The Baron of Deseret

New Group Blog: Waters of Mormon

After a brief blogging hiatus, I've organized a group of like-minded LDS writers and we've now officially launched a new group blog, "The Waters of Mormon" 

If it hasn't been obvious, this site has not been updated and probably won't be any time in the future.  Any further LDS-blogging, including new LDS movie analysis articles, will be posted over at the "Waters..." site instead.  This site will remain active for the time being as an archive of my past writing, but no further articles or links will be posted here.  We hope that any interested parties will join us over at "Waters..." for more intellectually stimulating and enlightening discussion of LDS issues.

My thanks to everyone who has participated in this rewarding and worthwhile solo blog experience over the past 3+ years!

Out of the Country Again...

...if anyone actually misses me (probably not...)

Here's an explanation why, from M*:  Sailing Into The Unknown

The Burden of LDS Blogging

According to recent statistics, there are 35.3 million weblogs in existence, and the total is increasing exponentially, at a rate of 75,000 new blogs per day.  That's one new blog every second!  (Why...I guess we need to catch up on some reading, don't we?)

As you might imagine, the lifespan of blogs can be fairly brief. The article linked above notes that 45% of all blogs are abandoned within three months, and only 11% of them add any new content at a rate of once a week or better.  The reasons are obvious: since very few can actually make a living off of blogging, it becomes merely a hobby--one that's very dependant on time.  Plus, the fervor that you often feel when starting a blog because of those things in your head that you want to tell people about, dies over time when you exhaust your initial storehouse of content and just plain find it hard to think of things to write about.  When a hobby becomes a chore to update, it's easily abandoned--especially if you're paying a monthly fee just to display a blank page to the online world week after week...

Church blogging can be a totally different animal than "I went to the mall today..." blogging, and there are additional pressures that come from defining your content within an LDS scope, particularly for 'conservative' LDS bloggers.

(Note: I'm not going to bother trying to define 'conservative' and 'liberal' here--interpret those two words within this post however you want ...)

A 'liberal' LDS blogger is, well, more liberated to write about any aspect of the LDS experience, good or bad.  A liberal LDS blogger can (and often will) write conservative-themed posts without attracting much attention, while a conservative LDS blogger usually will not (for a variety of reasons) share liberal, or unorthodox opinions.  Likewise, a liberal LDS blog reader can peruse conservative articles and websites without caring, while conservative readers will frequently take offense at articles with express liberal opinions.

This creates more of a burden for conservative writers who often feel constrained by personal standards (and the standards of their readers) to produce verifiably conservative/orthodox content, while on the liberal side, for the most part anything goes... 

When it comes to religious issues, the stakes are higher as well.  A conservative writer will tend to worry more about the response to his/her opinion--he/she does not want to damage the faith and testimony of the readers by suggesting or advocating a casual or unorthodox approach to gospel principles.  This is another burden added to the shoulders of conservative LDS bloggers--the internal desire to be uplifting and edifying because you never know who's going to be reading and what their response is going to be.  (Trying to make your blog a tool for good...or at least "do no harm")

Last and certainly not least, oftentimes conservative LDS bloggers will feel the need to act as public defenders for the Church in either policy or doctrine.  Oftentimes they see the range of other writings (ranging from apathy to disdain to casual lightmindedness to outright disrespect and hatred...) and feel that they are personally responsible for stepping up and defending the Church and/or righteous principles from all 'attackers'. This is a tremendous (and unnecessary) burden, but is a common response for many members when getting involved with the larger LDS online community.

Any who have been paying attention have seen that over half of the original listed contributors to the Millennial Star are no longer involved with the site.  While only a few have shared why, the reasons for the massive attrition are undoubtedly a combination of lack of time and/or motivation as is common with bloggers in general.  Yet, specific pressures that come from being a LDS blogger in particular (especially since M*'s mission statement places us squarely as the conservative voice in the blogosphere) I know are directly responsible for at least two M* bloggers leaving, and I have no doubt played a role of some kind in the decisions of others too.

