Words of the Prophets – The ReTweeted Edition (Pt. 1)

These are the words of the Prophet and apostles as quoted by those in the twitter community.

The Best 50 tweets from the first session of #ldsconf oct 2009

Also many summaries and other thoughts while watching the world wide conference of the Church of Jesus Christ

These are my favorite quotes and thoughts throughout the first session. Starting with the end first.

I was able to follow All the twitters with the tag #ldsconf and hit a button to record all of my favorite messages.
I would like to share them with you here.

It’s a great recap of the 2 hours of speeches.

A big thanks to

ByCommonConsent – 9 messages
LDStweets – 5
cboyack – 4
Glossology – 3

You all brought up great points!

You can follow my future favorite tweets here @jarvie/favorites

See all the best tweets below

Join the fight against dangerous drivers

Join me in my fight against allowing people to drive with passengers in their car… too dangerous.

So many crashes are linked to drivers being distracted by a passenger.

I’m willing to allow a “co-pilot”

but I put my foot down on kids…
no kids should be allowed in cars… too dangerous.)

If you practice this horendous practice of driving with people in your car, 1 you disgust me at your complete disregard for human life 2. at the very least you can practice a policy of NO talking
You’re probably all the same people that listen to RADIO in the car, or talk with your handsfree phoner-ma-bobber … shameless!! Murderers

Write your congressman! Tell them to make laws now, you could be the next victim!

Together we can prevent death!

Can I get an Amen at least?

Just get it over with, restrict everything

Everyone has something they’re hung up on.

Some pet project or pet crusade.
Everyone else is failing you in X and X ways and you obviously have the solution.

For instance everyone has their ideas about driving, some are absolutely right and some are wacky and the rest are in between.

What gets me is: the solution I think people run to too willingly is… Make a Law.

I mean making tons of laws is great!!! Laws about anything and everything that could and possibly could concern me or you!

Making a law solves all our problems, doesn’t it?

Sorry I don’t have the time an engery to write this all organized and stuff – but follow along with the blog post and you’re in for a fun ride.

I can make a list right here and now of a bunch of examples of said issues people crusade around.
BUT … then each of you waltz in and grab on to their own issue and start standing on the soap box in defence of their champion.
Some of you are dead set you’re right and every possible thing to restrict that thing from happening is seen as a positive in your book.
Well maybe you’re right that there is a problem… but existence of A Problem does NOT equal allowance of ANY solution!

So let’s take your cure all potion and lump it into one ridiculous situation, we’ll keep it on a driving theme.
Silly string should never be allowed in cars!

I seriously could make arguments as to why silly string is dangerous, I could come forward with scenarios.

Find that 5 people have deployed silly string in the car while driving and it’s caused an accident once.
Of course I wouldn’t tell you how the results were decided I would just say silly string causes accidents at a rate much higher than drunk driving (because that tugs at your heart strings) it’s more dangerous than reckless teenage drivers (because we all hate them and reckless is such a charged word)

I mean heavens sake silly string diving is 20% wreck probability … that’s a crazy high percentage.

Now maybe I’m mistaken on my assumptions of how few people use silly string while driving… in which case I would decide to Not focus on low percentages instead on frequency.
Maybe millions of people do it every single day without problem and yet there are a select few that have a problem (we’ll disallow other things like perhaps they were drunk, or following too close behind, or bad drivers… we won’t look at their driving record or anything else) we’ll simply count up the numbers of any of them that happened to use silly string at some point in time near to their accident. Count up the numbers to get the largest possible. If 10 accidents occurred in a 10 day stretch and there were 11 during that same month stretch we’ll of course use the 10 in 10 days… This is a CRUSADE after all…
It’s all about our RHETORIC isn’t it? Anything to win the crowd to our side.

So silly string causes 100 accidents a year!!!! Kills more people than sharks.
60 people last year died because of silly string that’s more people than died of drunk driving in Utah all of last year!

We can compare it to all previously established vices and oft-perceived No-Nos of our society. (If it works to prove us right)

where does it stack up against Drugs, prostitutes, guns, mass murderers, violent video games, putting on makeup while driving, cutting people off.
If it works to our advantage flaunt it, if it doesn’t, change the criteria or pick another subject. Stretch things.

People these are your TIPS I give you!

This is how you can pick your very own pet crusade and make everyone feel like scum and attack their arguments when they don’t agree.

BTW most people probably agree with you about how deploying silly string is not a good practice while driving, they know it doesn’t increase your driving abilities.

For some Stupid reason they just don’t like it when you restrict so many things and/or the way you do these restrictions. (Babies! and/or illegal immigrants)
They don’t like it when you spend time and money on issue after issue after issue after issue in a never ceasing flow of regulation.
We’ll just call them fricken libertarians wanting their freedom and liberty… but we know better, when it comes down to it, they are just baby killers willing to rape your child because being able to do anything is all they want… they’re all bad people because they don’t want our perfectly valid restrictions.
They want chaos and anarchy. So let’s just ignore them and pigeon whole them with labels they’re all terrorists!

Let’s compare our cause to something that would make them look like monsters if they didn’t support.

Silly string while driving is akin to riding a roller coaster you knew had track missing… you wouldn’t allow an amusement park to operate such a ride would you… ergo we should restrict silly string right?

