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Best wishes figuring out the perfect gift! I know that can be a difficult decision. (Perhaps you should get yourself the fountain pen and use it to write him letters. If I had a choice between getting a pen from Dad or a letter from Dad, I'd choose the letter every single time.)

Yes, I did have purposeful crimes in mind, not accident or negligence. Of course, I think it's pretty hateful to go firing a two ton bullet at folks without bothering to see what it's aimed at (or recognize that that's what you're doing)... (Yes, I'm a bit less tolerant of stupid and arrogant behavior than some folks.) Nevertheless, I am opposed to the concept. Whether you beat Joe to a pulp because of his race or sexual orientation or gender identity or manner of dress or to steal his wallet or because he broke your sister's heart or whatever, Joe still got beaten to a pulp. Special Joe is in no more pain than unspecial Joe.

Yes, well, it's hard to know what exactly to do, especially when you're not directly involved, nor a person of influence. I can post all the day long in Instagram about how awful it is to have drag queens teaching 6yos how to become drag queens themselves, but no one's going to pay any attention to me.

Well, we were talking about war, not home invasion. I reckon the best option for home invasion is lead. About 147grains of it. Rapidly accelerating toward invasion dude. (Yeah, I know, not an option for you guys. Seems like the best option for you guys is to have your bathroom converted into a safe-room and wait until dude has had his way with your belongings. ) But all that is irrelevant. I'm praying for you, Jamie, and hope God will bless you with what you need to lift your spirits and give you strength! (And don't beat yourself up over the chocolate cake binge. It's done. So what? Your body will recover. Try not to do that to it too often. )

Find me a crime that wasn't done in hate. (And I'll help you find the hate in it. They're all hate crimes.)

When the Lord comes again, the wicked will find his perfect righteousness so terrifying they'll wish the mountains would fall on them. I'm not saying this has ever happened, except perhaps with the city of Enoch. Those verses are about what will happen at or around the Second Coming. And if we're going to theorize on the right way to do something, then our model should be perfection, even if we can't quite get there.

D&C 45:66-71: Let the enemy be frightened by righteousness and songs of everlasting joy and the terror of the Lord.

Me and you, both.

I think mostly it's the starting of war that's the biggest problem. The reasons for shedding blood, and I think the use of that blood, are also pretty significant to the One who notes every sparrow's fall. Grease paint. Meh, whatever. Perhaps the problem is engaging in behavior that helps you to forget (or reject or whatever) the fact that you're a child of God and ought to behave like one. Devolution should not be encouraged. How much easier is it to behave like a rabid animal when covered in blood vs when simply armored. Whatever. I'll take my cues from God, not man.

If you ate the steak (and were not being gluttonous), then I suspect you're fine. It's the steak you bought at the store, then left in the fridge until it went bad because you were too lazy to bother cooking it that you should worry about.

If I hadn't been so busy yesterday, I would have read 5 then because the dividing up of the chapters is once again bizarre... 3 Nephi 5 v4: This is the Lord's way - teach us the truth and forgive those who will repent. v14: Live so that you can be the answer to other people's prayers. v20: The blessings you enjoy didn't start when you were born. Be grateful for all that God has done for you. 3 Nephi 6 v1-2: I suppose it's not surprising that it's after they separate that things go bad again. While together, they are more than conscious of their mutual reliance on one another. That immediate sense of helping and needing help against a common enemy kept them from internal contention. The lesson then and now is to not let the physical separation cause you to forget that we still have a common enemy - Satan - and that we still need to help and be helped as we work our way through life. v4+: Just because you don't need material help, that doesn't mean you don't need other kinds of help, and certainly doesn't mean no one anywhere needs your help. What can I note that hasn't been noted before? Pride in its various expressions once again divides the people against each other. Beware of pride. Crush it as soon as you recognize it in yourself. v14: Be like "a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord." How hard that would be if the Church were collapsing around you! v17: Ignoring our own calendar and assuming as we should that the start of all this - the 30th year - is the start of Christ's ministry, we can assume that just as Christ "ramped up" his efforts, so Satan countered. And I think we can assume this is an expected occurrence, that as we approach the Second Coming, Satan will increase his efforts. Knowing this, be like those few Lamanites! Refused to be moved. v27-30: And the secret combination is back. 3 Nephi 7 v5: It's a sad summary when you have to say "there were no wars as yet among them". v15: I don't think I ever noted the fact that the Lord's ministry in the old world was revealed to Nephi. This lends even more weight to the following verses where Nephi does many of the same things that the Lord was doing.

