Drawing on scriptural accounts and experiences from her own life, Dr. Susan Rugh taught BYU students to rely on God-given guides through our journey through life.

Introduction

Travel is defined as “moving through space, across time, in a departure from normal, daily activities.”  From the Book of Mormon, Lehi leaves his home and friends in Jerusalem, leaving “his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things” (1 Ne. 2:2-4).  Lehi was totally committed to his journey.  He prepared and took his family and necessary provisions into the wilderness.

For any journey, there are three stages:

1. Prepare for the journey
2. Travel through the wilderness
3. Make meaning through reflection

Preparation

First, Lehi’s preparations for his journey were quick, yet wise.  He took what he needed and left what he didn’t.  He prepared to live and travel alone, through unknown paths, without a guide.  Lehi trusted in the Lord and obeyed his word.

The Journey Itself

Second, Lehi embarked on the journey.  Shortly thereafter, God provided a tool to guide them through the wilderness.  A ball, or director, was given to Lehi to “pointed the way wither [they] should go” (1 Nephi 16:10).  This director acted as a compass; however, it only functioned according to the faith and diligence of Lehi’s party.  Sadly, “They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey” (Alma 37:41).

Lehi and his family traveled for many years until they reached their final destination.  Along the way, “things went wrong”: Nephi broke his bow, his brothers tried to kill him, their ship passed through a great storm, and they suffered “much affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue” (1 Nephi 16).

Making Meaning

Third, we can apply lessons from the scriptures and from our own experiences with wilderness journeys to better navigate our current journey into the unknown future.  Dr. Rugh quoted Alma, a descendant of Lehi, who reflected on the journey of his ancestors.  Said Alma, “For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise” (Alma 37:45).

Closing

Thank you, Dr. Rugh, for your uplifting address.  It gave me great comfort and strengthened my faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Dear Gmail team,

Thank you for making Gmail one of the quickest email clients. I love being able to open Gmail (with Chrome) in a snap and find messages with simple, powerful searches. I have a suggestion to improve message retrieval: Please add an “I’m Feeling Lucky” email search in Google Labs.

This morning I logged in to triage my inbox. After archiving a few and marking others as spam, I reached for a message at the top of my “All Mail”: I searched for a message I had recently archived, and I knew it would be first in the search results. While I waited for 3 seconds for the search results page to load, I spend the extra time thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could just do an ‘I’m feeling lucky’ search on my email?” I would replace the “Search the web” button with “Lucky search” or something like that.

As I look back on my Gmail habits, I realize that I repeatedly search for a particular message.  I quickly learn which search string will plcae the message at the top of the search results.  An “I’m feeling lucky” search would help me not only when racing through emails, but it would help me time and time again.  (Yes, I know I can bookmark search result URLs or use “quick links” in Gmail for recent searches.)

FYI, I never use the “search the web” button. For me, when I want to quickly search the web from Gmail, I simply do

1. CTRL+T (new tab in Chrome)
2. Start typing search string…

This is far better than web search in Gmail:

1. ‘/’ (keyboard shortcut for search box)
2. Type search string
3. <Tab>
4. <Tab> (to reach “Search the web” button)
5. <Enter>

I know this is somewhat off topic, but it further explains why I don’t need the “Search the web” button in Gmail. Web search in Chrome’s unified address bar (or Google Toolbar for other browsers) gives dynamic results as I type. Results come from history, common websites, and suggested searches. This is such a great search feature.  That is why searching with Chrome is only two steps before I start seeing search results, not five steps with “web search in Gmail.”

Cheers,
James Carroll

I found a bank with better rates: Ally Bank.

From Reuters:

Nineteen large banks underwent government “stress tests,” and of the 10 told to raise capital, GMAC had by far the biggest shortfall relative to its size.

Many analysts believe GMAC will need another bailout. Gupta declined to discuss specifics about efforts to raise capital. (Source: GMAC renames bank unit Ally Bank, drops own name, reuters.com)

From WSJ:

What happens if Ally falls short? “A brilliant marketing strategy with a great name like this will blow up in their face. People will be like ‘Is this what they claim of being an ally?’” Barrera said. (Source: Bye Bye, GMAC: Will ‘Ally Bank’ Work or Not? WSJ.com)

From Ally Bank’s FAQ:

Maximize your FDIC insurance

Deposits at Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured institutions are now insured up to at least $250,000 per depositor through December 31, 2013.
Get more out of FDIC insurance with a few tips from us

Know the facts. You could be covered for more than $250,000. Here’s a simple example of how one couple could be insured up to $1,500,000:
Ally Bank Account 1: John Doe, $250,000
Ally Bank Account 2: Mary Doe, $250,000
Ally Bank Account 3: Joint Account, John and Mary Doe, $500,000
Ally Bank Account 4: John Doe, In Trust For (ITF) Mary Doe, $250,000
Ally Bank Account 5: Mary Doe, In Trust For (ITF) John Doe, $250,000
Total: $1,500,000
Have a family of 3? See how you could have coverage up to $1.75 million.

