The reunion and vacation

From the 29th of May to the 14th of June we were on vacation. It was interesting, fun, challenging, beautiful, relaxing, energizing, educational, thought provoking, and deeply satisfying. I've posted on facebook some of the many pictures we took but here is one that deserves it's own post.

William DeMille let me tag along and help out with his bees. It was great fun and I learned a lot; specifically I learned why my brother Seth and I weren't successful at bee keeping as teens.

You have to open hives about once every two or three weeks and rotate the frames, check egg production including queen cells, honey stores, and if there is a good balance of drones and workers. You can actually shift frames along with population, eggs, honey and all to help strengthen a weak or struggling hive!

William also showed me a honey tree that he hived a swarm out of last year. He keeps watching in hopes of getting another swarm because the one he took last year is thriving.

Article comment post

Today I received an e-mail from a magazine Miller-McCune, they are printing a comment I made on an article called 'The Doubt Makers'.

Here's the link to both http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/348

The article is rather long and really not worth the read unless you are trying to understand conspiracy theorists from the far political left, so here is the comment I made:

POSTED BY: Mark Galbraith, May 21, 2008, 02:23 PM
"This article is insidious. It makes some assumptions that are simply untrue, namely that: scientists and reporters can establish objective truth; that this established truth is not subject to personal perspective or flawed data/data interpretation; that only one side of any argument has an agenda; and that consensus among experts means the truth has been found.

The problem is that all of these assumptions are untrue. The truth as we know it, as we search it out, is simply our best understanding and interpretation of the finite data we gather in a particular limited context. This truth is neither absolute nor pure, whether in relation to climate change, theories of evolution, gravity, black holes or any other scientific subject; the truth as we know it is just our best guess.

In science change is the only constant that can be held absolutely true. The second we come to consensus that any scientific subject is settled is the second we loose all hope of finding truth. Agendas are universal. Whether they are conscious or unconscious every person, every group of people, every organization, every government, every business, every media outlet, every entertainment venue, and every expert has an agenda. The agenda of this author seems clear in the message of the article: only the bad guys have an agenda, you can trust the media, scientists all agree and you should too…if you don’t you’re a bad guy!

Lastly, consensus among experts means the truth has been found…bologna! Truth is not a democracy! Truth is not limited by our understanding or perception of it or by the agreement of the few or the many that we have found and established it. We cannot define the truth, we can only search for and identify the pieces we find, and try to fit them into the great puzzle that in the end is put together according to our view of the world. Any true scientist will admit that science isn’t interested in the truth, science is only interested in finding the answers that prove a hypothesis, that reinforce a theory, that explain a law, so the grant money won’t dry up…back to the agenda. May be it’s time we get back to equal time and let people find their own answers; after all it’s not just reporters and scientists that are sifting to find them."

Pie Day in Maryville

The Maryville Branch pie day celebration (3.14 as in March 14th). What a great opportunity for all the guys to show...how crazy they are by eating a 9" cream pie in three minutes. This is not one of my greatest moments but I suppose it needs to go down in history anyway.

By the way...I won. Not sure what that says about me, but it was fun.

This video speaks for itself as Nathanael and I record a really fast time on the crooscut saw at the 2005 Nauvoo Pagent. This is brotherhood at it's best!

Busy Spring

This year seems to be accelerating dramatically in every respect. We will be having our sixth child...one closer to a really respectable family size. We will be taking our first real family vacation. Church and family activities seem to be multiplying and we can hardly keep up. To add insult to business my work is so chaotic and demanding that I can rarely get through a daily list without passing much of it forward to the next day.

Today Gabriella slunk into our room under a blanket as I was working on my laptop and handed me a little note that said "To Daddy, Havfun--Dear Daddy hav a good day tomoro. I like that song to. I wont you to know that I love you." I was listening to dance music and the girls especially like it because they dance. A song that I particularly like came on and I mentioned that I like it...it seems that little girls pay a lot of attention to what their daddys say, more than I thought they did.

The start of something...

Today I decided to start blogging. I'm not sure if this will work for my journaling needs but it has to be better than just writing in my phyical journal every thre or four months.

The world is so full of ideas, and I am so busy so much of the time that I miss much of the great thinking that is going on. Because of that I'm always scrambling to find my opinion and what the truth is about any given thought or idea. I do have my foundation, the things, ideas and beliefs that don't change but everything else seems to be in flux most of the time; I think the only way I could keep up would be to read and think and discuss with good minds 24/7; not a possibility.

There are lines that are being drawn amoung all these ideas that are clearly defining the next stage in the battle between good and evil. It is truely amazing to me that so few people are paying attention that most don't see it happening; but considering my own struggle to keep up and think and have an opinion I guess it's not a surprize.

That's a good start, we'll see where I go from here!