Tuesdays with Muerte

Gooooooo, Mighty Cou-gars! The 2013 Holy War is upon us, Cougar & U of U fans!   It's time to [ appropriately ] show our school spirit in anticipation of the last, rivalry game for two years. (View it: Saturday at 8:15pm on ESPN2.)  BYU's student body is getting especially excited, as evidenced by some of the new shirts seen around campus.  One particularly bright, BYU tee stood out to me, as I was strolling up the ramp by the Tanner building.  At a distance, it read Loyal, Strong and True —the mantra from the BYU Cougar fight song. But as  I neared Asian wearer, I noticed that the "L" in Loyal  had been replaced with the letter "R" for  Royal. Justification Preface Before I continue, you should know that I had just spent the afternoon reading an article on cultural competency , which cited examples (and non-examples) of how designers of global instructional materials need to be sensitive to language and cultural differenc...

The following was directly taken (or paraphrased) from chapter two of Clayton Christensen's book, The Power of Everyday Missionaries . One metaphor that helps me [understand how God answers questions] is to imagine that God has constructed massive libraries in heaven.  The shelves of these libraries are filled with books that are packed with truths, insights, and answers.  Most of the books have never been checked out. Why, you might ask, are these stored in these libraries, rather than having been distributed broadly to people on earth?  The reason is that people learn when they're ready to learn, not when we're ready to teach them.  So if God directed a heavenly librarian to get the answer to question #23 off the shelf and send it down to some random person on earth, the answer would simply not be noticed.  But when we ask a question it is as if we put a Velcro pad in our brain where we need the answer.  When the answer is then delivered, it sticks its...

Sleep Paralysis My Story To most people, this will sound crazy. When I was in high school, my alarm woke me up at 5:40am for seminary as usual. But this time, I felt paralyzed—like my body was playing a practical joke on itself!  In my early morning dilerium, I thought I must be dreaming and my first reaction was to rollover and fall back to sleep.  But then I realized I was conscious and literally couldn’t move.  I attempted to rationally assess my situation.  It seemed logical that the Devil, who wanted to keep me from attending seminary, had somehow gain power over my physical body and had pinned me down on my own bed.  " GET OFF ME, SATAN! " I cried out in my mind (as I was unable to speak out loud).  The moments following my auto-exorcism are still a bit fuzzy.  But ultimately, I ended up in my bathroom, showering the sleep out of my eyes and praising God. I shared the experience later with my seminary class.  They probably all though...

It was my pleasure to encounter this Trekkie on Day 3 of SLCC.  I first took notice of her during the William Shatner Q&A in the main auditorium.  As he is 82 years old (but looks 60), his memory is not as sharp as it once was.  So when ever he hesitated, or gave some incorrect information, this trivia-whiz piped up and shot the answer up to him from the second row.  After two or three times, Shat began to just point down to her whenever he needed to recall something.  I really was quite amazing. Later on, I bumped into her in the main convention hall.  I tried to get to know her, but she refused to break character.  I asked her where she was from and just looked at me like I was stupid. "Vulcan, naturally."  I asked her where she stays when she's on earth and she replied that it regulations state that officers are to be stationed on Star Fleet HQ while on duty. It went on like that until I simply ran out of questions and asked to ...

A BYU professor once taught that Shakespeare used the simplest language to communicate his most important messages. Do you think that is an accurate statement?  I wondered if this theory extends to the word of God? (Perhaps that's where William got the idea.) After comparing a handful of examples, I found some fundamental differences between  the most important statements  from Bill Shakespeare's works and the holy scriptures.  Bill's pithy expressions of truth always seemed to be in the form of witty comebacks.  God's words naturally stood on their own.  Bill's axioms, while self-evident and universally accepted, seemed context specific. When God taught, He used small words and familiar concepts to express complex and situation-diverse principles. While Bill invented maxims couched in mostly-fictional stories to lend his truths credibility, God didn't require adages to convince His readers.  God just laid down the truth, like a boss. ...

This post is dedicated to my mother.  I moved into a 2006, three-level townhouse three weeks ago.  And my loving mother is dying to know all the details.  (I think she has been actively holding herself back from texting me everyday about it.)  Not everything is unpacked yet, so I wanted to wait—until I realized, that unpacking will never really be "done."  So without further ado, Bryan Tanner, and Dan and Jason Randall present: The Martin House (pics and a video walkthrough).  Livingroom from the hallway Living room from the dinning area Kitchen My Aerobed My dresser-less wardrobe Bedroom Wall My Private Bathroom My work area Our townhouse is named The Martin House for two reasons: It is named after the Martin Handcart Company, who pressed on to Utah, through the Winter, nearly killing everyone. (Fitting since we live in a development called, Pioneer .) It is also named after George R. R. Martin, who coi...

Review Update Here's a review from January 2014 after seeing these five shows: I loved Legend of Korra . I watched them all online the week they aired. It was the only one of the five that I followed regularly. Sleepy Hollow and S.H.I.E.L.D. were both charming stories—the next most entertaining shows after Korra.  However, neither story had enough substance, or character relate-ability, to hold my attention after the first three episodes.  I might try again later. Person of Interest could have been cool.  Maybe I didn't give it a fair chance, but I quit watching after the season premiere.  I think I wanted it to slow down a little bit and show us more character development. The trope of having Jim Caviezel strut around New York, shooting everyone, and saving the day is becoming a little stale for me. Dragons: Defenders/Riders of Berk is already in its second season! And I haven't seen it yet.  Not one else I know watches it, so I wouldn't ...