Ironhold

Not sure if this one counts, but - All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite, 15 June 2022 (that is, last night) The main event of the evening was a tag-team ladder match between Jurassic Express (Luchasaurus and Jack Perry) and The Young Bucks (brothers Nick and Matt Jackson). For those who don't know, a ladder match is a type of wrestling match wherein a physical object is suspended over the ring, with a variety of ladders provided so that the wrestlers can climb up to reach it. Whoever gets it first wins. Through parts of the match you could see someone in the audience waving around a sign that had The Young Bucks flanking a ladder and the caption "Ladder Day Saints". At one point, the camera actually cut over to a brief shot of the sign before going back to the match itself. Note that the episode was being filmed in an arena in California. (To my knowledge, the one and only time AEW has performed in Utah was a show in Salt Lake City in March of 2020. Then much of the nation initiated Covid lockdown protocols that very weekend, forcing AEW to retreat to its headquarters in Florida for well over a year; they haven't been back to Utah since.)

The general idea is that would-be missionaries need to be living their lives in accordance with gospel principles, actively reading the scriptures & official church materials, saving up for the cost of their mission, and working on themselves as individuals so that they are better able to function in unfamiliar social situations. In that sense, the advice is sound, and will generally get the average would-be missionary through the bulk of the day-to-day. The issue is when people serve a mission for all the wrong reasons, such as being pressured by their families and/or home congregations. That's when the problems start, especially if these individuals haven't prepared themselves to actually go.

Okay... 10 PM last night: there's so much dust, dirt, and other debris in the air that my sinuses are bleeding 10 AM today: the nurse can't find a good vein for the blood draw, and so my physical examination is now being delayed a week so that I can come back later and try again since the doctor needs my results to get an accurate read on any medical issues I have. Oy. However, the doctor did send me to a local hospital for a fresh set of x-rays of my back and neck (apparently, the physical therapist who looked at my last set misread them and exaggerated the extent of my injuries), and is going to refer me to a series of specialists who are in-system for my insurance once he gets that good read on what help I actually need.

One proposal I've seen is for each school in the US two have two military veterans, veterans who have passed extensive background checks, hired on as on-site armed security. The logic is that it's jobs for veterans and a greatly increased security presence.

Here's an oldie but a goodie: https://www.ldsliving.com/anime-series-depicts-salt-lake-temple-as-home-of-the-gods/s/86060 In Japan, there's a popular fantasy franchise called "Restaurant To Another World". The premise of the franchise is that a random family bistro in Japan is somehow magically connected to various alternate realms through a series of magic portals that spring up on a regular basis. People from these other realms come in, enjoy a taste of local cuisine, wander around outside for a while, and then head home. The series was popular enough to get a single-season adaptation, with several individual stories from the source material being adapted. In one episode, the realm in question is the "Home of the Gods". Someone at the animation studio used the Salt Lake Temple as the image for the actual physical castle the various deities resided in.

There's both a metal bull to represent a "bull" or economically strong market, and a metal bear to represent a "bear" or economically weak market. They're actually, physically traded out given economic situations, a visual reminder of what the state of the national economy is. If you'll recall, a few years ago there was a bit where someone tried to do a "girl power" - themed statue for that plaza to encourage women in the work force, but the people responsible for erecting the statue made the mistake of positioning the statue so that she was staring down the bull. This was promptly ridiculed and mocked by more than a few people (myself included), as it sent the inadvertent message that the presence of "empowered" women was impeding the American economy by preventing it from running freely, something that completely contradicted whatever message the creators wanted to send about women in Corporate America. Last I heard, the "girl power" statue was permanently removed because of this negative reaction.

Basically, we're at the point where both sides are getting into propaganda campaigns, and those campaigns are getting to the point where they're all but encouraging violence against the other side. That's never a good thing.

