Carborendum

Now what on earth does that have to do with... Oh...

I have not gone as hard core as some describe here. But I've done intermittent fasting for a week at a time. Eat one meal. Wait 24 hours. Eat another meal... After a few days, I notice that my stomach is atrophying. So, it takes less food to fill my stomach. I find that I'm able to concentrate a lot better. I work more efficiently. My mood is better. I'm more alert. After about a week of my stomach getting smaller and smaller, I tend to get too tired and it starts having a negative affect. So, eat normally for a couple of weeks. Then I start the cycle over again. For me it was basically a method of dieting, rather than for spiritual rejuvenation. But that side of it has manifested itself as a side effect.

I think this can be summed up as the difference between two words: Hope vs Greed. America was the land of hope. As such, it attracted those who were in search of hope. They knew they had power in their minds, hands, and hearts. But without the freedom to exercise that power, they never had hope. If they could just get to America, they could unleash that power and use it to their best advantage by contributing to society with all that power and enjoy the fruits of their labor with peace. America was also the land of greed. Along with hopefuls, came the greedy. It seems to me that no one is moving to discern the difference between these two types of immigrants. They all seem to be bunched into one group or the other. I'd really be interested to see the actual statistics.

I just looked at the document they sent with the email. It included a quote from a letter from the First Presidency. COVID-19_Vaccinations_for_Missionaries[5].pdf Opening lines: I don't remember ever hearing that. Anyone know where that came from? First: "urge" its members... (to become immunized). Second: "Individuals are responsible to make their own decisions."

I thought it might be fun to mention interesting, weird, and fabulous things discovered while indexing. I just came across a name: Julius O. Cesares (Sounds quite a bit like Julius Octavius Caesar). I found interesting marriage ages: Largest age gap: 17 years. I believe it was amid to late 20s woman to an early to mid 40s man in England. Youngest age for marriage: 15 (late 1800s in Wisconsin) to a 28 year old husband. Largest number of "children now alive" : 13

True, but you have to understand that, on both counts, he had to make it understandible by the masses. And even in the interests of time, there are going to be things he left out. It is supposed to be a "popular" video channel for the populous. That's how they make money. But the Molten salt reactors might be a good suggestion for another video.

Good video. Surprising finds: Some nuclear plants went offline because of problems with their water supply freezing up. I hadn't heard of any of those. But according to the graphs that was shown, the percentage of nuclear power overall that was affected was pretty low. Texas was 4:37 (m:ss) away from a complete grid collapse. Translation: No power for about a month for most of the state. Peak wholesale prices were about 100x the average retail cost throughout the year. Producers spent about four years budget in that week. BTW, the Railroad Commission oversees the oil & gas industry. If I'm not mistaken, this is so in many states, not just Texas. Anyone else leaning towards nuclear?

Missionaries are now being "encouraged" to receive the COVID vaccine. I just received an email from my daughter's mission president. He met with several other mission presidents to discuss informing parents about it. I'm not sure why. They are adults after all. Maybe just a courtesy since they are not asking for permission, just informing.

No, threadjacking is when you pay attention to the mouse that the original thread brought up. Then you proceed to make a mountain out of a molehill. I'm talking about bringing up a mountain and pointing to the molehill and acting all innocent that people are going off about the mountain.

I have a question about another word. What's the word for it? You get into a discussion about Topic A. Someone purposefully steers the topic that is tangentially related to Topic A. It is fairly minor, so we will call this subject Mouse A. But along with Mouse A he purposefully introduces it in the context of an Elephant B, which is in no way related to Topic A, and only circumstantially relates to Mouse A. He does this to draw reactions from the crowd who will naturally go off and talk about Elephant B. Then he sits back in his easy chair and grins the sardonic grin. What do you call this?

OK. I'll point this out whenever you feel the need to disagree with me in the future .

RAIN AND SUN!!! Finally, the reward for enduring to the end. We've been getting the perfect alternating rain and sun for our garden now. I haven't had to water all week. And we had plenty of sun as well. Most of the nectarines are blooming like crazy now.

I admitted as much. I partially disagree. It is not about a single cue. It is when multiple cues all come together that the level of certainty rises. Also, see below. I'm certain that may be true. I think you misunderstood my words. Never said I was. I actually said the opposite: No such thing as 100% certain. You may be right that certain signals are simply "rebellion". But what is rebellion nowadays characterized by? I'd venture to say that for a conservative, LDS family a major display of rebellion would be to join in with the LGBT lifestyle. The extreme would be to say "I'm not only supporting them, I AM one." Now, I'll prepare a response for the inevitable accusations about people being born that way or not. MY POSITION: I think there is a sliding scale.

