In Elder’s Quorum today the teacher testified that keeping the commandments makes you happy. He then asked the class what we would say to someone who doesn’t keep the commandments who claimed to be happy. I raised my hand and said, “We could acknowledge their happiness as legitimate. Mormons aren’t the only happy people out there. Others are happy and cheerful even if they don’t live the same way we do, and that doesn’t negate the decisions we may make.” The teacher paused, said, “well,” paused again, “No.” Someone else then explained that if they weren’t keeping the commandments, their happiness couldn’t be real and was only a temporary pleasure. A few others reiterated that and then the lesson quickly moved on to how wickedness never was happiness. Afterwards a member of the Bishopric thanked me for my comment and then used an economic equation (something to do with the cartel collusion principle) to prove that I was wrong. And you wonder why normally I just sit in the back silently reading fmylife.com on my iphone gritting my teeth.

Honestly parents, and future parents, if you want your kids to live by LDS teachings, then this principle is shooting you in the foot. What will you do when your kids meet a nonmember of another lifestyle who is happier than they’ve ever been? Will you tell them that that person’s “I’m happy living this way” testimony is somehow less honest than your “I’m happy living this way” testimony? What will you do when after living every commandment, your son or daughter is depressed? What will you do when your kid drinks a cup of coffee or breaks some other commandment and is still happy? Or is happier? I mean honestly, lastingly, legitimately happy. Your kid, if taught as I was just taught, will then proceed to abandon all commandments and even all Mormonism.

If you want your kids to keep LDS standards, don’t tell them that it is the only way to be happy, because that is a lie and they will eventually figure it out. Instead, tell them you live that way to express your love for God and to keep the promises you made to him. Tell them you live that way because you believe its right.  Say how you’ve been blessed for doing so, but for God’s sake, acknowledge that Jews, Catholics, Baptists, and even Atheists can be happy (and that Mormons, righteous Mormons, can be depressed) or your child will wake up and find that Santa isn’t the one putting presents under the tree.

1. Type in “[your name] needs” in the Google search.
    Daniel needs a slump buster.

2. Type in “[your name] looks like” in Google search.
    Daniel looks like a killer. (the second one is: Daniel looks like an animal with borrowed scarf)

3. Type in “[your name] says” in Google search.
    Daniel says women are after his £23m fortune.

4. Type in “[your name] wants” in Google search.
    Daniel wants more mustache roles. (the second one is: Daniel wants naked waxwork of himself)

5. Type in “[your name] does” in Google search.
    Daniel does Broadway!

6. Type in “[your name] hates” in Google search.
    Daniel hates when people touch his shoulder.

7. Type in “[your name] asks” in Google search.
    Daniel asks about Baptism and Communion.

8. Type in “[your name] likes ” in Google search.
    Daniel likes boogers.

9. Type in “[your name] eats ” in Google search.
    Daniel eats durian fruit.

10. Type in “[your name] wears ” in Google search.
    Daniel wears Prada.

11. Type in “[your name] was arrested for” in Google Search.
    Daniel was arrested for public intoxication.

12. Type in “[your name] loves” in Google Search.
    Daniel loves Emma.

Sheesh.  Apparently Daniel automatically means Daniel Radcliffe.  Stupid Harry Potter Mania.

I graduate this year, if I make it ’til December.  (Please, merciful Big Brother who doth rule my life) Wow.  That feels so weird.  I will be done with my Bachelor’s degree.  I will be a real person, with a real job, in a real place.   I’m not gonna lie, I’m kinda scared.

I suppose that I should be really comfortable with the idea because, lets face it, if I have made it this far with all I’ve had to deal with, I can make it through anything.  If I can get straight A’s this past semester despite all of the family issues, work issues, relationship issues, BYU vs. roommate issues, political issues, national media issues, local media issues, etc, then I think I can succeed in any environment.

I did pick up a few tools this past semester that I think will make 2009 a much more pleasant year-

So with all of those realizations, I’m excited for a great year.

I am so excited for this coming school year.  I feel like a huge burden has been lifted because of some of the decisions I made over the summer and because of the way this school year is set up.  I just got back from vacation.  I spent a week in California (Disney Land, Newport Beach, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and then spent a week in Chicago.  It was a lot of traveling, and parts of it were a little stressful, but I had a really good time.

