Random Thoughts About Rural Living

I have decided to keep my rooster for the time being. He eats too much for what he gives (nothing), but he might be useful later, if we get a big enough place to allow one of the hens to set.

The hens are still giving us an egg a day, each. We need to make french toast, pancakes, or pudding to use our eggs up (someone kindly gave us two dozen eggs, unasked). We have the joy of knowing that our chickens have room to run, and are being fed decent food.

My comfrey and mint are both dead. This place killed them, after they survived being moved from the northwest end of Arizona to the southeast end, not to mention the transplant for nearly a year.

My tomatoes and beans thrived, except for the minor detail of never giving me flowers. Well, they make good chicken food, at least.

Watching Movies

Did I mention that the ooonnnllyy way to watch Quest for Camelot is in French? Turn off the French subtitles, though. They don't match the spoken words and can drive you crazy if you have an idea of what both are saying. It's a confusing way to improve your French. When I watch this cartoon, I often pause after "I Stand Alone" is sung, go back and listen to it in English (okay, American) a time or two, then go back to the movie in French.

The last several times I have watched Lilo and Stitch (the original movie), I watched it in Swedish.

The key to watching movies in languages you do not know (or do not know well) is to watch the version in your native language until you nearly have it memorized. That way, you'll know what the characters are saying, even if you couldn't repeat it. I have no clue why I like to watch movies that I cannot understand (or, in the case of French, understand very little). It's just awesome - provided I've watched the movie enough times in my language to know what's going on.

Linguistics

I love languages. I love linguistics. My mother had a book about the history of the English language years ago. I gobbled it up.

I love languages. I dabble in them. I play with them. I don't know why I don't drop everything and just do languages all day. (I actually suspect it's because something that fun that I'm not paying a university a ridiculous sum of money to teach me, must be a wicked thing to do, a terrible waste of time.)

If I could have unlimited time to do anything I wanted, I would play with languages. Okay, let's get this out of the way: I am fluent in American English only. I play with French. I used to know Spanish better than I do. (I had a perfect accent when I read, but I had very little or no idea of what I was reading.) Once, I knew a little sign language (enough that a deaf person came up to me in a restaurant in Michigan to talk to me - alas, I didn't know enough to hold an intelligent conversation). I've exposed myself to Chinese, Swedish, Irish Gaelic, and Russian, as well as to English from the British Isles, Canada, Australia, NE United States, and SE United States.

I would also be part of a linguists' group that met for two or three hours once (or more) a week, just to speak to each other in languages we wanted to learn (or to learn better). I would be fluent in fifty languages. As an aside, I'd also adopt kids from all over the world, in all colors that humans come in, here, on this planet.

Oh, yeah. I make up languages, too. My oldest daughter and I would speak nonsense to each other when she was very, very young. She loved the game as much as I did. My cousins and I made up a backwards language, which had probably been invented millions of times before, in the history of this planet. I made up a code for words in L'Jn - the Novel. In one part, she meets some people and cannot speak their language. The reader can figure out what the people are saying if they are good at cryptograms (which I love to do, by the way).

And the ironic thing in all of this? I took a language test before I went on a mission for the church I belong to. It was geared to find out how fast a person can learn to pretend nonsense words are real words. In other words, you had a chance to learn to speak a non-existent language. The man who gave me the test assured me that everyone got at least xx points (I forget the number) in the test. I got a fraction of that. Needless to say, I didn't go to any foreign countries. But the thing is, there was no intelligence behind that test. Real languages have real intelligence behind it. Real people speak them. Even the languages I made up, had intelligence behind them, except for the gobbledygook that my daughter and I spoke to each other and, in that case, there was no need to pretend that meant anything.

Do You Know Whether the Wether is Under the Weather Today?

On the internet I've come across some interesting spellings, that just happen to be real words. Okay, they are painful spellings.

"I don't know weather he did it or not." "The whether is nice today." "The wether is nice today." Of course that last sentence makes a bit of sense, but to say, "The wether is sunny today," might draw a blank stare from those who know that a wether is a castrated male sheep.

The worst (or best, depending on your point of view) examples are found in YouTube comments. Most of the comments are swear words and vulgar comments, with a great many painful (or creative, if it pleases you to look at it that way) spellings of words. YouTube seems to draw a great many people of low intelligence (I am not talking about ability to spell in this instance, I am talking about inability to hold a decent conversation, to think clearly, and to have basic good manners (politeness, tact, kindness). If this is an honest representation of the bulk of our society, heaven cannot help us. We are firmly on our way to self-destruction.

