December 7, 2012: Relapse

Remember how I said I was feeling sick on Wednesday, then on Thursday I was feeling better but spent two hours in the pouring rain cleaning up our yard (before the landlords could arrive and see all the dead leaves everywhere)? Well, my procrastinating the yard work created a crisis that I had to address, which didn't coincide well with me having a cold coming on. Then we had an Elder's Quorum Christmas party last night, with a white elephant gift exchange -- I got rid of an old Athlon 64 3200+ with 1GB RAM, Windows XP, and an GeForce 7600 GS, which was Alana's PC for a few years. Of course, everyone was talking really loudly -- myself included -- and I've now started to lose my voice and had a bit of a relapse.

So now it's back to hitting the essential oils hard, in the hope that I'll be able to sing with the choir and special musical number at church on Sunday. Wish me luck! I did do some work of course, but with other interruptions I didn't accomplish as much as I'd like. I did manage to replace the failing fan on a Radeon HD 5850 card, so now that's working again. I remember when that was an awesome $350 high-end GPU; today, it's okay but you can readily buy them for around $100 on eBay. I found out that my HD 5670 also had a fan problem -- it had totally seized up! -- so I contacted XFX support on that one and I need to mail it in; if I'm lucky, maybe they'll send back an HD 6000 or 7000 series card instead of just replacing the fan. [Crossing fingers]

I didn't update the blog last night because it was late, so now I'm writing this Saturday morning. I skipped reading my "good book", but I did read the scriptures (my "best book") for fifteen pages. And Corbin fell out of his bed at 1AM right as I was finishing my reading, which necessitated about 45 minutes trying to get him calmed down and back to sleep. To say that I am off track on the sleeping schedule/goal is an understatement, and the pending move is just making me more antsy about everything. But, we chose to buy a house right before Christmas and I'm still certain that was the right decision; five years and ten years from now we'll look back at this, hopefully with fond memories and a chuckle or two!

That's of course part of the reason for this blog -- the major reason I'd say. I'm really bad about keeping a journal, but this sort of blog is something I can commit to. I'm not sure why one is hard while a public blog is "easy", but there you have it. Some day in fifty years, my children, grand children, and even great grand children will have a resource to visit to see how Grandpa got to be the way he is -- which will be fun, loving, full of life and laughter, and a happy old grandpa with a firm handshake, a twinkle in his eye, and a piece of candy in his pocket. :-)

My reading in the Book of Mormon today takes me into the fall of the people of Zeniff under the reign of King Noah. That of course means some great teachings from Abinadi the prophet, but most of what he says can't be taken as a single verse to quote. So if you have time and want the full effect, read Mosiah 9-17 (about 20 pages or so). Anyway, Abinadi quotes from Isaiah in his sermon, and it's one of those great passages (chapter 15). Here's where he praises those that are peacemakers and seek to make the world a better place, with specific reference to the great peacemaker Jesus Christ:

Mosiah 15: 14-19: "And these are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth! And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever! "And behold, I say unto you, this is not all. For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto his people; For were it not for the redemption which he hath made for his people, which was prepared from the foundation of the world, I say unto you, were it not for this, all mankind must have perished." (The Book of Mormon, pp. 176-177)

Daily Check Up:
1) Scripture study: Yes (15 pages per day through the end of the year: Mosiah 10-17, pp. 166-180)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15+ minutes good book: No
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: No
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Yes! (More like an hour -- catching up because I'm not being consistent)
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: No
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No (2:30AM to 9:30AM)
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: No