Stargazer

In my household, spaghetti is not well appreciated, but I love it. Too much. I finally found a recipe for the sauce that I really like. Here it is: GARRETT’S MEAT SPAGHETTI SAUCE Author: by Sue Garrett Ingredients • 1 lb. lean ground beef • 1 onion, chopped • 1 bell pepper, chopped • 1 TBS. minced garlic • 1 TBS. Italian Seasoning • 1 tsp. basil • 1/2 tsp. oregano • 1/2 tsp. Montreal Steak Seasoning • 1/2 tsp. parsley • 1 (16 oz.) can of tomato sauce • 2 (14.5 oz.) cans of diced tomatoes • Salt & Pepper to taste Instructions 1. Cook ground beef, onions, and bell pepper together until done. Drain if needed. 2. Add the remainder of the ingredients and bring to a boil. 3. Turn the stove down and simmer for at least 30 minutes. (I kept mine going for almost 2 hours.) 4. Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles. Here in England I can't find "tomato sauce" in the same form found in US grocery stores. Imports from Italy are available, which I haven't tried yet. So instead of the can of tomato sauce I just added another can of diced tomatoes. It worked out well. Since I like my spaghetti sauce with a little more "bite," I added a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne. The wife liked the sauce! Which was a plus, since she's no big fan of spaghetti. For myself, I topped off my portion of pasta+sauce with Cholula hot sauce.

You've been doing keto? Have the results been what you expected?

I wasn't saying it was you or Pyreaux. I think you misread the exchange.

Here's a brand-new channel, Remnant Voices; it went "live" on 26 August 2026. So far 7 videos uploaded in less than a month! They describe their channel thus: "Remnant Voices shares Native perspectives on the restored gospel. Hosted by Anthony Rivera and Zander Sturgill. Presented by the Ancient America Foundation." This is their latest video, "Elder Gong Pointed to This Ancient Native Site. We Found Why!"

Well, that's why it annoyed me so much. It was irrelevant, and it wasn't just that he was pointing out a lack or gap (as if including it would have added anything). He was trying to rub Pyreaux's nose in his failure to mention it. Yes, we all know that climate change is (or might be) to blame, but mentioning would have added little or nothing. I could have ignored it. You could have ignored me. And we both might have been much happier for it. But how can your protest of my protest be virtue signaling if it's relevant to the discussion? Which it is, since the discussion has become one about virtue signaling. In 2016 Dan McClellan once accused me of being a racist because I failed to call Donald Trump a racist in a comment on Facebook, in a thread he started in order to argue against Trump's candidacy for President because he claimed Trump is a racist. My crime was that I replied to a commenter to correct a misstatement of fact (not even about Trump), but I omitted writing "Trump is a racist!" in my comment. In other words, I got called out because I failed to signal my virtue. When I then failed to profusely apologize for my horrifying lack of virtue, he appeared on my own Facebook feed and accused me of racism to all my actual "in real life" friends. When they fought back against him, he fled, and subsequently unfriended me. This unpleasant experience led me to hate virtue signaling with a passion. However, as far as I can recall, this is the absolute first time I have ever called anyone out for virtue signaling. He wasn't engaging. He was upset because "climate change" was not mentioned. He didn't disagree with the statement of the problem, he just didn't like the omission. An omission that didn't affect the facts. OK, maybe virtue signaling has levels. Level 1 - the signal has at least something to do with the topic, but doesn't really add anything other than that the signaler wants us to know that he or she cares. And maybe he or she does care, but instead of just adding it to the conversation, which might add some value to the conversation, he or she castigates the other person for failing to bring it up. Level 2 - the signal has no relevance to the topic or the purpose at hand, and the signaler just wants us to know that he or she cares about the thing being virtue signaled. Examples include the phrase "Nobody is illegal on stolen land" being tossed out at a music awards celebration after receiving a Grammy Award. In this situation, the reply under discussion was of Level 1.

