I love spring. While the outdoors always has an allure to it, spring seems to offer the most intoxicating attraction. It is so hard to stay inside. …
The Archives: Getting Real
Note: This isn't quite functional yet, but I'm working on it... :) -bmc 4.5.08
Today at lunch I was reading President Monson’s “Guideposts for Life’s Journey” talk in BYU Magazine, and one section particular stood out to me:
Some of you may be familiar with …
I went to my mission reunion tonight. Bittersweet. The sweetness came from seeing all my old friends, of course, most of whom I hardly ever see. Serving …
When I dropped out of grad school a month ago, the plan was to go into publishing (specifically typesetting/book design) and write on the side, eventually doing more writing …
My little brother was in the regional spelling bee this morning. Sitting there during the first round, I watched each kid get up to the mike and wait for …
If you haven’t noticed, I have a tendency to collect irons and stash them in the fire. :) (Why are golf clubs coming to mind? Wrong image. :P) …
7. iSolated
This morning while scrambling my eggs for breakfast and listening to Aida on my iPod, one of my roommates came into the kitchen and started cleaning some stuff off the …
8. Early bird
For a while my alarm clock has gone off at five o’clock every morning, because that’s when I’m at my prime. Sure, it’s slightly less sleep (I try to …
9. Finding time
Yesterday I came across a great post by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on ten ways to find time for your family — no matter how busy you …
10. Bigger or better
Yesterday afternoon I went up to my family’s for a few hours (I’m still woefully sick, by the way, but more on that in a later post), and while I …
So, I have a small paper due tomorrow. Until this evening, I hadn’t done anything about it — I figured I’d just put it off until there was no …
12. The office
Today I came across Shaun Body’s article, My Publicly Funded Office (Thanks to Scott for the link):
Whenever I want to get serious work done, I take a 5-minute …
This morning I was reading in the Joseph Smith manual (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church), and it just struck me that Joseph was only 23 years old when …
The Library of Congress is now on Flickr. (Thanks to NorthTemple.com for the heads-up.)
I’m reading Lewis Thomas’s The Medusa and the Snail, and the other day I came across his brilliant essay entitled “The Health-Care System”:
As a people, we have become obsessed with …
I love downtowns. There’s something about them — something alive, something spine-tingling, something mysterious — that’s got me hooked. So many interesting things. So many intertwined lives …
I’ve been reading C.S. Lewis’s Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer lately, and I came across this passage which really spoke to me:
It seems to me that we often, almost …
The other day I came across a quote about happiness that I can’t get out of my head:
It has given me much of trouble, and a great amount of perseverance, …
On page 70 of Stephen Covey’s The 8th Habit, I found a quote from Willam James that I’ve swiftly become a fan of:
Most people live in a very restricted …
One week down, one and a half to go. This library power outage is tormenting me — almost every day so far I’ve gotten excited to go up to …
Walking home today, with the melting snow puddles exploding into brilliant kaleidoscopic reflections of the sun wherever I looked, I decided I like winter after all. There’s something remote …
In a conversation I had the other day, it hit me: pretty much everyone feels inadequate. It’s not just me. :) And yet “I’m the only one” is …
Yesterday at the ward conference I was attending, the elders quorum president read this little story which I rather liked. I spent a couple minutes trying to track down …
24. Heart to heart
I love talking with people. Whether in person or via blogs or e-mails or phone or any other medium you can think of (smoke signals, anyone?), communication — good …
I went to Gary Gillum’s retirement address today (he’s been the ancient studies librarian here at BYU for a while, and he’s done a lot of other things — he …
26. Love over logic
“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about?” says Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables. “It just makes me feel glad …
I’ve been reading Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, and in chapter 5 of book 2, I found this gem of a passage:
Are riches truly your possession, or by their nature valuable? …
A few minutes ago I came across a fascinating letter by Cory Doctorow:
My writing career and Creative Commons are inextricably bound together. My first novel, Down and Out in …
Usually I have no problem coming up with something to blog about. Tonight is not one of those nights.
But that’s not quite accurate, I suppose — I do have …
30. Body and spirit
Tonight I went to a class taught by Connor’s wife, Jody, on wellness from a gospel perspective. While the whole thing was quite good (and I wish I’d …
I like to cry. But that’s not exactly the sort of thing one brags about in the locker room, so I generally don’t go around telling everyone. Except …
32. Fear itself
Over the weekend I had a small string of epiphanies which popped up during church on Sunday, family home evening on Monday, and some conversations I’ve had over the past …
This is the coolest thing I’ve heard of in months, bar none. It’s called reCAPTCHA, which I read about on Language Scraps (a rather good blog, by …
34. Stuff
I just came across Paul Graham’s latest essay, “Stuff”:
Companies that sell stuff have spent huge sums training us to think stuff is still valuable. But it would be closer …
35. Burn, burn, burn
“The only people for me,” said Jack Kerouac, “are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at …
36. Mind wide open
I love to cry. Not in public, of course. But when I’m on my own, there’s nothing quite as refreshing as a good cry. It’s not something …
37. Sons of Adam
I love people. Nature’s good, and animals are pretty sweet, but of all God’s creations, humankind is my favorite. Niagara can’t hold a candle to a newborn baby. …
38. The well of life
Some people stumble along through life in a near-comatose state, coasting down Apathy Lane and not really caring one way or the other what happens to them. They may …
The pursuit of leisure is so overrated. Last night at institute I came across a beautiful quote on work by Bruce R. McConkie:
We are here on earth to work …
I’m addicted to e-mail. I wish I were kidding, but no, I think I really am hooked. It’s what I look forward to every morning, and the longer …
When I was in the MTC, one of the sisters in my district lent me a copy of a 1996 devotional address by C. Terry Warner, entitled “Honest, Simple, …
Our beautiful spring fell into autumn the day before yesterday and then collapsed back into winter yesterday with snow. Snow! O spring, where is thy strength? O …
On the LibraryThing Thingology blog I found this gem, put together by Michael Wesch of Kansas State University:
As …
44. Just do it
My mother’s aunt died a year ago and so I stopped by the BYU family history center to prepare her name for the temple (TempleReady isn’t working from the genealogy …
The four-year-old next door already knows how to get on the Internet and find his favorite games. Grandma, on the other hand, still doesn’t know how to double-click.
Why?
When adult …
47. More or less
I’m not very good at getting presents. I try to respond the way I’m supposed to — with smiles and shrieks of joy and heartfelt gratitude — but inevitably …
I’ve been listening to some Loreena McKennitt music lately, and also reading C.S. Lewis’s novel Till We Have Faces (which takes place in a barbaric country on the border of …
49. City and Country
One of my friends recently e-mailed me and mentioned that she’s planning on getting a spinning wheel so she can spin the wool from her rabbits into yarn. How …
