“Men are that they might have joy.”

Have you ever noticed that when you’re enjoying yourself, it’s probably a sin?

Sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll… Normal things that normal people enjoy, alcohol in moderation, R-rated movies, chatting with friends at the pub, having a hobby, women having a career.

And Mormons are told that we’re never doing enough church stuff. Read scriptures more, pray more, fast more, do more family history, go to the temple more, spend more time in your calling, more home and visiting teaching. It’s not only exhausting, it’s dour.

With your life, or artificially happy, knowing it’s temporary?

To be clear, this post is semi-autobiographical. My life’s not bad, just kind of dull. Recreational cannabis use is legal. Am I wrong to enjoy it? Should I focus on improving my life instead of getting high?

Recreational cannabis use is legal here. I took some before church, hoping to make the two hours more enjoyable.

When I walked into the chapel, I felt happy and relaxed and really good. That’s when I realized how I’m supposed to feel at church, and the fact that I never have.

Just like the prophet asked them to. But Mormons don’t follow the prophet when his words conflict with their personal politics.

My dad has COVID for the second time and it’s been quite serious both times. I’m almost sure he got it from church. It’s not right to throw away this life because you believe the next life will be better.

I think I remember this song. It seems familiar. YouTube recommended it based on other songs I was listening to. It was clearly popular. Do you remember it? What do you associate it with?

I haven’t been for a couple weeks. In that time, an older couple moved in. They have some peculiar ideas. The EQP and another older member already have a penchant for sharing deep doctrine. Today, the EQP and new guy chased each other down a couple rabbit holes (Jewish tradition and whether or not the elements have a spirit and intelligence) and it’s all literal with these people. There was some grumbling in the back row that “I don’t come to church for this stuff.” So the long-time ward member pipes up, says that “none of this has any bearing on our salvation,” and walks out.

The drama made it more interesting than usual. But I’m losing patience with the holier-than-thou know-it-alls. I’ll attend Sunday School to spend time with the wife, but I’m done with Elders Quorum.

I’m interested to see how Sunday School goes with this new couple attending. My wife might just lose patience, too. Here’s hoping.

I recently travelled to East Asia for two weeks. I wanted to share a couple things I learned.

Things I packed that I didn't use:

• dress pants/trouser, instead I wore my button-down shirt with khakis.
• shorts, I just don't wear shorts, even on a warm sunny day. I wore lose-fitting long pants instead

Things I was glad I packed:

• two wallets. I had a passport wallet with large bills and a backup credit card. This usually stayed safe in my one-bag in the hotel room. I also had a slim wallet for a credit card, a transit card, a hotel room key and local cash.
• swimsuit. I brought a speedo and a small micro-fibre towel (that I didn't need) and Swedish-style goggles. I only swam once, but it was nice that I could. I forgot my swimcap, which is required in Asia.
• first aid kit. I had polysporin, hydracortizone, vaseline, bandages, Advil, tylenol and an antihistamine, all of which I used. I also had gauze, antiseptic wipes, antibacterial medication and rehydration salts, none of which I used, but which didn't take much space.
• travel router. Once I connected to hotel wifi, all the family's devices worked as though they were at home (because I gave it the same name as our home network). It even had a VPN, which felt safer and sometimes bypassed site blocking.
• international multi-plug with USB ports. Great for charging up to five devices, in any country.

Things I wished I had:

• SIM tool. Buying a cheap data-only SIM card is awesome. Having a SIM tool becomes important. A paperclip could work, but I didn't have one, either.
• shoulder bag. I used a small backpack as a daybag and I looked like a tourist. (That, and being white in touristy spots.)

What made people mad:

• My extended family got so mad about my carry-on sized, backpack-shaped one-bag. They were mad it didn't have wheels and a handle, mad that I was carrying it on my back, and mad that I didn't pack more stuff. Maybe it made them feel stupid? Especially when I could manage my own bags and help with theirs. It's so irrational.
• I was mad when someone threw away my disposable water bottle. And when I left my first aid kit in my one-bag instead of keeping it in my daybag. So much, that I made a list of things I wanted to bring with me in my daybag every day.

