Understanding

First off, let me say that I am one of the most liberal LDS members I know. I like to think I have an open mind and I try to be educated on both sides of most arguments just so I can understand where the other person is coming from. Initially I might keep on arguing but when I walk away from the issue I usually see more clearly and see where I could've opened my mind more and where I was mistaken.

I am a theatre girl, not to stereotype, but this usually means I'm surrounded by people who's opinions can differ greatly from mine on things like religion and morality. I am totally fine with that, in fact, I love it! I learn so much and I think I see both sides more easily because of it. I meet great people from all places in life. The only problem I have sometimes is that I am often the odd one out. I often find myself alone in my opinions and it can be frustrating when others refuse to give me the chance I am willing to give them. I am all about understanding but in my world right now it feels like the people with opposite opinions refuse to do what I am trying so hard to do, Understand.

You might know what I'm frustrated about at the moment and I know it's frustrating a lot of people on both sides of the issue. I am close

to and come in contact with many gay people, I am close to so many people who have loved ones that struggle with homosexuality. I am not removed from it, I am not homophobic, I have nothing against homosexual people. I have loved ones that are homosexual. I know with certainty that that is the position my church also holds.

At the same time, I, as a member of the LDS church, can't support acting upon those inclinations. Instead of going on and unintentionally offending anyone, I want to encourage you to visit the links I post below. I think they clear up a few of the misconceptions that have been spread this past week.

For those who are angry and offended with what President Packer said in General Conference I encourage you to get the whole story by reading his ENTIRE talk, making sure you are not getting anything out of context. I have yet to talk to someone who has.

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1298-23,00.html

I also would ask you to see how a gay member of the church is reacting to this and his feelings about the entire thing.

http://gaymormonguy.blogspot.com/

Finally, I feel

like this is such an important discussion for anyone concerned with this issue to read. All LDS members should see this and all non-members who are mad at the church or have questions about it should read this. It answers almost every question I've ever seen or been asked.

http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/official-statement/same-gender-attraction

I hope as you read it you will have an open mind and be willing to understand a possibly different point of view. Whether you are LDS, religious, atheist, spiritual, or completely indifferent, I ask you to take a moment and ask yourself if the church is sending a message of hate. Listen to what the spirit, or your conscience tells you and I know you will have less anger and hate towards the other side and their beliefs in either case.

Peace & Love.

LK

Two men I love :)

The One Good Thing to Come Out of the Twilight Phenomenon

I have made a discovery of such great awesomeness that I must share it with all. It's all about... Twilight, yes I know, Twilight. Now before you go get your panties all in a bunch, crying over the stupidity of the feminine gender's obsession over this ridiculous, overdramatic, emotional load of crappy writing, hear me out. I detest pretty much everything Twilight, I promise. Somehow (I can't remember exactly how anymore) I stumbled upon a little gem that is all about Twilight and I fell in love.

So this guy, Dan, is a writer for Sparknotes. He's probably in his mid-twenties, attractive, and absolutely hilarious. Apparently the editors at Sparknotes found out he was one of the only people at Sparknotes that had never read or seen anything regarding Twilight so they asked him to read the series and blog about it as he went along. Genius!

I was intrigued by this concept because I thought it would be interesting to see a guy's thoughts on these books. It wasn't just interesting, it has been super entertaining. I have felt like a complete idiot more than once as I find myself laughing out loud all alone. Seriously though, check it out! The farther into the book you go, the funnier it gets. Oh, and he has awesome cartoons at the beginning of each chapter :) Here's just a little taste to whet your appetite:

Excerpt from the blog for the first chapter of New Moon

Chapter One: Party

Better title: My Kingdom for a Band-Aid

The lovebirds walk into the house, and are greeted by everyone shouting, "Happy birthday!" The house is decorated with pink roses, silver, and crystal. It's very impressive, but a properly planned Dora the Explorer-themed party could be just as classy, and twice as fun.

Bella responds to the decorations and all the attention by telling us, "It was a hundred times worse than I'd imagined." After reading that sentence, I've decided that Bella is the worst character in literature, beating out Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Dr. Doom from The Fantastic Four. What an ungrateful, horrible, lousy person.