Then there’s that pesky situation of all those millions of people using silly string while driving… what do we label them?
Do we convince them with percentages and possibilities… and then prey on fear… tell them crashing if not dieing is immanent.

Them crazy rational folks probably want ONE or very few encompassing laws to contain all our many many laws.
They’re probably all concerned about protecting disturbing the rights and safety of others.
But they don’t think about how we can protect them from themselves.
I don’t think they realize that we own them and their actions and if they try to cause harm to themselves they’re actually hurting the IRS and therefore the rest of us.
A dead man can’t pay our social programs… therefore restrict him from doing things that has been known to lead to death.
But what that really is, is just an attempt to take all our fun away.
They say, not following too close behind will solve half of these issues. But they’re just ruining our fun.
We want to entangle the system with our bills our petitions… heck we can get fake politicians Elected on some of these projects and crusades… they don’t even have to be good or have logic they can just trump up the issue d’jour and we’ll all vote.

We’ve got to get the cops new ticket books with a new check box, something else to park on the streets in watch for… another reason to stop us, because there are still a few loopholes where people can drive past without the ability to be stopped by our caring cops, who after all just want to protect us from the wyles of silly string.

I propose let’s just get it over.

Write down your pet cause, trump it up, let’s start a movement.
Whatever you put on here we’ll try to create a bill and a law and large fines to outlaw.
On some of these we won’t stop at out-lawing… we’ll work to Demonize these people!
Because for some reason tickets and fines don’t seem to always work.
But dehumanization does help… heck that’s what we did to the people that used cheese whip in a can… they are now monsters for doing so and silly string is so similar.

I’ll help you… write down your cause and I’ll work on our strategy. Let’s flood the system and once and for all let’s show America that we just need to get all things restricted and under police control.
If we just let them enforce what each cop thinks is no-good then they our fine trained men of the badge will be able to keep us all in line and safe of course.

But be weary of those that sell their snake oil… saying that present laws can be tweaked… we need new ones, new fines, new commercials from ad councils.
We can’t say something like this: No act that distracts your direct sight from driving responsibilities can be performed while within 3-4 seconds of another car (front, back, side)

Because then that would allow cars stuck in stand still traffic a chance to use silly string, or at stoplights, or country roads with no other cars in sight… we need to regulate country-side like it were the city and cities sometimes like they were the country-side.

Plus really what fun would it be to make ONE law for all these crusades… when we could have a bill and a law and separate legislation and training on every single issue.

This is what preventative stuff is all about for us… why go through the hassle of proving innocence and guilt when we can just decide what percentage of people will do something wrong with act X and if the percentage is high enough charge them for that future Probable crime they will or might commit.

I’m seriously done with the old rules… it’s preventative measures from now on!!

Restrict all things that have caused problems and it only stands to reason that no problems will occur… and if you don’t believe that you’re a drunk driving, child porn, drug dealing D-Bag who hates America and obviously voted for Bush and or Supported Clinton’s affair!

You’re welcome for the Tips now go and find your soap box! It doesn’t matter How right you are… if it can cause a problem we need to nip this thing in the bud!!

You all are on the band wagon with silly string.

I would like to introduce you to the Sin of being outside in storms.
Storms are known to have lighting and lightning can hit people and hurt them, disable them and even kill them!

Stand up and stand with me to create new legislation … harass your politicians and tell them why they’ve been slacking and how we won’t vote for them if they don’t get the job done and illegalize being outside in storms.

Who’s with me!! Don’t let the terrorists win!!

As for me and my house… we shall always choose freedom.

A couple of definitions to start us off thinking a bit about socialism:

so⋅cial⋅ism /ˈsoʊʃəˌlɪzəm/
–noun

Dictionary.com (ala random house)

1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

(ala American Heritage dictionary)

Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

Wikipedia -

Socialism: refers to any one of various theories of economic organization advocating state, public or common worker ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a more egalitarian method of compensation.

A couple of YouTube Clips (sorry only had time to find a couple)

An LDS leader and former secretary of agriculture (back when that was a big thing)

Ezra Taft Benson Talk at BYU at 1966 referring to Socialism and Communism

Another great talk and A more in depth description and history of Church thoughts (members of the church) on Socialism And other historical teachings

What I’ve gathered from his points

From listening to him and others talking against socialism (nationalistic or democratic) is that it’s about FREEDOM

Socialist view

It seems amongst those that advocate socialism they point to trends in improvements of lifestyle.
We have better health care, we have less bums, we have better food
(upon which claims, others insist the jury is still out… and then state, yes but even so… At what cost?)

So what wins out in the end? Loss of freedom to raise the quality of life or increase of freedom allowing for some to perhaps not have that raise in life.

I know it’s not as cut and dry as that. There are other things to consider.

But doesn’t it bare stark similarities to a plan proposed by one saying “none shall be lost”

My Thoughts

As for me and my house… we shall always choose freedom.

Freedom to accomplish or freedom to fail.
And taking that one step further we will do our part to encourage and even put our our hand and lift the other to make it to the finish line.

