MikeUpton

The queen is one very good example of this: Classics.com - Queen Elizabeth II new Bentley State Limousine Her new Bentley is "scheduled to stay in service until the year 2027" The link mentions her previous car was a Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Pertaining to "it shows only that the owner has more dollars than sense and he is on his way to less wealth.": I don't see it as necessarily being that way for many, especially when it comes to the super rich. you don't have to lose money in order to purchase such a car if you're super wealthy. Simply invest enough money until you have at least 1 million dollar return in interest in a year(after tax), don't touch the principle. keep it :) Same thing as the situation you mentioned, just on a larger scale. As you can see, I'm trying to get you to think outside of the box. I'm also debating using your frame of return or loss, though I don't necessarily subscribe to it as the prerequisite for righteousness. For the thread in general: Here's another example, again using the super rich (because I think they were the intended market for the car anyways.) Here's Bill Gates' home: Bill Gates House its worth 150 million dollars. Is he being wasteful? Now consider his non profit charitable organization. Its valued at 30 billion dollars, which is over half of his net worth. How many of us live in houses they'd have to pay on for 15-30 years in order to complete the purchase? Again before you judge him, who is giving well over half their net worth to charity? Billionaire or no? Is he using his money to a good purpose? I would think so. I think on this thing, his heart is in the right place. I wouldn't begrudge him a nice home when he spends well over half his net worth of billions on charity. 150 million dollars hasn't put much of a dent at all in his ability to help others. This is what I believe. that's exactly right.

Consider the case of godaddy dot com with their "godaddy girls". Its the same stuff sort of thing. You get inferior web hosting, but you do get phone tech support :). The girlvertising is obnoxious. It sends up red flags for me.

It would be neat to start a sci-fi thread game about future mormons. We could each write a couple paragraphs to a continuing story, and pass the story on.

I was speaking of it on a term that was not quite as absolute as you assumed. There also do happen to be many very good singers who refuse to listen to the work of those they consider mediocre for that reason. Many others are like that, filling their lives with things with things they consider to be of nobler value in an effort to be inspired towards that value. It doesn't mean they lack character to back it up. One more example of this: the LDS. those are good questions. Assuming I were that wealthy, it would depend upon who I would be visiting, and how well I knew them. many people don't care. however, some people might feel uncomfortable. Myself, I wouldn't care, or think that it mattered. I don't feel the Lord cares what kind of car you drive. Who is that in your avatar?

following this definition, I would feel that a Rolls Royce Phantom might not be a vanity for many who were super rich if the following were true for them: the car inspired them to do a better job, similar to the thought that putting on a suit and tie for work helps you to act more professional, since their decisions and actions are weighed in monetarily at a larger scale.

what aspect of the car causes it to be vanity in this manner? would it be the price? is it vanity for all, or is it relative vanity for those who cannot afford it? I agree one million dollars is a great deal of money. It would be vanity for me. I couldn't pay for insurance on the thing, let alone California taxes. I suppose I am not so sure when it comes to someone like Bill Gates, at one point he made one million dollars by his lunch break (at 2 million per day.)

ugh, the guy needs to get a belt to hold up his pants. maybe some tighty whiteys too.

This is something I've been thinking over, questions concerning material wealth and luxury. Take a hypothetical example. Here's a car, the Rolls Royce Phantom. The cost of the car is one million dollars. I've been reading ensign articles about how the church feels about material wealth, and materialism. I've read the scriptures about it. I have an opinion, but I want to hear yours. Can a one million dollar Rolls Royce Phantom and a strong testimony of the church, humility, and obedience and worshipfulness to God coexist? Can your eye be single to the glory of god? Or if you're super wealthy, do you really need to stick with a middle class car? Your thoughts? If you know of any good articles, post them here.

A-Z Musical Instruments - Silkysteps Early Years craft and activity Forum cheat sheet i gotta take off

Are you Sirius? Maybe Mormons in Space that missed the second coming :)

Nyckelharpa

Lithophone

i've been cheating. someone let me know if they also want the list. :)

Jug.

Igil

Glockenspiel

Carillon (Dutch harmonizing bells)

musical instruments?

