Verve Earth...

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So, this is the link to a site that I was randomly (or was it random?) emailed because, as they claim, they saw that I did have a blog site...

Now sit down if you tend to get dizzy or lightheaded, because I'm going to tell you something that may be a little disturbing:

I've registered with this VEarth (come on... wait for the big news, you haven't read far enough yet...) and they link your spot in this virtual earth (and fairly accurate maps too, I might add) which will list your blog site.

Now you have a blogsite (blogspont) that had a blog (mine...) that refers to VEarth, that in turn has a link back to jstott.blogspot.com (mine...) which, again, links to this VEarth, which we know already has a link to jstott[etc.] and so on, ad infinitum!!!

...

I told you that you may want to sit down and read this. Wait, who ever reads an internet blog while standing up? Not I...

Pick yourself up off of the floor though, because you have undoubtedly fallen to the floor because you though that the world was about to implode upon my logic trap. Don't worry though... It's all in your mind and you can go on living your life!!!

Here's some more news though: My world or at least the small part that is contained in within my blog has just been compounded... That means, multiplied by itself again and again til it will cover the world and the universe... Or at least that's what happens in the meta-world of Josh's logic!

JPS

Birthday lonliness...

Hey there! Now, I don't want you to feel sorry for me or think that I'm just begging for sympathy. Am I? I guess that's up to you to decide, but I really am not!

So, tonight I went to a friend of the families house and celebrated their son's, birthday: Brandon (who happens to be my sister's age). Two different things caused me to think about marriage, his little sister, Breana, is currently serving a full-time mission to Omaha, Nebraska and there was a girl there about Bree's age that was there to celebrate the birthday.

Now, those two things wouldn't necessarily cause anybody to think about marriage, but it did for me...

Let me tell you what I was thinking:

1) Bree will get home in just over 8 months, and Teresa will get home in just in just less than 7 months, which reminds me that she has asked that I not write her again nor think that she will marry me. That seems a little hard, and maybe a little RIDICULOUS! First of all, like I have written, if she had been reading my letters, then, she wouldn't be asking that of me, but would be asking me to write more... (ok, maybe that's a little-bit conceited of me, but hey...)
2) This girl, Whitney (I'm pretty sure that that was her name), was there and was talking into a mirophone for Bree about the amount of children that she wants to have. Now, honestly, if I am going to have children of me and the woman I am going to marry, she will have to be young (as young as Teresa, for example...).
3) I don't know that I can pinpoint my feelings exactly, but being there, in a room full of people that know me--but none of which are really my good friends, makes me think of being in a party-much-like-this and enjoying myself with my soon-to-be-wife's family enjoying myself. This reminds me of 1-how I can't see that happening in my near future and 2-I don't really have that much of a desire to go out and make it happen...

In all actuality, pieces like this piece are not only fun to write, but are extremely therapeutic and help me to work out my thoghts. As the late and great Arthur Henry King wrote: How do I know what I think, until I say it?

For me, the same question applies, only mine would be: How will I know what I think, til I write it?

That is all,

JPS

New Calling...

So, I have received a new calling! I was formerly the second then the first counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency, but am now 12th Ward Facility "Cleaner" or Superintendant or "Supervisor", what have you...

This will be fun stuff,

JPS

Groupings of 3, three, and tri-groupings...

I think I may have found an answer or rather, the answer is as plain as the so-called-nose-on-your-face...

Everything should, naturally, fall into groups of three. Let me read you a few versus from the eleventh chapter of third Nephi.

Actually, let me retract that last claim and say that we should see things drop into groups of 3. Just as we know that everything testifies of Christ, let me show you those examples:

In verse 3, it's talking about the voice coming from the heavens and says that, "it was not a HARSH voice", "neither was it a LOUD voice", "nevertheless, and notwithstanding (isn't that just a great phrase? Nevertheless and notwithstanding!)it being a SMALL voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center...

Versus 3, 4, and 5, they hear the voice a total of THREE times, and on the third time, they understand the voice.

Then, later in verse 15 we are told that all of the Nephites felt the marks of the 3 wounds on his body (prints of the nails in his hands, prints of the nails in his feet, and the mark in his side). We are also told that they all gained a testimony of the his literal resurrection in 3 different ways: seeing with their eyes, feeling with their hands, and the understood feeling of the spirit.

Then in verse 32 we read of the actual trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Later in verse 35 it is written of that trinity that the Father beareth record of the Son, the Son beareth record of the Father, and the Holy Ghost bears record of them both.

Then in 37 of the three things that must happen before one can re-enter the presence of the Father. Repent, become as a child, and be baptized.

...
That's just a little taste of why I always leave 3 things... If you think about it; I feel best when thinking and doing things for God, and I do always things that make me feel best and things in three remind me of those times.

Why don't I just "cut-out-the-middle-man" and only do the things of God, you ask? I try. Always...

JPS

Games, Games, Games!!!

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

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

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

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

Man Wallet

Hi. My name is Josh and uh...I carry a wallet.

This is in response to Matt Graham's response to the twins "tagging" him from his sister Cami's entry (somewhere on her blog page...), and also from Emily's entry and Melody's entry (somewhere on their pages...).

In 1984 I started carrying a walet (that which would not be described as a man-bag, man-satchel, utility belt, bag, man-purse, hand-bag, murse, mattie-bag etc). It's a move I have not regretted for even one second since then. The main reason was to stop losing credit cards & debit cards, driver's license, school ID cards, insurance benefits card, pictures, and various papers that I want to keep for an unknown futre, etc.


Here is a list of the current contents:

--Expired but awesome looking pre-mission and original Utah Driver License (under 21, class D, expired on 12/25/2005).

--Card size Victorinox (c) SwissCard Lite set: Flat and phillips, larger flat and phillips, suitable for glasses screws, tweezers, needleUsed weekly, large metal rod (to be seen what it will work on...), mini-swiss-blade, many other registered features that I can't think of used weekly if not daily.

--Some current medical insurance cards.

--1 debit card, 1 credit card, 1 Chevron gas card, & one BYU-visotors library card.

--1 'THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFE'S GREAT QUESTIONS IS NOW ANSWERED' mormon.org card.

--1 "Bausch & Lomb" glasses hankerchief.

--Wadd of coupons/old business cards/movie rental cards/cards-that-if-puched-#-of times-you get a free widgit-card.

--Wadd of pictures/photographs

--1 Post-it note with Switzerland, Geneva mission address scribbled on it.

I do not pretend to copy other lists, like Matt Graham's of a "man purse" and any list that seems to be a sheer copy of his, is a meer coincidence...

JPS

Blog post to on my Best Friend's little sister's blog page...

You've just reminded me (>Cammie Turpin's blog site) of something that I read from Brigham Young and also something that I heard on "Stranger than Fiction":

Brigham Young--"Every trial and experience you have passed throuh is NECESSARY for your salvation."

That's pretty nice to hear and even better to understand... Whether we are living "rosy lives" or "dealing with depression", it's more than comforting to understand that we are simply passing through one more experience that is "NECESSARY for [our] salvation".

Now... The fictious Karen(Kay) Eiffel, who was the writer of Harold Crick's life, said:

"And we must remmeber that all of these things: the nuances, the anomolies, the subtelties; which we only assume ONLY accessorize our days, are, in fact, here for a much larger and nobler cause; they are here to SAVE OUR LIVES."

She may have just as well said, "All things are here to help us to reach salvation". Pretty fun thought eh?

So, Yes, everybody hurts (... sometimes) but all of those "hurts:" will, when loocked back upon, become glorious passages that we have not only passed throlugh, but have helped us to become the Gods that we will have become!

JPS