Thesaurus dot com draws an audience only slightly better. I could not believe it when I read comments on the posts Thesaurus/Dictionary dot com has. Could most of those people who commented even be intelligent enough to understand the article they were supposed to have just read? I won't demean the authors of the comments to bring you examples, but the articles were written to appeal to people who would understand the articles. Clearly, that does not happen upwards of eighty percent of the time.

Shall we Accept Except or Shall we Except Accept?

What's wrong with these written sentences?

"We except them. They were excepted."
"They were an acception."

In the first line, what is actually being said is, "They are excluded. They are not part of us." What people often think they are saying is, "We accept them. They are part of us."

The second line actually makes no sense.

So, yeah, it bugs me when people think they are writing, "We accept them," when they are really saying, "We exclude them."

Forgiving

Restored post

Sunday, October 16, 2011

A friend and I were conversing, and he thought an experience I told him would be of value on this blog, so I include it below:

Could we really be righteous without believing/having faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, not only for ourselves but for others? This reminds me of an experience I had a few days ago.

As I was praying, I began praying about all of those who had hurt me in my life - from perverts to peers to siblings. As I prayed, my mind and heart opened up and I wanted with all of my heart and mind for them to be forgiven. As that happened, I saw very clearly that if I refused to condemn them, the Atonement cleared them, and it was as if they had never done anything to hurt me. The up side of that was, not only their salvation, but that it had never been done to me. The whole thing, the whole experience was (or could be) wiped clean - as if I had never been wounded and as if they had never hurt anyone. It was an awesome thing to witness, to see. A complete wiping away of the whole experience. And I saw that, in this way, each person is pulled away from Satan, who thinks he owns us.

I think what I saw was the full effects of humility, faith, and love as one person forgives. Multiply that by a billion, and you've got Satan losing, wholesale. Even a million people with that experience, ongoing, would put a serious dent into his plan to capture and enslave all of us. I rather like the idea of erasing other people's sins. Of course, being healed from the wounds is pretty enticing, as well.

That's the end of what I said to him.

One of the things that felt so profound to me was the fact that I wanted those who had hurt me to be forgiven. I didn't want them to suffer.

It reminds me of when my ex took me to court in an attempt to get custody of the kids.

I was afraid. I knew how mean he could be. I was afraid on the way to court. I was afraid while we were waiting our turn. But as soon as he sat down at one of the tables in front of the judge, I wasn't afraid anymore. As I walked to the other table, I looked at him. I could see that he hated me, and wanted only the worst for me, but it didn't affect me at all. I was filled with pure love. You have to experience it. I can't describe it, except to say that all fear was gone. Neither did I have any desire for revenge, etc. I could live in that my whole life and be happy.

(After that hearing, by the way, he did change so that he was polite to me, and safe for me to be around.)

I do want to point out something, though. Originally, I had been praying that he would leave me alone, that he would move away, that he or I would die. Finally, I decided to pray for him, instead of against him. At first, I choked on my words. Pray for his happiness? Pray for his well-being? But it became easier. By the time this court case came around, I had been praying like this for roughly around a year. I don't think I would have had this awesome experience had I not been praying for him.

Paul's Example

Restored post, with comments

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Last Sunday, we studied Acts (New Testament). This experience of Paul struck me.

AND Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. Acts 23:1-5

This priest said to someone, "Slap this man on the mouth." Paul, in essence, swore at the priest, and stood up to him. Someone then asked, "You're reviling the leader of God's church?" Then Paul backtracked, saying he didn't realize the man was the head (1) of God's church, and quoted, "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people."

There's another scripture that is similar to this.

THEN spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

Matthew 23:1-4

Anyway, this man who Paul cussed at was a man who had a hand in killing Jesus, the Only Begotten in the flesh. If anyone deserved censure, he did, yet Paul backtracked. He was obedient to the injunction not to speak evil of the ruler of the people. I would take this to mean the spiritual leaders. Seriously, how many of us would react like Paul - or would we keep cussing at the leader?

I hear/read about people looking for fault in our religious leaders. I think there's a fine line between recognizing that they are not infallible and finding fault with them. If we are looking to make a man an offender for a word, what is going to happen to us? We are judged, you know, by how we judge others. If we make others offenders for the use of a word we disapprove of, what's going to happen to us because of all of the words we have used that were not so great? We really are judged at the end by how we judge others. Think about it. Think long and hard. Would you really like to be the recipient of the harsh judgments you put on others? I wouldn't. I am doing all I can to be judged kindly when the day of judgment comes for me.

