Amber is dying

And it makes me incredibly sad.

 

She started dying after I repotted her last time. You think it's the soil? Or the pot is too big? It seems like she's just not drinking any water anymore. The water at the bottom (it's a bottom-feeding pot) just sits there and ends up turning orange. If I water her from the top, the soil just stays moist forever.

One of her three stalks (stems?) is almost completely dead. The leaves are all gone and the stem is turning black. Another is starting to go the way of the world. The third is hanging in there, but who knows for how long.

Help! Any ideas of how to keep Amber alive?

Breaking Social Norms

Today is a day lacking of elevator etiquette. Heartless and I got on the elevator in the parking garage to be met by an adorably cute old man who greeted us with, "Good morning! Have a great day!" And then we stayed in the elevator with him for another floor. Typically you don't stick around when someone tells you to have a great day. So it seemed a bit awkward. But he was super nice and let us get out of the elevator before him and everything.

On the elevator up from lunch, a bunch of us got on and formed your typical circle around the walls of the elevator, broken only where the door opens. The last guy to get on the elevator got on, filled that empty spot, and faced into the elevator. We were now a complete circle (well, rectangle, really) all looking at each other. He didn't even look down or into space. He purposefully looked around at each of us and the food we were holding. Again, awkward.

Today holds one more elevator ride when we go home. I wonder if we'll get a third story...


Also, tangent, but this elevator topic reminded me of a few weeks ago when we learned that elevators really will close on your hand, food, briefcase, camera bag, etc. It is a lie if anyone ever tells you otherwise.

Torture

I hate the sound of phones ringing and no one answering them. I think that sound alone could drive me into madness.

I work in a giant room filled with cubicles. Lots and lots of cubicles. Today, someone's phone started ringing. No one answered it. I ignored it, because phones usually only ring four or five times before the voicemail picks up, right? Apparently this person doesn't have voicemail. I started to fear this after seven or eight rings. By 10 rings, I could no longer focus on my work. I'm sure it got to 15 rings before I started whining to Yellow who told me to go answer it and tell them that no one is answering. (Of course, I was not about to do this. I didn't even know where it was coming from, nor would I even know the person even if I did find the cubicle, and lastly, I'm a big, fat chicken.) At the same time Heartless Siren, who was sitting next to me, snapped as well. She pulled out her headphones and declared that someone needed to answer the phone. I pointed to my chat with Yellow and she laughed, then went exploring to find the phone. She couldn't have taken 10 steps out of our cubicle before the phone stopped ringing. She came back and we both enjoyed the blessed silence. Silence has never before been so beautiful.

In my writhing pain, I noticed that Heartless' ethernet cord was in danger of being run over by my chair, so in the beautiful silence, I crawled under the desk to move it to safety. While down there, the phone started again. It was an odd phenomenon. while under the desk, I could have sworn it was coming from the cubicle next to us. But as I came out from under the desk, the direction the torturous ring was coming from changed several times. I really had no idea where it was coming from this time. I sat back down and cringed, sending a few more whines out to the cyber world, then silence regained its dominion. It has been silent ever since.

I rejoice in silence.

Unauthorized reproduction is encouraged

Maybe I should feed my kitties some tuna. And practice cat yodeling.

=IF(C7=TRUE,C8,D8)

Today I had a conversation via a Google Spreadsheet. No, not in the chat window like normal people, but by typing things in the various empty cells.

I think we are both officially nerds.

Test your typing speed

Thank goodness for all the typing games in elementary school, as well as my love for computers, email, instant messaging, etc. that have helped me to do so well with the keyboard.