Day bag:

• jacket, hat, sunglasses
• wallet, with enough cash for the day and a transit card
• first aid kit, feminine hygiene
• hand sanitizer
• tissues
• water bottle
• phone charger / power bank
• guide book and map, but these are both on my phone

Thoughts? Questions?

What do you think? Temple of the one true living God? Or hotel lobby?

If you need a hint, I don’t hold a current temple recommend.

I'm writing this partly because I think others might be interested, partly because I want to know what others think of my setup, and partly because I'm going to upgrade my hardware and need to review my setup so that I can re-create it on the newer hardware.

I have an old 2009 iMac at home that wasn't being used anymore, so I installed Ubuntu server 2022.04 LTS. I have two printers, so I installed the CUPS manager, which allows my to print wirelessly from iPad, iPhones and my MacBook Air. For media, I run PlexMediaServer (video) and Navidrome. For content, I run Transmission, which I can manage from a web browser. For e-books, I use calibre which I access via a web browser (on my iPhone or a Kobo). For coding, I've installed Nginx, MariaDB and PHP.

My router has a built-in VPN, but I'd like to install WireGuard on the server. I'd also like to be able to collect and manage my family's photos. For now, I use MacOS Photos, but since we rarely plug our phones into the computer to sync them, they are usually only backed up to iCloud.

What else should I consider?

When you get to the end of your life, old and tired, and you look back on all the things you did and time you spent, what will make you say: yes, I did well and it was all worth it?

Put another way, if you have an extra hour tomorrow with nothing planned, what could you do with yourself to later say: I’m glad I did that? What if you have an unplanned day? Or a week? Does how you use that time change? Would the choice of how to use that time be more or less deliberate, depending on how long you have? Does that choice define you as a person?

When I’m unhappy, I feel like I’m doing life wrong. I’d rather be happy. But is happiness the point of life, or is there more to it? If I pursue happiness, mine first then for those around me, is that selfish? But if there’s a bigger purpose, then what about people with Alzheimer’s or dementia who can’t recall recent experiences or make plans?

Some of these numbers are shocking. Who knew that Taiwan has 14 Costcos, whereas France only has 2 and New Zealand only 1?

They bishopric member who was conducting today opened with his testimony. A long-time friend of his recently left the church. That bothered him, but he listened to a podcast (the guest was Don Bradley?) and he’s comforted to know that there are good answers to the difficult questions. My wife murmured her agreement. She doesn’t want to know what the tough questions are, much less the answers, she’s just glad to know that there are answers.

The worst quote: “Everyone who leaves the church and is honestly seeking the truth, eventually returns.” It starts from the assumption that the church is true and arrives at the judgement that anyone who doesn’t accept the teachings of the church must not be sincerely seeking truth.

You can’t convince anyone by explaining the facts. Psychologist Adam MASTROIANNI wrote an insightful and entertaining piece about why that’s the case.

We can’t de-convert our family and friends, just like they can’t re-convert us. Missionary work is a waste of time, except for the experience of the missionary. And hypocrisy in leaders is what will destroy the Church.

Our deeply-held beliefs, in the castle’s keep (in the author’s analogy) remind me of this XKCD: https://xkcd.com/2347/ represented by the “random package” near the bottom.

Probably my favourite punk-ska song.

“I promise not to judge any person solely as a teenager. But you will constantly remind yourselves that some of my generation judge people based on the colour of their skin or their religion and that this is no more right than saying all teenagers are drunken dope addicts or glue sniffers.”

I think the singer is really talented and this song is a good example. That’s not to diminish the ability of the rest of the band.

I packed my Farpoint 40 for two weeks in Alaska. It was more full than I would like. In order to fit my dress shoes, I put three pairs of socks (rolled) in each shoe.

What do you do to save space?

One of my favourites.