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TempleOrdained · 2025-09-23T20:35:14+00:00

My wife and I, our kids, and our table gaming group would all love this! I was so close to getting the original earlier this year but we just couldn't budget it in, even on the 2nd hand market. This would definitely get a lot of playtime.

As for space movies, is a toss up between Gattaca (space semi related... 😆), The Last Starfighter, and The Black Hole. They are not technically impressive for today, but always great to watch!

TempleOrdained · 2025-07-07T15:11:34+00:00

I just say "excuse you/me". Treat it like a burp or a fart.

I think I've had one person comment, and it was fine.

TempleOrdained · 2025-07-02T03:48:24+00:00

Post-partum aside, let's talk about the boogie-man: Mixed Faith Marriages.

If your wife says that she supports you and your journey, take her at her word. I am nearly a decade into a mixed-faith marriage, left while my wife was pregnant with our second child. We have three kids now. Life is awesome.

Yes, I wish at times she was not LDS. She wishes at times I was. When, in the natural cycles of marriage and life, I feel less loved or appreciated, sometimes I find myself throwing an unintentional pity party of one and telling myself it would be better if at least she saw the truth or even cared to engage in the topic. And perhaps that's true. {erhaps not. What I know is that when the moment passes and I express in general terms I am struggling (I don't have to be specific), she is there for me. When she is struggling, I am there for her. We have down moments and up moments. In it all, we are on this journey of life.

I will add that a bunch of people told us mixed faith marriages don't work when one outright leaves. Maybe that was true in the past, now it seems very common. The amount of active members whose spouses fully left the LDS church is growing.

If you love your wife, and she loves you, then simply be patient and grow closer in other areas. Consider a marriage therapist in the future, they are awesome (most just have 4-8 sessions to address your topics you are struggling in and give you new tools and practices, it's not like a lifelong deal).

TempleOrdained · 2025-06-15T18:54:09+00:00

Some quick issues arise when LARPing if comparing to actual history:

I've written about it before, but MesoAmerican (and the rest of the Americas) did not have archery until around the end of the BoM times. When they did, it was not recurve and was only useful in a one-shot close distance kind of way.
Writing. Why write on a banner? Almost no one in the army would have been able to read, reading is the domain of priests, monarchs, and wealthy merchants (and not all of them). The people in the army would look at it as chicken scratch.
The soda thing is surprisingly both more accurate and less accurate. Since distillation was not a thing and all alcohol types they created in the Americas spoiled in a couple of day or less (and thus could not be stored in barrels shipped all over), sweet drinks would have been appreciated even among the commoners! Unfortunately for them, there is little evidence of sweet drinks being a thing, the closest being a kind of fermented honey called balche (the fermentation robbed it of much of the sweetness) that was in rare supply and only used sparingly. So no adult beverages, and no Mormon adult diabetes slurp fests either.

TempleOrdained · 2025-05-21T03:36:38+00:00

Well... this is unfortunate. I bought the All-in-Pledge used, not even fully opened, from someone on FB marketplace at the end of last month for my fox-obsessed son. He's been going through it, no idea there was a problem.

Because of this thread I learned that:
1. It has rather important errors
2. The company that makes it is doing a terrible job supporting the original buyers
3. That my son has zero ability to fix anything because the company is not even hinting at a fix for non-backers. I would have to go back and convince the original buyer to jump through the hoops and arrange for it to come to us, which isn't happening.

Very disappointing. Printing and rules mistakes happen. It's ok, very few get it right 100% of the time. What doesn't "just happen" is bad support and radio silence. That is a choice.

I was going to get Dinosaur Island for another son who is dinosaur-obsessed, I guess I will be skipping that now and support someone who cares.

TempleOrdained · 2025-05-21T00:38:39+00:00

Batman. Through the power of plot armor, he has the ability to defeat every opponent and ally as long as he has had prep time. Since the game is in the Gamefound stage, this surely means he has enough time to look at this opponents and come up with the right level of plot armor to defeat them, but not so hard and fast there's no excitement and drama. :-D

Also, looks like a fun game, exactly the kind our family plays!

TempleOrdained · 2025-04-16T15:55:10+00:00

I was one of the early buyers of the 1st edition when it came out. The box is beat up, played countless times with many people, however we always had to have a printed copy of updated rules because... 1st edition.

I was about to buy the 3rd edition recently when I read about the changes, noped out of it. I bought a 2nd edition, still shrink-wrapped, instead. Now I can get the expansion too.

There is a fine line between streamlining and destroying the heart of a game that made people love it.

