Pathway Experiences

I have a renewed interest in C and Ada programming.  Since I worked on a project for a long time that was ultimately in vain -- a shell written in pure Ada -- I have realized that with the Ada-run-time limitations, the only way I can create a shell that works on multiple operating systems is to write in the code base that is most common between them.  That is C.  Objective C is the primary for macOS, C++, and a little more and more C#, is the primary for MS Windows, but those directly support C calls and syntax and C is the primary for Linux, so there you go.  C preprocessing also allows me to write conditional code for each operating system, so that I can artificially create the kind of interface to the system that matches one Ada library regardless of what system it is compiled on.  These are the definitions I have fortunately discovered:     __linux__       Defined on Linux     __sun        ...

I made a commitment to improve my personal appearance.  I have managed to barely keep up with and improve my previous rhythm of shaving my beard and keeping on top of my laundry (so I can choose my clothing rather than pick what's left).  I seem to have failed to reach the last goal of increasing the frequency of my haircuts. I am not terribly disappointed in myself, because I did improve in the areas I mentioned and I really do have a terrible schedule to deal with and I don't get enough sleep as it is now.  Why be hard on myself for not adding more to my busy days?  Anyway, My dad and I worked on a project to add legs to my desk.  This project has been on the list to do for many months, maybe multiple years now.  It was really nice for us to finally get united in doing it together, and while managing my appearance has help this to happen, it probably would have hindered it if I was out getting a haircut this week instead.  I guess I have to get a h...

This week, our religion class was focused on obtaining Zion.  I want to present a few questions and then have some feedback from my Speaking Partner when they read and complete this exercise. I learned several things with guided study materials.  However, the answers to these questions will be easy to find using standard resources from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: What is the meaning of the word "Zion"? What are the three major cities past, present, or future specifically mentioned in the scriptures? What other figurative locations have also been called Zion? Now, if you have a study partner or if you are my Speaking Partner, please discuss what you have learned with your partner or me...  Thanks. Following this study, I wish to express that I was quite surprised that the most prominent places called Zion were cities that are not known to the general world for places of prophesy and great contrast with worshipers of our time.  Most p...

I made a goal to make a more permanent improvement to the public appearance.  Unfortunately, I have only improved by about 10% to 30% of what I am capable of.  for the next week, I need to include a haircut and to shave my beard more than once per week.  The rest should be obvious to me.

For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing. Moroni 7:6 I am a big fan of managing one's self and it is necessary to understand the ways we are compelled to do things or that we compel ourselves to do things. Our very nature is in our hands to improve with our own choices and that includes the choice to pray and trust in God in order to gain power over whatever we are not independently strong enough for.  If one things with this saying of God, it should stir the desire to have real intent to love and serve God.  So God gives us the understanding and the tools to develop the desire and attitude to serve him, and let's us use those tools according to our own choice and agency.

Now, there had been no bread, neither wine, brought by the disciples, neither by the multitude; But he truly gave unto them bread to eat, and also wine to drink. 3 Nephi 20:6,7 The Lord considered the people valuable, and so he considered their having experiences like unto the people in Israel valuable too.  He did things for them the same, even if it was a bit condensed.  He also did or said a bit more, for their was faith enough among them.

And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles. Mormon 9:10 In today's world there are many churches and many varying beliefs.  We cannot address these differences by going to them all and condemning their ways, while declaring our ways to be right, even though we know that Jesus Christ himself stands at the head of our church and that he instituted our church for the salvation of all mankind.  With this in mind, we may observe that the main inconsistency both in the church and among the other churches is that we either act or make evident as though we have varying or inconsistent belief in God.  It is thus our belief in a God of miracles that varies, not the God himself that varies. Scientifically, the idea that there are absolute principles and rules that govern the world is a general assumption. Some of naive suppose that...