I consider myself to be in the conservative side of the LDS online community, although within the conservative side I'm somewhat liberal.  (Admittedly, when you get to this level of classification, labels become even more meaningless...)  I have felt all of the listed pressures above myself at various times and to various degrees.  I don't know of an easy way to deal with it, other than to keep my place in the online world in perspective (the Church's success or failure does not depend on me personally coming to its defense whenever it is challenged by bloggers or commenters, in other words).   And, more importantly, accepting the challenge to share my feelings accurately and convincingly, while being both true to myself and respectful of others.  Hopefully, now that I've gone from a newbie in early 2004 to a 'seasoned veteran' (in blog terms), I'll be able to keep the desire going and make this site a worthwhile experience for myself and any others who happen to pass by...

Why I'm Here...

Times & Seasons asks "When do you blog [or comment, or lurk...] and why?"

I'm a busy person--with two jobs and two kids, not to mention Church stuff, so blogging time comes during spare moments here or there: at lunch, or in the evening.  However, I don't feel abnormally, soul-crushingly busy.  Frankly, many days I still feel somewhat relaxed--as much as can be expected with the above responsibilities.  I could (in terms of typing time) write more than I do, because I have the flexibility between all the other responsibilities to make time for writing almost whenever I want.  Furthermore, I'd like to write more than I do, but I don't for one simple reason--finding things to write about it is more difficult than finding the time to write about them.  And, in my case, it's not like an author with writer's block who just stares at an empty Word document for hours and hours...  My sporadic writing is based not lack of writing time, but lack of thinking time...

Each person thinks differently, I imagine, but I require adequate thinking time in order to come up with anything of note that not embarrassingly bad.  And the time required for thinking is several times greater in magnitude than the time it takes to actually type out a post.  (I am a pretty fast typist per my work in the computer industry...)

Some people can multitask, but I cannot--it's very difficult to try to think about things in the background while I'm trying to do other activities.  It'd be nice if I had (like many of the lawyers who blog seem to) more free time to leisurely read a variety of intellectually stimulating books and online articles, and then sit back and ponder my personal thoughts on the issue, then organize them into proper 'essay' form taking into account other sides of the issue that weren't originally considered, and then type them out into cohesive form--taking extra time to run through them a time or two for editing.  I don't have the time to leisurely do anything...I still follow those basic steps, but in abbreviated form.   And, although the others can be more or less rushed and compressed, the 'pondering' step cannot...

Time to think can be a blessing and a curse.  Being alone with your thoughts for any length of time can be scary for some, liberating for others.  With me it is both--and this leads directly into the 'why' of the original question.  It is often said that sharing your testimony with others helps strengthen it, and likewise, sharing non-testimony related thoughts helps solidify them as well.  Sometimes, after adequate thinking time, the thoughts are there...but don't have anyplace to go.  Oftentimes those thoughts (in finished form) are just too long to enter into a private conversation with another person (even my wife) without completely overwhelming (or boring) them.  Text-based, structured essays are their natural form--which leads directly towards blogging.  Now I can share my thoughts with people who can selectively choose when, how (and if) to read what I write, and (unlike my wife) they have complete freedom to ignore anything they don't find of interest.

Much like the internal sense of accomplishment that comes from completing a working software program, the completion of a properly formed blog post that, in the words of Albert Einstein, is "as simple as it can possibly be...but no simpler" leaves a great feeling.  I've encouraged a number of friends and family members to do the same, write somewhere on any topic they like, for just this reason--blogging is both enlightening and liberating to the soul.  I appreciate the handful of people who visit regularly and occasionally leave comments, but the 'why' of my blog is still primarily because of the benefits to me.  It keeps me sane--without having the horrible frustration of developed thoughts sitting in my brain dying to burst out with no outlet for doing so...

Tomorrow: the downside of blogging...particularly LDS-centric blogging.

