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This blogger website includes all my previous posts that I have ever posted from my Thai blog to my world news blog to my advocacy blog to my portfolio blog.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
The Daily World #News Report of the 19th of April 2017 (Part 1)
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Thursday, April 6, 2017
Advanced Estimating BIM Documents
Monday, January 16, 2017
StoryWorth Founder interview on the Mormon Channel
Segment 3 Episode 86 of Extreme Genes
Host: Scott Fisher with guest Nick Baum
Fisher: Welcome back to Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show and ExtremeGenes.com. Fisher here, your Radio Roots Sleuth, and I will tell you that at RootsTech, as we were looking at all kinds of new products that were coming out, I don’t think anything made anybody more excited than this, “StoryWorth.com.” And I got to meet its inventor, we’ve become good friends, Nick Baum is on the phone with us right now. Nick, how are you?
Nick: Great. It’s good to talk to you again. I’m glad we finally got a chance to meet in person at RootsTech.
Fisher: Well, you know, Nick’s project kind of began around the time as mine. We’re watching our growth kind of parallel, and you guys ran away with the best new product for family history at RootsTech, and there was such a good reason for it. I’ll let you explain exactly how it works, Nick.
Nick: Great. So StoryWorth is really the easiest way to record your family’s stories. The idea is, if you’re into genealogy you can get your whole family involved telling stories about their life, and really collect these stories from all family members. The way we make it this easy is we do it all over email and over the phone. So if your relatives aren’t super tech savvy or you don’t have a lot of time to spend on it, we make it super, super easy for them. You sign your relatives up, each week we send them one question about their life, things like, and “What is your favorite memory of your grandmother?” Or, “Tell me about the day you got engaged.” And all they have to do is reply with a story.
Fisher: Yeah. One story, once a week, and in a year you’ve got 52 stories, which is unbelievable.
Nick: Right. People are often surprised. We offer printed books now and when they order the book we say, “Well, you have 237 pages.”
Fisher: [Laughs]
Nick: They can’t believe they’ve written 237 pages in a year.
Fisher: Exactly. And it’s done so easily. What I like about it is that so many seniors, and those are the people we really need to get to first, they are often really struggling when it comes to computers and that type of thing. You even have a phone version. Tell us how that one works.
Nick: So, again, we try to keep it as simple as possible. So for the phone version, you really just have to call in to our phone number once a week and it asks you to record the story just like you would record a voice note. So the nice thing is it that it works with any phone, it doesn’t have to be a smart phone, it even can be a landline. If they have a cell phone, we’ll also send them the question by SMS, and if they have an email address they can start the call directly from the email we send them. But at the simplest level it’s really just call in and we’ll ask you the question and just record the story. And we save the recording, we email it to your family, and now we also offer transcription. So if you want to get that recording transcribed and have the text of it, we can do that as well.
Fisher: Is that all automated, Nick?
Nick: It’s all automated, yes. For the transcription, we actually work with real humans, right? So automatic transcription isn’t quite up to par, but for you, it just requires a click of a button and then we handle finding the person to transcribe it and sending it back to you.
Fisher: Isn’t that incredible? And I can only imagine the gems, the treasures that have come from this already. You’ve only been around, what, 2 or 3 years?
Nick: Yeah. We’re a little over 2 years old right now, so we’re just starting out, but we feel very lucky that we’re getting so many people interested in family history by making it easy.
Fisher: Give us some of the feedback that you’ve got and a couple of stories that have come back.
Nick: Sure. So, one of the things that I’ve been really happy to see is that people use it for such a wide range of times in their life. So, recently we worked with one customer who was preparing a gift for her mother’s birthday, and so she collected stories about her mother from all of her mother’s friends and she compiled those into a book, which I thought, was a really lovely thought and a really lovely gift.
Fisher: Sweet.