93 words

Speed test

Change is Good

Yesterday I officially decided to move into The Cold One's old bedroom, now that she is gone. The only thing I actually got moved over was my bedding, so I slept in there last night. I rather enjoyed it. I did not have a street light shining directly on my pillow where I wanted to lay my head. There's a giant mirror on the opposite wall that reflected the window, so I fell asleep gazing at the moonlit sky, even though the window was technically out of my view. The mattress was quite comfortable. I didn't even mind the bed being up against the wall, even though it has been years since my bed has done that. It's slightly taller than I'm used to, so I actually have to hop just a bit to get in bed... noticed only when I was getting in and out of bed to hit snooze on my cell phone this morning... but I think that's ok since it makes me wake up just that much more. Also, the sun shines quite brightly through the window. It's so much easier to wake up when your bedroom is bright and sunshiny. Also, I knew immediately in which snooze the Heartless Siren woke up. Before I couldn't hear a thing in her bedroom while I was in mine. Now I am much closer and woke up to the sound of Jim Dale's voice in the air. I was quite proud of myself when I figured out exactly which book and which part of the book she was listening to within about 1.5 sentences. I love Harry Potter.

I think I will enjoy this bedroom.

I'm famous!

I have a Wikipedia page! Who knew?

Grammar lessons

Things I am currently working on:

Incorrect: The table needs set.
Correct: The table needs to be set.

Incorrect: I'm doing good.
Correct: I'm doing well/great/tired.

Incorrect: My hoodie sweater is dirty.
Correct: My hoodie sweatshirt is dirty.

The World May End Soon

Subway's 6" Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich typically sells for $4.59 (at least, that's what the Subway I went to listed the price as). For only $.41 more, I could upgrade to a footlong. Talk about a great deal. So, obviously, I did it.



Here's the really crazy part. I ate the entire thing. I may even still be hungry.

Pining

Today I was really late getting into the office becuase I had a meeting at BYU. After the meeting I had to stop by my house to grab my iPod cord to do some research for my boss. As I was walking into the house, I turned on the sprinkler (might as well let my lawn drink while I'm home), then I paused to listen to the sounds of children playing outside, then grabbed the mail, then walked in the house. I was overcome by the desire to just be home. I wanted to clean the kitchen and weed the garden. I was ready to go plant flowers and play outside. I had no desire to grab the things I needed and go back to work. But, I did it anyway. I was responsible that way. [sigh]

As I left, I drove by Kiwanis Park and saw a bunch of kids flying kites. Ok, let's be honest, I don't know how to fly a kite. I'm not sure I've ever gotten one up in the air and had it stay. But I love watching them. Watching kids fly kites all over Temple Mount was one of the most fun things about sitting on the roof at Eche Homo in Jerusalem. I remember Brother Jr.'s friend coming over to fly kites in our field, but I was too little, so they wouldn't let me fly them. So I watched. As I watched these kids fly kites today, my first thought was, "I want to be outside watching kids fly kites."

I don't think this summer is going to be good for my job. The warmer it gets, the more I itch to be home and outside. The more I want to be outside, the less I want to go to work. Now, don't get me wrong. I love my job. I couldn't ask for a better job; I really couldn't. This has absolutely nothing to do with me not liking my job. Rather, it simply has to do with me not wanting to not be a working woman for life. I don't know how anyone who reads my blog could doubt this about me.

Beatrice, 1

The Cold One has left me. It is very sad. I weep.

But she gets to live in London and tour Europe. I can't fault her for that.

Upon leaving me, she also left one of her dependents, Beatrice, in my care. I think this might be fun. Beatrice came to us last year. She and her sister, Viola, lived out on our back porch. When I got home from Jerusalem, The Cold One was in Florida and had left me instructions to please take good care of them. I had not yet developed my green thumb with plants. In fact, I was even really bad about taking care of my garden. Needless to say, I forgot to water them and they nearly died. Luckily, The Cold One came back and saved the day. Nursed back to health, they bloomed beautifully for the rest of the summer. When winter came, they were moved inside where no one actually expected them to live. We had prepped ourselves all summer to let them go when the weather got cold. Miraculously, they survived. The Cold One was very attentive and talked to them quite often. Spare Oom became the PICU (Plant Intensive Care Unit). Several other plants of mine that were dying got moved back there for Cold One to save. Over the winter, I developed my green thumb and started saving plants instead of killing them. Soon most of the plants were moved out of PICU and into to the rest of the house. Beatrice and Viola stayed in PICU, due to their fragile state.