Here We Are...

Welcome back! I'm happy enough with the current design to go with it for now, although there are still some technical issues to take care of...  I'll be updating many of the other pages throughout the week.

Some stats from Year 2:
Total number of visitors in Year 2: 38455
Visitors per day: 105
Posts by me in Year 2: 132
Comments by others in Year 2: 162

Technical tip:  If you're on a Windows XP machine, try turning on ClearType for greater font clarity.   Close/minimize all your windows and right-click on the desktop and choose Properties.  Go to the Appearance tab and push "Effects".  On the second entry (about smoothing fonts) choose "ClearType" instead of "Standard".  See how things look--it makes a big difference on my machine!

Site News

As we enter the third year of existence, "The Baron of Deseret" will be taking a brief hiatus and doing the annual site redesign in honor or our second anniversary.  Hopefully everything will be done within the next week, and we'll have a 'relaunch' next Monday.  If you drop in and notice weird design flaws while I play around with different stylesheets, then this is the reason...

Swamped

I am so swamped with things right now (a common trend in the Bloggernacle it seems...)  I really can't manage any time to write at the moment.  I have a number of things floating around in my head to write about in the future, but no time to ponder and organize them into cohesive paragraphs.

I'll pick things up again November 1st when things settle down a little...

Missing Links and Site Status

I've been behind in keeping up with the M* activity series links, so for those who are interested:
The LDS Activity Crisis, Part 6: Differences in the LDS Experience
The LDS Activity Crisis, Part 7: The Meaning of Testimony (Or "The Nairobi Principle")
The LDS Activity Crisis, Part 8: Reactivation vs. Conversion

The series will conclude this week, and then I'll be back here to catch up on other stuff.  Being busy with M* stuff this month has caused a few moments of reflection--considering the option of leaving the personal blog behind in favor of M*, which has a much greater readership.  Still, in the end I determined that, no, my personal site still takes precendence and that M* will continue to be a time-to-time thing.  After the activity series is over, this site will be updated much more regularly, and we'll see if I can't get the readership and discussion to keep improving here as well...

A few items...

...before I get started on some Conference Aftermath essays.

Finally, one of the LDS movies I've been missing out on the last year came out on DVD:

Baptists At Our Barbecue (C)

Still waiting for Saints & Soldiers, and The Work and the Glory...

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Mormanity links to a religion survey I had discovered last year.  This isn't to brag that I discovered it first, by any means, but does give me an excuse to link to the essay I wrote about the survey last year.

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I've recommended both before, but here's another plug for two of my favorite non-LDS blogs.
If you can handle intelligently written content from a liberal and libertarian perspective (respectively), check out: 
everythingsruined, who writes on Pope John Paul's death
Asymmetrical Information, and in particular this post on gay marriage.

Welcome (Back) to The Baron of Deseret!

Welcome to the newly redesigned Baron of Deseret!  I'll still be making some tweaks here and there throughout the week, but for the most part, I'm happy with how it looks now.

Some technical notes:
The site seems to work fine in IE, but some of the headers aren't formatting properly in Firefox.  I'll be figuring that out as soon as possible.  (Everything should still be readable...)
Also, the site is a little more graphic intensive now--I used a lot of custom backgrounds.  Everything 'should' have alternate text/colors for the graphics so the site should still be completely readable with the graphics turned off (if your connection is really slow), but anyone who doesn't have graphics could check that and report back...
Any technical issues (browser incompatibility, etc...)--please email me.

Changes:
I eliminated the SS Lesson page, and combined all the Essays together in one section.  I also added links to the just completed Dating & Marriage series.  The Site FAQ has been redone, along with the Movie FAQ.  The main movie page has been divided into different sections for clarity, one for LDS movies, Chinese movies, and the main list of all movies.