Emmett is happy to see Bella, but quickly excuses himself with a wink and goes outside. Alice and Jasper greet Bella, and Jasper, who still loves human blood a bit too much, acts distant and odd. Alice then says it's time to open presents, and gives Bella a box. There is nothing inside. The box contained a new stereo for Bella's truck, which Emmett ran out to install so that Bella wouldn't be able to return the gift. How tricky.

Alice then gives Bella another present to open, this one from Edward. She gives him a mean stare, but he assures her that he didn't spend any money on the gift. As she opens the present, the wrapping paper cuts her finger, and all hell breaks loose.

Edward screams, "No!" Jasper gets his hungry eyes and charges at Bella, and Edward comes running over and pushes her out of the way and over a table, crashing into some glassware (side note: Why do vampires have glassware? I thought most of their meals were eaten on the go). Jasper runs into Edward, creating a loud, rock-like sound. The amazing Emmett then holds Jasper back. As Bella looks around, she realizes the crash caused a more severe cut on her hand, and now she has six hungry vampires staring down at her.

Prediction: (This is Dan's prediction for the next chapter, probably my favorite part of each post) Jasper shouts "Five-second rule!" before diving for Bella's blood on the floor. Later, Bella nicks her leg while shaving. Jasper goes nuts, but Edward protects Bella. The insane, ravenous Jasper kills hundreds of people in his maddened state of bloodlust. The next day he apologizes to Bella and offers her a bottle of Nair with a sheepish grin. All is forgiven.

Anyway, go check it out...

http://community.sparknotes.com/index.php/2009/07/16/blogging-twilight-index-page/

Cool Beans

Lo

All that Jazz

This post is about 1920's Jazz music... Nope. So I already know that this post will make me sound like a nerd but this is what I feel like writing about . If the Jazz don’t interest you feel free to skip this post haha. You will probably just be bored and think I’m lame for being so into a sports team that I’m writing an entire blog post about them :)

For anyone who knows me well, you know that the time surrounding July 10th 2010 was a trying time for me. My favorite Jazz player, Kyle Korver was being signed to the Chicago Bulls. The Jazz made no offer on the season’s three-point shooting record breaker. Though my devastation has lessened over time, I am still a bit bitter about this transaction. I have to admit I almost lost faith in the Utah organization, probably due to some unnecessary panic, but still, I had some good reasons to worry. Now, I don’t hate Carlos Boozer but I was never a huge fan either. When he was playing well, I loved him, when he wasn’t I just tried to ignore him. But when he decided to go to Chicago, followed by Kyle, I was nervous about who would replace him. He did have a huge impact on the Jazz’s winning record. The fact that the Jazz had used their draft pick on Gordon Hayward, when we already had others who could play his position, was nerveracking . Where were we going to get at least one good big man? When Portland offered that ridiculous contract to Wesley Matthews, I about died. Not only could we potentially lose another huge part of our team but Matthews was supposed to be my new favorite Jazz player in place of Korver L I was super worried at this point. The most important thing for me is that the Jazz keep Deron Williams in Utah, but there’s no way he’s going to stick around without a playoff worthy, potential championship team. I was doubtful that the Jazz organization was going to make the big moves necessary for that team to be a possibility. Then, miracle of miracles, the Jazz announce the signing of Al Jefferson. WHAT!?!!! They actually signed a legitimate replacement for Boozer! Bigger, younger, super similar stats… Yeah baby! I still felt like we needed Matthew’s talent to go along with Jefferson but I was more willing to let him go when Raja Bell jumped on board. We still have some pieces we need to find to make the team complete but I can tell you that I am very optimistic about this season now. I am amazed that we were able to find two such talented players so excited to come to Utah. Al Jefferson was absolutely brimming with his excitement. It was way funny to hear him talk about how the basketball Gods had been good to him. Little bit different attitude than Boozer, who was always in it for the biggest contract. And Raja Bell turned down other offers from teams like the Lakers because he claimed that if he ever had another opportunity to play for Jerry Sloan, he would take it. It’s more important for him to be an integral part of the Jazz than to win a ring as a backup for the Lakers. Already loving these guys! The potential we now have is so exciting! Jefferson was getting consistent double-doubles with one of the worst teams in the NBA. It would be crazy if he didn’t thrive on a team with the likes of DWill. Who knows what he will be able to accomplish?