Of course we could bicker on every aspect of socialism and freedom on every subject from 3rd world humanitarian aid, to public schools, to taxation, to farm subsidies.
But I think it’s important we pick an ideological ground.
A truth to stand true on, what is the right? Is it lifting everyone up no matter what, not leaving it up to choice… or is it something else? Is it right to stand on the ideal of freedom? If so what does it mean?

It’s about this time we wish we had the words of prophets and even ancient prophets to help us understand, because things can get so muddled sometimes amongst the bickering.
Well they’re there and the truths of god upon which we can extrapolate are there too…
I say we can attain these truths just from a really great exercise of logic.

I guess we could use our compass mark as the constitution but we appear pretty far detached from that and people have messed around with it so much.

Anything that stiffles freedom is a step in the wrong direction to me…

As for me and my house… we shall always choose freedom.

Todays’ science = tomorrow’s “what were we thinking?”

Which modern day health marvel or staple of modern medicine will we DISOWN in the future, like we have with so many others in the past.

Kings – Best show ever?

I present to you what might possibly be the best show of all time:
http://www.hulu.com/kings

It starts strong and never lets you down.

It is Shakespeare to the ear and produced and acted like no other.

It is a worthy allegory of a bible story in which anyone can find meaning.

Contains depth you can dive your mind into and think about for a long time.

It is ripe for our age, our politics, our society, our morals, our character.

It doesn’t tell you what to think, but gives you much to think on.

It even makes me want to talk all emphatically, like so!

-

Other shows can appeal to your senses (laughter or tears or fear) but can they be better than this? More epic?

Jack Bauer for all his coolness… fades, because of the lack of substance substituting flashy explosions.

Lost makes you think… but when does the (cool) gimick run thin?

The office is amazing and a great release, but no one dares to consider it epic.

Many have importantly touched on current themes and some have even set place in the past or future.

Pushing dasies which I praised in the past was unique and refreshing, but was only entertainment in a very artistic way.

How often do we get a story like this one. With characters as complex, how great that they don’t try to impress us with pandering to the way we talk, they are not ashamed to be like a bible story with no sense of shame.
Neither do they try to mimic the story of David word for word.

It is an allegory, a poem a story that can be internalized as such by each viewer.

We love it because we trust the writers, the actors do their job superbly… but we know it isn’t the actors that really choose the essence of the show.

We know the writers are not stooping… they do not say i’m sorry and dumb it down for us.
It  is a show that says come up to our level, you have been babied too long.

We shall give you a Shakespearian play for you to discuss in your classrooms. We shall give you a chapter in the old testament.

I do hope this is not the lone beacon for media, but a lighthouse to the industry. That we enjoy your jokes and whimsy.
But we do want inspiration and we will have depth, and sometimes it’s not all about appealing to the numbers, but providing a legacy to be proud of.

They can certainly be proud of Kings – (This I say of course as long as they continue to stay true and not waiver say as David or Saul)

Though I might be caught up in the emotion of it… I would allow you to submit for consideration and discussion: a possible Better show.

New Bill of Rights?

Maybe all them people out there just need to ammend the constitution so their pursuits are actually valid.

they can include their favorite “pet-rights” :

Right to be provided for … when we don’t work.

By federal government and not family or community or even state?

Right to be married.

Because the trend is that marriage is now a right and it’s now somehow a matter of the federal government

If government didn’t start mingling in tax implications and special favors in this matter it wouldn’t be a present concern, in my opinion.

Right to healthcare

Because instead of it being something people do for themselves it is now seemingly considered a right everyone is entitled to by the federal government. Not family members, not communities, not even the state.

Right to own a house

So if we don’t own a house who has broken that right? (Assuming we want to)

Right to a Job and Insurance and Food and Education etc etc

Am I missing any?

When you study about rights you’ll find that rights necesitate further responsibilities

“No society is so secure that it can withstand continued demands for increases in citizen rights without producing corresponding increases in the fulfillment of citizen responsibilities.” -former Utah Supreme Court Justice Dallin H. Oaks

Here’s a great article on rights and responsibilities by Connor Boyack

Entitlement and Loss of Charity

Something I’d love to discuss more in depth. But for now let me just say…

People are getting lazy and entitled and loosing their sense of charity towards others.
And in a big part that’s because we feel that Federal Government should fix all the problems. We pass the problems on to larger beaurocracies who have already failed us.

We should be banding together in families, groups, communities and then if needs be by states to fix our problems like a team with a goal.
Instead we do the special interest thing. Where group A takes from the big grab bag sponsored by group B and C. And thus entitlement and people aren’t seeing the fruits of their action and contributions.

We are starting to believe Charity means making others feel bad about not giving. Or that charity means anything the government does.

Charity has heart and requires action and thought. Charity is strengthened (In my opinion) through seeing that charity works, performing an act, or at least having faith in the organization that does the act for you.

Fed Gov. please give the people their money back so we can fix our own problems. We don’t have faith you can adequately fix the problems. Which BTW your predecessors created!!

I don’t take crappy photographs and expect my clients to be disapointed enough to need to hire me again to take better ones. (Not a perfect analogy but I thought it was funny)

YouTwitFace

So someone told me Conan O’Brien made a joke about all the time waisting sites out there and said soon there would be one called YouTwitFace.

I have words to say about usefulness and effeciency and time waisting… all those subjects. But…

I thought I’d talk about how a Late Night television show could make fun of something else for being time waisting… I wonder if they know just how funny that is.