If you have a start, middle, and finish worked out, you are in a good place! Back when I was a teenager I came up with a premise for a science-fiction novel, and had even started writing it, but wasn't sure how it was going to end. I wrote to famous science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov asking for advice, and he actually replied! He said that what I should do is come up with an ending first, and then let the start and middle bend towards it. Since have all three, you're golden!

No, not really. As @Calm said, CC is an important thing to consider in the situation brought up in the OP. All I was saying at the end there was that getting down and dirty with climate change has the potential of blowing the thread way off course. And maybe that would be fun. You and I are not as different as you may think. Some have called me a "climate change denier," but I'm not. The climate's been changing for billions of years. Humans do have an impact. How can we not? But none of the radical solutions that have been proposed stand a chance of changing things, but do, if attempted, stand a chance of doing a great deal of harm. In my humble opinion. And I'm speaking globally. Back to the OP, what can be done to fix the observed local problem? I don't know. I also don't know if it can be fixed, or if it can be fixed economically. I do believe that some folks out there will have ideas that won't fix the problem, but will cost an arm and a leg in the process of failing. Some of the solutions that maybe can work may be economically infeasible.

No, it wouldn't. But it is virtue signaling to reprimand someone for failing to mention climate change. Which is what he did. He could simply have added a comment stating that the problem described in the OP is due to climate change. That adds to the discussion. But reprimanding Pyreaux for failing to say the proper incantation? Virtue signaling: "See how virtuous I am making sure everyone is thinking about climate change?" But it was likely the very first thing everyone thought of, anyway, simply because it's been done to death.

Yes, but it's likely to get the thread shut down, given the political elements that come with it, pre-mixed.

Do you want to argue about climate change? I do not. Again, I am simply saying that virtue signaling about climate change is a null program. It does nothing.

Dear sister, whether fossil fuels are a good idea or not, whether climate change is real or not, I was responding to the silly reprimand of Pyreaux's "failure to mention climate change" in his post. As if this would somehow help anything if he did. I have come to hate virtue signaling. Which is what The Nehor's post was, nothing more. Do you really want to blow the thread completely off-topic onto climate change? It might be fun, but the signal-to-noise ratio would get very low.

Speak of the Stargazer, and there he is! A few days late, and possibly a dollar short. Sorry, I've been busy writing a book! (Seriously) And I've actually written two books. So, @Tony uk, you are thinking of writing a book! That's really neat! If you know how to write I definitely encourage you to give it a try! Do you have an idea how you're going to publish it once it's done? You can either self-publish or try to find a traditional publisher. Self-publishing might be something you have to try if you can't interest a traditional publisher in your project. The advantage of a traditional publisher is that you don't have to worry about promotion of your book, because they'll have an advertising budget to do that, as well as distribution channels to put your book into shops. The downside of the traditionals is that they can be very selective about what they'll print, and they will of course get their cut first, and I have no idea what your "cut" would be, but for a hard-cover book I believe it is typically 10% of the cover price. Your subject vaguely resembles the subject of the book I wrote and self-published about Bramber Castle, a ruined castle that I can see from my backyard. Since I had made three videos about it for my YouTube channel (playlist HERE), I had enough material for a book, I thought, so I went and published one in 2024: Bramber Castle and the Rise and Fall of the House of Braose. This was self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing. But I ghost-wrote and self-published another book about 12 years ago. It was my mother-in-law's story of her three and a half years in forced labour in the Soviet Union after WW2. That one is out of print. I far from an expert on the subject of book writing and publisher, but I can answer questions to some degree.

This video, a BYU Forum speech, was given in 2025. I post this just because it's interesting.