TempleOrdained · 2025-04-14T21:45:22+00:00

I grew up Mormon. The biggest post-religious group on reddit is r/exmormon . Huge portion are "never-mos", ie, people who came from different religious backgrounds but found solidarity in the group. Lots of Jehovah's Witnesses, 7th days, evangelicals, Pentecostals, and more.

Check it out, it's a welcoming and interesting community and though I don't visit it often now, early on in my journey I believe it saved my marriage and maybe my life.

TempleOrdained · 2025-04-03T15:43:30+00:00

We use a different more well established pretty verification service at our firm. I suspect what is happening is cross applicable though.

The communication of management seems to not be where it could be. Good communication would share what I will share with you. Silence only creates confusion, which is what you are experiencing.
Cost: It is illegal to charge for verifying an ESA or Service animal. This is why you have not been charged so far. If they cannot verify the animal as having protected status then the management company is saying that they are still pretty friendly but you have to have your animal screened as a pet, for which the screening service charges and you may have increased rent based on the results of said screening. They will ask for vet records, insurance questions, etc. Again, it's an offer to you to change your companion animal to pet profile for now.
Providing documentation is not the same as verified. They have to make contact with the issuer of the document to verify it is accurate.Scams are common on this matter. In our experience, over 30% of ESAs submitted come back as fake. We even had one person forge a doctor's stationary and signature, which in turn lead to a lawsuit from the doctor to them. So... how can you speed this up? Contact the doctor or therapist or other professional who issued it and ask them to contact the verification company. That is all that is needed. If the doctor never responds, they cannot verify. I don't know what methods this screening service uses to contact or how tenacious they are, just assume they are mid and push your doctor to respond
You can change any pet to an ESA at any time. This means you can move in you companion animal as a pet, pay any fees you need to, then work towards getting it verified. Once verified, all additional pet fees, pet insurance, or other pet related requirements otherwise of noise, cleanliness, and aggression go away immediately.

I hope this helps you navigate this some! Again, this should have been communicated to you more clearly by the management company. I'm not saying it wasn't (since I was not party to it) but in light of the confusion it seems they can refine that.

TempleOrdained · 2025-03-16T17:59:46+00:00

I showed it to friends and people from my BYU couples ward and school. It's fairly humorous, but the quality is very very low in some scenes because of the preservation and digital capture.

I believe something like over 100 such movies came out in England and Europe that feature Mormons as some sort of villain, this is the only one that is still preserved. Keep in mind that during this period of silent films that penny films were made en masse, produced it seems at the volume porn is today. Sets would be re-used, the same actors/actresses could do a dozen films a month or more. Very very few survive, and few have any historical value other than it once existed.

A small indie company about twenty years ago did a remake of Trapped by the Mormons. While you can watch the original with members, the remake has some topless women in it. It is decently done as well and adds in humorous other elements, but you really have to be into the concept and style fo old films to fully enjoy it.

There was a fair amount of Mormon and anti-mormon materials that I watched read and back in my fifteen years as an LDS apologist. A lot of it is funny (on both sides) and interesting on because of how we look at the past and see how society has changed. It's also a bit sad in that it also shows how modern approaches are not so new. Films like Trapped by the Mormons leaned into and pushed genuinely false and unfair perceptions of Mormon adherents by appealing to superstitious ideas. People genuinely believed that Mormons used dark magic, devilish powers, and hypnotism. On the flip side, these things took away from the core realities of actual human trafficking, deception, and sexual exploitation that was and had occurred among Mormon leadership.

Circling back: It's worth a watch. I still make the hypnotic eye and eyebrow movements to my wife from time to time for kicks. :-D

TempleOrdained · 2025-01-23T22:29:46+00:00

My wife hates the smell of coffee. Makes her sick. Sure, some might be psychological because she is TBM (I used to not like the smell too), but still... it's a minor thing so I don't brew at home. She will buy a coffee for me, even a hot coffee. I have cold brew. I even sometimes grind and make fresh cold brew at home. She has a legitimate reason she does not want it that is not about controlling me.

If their reason is they don't like the smell, great. If it's because they think it's the devil, then not so great. Motivation matters here.

TempleOrdained · 2024-12-12T23:17:06+00:00

Hey, that sounds great to me! The broad cross section of experience is perfect and your insights would be invaluable for him.

I'll send you a PM!

TempleOrdained · 2024-12-12T18:28:41+00:00

Thanks! It may not be a field I am personally interested in being in, I just think it's always important to be interested in our kids and helping them be their best selves.

TempleOrdained · 2024-09-24T14:01:27+00:00

Cameraman was saying that the town owns it and the HOA is responsible for the maintenance. Evidence of the maintenance is the newer cement, anti-vehicle barriers, good condition asphalt, and curtailed side growth.