Year One Awards:
Before we continue, let's mention some statistics and awards from the first year of BoD's existence.
Posts by me: 225
Comments by myself and others: 635
Site hits: 39,600 as of today

Commenter of the Year:  I wouldn't dream of trying to judge by quality--but quantity is easy to do!  Going into the weekend, BoD had two faithful commenters who had offered up 60 (!) comments each throughout the last year.  I had thought we were going to have a tie--but over the weekend, one of the two happened to post a small, seemingly insignificant comment which broke the tie.  (Little did he know...)  So...commenter of the year goes to Danithew with 61 comments with Kim Siever taking second with 60.  Thanks, guys!

Most Notorious Post of the Year:  Hands down, the White Men and Asian Women post, which was supposed to be just a flippant paragraph or two about an inconsequential topic before going on to something else...but is to this day the most searched post on the site by at least a 10:1 margin.  Sigh...

Post with the Most Comments:  Asian women rule again here, too--and it would have been a total runaway had I not actually disabled comments on that post back in July (!).  It ended with 26.  Here's the rest of the top three:
The definition of evil... (24)
Dating & Marriage: Chastity (24--mostly due to one person...)

My Personal Favorite Post of the Last Year:
Probably the Church Advertising post, or maybe the Dating & Marriage series in general.

Your Personal Favorite Post of the Last Year:
Beats me...should we have an informal vote?   (White Men and Asian Women not eligible...)

Important Site Announcement

In honor of The Baron of Deseret's first anniversary in the blogosphere, the site will be undergoing a redesign this weekend.  Visitors may notice some 'weirdness' with the site graphics and layout while I put things together. Not to worry!  Check back on Monday for the official launch of Baron of Deseret--Year Two! 

A (Millennial) Star is Born!

[We'll continue with the regular scheduled webcast of "The LDS Guide to Dating & Marriage" after this important announcement...]

We're pleased to announce the launching of The Millennial Star--a new group blog in the LDS Bloggernacle.  Myself and eleven other contributers have joined together to form a unique online community for LDS thought and discussion.  From the mission statement:

We are committed to uplifting and edifying everyone who comes to participate with us and aspire to be a place of stimulating conversation that affirms faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in His Restored Church.

I have no intention of abandoning my personal blog, however--this site will still be the home of my thoughts on entertainment, social issues, and general moral philosophy, while many posts directly related to LDS policies or doctrine will probably be posted over at M* instead.  I'll be providing links here to anything I write over there, so those who keep track of this site won't miss anything.  (Wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?)

We'll see how successful I am 'serving two masters', but in the meantime feel free to check out the new site and join our discussion over there...

Winter reruns, cont...

Selections from more recent months in the 'just-in-case-you-missed-it-the-first-time' category:

July

• "Legal" and "Lawful" marriages...
• Is it wrong to have 'favorite' General Authorities?
• The wrong way to do right things...
• My not-so-subtle jab at 'Sideline Mormons'

August

• Belief and Knowledge: what does it mean to know something?
• The pure form of charity
• Adultery and Family Values
• Why letting personal circumstances dictate policy opinions is wrong...
• A discussion of 'cause-and-effect' regarding Saddam Hussein and the U.S. invasion...

September to the present:

• The Power of Language: what makes a swear word a swear word?
• Abortion and Infant Euthanasia
• Prophets' public vs. private personas
• The difference between false hopes and real ones
• Church Advertising
• Thoughts on female apostles
• The definition of evil: why denying Adolf Hitler's humanness is wrong...
• Gay marriage and adoption
• Context vs. content in movies

Coming soon...original content!

Summer (er...winter) reruns...

Careful readers may have noticed some site redesign--removing some sections of the sidebar and adding a new "Monthly Index" section.

(Careful readers may also have noticed that thanks to something I did during the redesign the BoD header has disappeared from all my sub-pages...but I'm working on that.)

One of my (few) annoyances with Typepad is its ineffective way of finding previous blog posts.  I frequently want to link back to previous posts (or just browse an old post myself to see what I wrote back then...) and since they are clumped together in monthly archives without an index, it's hard to find without doing a Google search.