That’s all from me today

Independence day … and the more unheard of act in history

How about this bit of advice??

“when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security” Declaration of Independence

Do we wait until we are there?
Are we destined to cross that line?
Can we be among one of the only nations ever to belay the course of a nation with mighty power and return to principles when given a taste of power beyond compare? To return to the simple concepts which we were founded upon?

It is glorious we have lasted this long, but if we continue to decay and drift farther from our foundations is it healthy for us?

To be sure… we are not quite over the line (my opinion) but when and who get’s to decide that line?

That’s why we should be working now to self-correct … this will be the more unheard of act in history… more great than even our foundation
(perhaps, As I am not the one who can decide what is the greatest, but many good countries have been founded but which great ones have tasted power started to decay, cut off the offending parts and brought themselves back without serious judgment and calamity?)

Universal Healthcare = Pass the buck?

Are we passing the buck by making government take care of our neighbors?

Responsibilty going down the crapper because we pass the buck

I believe that we have lost our sense of responsibility and charity for others because we don’t believe it’s our duty to help others. (Over-Generalization)

Why take money out of my pocket and or rally around to help You get healthy in a time of need… when we can just feel better that the government will do it. (Sarcasm)

We’re loosing our sense of compasion and care for others all the while talking the talk about how compasionate we’re all supposed to be.

Some people seem to act like others are practically murderes because they don’t support present ideas of universal healthcare.
I’d like to take a moment for us to reflect on what kind of people that will make us when we think every solution like this can be solved by government intervention?
Are we passing the buck and not wanting to solve problems ourselves and impliment good ol’ fashion charity?

What’s going on here… I really am not sure… just asking the questions.

The government has proven itself.

I echo the sentiments stated by many others… It is my personal belief that a bureaucracy such as the US government will NOT do a good job and make sound decisions to provide Valuable and reliable health care.

It has proven itself that it doesn’t do a good job at the economy, nor at education and so far it’s screwed things up in the area of Health Care.

So why get everyone ever increasingly expensive healthcare if that health care is horrific.

So what are some possible solutions?

Well I’m sure many of you have your own ideas…
I’ll brainstorm for a moment

Develope a nation where healthcare is cheaper, more effective, drugs are less expensive, more people are encouraged to become doctors, healthy living is a thing of pride, good healthy food is cheap and everyone wants to eat it. Sickness is less.
Take a serious look at how insurance is screwing the healthcare system up.

Why charge cheap rates when it’s just the insurance companies paying for everything? (sarcasm)

There used to be more hospitals dedicated to helping people in need for free.

And more and more people abuse medications and take their kids to the hospital for every scuff or sniffle.

How many times did you go to the hospitals or doctors growing up? Now compare it to how many times you take your kids or see your neighbors going.

Would we be in this mess if prices for care didn’t sky-rocket like this.

Was it government intervention and insurance company policies that created this problem in the first place?
(So would more government would be a solution to a government created problem?)

Where’s the money

Where is that money going to come from? We’re broke! We need to cut tons of other government programs… we just don’t have the money as a nation for these programs they talk of.

One last argument

My argument is a question: I want to know why it is the duty of the US government to do universal health care?
I’m totally open to your answers and look forward to honestly learning something.

Real stability for children

Disclaimer

So turns out I was all fiery on the subject and wanted to be all fiery… to get the juices running and people thinking.
But either people agree anyway or the people that don’t agree would just be set into a combatative mode.
So really what did I do?

I still believe we should be passionate about the subject. 

I’m not a father.

But I was a child.

And sometimes truths/ideals are just what they are.

“I’m waiting to have kids”

I would just like to comment on something I hear people say often, being a wedding photographer and around lots of people getting married.

They say: they want to wait to have kids until they are financially more well off.

My response... 

{deleted by me Imagine what you will, haha}

Yes I’m stirring the fire and getting you believers of this flawed logic riled up… I know this.
But think through things {Edited}

Maybe you SHOULD wait to have kids.

Do you really think the best kids are those who’s parents have the most money?
Do you really think that raising a kid without turmoil or hardship makes for the best environment for a kid with good morals and strong character?

I’m not saying plan on being poor!

Do you understand where I’m coming from?

And if you can’t understand what I’m trying to point out and the prophets who said don’t make up excuses as to why you don’t want to be obedient to the command to bring forth kids into this world… then yes I support you in you not having kids yet.
In fact remember how enough is never enough… believe that junk too.

Enough IS Enough

Don’t go with the sound ideal that Hugh Nibley taught when asked how much money or stuff is “Enough” when he said “Enough IS Enough”  (Sarcasm intended)

What children need

But seriously… sometimes what they need is to see a lighthouse in a storm or a boulder in a rushing river.

They need to see the example of you the parents weathering the storm and being an immovable and stalwart example no matter the hardships. That is among the best things they could ever experience. 

{Deleted to be nicer}

I’m sure you know how I feel by now.

And if you want to say… But Scott… It’s hard in this economy and this world and it’s getting more expensive to raise kids.