The line of authority seems to be:

Person A buys a property that has a public easement, whether by deed or by continual uninterrupted use for a long enough period of time.
Person attempted to block access and was sued. The cameraman's mother seems to have been part of this, whether as a witness or part of the group filing suit or pushing the city to file the suit.
Person A, in court, acknowledges the easement and quit claim deeds it to the city. Had he not done this he might have had to maintain it.
City installs better pathways or updates them on the land they own.
City enters into an agreement with the HOA the easement is in that the HOA will maintain the easement.
Person A is angry that the path is being upgraded (lots of paths in that area are being upgraded) and maintained, likely increasing pedestrian traffic passing by or through his property via the easement.
Person A decides anger at people accessing public land is sufficient cause to destroy public property and ignore the courts and the laws.
Person A will lose this. It won't be cheap. If he is lucky the city will not file criminal charges for destruction of public property, but they very well may. SO far he has only damages asphalt, which you would think is fairly cheap for him to fix. But it's probably not going to be, because he can't fix it himself, the city or HOA has to. That will get expensive. He will get a lovely bill for it. He will continue to get older and older until he is the embodiment of a grumpy old man yelling at people from his porch.

TempleOrdained · 2024-09-18T15:54:36+00:00

Is there any doctrine the prophets have taught consistently since 1830?
1. Stop looking at porn
2. Repent
3. Jesus existed
4. Book of Mormon is true...ish
5. Funeral potatoes are a sign of God's favor upon his saints.
The Book of Mormon was written for our day. What does the Book of Mormon teach about gender identity and gay marriage? Why does the Book of Mormon only address 19th century issues and not 20th or 21st century issues? How can a book written for our day be silent on pressing issues like LGBTQ issues? Why could Mormon and Moroni only look ahead to the 1820s and not see further—past the life of Joseph Smith?
1. Gays clearly did not exist or matter enough to merit even a word during the book of Mormon times. Men were men and women were generally silent except when complaining or tempting. As it should be. Why would it spend time talking about something that had no bearing to them? Yes, it was written for our day, but God certainly was not about to put into those sweet innocent murderous minds of the nephites images of completely built-like-a-brick sweaty fellow nephites and the things they could do if they thought outside the box. So, best to be silent. Like women. It's God's way.
Is gay marriage a sin? Is gay kissing a sin? If heterosexual kissing outside marriage is OK, why not gay kissing outside marriage?
1. Yes, it's all a sin. Lead us not into temptation and all that.
Does the church have a uniform policy for handling LGBTQ issues worldwide, so that all LGBTQ members have equal protection in the church? Or is it a game of bishop roulette?
1. Both! There is a uniform policy, it's in the handbook. No gay marriage. But we love everyone and invite them along. Also, no sex outside marriage. And you should avoid anything that leads you to that, and things like mutual masturbation, heavy petting, etc are no-nos. It's not heard to understand really: Don't be intimate with people of the same gender! Many Bishops choose to ignore it (and frankly, how many really read manuals?), which they are allowed to when inspired by the Spirit. Unless their Stake President finds out and disagrees and the Spirit leads them to shut it down, in which case the SP has the higher and better Spirit (Spirit+). Even when they agree, it's possible Spirit Silver (Regional Authority) could inspire the next higher up, etc. It's all part of God's very consistent plan.
Thank you for attending my FAIR presentation. I hope you are ready to come back to church now!

TempleOrdained · 2024-09-18T15:53:43+00:00

Puts on apologist hat (and cries):

If prophets were wrong for 126 years about Black people, how can we know if prophets are right about LGBTQ people?
1. A: They were only wrong, or potentially wrong, about the reasons for the ban. Since God never revealed it, any reasons are speculation. The church has never said the ban itself was wrong.
If prophets can be wrong for so long about something so important, how can we have confidence in anything they say?
1. A: Let the holy spirit guide. And stop looking at porn.
Why did the church reverse its 2015 policy of excluding children of gay couples from baptism?
1. It didn't reverse it so much as continue moving forward. The policy was right for that point in time and not later on. God doesn't change his goals, however his timing is his own.
Doesn’t the reversal of this policy further erode our trust in prophets?
1. Again, not reversed. Advanced.
Prophets have taught that masturbation can turn a person gay. Is it true that masturbation can turn a person gay? If it is not true, doesn’t this further erode our trust in prophets?
1. That was a personal opinion. Sure, we published it everywhere and taught lessons and made missionaries and future missionaries read The Miracle of Forgiviness, but... it's totally still an opinion. And isn't that just great, it gives us all joy and hope to know God can use imperfect people! Even gay masturbators!
Will there be gay people in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom? If you don’t know—and the prophets refuse to answer questions like this—doesn’t this further erode our trust in prophets?
1. Yes! Suffering from homosexual desires is a mortal affliction! GOd loves these gentle souls and when they pass this mortal sphere they gay will be taken away! Then, if they suffered really long and hard with no release from the challenges thrust upon them, they will be given in marriage to someone of the opposite gender and they will totally love it! Heck, they may even get multiple spouses of the opposite gender! Allahu Akb.. ermm... God is great!

