Windseeker

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Posts posted by Windseeker

  1. But, even then, there is no way in blazes you can get 24/7 access to a sovereign nation's land - especially military installations - regardless of what Netanyahu says.  Might as well remove all pretense of sovereignty.

     

    You can't station inspectors there..at the site..at all times? 

    ....last I checked we are still in Japan and Germany, it's not unheard of.

  2. You sound like you believe the Church will not address "Horrendous Evil" unless it is a direct attack on the Church.

     

    "I really don't understand how this guy gets away with it.

     

    I guess you can believe and support any evil you want and remain a member in good standing, as long as you don't attack the Church and it's Leaders directly."

     

    That is an accusation not only of Reid's covenants but also of Church leadership.  And this kind of talk is not only wholly inaccurate but does more harm than it does any good in these types of discussions.

     

     

    You can simply take it as thinking out loud....and just so ya know, I do know how he gets away with it...and yes...he is absolutely getting away with it...for now.

     

    ....and as I stated if I held Reid's positions despite the light, knowledge and understanding I have been blessed with, I would fully expect to be cast out of Heavenly Fathers presence. But I don't know what he knows so I'm certainly an imperfect judge of the outcome...but I can still judge his positions as Evil..pure and simple.

     

    The Quote from an Apostle proves my point, as the Church is not the thought\intention police, they let people govern themselves.

     

    So let us govern ourselves and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

  3. Well..I believe I most certainly would be breaking my covenants even if I didn't participate directly. 

    “There hasn’t been any litmus test or standard imposed that you couldn’t support that if you want to support it, if that’s your belief and you think it’s right,” Christofferson said after a Jan. 27 news conference.

    Christofferson made the point again in a Trib Talk interview Jan. 29.

    “We have individual members in the church with a variety of different opinions, beliefs and positions on these issues and other issues,” Christofferson said. ” … In our view, it doesn’t really become a problem unless someone is out attacking the church and its leaders — if that’s a deliberate and persistent effort and trying to get others to follow them, trying to draw others away, trying to pull people, if you will, out of the church or away from its teachings and doctrines.” ~ Elder Christofferson

     

    Like I said..a member of this Church can indirectly and even possibly directly support any Horrendous Evil and need not be concerned he is endangering his Church membership. 

     

    My point is your membership\calling\etc is not a guarantee of Exaltation.

     

    There will be a reckoning..however and I'm sure there are many members that will be surprised. 

  4. Let's hit it point by point:

     

    1) "24-day waiting period is sufficient" - John Kerry

     

    2) "24-day waiting period is sufficient" - John Kerry

     

    3) "24-day waiting period is sufficient" - John Kerry

     

    4.)  Sanctions to be lifted. Iran will gain access to $100B frozen assets and will finally be able to destroy Israel and any other enemies.

     

    “I never, in four years, had a discussion about anywhere, anytime.” - John Kerry
  5. Nothing that Reid said in your quote goes against his covenants.

     

    There is nothing in our covenants that say we cannot give our money to an organization that does both good and bad, as evidenced by our Church's support of the payment of federal and state taxes, a lot of which go to the support of projects contrary to Church teachings.

     

    Also, just because somebody is pro-choice does not mean that somebody will, himself, make the choice to abort.

     

    We can argue about Reid's character.  But we can't say he is not qualified to hold membership in our Church.  That, as always, remains between himself and the Lord through the discernment of his Bishop.

     

     

    If I gave all the money I earned aside from my tithing and spent every waking moment of my personal time outside of my Church callings to invest in a sex trafficking ring that kidnapped underage American girls and shipped them to ISIS where they were submitted to untold horrors and death as a prayer to Allah, would I be breaking my covenants? 

  6. I really don't understand how this guy gets away with it.

     

    I guess you can believe and support any evil you want and remain a member in good standing, as long as you don't attack the Church and it's Leaders directly.

     

    It really presses the need to constantly check and evaluate yourself against the light you've been given.

  7. Memoir 44 and Carcasonne again.

     

    Currently my gaming collection is on hold for two years until we purchase a home, which is fine because it's pretty large.A Memoir 44 is on my short list and it bums me out that I didn't get it because I'm re-watching Band of Brothers. Since I don't have a war game I had pre-ordered Blood Rage which is a Viking themed game and looking forward to playing that.

     

    Friend of mine has Carcasonne Big Box and I really enjoyed it. The only thing I struggled with was calculating scores at the end of the game. With 5 players it took a long time.  

