Random Thoughts as I sit here typing.

It has been a long day at school and I am taking a few minutes to relax and do what I enjoy. Over the years I have found it very therapeutic to write thoughts and feelings that have been running around in my head. Maybe that's why I have so many volumes to my journal. Anyway, the following is for public consumption but not necessarily pertinent to anything real or life-changing.

Have you ever noticed that certain types of music are best for certain types of work? Right now I am listening to my "car" music and it is making it little hard to focus on my task at hand. THERE, now I have changed to some softer, more relaxing tunes (Jim Brickman) and I am much less distracted. When I study I can't have anything that is too wordy or exciting because I get lost in the music and never learn anything of worth. On the other hand, if I am travelling and I have someone like James Taylor or Don McLean on for too long I start to doze off and become a hazard to other drivers (some might say it doesn't take music to cause that problem). Other times I need the beat of a good band to get some blood flowing in my system. And, if I'm doing work on the house or an outside project it takes good 'ole country stuff to help me get through the day. Thankfully there are many genres of music so I can mostly find something that will fit my situation. Now if I could just get out of the 70's and 80's with my selections.

I am currently trying to create a movie of Joel's recent musical (Pirates of Penzance) but the software (Pinnacle Studio 11) I am using is making it especially difficult. I have upgraded to the new version that is supposed to work with Vista and I have gone out to get all the patches and additions that are necessary to work on my computer. I have also purchased increased memory and added an larger hard drive to eliminate some of the other problems. But I still have major problems with the stupid software. Every time I try to create the DVD for the movie, the software either shuts down or it pretends to work and then says I have an illegal DVD that is not only illegal but it is also not blank. Yes, the system is correct that it is not blank because IT JUST LOADED A BUNCH OF STUFF ON THE DISK BUT NEVER FINISHED THE PROCESS. Usually, after wasting 3 or 4 new DVD's I get lucky and one of the works but it is getting very expensive to keep trying. Someday, somewhere, someone will write a program that will do everything it says it will without all the finagling and jury-rigging this package requires. We have had varying degrees of success with several versions of this product but all versions have had their little (or big) quirks. Unfortunately, this seems to be the best of the category (we have tried others and friends have warned us about some that are even worse) so we keep trying.

What is it about chocolate and ice cream that make them so satisfying to the human palate? I am a faithful Latter-day Saint and I do my best to observe all the commandments God has given us through the prophets but I find that those two items have become somewhat of an addiction for me. I experimented yesterday to see if I could go a whole day without either and discovered that I will not die if I do not consume these two tasty treats. There even might be some proof that a reduction in my partaking would lead to a healthier life, but it is an unthinkable thought to consider eliminating these delicious morsels from my diet on a permanent basis. Maybe chocolate was what Eve was really tempted with but the ancient prophets disguised the fact by calling it 'fruit'. Whatever the case may be, I am certain that there can be no more desirable food on the planet than chocolate and when it is added to ice cream, the combination becomes heavenly. Ahh, but like so many other good things, the after-effects are felt for a long time and must be 'worked' off so that the physical stature is not permanently damaged. That brings me to the end of this edition because I need to go run on the treadmill for a while. Maybe Teresa will let me eat some "Moose-Tracks" while I run/walk.