Sadly, Viola became infested with bugs and we had to let her go before she spread the disease to the other plants. It was a mournful day. Beatrice held strong, however. She is one tough cookie. That doesn't mean she was healthy, by any means. Although she had new growth, she also had many dead or dying leaves and stalks. Sadly, much of the new growth was at the end of the dying stalks.

This morning, The Cold One officially moves out, placing Beatrice in my care. In my first move as Caretaker, I decided to give Beatrice a hair cut...cut her back so that she can grow more beautifully. I figure if the dead parts were gone, she could focus her energy and strength and nutrition more on the living parts. In order to make The Cold One's separation more bearable, I have decided to document the life of Beatrice whilst she is away. Thus, here are pictures of Beatrice's hair cut.

Here is Beatrice, post haircut. She's looking a bit sparse, but we're hoping for her to fill out again as summer comes and we can move her outside.

Note all of the trimmings around her. Also, please note the brownness of the trimmings and the greenness of Beatrice. This is happy. The pile next to her reminds me greatly of when I get a hair cut and it looks like there's a dead cat on the floor. I think Beatrice and I are kindred spirits.


Until next time... pray for Beatrice.

Green Thumb

Uffish Thought and dimmi are both not good for me. I've become quite obsessed of plants as of late. It started when Chillylint introduced me to Plant Day up at the COB. Then she started giving me starts of plants. This combined with a start Sister had given me slowly became an obsession. I believe we have 8 plants in our cubicle at work. I have 10 at home, plus several starts working on becoming plants, though I think I'll give those away.

Now that it's starting to become warm outside, I've been itching to start my garden, but it's way too early to plant most plants, as the last chance of frost isn't until sometime in May. I've stemmed my urgings a little by looking at flowers that will survive this time of year and almost went and bought some (though time ran out. This is scheduled for sometime this week instead). I've dragged several people out to my garden and pointed out flowers growing in there, where it needs to be weeded, back over to flower beds where we have these really cool succulents and made Laser Jock dig up a giant thorny plant that attacked my poor bare foot. I've also taken to watering my sadly dead lawn again. Also, I dug up all my carrots from last year, so if anyone wants any carrots, I have lots.

Then Uffish and dimmi go and blog about starting their garden inside! Who does such a thing? This is a thought I had never before considered. But reading their blogs, the suppressed urges burst out and I am now the proud owner of a starter kit, not quite full yet. (Maybe I'll get some flower seeds?) It is now growing Roma Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Onions, Green Peppers, Carnival Peppers, Banana Peppers, Broccoli and Sunflowers. When it gets later in the season, I will plant Green Beans, Peas, Potatoes, Green Onions, Carrots, Beets, Zucchini, Pumpkin, Oregano and maybe more Strawberries outside. I've decided to give up on Corn this year. Also, I think I'll give up on melons.

I am becoming obsessed with plants, methinks.

Addedum to Monsters

So, the whole point of writing the Monster Book of Monster post was because as I was thumbing through one page at a time, I would look at the first line to see if it matched the first line of the digital page. Every once in awhile the top line would only be the last few words of a sentence at the end of a paragraph, and they were really entertaining. The only fun part of the whole thing, really. (Well, except the fact that I love a good puzzle and being able to conquer this book was rather happy for me.) They were so amazing, in fact, that I wanted to share them with the world. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure:

- persistent romantic legend
- beer at that time
- there had Moses, b. 1652
- eagle neck quarter

The Monster Book of Monsters

You thought the book in Harry Potter was bad? Well, I found the Muggle equivalent. You can see the book here.

I walked into work sometime last week when Elder Pretzel stopped me and told me he had a project for me. He then handed me a book. It was a relatively small book, bound in black, with "Supplement 8" stamped in gold on front. It didn't look like it could possibly be all that scary, so without a second thought, I took it from him and asked what the project was. This was a bad idea. I should have called in sick that day; I should have walked past him and pretend I didn't hear his plea. Sometimes, I am simply too nice. It didn't take me long to figure out that there was a serious problem with the binding of the book when he started to show me the page numbers that counted down instead of up. I took the book back to my cubicle and sat down to do some serious investigation.