I really like my new apartment.  I have my own room for the first time since high school, and I’m living with two of my best friends.  We’ve taken the time to make the apartment our own—I’ve hung art on the walls and we are hanging pictures of us all taken at Chicago landmarks.  I bought a chair and a bunch of picture frames from a thrift store for $14 and I have painted them all a dark teal.  I hung the handmade Indian chocolate and teal blanket over my bed and got a bedspread cover and sham to match.  Over all I stayed under budget for my room and did a good job if I do say so myself.  I just need to find an affordable, small dresser or filing cabinet because the desk has no drawers and I need some drawer space.

This semester I am going to be pretty busy.  I’m thinking about taking an AM job on campus from 5 to 8.  I need the money, and I have morning, afternoon, and evening classes depending on the day, so I can’t find a regular shift to take during the week.  All the weekend jobs have been filled on campus.  If anyone knows of a weekend job that’s hiring, let me know!  I have no classes on Friday.  A weekend job would really be ideal.

I’m taking all art classes this semester, which will be soooo nice.  I’m in figure drawing, business practices in art, framing, advanced aqueous media, Studio Seminar, and Studio 480 with my advisor (Gary Barton).  It’s a full load, especially while working.

Anyway, I think that’s it.  Hopefully I’ve caught you all up to speed.

I’ve always been a visual person.  Visual things are just important to me–the way things look, the way they are portrayed.  Often I will mentally crop the things that I’m looking at to form the best composition.  It’s just the way I am.  Memory for me, then, is very visual, which is why my memories are so closely tied to place.  Certain places bring back certain memories, and when I am away from those places, I have a very hard time remembering.

I think I figured this out the first time I moved away from home.  The moment I arrived on BYU campus, a flood of EFY, swim camp, and Peterson family memories came back to me.  I was in Provo, and so that’s what I remembered and what I thought about.  Freshman year I started forming new memories, and I forgot all about high school.  Then I went back for winter break.  I remember driving down Berkshire Lane in the snow and all of those high school memories came flooding back.  It felt so good to be home.  Less than a year later, I left home again, this time for LA.  As a missionary, I had a hard time remembering my pre-mission life.  I was just so focused on my mission.  When I went home two years later, though, it all came back to me so quickly.  Now I can hardly remember Los Angeles.  I am sure when I drive through Los Angeles in two weeks all of those mission memories will come back, and I’m not sure how I will feel.

I have been thinking a lot about Chicago lately.  Tonight I watched Wicker Park, and the other day I saw Dark Knight, both of which were filmed there.  Certain shots in those movies brought back some memories of things I had forgotten.  A field trip to a Navy Pier–I remember the view out the bus along Lake Shore Drive.  Lessons at the Art Institute.  My mom staying for the first class, then getting awkwardly kicked out the second.  I remember going to visit my dad’s work downtown.  I remember a Christmas party in the LaSalle building.  There were fireworks, but another skyscraper was in the way.  I remember once when I was really little my dad took me to dinner with one of his costomers.  We tried to get a reservation at the Michael Jordan restaurant, but it was too full.  I don’t remember where we ended up eating (we tried several places), but I remember afterwards we went to the sky lounge in the John Hancock Building and got fancy drinks.  Whatever mine was, it was tropical and it was the best drink I’d ever had, and to this day I don’t ever remember drinking everything as good as it was.  I probably never will, because in my memory I’ve made it out to be the best drink ever.  I remember the view.  It was so beautiful.  It was late, and so it was dark, but the lights were everywhere!  As far as I could see there were rows and rows of crisscrossing gold lights.  It is one of my all time favorite things to look at–city lights.  Every time I land in Chicago at night I see them.

Tonight watching Wicker Park I remembered a time being downtown with my family in the winter.  There was snow, and it was freezing cold.  It was night.  We were in this park, and there were German shops set up every where.  Some had handcrafted ornaments.  Some had pretzels and bratwurst.  One had these glass artwork things I liked.  I remember getting a steaming cup of hot chocolate, and it was so good because my ears were so cold.  I remember seeing the giant Cathedral like sky scraper lit up.  I can’t remember what the occasion was that day.  Maybe we were there to see the Marshal Field’s windows or something.  I can’t remember if Margot had been born or not.  I think it might have been just the oldest 4.  I probably remember the way things were when there were just four of us better than the others because I’m the oldest.