Since I don't think I should have to do a Google search to find something on my own site, I've created my own Monthly Indexes where previous blog posts have been listed in a nice, neat table.  (Yes, still by month, but that's good enough for now)

I created these primarily for my use--although perhaps others might find them useful, too.  The tables have the post title, the topic and (since my post titles are frequently on the obscure side) a "What it's about..." section which describes more specifically what the post contains.  I didn't index the site announcement posts about new movie analyses or essays because they're redundant now--those can still be found in their individual sections. 

In 'summer rerun' fashion, then--now that the indexes have been created, perhaps I can point out a few posts I'm happy with from the early months of BoD--dating from before you may have started paying attention...  (After all, to paraphrase NBC--"If you haven't read it, it's new to you!")   With the "Recent Comments" feature on the sidebar, we can restart discussion on any one of these topics if anyone is interested:

February/March: 

• Why organized school prayer would be like eating white rice...
• My view on the death penalty
• Relative vs. Absolute morality when it comes to pornography
• The existence of racism vs. the perception of racism
• The purpose of religion: changing your beliefs to match the truth, not the other way around...

April:

• The good and bad about being a Church member in Utah
• April LDS Conference Report
• My tribute to Sister Hinckley, with reflections on 'identity'
• Why polygamy is not coming back...and why men don't want it to, either...
• Why age doesn't matter...in prophets or athletes

(Also the Science vs. Religion series which can be found in the Essay section)

May:

• Covenants and the "Attempted Murder" Theory
• Dinosaurs and the Bible
• Orson Scott Card and I have different opinions on "The Passion..."
• The parable of the box of chocolates...

June:

• Blessings and Rights...and the difference between them.
• Why boycotting stores open on Sunday is wrong
• The Hazards of Religious Education
• The three-part series on "evil" music

More tomorrow...

"God be with you until we meet again..."

The Baroness and I are overseas travelling in Asia now, and will be back in the middle of November.

Needless to say, posts will be spotty until then--although I'll try to find time to comment on the election results (assuming it has been decided by then...)

May the least worst man win!

Misc. Site Updates

Added a few things here and there (although *cheater* most of them aren't, technically new...)

1. Movie Analysis: Pride & Prejudice (the LDS one from last year)

2. Added my 'award-winning'* Science & Religion essays to the Essay section. Just links back to the original blog posts (comments can still be left there...)

3. Added "Perfection Pending" to SS Lessons--again, just a link to the original post back in March.

Yes, I'll have new stuff eventually...

*Well...one of them was nominated for post of the month in April at Times & Seasons. It didn't win, but still... :)

Site Announcement!

The issue of 'scope' is a key one for any blogger. What subjects do you want to cover inside your blog posts? Too narrow a scope and you might run short of things to write about. Too broad a scope and your blog seems meandering and will have difficulty finding a 'fan base'.

From the beginning, I have aimed for a broader set of subjects to write about in comparison to other 'Church' blogs. I cover a variety of secular issues without limiting myself to purely LDS Church doctrinal or policy discussions. My feelings are Latter-Day Saints are still living in the real, secular world, and many things related to politics, entertainment, and current events have a direct bearing on our lives and it is deserving of discussion from an LDS perspective. This means of course, that my blog posts have a fairly wide range of subjects and it's tough sometimes to decide what things to include in my blog scope and what things to leave out.

One thing that I had initially included, but have since phased out, is sports discussion. With the exception of the post on athletes and prophets, sports discussion most of the time have nothing to do with anything Church related. On the other hand, I really, really, really like sports--and from the recent comments about fantasy baseball from the last week, many of you do too.

What to do, then? Why, start another blog, of course!

(I get three free blogs from my monthly fee to Typepad, anyway...why not?)