Nick: On the other end, a very touching moment for me was when I got a phone call, just last week, from a customer whose mother sadly passed away, and as you know, it is never a fun call to get, but she was calling to thank us because she has a full collection of stories from her mother that she told me she would never have gotten otherwise. Her mother really opened up to her through this medium, and she spontaneously called just to express her gratitude. So often we don’t think to have these conversations until it can be too late, and I feel very lucky that we can make that happen and get so easy.
Fisher: Yeah, isn’t that a great thing to do! You create a product that serves so many people in such a great way. That’s a great business to have and we bring this up, of course… and I wanted to talk to you because Mother’s Day is just around the corner. I was thinking, “What would be a great thing for Mother’s Day?” I can’t imagine anything better than StoryWorth.
Nick: That’s true, and we actually do get a lot of sign ups around Mother’s Day. It does make for a good gift. The way you do it is this—if you go to our website, and because you’ve been such a supporter of our product, I wanted give something back to your listeners, I’ve set up a promo code and it’s “StoryWorth.com/Extreme.” If you sign up at that link you will get 20% off your subscription and then you can invite your mother, set up some questions and then she can basically start recording her stories for the year to come. At the end of the year, if you have a good collection of stories, then you can go ahead and order the books and get a physical copy of them.
Fisher: It’s just a phenomenal thing because people are always struggling to find the time and ask the right questions. Well, let’s talk about that a little bit. How do you pick the questions? Or can the customer pick the questions? Explain that to us.
Nick: That’s a great question. So we have hundreds of questions that you can choose from, and we try to spend all different times of your life, whether it’s childhood or work or love or travel. By default we’ll select some suggestions, but you have full control over which questions get sent out, so you can change them, you can remove some, you can add others, and of course you can write your own. I really encourage people to do that because the best stories are the ones that come from the most personal questions. One way we make sure that always the good questions are getting sent out is that we’ll actually send our customers the questions that we’re going to send their relatives ahead of time. So every Friday we say, “Hey, on Monday we’re going to send out these questions. Do you want to change any of them?”
Fisher: That’s a great way to go. Okay, so on Fridays you send that out, then on Monday they get the question and then they have pretty much what — a week to get it done?
Nick: Exactly usually we send them out once a week and we find that that’s a good manageable schedule. Of course then some people batch them up they’ll save a couple and do them on the weekend and catch up.
Fisher: Now, in the books, that you’ve put together, you’ve probably read a few stories that touched your heart a little bit, Nick. What have you seen?
Nick: One of the things that I should point out is that we actually don’t read the stories. We are very, very serious about privacy, and so we want people to feel comfortable sharing their personal stories with only their family members. We never look at the stories. So, one of the things we’ve been doing for Mother’s Day is reaching out to customers and asking them if they would like to share a story about their mother for our community, and so we’ve been posting those on our blog. One that I particularly like is a customer’s mother who was actually working during World War II in a garment factory creating garments for the military, and so she has the story about real kind of Rosie the Riveter moments.
Fisher: Right.
Nick: It’s actually been really fun. Our community lead, Hope, has been collecting these stories and it’s just amazing to hear the incredible women and how inspiring they are.
Fisher: You know, you’re right, we have lost so many World War II people now and men and women from that era. And I liked what you mentioned earlier too, you can recapture stories of your people simply by getting in touch with friends or great aunts and uncles and they can fill in a lot of holes for you through this.
Nick: That’s right, Scott. So on that topic I actually have a bit of a personal anecdote which is that my wife’s father sadly passed away when she was college, and of course, my wife was one of the earliest StoryWorth users and she found out her aunt, (her father’s sister) had been getting a lot of stories about his life and their life growing up together that she would never have gotten otherwise, that she just wouldn’t have thought to ask about them. She’s getting these very rich stories about her father, even though he passed he passed away 13 years ago. So yes, inviting siblings, inviting friends is a great way to learn.
Fisher: So, once again just for people to understand, you save the voices of these people as they tell the stories, right?
