Tom Hanks is a pinhead...

and here's why:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Here's the article:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480167,00.html#1

Oprah's Testimony :)

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” –C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Glenn Beck..

Content with Things Allotted unto US

I recently stumbled across a talk from Elder Neal A. Maxwell, it seemed like a rather convenient time to share parts of it with you:

"Life's necessary defining moments come within our allotments, and we make "on the record" choices within these allotments. Our responses are what matters. Sufficient unto each life are the tests thereof!"

"Being content means acceptance without self-pity. Meekly borne, however, deprivations such as these can end up being like excavations that make room for greatly enlarged souls. Some undergo searing developments that cut suddenly into mortality's status quo."

"Meanwhile, people regularly sell their souls for much less than the whole world. In Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More is soon to be martyred, partly because his friend Rich, having been bought off by a local office, has betrayed him. More, "looking into Rich's face, with pain and amusement," speaks: "For Wales? Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . But for Wales!" (A Man for All Seasons [1960], 92). Let this same rebuke hold for any preoccupation which preempts us from spiritual things!"

Sense of Entitlement: A Tenants First Mistake

Recent events have caused me to vent my frustrations regarding the following topic. The above picture is real and was taken last February.

Through the years I come across tenants from all walks of life. From the newlyweds to the nearly dead, the disabled and the dysfunctional, tenants are all kinds. One thing they certainly are not is entitled; other than a place to live in swap for their contracted rent money, a tenant should never ever be entitled to disfigure their residence, fulfill the sudden urge to paint a room, or take in a cat from off the streets.

For some reason, it happens all too often, after a tenant has accommodated themselves in the property, they all of the sudden want to change the rules on me. They start requesting everything just shy of room service and fresh towels for the bathroom.

Renting should be called "borrowing", to dispel any confusion. You are guests in a property that, as long as you continue to pay your contracted amount due, you may continue to live there, otherwise enjoy what you originally agreed upon. In an attempt at satire, I have gone ahead and listed some of the recent "demands" from tenants (I must note that it is fine to request an improvement to the property, however, always remember that when you signed the lease, you agreed to the property "as is". Don't try to change the rules once you're in there):

-a dishwasher
-shower curtains (what, you can't buy your own?)
-an elongated toilet
-a water softener
-an elevator
-a cat
-child safety plugs for electrical outlets
-paint the kitchen bright red
-"the most well behaved indoor dog ever"
-high speed Internet
-"softer" carpet
-another cat

I have had tenants that have been great, they left the property much better than they found it, and never made a peep. Typically, these people were not "life-ers", they left on their terms because life turned around for them.

To quote a truism from my harsh father, "there are 2 types of people in this world, there are normal people and there are tenants". My truest respects go out to those who are temporarily renting and are not "life-ers".

Qwest workaround-"Since I got out of the loop.."

It's been a year since I got rid of my qwest phone service, since then life has been free of red-tape and "gotcha fees". What a poor excuse for a phone company (heaven forbid you should use them as an internet service provider or a cable company)! Here's the workaround: if you currently have internet access that is not through your phone line, for $50 you buy a Linksys PAP2 Adapter that hooks right into your internet modem, and for $7.95 a month you can enjoy unlimited local and long distance calls, even includes free caller ID. The company is vitelity.net. I have been using them for over a year and have had great success. We even have a fax line and a 1-800 for my business through them, it's amazing! Take that, Qwest!

First post

Let's just get it out of the way.