Today’s discussion is a bit of a tribute to the Life the Universe and Everything symposium and to the Leading Edge Magazine.

First of all a little history, around 1981 at BYU University a group of students took a SF/F writing class from a teacher named Marian K. Smith. The class had the perfect homework assignments: write SF/F stories. Once the stories were written, other students would critique each other’s submissions.

The class was so fun, that after the end of term, many of the students didn’t want to stop meeting together. So they created a writing group called Xenobia. The group later became known as ‘the class that wouldn’t die’. They met once a week for years. Some members left and new people joined.

In the early years certain members of Xenobia started a magazine called: The Leading Edge and the symposium: Life The Universe and Everything. Eventually those students graduated and the reigns of the symposium and the magazine got transferred to a new set of students who came to show as much devotion and dedication to these projects as the founders. The cycle repeated itself and another new batch of people would join.

This year, 2012 represents the 30th anniversary of LTUE. The symposium has grown and blossomed to become an exceptional writers’ symposium. The Leading Edge magazine has also continued to prosper.

The interesting thing is that the people who started these two wonderful products did not think ‘this is going to last 30 years’. The staffs of each worked to make a particular issue or symposium the best they could do for that given year. New members drawn by the increasing quality of the product and the mission of both wanted to add their support. And as a result you now see both that have survived 30 years.

Many of those who contributed to LTUE and TLE later pursued professional careers as writers, editors and artists. So this is just an encouragement to work on making what you may think to be a temporary pet project to be the best it can be. Others may catch the same vision as you and may contribute their talents to making sure that your chosen pet project will celebrate its 30th anniversary.

http://www.ltue.org/LTUE_2012.html

http://leadingedgemagazine.com/

I am going to try for something I don’t really want to do. I’m going to try to see if I can be elected by my neighborhood to become a state delegate. I tried last year, but I didn’t do much to prepare but this time I’m making more of an effort. People laugh when I tell them that I often feel shy. I’m not a quiet person and I feel uncertain of my abilities. But I realize that if I don’t like how something is going then I should stand idly by and let it happen. I don’t want to be like people who will complain about who our current political leaders are but they never bother to vote.

The last few years I’ve become a much more informed citizen. In fact a lot of the information coming to me is coming at such speed and volume that it feels like I am drinking from a fire hydrant. So if I want to influence who is going to be elected to represent me and my neighborhood then I need to try to be a delegate or support someone else I have respect for. I admit that I’d prefer to take the lazy way out and just concentrate on personal concerns. But too many times I think we’ve all done that too frequently, and things get worse.

So with those who visit my site and this blog, you get to come along and see what I would like to see if I got a flyer from someone who wanted to represent me. Here is my first draft and now to slim it down and modify.

First some brain storming.

1. Picture. 2. Bio of myself 3. State reasons why I would be the one who would be good to represent my neighbors. 4. Links to the different candidates of my party that I represent. . 5. A list of issues that concern me and potentially other people in my neighborhood. I will have links on the flyer of where people can get more details on the candidates. 6. I will have them go to my web page to get detailed info. 7. I have an invite for neighbors to come to my house for turkey sandwiches. 8. Post audio files of the speeches I taped on my Vent page. And so now Let’s begin.
2. I have lived in the neighborhood since 1994, 17 years. As far as I recall I have voted at every opportunity I could.
3. I am interested in becoming a delegate to represent this neighborhood. Why do I feel I would be worth considering? 1. I’m single and so have had the time to pursue some good opportunities to go to political events. 2. I’ve hosted a Meet the candidate night at the Orem council rooms where a governor and senate candidates spoke. 4. I attended the 3 D republican dinner where multiple candidates presented their views on different issues. 5. I was a staff worker for the Patriot Camp in Utah County.
4. My political views are very conservative; I feel government control should be restricted to only their specified jurisdiction. The people and the individual states should be responsible for their health care, education, business policies. I think we have digressed from the constitution far too much.
5. Candidates for Governor:

Gary Herbert (R)                    http://www.utah.gov/governor/
Rob Bishop (R)                       http://www.votebishop.com/
Gary Frank (R)                       No web hits
Stephen Sandstrom (R)          http://stephensandstrom.com/
Bill Skokos (R)                       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZuxTcaiCeI
John Valentine (R)                 http://www.johnvalentine.com/

