Thank you, Sarah McMann

I don't watch much UFC, MMA type of fighting. I think it's cool to watch every now and then, and certainly interesting, but I don't watch it much. 

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed today, I saw this link shared about how two undefeated women's UFC stars, were going to fight on February 22. It looked interesting, so I clicked on the link and started reading about them. 

This is Ronda Rousey. 

She was an olympic bronze medalist in Judo in 2008. She's got an undefeated UFC career with 8 wins and 0 losses. That really, really gains my respect because those are hard things to do. 

Here is her opponent.

This is Sarah McMann.

She was an olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling in 2004. She also has an undefeated UFC career with 7 wins and 0 losses. Again, tons of respect. 

Being who I am, I wanted to choose a side on the fight so I looked up some information on the two of them - and was really disappointed with what I initially found.

I first googled the name, "Ronda Rousey" and clicked on the images link. It took me no time at all to figure out what kind of a person she is. To put it simply, she has sold herself out. She has allowed pictures of herself to be taken that are in no way appropriate. And it is revolting. 

All of the respect I had for Ronda Rousey disappeared in a moment. She went in my mind from being a great and respectable martial artist and fighter to being a (Excuse my language) slut.

After looking up Ms. Rousey, I was a little hesitant to look up Sarah McMann. But I did, and I am glad I did. She was modest. And I really appreciated that.

So to Sarah McMann, thank you. Thank you for not selling yourself out. Thank you for being a good role model to the youth. Thank you for doing what is right. 

God bless you, Sarah McMann. 

And go beat Ronda Rousey! :D

Minimum Wage

I've seen quite a bit of a movement recently in favor of increasing the minimum wage. Can I just say this?
PLEASE! DO NOT INCREASE THE MINIMUM WAGE!
Ah, that felt good. :)
Okay, here's what I'm trying to get to.
Increasing the minimum wage will give the people more money. For sure. It will give them more income, and therefore more potential to spend, therefore boosting the economy. It will not increase inflation - because that's not what it does. Inflation is created when the government floods the economy with massive amounts of cash, takes the money off of a base where it's worth comes from, (eg. The Gold Standard) and makes it worthless by doing so. To make it short, increasing the minimum wage will probably boost our economy greatly.
That's one side of the argument.
Here's the other.
Increasing the minimum wage increases unemployment, and also sends prices for goods skyrocketing. With increased mandatory wages, businesses can support fewer employees and therefore will fire some of them and raise the working hours of the others. If they don't take that approach, they will keep all of their employees, but raise their prices in order to be able to support their people - therefore making it even harder on those already unemployed. It's a lose-lose situation.
Personally, I lean towards the second point. It just makes more sense to me. But for this post I'm not going to take either of those sides. I'm going to create a new side.

Minimum wage kills creativity.

It's true. It really does. Do you know what minimum wage does? It gives a person a secure living. It makes them comfortable. They don't have to worry about getting a pay cut. They can make a solid budget based on a steady income and live by it. And they'll probably live very well in comparison to the common man of the last 200 years. But... Do you know what makes creativity?
Desperation.
It's the fear that one's family will go hungry that has driven many people to succeed. If a good living isn't guaranteed, one is forced to get creative, or give up. This type of desperation has started a million businesses. Patented inventions. Made a better employee, and a better employer. Desperation and unwillingness to fail has changed the world, and improved a lot of people in the meantime.
Don't stop it, please.
There is a problem with what I have said here though. Things aren't the way they used to be. Nowadays a person can't just start their own business standing on a street corner and selling apples off of the tree in their backyard. Or start a mechanic's shop in their garage. Because in order to do these things, they have to have business licences from the government in order to sell food, or to fix cars, or anything else. They have regulations holding them back. In reality, a broke person in modern America can't do anything for themselves anymore. They can't even hunt or fish for their own living. It's illegal without a license. So maybe minimum wage is the way to go. Maybe it is the way to help people. But I don't think so. I fear that increasing minimum wage will lead the people to be more dependent on the government. And with more dependence on the government by the people comes more power in the government. It's a trap, really. From the first welfare check handed out and the first employment law put into place, the people have slowly been sucked into what is now nearing complete dependence on the government. So really, minimum wage is only a small part of a large problem.
The problem of government being where it shouldn't be and doing what it shouldn't do.
I'm out of words for now. But do me a favor please and put some thought into what I have said. Think about how much the government really does for you. From road construction and snow removal to minimum wage and business regulations. From education to healthcare. They play a much larger part in your life than I can say, and it's not a good thing.
Stay free, my friends.

