You leave the Pennsylvania station...

The Pennsylvania Station

For those of you who are familiar with the song Chattanooga Choo-Choo you will know that the next line says "you're in Baltimore" which just happens to be where I ended up this Thursday. I headed down to the old city on an Amtrak commuter line Thursday morning, which I almost missed, luckily I had a good taxi driver. Turns out there are several Pennsylvania stations on the east coast and one of them is in Baltimore, although it is commonly referred to as Penn station. I had to go pick up some document for the law firm I am working with and that is why I ended up here. It is a much less busy city than Washington and was interesting to see. Here are some pictures, I also saw the statue of Edgar Alan Poe, but I have no picture because a bunch of University of Baltimore students were sitting on him. Sorry for the the low quality, I didn't have my camera with me and had to use my iPod.

Just for the record this is a Baltimore pay phone

Apparently Baltimore likes works of art in there subway stations.

...and out side their symphonic halls

This may explain it, it is the Mount Royal Art Institute.

A military memorial from the revolution

A Provo bilboard in Baltimore, it says: Smyth's, where Baltimore gets engaged

How do you say "No Thank You" in Chinese?

Well, you all will be happy to know that I arrived safely and on time in Washington D.C. Friday evening. I have spent the time since feeling very much like Mr. Smith. D.C. is a place I have wanted to come my whole life and being here now is at times overwhelming. For those who don't know I am in D.C. with BYU's Washington seminar program which brings about 40-45 interns to D.C. every semester. We all live together in a marvelous facility known as the Barlow Center right off of Pennsylvania Ave, about 10 blocks from the White House. I will be an intern at the law firm Rosenau and Rosenau from now until the end of July. I will try and blog weekly (or weakly as the case may be) to keep you up to date on my adventures out here.
For this week: Saturday morning several of us who had arrived the night previous decided to go explore the city. So five of us set out on foot down Pennsylvania avenue to find the fabled house once known as the executive mansion, now more creatively termed the White House. I have to say I felt amazing actually being there for the first time. There was also a Muslim guy in the street chanting something, but we don't know Arabic so we didn't know much, but Michael-Sean tried to get a picture with him, the Arab and the white house all in it. Across the street is the anti nuclear vigil which had been protesting nuclear weapons 24hrs a day since 1981, which is kind of interesting.
After the white house we made our way around the department of treasury to the Mall. We debated for some time what we should do and finally settled on a trip to the "old post office" which has a tower from which we'd been told we would have as good a view of the mall as we could from the Washington monument without the long lines. After making our way through the tight security at the PO we wandered about until we found the way to the elevator that takes you to the floor where you can then get on another elevator to the top. The view up there was very good.
When we reached the ground again we decided it was time to find some food, so off we went to China town. After some consulting with smart phones and outdoor menus we settled on a place called "Ming's" which had a relatively cheap lunch menu. We entered and were escorted to a large booth and handed menus, upon which we found no lunch listings. This made us understandably perturbed and when questioned we were explained something that silly hicks from provo cannot be expected to know, that there is no lunch menu on weekends, because obviously people only eat dinner on the weekends. After some consulting among the council we decided to let our voice be heard by leaving the restaurant then and there, which we did. We then wandered and found that this rule of weekends is fairly standard in China town, but fortunately for us it is foreign to the Turks and we found a tiny hole in the wall Turkish shop where I had my first falafel, which was very good.
Then to continue our adventure and since we had saved so much money not eating at Ming's, we made our first foray into the the smithsonian, and watched the IMAX movie at the air and space museum, which was about the Hubble telescope and the last attempt to run maintenance on it, it was awe inspiring. Afterwards we discovered that the air and space museum is a good place to get lost and we spent most of the rest of the afternoon learning about flying and war and space.
Well that was it for saturday, here are the pics.

I'm a transfer to The U of YouTube

Now you all know how much I love BYU, I am a very die hard cougar. And some of you may also know that during the summers I've taken courses from another University, namely the University of YouTube, I actually earned my BA in Balloon Twisting there over this past summer. Anyway its a highly prestigious digital ivory tower with programs in all the major sciences and arts.
Yesterday I found it necessary to enroll in another course at UYT, this time in statistics concurrent with my BYU political science quantitative methodology class. I like UYT because the professors are always available and they teach in short spurts exactly what you need to learn, they don't mind regoing over material and if you don't understand exactly they way they are teaching it they'll refer you to other teachers who can. Its all very accommodating and useful.
All that being said I don't think I'll transfer over completely just yet, but I'll just take concurrent enrollment for this semester and see how it goes.