Utah Candidates for Congress  District 3:
Jason Chaffetz (R)    http://chaffetz.house.gov/
Kurt Bradburn (R)     http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Kurt_Bradburn
Mia Love (R)             http://www.love4utah.com/

Republican Senator Candidates

Orrin Hatch (R)                      http://hatch.senate.gov/public/
Dale Ash (R)                           http://daleash.com/
Loy “Arlan” Brunson (R)       http://brunsonforsenate.com/
Kevin Fisk (R)                        http://www.kevinfisk2012.com/
Craig Frank (R)                      http://underthedome.org/
Chris Herrod (R)                    http://le.utah.gov/house2/detail.jsp?i=HERROCN
Dan Liljenquist (R)                    http://www.danforutah.com/

Other sites:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=750&sid=12799232

http://www.conservative-congress.info/utah_senate_candidates.phtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Utah,_2012

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700179803/Categorizing-Utahs-political-world-with-some-appropriate-labels.html

I got this email from the wife of my nephew. A very good email and this is my Goulash for the week: I invite all of us to donate funds to this family.

On Monday of this week Chris, his brothers, and an employee were the second people on the scene of a fatal accident.  They were able to pry the door off of the car just as the mother stopped breathing.  Rescue workers were able to revive her, but she remains in very critical condition at the U. The other three young men in the car were injured quite badly and are also in the hospital recovering. It was a very sad thing for Chris to see, and our hearts have been drawn out in prayer for this little family all week.  As we have investigated further into who these people are we have both felt a strong desire to do something to help out their situation.

The girl who died is named MuLa Er.  Her family are refugees from Myanmar.  They made it into the United States this last summer, after waiting 20 years in a refugee camp in the Phillipinnes to be picked in a lottery to come here.  This young girl never knew what freedom was until moving here, and they literally came here with only the shirts on their backs.  They have been working to learn English four nights a week, and MuLa’s principal told me that he has never had kids in his school that have ever worked as hard as this group of refugees.  I spoke with him for quite a while yesterday, and he said that this group of people are some of the finest people he has ever met in his life.  He said they are so grateful to be in America, and are very humble, and hardworking.  This accident is absolutely devestating to this family, and they are scared that they will starve to death with so many members of their family being injured and unable to work.  The LDS chruch has stepped in and is providing food for the family, and the community where they live have started a fund at the Zions Bank up in Heber to help with the funeral costs of MuLa, and most likely a funeral for her mother…along with living expenses for the family while the other members of the family recover from their injuries.

These people are survivors, and my heart is really drawn to them right now.  I just want to ask any of you if you have $5.00 to spare to call the Zions Bank in Heber (435) 654-2773 and donate it to the MuLa Er/Refugee Community Fund.  Seriously every dollar can make a huge difference to this family right now, so if you have the ability to help out a little bit please do!!

Here is an article about this family.  http://www.parkrecord.com/ci_20064140

<from Sarah Eagar>

As I have become more politically active I learned that there was going to be some training on how to be a delegate in thus represent my neighborhood. When I went to the training I took notes. I thought this would be of interest to others. I’m hoping the notes are clear enough for use in case you would like to become more locally and nationally active.

Why you may want to be a delegate.

Being a delegate gives you the ability to make a difference.

Follow instructions during the delegate training

Prepare in advance what you believe you could do as other’s representative.

We are each powerful as citizens

You can meet with other delegates. You can learn from them and make new friendships.

As a delegate you will have access to legislators. Since you have the power to vote them in or out, they want to help you in a good way.

At the meetings you can vote on issues

Requirements to be a delegate:

a. You need to be a registered for your political party to be a delegate.

b. Need to be a resident of the county you represent.

c. Be willing to receive all communications from your party’s leadership and candidates.

d. You are responsible to educate yourself on the issues and the candidates

e. Go to as many meetings as you’re invited to. This will enable you to be more informed and to meet people and to network.

f. At the conventions you can vote on any potential upcoming issues.

g. Attend stake organizing meetings. Be a leader.

h. On off years you go to county organizations committee meetings.

Process to be a delegate:

You need to campaign in your district in advance.

Candidates will be working on training and getting their own delegates elected.

Be ready to run a ‘the race of your lifetime’.

Know your stand on issues and how to present them within a two minute presentation as you give your speech to convince citizens to vote for you over someone else.

Important dates: Find out the date in your state for voting of delegates. There are the county and state delegates.

