My Corner of the Universe

Controlling thoughts

2006-11-29T00:26:00.000-08:00

I seem to struggle with this concept, and I take some solace in that I am not alone.

We wanted to come into mortality to be tested and prove ourselves that we could become like our Heavenly Father, with all that associated wonderful potential. Surely the Lord's greatest skill He mastered was Himself. Due to the Fall, our natures became sensual and devilish, and our lot in life was to gravitate toward the "natural man" and behave like animals.

Sadly, many of us (if not all of us to some degree) tend to use that excuse for committing sins, but we all have been given the light of Christ to know if our actions are sinful or not. If we are even more faithful, we have the companionship of the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Ghost, which allows us to arise above these basal instincts and overcome the natural man. It is at this point where we can truly become like the Lord when He demonstrated His self-mastery during His mortal ministry, time and time, again.

Our thoughts are very condemning because they all, ultimately, guide our sinful actions. The child molester does not attack a young girl on a whim, he carefully and methodically plans his course of action which leads to a heinous crime. If we dwell on something, long enough, we tend to take some sort of action. Mosiah 4:30 warns us that we must watch our thoughts (and actions), or they will be our condemnation.

The great challenge during our mortal sojourn is to purify our thoughts - these purify our actions. One leads to the other. It is that plain and simple. What isn't is simple and often frustrating (if not overbearing) is that it's not easy to control our thoughts. It is not uncommon for me to lay awake, at night, thinking how I will handle some difficult situation or let my mind drift to where it should not. Most of the time, I am trying to find solutions to problems that I cannot control and it drives me nuts. It's like hitting a brick wall, with no answers, so I dwell on thoughts and ideas that give me the impression of liberation and control, when, in fact, it is quite the opposite.

I am no different than anyone else in this regard. It is up to me to find ways to replace those thoughts that are degrading with ones that are uplifting. Our minds are like a PC that has an infinite processor speed, constantly in motion, touching on files that are put in the hard drive over our lives. Memories are never truly erased by our minds (they are there for instant recall), but, if we truly attempt to repent of such thoughts, the Lord has promised us that they can be forgotten. There has to be some sort of "hard drive format" when we pass through the veil of those thoughts which we have fully overcome, as we cannot have them in the next life.

It is my utmost desire that I continue to struggle to purify my thoughts, as they shape my life.

Film or digital?

2006-10-20T13:49:00.002-07:00

You'd think I would have settled this question a long time ago.

Yes, I own two digital compacts (Canon PowerShot G6 and S80) and I have taken wonderful images with them. They are small, highly portable, well-made Canon Japan products and am happy I was fortunate enough to buy them - today's compacts (meaning October 2006, literally) are terribly disappointing, mere PS cameras that exhibit the same problems that film PS cameras have/had. Bah.

I simply do not find using digital compacts that satisfying. Maybe it's too easy. I do like the 4:3 aspect ration, much better for standard enlargements like 5x7 and 8x10 - the 35mm film format is a bugger for such things.

A digital SLR (better known as the DSLR) have their own issues, namely sensor dust ruining valuable images. Yes, you can spend hours in front of your monitor "fixing" all of this, but that takes away from shooting time.......Come to think of it, digital imaging forces you to become a PC potato, adding to your butt size because you feel you can fix the whole world of bad image files with a few tweaks and twists.

With film, namely slides, the finished product is, well, finished. Done. Easy to view on a lightbox and a quality loupe or even project, if your old Kodak Carousel still works, and most of them do.

Slides/negs can be easily scanned, with tremendous results, but it takes time - anything digital is a time sponge. However, no worries about sensor dust, actual depth-of-field control, and none of this cropping factor crap. If some dirt gets on the mirror, no big deal, just blow it off - it won't ruin your image. Easy stuff, this film shooting endeavour - just make sure you get your exposures bang-on if you shoot slides.

Not an issue for old shutterbugs like me who use an incident lightmeter - ever see a young pup with a digital compact and one of those?

I have thoroughly convinced myself to keep shooting film until, well, it's gone.

Long drives in the fall - so nice!

2006-10-14T02:41:00.000-07:00

I find this time of year affords the chance to se some spectacular scenery, and the best way to do this is take the car for a drive. Yesterday, I left around 4:30 for a trip to the Annapolis Valley region to buy a picture frame. Although the season is soon drawing to a close (mainly due to a recent rain/windstorm), it was a pleasant reminder of how much beauty still exists on the earth. I didn't take any cameras with me, though, just took it all in how pretty it was out there.

The autumn season is a metaphor for our lives. As we age, there comes a time when the summer (the busiest and most hectic time of our lives) is at its end, when our labours seem to begin to decline, somewhat, maybe looking forward to retirement. Not that I am ready for that, but I can sense how nice it would be to have more free time to do what I want to do, see the world, relax and make new friends.

Winter is dreary and, for many of us, is a part of our lives (or the time of year) that we would rather not experience, if possible. It's all part of the grand plan, however, we should learn to like all the seasons.

We shouldn't abandon old friends

2006-08-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

It has struck home over the last few days that we shouldn't give up on old friends, ones that have been faithful for a long time. We often take them for granted and feel that there my be better ones out there or ones that offer more excitement.

I am not necessarily talking about people!

My first "serious" portable headphones/earbuds were the Sony MDR-E888LP's. Used them almost every day, as the stock crappy buds were destined not to see the light of day. I used to tote around my old MZ-R70 and the 888LP's, no remote, just shoved the MDR in a pocket and have the 888's cord draped to my ears. Simple.

Life got more complicated and more MD units, headphones, then came *nice* remotes (mainly due to getting MD players) and short-cord phones were a must. I went through Aiwa VX100's, MX400's, ER-4P's and 6i's, both Eggos, E931SP's, a couple clip-ons that just didn't cut it, two sets of Sharp MD33S phones and recently tried the new EX90SL's. (my earwax is ongoing problem)

In that stretch of buds, I bought a set of 888SP's, as they were sort of my quick throw-on cans for working around the office.

A young pal of mine was always after my 888LP's at church, as I used to have them in my Sony hard MD case, as they had that uber-cool blue case; I let him have the phones for his 16th birthday, and his brother promptly destroyed them.

Good thing I had the 888SP's, even though I wasn't using them as much since I was in the experimental stage of trying other Fonotopia-style cans. So.......

After the new EX90SL's didn't live up to my expectations, I am now using the 888SP's a lot. They just cover all the territory. I find the bass very tight and strong, the mids are sooooo perfect, highs are detailed. Output is great, best on any bud-style (the MD33S phones are also snappy) In fact, once I finalize the sale of my EX90's, I plan to order a second set as back-ups for the time when the first pair surely dies.

This is silly, displaying affections for tiny headphones.

Well, I have come back to a reliable, old friend and I feel good about it.

I was told to try this Website for blogging (my first blog post)

2006-08-25T05:40:00.000-07:00

Now, all I have to do is think of something earth-shattering to say............