Reflections on integrity

Integrity. I have only to click on this word in this blog and my computer pulls up the definitions:
the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness; the state of being whole and undivided:
These definitions clearly make this attribute crucial to our lives. Several events of recent date have brought me to reflect on this attribute of integrity, not the least of which was the excellent devotional given here at BYU by Elder Tad R. Callister which I have placed below for any who have not had the chance hear it. http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=2010&tid=2
Integrity to me is or should be the very makeup of who we are. Our experiences in life shape us into the people we are with morals, beliefs, and values. Our adherence to these, not simply having them, is a matter of integrity. I can believe something all day long, and I mean really believe it, but unless that belief has an effect upon my actions and interactions I don't have integrity. As seen in the dictionary on my computer integrity is not only being honest, nor is it only having strong moral principles, it is both these things while being in a state of wholeness, being undivided. It is an attribute of God, in whom "there is no shadow of changing." This is not to say that we as imperfect beings should never change, that would go against the doctrine of repentance, but we should not changed based on "every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness" or even simply because the people around us are doing or want us to do something. Our change should be based on the gospel principles which will eventually lead us to perfect unchanging integrity that God has.My reflections on integrity have been spurred this week week by the numerous discussions of academic honesty in my first classes of the semester. This is a common item on every syllabus at BYU. This seems to be necessary only because of a lack of integrity, all students at BYU have signed the honor code, and for the vast majority of them they really believe it, but when it comes down to it, when they're really between the rock and the hard place their integrity gives way. As their integrity fails their actions separate from their beliefs. This is what Satan is watching for, a chink in a persons mantel of integrity gives place for Satan to slip in a fiery dart.These thoughts on integrity have caused me to reflect on an experience that may seem unrelated but it is part of what has made my experience with integrity. As young teenagers Gordy and I used to play a Star Wars video game in which we would participate in a capture the flag style battle using tanks mounted with laser cannons a proton torpedoes. The point of the game was to destroy the other players base thus bringing down his ability create weapons for counter attack. You spent a great deal of time fighting the other players tanks and walkers in the battle field, but you were never close to winning until you were actually attacking the base and you heard the computer say "Structural Integrity Failing." This was the first time I remember hearing the word integrity used this way. The thought that something is destroyed when its integrity fails has stuck with me ever since.

Oh Lord, My God

Here's a little poem/song lyrics that I started way back on my mission and just recently finished up the last stanza.

Oh Lord, My God, as I struggle through this pain

I feel the need to ask, is it really for my gain

and I think of Lehi, and I think of Alma too

and remember that like me, prayer is all they had to do

they cried, Oh Lord, My God, my son has gone astray

in this dark and dreary world, he has simply lost his way

As he wanders this night, in the darkness all alone

I pray that thou wilt help him, find his way back home

I plead, Oh Lord, My God, Where’s the lesson for  me?

is it to help me, gain understanding of Thee?

and how thou must have felt, when Thy son rebelled on High

choosing to fall from grace, and eternally to die

Oh Lord, My God, how did thou stand the pain?

The earth must have been flooded, as thy tears fell down like rain

and then sent thine other son, to die for my son’s sin

that through choices he might triumph, the victory to win

Oh Lord, My God, thou whose love know no bounds

whose mercy and compassion, are one eternal round

I thank the this night, for the comfort of my soul

and pray through thy grace, that my son may be made whole

Please take the survey

Hi Ben fans, if you would please take this very quick survey for my research paper on superheros that would be so great.
Thanks
Click here to take survey

Why do 9 yr olds need cell phones?

So I think that is a pretty good question. Actually come to think of it no, it is not a good question. Why are we asking this question at all, why are we even considering it? You may now prepare yourselves for a rant by Ben. Having recently attended several cultural events I have noticed again something that began to strike me on my mission and especially after I got home. Why do small children need cell phones? Having grown up in the era of cell phone development and followed it closely I can tell you that small children, and, in fact, teenagers do not need cell phones of their own.
Now don't get me wrong, I have been using cell phones since the days of the Commando Walkie-Talkie phones, at which point I was a very young boy. But I didn't have my own phone until I went to college, despite the fact that I would have liked one very much. I had a tracphone in high school that I shared with my brothers and sisters, but I like to pretend it was mine. So I do understand that sometimes even young children need the use of a cell phone. But their own phone? why in the world? Aside from safety or communication with parents when they are out with a group I can not think of a reason. Everyone should note that in order to fulfill that reason a child needs only the most basic of cell phones for occasional use. The don't need texting in order for that purpose to be fulfilled, and they don't need internet, and they don't need cameras, and they don't need anything a smartphone does. So, if you are making the argument that kids need cellphones for safety, but they have all this other stuff your argument is ridiculous and you need to rethink it. There are plenty of options out there to give kids the safety without giving them all these functions they don't need. Fireflys, Jitterbugs, and basic tracphones are all useful alternatives. Kids don't need to be in constant communication with their friends or be online. Parents should really be moderating that kind of communication and activity anyway. And then kids would not be on their cellphones at cultural events being annoying to other people.
As I've previously advocated, parents need to be more informed about their children's use of electronics. Parents may not know how to use all the functions on a smart phone so they may be unaware of the dangers of handing one to their child. And when children do have to use cellphones instruct them in proper etiquette of how and when to do so appropriately (of course this only works if the parents practice this themselves).
So there's my rant for the week, hope you all have a good one.

"now, go do the right thing" Dr. Laura