Any candidate who gets 60% of vote will automatically be the Republican nominee.

Leadership and fellow candidates will be happy to help you on how things go so you can learn more easily.

Know your precinct.

Get a map of the precinct. Some borders are changing in the high growth areas of the state.

Get a list of the current officers and fellow delegates.

Get list of past attendees of last caucus. This attendance can be obtained from precinct chair or county party.

Get list of registered votes in your district from county elections.

Get list of candidates and learn of their stand on issues.

Have a plan

Contact voters and ask them to vote for you

Use your list and ask them to come to the caucus and vote for you.

Work with other people who also want to be elected. You might want to decide in advance between the two of you who wants what office.

Combine your efforts with likeminded people.

Raise your profile in your precinct.

A. Deliver flyers on republican issues or reminders of caucus meetings.

B. Register voters some may want to do absence votes.

C. Ask them what they want to vote for on issues.

D. Hold cottage meetings such as on a debate night etc.

E. Hold a candidate debate party.

You need to know the duties of the office you are elected for. Don’t miss meetings.

You need to know the issues and the candidates.

Give citizens a good reason to want to vote for you.

Have someone nominate you. It looks better.

Send flyers the night before the caucus meeting to get people to come and vote for you.

Stay to the very end of the voting meetings. One year one candidate won by 1 vote.

Other info:

Districts are created by active voters.

An Active voter is a voter who has voted in one of the last two elections or of the last eight years.

For many singles there are often times we can feel down for not having a companion. I want to point out how we singles can use our marital status to our advantage. I want to touch upon this topic because I have several friends, fellow singles, who have become quite bitter about their singlehood. I don’t want to do that. I am concerned that I wouldn’t be fun to be around if I did that and thus hinder my chances of finding a future companion. I want to concentrate my discussion upon two areas, following a passion and supporting a cause.

My passion is writing books such as children’s mainstream, science fiction and fantasy; adult science fiction and fantasy; and nonfiction. As a single, since I don’t have a family I am able to devote more of my time away from work performing my dream of creating stories to make characters suffer. Said characters may wish that I was married to give their lives more peace. Ha!

In recent years I have become concerned about things that are happening in America both locally and nationally. As I have more time, I am starting to get more involved in becoming informed on politics and issues. I have the time for that without a family. Therefore as I take my fledging steps to become better informed about issues, I am using my free time in a positive way.

My invitation to fellow singles is to use your time to your advantage. I enjoy spending time at home reading a good book. But I have an opportunity to become active in an activity. I learn from my experience and I become more well-rounded in a non- food calorie kind of way. If my involvement in a cause can help my brother and sisters and their kids and their grandkids and also my neighborhood and nation then it becomes a win-win situation. And hey, if there is some single guy who is following their cause or passion, maybe we’ll meet eh?

Today’s discussion is about trying something out of the blue. There are many things I’ve tried that have not had the best results. But thought they didn’t work, at least I gave them a shot and I think the only thing that such event6s have taught me is to learn what works and what doesn’t. A case in point.

Throughout my life I have been pretty shy about my abilities. I don’t have the best vision and I have a hard time recognizing people. As a result I often will stand on the sidelines and watch others do the work of something. an example of that is being a fly on the wall when the Leading Edge and Life the Universe and Everything was created.

Well last year I thought I’d try may own project. In recent years I’ve become concerned about national issues and wanted to see how I could contribute to the more education of the youth. I thought I’d try to put together a project where I would have interesting speakers come and talk about their careers and that it would be an entertaining afternoon for kids and teens.

Well to state it bluntly the event, Etcetera One was a flop. I chose people who interested me and who were involved in their occupations. I scheduled a Saturday afternoon at a library and then sent emails to dozens of school principals to invite their students to the event.

This was the schedule I had set up.

Etcetera One is free to the public and should be of particular interest to ages 10 and up.

12:30:     The Empire Has No Clothes: Why and How to Study History and Becoming a Citizen-Statesman in the 21st Century.  Stephen Pratt, historian and educator with extensive knowledge of United States history and researcher for Cleon Skousen.

2:00        The Essence of Story in Movie Making.  Lyman Dayton, Director/Producer.  Lyman Dayton has 16 pictures to his credit, including: Where The Red Fern Grows, Seven Alone, A Crooked Sky. He is a winner of Reader’s Digest List of Best Family Films.  Ages eleven to teen actors, bring your portfolios.