Point hasn’t been gotten!! 
Well when you do get your magic riches and weath… I hope you pick a DOG to raise instead of a child. {half kidding… yes i’m trying to include humor…}

 

What it all comes down to:

You can have a plan for life… (lets hope you have a good one)

But the lord might have another… and if you’re too stuborn to change it up. Sucks for you.
May i include… that perhaps this means you are meant to wait for a long time to have kids.

I’m not questing your choice of when to have kids… it’s this pretend logic you give to cover your selfishness (if it is the case)

 

Can I get someone to back me up?
Oh ok you can have a turn President Benson:

“Mothers who enjoy good health, have your children and have them early. And, husbands, always be considerate of your wives in the bearing of children. Do not curtail the number of children for personal or selfish reasons. Material possessions, social convenience, and so-called professional advantages are nothing compared to a righteous posterity… 
Young mothers and fathers, with all my heart I counsel you not to postpone having your children, being co-creators with our Father in Heaven.
Do not use the reasoning of the world, such as, ‘We’ll wait until we can better afford having children, until we are more secure, until John has completed his education, until he has a better-paying job, until we have a larger home, until we’ve obtained a few of the material conveniences,’ and on and on.
This is the reasoning of the world, and is not pleasing in the sight of God. Mothers who enjoy good health, have your children and have them early. And, husbands, always be considerate of your wives in the bearing of children.” (Ezra Taft Benson, “To the Mothers in Zion,” Parents’ Fireside, Salt Lake City, Utah, 22 February 1987.) 
Emphasis added 

Don’t start coming up with your thinking as to why the world thinks this foolishness.

Start thinking… why did a prophet of God think this wise counsel? 
What were his reasons?
The answer you find will be enlightening

JaTwAw (Twitter Awards)

It’s been a year this month since I started using twitter.
I think to celebrate I’ll give out awards.

JArvie TWitter AWards

Yes feel free to be jealous and covet 

 

Most likely to respond award

1st place: @dwterry

2nd place: @Jeremyhall

3rd place: @skylercall

Most helpful in real life award

1st place: @jeremyhall

2nd Place: @kellybranan,

3rd Place: @jrbechthold , 

4th Place: @leggnet

Best Tweet Award:

1st Place: @leggnet / @nicolesy

“Quote @nicolesy during lunch at todays shoot: “I follow @jarvie on twitter, but I don’t get what’s so special about him”. LOL

2nd Place: @cboyack:

“Dear IRS, Please remove me from your mailing list. Thanks. #teaparty”

3rd Place: @LiquidHeaven

The pigeons outside my window are total sluts. 5 eggs in 6 weeks? Come on now… wrap it up guys!”

 

Most Friendly on Twitter Award: @dwterry

Who I want to be like when I grow up award: Co-Champs @kellybranan or @jeremyhall

Best political commentary: @cboyack

honorable mention: @jaycehall & @russpage

Best non-person informative twitter account award: @masteroftrivia

Coolest CEO on twitter award: @donmacaskill

Most like to give away stuff award: @scottbourne

Most likely to post an accomplishment award: @leggnet

Most likely for me to disagree with completely and not spare words and yet remain friends award: @bwjones

Best LDS twitterer award: @cboyack

Best information on the Book world: @bencrowder

Most enthusiastic about photography award: @carissauribe

Coolest Musician on Twitter award: @bentonpaul

Most opposite from me, photography-style award: @leggnet

Funnest, Honestest, Best-lookin Lawyer award award: @Katiebq

Best banter between two individuals award: @kellybranan & @charlesuibel

Most active twitterer award: @calanan

Best lightroom resource award: @heninger

honorable mention: @xequals

Best photography resource to know: @pictureline

Fastest ever to become a great photographer award: @lookieloosuz

Last to the twitter game (so far) award: @mkshelley

Best flirt award: @chillylint

Most unlike the others i follow award: @kissmekate77

Most likely to give you feedback on pictures award: @dwterry

Best avatar awards: @ziggyp @leggnet @lookieloosuz @diamondmind @threewinks, @kennethlinge

Biggest concert fanatic on twitter award : @chrisbcrazy

Best organizer of stuff award: @jeremyhall

Most followers award: @aplusk

Best responder to referrals award: @myler

Photogs I should get together with next time in that area award: @ricksammon @thomashawk

Most famous person to DM me award: @mchammer

Best tweet about LDSCONF award: @cboyack 

“The commands of God have taken a beating in the vacillating marketplace of ideas.” – E. Ballard #ldsconf 

Best promoter award: @leggnet

Most controversial topic of the year on twitter award:   prop 8 (same sex marriage)

Most disturbing icon: @dilvie

Saddest actions of tweeps in the last year un-award: voting for @barackobama or @johnmccain

Wonder why people follow award: @dooce

Trickiest maneuver to become follower 1000 award: @instudio 

Most necessary twitter program award: @tweetdeck

Best twitter promoted purchase: blackrapid strap via @pictureline

Tweep who people would be surprised (including me) to know I follow and enjoy: @mileycyrus 

Closest twitter-friend met while staying in a line all night long: @louish

Utah person I still have been meaning to meet: @paulballen

Doesn’t tweet much anymore but i bet has lots of good things to say: @jrbond

 

About my twitter experience thus far:

• Many of people in Utah that I follow have become good real life friends. 
• Amongst many of the Utah people we meet often specially in the Photographer community.
• I’ve had many many questions answered. 
• I’ve answered many questions. 
• We’ve organized and promoted many events. 
• I’ve even had help with moving houses and borrowing trucks to move.
• I was offered 5+ shop vacs within minutes after asking to borrow a shop vac. 
• I’ve been able to get brides a photographer when I couldn’t do their wedding.
• I’ve had lots of feedback on my photography.
• I’ve certainly received more traffic to my blog posts.
• Even had a follower from out of state request to do lunch when they drove through Utah.