(1) I used the word "head" on purpose. The head of any religious organization ought to be God, but often the mortal leaders are considered the bosses/the "head".

Jeremy said... [Note from moderator: This was a message sent to L'Jn's google+ account. It was so good, L'Jn wanted it here, and got permission from the original writer. Unfortunately, the "bold" didn't transfer, so the words between the asterisks are what were once bolded.]

Is there a double standard in this scripture? (bolded)

1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:

*3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.*

4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

If I understand from the post on L'jn's Voice we are to respect the leaders but not do as they do. Is that what the scripture is saying? I find this very confusing.

When the leaders are clearly in the wrong such as having a hand in the death of the Only Begotten they are still to be deferred to and given honor and respect?

So being a spiritual leader means you can get away with murder. Interesting. October 16, 2011 3:31 PM

L'Jn said... [My reply] It does sound like it, doesn't it? Only, they'll have to answer to God someday or, rather, they'll have to deal with their own horrified consciences.

It seems like passivity to the max. Of course, we could fall back on, "Maybe it isn't translated correctly." But what if it is? My understanding is that we need to be willing to take a lot of crap from others without fighting back, and without denying Christ. We need to be respectful.

Still, the bottom line with this, and with everything else, is to follow the Spirit. I expect there are times when the Spirit says not to lay down and let people walk all over you.

Perhaps we would be warned to flee. Perhaps we would be given the power to win with the sword (figure of speech). Perhaps we would be given words which would silence our enemies. Perhaps we would simply be given strength to endure our burdens. There are examples of all of those in the Book of Mormon (with the sword thing being literal).

I think the important thing is that we are gods in training. Can you imagine what would happen if God took offense as easily as we do? A God/god could do an awful lot of damage in a fit of anger. So, we get the opportunity here to learn to have the patience of a God with certain people and circumstances. October 16, 2011 3:34 PM 

L'Jn said... If anyone reading this has some insight to add on these scriptures, as well as on Jeremy's comments, please add your comments. Remember that it's very difficult to add comments to a blogspot post unless your 3rd party cookies are enabled, or you are signed in to your google account.

October 16, 2011 3:37 PM

False Knowledge

How can one have false knowledge? Either one has knowledge or one doesn't. Knowing, by definition, is to be aware of truth. To "know falsely" is to not know, therefore, people may think they "know" when, in fact, they do not. False "knowing" is a lie. It is not knowing, just like there is never a light made out of darkness. If false light is darkness, how can it be light?

NANOWRIMO!!!

NaNoWriMo is about to strike again! 30 days (and nights) of writing furiously! 50,000 words in 30 days. It doesn't have to be good. Save editing for later. 

www.nanowrimo.org

Some basic rules:

• Write - don't go back and edit anything because every word goes toward your word count.
• Can't do one word 50,000 times.
• OpenOffice's word count is different than NaNoWriMo's official counter. I don't feel safe until my OO says 52,000 words.
• It should be fiction.

There is also the Young Writers Program for people under 18. If I recall correctly, this program allows the writer to choose how many words their goal is going to be. A link to YWP is below.

Rules and Regulations Forum
Newbies Forum
Rules and Regulations This is NOT a forum 
Young Writers Program

Story Lite

I've been putting my notes for "L'Jn - the Novel" on Story Lite. It's a pretty cool program. Most word processing programs show you the main page. This one has a main page, plus several small ones. It looks like a desk top with cards scattered around on it. You can make the cards bigger or smaller. You can write as much as you want: a scroll bar appears if you write more than you can see. You can add more cards or take them away.


I'm sure it can be used for more than just writing stories. I use it only for notes for this project. It's great for notes.


I told Geoff (who, as I understand it, developed the program) that I would put a link to his page. You can download Story Lite there (upper right hand corner) and you can join his forum.


The forum has these forums/sub-forums:
Your use of Story Lite software:
Fiction
Business and Professional
Education and Students
Hobby, Game, Sport, and Pastime


suggestions for new features:
General software features
New ideas and concepts


General discussion of Story software and website:
Compare or use with other software


Help and Support:
Get stuck or want workaround


The forum looks like it's pretty new, so let's go look at it. It's free to join. Right here.

Apart and A part

Have you ever noticed that "apart" means "separated from" even though the word is together?

And have you noticed that "a part" means "together, or part of the whole" even though the word is separated?

Did you notice that inflammable and flammable mean the exact same thing (something that can be set on fire)?