I want stories about future mormons!

perhaps so. if there's better pricing elsewhere, more power to you :) I put together the computer I am using about a couple months ago using parts ordered on newegg, 2.6 Intel Core 2 Duo, Asus socket 775 motherboard, 4 gigs Corsair XMS 2 Ram, Seagate 320 gig hard disk. It costed about $250, all the parts had a top user rating. I supplied the case, power supply, monitor myself. I don't need intensive graphics on this, so i use the onboard geforce 7050. (I can still play half life 2 if i wanted, but i dont want or need to for now.) I dual boot Windows 7 RC1 and Ubuntu Linux. My old construction boss (and good friend) is now happily running a nice newegg system I built for him (or rather I showed him how to put it all together, and he did it himself) a month ago, Intel Core 2 Quad, 4 gigs RAM, Gigabyte Motherboard, 250 gig hard disk, 500 watt thermaltake psu, nvidia geforce 9800 gtx, and a pretty thermaltake black widow/soprano case (which we got later from best buy), all parts from newegg had a top rating, the system came to around roughly $7-800 total (including case). Oh, and he's using the Windows 7 RC1, hehe.

When I purchase say, computer parts, I will never use a salesman. Instead, I do all my research online, especially at Tom's Hardware Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews (for benchmark performances) and Newegg Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! (for user reviews,) along with Pricewatch, PRICEWATCH :: Price Comparison Shopping Tool - Find the lowest prices on computers, parts, electronics, clothing and more before you buy for price comparison, (although I often simply end up buying from newegg, since they're reputable and often the cheapest, or very close to it.) Likewise with other things, I find salesmen helpful for the human aspect (geek talk in the case of computers and whatnot) but otherwise I avoid them whenever I can, and shop independent of them. Edit: I hope I don't get in trouble for "advertising" but hopefully those who read this post can see that was never the point I was trying to make.

When I was on my mission, I went tracting with a couple "Travelling AP's," "Training Elders" or whatnot. Heck I don't remember what they were called. Their purpose was to train others to tract. I did see merit in much of what they did, especially their positive attitude towards success, and tendency to take advantage of opportunity in a way that was fundamentally more involved. Every opportunity they could, they used as an opportunity to find people to teach. The 2 days I went tracting with them was in many ways, was far more productive. I saw so much merit in it. However, there was a more negative aspect they had in their technique: They also tended to come across as (the way i put it then, vacuum cleaner salesmen). Although they tended to find a lot of people, I felt uneasy about their brash technique, which seemed often plain rude. I recognize there is great wisdom in being firm and unafraid, unapologetic and bold in one's teaching of the gospel, but I also found wisdom in the counsel spoken here: 12 "Use boldness, but not overbearance..." Alma 38 The fact is that those who are unafraid to preach the gospel often are much more productive. The problem is those who allow themselves to be overbearing will not be trusted. I bring this up because they reminded me so much of salesmen, one in particular embarrassed himself twice in front of me by taking things too far, to the point it was easy for me to call him on it, which I did. (not good when you're sitting at home with your family relaxing and all the sudden there's a mormon missionary at your house sticking his foot in the door and quoting "a bible, a bible, we already have a bible" scripture, or a nice old lady who had an lds friend once, who's invited you into her home, but now she's kicking you out because you can't seem to stop condemning people. The finding elders seemed to believe in those "techniques." The problem was, they work on too natural of a level, and not enough by the Spirit. I asked the mission president what he felt about it, and he agreed it was good to be bold, but they were in the wrong to be so brash in their teaching. I realize the Spirit is not necessarily something you're trying to bring in when you're selling a car, but I do believe there is room for building trust in a consumer, having them establish a long term relationship with a company. Especially to help the customer to feel they're getting a good deal. For myself, if I ever come across a salesman who's techniques are shady, the product seems shadier to me because of it, and I often find myself walking the other way. Edit: I think the best way to go in is educated and prepared. When you know more about what you are looking for in a car (or any item) on a technical level, a personal level, and the financial level, vs. what kind of deals you can get elsewhere than the salesman does, you will have control over the "frame" in the sales relationship. Some may feel, well then you don't need a salesman to help you then do you? And to that I respond, I don't find it wise to do my research on an expensive item using only a sales person as reference. No offense to the salesmen here, but that's how I do it, and it works. Props to BenRaines on his efforts. In my opinion, that is the sort of salesman I would expect to find standing in front of a quality product.

that is true

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