Nick: We save the audio recordings. If you attach pictures when you write an email story, we save the photos. And then of course when you send the email then we save the text. So, really, everything you send us we save for you, to safeguard.
Fisher: Six family members under 80 bucks in an entire year. Unbelievable! What a great service.
Nick: And again, you get 20% off if you sign up at StoryWorth.com/Extreme.
Fisher: That’s right. Just in time for Mother’s Day. Nick, great stuff, great product, great invention! You know, it’s always exciting to meet people with new ideas on how to preserve our family history. In my mind, you’ve got the killer of them all, it’s “StoryWorth.com.” You can get the special discount at StoryWorth.com forward slash Extreme. Thanks so much for joining us.
Nick: Always great to talk.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
To Build a Better Marriage
By Brent A. Barlow
There are two all-too-universal truths in human behavior when people are in conflict: (1) it’s always the other person’s fault; and (2) a person will change only after the other decides to change, or “give in” in some way. Few of us have the capacity or desire to look at our own behavior objectively and see what part we may have in both the origin and solution of the problem.
This is particularly true in marriage relationships. When trouble, conflict, or problems occur, the human tendency is to blame one’s marriage partner first. Then we often refuse to make any initial effort for change until, with our incessant promptings, our spouse acknowledges the errors of his or her ways. We say or think things like: “If only he would … ,” or “If only she could. …” Then we list, literally or mentally, all the changes our spouse needs to make to improve the marriage.
Of Beams and Motes
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Savior revealed one of the greatest insights to this human tendency, and gave what is sometimes called the Change-First Principle. He said:
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s [or spouse’s] eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
“Or how wilt thou say to thy brother [or spouse], Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s [or spouse’s] eye.” (Matt. 7:3–5.)
Jesus was a carpenter. For him, a beam was a large piece of wood and a mote was a small speck of sawdust. In metaphor, he was asking his disciples (including husbands and wives) why they were so skilled in perceiving the small inadequacies in others and yet were oblivious or nearly blinded to their own larger imperfections. To overcome this common human weakness, Jesus admonished them to change first—to “cast out” or overcome their own imperfections—and then they would be less inclined to try to change someone else’s smaller inadequacies.
Today, counselors and therapists who deal with human behavior often give similar advice to married couples whose problems are not so serious that they involve violations of law or marriage vows.
We Can’t Command Change
Most husbands and wives who love each other will try to make small, reasonable changes in their relationship so their marriage can be more stable and satisfying. But there is danger in equating the willingness of another to change with that person’s love and commitment to the marriage. In a recent book, two psychologists wrote that it is a myth that your mate must change for you if he or she really loves you. They explained: “Couples sometimes go on trying to change each other long after it is clear that it won’t work. What happens is that the one who wants change begins to build a case that gets increasingly extreme and dramatic, even obsessional, as though the validity of the marriage hinged on some specific change. Getting a spouse to change becomes tantamount to getting him or her to love you.”
They added: “You are allowing yourself to equate change with love whenever you find yourself being unrelenting in your effort to persuade your spouse to be different. Some of the clues are constant criticism, nagging, and at times uncontrolled irritability.” 1
Of course, when we speak of the pitfalls in pressuring a marriage partner to change his or her behavior, we are speaking of normal day-to-day behaviors common to most marital relationships. It may be necessary at times, however, to insist on changes in a marriage partner, because some behaviors cannot be tolerated or negotiated. These include problems with infidelity, dishonesty, mental and physical abuse, substance abuse, prolonged neglect, illegal activities, or other similar acts.
The Law of the Harvest
Closely related to the Change-First Principle, I believe, are the Law of the Harvest and the Law of the Boomerang. All three concepts emphasize both the importance and the consequences of individual effort.