Well, mine was only warm, and I don't think it's in the least alarming - video uses about as much of the processing power as a phone has - internet, video, audio - only the touchscreen is unused (unless you're touching the screen a lot during playback). Video is known to be very intensive on computer resources. That said, I think there's a fair chance that the app isn't as efficient as it could be - it's too new. I imagine they'll be needing a lot of feedback (or perhaps beta testers if they don't have enough) and multiple iterations before it improves. I think I mentioned that I saw no option for video quality - if they're streaming higher quality than my phone can display, that's a waste all around. But even if not, it would be nice if they'd let me lower the quality so that I can save bandwidth / reduce demand on the phone's resources. I mean, it's not like I need a high res view of the GC speaker - it's mostly audio I need. Perhaps later they'll add an option for audio-only, too... Anywho, sorry it's hammering your phone, hopefully they'll fix that. And if you're willing, I think it would help to reinstall the app long enough to use its feedback option to tell them about it.

Not really. I like action movies and the war chapters. Perhaps it's because I grew up watching Yosemite Sam get blown to bits by Bugs Bunny. This sort of thing doesn't bother me. OK. OK. Remove the "smeared with blood" - their going to war to take what isn't and never was theirs is necessarily a black mark against them. And the lies of chapter 3 conflict greatly with the imagery of chapter 4 (or would, had they not been lies from the start). And the reason they smeared themselves with blood is equally wrong - to terrify those who were not guilty of any wrong and who wanted only to continue to live their lives in freedom and peace. Can it be perfectly acceptable behavior if it was done for an evil reason? Perhaps part of it is the cultural perception of those who are part of secret combinations - these are the wickedest of the wicked. But likely only a member of the Church (oJCoLdS) would feel that instinctive rejection of everything they are. Whether they believed in their own wickedness or not, they were evil. In my mind, someone that far gone has a screw loose. (But yeah, I was engaging in a little presentism there - I mean, smearing blood all over yourself requires a special degree of devolution - of barbarity - ceremonial sprinkling of blood all over the children of Israel aside. You missed that reference, but Moses did that, too - Exodus 24:8.) Finally, if it's worth anything, the Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis 9 (the Lord talking to Noah after the flood): Personally, I wouldn't want to answer for having smeared the blood of any creature all over myself to terrify my enemies in war. Some may think that phrase no longer applies or has been preempted or something, but D&C 49:21 is close enough (this is not talking about murder, but about killing animals for food):

IMO, it's a choice. When I decided to become the sort of person who spends time in the Book of Mormon every day, some entertainment had to go. When I decided my scripture study was lacking unless I wrote down my thoughts and impressions during that study1, more entertainment had to go. When the kitty arrived, still more other forms of entertainment had to go. When Jamie's Book of Mormon reading invitation came, lots more entertainment had to go. My backlog of unwatched YouTube videos is staggering at this point... But if you can't find a way to integrate your pen into your daily life (like journaling your scripture study), then, yeah, the pen will have to wait until something write-worthy gains priority - like, say, writing letters to your daughters. 1Most of the notes go into my journal with my fountain pen, but I still highlight, tag, and annotate in the Gospel Library app. It mostly depends on how personal the note is (journal) vs. whether it's something I might want to share or have the next time I read the passage (app). Sometimes, I put notes in both places.

Yes, fictional stories (written or dramatized), which rely heavily on conflict, might all become "foreign". On the other hand, you'd think we'd still have the scriptures, and especially the Old Testament and Book of Mormon are no different - the entire Book of Mormon would make for exceptional fiction... So, who knows... All the other forms of art, including poetry, don't need any conflict, so I would imagine they will continue, with the visual arts reverting to what I believe was their original purpose - to convey beauty. Perhaps if I survive to the Millennium I can finally learn to draw and paint. Or perhaps another type of fictional story will arise, one that I cannot now imagine.

So, if a person uses only one ink, and uses the pen every day or two (or a few if in a less arid environment than Utah), then cleaning isn't required nearly as often. And changing cartridges is probably easier for such a person than filling from a bottle of ink. But cleaning may be more difficult - you could watch the video and see how the bulb syringe is used - I would think the bulb syringe operation wouldn't be the problem, but attaching it might be. If ink keeps flowing through the pen regularly, especially daily, then one could go indefinitely without cleaning the pen - months, a year, maybe longer - as long as ink keeps flowing through it. (Black Jinhao Cartridges, blue is a variant on the same page.) For paper that will just be used for scribbling notes, look at WalMart for Pen+Gear brand or Exceed - anything with "Made in Vietnam" on it will be good for fountain pens with up to a medium nib. It's the cheapest option I know. Pen+Gear have spiral notebooks, maybe composition books; Exceed have hard and soft cover journals. Just make sure they say "Made in Vietnam" on them. Alternative to FPs: If you wanted to go with something easier than a fountain pen, but still a nice pen, the Parker Jotter (ballpoint and gel version) is rather popular pen with classic looks. You can get yourself to the $35 free shipping by getting two (or one XL) and refills and / or paper - every paper on that site ought to be good with ballpoint or gel ink (though it'll be more expensive than the stuff at WalMart, which is surprisingly good paper).