3:00        Cause and Effect, the Confessions of a Circuit Court Judge.  Floyd Gowans , in 1987 was awarded the Circuit Court Judge of the Year for the State of Utah.  In 1990 he received the Distinguished Judge of the Year award for the State of Utah.

4:00        Citizenship, Each Our Part.  Stella Welsh, previous Orem Mayor, member of city councils, committees, boards and participated in multiple projects including habitats for humanity.

I think the subject matter and the presenters were very good choices. They each gave great presentations. I realized that my bottleneck of advertising was by only sending emails to the Principals of the schools of the county.

In my process of obtaining contact info, one school staff member told me that I should send emails only to the principals of the various school and not to the teachers at all. I think of the dozens of Principals that I contacted only one or two felt inclined to forward the information to their teachers.

The even taught me several things.

1. The room and calendar of events were good choices. The few who came found the event interesting.

2. I can achieve a task through my own efforts.

3. I now have contact info if I need it for future events.

4. I’ve got to make sure I don’t permit bottlenecks in my promotion efforts. Maybe next time I will find an alternative way to forward information to teachers if not through their principals.

So if there is something you have always wanted to try give it a shot. Sometimes I learn how to do things by being the support staff of past events led by others. For example I’mve been on the staffs of The Leading Edge, Life the Universe and Everything, managing family reunions, Utah Patriot Camp, and event committees etc. Each thing we do to help in the success of an event teaches us and enables us with a better foundation to do our own project once we decide to lead.

My invitation is that if there is an event you want to put on, find people who may want to work with you on that project. And just jump in. You may tread water in the beginning but often with enough effort we all learn how to swim.

Today’s theme is touching upon more of a religious topic. Through my various Christian contacts I often receive some very inspiring email. I received this email just recently:

A young man had been to Wednesday Night Bible Study.

The Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord’s voice. The young man couldn’t help but wonder, ‘does God still speak to people?’

After service, he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message. Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways.

It was about ten o’clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray,

‘God…If you still speak to people, speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey.’

As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk.

He shook his head and said out loud, ‘God is that you?’ He didn’t get a reply and started on toward home.

But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk. The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn’t recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli.

‘Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk.’ It didn’t seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk. He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.

As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, ‘Turn Down that street.’

This is crazy he thought, and drove on past the intersection. Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street…..At the next intersection; he turned back and headed down Seventh.

Half jokingly, he said out loud, Okay, God, I will.’ He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop He pulled over to the curb and looked around.

He was in a semi- commercial area of town. It wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed.

Again, he sensed something, ‘Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street.’ The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep.

He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat. ‘Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep and if

I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid.’ Again, he felt like he should go and give the milk.

Finally, he opened the door, ‘Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will give them the milk If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will count for something, but if they don’t answer right away, I am out of here.’

He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise inside. A man’s voice yelled out, ‘Who is it? What do you want?’ Then the door opened before the young man could get away.

The man was standing there in his jeans and T-shirt….. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn’t seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. ‘What is it?’

The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, ‘Here, I brought this to you.’ The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway.

Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face.

The man began speaking and half crying, ‘We were just praying. We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money. We didn’t have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk.’ His wife in the kitchen yelled out, ‘I ask him to send an Angel with some. Are you an Angel?’

The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him and put in the man’s hand. He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face.

He knew that God still answers prayers.

I forwarded to a good friend of mine and she said, she wasn’t certain if this was a true story. She thought it was a nice story, but she’s aware of fake things going around the internet. She wondered if it really was true and had heard that others may have had a similar experience.

Another close contact of mine said she knows such things as this is true because. She was once a leader of a woman’s’ organization. She often followed the spirit to someone’s house and from personal experience knew that God answers prayers.

In my own experience. A few years ago I found out that my sprinkler system had caused water damage in the basement of my house. So I had to remove the flooring of one room and to have the rooms cleaned of potentially dangerous mold. Well I had storage items in boxes that were now damaged.

I wondered where in the world can I get more boxes and thus get rid of the ones that might have mold spores on them. After time stewing over the matter, I had a stroke of inspiration. Buy boxes from the place I had gotten them before. Normally the boxes only come with the items I purchased, but I realize I could buy the same sized boxes by themselves. I feel that God answered me on this question.

It is also my opinion that God has inspired man on the creation of the United States.