  8. My wife is the most gorgeous, prettiest, sexiest woman in the world. I am truly a lucky guy.

    In my struggles with porn it didnt make my wife seem any uglier, I just liked looking at other pretty women.

     

    so I hope women understand that sometimes (at least in my case) porn addiction has nothing to do with the wife not measuring up to the models, it was just a lack of strength to resist the temptation on my part.

     

    I was thinking about this after I posted in agreement and gave an example of Christi Brinkley. I thought about how women think and realize men just think differently.

     

    If we truly understand our women we would realize that our actions speak louder than words. I'm sure to Christi Brinkley she didn't look at it like "wow..I'm one of the most beautiful woman in the world, this guy really has a problem" but rather "I'm not pretty enough, good enough to satisfy my spouse". What I'm saying is that even if a wife know's on some level she's beautiful,  it's meaningless when her man, the person that matters most, is obsessed with lusting over other women.

     

    Because there are various degrees of perversion I can understand how a spouse might prefer adultery to certain forms of pornography. As a man, even I would expect a spouse would prefer adultery to the viewing of child pornography or violent pornography. But perhaps to women, sports illustrated vs hardcore pornography is a distinction without a difference.
  9. My wife is the most gorgeous, prettiest, sexiest woman in the world. I am truly a lucky guy.

    In my struggles with porn it didnt make my wife seem any uglier, I just liked looking at other pretty women.

     

    so I hope women understand that sometimes (at least in my case) porn addiction has nothing to do with the wife not measuring up to the models, it was just a lack of strength to resist the temptation on my part.

     

    Case in point -  

    christie-brinkley-60-2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1?ve=

     

    This Sports Illustrated Model's husband spent thousands of dollars each month on internet pornography (came out in divorce proceedings)     ....thousands  :hmmm: 

  10. After my mission I shared a condo for a year with around eight homosexual flight attendants, me being the only straight one. I became friends with all of them. One of the flight attendants was a gay rights activist and told me that no matter what I hear in his experience every homosexual he has encountered had been groomed or molested at a young age by an older man. Now if this was indeed true I wouldn't be surprised if this number has dropped a bit since I heard this in the late 90's due to acceptance (grooming not required I suppose). Needless to say, I have not heard that kind of honesty since. 

     

    Most of the homosexuals I have met personally have a sincere desire to be a positive influence in the lives of youth. They were not out to promote their lifestyle and were actually very conservative in their view on the importance of traditional families. At the same time most of the men I've met would never molest a girl. 

     

    The reason society places restrictions is not to protect kids from the good individuals out there, but to protect them from the evil individuals out there. Since we can't look into a persons hearts it's safer to have a policy where men who are attracted to females should not be put in a position where they could take advantage of a females youth or inexperience to do evil and the same goes for those who are attracted to the same sex. 

     

    What society has determined is that the rights of adults are more important then the protection of our youth and this is troubling to say the least.

  11. I'd highly recommend How to Hug a Teenage Porcupine by Dr John Lund. 

     

    It's LDS based and brought me comfort and increased my faith in Heavenly Fathers plan. 

     

    31t6ZiWyTBL._BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

     

    Peers, even in church, can be brutal. Our youngest daughter is struggling and we require she attend Seminary and Church, but don't force her go to youth activities.  

  12. I've also enjoyed LIFE, Monopoly, mancala, Magic the gathering (warning on that some of the pictures can be a bit extreme), Cranium (combination of trivia, picitonary, charades, and a couple other good ones), apples to apples.

     

    Last night I broke out Five Tribes and played with my daughter (19) and nephew (14). It was allot of fun. It uses the Mancala mechanic to great effect with a nice colorful theme. I would highly recommend this one. We are planning on playing again now that we know the game a bit better. 

     

    five%20tribes%20photo.jpeg

  13. Hi Anatess, 

     

    Your family might enjoy Pandemic. It's been mentioned on this thread. In that game you and the other players play different characters with different skills all trying to prevent a disease from spreading over the world. It's pretty fun from what I have heard. There are many cooperative games that are very satisfying. 

     

    Here are some others - 

     

    Ghost Stories

    Flashpoint

    Mysterium (a new one I have on preorder)

    Samurai Spirit
    Robinson Crusoe

    Eldritch Horror

    Shadowrun:Crossfire

     

    The only cooperative games I have now are Hanabi and Dead of Winter

     

    In Hanabi you play with your cards facing outward so everyone can view everyone else s cards and no one is able to view their own. On a turn you either give a hint (limited) or place\draw a card. The goal is to build the best fire works display together. 