So, I have now launched the "Deseret Sports Page" which will serve as my 'sports outlet' from now on. The content will focus on Utah sports somewhat (since I live here), specifically BYU/Utah/Jazz stuff, but mostly on sports on the national level (football, baseball, and basketball mostly). There will be a large focus on fantasy sports, particularly in the next month when fantasy football gets going. Anyone else who wants to participate in fantasy games, either as a discussion group or as a league member can congregate with me over there.

And, no, this original site is still priority #1 and I don't anticipate having any less regular content than previously, but this will give me a chance to discuss sports-related issue in a larger forum without worrying about tying things into Church stuff...

#6 with a bullet!

Danithew at Wump Blog has graciously accorded my site the #6 ranking on his list of Top Ten LDS blogs...

A great honor...although, of course, there aren't that many LDS blogs out there to choose from. (It's not like it's a list of the Top Ten Left-Leaning Political Blogs or something)

I would have ranked IntellecXhibitionist higher myself, but, you know, that's the purpose of top ten lists--to argue about rankings and omissions, etc...

Site Updates

I added two new Movie Analyses, from the "Mediocre LDS Movies" category:

The Home Teachers (C-) In-depth Analysis: Going 'full throttle' in the gospel
The Legend of Johnny Lingo (C+) In-depth Analysis: The worth of a soul

Also, now that I've been getting comments more consistently, I've added a 'Recent Comments' section to the sidebar on left, so those that are curious can see what other people have written. I'm informed about new comments immediately through email, but site visitors have no idea if anyone has recently added a comment to an existing post, especially for posts that are no longer on the main page. (And I'm assuming visitors don't scroll through all the previous months worth of posts looking for new comments...)

I've also activated Category sorting, so by clicking on the Category link (Religion, Current Events, etc...) at the end of each post, or in the Category section on the sidebar, you can view posts within that same category.

Odds & Ends II

A few things from here and there...

Read about Bible-based diets here

Note especially the discussion in the middle about Biblical people living to be 900 years old. The creator of the diet says the long life was due entirely to their diet (An oversimplification for sure...there were undoubtedly physical differences--'purer' bodies at the beginning, perhaps...) The scientists discount the idea of 900 year old people saying simply "It can’t be scientifically tested or proven" (meaning it can't be true? Science vs. religion again...)

Also, the recent Bill Cosby controversy (which I've been paying attention to, but haven't commented on.) is analyzed by the Mulatto Advocate here.

This was eerie: Not one day after posting my Harry Potter analysis where I spend a paragraph criticizing Quidditch, here's another criticism which says almost the exact same thing... Of course, any adult who looks at the rules of Quidditch with a critical eye could come to the same conclusion...but I'm sure glad I posted my essay up early to avoid any accusations of plagarism.

There's actually an easy solution to 'fixing' Quidditch--remove the 150 point bonus for catching the snitch. The game would still end immediately upon catching the snitch, but it would have no effect on the score whatsoever. That changes the dynamic entirely, because if your team is losing you (the seeker) don't want to catch the snitch, but would actually actively try to prevent your opponent from catching it (and ending the game with them in the lead). Then, if your team takes the lead, the positions would be reversed. When the score is tied, the seekers would be trying to keep themselves in position to catch the snitch (without doing it, of course) waiting for the instant the score changes. This would lead to more physical play from the seekers (grappling with each other), and would require that the seekers pay close attention to the score at all times. This solution would create a little bit of interaction between the seeker and his teammates (of which there is currently none...) and it would keep the regular goal scoring portion from being completely irelevant--which it is now...

Search update: My Faith and the Triangle Offense essay has been getting a LOT of hits the past two days from searches for 'phil jackson' + 'lakers' + 'breasts'. Apparently (I'm guessing) they're looking for pictures of the woman sitting immediately behind Phil Jackson in Sunday's Finals game. (Sorry, guys, can't help you. Didn't even see the woman... I've got a great lesson on faith, though, which you can...guys? Guys?)

