Why does my punctuation follow in groups of 3?
That is a fine question... Maybe someday I'll be able to explain it.
The question at hand, though, is not grammar or writing today (though it may be tomorrow?); the post is about... well, you can read. What is this post about? That is right: games.
Bet you that I will have several (here we go with the groupings of three again...) things that I want to say about games in general:
I- Games necessarily increase parts of your intellect: memory, math/logic-skills, association-skills.
Let's break this down into those categories:
1. Memory- As we all are aware, most if not all games have some component of memory involved or require you to have to either remember the answers to specific questions about the world, remember the rules to the game and/or other life-skills, or remember the answers given in the game.
2. Math and Logic- Like memory, all games require you to either count (that's using math...), calculate dates and times (still using math...), or make logical deductions (most of which will require the use of math--and memory also).
3. Association- Using both memory and math/logic, we are asked (hey... if you DON'T want to, then you can just LOSE and we'll think TWICE before we ask you to play again...) to use the knowledge that we have from those skills to figure out what it is that we are supposed to do or say to win the game. Basically, it all boils down to memory and logic (and we could prove whatever we want to in math from really long logic proofs...). Then, we simply need to apply what we already know to the rules of the game!
II- Who doesn't like a good game?
C.S. Lewis once wrote about how one way that we can use our agency to make righteous choices is to do or play something that we honestly enjoy. We've also been commanded to laugh (just NO loud-laughter...) and be merry. Everyone can and will laugh and be merry playing some game that they are fond of...
III- Therefore, if you becoming more intelligent (you're increasing your intellect) AND you are doing something you straightforwardly enjoy, all you are missing are your saving ordinances, and if those are completed you'd be on the path to godhood and ever-increasing glory!
So, do something right[eous] and play a game! You will be smarter, will be able to remember better, and will move one step in a direction that will save your soul!
JPS
19.4.08
17.4.08
Memory and the Holy Ghost. Connected?
Ever since I've graduated from BYU, I've thought of returning to Graduate School. There is always one thing looming over your mind though, at the thought of graduating from a Grad School: What in the world will I/should I write a thesis on?
For a while now I've had a suspicion that I would somehow write a thesis on MEMORY. To borrow Soren Kierkegaard's phrasology: The Concept of Memory...
Now, why I started thinking about this tonight (not that a single moment passes, without me thinking about this in some way, shape, or form) is because of something that my dear-old dad just said to me. And, mind you, I have known that the human memory and the Holy Ghost were in some way bound together.
He said that: "Righteousness rewards with memories." Meaning that when you are being righteous, you are rewarded with an increase in your memory; both in capacity to remember more things--both in the future, but also being able to rember more things from the past (and he actually was talking apecifically about being able to "remember things" almost innately; like when you teach someone the Gospel and they say something like, "I've always believed that" and it was probably the first and only time they'd heard it spoken or communicated to them.
I know that it goes beyond that though... Sure, it applies to "Gospel-Truth-memories", such as The Plan of Salvation, but also about memories of pure TRUTH--the way that it's easier to remember a theorum that is based on logic or a fact-that- just-rings-true, than it is remember a lie or even just a idle fact... It's because the HOLY GHOST ALWAYS helps you (and when I say, "you", I mean everyone or a 3rd person singular non-specific "one") to remember that you were once taught or heard that TRUTH before.
That last sentence just made me think of Plato and his "world of ideas" from where the gods teach us all things. THANKS memory! Maybe my ideas aren't original at all, but better, in that: they're timeless!!!
The Holy Ghost ideas bring something more to light though, than silly old "gods" like has been said.
ALSO! Another thing that my dad said was that, the Holy Ghost and the memories that you're given (or that are offered to you...) put you in a whole new frame of reference. From that whole new perspective on things (your whole-new-frame-of-reference) you are NOW in a position to think of everything in a wholly new and different way and, therefore, you are in a new postiion to remember a whole NEW set of things. Those whole-new-sets will simply spawn other things until you combine that with the things you have learned in the past (whether you remember learning those things or not, you now have full-access to them in memories...) and all things will have "become one" (which is another idea from Plato).
I love when I come across an idea that gets me excited!!! It's like, I remember this truth from somewhere else! See, my own writing is just further evidence that this idea is PURE TRUTH!