I ended up making a copy of the title page and putting post it notes all over the book to indicate where new chapters started and whether the pages were going left to right or right to left. According to the title page, there are two chapters numbered IV. Luckily, none of the actual chapters in the book were numbered, so I just ignored the numbers in the Title Page and used 1, 2, 3, etc. Also, please note on the Title Page that IV is Genetic Information, then three chapters later (VI... which 6 is not three chapters after 4) is Titles, explanation. Now, look at the actual page it is found on. The two chapters are on the same page in the opposite order. Then, when I got to the Hereditary Societies, I had no idea if they were going from left to right or right to left. I could see no logic behind the sorting of them. Finally I had to take it into Polar Aunt who is much more of a genealogist than I am, and she showed me how they really were in alphabetical order.

Finally, three days later, when I finally had it figured out, I took it back to Elder Pretzel so that he could rescan the book in the correct order. He finished and I grabbed the folder of tif files and replaced the folder with the old scans I had from before when they scanned it out of order. Then I started to build a digital table of contents. Well, true to craziness form, only one section of the book had page numbers, so trying to paginate (the process of making a spreadsheet with a row for every page, listing the page number, any page heading, and the chapter it belongs to) was nigh unto impossible. Finally I made the executive decision to break the rules and skip pagination and do it on the fly while Kofaxing (the process of cropping and adding metadata to a book).

Next step, import files into Kofax. This I did, then started cropping. Halfway through cropping I realized that for one section of the book, every other page was a repeat of another section of the book. It's like a handful of pages were duplicated and inserted into every other page. Lots of troubleshooting later, it turns out that when I replaced the old book with the new book, it decided to be ridiculous and kept some of the pages of the old book and put them in the new book. I have no idea how this happened since I replaced a folder with a folder, not files with files... but somehow, that's what happened.

Today I came into work, determined to finish this book. So I sat at my computer, clicking digitally through the book one page at a time, while turning the pages in the physical book one at a time with my other hand, deleting the pages that were wrong. Three times through the book later, I finally felt confident that all the pages were correct.

Next came Validation. This is the module where you enter the page numbers, page headings, and chapter headings. You typically do this with the digital table of contents created earlier, but since I skipped it, I was making it up as I went. It wasn't too bad, actually, except for one small thing. The Chapter Heading field is a sticky field, meaning, you only have to type "Chapter One" in one page, then it will stay there for every subsequent page, until you change it. Then it will change for every subsequent page, etc., etc. Now, once it is in a page, it will stay there until you manually change it. So, if I entered in "Chapter One" for 20 pages, then realized it changed to "Chapter Two" for the last 10 pages, I would have to go back and manually change that field for every incorrect page. Hey, guess what I did? [rolls eyes] I thought I had them all fixed, though.

After finally finishing this nightmare of a book, I released it and begged The Heartless Siren to load it, even though she was done loading books for that collection for the day, simply so I could blog about it and link to it. She did. Bless her. I started blogging about it and opened the link to the book only to find that in one page I had typed "Sanders To Caesar" and the rest of the pages in that chapter got "Sanders to Caesar".

Another thing about chapter headings. What CONTENTdm (the hosting site) will do is look at the chapter heading in the metadata and create a folder by that name. When it gets to the next page, if the chapter heading is exactly the same, it will put that page in the same folder. If the chapter heading changes in the slightest, it will create a new folder by that name. So I had two chapters. "Sanders To Caesar" had one page and "Sanders to Caesar" had eight pages. So I fixed it. (Good thing I was blogging about it, eh?) And just now, as I went to count how many pages the second section had, I realized that I had combined the chapters incorrectly and it went page 61, 60, 62. That's right, I can't count. So I just fixed that. And now it's indexing. And, of course, I just realized that Heartless and I learned today that you don't have to index after changing the structure of a page. Brilliant. 15 minutes of waiting for an index for no reason.

The book is now complete, happy and fixed. If you find any problems with this book, please never tell me. I might throw it at you.