One last thing: I've added links for some new LDS blogs in the Bloggernacle:
Wump Blog--A special Book of Mormon project, and other LDS issues.
IntellecXhibitionist--Variety of LDS topics
Mormanity--LDS Research and Apologetics
A Motley Vision--LDS literature and film criticism

Odds & Ends

As previously mentioned, due to sickness, work, AND attending a funeral in another state this weekend, blogging has been and will continue to be light until sometime next week...

A few random notes, though:

I mentioned earlier my post about Pornography and Free Agency gets hit by a number of searches for 'free pornography'--Times & Seasons uses asterisks in order to avoid using the entire word 'pornography' for just this reason. I thought about doing the same thing, but then I thought--why should I care if someone stumbles on the site looking for porn? Wouldn't it be better if my site gave him/her something else to read/think about for a while?

This same sort of logic is also used by this Christian group...

Also from the Religion News Blog, a funny article about Bible typos.

Another search term that led to my site: "email address of drug baron in America"

Also, congratulations (I guess) are in order for my "White Men and Asian Women" post--which, frankly, is one of the most frivolous, pointless, self-indulgent things I've ever written, yet is now BY A FOUR-TO-ONE MARGIN the most accessed post (through searches) on my entire site. So that's what people really care about...

Coming up next week...Discussions of the 50 Hottest Asian Women in the World with pictures and ratings! (I'm kidding... No really, Baroness, I am kidding!)

New LDS blogs

Here are some new Church-based blogs that I've added to the blog list at left:

BYU Law Blog: BYU Law graduate who (like me) is a Taiwan Taipei mission alumni, and (like me) covers a mix of church news and commentary on current events.

Let Us Reason: brand new (as of yesterday) Church blog run by 'Grasshopper', a frequent contributor to other blogs...

Things To Act: Church stuff and other 'random commentary' (This one isn't new since it's been going since January, but it just came to my attention...)

Article Roundup and Site News

Good article analyzing the administration's mistakes in Iraq. I'm not one of those who say the entire invasion was a mistake (I challenge anyone to say honestly they would rather raise their family for the next ten to twenty years in an Iraq run by Saddam and later his two sons, versus whatever Iraq has in its future now...), but even accepting the invasion as a given, a lot of things could have been handled better. This isn't a political blog, but I may comment more on the election as it approaches. I don't think Bush is the problem inherently, but should change some of the people around him. Best case scenario: keep Powell, Rice, and Bush himself and replace Cheney, Rumsfield, and Ashcroft and I think the new Bush administration would be much improved.

On a lighter (stranger) note--I can see this showing up on Fox this fall as a new reality series: sperm racing

According to Typepad statistics, I passed the 1000 visitor mark this last week (of course, a lot of those visitors were me, checking on the site, but still...) Since launching at the end of February, the daily average is 22 visitors per day, but the last few days have been 50-60 per day which shows the viewership is increasing in an upward curve. But, just as I was starting to feel good about myself, I see this article about a 24 hour webcam showing a family of wild boars garnered 1.5 million visitors in two weeks. Wild boars. You mean to tell me that over a thousand times more people would rather see animals wandering randomly in the wilderness than read insightful social and religious commentary? Why do I even bother...?

Links Are Up!

I've now added two blog link lists to the sidebar, divided into LDS and Secular blogs. A few notes about the links:

1) To be classified as an LDS blog, the blog content has to involve church issues and/or philosophy to some extent. Doesn't have to be 100% a discussion of church news and issues: discussions of current secular issues from a church perspective is okay--hey, that's what I do--but there has to be some church content in there somewhere. (Blogs that are run by church members but focus entirely on non-religious issues are classified in the Secular category--see Tutissima Cassis)

2) I'm not attempting to make a comprehensive list of ALL church blogs out there, just the ones that I read personally. I'm purposefully avoided listing 'journal' blogs--personal blogs that relate day-to-day activities, even by church members--and listed only those which are 'issue' blogs--with posts that discuss specific topics. Blogs are inherently personal, of course, and full of personal experiences, but there is a key difference between reporting general 'I did this and this today...' events, and discussing one's feelings towards a specific topic. (This isn't a criticism of journal blogs, just a narrowing of my focus)

3) My NOT listing your blog if you have one is not because I don't like you. It's probably just because I haven't read your blog yet. If you have a blog that you want to call my attention to, please email me. Unless it's a 'journal' blog as noted above, I'll be happy to link to any other blog that you tell me about.