I think most children growing up in active LDS families, especially boys, know very well that the expectation is there, because it's talked about. It's almost as if it were a "rite of passage" or a cultural norm. Like when I was finishing my first hitch in the Army, I was expecting to be contacted by the re-enlistment sergeant to sign up for another term. I was going to tell him "Thanks, but no thanks," but my mouth rebelled against me and had me signing up for another, what turned out to be four more years. My ward's previous last full-time missionary came home about five years ago. We're a small ward so it happened that there weren't any more active children in the pipeline until this year. But the pipeline has progressed to the point that we're sending out three this year. The first flew to the Provo MTC last week. He's going to the Philippines. The next is one of my nieces, who is leaving for Provo in October, and she will be serving in American Fork, of all places. Number three has only just put in his papers and we don't know where he might be going yet. I know these kids, and also know they are going on their own initiative because they want to. We have one more in the same age cohort, but he's going to attend university for the time being. His parents hope he'll choose to serve, but they're not pressuring him. I myself had no pressure at all, because I was a convert at age 14, the only member in my family. I wasn't really active until I turned 17. I figured I had no business serving a mission since I hadn't grown up in the church and didn't have an adequate background for it. I didn't even know the song "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree"! But I changed my mind as I became more spiritually awake.

And so virtue gets signaled. I really don't know how you wrote this particular gem as if whining about things totally out of Utah's control is going to contribute to somehow fixing the problem. If we talk about it more than it's been talked about in the past decade this will help, right? I have news for you: Utah can't fix climate change. The most Utah can do is deal with it. Shouting "Climate change!" is a lot like the disingenuous "stolen land acknowledgement" that certain people like to signal their virtue about. As if this somehow fixes something -- which it doesn't because it's a "Hey! Look at me!" applause stimulator that does nothing more than emotionally reward the virtue signaler. As if the 75 viewers of this topic so far would have been better enlightened if @Pyreaux had written "because of climate change" somewhere in the OP. Would it have made the slightest difference? Do you know what I thought of, first thing, while reading it? Climate change! He didn't need to write it, because we've all been propagandized to death about the subject. It's become Pavlovian conditioning at this stage, and both advocates and deniers instantly know what's up. And then grumble to themselves according to their particular persuasion. May the Green New Deal be with you.

I was at home in Washington state, asleep. The rest of the household was awake and the kids were getting ready for school, etc. Suddenly one of kids comes waking me up, telling me that one of the twin towers has collapsed. I quickly pulled on some clothes and headed downstairs to the TV room. I'm standing in front of the TV watching live coverage when suddenly the second tower comes tumbling down. What a wakeup. I head to work at the usual time, and arrive to find that all the televisions in the building have been pulled out of storage rooms and all are tuned into live streams of the whole thing. Very little work is getting done, because most of us are watching the coverage. I noticed that my coworker that I consult with on a particular software system is sitting in her cubicle staring at her monitor, but not doing anything in particular. I go to ask her if she's OK, and she is definitely not. Turns out that her brother, who worked for an investment firm in San Diego, CA, just happened to be in meetings in NYC that day at their company headquarters, located in one of the towers. Oh, crap! Not feeling particularly useful at helping her deal with this, I go to see our division chief and tell him about it. He does seem to know how to handle it, and he goes to speak with her. I find out later that this was the correct thing to do, because he is able to reassure her of his support and concern over the situation. As for the brother, he later turns out to be among the survivors. What happened was that although his meetings were occurring above where the airplane struck the building he was in, he had volunteered to go down to the floor where all the refreshments were being sold, in order to get donuts and such for the meeting. That's where he was when the airliner hit, and he was able to evacuate downstairs. To my coworker's huge relief. When the news was released as to who had been responsible for the attack, the hotheaded one of my sons became very irate, and was talking about going down to the recruiters to join the US Marine Corps. But I reminded him that he didn't have a high school diploma or a GED, so the Marines likely wouldn't take him. I told him he'd have to schedule taking a GED, and this cooled his ardor considerably. Apparently he was more scared of taking a test than of Marine drill instructors or being in a war! Well, he could have passed no problem. We had home-schooled him because he was causing trouble in his school, which is the reason for no HS diploma, but he took on being home-schooled with great enthusiasm. Sharp as a tack; just too much of a "good ole boy."

Absolutely. In all the wards I have lived, it seemed like the only pressure came from parents. This will differ over time and space, because parents differ.

