*LoNG - Random thoughts... Inspired by a friend :-D

Disclaimer: I hope I don't offend anyone who is in love with facebook or texting... I don't HATE them, I just think they have a purpose and we ought not use them for more... (Not that I'm perfect... :S)

Elder Oaks said in a recent Stake Conference: "When technology is a slave, it's good. When it becomes a master, it's bad. When something good becomes a priority over that which is best, that thing becomes bad."

I've been thinking for the last few days that I need to write in my blog about a few things... I read a friend's blog today and there were a few posts that were pretty random. I concluded that it is ok to be random on blogs, because if you don't like it, it's your fault for reading it! Ha!

I think Facebook is like a habit forming substance. Which pretty much means it's against the Word of Wisdom. The more you use it, the more you use it.

The more friends you add, the more status updates you get.

The more comments you make on status updates, the more responses you get.

The more pictures you upload, the more comments you have to reply to.

The more applications you add... Well, I don't add applications, but I'm sure they're pretty big time-wasters too...

If you appear online, you have a million people who start a chat with you.

etc.

etc.

etc.

I do believe that Facebook has it's benefits. It's a great way to find a friend you haven't talked to in a long time. It's a good way to plan events. There are good benefits, but for those who over-use it, it is like a black-hole. You just get sucked in. Luckily, this hasn't exactly happened to me. I'm on the computer a lot, so my activity isn't low, but I have striven to avoid the addiction that many people have so unfortunately fallen under. I'm sorry, but I'm not all that interested that currently you're tying your shoe... Not to be rude, just saying... Maybe, like I said on this post, if I don't like it, I don't have to read it... Hmmmm.... I could be a little kinder I suppose...

I feel a very similar way about texting. I don't believe that texting conversations are actually conversations. Texting does serve it's purpose. It's good when you're not really in a situation to talk on the phone for whatever reason, but to spend an hour on a conversation that could have lasted 5 minutes seems a little silly to me. Now, there are also times that I don't particularly want to get up and leave what I'm doing so I can talk with someone on the phone, so I text instead. But most generally, my rule of thumb is: If you text once and get a response you need to respond to (beyond just "goodbye"), call them!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of technology. In fact, I'm majoring in Electrical Engineering at BYU. But with my fanness of technology I also have an understanding of it's dangers. A very wise man once told me while on my mission: "There are barriers that are up when talking with someone on the phone or in person. These barriers keep us from saying things that we ought not say, or don't really mean (or both!). These barriers are not up when chatting or texting." I totally believe it. It makes complete sense to me. Aside from this (and also almost a part of this) you can only take a friendship so far without actually associating with someone in person. You can't really learn who they are online or through texting. We need to go back to the old-fashioned way of developing friendships. Let's spend some time together, play games, laugh, sing, dance, do fun stuff. We'd just be sitting in front of the computer talking to each other on Facebook anyway.

I recently got a really big project from someone, which is going to prove very busy and lucrative. :D As some of you may know, I ripped Mom's CDs to the computer and put them on her iPod to replace the 300 CD changer that we had for listening to music on the entertainment system (unfortunately, after taking all the CDs and putting them away, the iPod kinda broke... So she needs a new iPod, if anyone's getting a new one, I'm sure she'd love your old one if it still works!). Well, I started doing pretty much the same thing for my good friend Rachel Ashby's mom. Sister Ashby was pretty pleased with my work and sent an e-mail to her friends telling them about what I've done. Two hours later I get a call from Julie Whitehead. Sister Whitehead taught my sister Kimberlee clogging many years ago as it turns out! As a clogging instructor, you collect quite a bit of music. Somewhere around 600 CDs I'm guessing. So, now, I'm working from home, running around to all the computers in the house ripping these CDs all over the place! $0.50 per CD. Which, if I were doing it on just one computer that would be about $3 - $4 an hour, but with the speediness of my computer and the other two (and possibly three soon with Debbie's) computers, I can go quick enough to make about $13 an hour :D It's pretty awesome! I also have a number of things to do for Mom and Dad. I'm staying pretty busy :-D

I've recently been making a lot of new friends. As much as I really really really wanted to get down to BYU, I'm starting to regret that I can't take some of my new friends with me. I've been going to the temple Wednesday mornings to do baptisms quite a bit, and those regulars are becoming pretty good friends :-D. I guess this is the way it goes though. You make friends, then life takes you away and you make new friends. It's pretty sad though. You can get pretty close to people, then torn away. Sometimes life can not be fair.

That's what it felt like when I came home from my mission. I wont bemoan this subject as I've done previously so very much, maybe too much... But everyone's moved on, so I need to as well. Keep the old friends as much as I can, but get some new ones wherever I am. I have great examples of this. There's one girl that I've met who's the greatest example of someone who can meet everyone at a party in just a manner of minutes. I'd like to be more like her.

I spoke in Sacrament Meeting today. It went alright... It was basically the same as my homecoming talk (that's what they wanted). I didn't have near as much time as I would have liked... But it's always good to reminisce about the mission :D

I finally got a home teaching route! I was able to go home teaching today and it felt pretty sweet. I felt a little bit like a missionary again... It was a little bit awkward, but I'll get over it. Home teaching is a little bit like missionarying, but a bit different too... Hard to describe...

Well, I hope that all is going well for everyone. Life is as splendid as you make it out to be. And just remember, no one ever injured his eyesight by looking on the bright side of things! And that's the Bright-Side of Life!

P.S. I'm not a fan of my phone - Samsung Reclaim... Lots of problems. One of th biggest being it's really slow and doesn't hold very many texts at all, so it's always telling me to delete unwanted messages... It's pretty annoying... But the fact that it's a phone, it functions (mostly), and it was free, and it's blue.... That's the Bright-Side of Life! :D