Ink questions: What color(s) are of interest? Will he need to fill away from home, or will he mostly be using the pen at home? (Some people really prefer ink cartridges, which are disposable and can be carried and replaced "on the go", but they're more expensive per mL and don't offer as many colors. There are thousands of colors of bottled ink.) Is water resistance important? Paper question: what uses will be made: letters, a journal, just ordinary notes that get tossed, etc. This will help us choose what paper to buy. NOTE: You should get a bulb syringe (snot sucker) from the baby aisle in the grocery store - these will speed cleaning the pen immensely. (See the third video in this Fountain Pen 101 series for cleaning, including doing so with a bulb syringe.) One that can be disassembled for cleaning would help to ensure mold doesn't build up inside the bulb.

Yep, it's a big jump. So, let's talk about some details: The 9056 is a very large pen. The 51A is a more normal diameter. After checking some reviews, I'd say it comes down to personal taste which one you get. With the 9056, if there's a nib problem, it's easy to replace the nib with a #6 nib from any online pen shop (the nib will cost almost as much as the pen - $16 right now - example). The 51A may not be so easy to buy a replacement nib for, though sometimes there are 5-packs on Amazon - the nib will also be harder to change on the 51A - a lot harder. The primary benefit of the 51A's hooded nib is that it will take longer for the ink to dry on the nib when the pen is uncapped (also when it's capped, actually). (Depending on the ink and the environment, the ink can dry on a normal nib in anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute or two when the pen is uncapped and idle - that's just a fact of fountain pen life - you cap the pen when not writing. You get more cap-off time with hooded nibs.) This pen also has a slip or snap cap (not sure which), which is faster to cap and uncap. One downside is that you don't get to see the nib. This pen is only sold in EF on Amazon (which is a western EF). So that may also impact your choice. The 9056 has a screw cap and an inner cap and some silicone o-rings which makes me think it will do better keeping the ink from drying out in the pen when the pen is unused. This is also a part of fountain pen life - with rare exception, pens can't go weeks unused and still write. It's best to use them every day or two. The 9056 is available in fine or medium. Without knowing anything, I'd recommend the fine, but we should talk about how large or small your dad writes - can you find either the pens he uses now and see what size they are (e.g. gel pens usually have a mm size (.5 or .7) and ballpoints are often labeled fine or medium) or see how large he writes on paper - do his letters fill the entire line on lined paper? How wide is the line spacing? All that will tell us whether to go for fine or medium. IMO, better to err on the size of too small than too large - you can't write small letters with a fat nib (the loops are filled in), but you can write large letters with a fine nib. From the reviews, it does seem like this is a newer model with better quality and design than older models of Jinhao, so I'd guess the 9056 will feel like a better quality pen than the 51A. Both pens include converters (Anatomy of a Fountain Pen - shows converters eventually), so you can use bottled ink. Amazon is not the best place from which to order bottled ink, and winter is not the best time of the year to order bottled ink, but it could work (just don't let the package sit outside for hours lest the ink freeze). Amazon sometimes don't package ink securely either - every package of broken ink posted on reddit came from Amazon. If you don't mind ordering the ink and paper from another retailer, that would be the safer bet. We can talk about ink and paper in separate posts. If you want to see the 9056 in a man's hand, you can watch this review. And the same guy with a 51a (different version, but the pen diameter appears to be the same as the wood one with the hooded nib). Let me know what questions you have or what you want to talk about next.

