My wife and I were out looking at homes tonight when we came across an interesting playground.

There are some updated pictures from Caldwell here.

Yeah, I know, it’s been a while :-D.  You can view some freshly uploaded pictures here.

…this will be me

Just added a few more pictures of the fam tonight. Remember that you will need a login to access these pictures. Contact me if you need a login.

Check them out here!

It is amazing to me that we, sons and daughters of a mighty but loving Father in Heaven continually tuck our tails between our legs and go through life feeling inadequate and incapable. Yet we think to ourselves (or at least I have) that if I were the son of an earthly uber successful man, then I would have the self image to go out and conquer the world!

This next statement from James Allen was an excellent reminder of who we really are.

“You are not cut off from the Divine except in your own unbelief. Rise up, O Son of God! and shake off the nightmare of sin that binds you; accept your heritage: the Kingdom of Heaven! Drug your soul no longer with the poisons of false beliefs. You are not a worm of the dust unless you choose to make yourself one. You are a divine, immortal, God-born being, and this you may know if you will to seek and find. Cling no longer to your impure and grovelling thoughts, and you shall know that you are a radiant and celestial spirit, filled with all pure and lovable thoughts. Wretchedness and sin and sorrow are not your portion here unless you accept them as such; and if you do this, they shall be your portion hereafter, for these things are not apart from your soul-condition; they will go wherever you go; they are only within you.

“…You are the master, and you choose whom you will serve. You are the maker of your state, and your choice determines your condition. What you pray and ask for–with your mind and heart, not with your lips merely, –this you receive. You are served as you serve. You are conditioned as you condition. You garner in your own.”

Gordon B. Hinkley, beloved leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has returned home to our Father in Heaven the evening of Sunday, January 27. His humor, love and diligence is rarely matched. He has with great effort aided in the spreading of the Gospel worldwide. He will be missed.

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I must admit when I read the title of this chapter, I was hoping that this book wasn’t getting freaky on me. After looking up the word on Merriam-Webster’s site and reading further in the chapter, I found that the word was very apropos. The word as used here refers to the refiners fire, turning base metals into precious metals.

James states:

“Midway between the hell of Passion and the heaven of Peace is the purgatory of Transmutation.”

How true that statement is! How many times have you been working on personal growth only to find that during your journey the fight was much more than you expected. That very thing you wish to change, which has never challenged you before you desired to get rid of it, can even pull you back and as a result, you digress. But as you continue to make the mental changes and take action towards your desire to “refine” yourself, the weed you are eradicating from yourself eventually comes free and is no more a challenge.

This seems to be common to achieving any goal be it personal or business. A great book along these lines (regarding the journey of achieving your goals) is The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson.

James talks about how as we make the determination to become a better person, to grow, instead of fighting outward circumstances or blaming other people, we must alter our inner conditions (whatever they may be). He states:

The fight against outer things is necessary at the commencement. It is the only course which can be adopted at the first, because of the prevailing ignorance of mental causation; but it never, of itself, brings about emancipation. What it does bring about is the knowledge of the mental cause of temptation; and the knowledge of the mental cause of temptation leads to the transmutation of thought, and the transmutation of thought leads to deliverance from the bondage of error.”

For me, it is very refreshing to realize that my life and the results I achieve are 100% in my hands. I can change any character trait I wish (easier said than done sometimes ). In no way can I point the finger at another person for the outcome of my life. Along with this realization comes a lot of responsibility however. It’s almost like The Matrix, once you know, there is no going back (or excuses for that matter)!

Realizing that change, growth for the better, can be a challenge, hope can be gathered from this statement:

“The mental energy wich men waste in the pursuance of dark passions is all-sufficient to enable them to reach the highest wisdom when it is turned in the right direction.”

Immediately, upon traversing the pages of this chapter, the thought came:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

–Mosiah 3:19

In this chapter, he speaks of temptation, that it is “within a man, not without”. That it is the “revealer of weakness and impurity” and that through temptation “the evil hidden in the heart stands revealed and exposed”. It is also a friend in that “[we] must welcome such revelations as aids to that self-knowledge which is the handmaid of self-conquest”.

Although James Allen doesn’t ever refer directly to gospel teachings such as “yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit” or that we have the atonement as a tool for forgiveness, he does teach us what stands in the way of us achieving a Christ-like life. That we must acknowledge what we are tempted by and use this acknowledgment to take a step back and develop an intentional “on purpose” plan to fortify our minds and discipline our actions.

“As the energetic man of business is not daunted by difficulties, but studies how to overcome them, so the man of ceaseless aspiration is not crushed into submission by temptations, but meditates how he may fortify his mind; for the tempter is like a coward, he only creeps in at weak and ungaurded points.”

It is little nuggets like this that help me to realize that even an imperfect person such as myself, can overcome and strengthen myself to become more of what my Heavenly Father would like me to be. Instead of laying in the corner and wetting on myself, I can:

• acknowledge what temptations I am apparently susceptible to
• create a game plan to keep myself away from such temptations
• determine what actions I need to take should a temptation present itself
• work towards removing the foundational desire from my heart

“When he is sorely tempted, let him not mourn, therefore, but let him rejoice in that his strength is tried and his weakness exposed. For he who truly knows and humbly acknowledges his weakness will not be slow in setting about the acquisition of strength.”

I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the atonement of my Savior, that amongst other things, grants me the opportunity to learn from my mistakes, strengthen myself against them and be able to help others to do the same.

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE CARS!!! Particularly ones that are fun to drive, however I have a fancy for the luxury side too.