College

People often ask me, "Where do you want to go to college?" or "What are you going to major in when you get to college?" like it's something I am expected to do. Like I am supposed to fit the cookie-cutter kind of mold for life that goes like this.

Be born.

Grow up.

Finish high school.

Go to college.

Get married.

Get a job.

Retire.

Die.

I'm sorry, what? Did someone mention college? Hold on. I am 15 years old. I barely have tomorrow planned, not to mention the next 10 years of my life. I haven't decided whether or not I am going to college yet so figuring out which school and what major is nearly impossible. And why does most of society seem to think that I will go to college just because it's the thing to do? In case you haven't noticed from reading this blog, I'm not the type of person that does something just because it's the thing to do. If I decide to go to college, that's great. If I don't, that's great too, just don't force your idea of how life ought to be on me please, society. Thank you. Now, I'm done with my ranting part. Let me show you the intelligent part of this post.

I hear ALL THE TIME. 

You have to go to college so that you can get a good job.

You have to go to college so that you can be influential in the world.

You have to go to college if nothing else just for the experience.

You have to go to college because that's where you get the best learning.

You have to go to college.

You have to go to college.

You have to go to college.

Over and over and over again I hear these things. Here's the deal.

We'll do this in order of the "You have to"s

You have to go to college so that you can get a good job.

*Sound of crickets chirping*

You've all heard the arguments for and against this one, so I won't bore you with them again.

I'll just name three people and be done with it. If you don't get what I'm trying to say, go research who these people are, and what they've done with their lives without a college education.

Steve Jobs

Larry H. Miller

Bill Gates

You have to go to college so that you can be influential in the world.

*More crickets*

Ok, maybe this one doesn't deserve crickets. I don't know. I think it does. Here's the deal.

Glenn Beck

Rush Limbaugh

Mother Teresa

And, according to this article, 27 senators and 1 house member. I don't know how up to date that is, but the point is made.

The names named in the good job section apply here as well.

Nothing else needs to be said.

You have to go to college if nothing else just for the experience.

Okay, I'll grant society the fact that it's hard to have the experiences one would have at college anywhere else, but are those experiences that I really need to be successful? I haven't been to college, but I don't think they would be. Other than the learning, from what I can gather it sounds like just a lot of social experience. That's fun and all, but not necessary to be successful. Maybe if one were to get married at college that would be a major plus, but one can get married anywhere else besides college, therefore invalidating the point in favor of college.

You have to go to college because that's where you get the best learning.

Oh please. The fact that you're reading this right now means that you have access to more information than any one college ever has in the history of the world. Use it.

So, in conclusion, college is optional for success. Hard work is the other option. And when I get to the point where I have to decide between the two, I will. For now, let me focus on today please. :)

That's all I've got for now. 

Have a wonderful day. :)

Growing Again

I have to hand it to the Devil, he's a pretty clever being.