You got me beat. I have only broken 200 once in my life. I'm usually in the mid 100s. My grandfather (after whom I was named) said he once bowled a 299 with the last pin just teetering, but didn't quite fall. From another event, he maintained a trophy when he bowled in a tournament and got a 298. So, he was a pretty good bowler.

Yes, "a waste". Bowling shoes are specifically for two purposes. 1) To keep your shoes from scuffing or otherwise marking the highly polished wooden floor. Regular sneakers can track in sand and dirt or worse. This will tend to scuff the polish on the wooden floor prematurely. They just don't want to have to clean up any more than they have to. Sneakers also have the potential to leave skid marks... no, not THAT kind of skid mark. But some shoes will actually deposit some of the rubber onto the floor. I've seen it. And it takes effort to remove from a polished floor. 2) They offer another revenue stream for the bowling alley.

It doesn't really matter to some people. It is as @Jonah quoted: That is why a million people could have witnessed it and testified of it. These skeptics choose to be blind anyway. They have no faith.

What responses were you expecting? I was only surprised that his name was not Alex Mentzel. As far as spotting him as gay by looking at the photo? Here's what I would say about that: 1) I don't think it would occur to me in and of itself by simply looking at the photo. 2) If someone asked me: Do you think he's gay? I'd say, "Maybe." 3) If someone told me he's gay, I'd say "Probably right." It isn't that people naturally have a specific feature about them that peg them as gay. It is that SOME people go out of their way to use cultural markers to "display" that they are gay -- above and beyond simply coming out and saying so. The young woman in the temple used these cultural markers on purpose. This elder has perfectly flawless skin. That is either natural, or he uses skin care and other products to achieve it. The latter is not something straight men do at that age.

Send a picture of it. I'll see if I can identify it.

I'm beginning to wonder that myself. But then I'm reminded of the "why bad things happen... " thread. Why NOT me?

Turns out my watermelon survived. I forgot that I had virtually buried it under the mulch because the "trunk" was partially disintegrating due to over exposure to sun. So more lessons in melon care. Plant shallow enough to get sprouts. deep enlut to develop the trunk before exposing it to too much sun. What was the seed?

And now... HAIL!!! Yes, friends. After Snowmageddon has come and gone, I thought everything was safe for my watermelons. But I woke up in the middle of the night to a hailstorm. I'm not looking forward to checking my watermelons today. I may have been sent back to square one.

ANTS!!! Tons of ants everywhere. They're crawling over cedar mulch. I thought the cedar would repel ants. NOPE! So, I had to spread some triazicide around all my trees and my one watermelon plant that survived. And now they're gone. Triazicide works. Now I hope that it doesn't make the fruit poisonous. It says that it is safe for fruit trees. But if I start to grow a second head, I'll let y'all know. Of course, since I got the granular type, I hope that my chickens won't eat it up either. We'll see.

I answered that question already.

I think this example is a good discussion point. I view it as another example of the Samuel Principle. People mistakenly believe this means that we can "change the mind of God" if we simply complain or disobey enough. No. All this means is that the Lord recognizes that even if He were to continue commanding us and teaching us, we would still disobey anyway. So, why continue teaching the truth when we refuse to hear it. It just places us under greater condemnation. Does it make it right? No. If it is an eternal principle, it is still wrong no matter what.

The Atonement satisfied the demands of justice for ALL. For EVERY sin. The result is that Christ now owns all of our souls to do with as He wishes. Those who refuse his payment will go to hell because they've essentially said, "I don't care if you paid for my sins. I'm going to take the punishment anyway." If you really feel that way. Others go to the three degrees of glory because of what their desires are for. They can only progress so far beyond what they were at the moment of death. And those who will only abide a Telestial Law, can only abide a Telestial Glory, and so forth. Because of this Eternal limitation, we are all judged to inherit whatever glory we are capable of abiding. And we will all be happy where we wind up. Remember that without the Atonement, there was only a heaven/hell dichotomy. It is only after the Atonement that we have gradations. And there is an eternal principle at work here. We tend to think of this as "the debt was paid, so everyone goes to heaven." Wrong. The debt was paid, so we now have the potential to grow as much as our fundamental nature would allow us. Without the Atonement, our nature wouldn't matter because we are ALL fallen. But with the Atonement, there is still the individual nature that we each had from the beginning. And that will limit our eternal destiny.