Even logos carry visual memories.  Every time I see the comedy sportz logo on the door of the one here in Provo I think about both my cousin Connie in a high school comedy sports performance and then a trip a fews later with my Aunt.  I remember Auntie taking me to buy a silver shirt at a department story and then taking me to Danny Platt’s Bar Mitzvah party.  I remember driving through Boystown in Chicago by Wrigley Field to get to the comedy sports down there.  And for some reason, I can’t think about looking out the window in her car and that whole trip without thinking about Auntie taking me to Dave and Busters for my birthday that same year.  Our favorite game was the Jurassic Park game.  We came home reeking of smoke.  I think we washed my shirt at Grandma’s house to get rid of the smell.  It was a dark blue shirt she had given me for my birthday.  Funny, when I see the Dave and Buster’s logo in my mind, I think of the Dave and Busters in Arcadia on the way to the Foothill Chapel from the mission office.  That was a trip I made all the time when I served in the office.

It’s just so funny to me how closely my memories are tied to visual and locational triggers.  I don’t really know why I’m writing this.  I was just lying in bed when I thought of it, and felt a need to write it down.  I think I was afraid of forgetting it all when I woke up in the morning.  It’s important that I remember, because it helped me realize why I am cranky in a certain location where I was today.  It’s because something bad happened in that location, and whenever I am there, I remember the negative emotions I had there.  I need to go back to sleep now.  Goodnight.

I started a new blog.

I know, I know.  I don’t need a new blog because I hardly update this one.  I don’t need a new blog because I need to be less vocal about my opinions.  I don’t need a new blog because I don’t have time.  Blah.  Blah.  Blah.

The new blog is on wordpress, because I wanted to compare it to blogspot and xanga.  Unlike my “secret” blog (so dubbed by Amanda) which was shut down by blackmail and the hateful coersions and threats of malevolent people (hey, I have a right to exaggerate therapeutically), there is absolutely nothing controversial about this blog.  It is about cooking!

I love cooking and trying new recipes and such, and I always learn something every time I make something.  I figured a blog would be a good place to share the recipes I discover and tips on things that helped me make them.  Hopefully other people will give me some tips and I can ask questions and ask for ideas on the blog too.  So without further adieu, I unveil DBE_BG1′s Culinary Exploits!

I’m taking an overview of World Religions class right now to satisfy a G.E. religion requirement.  The class is taught “from an LDS perspective.”  Interestingly enough that perspective seems to come more from the students than the Professor.  It’s kinda like a comfort blanket.

Anyway, in class today we studied Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism), and something that Professor Keller taught resonated with me.  It was something that I had started thinking about on my mission but that I had not been thinking about lately as my thoughts turned to what I felt were bigger fish that needed to be fried.

The coming of the Son of God, and with Him the New Testament, brought a new revelation to the Old Testament.  The Old Testament had only dealt with one Being, Jehovah, who was God.  Suddenly they were dealing with a man named Jesus who was the Incarnation of God, the Son of a Heavenly Father.  Most people interpret this new message as being a revelation that God had a Son.  But Jesus is God!  He is Jehovah!   How can that make sense?  Perhaps we are looking at it the wrong way. The message of the New Testament is not so much that God had a Son, but that God had a Father.

That resonates with me.  It excites me, it feels right to me, and it uplifts me.  From the New Testament and our God Incarnate we learn that God—the Creator, the Law giver, the Eternal Judge—has a Father, which thing the people at Christ’s time had never before supposed.  Christ came as an Incarnation of Deity to reveal a Heavenly Father—His Father and Our Father—because they didn’t know the Father.  As He prayed before His apostles, Jesus said,  “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me” (John 17:25).
 