Something I've learned recently and observed in my own life is that the Devil doesn't have to make a person sin to stop their spiritual growth. He just has to stop them from being righteous. I think this is one of the world's largest problems. Some people are just plain not bad people. They've got good hearts. But they're not really righteous people either. They know what they need to do, they just don't do it. Let me illustrate this principle with something from my own life.
My former bishop assigned me and a few other young men to each visit a few widows in the ward every week and see how they're doing. Even just keep them company for a while. They get so lonely. I've kept that calling pretty faithfully over the past few years, but lately I haven't. I've come home on Sundays after church and thought, "Oh, I have so many other callings. Between fast offerings and taking the sacrament to the shut-ins, and being a family history consultant, and home teaching, and being in the ward choir, and going to church, I don't think I have time to visit the widows. I need some room on Sundays for rest as well. That's what Sundays are for, right?" Well, I'm wrong. Sundays are for service, not for laziness and mindless internet browsing both of which I am very guilty of on Sunday afternoons. Sundays are not for watching television or reading the latest novel. They're for spiritual enlightenment. And if you do get spiritual enlightenment from watching television, or reading the latest novel, or laziness, or mindless internet surfing, or anything else like that - by all means, go ahead. But I don't. And I know it. See, this is where the Devil is so clever. He knows that if he can just get me to do something that isn't really sinful - maybe a little bit, but not really - or maybe something even good like watching a church related movie, he can keep me from doing what's better, and best. Things like visiting the widows and even spending quality time with my family.
So I'm going to change. I'm going to start visiting the widows again, even if it means sacrificing my afternoon nap or internet time.
I'm going to resume growing spiritually again.
I invite you to grow with me.
Love,
Dallin

Untitled - A Guest Post by Tim Erickson

hi guys. my name is tim. i like to lowercase stuff cause I think it's revolutionary okreally, so I'll be straightup with ya'll- basically I'm writing this because I want you to follow my blog or whatever, haha. :D
but nah, I actually wanna write this.

So here goes.



go watch that video. even if you've seen it like 50 times. go watch it again.

so yeah. basically, Dallin's all like: "hey write a blog post for me on like pure word gold."

and I was stupid enough to accept. So here's what I have to say about that amazing video you (hopefully) just watched: It's amazing. Go watch it again. Chaplin says it all so much better than me.

alright. So let's be human, and be real. Let's embrace our common humanity and live more real. Let's live truly.

okay, there's my comments. Here's some actual useful info.

The Great Dictator (the movie that speech is from) was made 73 years ago. Woah.

Secondly, some background on this speech is helpful:

"The speech itself is from a comedy directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin. First released in October 1940, Chaplin plays two characters who look strikingly similar- a jewish barber and a dictator who looks like Adolf Hitler. Near the end of the film, after a series of bizarre incidents, the dictator gets replaced by his look-alike, the barber, and is taken to the capital where he is asked to give a speech."

So here, here's the transcript of it.

I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.
We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish…

Soldiers – don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers – don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers – in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

That's it. Rock and Roll! :D


Much thanks to
-Dallin
-The Universe
-This webpage: http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/09/15/this-really-might-be-the-greatest-speech-ever-made/#!ri9W5 
-This webpage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator

Now I'ma go and watch the movie sometime. Thank you for your time.

Tim is the classic surfer dude. Except that he has never surfed in his life, but that's okay, because if you saw and talked to him on the street you'd see what I mean. A man more chill and laid back than anybody else with looks to match. Even lives in California. Cool stuff. Tim loves slacklining and other awesome stuff like that. Go check out his blog here. It's pretty epic. 

Awake, My Soul!