Even if you exercise your strongest faith, God will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. Rather, God will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you. He loves you to a depth and completeness you cannot conceive of in your mortal state. Indeed, were you to know His entire plan, you would never ask for that which is contrary to it even though your feelings tempt you to do so. Sincere faith gives understanding and strength to accept the will of our Heavenly Father when it differs from our own. We can accept His will with peace and assurance, confident that His infinite wisdom surpasses our own ability to comprehend fully His plan as it unfolds a piece at a time. Richard G. Scott,   The Sustaining Power of Faith in Times of Uncertainty and Testing , April 2003 General Conference Truly greater faith is faith that does not fail when you see no immediate results, and that endures while inspiring obedience.  One cannot perform miracles excep...

To me the idea that multiplication and exponents are actually shorthand for serialized addition, etc.  This week's instructor mentioned something I never realized before.  The fundamental reason for the order of operations starting with exponents and ending with addition and subtraction is that it is exponents and multiplication/division are levels of shorthand ! Exponents are shorthand for multiplication/division and multiplication/division is shorthand for addition/subtraction.  This along with the carry over operations of each digit in an arithmetic operation may be the key to my success in creating my own infinite, multi-base calculator for use in my shell that I am creating.  If I create a calculator that can operate to virtually any number of digits, both high and low via a simple shell option and a digits precision variable, then I may produce better results script calculations and operations.  Eventually, if I can compile these shell script operations ...

While many governments and well-meaning individuals have redefined marriage, the Lord has not. In the very beginning, God initiated marriage between a man and a woman—Adam and Eve. He designated the purposes of marriage to go far beyond the personal satisfaction and fulfillment of adults to, more importantly, advancing the ideal setting for children to be born, reared, and nurtured. Families are the treasure of heaven. Elder Neil L. Anderson, Spiritual Whirlwinds The quote and meaning is direct and is my own message as surely as can be said, but I think in different terms and have a different chaos that swells in me.  My mind was extremely focused and performing well, when I was a missionary and immediately after.  This is true, but it is also true that my mind was on a path that terminates eventually.  I was in a gradual decent toward doing what my mortal body could not, and thus failing, in terms of what I saw and what I was determined to do.  My perception wa...

President Boyd K. Packer's "I Will Remember Your Sins No More," Ensign, May 2006 referenced the following: Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy Doctrine and Covenants 121:43 Alma taught his sons, but he especially reproved and instructed Corianton, who was responsible for a most grievous sin. In order to call others to repentance, we must be an example of righteousness, therefore Alma called Corianton to repentance so that his example could lead others to repent. Following his reproof, Alma expressed love to Corianton, answered his questions, and proceeded to teach the people to repent. We, being carnal in the nature of the body, require a kind of spiritual interface in order to see the truth when it is made plain before us. This includes all spiritual things, such as the spiritual gifts of unders...

It seem I am now doing basic math and as usual, the course is likely to have lots of filler.  I'm just saying that the scope and proficiency I was told to expect is not something that takes a lot of time or content to cover.  It is mostly repetition, technique, and formula.  Since this is a Pathway course, it is likely to have lots of other requirements of participation that will take time. Even so, I am not unhappy with the course.  Each course has been made rich and beneficial to me as well as others in my class, and I think it fulfills the Lords bigger purposes well. I will simply have to do all my work way early, like on Sunday before the associated week to make enough time to complete everything as well as my daily work.

My response to an aspiring comment on my blade sharpening was as follows: Since you want to save money sharpening yourself, I answered your comment with sufficient detail for some common sense to fill in the blanks, but you can ask me any time for more information on technique, materials or advice.  Unfortunately, there are ways to save money that are practically dirt-cheap, but they don't work very well and if you are intent on the task, you will ultimately be frustrated into buying something to get a blade sharp.  It is better to find a tool that you can really count on from the beginning and reap the cost savings over time than to get one sharpener after another or risk health with sharpeners that leave dangerous metal to be ingested. For many scissors, as you mentioned, if you have a disc grinder, preferably in an even-number inch size, you may be able to order a diamond dot disc (not a normal sanding disc) for it at 800 grit. If you are serious about keeping up on a n...

The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt. Alma 11:43 Elder Oaks said, "This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God", and it seems as though he was reading in the book of Alma recently.  He spoke of the resurrection and the reason we all who have faith in Jesus Christ should have to look forward in faith and hope for the resurrection of the dead.  The people made holy through Christ will be restored to a holy resurrected state, and the filthy will be restored to a state of their filthiness, forever barred from exultation.  We read these truths in the Book of Mormon, but do we read them plainly in the Old Testament or New Testament?  President Ezra Taft Benson quotes the prophet Joseph Smith saying about the Book of ...