From an old blog

May 31, 2006 • Wednesday
E. Coli and religion
Current mood: amused

So I planted a vegetable garden in my back yard. (Have I mentioned that I moved into a house?! It's incredible) There are a few little problems with this (the garden. Not the house): a) we have a sprinkler system that I can't control. So watering has been a bit of an issue. Some places get it too much, some not at all. Blah. b) the dirt thinks it is rock. I think it needs to be psychoanalyzed, but I can't afford that. Nor do I know a dirt psychoanalysist. [The Heartless Siren] (my psych major roommate) said she'd do what she can, but I'm not sure how much experience she's had with dirt. Perhaps she'll find her new niche in life. Anyway, with these problems combined, as well as my lack of experience and my very not green thumb, some of my plants don't look like they have much of a chance at life. This saddened me, so I called my gardening-expert parents. They suggested I go get some fast-acting fertilizer and a sprinkler. With their recommendations at hand, I went shopping. Well, I was at WalMart anyway shopping for other things, and didn't know where a local nursery was, so I thought I would just buy what I needed in their gardening section. The result? A very humorous story. Let me tell it....

First, I walked around the gardening section, finding nothing but Miracle Gro and no one to help me. I called my parents to see what they thought of Miracle Gro. Just then, cute old man in a green Walmart vest walks by. So I said to him, "Excuse me, do you have any..." my question trailed off into nothingness as he walked right past me without a glance in my direction. I was in shock. So I went back to talking to my mom. A few minutes later, the old man came back. "Did you need something?" So I asked if he carried the stuff I was looking for. "No. That's too expensive for WalMart." (It costs $6.98) "What do you need and maybe we have something else." So I explained that I was growing a vegetable garden and had already fertilized it while planting it, but I needed a more fast acting fertilizer to get things going. He asked what I used before. I told him steer manure. I thought he was going to kill over with a heart attack right there in the WalMart Gardening section. "You should NEVER use steer manure on a vegetable garden!!" At this point I about died laughing. But I kept my composure. You should be proud. He then proceded to tell me how bad steer manure is for vegetable gardens. His main argument? I could get E. Coli and die. Once again, I about died laughing. This time it was hard not to. So I explained to him how I grew up on a beef farm and that's what we had used to fertilize for as long as I could remember and how fertile our garden was and how I've never met anyone who died of E. Coli. He backpedalled and stumbled over his words for a moment. "Well, your cows at home are probably safe. But the stuff you buy in the stores, it's just not safe." My dear friend [Humble Master] made a valid point--it's all cow crap. What's the difference? Anyway, he then proceeded to show me some fertilizer that was expensive and would have covered my entire garden probably 100 times over. I explained that I was a poor, starving college student that just wanted something inexpensive that would make my relatively small garden grow. He took me over to the Miracle Gro section, found the one I wanted, then said, "This is your new religion. You will water your garden with this religiously every two weeks. You can miss church and your garden will grow, but you can't miss this." By this point I was just praying that he would leave so I could laugh in peace and with little guilt. This man was crazy. That's all there is to it. In a way he kind of scared me with his wild eyes and crazy ideas. But mostly he just made me laugh. I still chuckle about it.

If I die from E Coli, you'll now know why.

Facebook wins!

A most glorious thing has happened. Today, I opened up my Facebook account to see the typical bajillion invites to things that I'm never ever going to join. I was much grateful a few weeks ago to see that below "Accept" and "Ignore" there was a link that said something like, "Block all invites from this application." Sure, that's not going to solve the real problem, as there are a bajillion apps out there and people are going to keep adding them and inviting me. But I suppose every little bit helps, right?

Anyway, so I went to block all invites from whatever app was trying to get me to sign up and saw the most beautiful link ever, "Block all invites from this user." Oh my goodness. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful this is. I really do get a bajillion invites every time I open Facebook, but they're all from the same 4 or 5 people. Well, I am friends with them, so I didn't want to block them as a friend. But I didn't really feel like asking them to stop inviting me to everything, either. So I just kept clicking Ignore. And now, with one swift click, I can keep my invite section beautifully clean for the rest of eternity. (Actually, scratch that. I pray we don't have Facebook in the eternities.)

