The Daily Honky Tonk 170th Edition

The Daily Honky Tonk
170th Edition
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
10:17 PM


This DHT has been sitting on my new MacBook Pro for two days waiting for me to get the address book updated to this computer. Yay! It’s finally done. Which makes me very happy. In the meantime, I’ve also finally gotten a cell phone. I found out that I am without planning scheduled to be in a class with one of my best friends and I’m getting excited to go to school after the holidays. Snow is covering everything and I love it. Maybe I’ll get into the habit of writing more often again. Especially now that things are more convieniently in one place.
Oh, I was trying to figure out how I was going to effectively budget my life without paying too much for a good computer program. I was doing my research and found out that Quicken has a free online service that you can directly attach to your account. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a beginning budgeting program. It has a nice little program that helps you see where you are spending your money and it also has a goals program that allows you to set your budget for items and can send you emails to warn you if your going to go over or are getting close. Just go to www.quicken.com and look for the Quicken Online :)

The ABC’s of My Life
Amy and Alyssa- I saw Alyssa after Thanksgiving and Amy comes home December 18th. It’s good to have my Champaign girls again.

Baptisms- Krysta Hanson and Britt Grove were just recently baptized in the Champaign singles ward. They are both awesome people. . .I’ve enjoyed getting to know them, as I have the rest of the Singles Ward. For purely social reasons, I could definitely stay in the Singles Ward here. Ha ha, but then, something I came to understand better about myself on my mission, is that I could be happy almost anywhere based purely on social things. . ..there are cool people everywhere.

Consuming- How I’ve begun to start to think of my new MacBook Pro and computers in general. In the movie Wall-E we see a place where in future society people live in chairs where they don’t see past the projected computer screen in front of their faces. They are fat, because they can do everything in their chair. They can talk, order things, travel, talk to people, whatever. An increasing amount of my interests and daily activities can be done on a computer. I can write, I can study online courses, go shopping, I can learn new guitar songs (from YouTube and tablature), I can communicate with others, I can do research, and now I don’t need to take a stereo and all my CDs to college to have my music. With so many productive things to do on a computer, and just as many distracting things that are fun like games, movies, and watching whole TV Episodes, I’ve started to feel like its consuming my life. It’s very efficient, and I don’t think I waste as much time as I used to. However, I do often feel like I’ve been in front of it for too long.

Dark Knight, The- The New Batman movie is rather intense. It’s rating includes a statement that it is rated PG-13 for “some menace” . I kind of laughed when I saw that. But I understood that it was referring to the Joker. The movie is very dark and the menace quite disturbing (to me at least). However, I thought it was a genius script. Interestingly, the person who said the most truly profound things were The Joker. The film made poignant remarks on motivations, on right and wrong and where the lines blend, on what is virtue, and on humanity in general. I love how The Joker can’t be bought, whose motivation is for the sake of doing things. If virtue is “doing good for only the sake of doing good”, we see the opposite in a man who doest bad for the very sake of enjoying the bad. The Joker also makes some great points about being in control and out of control. He uses peoples desires to control a situation to accomplish his tasks. When I speak of this movie, I will say that I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love the genious in it. . . .but the darkness of it kept me up watching something more pleasant to return to my insides to a “happy medium” (can someone remind me where that idea is from? “happy medium” I think its from Madeline L’engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” but I can’t remember.

Ears- I laughed the other day when my Mom told me that I’m definitely the child who has a telephone growing out of his ear. Something we’ve taken into consideration while looking for a cell phone.

Frumpy- Scotts Johns word for me. I’m so excited that he comes home and gets to be my room mate.

Gifts by Ursula K. LeGuin is a really good book that makes some interesting observations about gifts. What is a gift? Is it’s value dependent on the user? It’s a good book, with beautiful prose, and is a short read as well. I highly recommend it. Oh, I guess it would fall under the fiction/fantasy category.