The question is why the world didn’t know of the Father.  It is because of the fall.  When Adam and Eve and subsequently all mankind were removed from the presence of God in the Garden of Eden, they were removed from the Father.  God then appointed His Son to be our Intercessor and to act in His place.  So when Abraham prayed to God, he was praying to Jehovah God, the Son of a Father they didn’t know.  When our God came down to Earth in flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, He came to reverse the effects of the Fall—to resolve it with His atoning sacrifice.  It then became appropriate to reveal the Father to the world.

That’s as far as I’m going to take that thought, because that’s as far as it resonates with me right now, but I just wanted to share that.  I haven’t shared many spiritual things as of late, and I just wanted to let you all know that I still think about spiritual things and I still get pricked in my heart when there is something that God wants me to think about, to do, or to believe.

I saw the Dark Knight a few days ago and have been meaning to blog about it.  I thought the movie was extremely well done (how can you go wrong with a $180 million budget).  There were so many things I liked about it, but there were also several things that really disturbed me about it.  As a whole, though I enjoyed the movie, it would take a lot to convince me to see it again, and I don’t think that I could recommend the movie to everyone.  Here’s what I liked, and what I didn’t:

Good Point #1
Chicago is a beautiful backdrop for the movie.  The reason that I wanted to see Batman so bad is because it features the city I am so proud of and still have my roots in.  Though distinctive landmarks are blurred, the overall style and atmosphere of Gotham City is clearly Chicago.

Bad Point #1
It is too violent.  There is a disregard for life from the very beginning all the way to the end.  Bad guys kill bad guys; good guys kill good guys.  Though I appreciate the fact that the actual dying moments and the blood that entails were omitted (it is not a bloody movie), psychologically the deaths are there and the head count is ridiculous.

Good Point #2
Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman are amazing actors.  Their roles are dynamic and convincing and really enjoyable to watch.

Bad Point #2
Katie Homes didn’t come back to play Rachel Dawes.  I have to admit that I didn’t like her performance in Batman Begins, but if you are going to replace her, replace her with someone who fits the role.  Rachael is supposed to be optimistic, full of integrity, and beautiful.  Because the new Rachel doesn’t fit that description, it is hard to believe that there are 2 men in love with her.  There is no chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale or between her and Aaron Eckhart, and the result is that there was absolutely no sexiness in the movie.  I missed that.

Good Point #3
The plot keeps moving throughout the movie, keeping you on the edge of your seat.  The movie appeals to your intellect, your emotions, and especially to the thirst for action.  I thought it was well-developed, sophisticated, and appropriate for contemporary America.   I liked the fact that no one was completely good or, with the possible exception of the Joker, completely evil.

Bad Point #3
Aside from presenting an overall bleak and dark look at humanity, the movie presents a solution to the human predicament that I find chilling.  The movie makes a clear Packeresque point that not all truth is good.  Not all truth is relevant.  Not all truth is beneficial.  In fact, to give people hope it is noble to cover up the truth and lie.  This just infuriates me.  Yes, all leaders have two faces, but covering up one face, no matter how noble the intention, is not right.  In fact, it is no different than the very mob the movie vilifies.

So that’s my review.  See it if that kind of movie suits your fancy (and if you can stomach  the killing).  I did like the movie, but unlike Batman Returns which is part of my collection and is a favorite I will watch over and over, I will leave the Dark Knight where I left it in the theaters.

Patience is a virtue I never learned.  I blame my mother. 

Today my letter to the editor was published in the Daily Universe.  I feel much better about it.  Before I felt silenced because I felt like I wasn’t allowed to speak my views.  Now I feel less silenced, because there are some things I can say, and a place where I can say them.  We’ll see what kind of feedback I get if anyone even noticed . . .

I was disappointed this morning when I read the Daily Universe.  My letter to the editor apparently didn’t get printed despite an email asking me to confirm authorship and give permission for the letter to be printed.  There was one letter printed on the same subject, but it is a letter criticizing the newspaper for publishing an article acknowledging Affirmation’s dissenting view to the letters the Church read from its California pulpits this last Sunday.  Of course that one would get printed.  Many anti-same-sex-marriage letters have been posted over the past week in the Daily Universe.  *sigh*

Thus I return to my distaste for the Daily Universe as one sided “jounalism.”