4) This probably goes without saying but...don't assume my listing of a blog implies that I'm in agreement with any or all content on that blog. I could find things I personally don't agree with on virtually every single blog I've listed (even--and especially--the church ones). I frequently enjoy reading opinions of people that run contrary to my own (note 'Everything's Ruined', which frankly, I disagree with 99% of the time, and you probably will too. Still, I perversely keep reading; I just like the guy's writing style, I guess...) The purpose of this site isn't to criticize other blogs (or 'call them to repentance', but I'll occassionally comment on posts from other blogs and whether I agree or not.

5) My thanks to the guys/gals from other blogs who have linked to me and/or added comments. My time is limited, of course, but I will be returning the favor at least with links, and when I can with comments on your sites as well.

A belated welcome from the Baron + site news

Now that I've been up and running for about a month, and more or less know what I'm doing now, I thought I'd (belatedly) welcome everyone who's visited the site. A few notes and announcements concerning me and the site:

1) The purpose of this site is basically an avenue for me to work on my writing skills. I'm a software guy, not a lawyer or journalist (like most other 'serious' blogs), so don't expect the same level of writing ability. (I'll be getting better over time)

2) I have a day job, and a wife (the Baroness) and a son who would like to see me occasionally, so I don't have a huge amount of time to spend on this site. Therefore, don't be mad if my updating schedule is a little erratic. Four or five new blog posts a week will probably be about average, along with the 'extra material' being added at random intervals.

3) Ah, yes...the 'extra material'. I added Sunday School Lesson #3: "The Infinite Atonement" as well as my first two so-called Movie Analysis: Charly, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Click on the Movie Analysis link on left to get to the main movie page which has the master movie directory (all TWO of them) as well as my list page, if you wanted to know my personal favorite movies. I'll be working on the analysis for the church movies and my top twenty movies first, and then go on to the others.

4) The 'Essay' section is still empty--I'm still working on the first one, and it's a long one...

5) I will be adding link sections for church and non-church blogs soon; but I need more time to look over the many sites that are out there and decide which ones I like. (Again, time is an issue) In the meantime, try Times & Seasons , By Common Consent , and A Soft Answer for starters. Also, links to the LDS Blog Ring are at the bottom of the left sidebar.

6) Remember, comments are always welcome, even short and simple ones. The Essay,Movie,and SS Lessons sections don't have automated comment systems like the regular blog posts do, but comments and discussion are still welcome (and I'll post individual comments to the pertinent page if/when I receive them). Email any comments on the special sections to baronofdeseret@yahoo.com or use the 'Email Me' link on the left. In your email, mention if you want your comments to be posted to the site and what name you want to use ('off the record' comments are fine too. No pressure...)

7) You may have noticed the site logo 'flickers' when the mouse goes over it. I've been trying to figure this out, but haven't found a solution yet. (Some software guy, huh...) If anyone is familiar with TypePad (the service I'm using) and can offer a solution, I'd be grateful...

8) Yes, I lost two of my Final Four teams over the weekend, but UConn is still alive and looking good. Go Huskies!

New Sunday School Lesson (#2)

Added my second 'Sunday School Lesson': Faith and the Triangle Offense You can find it in the SS Lessons link under the Special Sections header on left.

New Sunday School Lesson

Added the first 'Sunday School Lesson' entitled, "The Beard Principle". Click on the SS Lessons link under the Special Sections header on left.