Family of 4? See how you could be covered up to $2.55 million.

(Source: FDIC insurance, ally.com)

I feel like GMAC is leaning heavily on FDIC.  In fact, I feel like the entire American banking institution is leaning on FDIC.  So, am I banking with Ally, GMAC, or the Incorporated States of America?

External Links

• Follow this story on Google News.
• Failed Banks List,  fdic.gov
• Apologies to the shane company for the post title
• See three meanings of term “United States” according to US CODE: Title 28,3002. Definitions

I’d like to “tell a friend” about Tidy Start Menu, but it’s broken:

Error number: 2^31-1, right?

It’s a neat tool that helps you organize your start menu into categories:

Organized start menu, thanks to "Tidy Start Menu"

It took me about 3.5 minutes to choose which apps belong in the pre-defined 9 categories.  With the Pro version, you can create your own catetgories; also the pro version will make category suggestions for you.  Slick.

I think this should be built in to the operating system, or at least owned by the same company.

Dear Gmail Team,

Thank you very much for implementing “Merge Contacts” into the contacts manager.

Sincerely,

jFc

If your work group consists of “information workers,” I recommend you (all) try Chandler for a month or two.  If it flows, great; if not, fine.  I’d be especially happy to hear your experiences.

Cheers!

Note to the reader: In this post, I make no effort to introduce new terms.  This is just a thought for myself. -jFc

While trying to navigate and record a net of citations, I had a wonderful realization:

• Citations, like mailing addresses, are written in a redundant encoding system
• The fundamental purpose of a citation or reference is to enable the reader to find the source

As I write this, I realize, on a somewhat unrelated thought:

• Email addresses contain little or no redundancy; that is:
  • all of the characters must be present, and
  • the characters must be in the correct order
• This is significantly unlike postal addresses, whose redundancy enables delivery of a great deal of incorrectly addressed mail
• This begs the question, “Should email addresses (or URLs, etc.) contain redundant information, in the name or reliability?

I started using GoodReads.  It’s great.  Here’s my rating system:

One star

• Disappointing
• Not recommended

Two stars

• Poorly written
• Lacking moral fibre

Three stars

• Good book
• Well written
• Mostly harmless

Four stars

• Excellent writing
• Uplifting
• Enjoyable

Five stars

• Reserved for those books which I can honestly recommend to anyone.
• A 5-star book will help you to be a better person.
• Reading this book will improve your life.
• Five star books include The Book of Mormon and Jesus the Christ, among others.

Cheers!

From the New York Times:

The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the first analog computer, was recovered more than a century ago in the wreckage of a ship that sank off the tiny island of Antikythera, north of Crete. Earlier research showed that the device was probably built between 140 and 100 B.C.

Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument’s back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar.

Source: Workings of Ancient ‘Computer’ Deciphered, from NYTimes.com, 31 Jul 2008

This reminds me of Nephi, who built a ship “not after the manner of men,” (1 Nephi 18:1-3).  It also reminds me of the Liahona, a mechanical device “of curious workmanship” (1 Nephi 16:10) provided by God for the benefit of man.

God revealed knowledge of the earth and other planets to Moses (Moses 1:3-5,8), Abraham (Abr 3:1-14), and the Nephites (Alma 30:44).  In our day, he has revealed the locomotive motor, television, the satellite, and the Internet.

Richard G. Scott, a professional nuclear scientist and leader of my church, recently gave a talk in which he compared the scientific method with personal revelation from God.  He said:

The best way of finding truth is simply to go to the origin of all truth and ask or respond to inspiration. (See Jacob 4:8.)

Source: Truth: The Foundation of Correct Decisions, Elder Richard G. Scott, from lds.org

Google blames, yet IBM credits foreign currency hedges, for losses and profits, respectively:

The results were much sunnier than those posted by Google Inc and Microsoft Corp, which both missed analysts’ targets, with the software maker citing a tough U.S. economy and Google blaming expenses for foreign currency hedges.

IBM Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge told a conference call U.S. business grew in the quarter, the weak dollar helped IBM and that currency hedges would help it mitigate any strengthening of the dollar next year. It was difficult not to say IBM was ahead on reaching its 2010 profit target, he concluded.

… IBM gets about two-thirds of its revenue from outside the United States.

Source: “IBM profit tops targets, forecast up” from Reuters, Jul 17 2008, emphasis added.