The Magic Hour

I tend to get most of my best ideas starting at about 2:30 in the morning. Coincidentally, 2:30 is also the time when my fingers stop typing exactly what my brain is thinking for no apparent reason, including adding extra characters, omitting characters, and typing things that have nothing to do with what I'm thinking. Not to mention I completely forget how to spell anything more complicated than... well, I just tried a few words which I promptly deleted and I couldn't spell any of them. You get the idea. Anyway, I have a few thoughts floating around right now, and I'm seeing things with an astounding and indescribable clarity. At least, I think I am. I'd like to talk a little bit about each of them.

I can't go back to where I used to be.
We've all done things in the past that we've learned from. Some of them were regrettable mistakes, but most fell in the realm of "learning experiences". Either way, I think that we all have an acute desire not to return to where we were when we had those experiences. I was once a naive child who knew nothing of the world. No more. I was once a rather promiscuous
guy. No more. I once had no idea how to bake. No more. I would encourage everybody to pick out some "no mores" to see the progress that they've made in their lives. Look at what you've become.

Make things right with the Lord.
I want to bear my testimony to you. I know that there are some of you out there who either think that I don't have a testimony or that it's obscenely weak. It may not be the biggest, the strongest, or the brightest of them all, but it is mine. At times in our lives, we are mocked by devils who tell us how we don't deserve God's love, how we don't deserve to become glorified. Usually, past events and current weaknesses will be brought up, as if to demonstrate to you how you deserve to die and exist only in the most tormented state. You need to stand up to them and say that you know you don't deserve all of the blessings you receive, that you know you don't deserve any kind of wonderful afterlife, and that you don't care. Because it doesn't matter. There is a kind and loving man who suffered and died and made satisfaction on your behalf, no matter how awful a something you've done. I'd like to bear my testimony that cleansing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ is all encompassing, limitless, and wonderful. If you have any sins, even minor small ones, that you have left unrepented I urge you as strongly as I can to make things right with the Lord. He loves you, and wants to help you as much as He can.

Leaving for a while
Unlike some of the people who have shut down their blogs or put them on haitus or whatnot, I'm only going to be gone for a week. I don't think I'll get cellphone service up there, but if I do I'll text some of you as soon as I can, if only to say Hi. Anyway, one week with no posts. If there isn't a post by late next Friday, then you can send all those e-mail asking if I'm alright and still alive and stuff. And I'll appreciate and read every single one of them, and respond to them to let you know that I'm fine and just far too tired to blog.

We need to talk.
One of the things that makes me most sad is when you start to make some good friends, and then they disappear. It's not really anybody's fault, they just both kind of somehow lose contact with each other. I don't want to lose contact with you, even if it is just over the summer. If you have my number and I don't text/call you by next Sunday, I'm really super sorry. You should text/call me and tell me how mad you are about it. Or how left out and sad you feel. I promise I'll make time for you. No matter what.

Got my raise.
I just wanted everybody to know that I got the raise that I needed to be able to work at camp this summer. It was more than a little bit tight, but I've made it through alright and now I'll be able to do what it is that I love to do. Oh, I do love camp. I'm really super excited. I'm on my pre-(name of camp) high. In about six weeks, I'll be ready to shoot the next boyscout I see, but for now I'm really really happy!

Beards and canes are in style.
For those of you who missed that, I'm making a comment as to what I believe my average reader to be. I think that my average reader is not, in fact, some soft cute boy with lips like heaven, but rather an old(er) married man. As such, I think I need a beard and a cane so that everybody will think I'm wise and full of wisdom or something. (Thanks for reading, by the way. Even if you are old and bearded and have a cane(I don't really think that you do) you're pretty dang cool.)