Holiday with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn addressed one of my favorite expanded insights on the mission. Before I left on the mission, I thought a lot in black and white. I’m quite confident I still think in a lot of black and white. ..but its significantly less. The insight I finally understood was how in many situations there isn’t one right answer ..there are many. For some reason I used to think that as everyone neared perfection, truth would be the basis for there decision, and ultimately, that would mean they would all make the same decision. On my mission I finally came to understand that this is not a cookie cutter plan .. .we are not cookie dough all approaching the same shaped cookie. In our eternal identity there is personality and character and that will always be with us. It doesn’t detract from perfection .... .Joseph Smith taught that the Lord gives us revelation adapted to our circumstances. .. I assume circumstances includes our personalities and those of the people around us. So acting perfectly would not assume that there is one right answer for the situation. .because it changes according to the people. The truths like love, patience, virtue, etc., don’t change. . But revelation helps us to understand how to use those truths in our situation. In Holiday Cary Grant is going to marry, but eventually discovers that his spouse and he have different ideas about finances. At first he tries resolve it by deciding to follow the girl’s philosophy, but then he discovers he can’t really do it and she can’t change for him. In a former time, I would have seen the girl as wrong because my philosophy on life is closer to Cary Grant’s. At this point I recognize both as fine and appropriate for the individual and that the best answer for them was not getting married.

It’s a Wonderful Life- about a week ago we watched this movie as a family. I forgot how much I love this movie. The message is so positive. It just makes you want to get up and enjoy life and bless others lives.

Jimmy John’s- I had my first sandwich from there the other evening. “Subs so fast you’ll freak” means that you don’t sit around in Subway, in fact, I think they generally finished within 20-30 seconds of the order. I was impressed .. . .but as those who were there know, not “obsessed” :)

Kentucky still remains to be one of my favorite places. Nostalgic for sure.

Love is a decision set aside from attraction, enjoyment, and hormones. “Enchanted” makes some great observations on love.

Money- I’m about to go off and be a poor college student! I’m really excited! The other day I was talking to someone about dating (an activity which at this point I find myself a little terrified of) and the girl commented that she didn’t like going on dates unless she was interested. She felt it disingenuous to have someone spending there money on her. I wandered to myself how many girls use guys for there money. And I have to admit, my own philosophies I’m hoping will counter that. I’m don’t want to spend lots of money on dates. I’m not going to have a lot of money, I don’t plan on it, and I don’t want the girl to think otherwise. Financial security is important to me .. .having an excess of money is not. I truly believe that how much money you have is not about how much you earn, but how much you spend. I want to be a teacher, and I want to marry a girl who wants to stay home with the kids. Doing that on a teacher’s salary is going to require good financial skills and a great deal of sacrifice. But with it should come rewards of the simplicity of not having too much in the house and if financially stable then there shouldn’t be concerns for the money. Removing black and white thinking allowed me to see that for some families, and some girl’s personalities it can be very beneficial for them to work. Which allowed me to accept that I can enjoy my own philosophies and others can enjoy theirs.

Not too seriously will I take myself and life. A friend and family member, suggested that I beward of “analysis paralysis”. . .overthinking and freezing up on decisions. I thought it was brilliant :)

Orange Crush- I learned something cool when I was visiting my grandparents for Thanksgiving. Orange Crush used to have real bits of orange in it! Hence the name.

Picking college courses, picking where to live, picking what to do with my life, and in time picking who I will marry. There are a lot more decisions to be made in normal life.

Quests I’m currently on- I want to start a band at BYU. I am on a quest for a good story idea. And I’m on a quest to continue overcoming the irrational thought processes that occasionally plague my existence.

Risk Taking- So I’ve decided its a good idea to take more risks than I have in the past. Some of the more recent risks I’ve taken are riding a motorcycle, attempting to ride a horse after several failed attempts, and well, I was going to go see my first concert. . Then the concert was cancelled due to the singer getting sick . .. Oh well. Its been good for me to do things I wasn’t sure I would be comfortable with. Even little things like watching some episodes of The Office. I was always so careful of every little decision. I don’t think I am as much anymore. The crazy papers helped me see that taking risks helps us to increase our discomfort tolerance and actually know our limitations(instead of assuming them), and it also is helpful to me ridding myself of perfectionism to be able to see things as a success if I tried it. I don’t have to like it or do it well, but I can try it and find out if I like it.

