Family Communication Craft Idea!

Posted on February 13, 2012 by guest

There are many ways to show love for family members. However, in our family, we don’t write to each other as much as we talk to each other or do acts of service. So, for one of our family activities we decided to make a family mail system.

Outside Mom and Dad’s bedroom door we made a family post office. Each of us have our own mail box, with flag to indicate when there is a message we need to pick up.

Our family is loving this! I spend moments each day writing love notes my family will want to keep forever, and depositing small gifts into the boxes. Everyone else does the same. My small children come to me and say, “Mom, your flag is up, you better go check your mailbox.”

They can’t wait for me to see the love notes they have put in my box. “Mom, you are the best mom ever! Love, Londyn”

When I read the notes some of the children Continue reading →

An Awful, Good Enough, and Great Movie

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Jettboy

Forgive me for indulging in a subject not directly related to Mormonism or Politics, but there are some thoughts about movies that I wanted to put down. My love of movies started when I first saw Star Wars as a small kid. There were others I had seen before it in the theaters such as a double feature of Pinocchio and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for children, and at another time a King Kong remake that is both better than and worse than the original (don’t get me started on the overlong and pretentious Peter Jackson version). However, it was the space epic that inspired me with the power and potential of the silver screen. It was such a wonderment to me that watching what is considered the boring original Star Trek: Movie was fantastical and exciting to me at a young age. I was hooked, and the later Stephen Spielberg films sealed the deal. As you can see, it also locked me into what genre I would like the most. Science Fiction is my thing.

Having established a baseline on what I wanted to talk about, I now want to compare two movies recently seen from this past year. One of them was loved by critics for the most part while the other generally panned. The movie going public wasn’t impressed by either of them. I can see why and want to explain the reasons. Both have ties to Stephen Spielberg, one of them directly and the other tentatively. The first is Super 8 and the other Cowboys and Aliens, both billed as science fiction blockbusters turned relative duds. why these two instead of the myriad Superhero movies? Because they are essentially the same movie about aliens invading small towns in past American history.

Be warned, I am not afraid of giving out spoilers in my reviews. Having seen so many movies and read so many books in my life, I don’t find spoilers threatening personally. Tell me the twist and I will be more interested in how they come to it than that it has one. Endings? There are only so many ways a story can conclude and a synopsis often gives the hint. Warning finished. Continue reading →

Romney’s Path to the Mormon Presidency

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Jettboy

Thinking about editor Albert R. Hunt’s silly post-primary prediction where he sees Romney, “becoming president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” I decided to do a little math experiment on the probability that Mitt Romney could someday become the LDS Prophet. He will be 65 in 2012 during the election year. I will be using the most realistic “fast track” path.

He loses the bid for U.S. President, either in the primary or the general. This frees him up for a Church calling/assignment. The LDS Church leadership asks him to become a mission president. That lasts for 3 years. When finished he returns and is called to the First Quorum of the Seventy for another 3 years. He is now officially a General Authority with real “inner circle” leadership status, although limited by whatever duties given. Continue reading →

The Angels of Darkness – More on Sherlock Holmes and Mormons (well, Mormons, anyway)

Posted on May 27, 2011 by guest

I feel that sufficient time has passed since Geoff pointed out the interesting Mormon bits in the first Sherlock Holmes tale, A Study in Scarlet (interestingly, the first time I ever read that story, it was in an abridged version that cut out the Mormon bits. I didn’t find out about the Mormon chapters until college). Anyway, There is one other Sherlock Holmes tale featuring Mormons.

Except that there’s no Sherlock Holmes (but Watson is there). And it’s the same tale (sort of). Read on to find out more: Continue reading →

Official Bendanian History

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Ben Pratt

Note: Of the numerous micronations extant toward the end of the 20th century, few reached the same depths of obscurity and irrelevance achieved by Bendania, which consisted of the bedroom shared by two young brothers. I offer this historical document (with very little emendation, minor formatting changes appropriate for the new medium in which it is presented, some redaction and substitution of only limited consequence in order to protect the innocent, and rare clarifying comments) with the hope that it may shed additional light on some humorous attitudes prevalent among certain populations in the era under question. -Editor