JPS
For a while now I've had a suspicion that I would somehow write a thesis on MEMORY. To borrow Soren Kierkegaard's phrasology: The Concept of Memory...
Now, why I started thinking about this tonight (not that a single moment passes, without me thinking about this in some way, shape, or form) is because of something that my dear-old dad just said to me. And, mind you, I have known that the human memory and the Holy Ghost were in some way bound together.
He said that: "Righteousness rewards with memories." Meaning that when you are being righteous, you are rewarded with an increase in your memory; both in capacity to remember more things--both in the future, but also being able to rember more things from the past (and he actually was talking apecifically about being able to "remember things" almost innately; like when you teach someone the Gospel and they say something like, "I've always believed that" and it was probably the first and only time they'd heard it spoken or communicated to them.
I know that it goes beyond that though... Sure, it applies to "Gospel-Truth-memories", such as The Plan of Salvation, but also about memories of pure TRUTH--the way that it's easier to remember a theorum that is based on logic or a fact-that- just-rings-true, than it is remember a lie or even just a idle fact... It's because the HOLY GHOST ALWAYS helps you (and when I say, "you", I mean everyone or a 3rd person singular non-specific "one") to remember that you were once taught or heard that TRUTH before.
That last sentence just made me think of Plato and his "world of ideas" from where the gods teach us all things. THANKS memory! Maybe my ideas aren't original at all, but better, in that: they're timeless!!!
The Holy Ghost ideas bring something more to light though, than silly old "gods" like has been said.
ALSO! Another thing that my dad said was that, the Holy Ghost and the memories that you're given (or that are offered to you...) put you in a whole new frame of reference. From that whole new perspective on things (your whole-new-frame-of-reference) you are NOW in a position to think of everything in a wholly new and different way and, therefore, you are in a new postiion to remember a whole NEW set of things. Those whole-new-sets will simply spawn other things until you combine that with the things you have learned in the past (whether you remember learning those things or not, you now have full-access to them in memories...) and all things will have "become one" (which is another idea from Plato).
I love when I come across an idea that gets me excited!!! It's like, I remember this truth from somewhere else! See, my own writing is just further evidence that this idea is PURE TRUTH!
JPS
13.4.08
O' to pass out of this life...
I just got back from the ONLY funeral viewing that I've ever been to (besides my grandpa's--when I was 16). In fact, the only place I remember seeing him was in my grandma and grandpa's wardhouse...
I guess I would feel somewhat different if I actually knew the person in life, but it seemed to me that the eternally resting body basically looks like a wax statue.
Also, I guess that I knew this, but it was odd to see her dressed in the robes of the Holy Priesthood. I know that's how people are to be buried, but it still seems unusual to see that out-of-the-temple-itself...
I know that President Monson enjoys the cemetaries of the world, and going there could remind you of loftier things, but I would prefer an evening with those, in life, that I enjoy and love most... I suppose that President Monson would as well!
I suppose that I just do-not-have the fear of death running through me. That IS a good thing (to not have).
In all actuality, I hope to never bury anyone close of in my family, but hope we'll all join each other, united, in the clouds during the "twinkeling" of the resurrection. Is that so wrong?
JPS
I guess I would feel somewhat different if I actually knew the person in life, but it seemed to me that the eternally resting body basically looks like a wax statue.
Also, I guess that I knew this, but it was odd to see her dressed in the robes of the Holy Priesthood. I know that's how people are to be buried, but it still seems unusual to see that out-of-the-temple-itself...
I know that President Monson enjoys the cemetaries of the world, and going there could remind you of loftier things, but I would prefer an evening with those, in life, that I enjoy and love most... I suppose that President Monson would as well!
I suppose that I just do-not-have the fear of death running through me. That IS a good thing (to not have).
In all actuality, I hope to never bury anyone close of in my family, but hope we'll all join each other, united, in the clouds during the "twinkeling" of the resurrection. Is that so wrong?
JPS
8.4.08
Dear Josh...
Yes, today my mom told me that there was a letter from Italy waiting for me when I got home... When I came home and opened the letter (without being able to tell who it was from [although I knew that it was a girl...] and there being no return address]), I tried to make out which girl or potentially a "mom" had written me from Italy. It never even occurred to me that it might be from a missionary...