I think most of the regulars here know my story, but for those who missed it, I'll explain - My maternal grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's during my senior year of high school. My two older brothers had basically drained my parents' finances with their college ambitions, and thanks to a series of ugly behind-the-scenes snafus my parents were barely able to finance the nursing home my grandmother was in. Even with her being in a home, my mom and dad were up there at different points of the day to feed her because as she got more debilitated she had trouble eating on her own. Furthermore, the last several years of my life to that point had been something of a nightmare, and so I was dealing with a number of then-undiagnosed mental and physical health issues that would have made me horribly unsuited for two years in a shirt and tie. Even though my local leadership was sounding the drum beat of "All young men must go on missions, and all young women must regard any young man who didn't serve as ineligible for marriage", I made the decision that I would stay home and attend a local community college, thereby allowing me to help my parents while saving them some money. I would wind up turning the internet itself into my de facto mission field, joining with the other early pioneers and as such doing a *lot* to make it safe for the Bloggernacle as we know it now. I myself had several threats of violence against me because of it, and had multiple ministers singling me out. So in that sense, I did "serve". This very forum exists because I and others cleared room for it to exist. Your hypothetical individual could probably also find a way to serve that's not a "traditional" mission. Plus, we also need to remember that every person who is a member of the church has an ongoing obligation to spread the gospel, regardless of whether or not they have a tag on. That being said... My life has been pretty miserable. Due to the drum beat the local and stake leadership was maintaining, there was no understanding, only gossip as to why I didn't go and various leaders who basically made it clear that they didn't regard me as a proper member of the church. The fact that I gave up Rutgers and BYU to help my parents also got me a lot of scorn. So many doors were closed to me, most closed *forever* by my decision to help my parents, that I haven't had much of a life IRL. Even my own parents frequently used me to vent because I was convenient. I'm 38, and so much of my life feels like nothing more than sand between my fingers because I didn't have that support network I needed when I needed it and I had to shoulder so much on my own, leading to me essentially having no major life accomplishments. Yes, I have an MBA. But I'm still living with relatives and make so little I'll likely never live on my own. Throw in multiple debilitating medical issues, and I'm just so, so tired... So if your friend does decide to forego a formal mission, and instead finds something more suited to what they're able to do and are comfortable with, you will need to have their back and support them, especially if their local and stake leaders are incessant about pushing formal missionary service. People may not understand why they make the choices they make, and so they may not be as socially welcomed as they ought to be. edit - Yes, I'll admit to also making a lot of poor choices at times. Some were because I lacked needed experience and so didn't understand. Others were because circumstances required me to act in the moment and I didn't choose the correct option. Some were because I was just an idiot at that point and didn't think things through. Many were "I have an issue, and I can't get anyone to listen, so what's the best way of doing things?" without realizing that my chosen solution had a lot of flaws that would just make things worse. There was also a whole lot of "just feeling empty inside" and not wanting to feel that way anymore. I'm doing what I can to make peace with my past while trying to move forward (I actually have an appointment for a physical examination tomorrow morning, if all goes well), but as things stand there's far more "sideways" and "backwards" than "forward".

There are multiple reports flying around on different social media platforms, and I haven't had a chance yet to see if it's the same report redone or multiple facilities. But it seems a counter-narrative is forming claiming that the "pro-abortion" crowd is willing to engage in violence, and so people need to watch out.

A center? I'm hearing reports of multiple centers being hit.

How did a blown head gasket lead to you needing to drop in a new engine? You might want to speak with another mechanic for a second opinion, if possible.

Back before I knew to do ad-blockers online, I pulled up Lords of the New Church's cover of "Live For Today" on YouTube and got an ad for the church on the side of the screen.

Thanks to a sudden manic phase, I completed three weeks' worth of columns in a single day, something I haven't done in over a year. I basically have all of my weekly columns done for July now given my seasonal "Christmas In July" piece.

[all links to Wikipedia for expediency] I say this as someone who lives in Texas. When a tragedy or disaster happens, try to get information from as close to the incident as possible. Remember about a decade ago when there was a biker shoot-out in Waco? I had someone try to use a days-old BBC article to lecture me on the matter, not realizing that I live just south of Waco and so had up-to-date information from local-level news outlets. That BBC article had been completely contradicted by the time the person posted it, and she flipped out when I told her. ** We're talking Uvalde, which is near San Antonio. That means San Antonio-based outlets like WOAI-TV, the local NBC affiliate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOAI-TV Or you have the main newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Express-News San Antonio is about an hour south of Austin, making it quite close even though the two cities are considered separate media markets. As such, Austin-based outlets like KXAN, the NBC affiliate out of Austin, might be good ideas as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KXAN-TV I'm a part of the Waco / Temple / Killeen media market. For us, this'd be a local station like KWTX (CBS), KXXV (ABC), or KCEN (NBC) for news on the matter. Note, however, that in the southernmost parts of my area you can sometimes pick up Austin-based channels over-the-air.