     

    Dead of winter is semi-cooperative because one person could be a traitor. You can play without a traitor and make if fully cooperative if you want. In that game you are trying to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. 

  14. People are passionate because this is not how the church has represented the translation process as coming to light.  Interestingly enough, even today they are still teaching "translation" of the book of mormon by trying to show Joseph Smith "reading" the golden plates.

     

    I walked into a ctr 7 classroom yesterday and saw this posted on the wall (along with about 8 others):

     

    That color scheme is anything but authentic. Obviously the method of translation is the least of our problems if we can't agree on the color of Joseph Smiths hair.  <_<

  15.  

    Of the games you have listed I have played Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Dominion, and Agricola. All fantastic games. If you enjoy them, some of my other favorites in the same category are Stone Age, Saint Petersburg, and Alhambra. I've played them all again in the last month or so, and I'm never disappointed. They're more than worth a shot if you get the chance.
     
    Tichu is an interesting trick-taking card game played in two teams of 2. It's a blast if you happen to have exactly 4 people interested, but otherwise you have to leave people out/you can't play, so it can be inconvenient at times.
     
    Pandemic is pretty good as far as cooperative games go. There's a lot of depth to the strategy, and it requires quite a bit of teamwork. You can also adjust the difficulty to make it harder as your family/group gets better at the game, which is great.
     
    As for the more mainstream games, Apples to Apples is my first pick for those rare occasions when I don't want a game that makes me think very hard. I also enjoy Boggle and Scrabble, and I'm a chess nerd too.  :cool:

     

     

    I have Pandemic on my wishlist. I have heard good things about it. 

  16. Tell me about this game.

     

    Hi Mirkwood. 

     

    Lords of Waterdeep is a fairly light to medium worker placement game. Essentially you use your workers to go to different locations in Waterdeep to recruit Rogues, Clerics, Mages and Fighters to complete quests. When they complete these quests it give you money and victory points. It's currently rated number 28 on boardgamegeek so I think it's a safe one to pick up.  It's theme is a little loose but compared to other games I have the mechanics fit it well. For the size and components I think the game is a great value.

     

    If you want to view any of these games you can watch playthru's on youtube. 

     

    I think it's pretty fun but have yet to play a serious game with the family. I've learned that I need to test play these game several times before I introduce them to my 

  17. This summer the wind has betrayed me and left me stranded on the beach with a gun in my hand, staring at the sea, starting at the sand. J/K about the gun part. Needless to say it's been horrible. 

     

    So it got me looking for a new hobbie. Since my hobbies have up till now have been too extreme for my kids, I've been searching for a way to spend more time doing something a little more engaging and interactive. 

     

    Enter board gaming. 

     

    I've never been a fan of board games (Monopoly, Sorry, etc..). But these new games are allot of fun and can be deeply satisfying. 

     

    I also have a theory that with the overwhelming increase in online social activity and online gaming we seem to missing the face to face interaction as well as opportunities to engage senses other than sight and sound. This is one of the reasons I believe that board gaming has had such a dramatic increase this year.  Plus it engages your brain in ways that online gaming doesn't. It's much more strategic and requires more engaging interaction. 

     

    Look at the rise in attendees at board game conventions, they actually went down in the early 90-2000 (which I believe can be attributed to the rise in online gaming) but then all the sudden it just took off around 2005. (GenCon)

     

    300px-Gen-Con-Attendance.svg.png

     

    Anyway I started my collection and here it is so far listed from light to heavy board/card games. 

     

    Dixit

    Love Letter - Hobbit

    Hanabi

    Ticket to Ride 

    Summoner Wars

    King of Tokyo

    Resistance Avalon

    Coup

    Hive Pocket Edition

    Splendor

    Mysterium 

    Sheriff of Nottingham

    7 Wonders

    Dominion

    Lords of Waterdeep (w/Skullport Expansion)

    Castles of Mad King Ludwig

    Five Tribes

    Dead of Winter

    Castles of Burgundy

    Roll for the Galaxy

    Agricola

     

    I'm pretty happy with most of them. I don't honestly know how to play them all well...I went a little crazy in starting my collection. But I have played most of them. 

     

    My family loves Resistance Avalon which is bluffing game and handles a large group really well. My 12 year old loves playing King of Tokyo. I've been trying to wrap my brain around Agricola and have played a couple solo plays and think I'm ready to introduce it to my wife.

     

    So what are your favorite board games and what was the last game you played?

