Late Night Light Show

Wow! I received quite a treat on my way home from the temple tonight. I left the temple about 10:00 p.m. and watch an almost constant array of lightning strikes all the way home, where I arrived about 11:00 p.m. As I was trailing the storm(s) to the north, I had what amounted to a "front row" seat watching, as I said, virtually a constant array of strikes. It is impossible for me to describe it in words, and I (obviously) couldn't film it, but it was great!

Do You Like Pi On Sci Fri?

Every weekday on the local NPR station they have a program called Talk of the Nation. Sometimes it is pretty good. But every Friday is "Science Friday" with Ira Flatow and it is almost always excellent. So today I actually went to the website they announce and found it to be really cool. Here are a couple of fun videos from that site:

Happy pi day. There is one amazing woman at the end of this video.



Good Vibrations

BKP @ BYU 2-12-1991

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I love that you can go to BYU-TV literally any time 24-7 and watch great talks by great men and women. Tonight I watched a BYU Devotional from 1991 by Pres. Packer. This devotional ought to be mandatory for anyone who attends BYU, has attended BYU, or contributes to its success through the payment of tithes. Not only does it provide some great historical context for the BYU we know today, it also provides a wonderfully detailed explanation of how the Priesthood works in the highest councils of the Church to guide us by revelation.

I would only add one thing to his remarks. It was a message from Karl Maeser, written on the chalk board during his last visit/lecture at BYU: "Never let anything impure enter here".

By the way, you can get a transcript of this devotional address by going here. Or you can visit BYU-TV on the Move Network and go to Thursday, May 28, at 6:00 a.m.

"A Poor Attempt To Imitate The Man"

12 Memorial Days ago we laid to rest the leader of our band. Yesterday I spoke in one of the wards in our stake accompanying a member of the high council. The topic was sustaining the bishop, and at one point I referred to the bishop I first remember, dad. Then later in my own ward I got to thinking about what a good life I have had, beginning with great parents and the "band of brothers" - real brothers - a bunch of them - I grew up with. It seems that these old photos are all I have available to post here, but thought I would post them here in a modest effort to do what I can to remember dad on this Memorial Day. He was a veteran of the Korean War, and that's worth honoring him for. But more importantly, he & mom reared a bunch of good kids by setting aside things of temporary importance and living for the eternal. Great examples. So however you decide to celebrate today, whatever your memories are, I hope these couple of photos remind you of a great man, who's life certainly bears every attempt, even poor ones, "to imitate the man."

Zoo II

Well, my bloggin' daughters beat me to the punch in posting some of the photos from our second trip to the Indy Zoo & associated gardens. It was a much more relaxing day, with roughly 2.458 billion fewer little (& not so little) school kids running around. But we spent only a small portion of our time in the zoo because we just went to the ocean exhibit (along with the detour the two of us who had not lived in AZ took at breakneck speed through the desert exhibit). So here are my pics & comments:

This was the only time we stopped in the desert place - to look at the only water we saw there - a waterfall. It was really hot and some humid in there, with lots of snakes, lizards, etc.

Here is a King Snake I stopped long enough to shoot.
One of the many times we stopped for snacks.
Food seemed to be the main attraction of the day.

Before.
After.

Our friend, the walrus.

I think this must have been a younster,

it certainly had more energy than the others in the tank.

The shark pit.
With lots of sharks. I petted some of them, but the others in our company only wanted to put their hands in the water when no sharks were around.

This video shows how the dolphins would swim right over you.

This was a really fantastic place - and we had it all to ourselves!

Nobody else was in here while we were.

When asked about our first trip to the zoo, Boo would only say that the Polar Bear was sleeping. This bear is one of her favorite stops and wasn't napping the second time.

This concludes the zoo portion. Stay tuned for more photos of the really good part - the butterflies & the garden, which we pretty much had all to ourselves, and where our two little charges found fun in the water.