Our objectives for the family are a little complex, I think.  I have to find a way to improve my family relationships and have two goals to do so for two respective relationships.  I think any of my step siblings or my parents could work, so first I will call my mother once per week, preferably on Sunday. That will be goal one and it will end in one month.  for goal two, I will avoid saying anything that might sound less than respectful to or about my dad.  This will also last one month, so it should be checked a couple of months before father's day.  Since I already do this, making a goal of it is a way of keeping me from slipping up when he might be sensitive to it.  Also, I am usually so busy that my mother doesn't know when to call me, and I hardly know when I can call anyone beside my employment manager.  That's all for now.  I guess I will see if this is effective: Call Mother once per week, especially Sunday Avoid common or low speakin...

So, I learned about Managing money and some of the tools that there are to do so, provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Financial calculating tools are available on the Provident Living website and the instruction we were taught during the week was an opportunity to share experiences with each other.  Some of the other students considered their parents to be excellent examples of good financial management.  I consider my Dad to be excellent at penny pinching and saving overall, but he's not very good at investing wisely, so I didn't say much if anything in the class, so as to save him from a unknowingly suffering a moderate report on him.  Some of the stories were very impressive. When one student said they had been raised in comfort but did not know how to do anything to take care of themself, and then they had to learn all at once for their family, they commented that it was actually a disservice rather than nice that their teaching was ne...

I have often thought myself to be effective at finding what is truthful and reasonably trustworthy as a source of information.  I rely on inspiration and a gift of God to identify such things. It seems that there is an art or a skill to this that I have been taught to improve.  In college it is expected that I use and cite my sources.  Therefore, I need to improve my studying to use the standards I have been taught. I have been misled in the past, and usually by a decent source.  For this reason I intend to continue to rely on the gift of God to help me identify truth, yet it will be more effective the search Google Books and the local library than to use much on the internet, simply because it is difficult to cite and rely on the majority of opinions on the internet, on account of their incomplete background information.  It is important that, even if it is the internet, we should research and study for truth or we may not find it.

To be honest, Week 7 was overwhelmingly too busy for me and I couldn't keep up. It was of course my fault, but that easily leads into the insight I gain from the reading for the week. Following is something that caused me to wonder at the ways we define reward, punishment, good, and bad: 2 Nephi 24:10-16 10 All they shall speak and say unto thee: Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? 11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave; the noise of thy viols is not heard; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought do...

When I was a missionary, I was taught the S.M.A.R.T. way of making goals and achieving them.  I probably learned much by what I was not doing when I began missionary service.  All that I did previously was honorable for my preparation, but missionary service exposed me to other people I had to work very close with and that was a more shocking and difficult endeavor than simply saying what was true about God and his work on the earth. I can't say I made the most use of SMART goal making when I was a missionary, but I did use it consistently because mostly the same principles were taught in Preach My Gospel , the missionary manual.  For this reason, I have understood it for years, but after my missionary service I used this art of goal making less and less and never more effectively.  When it was re-introduced for this class, I was pleased, but I realized that without a companion to do such things as I learn in this class with, they have much less meaning to me, beca...

I have discovered a major problem in my own and others goals. I understand that most goals are simple statements of intent, whether specific or not. While conversing and studying in the gathering.I realized that I had been doing one thing deficiently. I didn't have a true time limit.  No matter how silly it seems, time limits give us more for achieving our goals than they take away.  For the lost time and pressure spent on convenience, one gains the focus on just the time between now and the goal end period, and the ability to renew or re-evaluate the goal for the next week. Once, when I was a missionary, I used goals and a planner that had backcups and weekly time limits.  Ever since then I have neglected that detail I have found that I couldn't achieve my goals in the most satisfying ways.  So, when I was reminded of it in class I made it a point of focus  for me to fix that particular. Having a time-limit is part of the S.M.A.R.T. style of setting goals...