My Life

Dear students, I want to share with you how much math has blessed my life.  There was a time when I was lost, my car broke down, and I was miles away from any kind of civilization.  I didn't have a cell phone.  I wasn't sure what I would do or how I would get out of such an awful situation.  But then I remembered something my math teacher taught me when I was in elementary school.  She said that with math, all things are possible.  So, I got out my straight edge and compass and I performed calculation after calculation.  After a while, my car started working again and I found my way back home. I know that math is true.  I know that Pythagoras was a true mathematician.  I know that Carl Friedrich Gauss died for my mathematical errors.  I know that the sum of the squares of the legs of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.  And this knowledge has brought me such comfort in life.  I am truly blessed to know ...

Yesterday is a day that will go down in history.  It will be a very famous day in the story of the gay rights movement.  The Supreme Court handed down two opinions on two high-profile cases.  One was about the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law which defined marriage as heterosexual-only even in cases where individual states recognized gay marriages.  The other was about Proposition 8, which was an amendment to the California State Constitution which also defined marriage as heterosexual-only.  Both decisions from the Court were favorable to marriage equality. The decision on the Prop 8 case was, honestly, a non-decision.  The Court said that it did not have jurisdiction to decide the case because the people defending the proposition didn't have the right to do so.  So, they did not give a ruling on whether Prop 8 was constitutional or not.  However, their ruling did have the effect of overturning Prop 8 because it meant that the original de...

The Bible says that you shouldn't sound a trumpet when you do good deeds--that you shouldn't brag about the good things that you do.  I agree that there is wisdom in not coming across as condescending when performing good deeds.  I think it can be annoying when people continually boast of how good they are and the wonderful things that they do with their lives.  But I think it is foolish to try to do all charity in secret. I often talk about the things that I do to help out other people.  I have blogged about charities that I feel good about donating to.  I post about volunteering my time and donating my money to charitable institutions.  I don't mean to brag in doing this.  I mean to raise awareness.  I think that people do not think about it nearly as much as they should, and that donations to charity are far more sparse than they should be.  I hope that in speaking of the acts that I do, I can help motivate other people to give more libe...

It's been a while since I've listened to church dogma.  Almost two years.  Yes, I've had a few family members email me things like "We're praying for you" and stuff like that, but nothing really all that intense.  Nothing like a Sunday School lesson. The sister missionaries in my ward have been coming over lately.  They dropped by around the time Conrad had his name removed from the church's records and have come over multiple times since we had a (female) roommate move in with us. The last time they came, which was a few days ago, and today when they came, I couldn't help but realize how much my attitude toward religious teachings has changed.  At this point in time, it seems no more to me than utter and complete nonsense.  And it leaves me baffled.  I look at these two women, and they are intelligent and respectable women.  They are clearly sane and are well-adjusted to society. And yet the things that come out of their mouths are so utterly...

One of the atheist pages I follow posted this image on the right.  I started participating in the discussion in the comments.  One woman, who claimed to be an atheist, was defending Christianity and saying how this statement is insensitive. Many of the things I have said on my blog and on my Facebook wall I have been told are insensitive.  And many of the things I say really are insensitive.  However, if you think that this particular type of thing is insensitive, then you do not understand the motivation behind saying it. I value life.  I value human life very highly.  I value independence and freedom very highly.  I value individuality and individual expression.  So, when I see an institutionalized attack on life and on individuality, I am offended.  I am incensed. I am infuriated.  I consider it an insult to humanity.  I consider it an attack on morality.  And such an institutionalized attack has occurred and is s...

After seeing this article  pop up in my news feed, I couldn't help myself.  I simply have to write my own satirical Onion News Network-style article in response. SALT LAKE CITY -- As the war on civil rights is posed to take one more step toward equality for all humans, bigots have resulted to whining. "It's just not fair" says Elder Lance B. Wickman, member of the Quorum of Seventy of the LDS Church, "We used to be able to dictate how everyone should live their lives, but now it looks like we're going to have to confine ourselves to telling just the members of our own church that they can't marry someone of the same sex." Boyd Kenneth Pack, President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles offered his opinion as well, even though no reporter ever questioned him.  Fortunately, he has some close relatives who can translate from the language of Reformed Bigotyptian into modern English.  So, we have his translated message.  "Back in my day, we treate...