Overall I try to add value to my twitter stream by posting informative facts.
And yes things that happen to me so that others in my situation are benefited.

This next year I’ll continue to do the same, but at the same time I want to spice it up a bit. 

Some things that happened thus far:

Number of followers at beginning of the year abt 300

Number of followers when writing this post: 1223

Saddest tweet: Overheard: father yells 2 son ” when will you realize what reality is… Never come back here again” quite neighborhood. Felt like a movie

Funniest tweet: Sign: “Unattended children will receive a puppy and a free espresso” http://twitpic.com/21kj8

Best rumor started on Twitter: “I hear they’re giving away FREE LENSES at #pictureline opening today. Just ask for NICK @ngilson. Keep it on the DL I want to come get one.”

first 3 people to DM me on twitter no longer follow me: @windley @bradwill @merrilee

First annual JaTwAw had: 61 recepients to 27 different awards

For you photographers out there… Look for tweets that start off: “Wedding Referral” etc

If you are planning on doing twitter awards I would suggest having had used the favorites option on twitter, saves a lot of time.

 

Oh yeah… one last thing… Follow me @Jarvie

Which Water? – The age old question

Background

I don’t buy water.
Seems kinda silly to buy what we get for free.

On the other hand I don’t like tap water and don’t drink it… so maybe I should buy some bottled water.

I was at the store with my cousin.
We were trying to figure out which one does suck and taste like the bottle.

There were 10 different brands of non-flavored non-sparkling

So I got them all.

Announcing the event of a lifetime:

Water tasting party

You know you wanna!

Tomorrow Sunday the 5th of April
12:30MST (In between sessions of conference)
854 E 350 N
Provo Ut
801-362-6372

Over 10 different kinds of water.
If you have another type you want to bring feel free to do so.

We will be doing a blind taste test. Meaning regular cups without knowing which water it is.

We will be solving this question once and for all…

Which is the best water?

Will there be people interested in the results?
Who will be coming? (RSVP please, so we can have enough cups available)

We will have about 12 waters at our taste testing…
Here is a site that reviews and talks about dozens of fancy waters from around the world
finewaters

And another one that caters more to where to get them

I did some checking and here are the results of an international contest

The thing is they were dealing with mostly water we don’t have access too… we’ll be dealing with ones that come right from our own local store.

Twitter and LDS Conference #ldsconf

The Trend Begins

Seems like last year the #ldsconf twitter trend started.

People started sharing their thoughts and quoting the speakers.
I was really engaged with conference last time.

Even more popular

This time I knew it was going to be even more popular, because the popularity of twitter since last october has sky-rocketed.

And I was right of course. It’s crazy the amount of traffic it’s getting.
See some results here 

Some people took great track of the first two sessions of conference. Check back on the messages for what @cboyack wrote. Basically it’s all the keypoints of the conference so far. With great insights
Someone else did a live blog with a bit more information 

My gainful experience (twittering)

For my own sake I can honestly say:

• I am fixed to conference this time around.
• There is not even a thought of sleep.
• I am like a hawk looking for gems of wisdom.
• There are going to be more memorable quotes and themes this time around (More than any other time.)
• I must admit it’s a little chaotic and a totally different experience. 
• But, it is what it is, and even though it’s not typical it is beneficial to me.

I can understand those who just want to sit and take in the spirit and the fealing of it all. 
That’s another option… following the twitter feed isn’t really for that. haha 

My conference twitter workflow 
(playing on the fact that I teach: photography editing workflow)

I have twitterfall.com up
I’m logged in and I’m following the term #ldsconf

When you hover over the messages it pauses and gives you as much time to go through them and read them.
Because I like the stream to go fast .3 seconds and then pause it when i want.

I am favoriting the messages/tweets that I love so that I can compile them to make a blog post.
It’s not just about spitting up great things and or reading through them fast…
It adds more meaning if I go over them again.

It’s kinda like other people are taking my notes and helping me to see the important themes, and I can go over them and internalize them.
Plus I can see their Great insights to what was just said.
It’s like making a fun experience into a pet project that can benefit more than just myself.

So I’m favoriting the good messages and even from time to time Retweeting the really good ones.

Revisit and Compile

Then i’ll compile them here as an interesting post… here on the blog.
Like a quote page.

TwitterFall has super easy buttons to easily retweet and star/favorite tweets.

Normally I am a tweetdeck user

My recomendation

• Check it out and do it during tomorrow’s session of conference 
• Click on favorites (or quickly copy past for later)
• Compile them or do something later to make a post about what you learned. 
• and then post a link for us to see.

Other Options

There are other ways to go about internalizing what you learned. 
Probably better ways.
This is just an idea for those of you out there like me.
Specially those on Twitter.