  18. 1) Is it wrong to want to go to church for camaraderie and edification? In other words, if these things are priorities, are my priorities misaligned? Should not my devotion to Christ be my sole motivation?

     

    My testimony of Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior is a bit shaky. I’m not sure that my conception of Him is what is required for membership in the church. I understand the symbolism behind the atonement (some of it anyway, I think) but I just don’t get how it could have been a literal, effective sacrifice. Or why God would require this of Him, or if He wasn’t required, why He would volunteer. I just don’t fully understand the atonement and I never have. This is one of the things I need to talk to you all about, whoever is willing.

     

    Welcome Estranged!

     

    I don't think there is anything wrong with attending church for Camaraderie and Edification. Certainly Sunday service as well as our Home Teaching program is there to help fulfill our social needs. We also go to Church to learn. So I don't find a problem with your motivation. I do think you nailed the highest reason to attend and that is to demonstrate our devotion to our Savior. We do this by partaking of the Sacrament which will have more meaning as  you come to understand and apply the atonement. 

     

    Regarding the atonement. I've grown up in the Church and have always been mostly active. I never really grasped the importance of the atonement until recently and even at that I feel I've just scratched the surface of something that could take a lifetime to understand.

     

    I'm sure there are others that can explain the atonement better but I would recommend studying Alma Chapter 34.

     

    This is also a pretty good video that explains it's called the Mediator based on a talk given by Elder Boyd K Packer who recently passed away. 

     

    I've had my share of challenges in my life. It was those challenges that made central to my life, principles that never meant much to me previously, namely free agency, forgiveness and the atonement. Understanding what agency is and why it's important can help you understand the atonement and the same with forgiveness. 

     

    One book that has really brought these principles together for me is called The God Who Weeps. I can't recommend this enough. It's not very long but really puts life in perspective and helped drive my desire to grow closer to my Heavenly Father and to appreciate my Savoir.

     

    Anyway hope you stick around. What kind of music to you play?

  19. Hi amydee11, 

     

    I agree with Vort and yjacket in that you can't take this upon yourself. It might feel good to think you can help save this young man who you have grown to care about, but putting yourself in as part of his recovery process is you being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You have seen that it's driving a wedge between you and that is because you are involved where you shouldn't be. 

     

    Imagine if you marry him and have given him every part of yourself and he continues to struggle with viewing pornography, how it's going to affect your feelings for him? When you're hurt and don't feel like being intimate, if he's weak, he might blame you for not being able to overcome his addiction. Or perhaps he will no longer share his failures with you because he doesn't want to hurt you. If you think it's no longer a problem then find out he still is struggling, how will you feel then?

     

    No amount of beauty or intimacy will solve his problems. It's ironic that even women who work in the pornography industry would be just as ineffective at curing their spouses of a pornography addiction. 
    Despite this fact, women who's husbands struggle with this often encounter feelings of not being good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough etc. 

     

    The most a spouse can hope to do in these situations is offer understanding, compassion and love and cheer from the sidelines, which means not take it personally and not get sucked into it emotionally.

     

    Like yjacket said there are high-functioning and low-functioning. But even high-functioning are struggling and facing the abyss unlike those who completely overcome and put aside their addiction.

     

    To his credit this young man looks like he is facing this head on. He is honest and open and I'm sure he's a good guy. While I agree he treating you with respect, pulling you into this in any way other than making you aware of it is inappropriate. 

     

    You have already identified a wedge between you and you can be certain any feelings you have now will be magnified after your married. I would recommend you step back till he resolves this on his own.

     

     

  20. Do opposites attract?  

     

    Yes, they can.

     

     

     

    Does it make for an easy, stress free relationship?

     

    No.

     

     

    ...but we end up complimenting each other really well  ^_^

     

    If my wife married someone exactly like her there would be a constant battle, if I married someone like me, nothing would ever get done. 

     

    The other great part about it is that you find yourself acquiring the positive attributes of the other. Over the years I have seen my wife become much more relaxed and I have learned to be more direct and I also notice I get restless when there are things that should be done (rather then ignoring them). 

     

    I think there is truth to opposites attracting in that we look for strength in others where we are weak.

  21. I feel no need to keep my children away from their mother or have her be less a part of their life, so I'm OK with joint custody. Should I not be? So in joint custody, there's a "primary?" What does that mean?

     

    Basically I believe it means the kids live with me. I can't deny her visitation, but in all their decisions, school, religion, etc there is more weight to what I say. But none of this is tested in court because both of us have avoided that except for a small amendment that allowed the kids to move with me across the country.