And believe me. If you start sending me invites in spam fashion, I will block you as well.... without even a second thought.

The Ultimate Tragedy

I still can't sit with my right knee tucked under me. This is a great tragedy if ever I've known one. Anyone who knows me can attest that my favorite position is curled up. Laying, sitting, whatever, I much prefer to have my legs curled up. So to have to sit on a chair at work for 8 long hours and not be able to pull my leg up... I think this may be the worst part of the entire snowmobiling incident.

Well, that and the fact that I couldn't climb a fence the other day to pet a baby foal that I was told felt like velvet. However, a different day I could probably still do that. My knee was just hurting a lot at that point in time.

Sell for science?

This is so weird...

$4875.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

Saddness

Neither the bleach nor the Shout got the pink out of my white. I shall not give up hope yet, though. Tomorrow will be pre-treating the white with the bleach. Besides, I washed the grey about 7 times... why give up after one on the white?

Spring in Hiding

Our lawn is dead. There's just no way around it. It has been dead since last summer when our sprinklers didn't work and our landlady didn't do anything to remedy the situation until summer had almost passed. My roommates were slightly passive-aggressive about the whole situation and I was out of the country for most of it. Point is, our lawn is dead. It's very sad.

Yesterday morning I went out to my car and found this growing in my lawn. It brought me much thrill and giddiness. (Please note the dead lawn in the background.)

Coincidence?

Yes, I know we're not supposed to put any stock in horoscopes, and I don't. Really, I don't. But I got a forward today with horoscopes in it and it fits my house so well that I couldn't help but share. It's kind of creepy, actually.

Dragon Lady
The Protector
Moody, emotional. May be shy. Very loving and caring. Pretty/handsome. Excellent partners for life. Protective. Inventive and imaginative. Cautious. Touchy-feely kind of person. Needs love from others. Easily hurt, but sympathetic.

The Heartless Siren
The Perfectionist
Dominant In relationships. Conservative. Always wants the last word. Argumentative. Worries. Very smart. Dislikes noise and chaos. Eager. Hardworking. Loyal. Beautiful. Easy to talk to. Hard to please. Harsh. Practical and very fussy. Often shy. Pessimistic.

The Cold One
The Happy-Go-Lucky One
Good-natured optimist. Doesn't want to grow up (Peter Pan Syndrome). Indulges self. Boastful. Likes luxuries and gambling. Social and outgoing. Doesn't like responsibilities. Often fantasizes. Impatient. Fun to be around. Having lots of friends. Flirtatious. Doesn't like rules. Sometimes hypocritical. Dislikes being confined - tight spaces or even tight clothes. Doesn't like being doubted. Beautiful inside and out.

Listing

Well, I maybe didn't get into work until 1:30 today. However, in my tardiness I accomplished the following:

- I planned my trip to France. Well, sort of. I convinced the girl I'm going with to spend our last day and a half in Paris instead of Bordeaux. Then, one week later, I will fly out of Paris to come home. The interim period is still up for grabs. I will either go to Normandy with a girl I know who lives there, or I will ride the Chunnel up to London and spend the time up there with the Cold One. Tangerine has almost convinced me to take a day or two in Wales. I guess it all depends on if I can find myself a travel buddy and what werf wants to do.
- I did a much needed load of laundry.
- I finally got the majority of the pink out of my sweatshirt. It only took 7 or 8 washings. But I finally triumphed. Somebody's white socks are officially pink socks, though. (Thanks Mom for suggesting Shout!)
- I finally washed my bathrobe that was covered in pink.
- I got all of the color off of Heartless Siren's and my shoes. That was... amazing. I don't think there's another way to describe it. I didn't think it was possible. First try, too.
- I washed the massive gross pile of dishes that had been gathering on our counters.
- I answered many a work-email from home.
- I answered a couple of work-related phone calls as well.
- I combined several pdfs into monolithic pdfs to make Heartless' work life easier.
- Wrote a shopping list. Including bleach so I can get the pink color out of my whites. Yes, Festival of Colors was still worth all the work I've put into laundry.