There were some nice cars there. I only took pictures of the ones deemed photo worthy (see link at the bottom of this post). To be honest, I am pleasantly surprised at the changes that some of the GM brands have made. Especially with Chevrolet, Saturn and Buick. Chevy is starting to lose that “redneck” look, Saturn has gained some sharper lines and *some* Buick vehicles are beginning to look like a car that my generation would buy…not my grandpa’s.

I do wish there were more environment conscious vehicles out there. Believe it or not, I do have a desire for a greener car. The problem is that the current *green* cars are ugly (no offense Prius owners) and the good looking hybrids (Camry/Accord/Altima) don’t get that much better MPG than their 100% petro counterparts (only 2-7 MPG more). Certainly not worth the extra money you pay for them. BMW has a fleet of hydrogen/gasoline 7 series. Their Hydrogen technology is ready for the market. One problem though…no hydrogen refueling stations.

One highlight was Day Dreamin’ Exotics (www.daydreaminexotics.com).  Beginning this spring, they will offer tours that will give you access to drive different exotics through out the day.  For a meager $500 (half tongue in cheek) you can go out and drive some of the most powerful cars in the industry!  I look forward to doing this with my lovely wife :-).

All in all, I wish that Mercedes was there and that there were more exotics. Nevertheless, it was a fun time out.

Oh, and that link to pictures I was talking about, just click here. As with all my pictures, you will need a username and password. Just email me, txt me or call me if you don’t have one.

This has got to be one of the coolest utilities! SVS is an application that virtualizes well, other applications :-).

If you use SVS to install your application, it installs it into a self contained package, or layer. Included in this layer are all the dll’s and settings required to run the application. This layer can be turned on or off and even exported and given to another user who uses SVS. You can literally use 3 different versions of say, Microsoft Office (all of which use different dll’s and settings) and never foul up the unique installations!

I personally dislike mucking up my Windows installation. So I will use SVS to install applications that I don’t use very often. It is also great for when you are looking for freeware app but you are not sure whether or not it is the right app for you. Just use SVS to install it and if you don’t like it, you can disable or delete that layer!

If you do decide to use SVS, I would recommend using Trinket as well. Trinket allows for you to manage your existing layers from a systray icon.

This app is 100% free for personal use. You can get it by clicking on the Get SVS image below.

However, the quickest way to get it is from www.download.com.  There are also a handful of application packages all ready to import for immediate use which can be found at www.svsdownloads.com.

I hope you enjoy this app as much as I have!

Anyone who as ever read James Allen’s works know that he attributes the outcome of one’s life to the thoughts they harbor, be it good or bad. I have had the “consequences of thought” flow explained to me like this:

what you think is what you speak
what you speak is what you do
what you do creates your habits
your habits create your character
your character creates your destiny

Anyone who has ever studied the consequences of their thoughts have proven this to be true. Even if you consider, perhaps a temptation that you have succumbed to, you would find that if you reverse engineer the process that led to giving into that temptation, that it began with a thought(s). It is when you dwell on impure or base thoughts and persist in it that when the opportunity presents itself, you give in.

Now the opposite is also true. Dwell on good thoughts and you will find that it will yield good fruit.

This chapter in As a Man Thinketh Vol. 2 talks about how one “aspires’ for greater and nobler things and what we are capable of achieving. I think this is so important as I have seen this transform my own life, even before I understood what “law” was at work here. James says:

“Man attains in the measure that he aspires.
His longing to be is the gauge of what he can be.
To fix the mind is to foreordain the achievement .”

I never could understand the loved one who would condemn someone’s desire to achieve great things. I believe that my Father in Heaven would not allow us to dream or ponder on the possibilities if he we wouldn’t bless us with the means of attaining it. But what I find interesting is that sometimes we don’t even have that dream or aspiration to do better until we have gradually placed ourselves in a rut which is the fruits of our impure thoughts and bad decisions.

James says:

“So long as animal conditions taste sweet to man, he cannot aspire; he is so far satisfied; but when their sweetness turns to bitterness, then in his sorrow he thinks of nobler things.”

He also talks about the trap of placing blame elsewhere for your lot in life whether it be through others, circumstances or heredity and that such thoughts would “bind [you] to the slavery of passion”.

To fuel your aspirations requires a daily habit of good thought. To keep your mind unoccupied will give opportunity for impure thoughts and base desires to creep in. Anyone who has attempted to monitor their thoughts have found that it is near impossible to police all that your brain computes. However with Heavenly Father’s help, I can attest that he will help you to ponder on good things and that the Holy Ghost will warn you when impure thoughts start to take control. This will give you the opportunity to exercise your free agency and make the decision to make right your thoughts. The power of prayer is an incredible tool in your journey to become a better person!

I am currently reading As a Man Thinketh Vol. 2 which is selected writings from James Allen as compiled by James H. Fedor.  Many people are aware of and have read As a Man Thinketh however not many people know of James Allen’s other works which in total equal 19.  This compilation are excerpts from James Allen’s other books of which is an inspiring companion to volume 1.  In some aspects, it is more inspiring and motivating.

At the time that I have started my blog, I am already a good portion into the book.  I will attempt to make time to comment on what I have already read.  However at this point, I am going to start from where I am at.

Well, here is my attempt to provide you with thoughts and principles that I have learned or am learning (but usually relearning). I have never been terribly excited about the whole blog thing, but what does excite me is helping others to grow. One thing that I do know is that if I am capable of change and growth for the better, then everyone else is too! Another thing I know is that if nothing changes in my life (or anyone’s life for that matter), then nothing changes in my life…at least for the better.

It is my hope to add value to you. One of my burning desires is to be growth oriented rather than goal oriented. This way, as long as I stay in the pursuit of growth, I will never plateau. I hope you will join this journey with me and most of all, make the most out of it. Life is way too short on this earth to just sit back and do nothing.