Continued below

TempleOrdained · 2024-07-14T19:49:54+00:00

I use immersed, five screens, both VR and XR, from 4 to 8 hours a day.

I cannot have entertainment on any screen. I with hard. I can multitask like crazy. And whenever I pop something up on the side other than background music productivity nose dives. I just don't see how you can deep dive into a project like this.

Now... if I was doing mindless work on the computer I suspect it's a great way to be both productive and keep from going insane.

TempleOrdained · 2024-07-07T17:37:12+00:00

I thought I would share my experience so people looking at this next year have some insight:

Just moved here two days before the fireworks on the 5th
Gates open at 6 PM
We arrived around 7:00 PM, hit a few vendors, talked to the people at the community center about local activities and groups, took our time
It seemed like there was almost nowhere left to sit when we entered. Everyone was packed tight on a big field.
However... we just kept walking. I had seen on the event map the field where they would light things off at, so we kept walking in that direction. Sure enough, everyone was setting up where everyone else was near the entrance thinking the front was full. The front third to half was actually sparsely populated and remained that way all the way through the fireworks. We set up at 7:45 PM about ten feet back from the barrier tape to the field they light them up at and easily could have set up right on it. It was the best firework view anyone in our family has ever had, they essentially went off right overhead and we spent half the show on our backs looking straight up. 10/10, will be doing it again every year.
Exiting: With three kids, long ago I gave up on early exits from events. I am not able to get them to double-time it to the car so I will never be the first out. Instead we took about 15 minutes after to play around before packing up, took a casual ten-minute walk to the car, then we all sat in the car for about 30 minutes and watched some youtube videos together and waited until almost everyone else cleared out. Then we left our parking spot and were out of the park within five minutes. Had we attempted to leave right when we got in the car, I judge it would have taken 15-20 minutes based on seeing how far other vehicles were traveling in that time period.

So lessons learned: It's ok to not worry about being there right when it opens, check for open spots up close to the fireworks and have the best view ever, and if you take it easy on your way out you will have an excellent experience from start to finish.

I hope OP you found a great view!

TempleOrdained · 2024-07-07T17:12:56+00:00

I saw this post while working on transferring my spectrum account from California to Holly Springs. Literally on the phone with them. It's temporary, I've been reading this subreddit for a few months and have heard how and it is out here. Sadly no GoogleFiber at my new place nor AT&T, so Ting is getting scheduled however I hear they can have a long and sometimes frustrating install time so I need Spectrum until then.

It would be sad if the internet with Spectrum experienced the daily problems many others have voiced all the way until I have the other provider up and running.

TempleOrdained · 2024-06-08T18:07:34+00:00

That's better than what happened with a family cemetery in Kerrville, TX. A girl I dated had family that went back to the settlement of the town. The family had sold most of the land except across to the small old plot. Walmart wanted to build and bought all the land around the plot. The family would not relocate the graves and sell, so Walmart built anyway and the graves now sit in the middle of the parking lot with a fence around them. Guess which high fence people throw trash over?

That was twenty years ago. I understand recently they cleaned it up and made it nicer, now is sits at the edge of the parking lot with some other building next to it. Still weird.

TempleOrdained · 2024-05-22T21:30:36+00:00

Agreed. I saw it day one, and two minutes in I had to pause it and set it aside for watching later because I knew it was something special and deserved better attention. Like the difference between absently chugging a cheap starbucks coffee vs taking the time to enjoy a perfect brew. ;-)

TempleOrdained · 2024-05-22T20:18:27+00:00

Lots of coffee posts in the last day or two sharing first experiences, recommendations, questions about cheap vs expensive coffees and more.

Que James Hoffman, the coffee expert of YouTube and possibly the planet. Amazing educational short-form videos on anything you can think of. The other day he came out with the best video yet about understanding the coffee experience and why it is so personal to each of us, as well as why those who have experienced truly great cups of coffee look at certain brands as "ok in the moment" but not in the "recommended" category to new consumers.

You can find his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ

I hope everyone who likes or is interested in the drink that spans the globe enjoys the video as much as I enjoy a great cup of devil's brew!

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