About Me

Follow me on twitter @jarvie 

Mainly I talk about Photography… since I’m a full time Photographer

Update: I favorited 35 messages from the second session of LDSCONF
Will compile them soon. 

What April Fools’ taught me

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.– Martin Luther King

Lessons I Learned

1. A lie is found in the intention to decieve.

2. We can decieve without ever giving False Information.

We’re all scared about giving false information.
But a lie goes much further than incorrect information.

3. Secrets breed acts of deception.

Secrets are very close to lies … even if they aren’t meant to be deception
Avoid secrets in your life! And for your life

There is a difference in behaving correctly with important information.
And making someone swear.
Or holding them to a standard where lying is necissary.

Think twice before living a life in secret or making someone carry that burden with you.

I think many of us have heard and understand the difference between sacred vs. secret. 

4. Distracting people from the information they really want is useful to maintain secrets and lies.

The best way to avoid telling people what you don’t want them to know is to pump them full of tons of other information.
Give them lots of information, even secrets or things you haven’t told anyone else. Massage their egos that they think their is nothing else you’re hiding. 

Lies can be told without ever saying a word… deception in silence as well
“Lying is done with words and also with silence.”  - Adrienne Rich

5. The most effective deception is done by using truths.

“Truth and falsehood are opposed; but truth is the norm not of truth only but of falsehood also.” CS Lewis

6. Best lies are made up of smattering of truths...

Factual statements are much more useful.
you yourself believe it more … and are therefore more convincing when you use them.

Always tell the truth. That way you don’t have to remember what you said.–Mark Twain

People think that a truth can only exist in something truthful. 

“And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies’ plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger.” CS Lewis

7. Be very aware of Self-Deception

We think that lies are only done as an hostile act against someone else.

They aren’t necissarily hostile
They aren’t always against a 3rd person

Our own thoughts and words can decieve ourselves.
We can tell a lie so often that we start believing it ourselves.

These are probably the scariest concerns of all 

Sensing a lie from a truth

There are certain people that just sense what’s really going down… but sometimes they can be fooled too.

8. Everyone can be fooled 

A few people can kinda percieve when people are acting oddly or telling falsehoods or half truths or misleading truths.

But a lot of people can tell when you’re telling a flat out lie.

People can sense when you’re avoiding the issue or changing subjects.
But if you commit yourself to it, why would they ever believe that your lying.
Specially with someone who never ever lies. (like is my nature) 

9. Being Fooled isn’t the end of the world

Seeking and understanding truth or lies is important… but…

9. I’ve found that being trusting is a wonderful trait.
If you’re always cautious about lies then you’ll miss out on so much and so will the people around you.

There are many cases it won’t ever effect you.
Don’t give someone too much if in case it comes back to bite you. 

Knowing and understanding the nature is a big part.
Don’t give too much leeway to a rattlesnake 
But don’t fear/treat the bunny rabit like the snake as well.

There seems to be many people get too hurt when they are fooled or lied to.
The mean spirited lies are never nice and easy to take… but don’t let it hurt you twice.
Cut your losses and go home while you’re ahead.
Revenge does not belong to you. It is the lord’s

That being said it’s important to become a person who can see truth easier. 
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.– Galileo Galilei
But we don’t have to sacrifice giving others trust too. I suppose it’s a balance.
 

Tricks of the Trade

10. Beware of Rhetoric

Rhetoric, WordSmithery, Smooth Talking – are keys to making things understood. Good and Bad.
There’s a reason we are so cautious and suspect of lawyers, politicians and sales people.

The trickiest most devious individual is: a smart smart person who can make you believe any lie… Just by the way they portray it.

The devil 

10. Words can be weapons…

Just because it sounds pleasing to the ear and perhaps to the mind… doesn’t make it fully true. 

It is like a lesson about Satan.
The Screwtape letters by C.S. Lewis is an amazing book that helps to understand the adversary.
What we’re fighting against everyday… throughout our world and culture.

The smoothest talkers have been proven to make hoards of people believe them because they employ such skillful rhetoric.
Everyone in power has used their communication skills and rhetoric to be there. Some with a heart full of truths.
Most with at least some intention to decieve us and have us follow them or vote for them. 

11. Your reputation proceeds you.

Meaning who you are and what you’ve always been and done goes a long ways to stating your case.
It proceeds you. If you are known for being honest and open, why should anyone doubt you.

I am happy to announce that it appears that my adherence to being honest really helped me out. 

12. Don’t loose faith

Even if some truths are misused and abused and distorted… the real truth is always their to those who honestly seek.

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – Oscar Wilde
“You can bend it and twist it… You can misuse and abuse it… But even God cannot change the Truth.” – Michael Levy

 

 

13. All this being said … The End

April fools day has become one of my favorite holidays
It is funny how it’s seen as such a game.

The victor is the person with a well executed prank
And also those that don’t believe it.

I’m not so sure I’m into that aspect… but it’s fun none-the-less

 

At the very least I’m happy that I learned so much and internalized so much from the days event. 

 

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. –George Orwell

A Tweetdeck “Workflow”

My tweetdeck workflow… yes this is kind of a joke.

@mojophotoco wrote the following : 
“@jarvie You should do a TweetDeck workflow seminar when you finish your Lightroom one!”