I think all in all, I was pretty productive, despite not making it into work until 1:30. I was very tempted to keep being productive at home and not coming into work... but then I remembered how I need all my vacation days for France. Tragedy I didn't get sick today or something. [looks up and shouts "I am not saying I want to get sick!"] [knocks on wood]

Tonight's goals:
- Go grocery shopping.
- Bleach whites.
- Make cheesecake. (Yes, Tangerine, you may come have some. It's the recipe we got in church on Sunday.)
- Water lawn.

Come to Europe!

Ok, this is a cry for help. My work is sending me to France June 2-6 for training. I have someone staying with me until the 8th to sightsee in part of France. Then she's going home. I think it's an awful waste of a trip to Europe to sightsee for only one day, so I want to stay later. But I'm a big fat chicken and I don't want to tour Europe by myself. Thus, I am looking for a traveling companion for approximately the dates of June 8-14 (the ending date is more negotiable than the beginning date) for any place in Europe. I'm kind of leaning towards London right now. I would not be opposed to Paris. If someone would go to Norway with me, I would bless them forever. However, in exchange for a traveling companion, I would be open to most any location.

Here's the clincher. I'm supposed to book my flight today. April 3rd. So I would need to know where I'm flying from and how long I am staying. By today. During business hours. Help!

Resurrection

I'm rather fond of Harry Potter. It has played a fairly substantial part in my life recently, and thus is often in the back of my mind. One of the major themes in Harry Potter is death. You see the people who don't fear death such as Dumbledore, those who conquer death in a harmless way such as Nicholas Flamel, and those who fear death and will do anything to conquer it such as Voldemort. The idea of a life after death is clear as the spirits of Harry's family and close friends are able to return for brief moments to help him. Also, the scene in King's Cross Station at the end of book 7 implies that the soul does not cease to exist upon death. (Which, i just realized, makes the idea of a dementor's kiss all that more terrifying. Because if they suck out your soul, then even when your body dies, your soul can't move on.)

All that was simply background. Just stuff that is lingering in the back of my mind without ever really being thought about in organized fashion.

Today I decided to put the scriptures on my iPod. I have been going to bed rather late recently, which makes it really hard to read my scriptures before bed. And even if I do it, I'm so tired I don't get much out of it. Solution? Read them during the day when I'm awake! Why not take advantage of the drive to work and lunch hour to read scriptures?

I was just listening to Alma 11 where Amulek is preaching to the people of Ammonihah. They're trying to twist his words so they can condemn him under the law. The subject of Christ's atonement comes up, and Amulek starts talking about the fate of the wicked. Verse 41 is the verse that really stuck out to me: "Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death; for behold, the day cometh that all shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and be judged according to their works." (emphasis mine)

Immediately I started thinking about how even the most vile and wicked of people will be resurrected someday.. How every single one of us will again have a body, but this time, a perfect body. Whether we deserve it or not. Really, the gift of immortality is something that each of us are given by Christ. Which really makes the idea of the Fountain of Youth and Philosopher's Stones kind of silly, doesn't it? Why extend the longevity of your mortal and imperfect body when you are guaranteed a perfect body later? It especially makes things like Horcruxes seem especially heinous. Committing murder in an effort to gain something that is freely given and yet pales in comparison to the free gift seems ridiculous and downright stupid.

I decided right then that I am very grateful for the Atonement and the Resurrection. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I am guaranteed eternal life. I love the peace that comes from knowing that I don't have to fear death; that I will not only see my family again, but that I will be sealed to them eternally.

Then I realized that this belief was not a wide-spread belief. The world does not believe this. If they did, we would have less stories of people searching for something that would grant eternal life. It hit me the fear that most people must live in. I want to reach out to each of them and hug them. I want to assure them that there is no need to fear. I want to convince them of the truth of a loving Father and Savior who provided a way that we may live again... with those we love. They would not create a plan that caused more pain than happiness.

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." - 2 Nephi 2:25
"For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." - Moses 1:39