The last little while has been rough. And I say little while because I'm not exactly sure how long. It's been a while. I think it's all catching up to me now. Here's the basics of how much has happened to my family in the last year or so.
We have moved twice.
Like almost everyone else, we have major financial struggles.
My Dad has been in the hospital 6 or 7 times now with unexplainable pancreatitis. He is in the hospital as I'm writing this.
My Dad has also had a knee surgery, and a shoulder surgery, and is probably getting his gall bladder taken out tomorrow.
My Mom had Bell's Palsy for a while.
My brother Spencer now has type 1 diabetes.
My brother Enoch now has asthma.
My little sister Rachel had a cough that almost killed her over the winter.
My brother Ben broke his arm.
3 of my siblings (Ben, Bekah, and Rachel) have ataxia-telangiectasia. While this is not a new development for Ben and Bekah, it is within the last year and a half or so for Rachel. The thing with this is that Ben and Bekah are hitting a critical stage in their lives. If they can stay healthy and out of wheelchairs and stuff for the next few years, they might be able to live a normal life.
My Grandma on my Mom's side died.
My Great Grandpa on my Mom's Dad's side died.
My Mom had a baby.
My grandparents on my Dad's side got home from their third LDS mission to Nauvoo, Illinois.
The feed store which my family owns has this new potato grinding project that brings in a lot of money, but takes an immense amount of time.
To add on to the family struggles, the nation seems to get worse every day economically as well as spiritually - and that is a burden on my family, because we love our country. We love America.
I'm sure I'm missing things, but that's the basics of it. And although some of those things are good things, most of them are painful, and hard. Most of them are things that make a person wonder if they can handle everything given to them.
And that's just my family as a whole. We all have our individual struggles to add on to the family struggles. For me, these are the major struggles.
I lost my state wrestling title because of my own foolishness.
I struggle every day to stay morally clean in a world filled with filth.
I'm starting to have to put serious effort and thought into preparing for a mission.
I've got to get my Eagle Scout before I turn 18. That's still a little ways off, but it weighs on my mind.
I really struggle in school.
Work is becoming more of a necessity rather than an option like it used to be.
I have a new church calling.
To put it simply, I'm growing up. And I'm not ready for it.

Having put all of the above struggles together, and having thought about them, and their incredible weight, I became depressed. I mean, wow. That's a lot. I hadn't even realized the immensity of it until I put it all together.
As I was reading in the Book of Mormon this evening, I felt that I ought to read the selection of verses which is called The Psalm of Nephi. This is located in 2nd Nephi 4, verses 16-35. Nephi wrote these words following the death of his father, Lehi, from which he was in complete agony. As he's pondering his father's death, he exclaims in the agony of his soul, "O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul greiveth because of my iniquities. I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted." This, coming from a prophet of God! A man who trusted God when everyone else doubted, and said, "I will go and do." A man like this can have sins that so easily beset him? I didn't know that. How could a man like Nephi consider himself to be a wretched man?
Nephi talks for a few verses about how the Lord has blessed him, and strengthened him, and then exclaims, "And why should I yield to sin because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heard to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy? Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul."
I think Nephi put pretty well in three words what I am trying to say in this entire post, so I'll just finish with his words. It's time for me to apply them to my life.

"Awake, my soul!"

A Friend... Almost

Have you ever looked at the people who surround you who are your friends? They are those people with whom you share a deep understanding, and a deep love. People whom you trust with everything.
And then there are those people who are... Almost friends. On the outside, sure, you're friends. Everybody you associate with sees you as friends. But on the inside, you're not. You're more like close acquaintances. And it might not even be because you don't like that person and they don't like you. That is a viable option though. No, it might be that you just haven't experienced enough of life together with that person to call them a friend. Or maybe you were friends and something happened, and now you hold disdain for them. Or maybe it's not disdain, but uncertainty. Maybe you're not sure where you stand with that person, and it's too awkward to associate with them on a personal level. Maybe you're just scared. Scared because you are, or were, so close to being inseparable friends that it hurt, but there was just something indescribable dragging the friendship to a halt.

Maybe this is just me.

Maybe I'm alone in this.

I certainly feel that way.

But... Maybe I'm not alone. Maybe you feel that same sense of guilt or shame or longing - maybe even all three at once - when you see that person's picture. Or read their social media posts and statuses. Or recall old conversations shared with that person.
I don't know what else to say. At this point I'm out of words. I just wish I could figure out how to fix this problem - and I have to fix it. Because Jesus said love everyone. And it's hard. It's hard when you have a friend that was only... Almost.