Jazz season starts Wednesday, October 27 in Denver at 7:00 pm. If you actually took the time to read this whole post, you definitely should be at my Jazz party that night! It will be an awesome way to start off the season, pounding the Thuggets out at home :)

Farewell Kyle! I will miss you :(

Back in the Day...

My early years have come up a lot in the last couple of weeks. I've enjoyed reminiscing about The Magic School Bus, Pokemon cards, and Gigapets. I just watched Sandlot for the first time last night. Yes, I know, "You're killing me Smalls!" But seriously, the 90's were good to me so this post is dedicated to those years of stretch-stirrup pants, turtlenecks, and bubblegum pop.

1. Cassette Tapes

While deep cleaning my house last week, my mom and I ran across a bunch of old cassette tapes probably used for recording piano and voice lessons. We decided to go through them and make sure there wasn't anything important on any of them. Little did we know, we were about to come upon a treasure. My mom pops in probably the sixth or seventh tape, nothing worthwhile up 'til then, and all of a sudden, a voice that sounds like one of those singing chipmunks, no joke, claims loudly that it is September 24th 1995. The next hour consists of my entire family sitting around my old cassette player, laughing over mine and Jordan's performances. When I was about 5 and he was 3, my parents had taped us a bunch of times singing songs into those old rainbow-colored playskool tape recorders, with the little microphones. Let's just say Jordan had some sort of lisp and I was a mic hog (we started young) and it made for a very entertaining hour. There was even a section were I had recorded myself without anyone's help. I told a story that I made up as I went along. I was a little drama queen. No wonder I turned out this way!

2. Toy Story 3

If you haven't seen it yet, go! Toy Story is one of the first movies I ever remember seeing in the theater. It came out in 1995 when I was 5 or 6 and I instantly loved it. It still amazes me that it's been 15 years! It was the first Pixar feature length film and one of the only animated movies with a good sequel. It had a big impact on my childhood. I went and saw the 3rd one the day it came out and was impossibly satisfied when it was over. I will admit, I cried both times I saw it (and I'm not a big crier when it comes to movies). It wasn't just the premise of the movie, though it was ridiculously touching, but also the knowledge that this saga from my childhood was really coming to an end. I mean, we didn't necessarily know there was going to be a third after Toy Story 2 but this one has such a finality that makes it so bittersweet. But I still loved it. One of the best trilogies ever made. Right up there with Lord of the Rings.

3. Time Capsule

My brothers and I opened these time capsules we made in elementary school in 2000 and realized how much we had changed in 10 years. I had a mini Ferbie in there, a my little pony, an old school Jazz sticker (not so much change there), the last Peanut's comic, even a note to myself saying how much I hoped I was a grocer by now, ha. I was such a weird kid.

4. Backstreet's Back

I loved the pop of the 90's, always will. B Spears, NSync, Christina, Spice Girls, even 98 Degrees. But true devotion will always go to the Boys, Backstreet Boys that is. NSync was always fun to listen to but the BSB's will always have better voices, better harmonies, better musicality. Going to their concert last week was a treat, let me tell you. I've followed them since they took a break in 2001. If you didn't know, they've had 3 albums since 2005. I love their new stuff even more than the classics. I didn't ever go to one of their concerts when they were at their biggest but I was not about to miss them this time. They even danced, boy band style! It was amazing! I mean, I assumed they would, but to really experience it... ah, what an event :) Oh, and I have to mention the fact that Nick Carter is more attractive than ever.

You may laugh, but I will forever pledge my allegiance to the "Backstreet's Back, Alright!"

One thing I love about getting older, being able to look back and say, "that's from my generation", like my mom always said to me. Oh, and knowing mine is way better than the current one ;)

Cool Beans

Lo