change is needed at the very fountain of my heart out
of which all thought and emotion rise. Could I actually come to the
point where I could act without calculating my own self-interest all
the time? Could I really live my daily life so that I was constantly
searching out the Lord’s will and drawing down his grace to accomplish
it?

This is the changing of our motive, that is so desireable.