Opening up the letter, I was looking at the signature at the end of the letter, but was still trying to "force" it into a name that I would recognize and I couldn't. So, I started reading from the top (a silly thing to do... I know!) and read the words, "Stop writing to me, now and forever".
I kind of didn't think that Teresa would actually break down and send me a letter, but, apparently she felt that it was important enough to finally write my name on an envelope and do the one thing that I have been telling her that she needed to do if she wanted me to stop writing her letters.
She must have just communicated with her Aunt Lynne, who told her that I had "advised" her that the only way that I would continue to write Teresa til she either 1-finished her mission and she and I had spoken or 2-had written me a letter and told me to stop writing her.
Am I sad?
What do I think about having "harassed" her for almost one entire year?
The answer to both of these questions, as I had earlier explained to my Dad]:
I would have been a fool if I had not been prepared for this to have happened and naive if I was shocked by this...
Secondly, the way I figure it: As far as I know (and can only logically and egotistically assume...), she threw every single letter that I ever wrote her in the trash and never read a single one!
There are 2 very important points that I want to make about that:
1-I felt great every single time that I sat down to write her a letter, and even better than that--once I had dropped it into the mailbox. I felt completely uplifted!!!
2-I know that she didn't even read a letter (or maybe only 3[?], or at least none after the MTC) that I sent her, otherwise she wouldn't have told me to STOP writing to her... I, in no way, feel bad about having "harassed" or even bothered Teresa! Shy should I?
If nothing else, it was a great spiritual experience thinking of writing her about the mission work and text-messaging all sorts of quotes onto myself to remember to include in my next letter. And, writing a letter to a missionary is doing nothing but exactly what I was supposed to do on a lazy Sunday Afternoon...
Plus, what Teresa has chosen to do is not my affair as my concern must be only what my choices are--stemming from her choice(s). It's what I choose to do is only a reaction to her choices or given that she has chosen to act in a certain way. She is not, in any way, making choices for me, nor will I be forced to choose any particular way/path simply because of her choice. She has every right to make her own choices, in fact, she can do noting but make her own choices; the same goes for me too...
JPS
Opening up the letter, I was looking at the signature at the end of the letter, but was still trying to "force" it into a name that I would recognize and I couldn't. So, I started reading from the top (a silly thing to do... I know!) and read the words, "Stop writing to me, now and forever".
I kind of didn't think that Teresa would actually break down and send me a letter, but, apparently she felt that it was important enough to finally write my name on an envelope and do the one thing that I have been telling her that she needed to do if she wanted me to stop writing her letters.
She must have just communicated with her Aunt Lynne, who told her that I had "advised" her that the only way that I would continue to write Teresa til she either 1-finished her mission and she and I had spoken or 2-had written me a letter and told me to stop writing her.
Am I sad?
What do I think about having "harassed" her for almost one entire year?
The answer to both of these questions, as I had earlier explained to my Dad]:
I would have been a fool if I had not been prepared for this to have happened and naive if I was shocked by this...
Secondly, the way I figure it: As far as I know (and can only logically and egotistically assume...), she threw every single letter that I ever wrote her in the trash and never read a single one!
There are 2 very important points that I want to make about that:
1-I felt great every single time that I sat down to write her a letter, and even better than that--once I had dropped it into the mailbox. I felt completely uplifted!!!
2-I know that she didn't even read a letter (or maybe only 3[?], or at least none after the MTC) that I sent her, otherwise she wouldn't have told me to STOP writing to her... I, in no way, feel bad about having "harassed" or even bothered Teresa! Shy should I?
If nothing else, it was a great spiritual experience thinking of writing her about the mission work and text-messaging all sorts of quotes onto myself to remember to include in my next letter. And, writing a letter to a missionary is doing nothing but exactly what I was supposed to do on a lazy Sunday Afternoon...
Plus, what Teresa has chosen to do is not my affair as my concern must be only what my choices are--stemming from her choice(s). It's what I choose to do is only a reaction to her choices or given that she has chosen to act in a certain way. She is not, in any way, making choices for me, nor will I be forced to choose any particular way/path simply because of her choice. She has every right to make her own choices, in fact, she can do noting but make her own choices; the same goes for me too...
JPS