The controversy is that officially undergoing gender reassignment has permanent consequences. Even the hormones and other chemicals can be life-altering if someone holds to the routine for too long regardless of whether or not they actually undergo the physical surgery. Basically, it's something that there's no going back from. Because of this, quite a few individuals, including individuals who did transition, are objecting to the prospect of minors transitioning, and feel that only legal adults who have undergone psychiatric evaluation should begin the process. This is where the controversy and legal battles are coming from, whether or not minors are informed and mature enough to consent to the process.

Speaking as an MBA with marketing training? Any group, person, or organization can say whatever they want one month of the year. It's what they *do* the other 11 that you have to keep an eye out on. For example, right now there's a to-do on Twitter because the Saudi Arabian branches of several global businesses are *not* displaying the "Pride" images and statements on the official global accounts, and people are grilling these companies as to why.

Utah has a lot of issues that are restricting the amount of land that's ultimately available for developers, and that's making the cost of the land itself go up regardless of what it's being used for. Utah also has more complicated issues with distribution that can make it harder for goods produced outside of the state to circulate, further driving the price up. Throw in the surging population as people head to Utah from elsewhere (be it companies seeking regional headquarters facilities, families seeking the mountain air, or folks fleeing California), and you've got the cost of living edging ever upward. Even in 1994, when I was a kid in Utah on vacation, I noticed how much higher the prices of certain goods were. For example, most of the toys I was in to were about 20% to 25% more expensive, such as a Micro Machines play set I priced for $8 in my part of Texas going for $10 there. As far as Texas goes, it's a mix of factors. There's more land for development once you get outside of the major cities, helping to drive the cost of living down. Many areas also have economies where the bulk of the jobs pay at or slightly lower than national average, and so retailers don't charge as much and generally carry cheaper products on their shelves. Folks in a lot of these areas also tend towards doing more with less, reducing the demand for certain types of durable goods while increasing demand for others or the means to fix what they have. Throw in the lack of a state income tax and a legal climate that's overall more friendly for businesses than in many other states [1] and depending upon where in Texas you come to you can find that, overall, you can live here a little more cheaply if you're willing to do some give-and-take. [1] As an example of this? A few years ago, controversial entertainment industry critic Richard C. Meyer launched a crowd-funding campaign to produce his own comic book. He only intended an ashcan-level run so he could establish copyright and say he published something, but so many people flooded the campaign his profit margins enabled him to subsidize a full retail-level print run *on top of* what he'd need to satisfy his backers. Thus, he struck a deal with indie publisher Antarctic Press to print the book. Mark Waid, a comic book industry veteran, had been feuding with Meyer on social media and so reacted to the news of the publishing deal by posting inflammatory remarks online and declaring his intentions to contact Antarctic personally. He did in fact call them up, and within a few hours Antarctic cancelled the deal. Thing is, Antarctic is located in San Antonio, and at the time Meyer was based in Austin. This meant that their deal was subject to Texas state business law, and under Texas' hyper-strict "tortious interference" laws Waid was prima facie *guilty* since he said he was going to get the company to cancel the deal. Oh, and since Waid is a legal resident of California, that meant it was an inter-state dispute and would now be heard by a *federal* judge even though the matter would involve Texas state law. Waid's legal team drug the case out for the better part of 3 years, during which time most of his allies abandoned him lest they get caught up in matters as well. Meyer and Waid eventually settled out of court, and so far as I know Waid's never so much as mentioned Meyer again.

The church didn't decide to plunk it down in the middle of a busy district; the busy district came to the temple.

If you were to take a look at a modern (2000s-plus) marketing program at your average business college, you'd be in tears for how much of it is essentially psychological warfare. The general idea is to get inside of a person's head, see what makes them tick, and use it against them in such a fashion that they're doing what you want them to do while still thinking it's their own idea. Everything from the arrangement of elements in an advertising copy to the arrangement of products in an actual store is designed to attack your grey matter and part you from your money. This overall tendency was noted as early as the 1980s (for example, Marvel Comics writer Larry Hama, himself a military veteran, made fun of this when he introduced the G. I. Joe team's psychological warfare expert in 1987), but it's really ramped up since then. Throw in the criminal justice training I've had and my 20+ years of experience dealing with cyber-bullies and other individuals online, and yeah... let's just say there are things I don't expect to be forgiven for. A big part of what I do now as a newspaper writer is break down for my readers what sorts of games companies and other entities are playing with them and how they can turn it around. As far as the transportation sector goes, this is another unpaid bill. For several generations now, kids in the US were made to dance to the drum beat of "college is for winners, trade school is for losers". To go to a trade school, even if that's where someone's aptitude lay, was seen as "failure" and could bring shame and stigma. In fact, there are college types who won't even talk to anyone who doesn't likewise have a college degree of their same level. As a result, we're desperately short-handed when it comes to many of the skilled trades, including heavy vehicle operators. There just aren't enough truckers, train conductors, forklift operators, aircraft pilots, naval crew members, and others to keep the supply lines properly running.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_Dong,_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence,_Texas They're both real communities.