It does seem that the church is de-emphasizing Sunday School as meeting of primary instruction, and making it a meeting of secondary instruction, in that class members are expected to spend independent time with the scripture passages under study, and then come together to contribute and discuss what we have gleaned from that independent study. The teacher's job is to facilitate this discussion, and to moderate it as needed. One of the things that I have been especially concerned for is that old thing called "borrowed light." Heber C. Kimball once said “The time will come when no man nor woman will be able to endure on borrowed light. Each will have to be guided by the light within himself. If you do not have it, how can you stand? … “… If you don’t have it you will not stand; therefore seek for the testimony of Jesus and cleave to it, that when the trying time comes you may not stumble and fall.” I have always felt that Sunday School was the place to borrow light, but that true conversion and a strong testimony of the gospel was normally only to be had in one's personal study and prayer. And thus it seems to me that the present shortened Sunday School is where one both borrows light from others who share the light they have received, and where one shares the light one has received.

Our sacrament meeting speakers yesterday were our stake president and one of his sons. This son just returned from his mission to Italy a couple of months ago, and attended his younger brother's mission farewell just after he got home. His brother went to Netherlands. The elder brother gave a fantastic talk, by the way, and told about how he was never interested in serving a mission, but had a spiritual awakening. One wonders sometimes about bishop's and stake president's children feeling especially pressured to serve a mission, but from his talk and from speaking with him afterwards it was definitely not that. Here in the UK, large families are unusual, and the stake president's family only has three children, I think. So, it doesn't seem like a "pass the baton" thing. It seems to be more of a "it's my turn" thing.

Yesterday, the first Sunday of the new schedule actually taking place, after sacrament meeting bishop asked me who's teaching in Sunday School, and I was "Heck, I don't know. I'll find out." I had assumed that this one sister was "it" but she said "No, it's you on the schedule." So there I was, having not even thought about the lesson, already a bit late getting started. So, I dragged in the whiteboard (which I hardly used) and I winged it. It went pretty well, I thought, and there was very decent participation. The topic of discussion (which I will not call a "lesson") was of course several chapters of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Of course, I had to bring up Ecclesiastes chapter 3 by way of The Byrds "Turn, Turn, Turn"! Although when I mentioned The Byrds, one sister volunteered the song "Mr. Tambourine Man"! If you're wondering why I was blindsided about the Sunday School lesson assignment, it's because I'm not an "official" Sunday School teacher, but the bishopric member advisor to the Sunday School. I get asked to substitute if nobody else is available (it's a small ward), but got on the actual schedule this time because availability problems with the other teachers. And of course I forgot to look at the schedule.

Me being the ward technology specialist, who has to connect the laptop playing the videos to the chapel PA system and the projector, we definitely did not forget!

This is the story of that group, New Horizon:

This is from the mid-1970s. A group of LDS missionaries in South Korea organized a K-pop group, called New Horizon. They did this to provide greater recognition of the Church in Korea. They were apparently fairly popular. Their music was in the Korean language. Here's one:

I do agree that we can assess and determine morals and ethics on our own, without an absolute external standard (e.g. God). But what do those assessments and determinants really mean? How valid are they, all in all? To one for whom there is no absolute external standard, Western Civilization is just as valid as Sharia, the former Japanese Bushido, Sparta's warrior state, and the ancient Mongol tribal society. This means that, ultimately, where there is no absolute standard, a society which permits polygamy is just as valid as one which doesn't. Which seems to torpedo a moralistic and ethical resentment over polygamy as a standard. You can't have your cake and eat it, too, to employ a cliché. And just because you don't like it, too bad, so sad, get over yourself. It's laissez-faire all the way. Full speed ahead and damn the torpedos!

Some are pleased that people are leaving the church, as it confirms their prejudices. I'm very familiar with this, because once in a while my wife finds out that I am right about some fact that she didn't initially believe. I sometimes get a smug feeling out of being right in these cases. It happens less often than I would prefer. As for what the church says, I don't really know. I think it varies greatly by region, too. I don't have any stats on it. The only retention rate I really care about is the rate of my own retention (which is pretty good right now), and that of those whom I love and care about (which isn't as good as I would like).