So i took 5 minutes and did so.

I make 3 groups

1. Most important people
2. and then a second of importance
3. and third

The latter two i move people around in based on how often they respond and what kinds of stuff they write about
If they respond a lot I put them in the more important groups because I figure we have a solid method of communication and I can depend on them more for information and questions. And it also tells me they listen more and are therefore more of my audience and I can direct my messages more towards them. 

Other Columns

I make a search on the word Jarvie (because that’s better than the reply and because usually on twitter people are only saying jarvie when it’s me… the benefits of an uncommon last name)

The order of Columns

I organize as such Important, Jarvie, All Friends, Group2, Group3, Group LDS, Direct Message, and some kind of random search I’m interested in at that time.

I add people to the groups.

What I actually check

Then when I check my twitter feed from time to time I usually look at Jarvie to see who’s responded to me… then I look at Important thouroughly and then G2 and G3 a little less thouroughly.

When i am bored and have time I check out the G3 a bit more and the All Friends.

Using tweetdeck means that I have been able to return the love and follow more individuals.
But it also means that on my iPhone twitter apps that reading the stream is pretty daunting… good thing I’m at the comptuer most of the time. 

 

And that’s my tweetdeck workflow.

Recent tweets of interest

I really do post a lot about myself and my life and my thoughts on twitter. Here’s a compilation of a few

Recent tweets of interest by Jarvie

 

 

So my new line to customers: “I’m not really a photographer… but i did stay at a Holiday Inn”

So i installed the new tweetdeck. Do i have to redo my groups?

Last year’s LDS Conference tech stats… including the # of tweets. http://bit.ly/sthW #ldsconf

Well, here’s the thing. I’m not on top of things I have quicken and quickbooks but I fail to use them. Plus i love spreadsheets

@YoungTrends Looks like we won’t be getting married after all… haha… I Hate doing dishes as well. And i capitalized the H

I knew there was a reason I should have deposited a bunch of wedding checks last week. Saw my account and ran over to do it today. Oh well

@CharlesUibel Skype on iPhone… here’s the point… Europe! Or anywhere out of country.

@cato2010 Right now I’m using internal drives in external e-sata casings. But the hope is the drobo very soon.

It looks like I’ll be buying another 1TB drive tomorrow. Seems like every 2 months or perhaps every 6 weeks.

fair 1 wk heads up. Next weekend a big proportion of LDS/Mormon folks will be tweeting a Ton. Like me… And it will be non photo stuff. k?

That sure is a mighty strong wind a’blowin #Utah

That’s funny! Cuz’ I’m not so sure what’s so special either. — Really I’m just trying to bribe people W/ free workshops and kindness…

So who went to Holi : festival of colors?? Tell us abt it.

 

About me:

@jarvie gets the Sherlock Holmes Photography Award for the day. hahah.

Quote from @nicolesy during lunch at todays shoot: “I follow @jarvie on twitter, but I don’t get what’s so special about him”. LOL

@jarvie the main guy here is giving u huge props. He’s asking if u r here.

A few of my favorite things

A few of my favorite things.
I could expand… but I wanna keep this short so I desire to write more posts.

Lightroom

Facebook

Hulu.com

Costco

Playlist.com 

Myself… haha

Uhhh… Photography… but you knew that.

an economy based on principles?

I sure would love it if our country would start making decisions based on principles.

I do know that because we made some pretty bad decisions in the past, that if we now started to live up to those principles that we would have to deal with the consequences and that these might not be easy. But we’re suffering as it is from those lies and deceptions. Might as well go all out and just start doing it right. I guess that’s what they call a revolution.

But now we’re just trying to make a bad problem go away by shifting the focus.

And yes I’m talking mainly about what’s on everyone’s mind… the state of the economy. But I certainly wouldn’t limit it to that.

An economist seems to be worried about making sure the money doesn’t disapear and how to make more. Mix that with a politician who is mostly concerned about happy people and votes in the short term. A short term fix as a placebo for the masses. Get them a job and some money to get them through this crisis and leave bigger issues for the age to come.
What’s another 10 trillion in debt for the country? Why not support failed and decaying business practices… as long as they’re giving jobs to my voters.
Why try real honest and principled solutions when they’re gonna be so hard and probably unpopular.

It’s sad really.

What do you stand for?
Are you alright with standing behind a principle of doubling the debt?
Are you alright with babying people for now to make them happy?
Are you alright with sacrificing an economy based on sound and responsible money for not having to deal with the real consequences of our system and way of life economically?

This isn’t an Obama vs Bush thing… this isn’t Reps vs Dems… they both support this system, just in slightly different ways. They have their differences but neither is making the changes. The republicans are yelling about it now, but they didn’t do their job when they were there and in fact it’s their greed that caused a lot of this. And now the democrats are screwing things up… just in a different way. They both suck! They suck and we suck for letting them screw up our country.

Are you alright with this? Or do you just want to see Obama and friends patch it and pretend that the foundation isn’t crumbling.

If he paints the outside of the house all rosy colored are you still ready to move back in… or will you understand that it’s structurely unsafe? 

So what are the economic principles we want to abide by?
Shall we pick… those that make us the most money? Or is there something above that?