Bear in mind that the temple was built *first*. Once the roads were installed, the church moved in, bought the site, and started construction. Everything you see surrounding the temple came *after* the temple was completed.

We currently have one in San Antonio (about an hour south of Austin, or 3 hours from where I live), and one's been announced for Austin. Fort Hood owns so much land, and there's so much in the way of poor urban planning in the area, that it's unlikely we'll have a temple any closer than that unless the church convinces a rancher to sell land.

For those who are thinking of moving to my part of Texas but working in Austin, there are three primary ways to get there - One way is to take Farm-To-Market Road 2657 west of Copperas Cove and ride it south to the city of Burnet, where you catch a state highway through to the heart of Austin. However, there's a part of 2657 where you go down a hillside and *immediately* wind up on a bridge over a valley. If your car isn't up to snuff, you're not paying attention, or the road is slick, you're going over the railing. Also, the portion of the state highway that runs through Austin has been converted into a toll road. Another way is to take State Highway 195 from Killeen south through Ding Dong & Florence before winding up at Georgetown. But parts of that route are so dangerous, especially at night, that Fort Hood once forbade its soldiers from taking that route. This is due to the numerous blind curves and elevation changes once you get south of Florence. Hence most people taking I-14 / US 190 to Belton, then taking I-35 south to Austin. It's a little more out of the way and is often crowded, but it's safer.

30 to 45? Double that. Although there are three ways to get to Austin from here, two of them are physically dangerous if you don't know what you're doing and/or there's inclement weather. So most everyone takes I-35, causing it to be jammed. That being said, depending upon what kind of work you're doing and what job skills you have, you might find something in this area anyway. While the powers-that-be in Copperas Cove *insist* upon keeping Cove as a bedroom community (I'll believe that they're serious about the Hills shopping center when I see them break ground...), Killeen, Harker Heights, Belton, and Gatesville are all plowing ahead on expansion, with Belton actually now hosting its own Comic Con each August. Failing this, you've also got Temple and Waco to the northeast, both of which are major cities in their own right. Focus on what job listings you can find for your career field, and that'll tell you where it'd be best to set up camp, especially with everyone from California and New York coming in & driving up housing prices.

It's the local economies. For example, I live in Central Texas. Find Austin on a map, follow I-35 north until you hit Belton, then follow I-14 / US Highway 190 west until you get to Fort Hood. That's the part of the state I live in. Land here has traditionally been quite cheap, and as a result housing is plentiful. Thus, there were periods where it was actually cheaper to *buy* than rent, with military service members using local real estate companies as property managers for their homes while they were deployed abroad or reassigned elsewhere. This has helped to keep the overall cost-of-living down. Not only that, remember Fort Hood. A rather large chunk of the people who live and work here are tied to the base in some fashion. They could be actual military service members (in which case they can seek on-base housing instead of living in the city), civilians who work for the military in some fashion (such as clerks or working at an on-base eatery), retirees, or private companies who have contracts to support the military. This means local wages are often tethered to Uncle Sam's wallet, and so anyone who seeks to charge what people on military wages can't afford is going to be in trouble sooner rather than later if they don't have product that is affordable. For example, if you were to look around at the vehicles everyone drives, you'll see that people tend to have vehicles like the Kia Soul, Dodge Charger, Toyota Tacoma, and Chevy Suburban. "Luxury" brands like Cadillac and Lexus are rare, but not unheard of. If you're a young hotshot you're likely driving a Dodge Challenger, although you might find yourself up against the occasional Chevy Camaro, Chevy Corvette, or Nissan 370Z depending upon which neighborhood you blunder into. I haven't seen a Lamborghini around here in over a decade, and the only Porsche I'm aware of is a vintage number from the 80s someone keeps for car shows.