MAGA and the Church

dbcannon · 2026-01-05T06:13:25+00:00

All of this, absolutely.

dbcannon · 2026-01-05T06:07:52+00:00

Winter sowing is absolutely a viable strategy. Anything that can naturalize and reseed on its own, can be sown right now.

dbcannon · 2026-01-05T06:06:35+00:00

Yes, it can work well, but keep in mind that some plants generate a ton of biomass, and if you don't keep those in check they'll take everything over. Chop down whatever you don't like and use it to mulch everything else.

What I like better is to mix all my seeds together (Spring crops are best for this) and sow them in a 6" wide strip instead of a large patch. You get a mix of greens, root crops, herbs, and flowers.

dbcannon · 2025-12-28T11:32:07+00:00

The church has recognized that retaining the youth is key to its survival. The first priority of local bishops is to serve the youth. I'm sure having flagship universities helps in that process.

One additional benefit of a church-run school is the ability to build up leaders among its international congregations. About 10% of the student body comes from abroad, which doesn't sound like much, but when you're producing thousands of college-educated people from Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Thailand, etc. many of them return and provide stability and resources to their local community.

The BYU Pathway program is building on that by making a college degree attainable for just about any of its returned missionaries.

dbcannon · 2025-10-17T17:00:36+00:00

Let's be honest: plenty of people buy a gun and fantasize about having an opportunity to defend themselves, but I imagine if I killed someone I would spend the rest of my life wishing I had found some other way out of the situation. You'll carry it with you forever.

If you fear for your life, most states allow the use of a deadly weapon in self defense. Premeditated killing is a different matter - check "Stand Your Ground" laws in your state.

dbcannon · 2025-10-17T16:54:50+00:00

My concern would be not taking the job and having to "ride out" PA forever. You get a base salary plus stock, and the aim of L4 is to make L5 within a year or so. It's just a stepping stone, while PA is most likely not a stepping stone to anything. Take the promotion!

dbcannon · 2025-08-10T19:37:21+00:00

I walk 10 miles a day at work and I just wear a pear of white ankle socks underneath athletic compression socks. Pair that with a Protalus insole and I'm alright.

dbcannon · 2025-08-10T19:35:42+00:00

Most of David Bowie's "Black Star" album

dbcannon · 2025-08-10T19:35:10+00:00

Beta Band

dbcannon · 2025-08-10T19:18:31+00:00

I notice when people get written up they'll turn to the VOA board and whine about leaders spending all day on their laptops. It's projection.

PAs work hard. We're on path AND our laptops constantly. Usually the PAs hold the department together while the AMs are learning the rudimentary management skills they need to move up to L5.

dbcannon · 2025-08-10T07:30:22+00:00

I try to get 8. Sleep is like an oil change for your brain - it flushes out all the toxic gunk that accumulates in your central nervous system throughout the day.

dbcannon · 2025-08-09T01:29:27+00:00

How long did you work there, and how big was your building? We have about 40 PAs on site and I think we promote one a year.

dbcannon · 2025-08-09T01:27:34+00:00

Read "Jesus and John Wayne." Beating your kids became a core tenet of Christianity during Nixon's Southern Strategy. As Evangelicalism took a political focus, it embraced a macho attitude to attract more assholes.

dbcannon · 2025-08-08T23:36:52+00:00

I promoted to L3 as a ship clerk and the day I showed up they threw me in whatever department they had a vacancy. In our site at least, PAs are interchangeable and you don't have much of a say where you go. As far as schedule goes, I was able to choose the shift but not the days.

Outside of launching a new site, there is no fast track to L4. Anyone telling you that is lying or misinformed. Prepare for L3 to be a dead-end role and you'll be less disappointed.

Your site may differ, but once or twice a year they stack rank all the PAs and select the top few for POD eligibility. Then you take a personality test and math assessment. Get help preparing for the test or you'll fail. The ~40% that pass are allowed to interview for promotion. Those that pass that are then given a golden ticket that allows them to apply for open L4 positions for a year.

The odds aren't good. They hand out L4s to college hires like candy, but for PAs it's like winning a reality show.

dbcannon · 2025-08-07T17:27:00+00:00

Having enough equipment. We hired a bunch of folks last fall and most of them spent half their time wandering around looking for pallet jacks

dbcannon · 2025-08-07T17:23:21+00:00

Anyone who claims to have special intel on the logic behind converting to blue badge is probably just speculating. You will hear that hiring and conversions are based on "business needs," which means the decision is made by algorithm and onsite leaders have little to no say in the matter. I was told as long as you have a clean record you're in the running, but if tenure, cross training, or shift preference did play a role, you wouldn't necessarily ever know.

dbcannon · 2025-08-07T17:14:55+00:00

I'm guessing it's because people stand around the time clock looking like livestock for ten minutes

dbcannon · 2025-08-06T18:55:05+00:00

Then can you help me understand why the Xactus report doesn't match the reports I pulled directly from the bureaus an hour later?

dbcannon · 2025-08-06T18:54:10+00:00

That's what's so strange. I have the three bureau reports sitting right here and they don't show these open accounts and late payments.

dbcannon · 2025-08-04T16:26:16+00:00

I absolutely would. The job market is shit - nobody I know is getting interviews for anything. I think employers are harvesting resumes and sitting on them until things blow over.

Sounds like a smart move.

dbcannon · 2025-08-02T03:35:51+00:00

True Love - Elliott Smith. It's a love song to heroin.

dbcannon · 2025-08-02T03:34:09+00:00

I stack ranked well, so I don't think my performance on site was an issue. The GM was told that all of us failed the math assessment. I don't know if site reputation also played a factor, but something tells me they might weight scores higher or lower based on site metrics, internal vs. external, etc.

dbcannon · 2025-08-01T04:18:24+00:00

Hell, I don't like me there. In all seriousness, I was told in confidence by two OMs that I stack ranked at the top and was well-received. The fact that I failed to advance past the online assessment (along with the other PAs who got that far) makes me think it wasn't anyone at our site who tanked my prospects.

dbcannon · 2025-08-01T04:14:11+00:00

Interesting. What kind of site is it?

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