Here are some interesting web sites I found:

http://newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin245.htm

http://empowerliberty.com/americas-founders/

http://whitehouser.com/politics/religion/american-founding-fathers-christian-nation-secularism/

http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/the-fear-of-our-founding-fathers-1991214.html

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ibkk_gordon-b-hinckley-us-founders-inspi_news

http://www.icr.org/article/821/

Often when I am trying to learn something I use the splatter method. I throw various ways to remember something against the wall until something sticks. Today I try to see how I can remember the abbreviations of each of states. First I see how spelling patterns are in common.

States with first and last letter

Connecticut    CT

Georgia          GA

Hawaii            HI

Iowa                IA

Kansas            KS

Kentucky        KY

Louisiana        LA

Maine             ME

Maryland        MD

Pennsylvania PA

Vermont         VT

Virginia          VA

States with first and second letter

Alabama          AL

Arkansas         AR

California       CA

Colorado         CO

Delaware        DE

Florida            FL

Idaho               ID

Illinois            IL

Indiana            IN

Massachusetts MA

Michigan         MI

Nebraska         NE

Ohio                OH

Oklahoma       OK

Oregon           OR

Utah                UT

Washington    WA

Wisconsin       WI

Wyoming        Wy

Two name states

New Hampshire NH

New Jersey NJ

New Mexico NM

New York NY

North Carolina NC

North Dakota ND

Rhode Island RI

South Carolina SC

South Dakota SD

West Virginia WV

Double letter states

Minnesota MN

Mississippi MS

Tennessee TN

Each of the above has some pattern that can help me to remember their spelling. Now I have six remaining exceptions. I’ll try a few mnemonic for these to see if it’ll help.

Exceptions

Alaska            AK      We got Alaska from Russia thus we paid asked for the land.

Arizona           AZ       Many people move to Arizona to retire and sleep (Zzzz) or AZ

Missouri         MO      I’m blank on this. How about Don’t Miss Our beloved MO.

Montana          MT      Montana I think of open sky and trees thus T for Tree or MT

Nevada            NV      I think of a funnel “V” like coins going into a slot machine. NV

Texas              TX       X marks the spot like the Alamo or TX

I’m learning some key names of ports; sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun, parts of a ship. I thought I share a few. Here are some ideas on how to remember them by mnemonics or visualization.

Aft = the back end of the ship. I remember this by thinking that after everything on the ship is the aft.

Bow = is the front of the ship. I remember this in that I need to bow forward. I can’t bow backwards so bow is front of the ship.

Knot = A knot is one nautical mile per hour. (One knot is about 15% faster than one mile per hour). For visualization, I think of the mile markers on a road as little knots of metal to indicate distance and thus the knot for the length of sea.

Pitch = the rise and fall of the front of the ship while at sea. I remember this by thinking of the rise and fall of painting a wall or fence with pitch matching to the up down motion of the ocean.

Port = the left side of the ship, a nautical term, respectively, of a ship or aircraft as perceived by a person on board facing the bow (front).  At night, the port side of a vessel is indicated with a red navigation light. PORT and LEFT each have 4 letters.

Starboard is the right side of the ship, in nautical term. At night, the starboard side of a vessel is indicated with a green navigation light. STARBOARD and RIGHT HAND each have nine letters.

Stem = the absolute front point of the ship. I think of the stem of a tree branch where at the end of the stem are the leaves. It is the absolute front of the tree before the leaves thus stem.

Stern   The absolute rear point of the ship. I remember this by thinking of a stern teacher punishing a student by sending him/her to the back or rear of the class room.

Interesting web sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_and_starboard

http://shippinginsouthafrica.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/portside-and-starboard-side-of-a-ship-interesting-information/

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/cruiseterms.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081031130952AAXwO7X

Residential

That resident is always late

Residential

Dictionary.com = of or pertaining to residence  or to residences: a residentialrequirement for a doctorate.

Jurisdiction

The jury is sending Dick to prison for crimes against the nation

       Jur  is               dic                                                         tion

       Jurisdiction

Dictionary.com = the right, power, or authority to administer justice byhearing and determining controversies.

Entitlement    

Since he won, enter his name under the title for the men‘s trophy

                       en                                     title             men   t

                       entitlement    

Dictionary.com = give (a person or thing) a title, right, or claim tosomething; furnish with grounds for laying claim: Hisexecutive position entitled him to certain courtesies rarelyaccorded others.