Random Ramblings and the Deathly Hallows

[Gimgimno]

See, I was going to use kicks and giggles, but it's confusing when we're talking about the Board because then I think about the writer.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

Eh. She's long gone, and never posts here. So she doesn't apply us anymore.

Despite that, I still liked her.

[Gimgimno]

...when half of the people on this forum have met her? She even came to the event at Marduk's house. She's still very relevant.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

Oh, did she? Well, goodie for you. I've never met her. So therefore she's not relevant. [ =

[Giovanni Schwartz]

I just found a quite amusing blog. It's here: http://allbleedingstops.blogspot.com/

It's an ER doctor blogging about odd things that have happened to him.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

I recently found a quote, supposedly from Hugh Nibley. It may not necessarily actually be from him, but I feel that it represents our (or at least my) beliefs rather more eloquently than I could.

Oh wait! The place where I found it actually cited a source! Here's the quote:

Since Joseph Smith was younger than most of you and not nearly so experienced or well-educated as any of you at the time he copyrighted the Book of Mormon, it should not be too much to ask you to hand in by the end of the semester (which will give you more time than he had) a paper of, say, five to six hundred pages in length. Call it a sacred book if you will, and give it the form of a history. Tell of a community of wandering Jews in ancient times; have all sorts of characters in your story, and involve them in all sorts of public and private vicissitudes; give them names--hundreds of them--pretending that they are real Hebrew and Egyptian names of circa 600 b.c.; be lavish with cultural and technical details--manners and customs, arts and industries, political and religious institutions, rites, and traditions, include long and complicated military and economic histories; have your narrative cover a thousand years without any large gaps; keep a number of interrelated local histories going at once; feel free to introduce religious controversy and philosophical discussion, but always in a plausible setting; observe the appropriate literary conventions and explain the derivation and transmission of your varied historical materials.

Above all, do not ever contradict yourself! For now we come to the really hard part of this little assignment. You and I know that you are making this all up--we have our little joke--but just the same you are going to be required to have your paper published when you finish it, not as fiction or romance, but as a true history! After you have handed it in you may make no changes in it (in this class we always use the first edition of the Book of Mormon); what is more, you are to invite any and all scholars to read and criticize your work freely, explaining to them that it is a sacred book on a par with the Bible. If they seem over-skeptical, you might tell them that you translated the book from original records by the aid of the Urim and Thummim--they will love that! Further to allay their misgivings, you might tell them that the original manuscript was on golden plates, and that you got the plates from an angel. Now go to work and good luck!

To date no student has carried out this assignment, which, of course, was not meant seriously. But why not? If anybody could write the Book of Mormon, as we have been so often assured, it is high time that somebody, some devoted and learned minister of the gospel, let us say, performed the invaluable public service of showing the world that it can be done." - Hugh Nibley

I found this at josephsmith.com, which, surprisingly, isn't an anti site.

[Marduk]

It sounds very similar to a similar sentiment expressed by Hugh B. Brown in Profile of a Prophet. The two men were contemporaries, so it isn't unlikely that one borrowed from the other.

[Marduk]

So, I've been bugging my roommate for close to six months to let me fix his computer. He had one of those viruses that impersonates legitimate security software in order to get you to purchase a bogus product, I'm sure you all know the type. He refused, and just dealt with the annoying pop-ups for six months. Finally, his computer has all but stopped working, and so now he is allowing me to fix it. However, because he didn't do anything for so long, the virus has spread, and he has contracted at least six different other viruses in that time. Now, instead of editing a dozen or so registry values, I have to edit over three hundred. Instead of ending two or three processes, I'm ending close to forty. Instead of deleting one or two offending programs, I'm deleting at least six. Why don't people fix things before they become a problem?!

[C is for]

You ever have so much to do to get something done you don't even know where to start?

That's where I'm at right now. But I just realized that as long as I get past my little unwillingness to do wasted work I can get going. So what if some of the stuff I do won't be used? That's life.

Just do it!

/pep talk

Ohhh, that reminds me of something I meant to put in that one blog post...

[bobtheenchantedone]

That's totally my room right now. I need to put things away, but I can't put things away because there are other things that must be put away, and I can't put those away because there's no room...

Maybe I should just get rid of everything.

[Marduk]

That's totally my room right now. I need to put things away, but I can't put things away because there are other things that must be put away, and I can't put those away because there's no room...

Maybe I should just get rid of everything.

Marduk likes this.

[Dragon Lady]

I totally understand, bob. I'm slowly learning how to simplify my life and stuff. Which is really hard, cuz I've been a packrat my whole life. "But it's still good! What if I need it later?!" Every time I clean, I get rid of a few more items. (Unless I'm in a really dejunking mood. Then I get rid of a lot.) Even with the little bit I've done, it's amazing how much easier it is to keep my house clean. And that knowledge right there is enough motivation for me to declutter. Because I hate cleaning.

[bobtheenchantedone]

Hooray for cleaning, Dragon Lady! And getting rid of things!

I'm really kinda worried about it right now, because I spent the night at a relative's house and they have stuff piled to the ceiling in most of the rooms... *shudder*

[ahem.]

Why don't people fix things before they become a problem?!

Because before it becomes a problem, it is not a problem and therefore doesn't need fixing. I thought that would have been obvious.

I'm really kinda worried about it right now, because I spent the night at a relative's house and they have stuff piled to the ceiling in most of the rooms... *shudder*

Why does that bother you so much? Are you afraid for your safety? Or just judging them for having different house-keeping priorities?

[Giovanni Schwartz]

She's just worried that it's hereditary.

[bobtheenchantedone]

She's just worried that it's hereditary.

...it kinda is. You should have seen all the work they had to do to clear out all the stuff my grandmother had accumulated over her lifetime. And my mother says there's hoarding on her side too. She's been watching this tv show too, and generally freaking herself out about the situation.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

Hahaha I've heard of that show. It's kind of frightening. This one lady in the local trailer park had a billion newspapers, and somehow our ward got strongarmed into cleaning it out. Unfortunately, I had to work that day. Did I mention that she owned cats that peed everywhere?

[bobtheenchantedone]

We had a fire last year in an older home which turned out to be full of stuff and over 70 cats, most of them dead.

[Wisteria]

Whoa, there, Bob, when you say "we had a fire" who is the "we" in question? Although this already sounds like a twist on Edgar Allen Poe . . .

[Giovanni Schwartz]

You know, I was wondering the exact same thing.