This was the conclusion I came to - it's about "attaching" to Christ. That idea worked better for me than "building on Christ". (More below.) The following has been written over the course of a few sessions, with breaks in between and is basically me trying to figure it out by explaining it (answering my own question). Yeah, sometimes I have a blind spot, and I know it's there, but I can't explain it. I can imagine "the word" (meaning the teachings of Christ) as a "seed" and I can imagine myself (heart and mind) as the "soil" in which I plant that "seed", and all the rest that follows. I'm having a much harder time imagining Jesus Christ (the person) as a rock or a foundation on which I "build" some unspecified thing (in the start of the verse, it's "my foundation" (not sure what that is) and later in the verse, it's myself).... I mean, trying to visualize this like I can visualize planting a seed and nourishing it and the tree that grew from it just wasn't working - like I said, Christ isn't a concrete slab. (It would be easier for me if this verse were closer to Matthew 7:24-27 or even Alma's story, where the "rock" is the teachings of Christ, but that's not what it says.) But I'm over complicating it. If a rock (obviously, we're talking bedrock here) symbolizes Christ, and I'm to build "my foundation" (whatever that is) or "myself" on said symbolic rock, now I get farther - I can visualize bedrock and building on said bedrock. But now I need to imagine that what I build is either "my foundation" (really have no idea what that means) or "myself" (I know what this means, so I'll just stick with it). The verse itself gives me some hints in the middle, specifically, the reason for building on this rock (that it gives you an anchor so you don't get blown away by a tornado or washed away by a hurricane or similar). That also suggests that you can't just build something resting on top, held only by gravity, what you build has to be anchored to the rock. (Your comments, @Carborendum, help here, demonstrating the degree to which the foundation, or the building, must be firmly attached to what's under it.) I suppose another difficulty is imagining "building on Christ" - that just seems like a strange idea to me. Anchoring to him, or attaching to him, those make a lot of sense. If I think of "anchoring my foundation to the bedrock of Christ" or "anchoring my building to the foundation that is Christ", I can make more progress. (And I've never once heard anyone even attempt to flesh out this analogy the way Alma does his seed analogy, and yet I hear it used frequently - "build your foundation on Christ" - without any further expounding on what that means.) So, recently I was thinking about this and thinking more like Legos or even, for example, insert or tee nuts. You can't connect any old thing to them - you have to have Legos to connect to Legos (or an off brand designed to the same specs). For the insert nuts, they'll only take a bolt with the right diameter and threading. Similarly, if we're going to "build on Christ", we have to have the right connector - you can't just attach any old thing, won't work. If I try to build a sinful self on Christ, it won't attach, I won't be anchored. But the life of a disciple, that can be anchored to Christ - covenants are the connectors, perhaps the Holy Ghost is also a connector. Ordinances are the act of making the connection, perhaps repenting would work as the act of connecting (or repairing damaged connections). Our various building materials (the concrete of our foundations or the studs used to build the frame, etc.) could be righteous attributes like charity or patience or long-suffering or mercy that we're trying to "build" in ourselves; faith and righteous deeds could be the action of putting it all together. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ is "building ourselves on him" (aka connecting ourselves to him). And because there's so many ways to live the gospel, we'll each look a little different (some of us will build a shack, others will have managed to build a mansion), but that's OK, as long as it's anchored to Jesus Christ. And my house could look different from your house because I'm spending more time on scripture study, so that room is bigger for me, but you're spending more time serving others, so that room is bigger in your house, and maybe I'll need an add-on later. I still don't know what "my foundation" is, except that if I look at it as just part of what I'm building (myself), then that's OK. Perhaps "your foundation" is your testimony and conversion. Whatever it is, it's all got to be anchored to that bedrock which is Christ, anchored with covenants, built by keeping covenants, maintained through repentance, with faith that the bedrock is unassailable, that the anchors will hold, that I'm not wasting my efforts, that all this will keep me from those storms that are coming. OK, I think I can work with this. Perhaps others see this differently, or perhaps others have also been hearing "build your foundation on Christ" for 5 decades and been content with the instinctive "yeah, that's a good idea" without ever trying to figure out what your foundation is or how you build "on Christ"... Regardless, I think I can run with this analogy now, explain it to others, use it to visualize and teach principles. Would still be interested if anyone else has additional ideas on how to use or "build on" this analogy. Thanks!

But these folks came from the Jewish / law of Moses tradition - that should have given them a particular attitude toward using blood... But then, they had long ago rejected any of that and any influence of the Holy Ghost, so, you know, let them pee on their linens all they want...

...you could have tossed your opponent in by now and then you wouldn't having to worry about him.... Note to self: Never sit around a fire drinking scotch with @Grunt or @CommanderSouth!

I hope it was animal blood. The only prohibition I can think of is the Spirit of Christ - one's conscience, one's sense of decency and cleanliness and such.

This is good. This is why Christ is our foundation - he's solid, we won't sink, our foundation won't crack up and fall this way and that (or whatever). It may help to point out that I can expand Alma's "plant the word" analogy all the day long - it's easy to relate that to activities we would do: how we prepare the soil (prepare our hearts, rid our lives of things that would prevent growth), plant the seed (choose to believe or at least act on the desire to believe), nourish the seed (act as if it were going to grow, try it out), then nourish the tree (continue those actions, feed it through study and prayer, fasting and good works), or how we could neglect them (ignore all those good works and leave the tree on its own) - this is easy. But this foundation one has always been more difficult for me. And I see that I didn't explain my mental block well enough - it's this expansion of the analogy - in short, the act of building - that I struggle with (see my reply to @CV75). Hopefully you and others will have equally helpful ideas on how to continue the analogy.

It's how to extend the analogy I don't get. I comprehend anchoring a stud to the concrete foundation of my house - I've got pictures of big honking screws going down through the wood into the concrete. Then other studs are nailed to that, etc. How do you extend this analogy with Christ, whether as the rock our foundation is on, as the foundation, or as the cornerstone. What are the nails or screws, what are the studs or the other stones. How do we go about attaching these to the foundation? That's where the analogy has always fallen apart for me (so to speak). (Written and posted before reading what @Carborendum wrote.)