The Big Year

I wish I had time to write an in-depth review, full of witty, insightful comments, but with the crush of papers to grade and power outages to recover from, it'll have to suffice that The Big Year is one of the sweetest, most enjoyable movies I've seen in a long, long while. It's worth every penny I overpaid to the crappy theater here (no sidebar note about that for now-- saving that rant for another day, I guess).

Take your favorite person and just watch this movie. There will only be about 6 of you in the theater, so don't be embarrassed to bust out laughing all by yourself a couple of times. You won't cry or anything, but you might just feel like the universe isn't all about mortgage bubbles and occupying enemy territory.

Nice work, Steve, Jack, Owen, et al.

Oct 2011 General Conference for Kindle

As promised, here are the October 2011 General Conference addresses formatted for Kindle (all talks in one AZW file). Download this file and transfer to your Kindle's "documents" folder via USB.

For help transferring documents to your Kindle via USB.

I'm not a nook user, so I have no idea whether this file will work, but I converted the AZW file to EPUB (which I believe is the nook's native format). Some nook user (Thom?) try this and let me know (via comments on this page) if it works, please. Happy reading.

I am not an employee nor a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I created this file for my own use and for the use of a few friends who visit this blog. Nothing official is stated nor implied by my posting of this file. Concerned parties, including the Church, are invited to comment on this posting for a swift reply. Happy conference reading. 

Conference for Kindle - Oct 2011

The 181st Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints concluded yesterday. The text of the conference is usually available on the Thursday afterwards. I'm planning to format the texts for Kindle again this conference, so watch this space for a note (and a link).

Speaking of conference, it was a thrilling one in a couple of respects. The announcement that the Provo Tabernacle will be restored as a temple was great news. The other temples to be built gave me a thrill as well-- particularly the ones in Africa (the second temple in South Africa, and the CONGO!!), and the one in Star Valley.

My parents both grew up in Star Valley and I've spent many happy summers and holidays there. I know many of the saints in the valley, and I have many family members who live there. I can imagine how thrilling it was for them to hear the news that their little piece of heaven will have a temple. My aunt posted a telling note on facebook. She wrote, "So amazed and humbled that Star Valley will have a temple. I can't stop crying." I've felt the same way. I still get emotional as I think about it now.