Spectacular Individuals- James Holman and Wilbur Wilberforce. I would like to recommend here a book and a movie. “A Sense of the World” by Jason Roberts is about a blind man named James Holman who traveled the world despite his inability to see. It is a biography and is very well written and very fascinating. “Amazing Grace” is a movie about Wilbur Wilberforce and his fight in Parliament to stop the British Slave Trade. An inspiring true story, that was very tastefully put onto the screen. I mention these two, and I have been thinking about great individuals in general as I have been studying American Heritage and learning about the founders of our nation. I love reading about great people. I admire both James and Wilbur for there fight against great odds, for their perseverance, diligence, and good will towards others. I think when I read about great individuals, it helps me to remember that doing great things is something obtainable. People who are considered great are in reality still just normal people. What separates them is not having any extra ability that allows them to do, but rather that they decide to do despite the odds. Both are truly inspiring tales, and the modern day storytellers of the book and the movie are great.

Three- the number of guys who unnecessarily felt “threatened” by my return from missionary life. Ha ha, that number could actually be four, but three are confirmed. By threat, I am referring to a threat to their relationships. The funny thing was I wasn’t and am not a threat at all. I can’t even really think of myself as a threat :).

University, Brigham Young- I’m getting excited to get out there and start school. I’m looking forward to throw myself into another world.

Virtue, virtue, virtue. . .I read about virtue in my American Heritage book. Virtue was considered by the Socrates, Aristotle, and other ancient thinkers. In the late 1700s through the 1800s virtue was a largely important topic. In “A Sense of the World” and “Amazing Grace” it was evident that virtue was a daily consideration for many of the players and a question often brought up. But now, I wonder what is to become of virtue. Virtue of character would play into so many things if it was more valued in our society. If virtue was considered important Marriage would still be a sacred institution respected before and after the fact. If virtue was still important, Illinois and North Dakota would not be uncovering political corruption. If virtue was still important, The Office would always be funny, entertaining, and CLEAN. If virtue was still important, one could leave the TV on and the only concern would be time spent, not content viewed. If virtue was still important, woman would be respected. If virtue was still important, large businesses would not suffer scandal. If virtue was still important, a man wouldn’t be trampled in a Black Friday’s sales rush. If virtue were still important, missionaries, teachers, Priests, and other various members of society wouldn’t have to tip toe around children and worry about lawsuits fired against them. If virtue were still important, our natural inclination would be to trust rather than to wonder what the “Catch” is.
I think virtue is very important. I don’t think our world is completely lacking of it either. People are still rescued, happy families continue to exist, and honest businessman, politicians, and regular everyday great people exist and consider the tenets of virtue important. But it does not play the same central role in society. A couple examples. .. In Much Ado About Nothing, when Hero is framed as to having lost her carnal virtue, her father in rage says he prefers her dead than alive with the scandal. Its so serious that they pretend she is dead. I’m pretty sure Clinton and Lewinsky did not go into hiding. The character of the individual was valued. Today, character, especially virtue, while valued, especially by employers, is not held to the same high regard in the societies eye. Obama and McCain were never found dueling as Hamilton and Burr despite vicious attacks on one another. (Granted this one may be a stretch. Burr, the winner of the duel ultimately was tried for murder, and although acquitted was unable to continue his political career. In our times, we would not take up an illegal action such as dueling just to defend our reputation.. . Unless your a gangbanger of course. Our virtue and character just doesn’t have that much importance anymore.

Wyatt gets mentioned for just being awesome. And because when I think lonely. . I know his definition of lonely is the closest to mine :)

X is a cross that goes through things to tell you no!

Yesh!!

Zzzzzzzzzzzz’s are still something I avoid :)

The Editor,
MARK