The Law of the Harvest is simply that we reap what we sow. (See Gal. 6:7.) This idea has troubled some people who are unhappily married because it suggests that they are reaping the consequences of earlier acts in marriage and are responsible, in part, for what is happening. This is not necessarily true. In some cases, however, a husband or wife who did not originally sow the seeds of discord, unhappiness, or disharmony may have helped nurture their growth. That illustrates the negative aspect of the Law of the Harvest.
Here is the positive side of the Law of the Harvest: If you want a better relationship with a marriage partner, change first. Plant the seeds of harmony, trust, and love, and then nurture them long enough for them to grow. The promise is that eventually you will reap what you sow.
Some couples in troubled marriages or families may be hesitant to start over if previous efforts have been unsuccessful. But the Law of the Harvest still holds. It has been reiterated in latter-day revelation: “Fear not to do good … for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.
“Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good.” (D&C 6:33–34.)
The Law of the Boomerang
Similarly, the Law of the Boomerang teaches us: “What goes out comes back.” How we treat others generally becomes the way they treat us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus admonished: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” (Matt. 7:12.) Commonly called the Golden Rule, this teaching urges us to treat others the way we would like to be treated. It is timely advice for married couples. Usually, a husband or wife will eventually return the loving treatment we consistently give.
The Law of the Boomerang is taught in at least three other scriptures. Alma chastised his son, Corianton, for questionable conduct, and then noted: “For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again.” (Alma 41:15.) In Ecclesiastes, we read: “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” (Eccl. 11:1.) Luke noted: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good [honest] measure, pressed down, and shaken together [for full compensation], and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Luke 6:38.)
Where to Begin?
If you want to change yourself in order to improve your marriage, how can you know where to begin? You might ask yourself these key questions: “What would it be like to be married to me? What if my spouse were exactly like me—what would he/she be like to live with?” Start there. Begin with changes you could make in your life right now that would make you easier to live with and your marriage more tolerable for your spouse.
Another way to learn about needed changes in your own life is simply to ask. First ask the Lord, for he has promised, “If men [and women] come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. … If they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Ether 12:27.)
At an appropriate time—not when there is a spirit of contention present—you might also ask your husband or wife what changes you need to make in your behavior. Not long ago I was invited to teach a priesthood lesson in our ward on husband-wife relationships. During the lesson, I asked the quorum members how many would like to receive a revelation. Every hand went up. I then suggested that we all go home and ask our wives how we could be better husbands. (I should add that I followed my own advice, and had a very informative discussion with Susan for more than an hour that afternoon!)
The Road to Change
What if we as husbands and wives decided individually to take responsibility for our own lives and “change first” with regard to spiritual matters?
If we individually, and then jointly, sought the companionship of the Holy Ghost in our daily lives, our marriages could become stronger and happier.
If we exercised great patience with each other’s weaknesses and shortcomings, if we dropped the constant insistence that our spouses change, perhaps we could create an atmosphere in our marriages that would allow self-initiated change to take place.
The psychologists cited earlier have pointed out a fundamental truth about marriage: “There must be a void created for any new patterns to be established. And releasing one’s mate from the burden of having to meet unrealistic expectations allows him or her to perceive you in a new way and to think about being different on his or her own terms.” 2
Joseph Smith said: “It is a time-honored adage that love begets love. Let us pour forth love—show forth our kindness unto all mankind, and the Lord will reward us with everlasting increase; cast our bread upon the waters and we shall receive it after many days, increased to an hundredfold. …
“I do not dwell upon your faults, and you shall not upon mine. Charity, which is love, covereth a multitude of sins.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 316; italics added.)
When we have learned to let charity cover the faults of the companions we love, we will probably feel their love more strongly, and more often. And we will be better prepared to build enduring marriages.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
AutoCAD Class Final Documents
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Final Revit Presentation for BYU Idaho
The maximum size of the building could have been one hundred thousand square feet; however, the lot size was not big enough to push those limits of the the square footage with the four story building limit regulation in Rexburg, Idaho. The presentation should everything on it. Click on the picture to view it more closely.
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