T-190 : Air GPS

I don't fly very often but last time I did I was playing with my phone wishing there was a GPS app that could tell me what I was flying over.  Does anyone know if such a thing exists?  Is there a limitation because there's no cell signals up that high?  Is it something that would interfere with the in-flight navigation?  Couldn't they pipe through a consumerized version of what the captain's looking at in the cockpit?  When we cruised to Alaska on the Disney Wonder earlier this year there was a channel on the shipboard TV that gave constant updates of where we were on a map, what speed we were travelling, wind speed, etc.  We also watched a video on the YouTubes the other night of a first-class cabin on a Thai Airline that had a similar tracking channel.  If it doesn't exist today, somebody should make it exist.  I think it'd be a big hit!

T-191 : Imaginary Friends

I never had imaginary friends as a child...that I can recall, anyway.  This comic highlights the generational gap between a parent and a child.  It also brings to light, though, how many of us have online acquaintances -- be it through Facebook, Email, or other sources -- that we react differently around when we meet them face to face.  Certainly there is a different skill-set required to converse with someone verbally -- not to mention all the non-verbal cues and social anxieties that might come into play.  My feeling, though, is that we ought to as much as possible treat our online and offline friends equally.  I suppose ideally they ought to be near the same set of friends, though miles sometimes dictate that we can't take some of our friends out to lunch as much as we might like to.  By the way, whose turn is it to take me out to lunch?

T-192 : Backwards Diocese

Today we went to the Brigham City Temple Open House.  During an introductory video they mentioned something about a Stake being like a Diocese.  I'm sure the comment was meant to educate non-members on some of the different terminology we use.  I remarked about that concept quite heavily in T-199.  The comment to me, though, taught me what a diocese was.  I like learning that way, picking things out of a presentation that's meant to teach one point but that can be educational on many fronts if you just look at it from different angles.  How do you learn best?

T-193 : Gimme Breaks

As I was watching a cooking show the other day I found it remarkable that the person breaking the egg was using two hands.  I eat an egg every morning for breakfast and always break it with one hand.  I had to ponder for a moment before I realized that I haven't always known how to do that.  At some point I had it ingrained into my skill-set to the point that it appeared odd to me to see someone do it a different way.  How many other things in our lives might we have learned at some point then incorporated to the degree that we no longer remember when -- or sometimes if -- we even learned them at all?  We just know them.  Let this egg cracking be a lesson.  Some things we become while our minds don't allow us the capacity to even recall when we became them.  Let's not look at folks who crack eggs with 2 hands any differently.

By the way, do you crack with one hand or two?

Review: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I looked at critters differently while I was reading this book. O'Brien did a great job of humanizing them. If nothing else I can learn to appreciate others' perspectives better by remembering the lessons learned here.



View all my reviews

T-194 : Journaling Fuel

Emily's finding it hard the past few days to find anything to write about.  I send myself notes during the day as I think of things so that I can elaborate on them later that night.  Here's another article with helpful hints:

Find Your Journaling Fuel

Get Motivated and Inspired to Write! 

It is seemingly impossible to keep a consistent journal and not feel the fruits of self-betterment in your life. Goals are accomplished, problems are solved, history is recorded and talents are honed as we transform our fluid thoughts into written word.

Why then do we so often struggle to do it? Similar to other self-improvement activities such as jogging and meditation, just doing it is much more than half the battle. And, just like these other endeavors, the motivation required for one can vary wildly from another. Someone may journal every day because they want to record their stories for posterity while someone else might write an entry now and again just to vent. For this reason it is important that we each find the unique driving forces that will actually encourage us enough to sit down and write something down.

Motivation to journal can be divided into eight categories: self improvement, creativity, family, writing, problem solving, spirituality, daily life and logging. This list of 101 Reasons to Journal breaks each of these down into manageable pieces to better help us understand what fuel will stoke our journaling fire and adds commentary for further explanation.

Journal on, my friend! 

T-195 : Funky Fives

Today in Sunday School Sister Powell had the scriptures she wanted folks to read out loud all neatly written on her poster board, as she usually does.  I noticed something, though, about some of her 5s.  They had an extra serif hanging down.  I have a vague recollection of learning to write my 5s in penmanship class in elementary school and being told that I could write them either the "old school" (they probably didn't use that phrase in the 70s in elementary school) or the "new way".  Am I dreaming?  Does anyone else remember writing their 5s differently before about 1975 than they did after?