unculturedswine

I went over to the DMV this morning with my dad to help him pick up some new license plates for his car and motorcycle. Utah released a new plate called ‘Life Elevated’ and I wanted to see what it looks like. I like it! I went home after and checked on getting a personalized one and finally decided on what I wanted it to be. I’m excited, although it’ll probably be about a month before it gets here. A good Christmas present perhaps?

 

I’ve been working out at the gym for almost 6 weeks now, every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning. At the gym, they have TV’s all over the place, showing music videos, local news, national news and maybe some shows. The news station they have it turned to is MSNBC. I can tell you who they want for President.

I don’t really get to listen to the audio, so I have to go off of what I see. And what do I see? Hillary Clinton. A LOT more than all the other candidates, both Democrat and Republican combined. It’s definitely media propoganda at its’ best. This morning, for example (I could read the sub-titles) they were doing a story on how Barrack Obama has surged ahead of Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire. Guess who’s face wasn’t shown ONCE during the minute long story. Obama. The entire time they were going over that story they showed clip after clip after clip of Hillary Clinton. This is how it is every day, she gets 90% of the face time on TV. It’s disgusting.

Why does McDonald’s always seem to stay on top of the Fast Food? The Play Place. Where do kids want to go eat? The place with the Red and Yellow colors and the Play Place. Then those kids grow up, but they’ve been subconsciously choosing McDonald’s their entire life, so they keep it. So it is with Political Candidates and the Media. Whoever’s face they plaster the most will be the one that voters pick when they haven’t done a lick of investigating the candidates; they’ll pick the name that they have been sub-consciously spammed with. The Media is pathetic, I hardly believe any story they propogate to the public. Someday they need to be held responsible for that.

I cashed a check for $600 today, I’m kinda happy about that. I filed a diminished value claim on my car for the accident from June. Now that it’s been hit it’s not worth full face value; an accident will do that to you. However, that ‘Diminished Value’ check isn’t given unless you ask. And on top of asking you have to provide all sorts of documentation, get an independant appraisal and then wait to see what they give you. This is something you deserve to be paid out on; having the insurance cover repairs is not getting everything you should. Lesson? If you’re hit, be sure to file a diminished value claim. Don’t miss out on that money eh!

Today has been a good day, much better than yesterday. I’m having quite a fight with life right now, and that’s okay. It just means that I have some great things coming up and hell is making sure that I don’t obtain them. Too bad. I will.

“There is a lesson in the Prophet Joseph Smith’s account of the First Vision that virtually everyone in this audience has had occasion to experience, or one day soon will. It is the plain and very sobering truth that before great moments, certainly before great spiritual moments, there can come adversity, opposition and darkness. Life has some of those moments for us, and occasionally they come just as we are approaching an important decision or a significant step in our life” — Elder Holland; Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence

I think that sums it up much better than I could have. I feel like I am moments away from one of those significant steps, and if the trials and troubles I’ve fought through over the past few days are any indicator, then I expect this to be very significant. I take hope in that thought, and I feel that it is appropriate to do so.

I read in a book once that, if we could see the future and the trials that we have coming, how often would decide to skip by them and just live the happy moments? How many lessons would we miss, how much progression would we not make? Thankfully, we can’t see the future, nor know what trials lie ahead. What we can do, however, is look forward with faith, and with an Eye of Eternity, and know that the blessings and lesson to be learned far outweigh the pain and short-lived suffering that may come during the trial.

I’ve had a rough few days believing that, and quite frankly I’m disappointed in my performance. Like I said, this one is a doozy. But, today was a good day, and I have confidence restored. Sure glad I haven’t blown it. Nor do I plan to. Nor do I feel like I’m going to.If you haven’t read that talk linked above, I highly recommend that you do. It’s one of the most inspiring talks given, it relates to everyone and at some times is well beyond prophetic in its’ council. I’ll probably give it another read when I’m done writing this! Which, I think I am. But I’ll leave you with a poem that President Faust quoted often enough I wanted to go find it.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be,
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade;
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate;
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the Captain of my Soul.

William Ernest Henley