Intro

Throughout my life I have always enjoyed working out the nitty gritty details on certain philosophical questions that I encounter. This can be beneficial because I often feel fairly comfortable about a certain position that I take (although I am always open to new information). On the other hand, this can also be detrimental because I often have something nagging that results in less sleep.

As I start this blog I will post a bullet list of the reasons why I want to do a thought blog and my personality traits that brought me to this point. They are in no particular order, just via uninterrupted brainstorming:

• I have always had a journal from when I was very little until now. Once graduate school and children came, the frequency of writing dropped tremendously. Somehow, using a blog as my journal facilitates more frequent entries. Maybe because posts can be made from any computer and are usually short in length.
  
• My love of evaluating people, culture, religion and group behaviors lead me to get a minor in sociology.
  
• In early high school I developed a strong desire to learn as much about LDS doctrine as possible. This lead me to quickly read Mormon Doctrine, Miracle of Forgiveness, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith*, and a few others that weren't quite as influential.
• I had a period of weakness with my testimony during my last couple years of college. I have not fully resolved the original issue, but have come to terms with it and can happily say that I am more confident than ever.*
  
• As the blog title insinuates, I am very conservative/orthodox with some surprising liberal tendencies. I must state that any liberal tendencies that I might have are NOT the result of naive media influence that I see happening all too often.*
  
• I would sometimes post less complete, more diluted posts (of a nature that I want to post here) on my family blog. They always seemed out of place and unlike the other posts they received few to no comments.
• I like to gather information and make spreadsheets. I would like to post some of these and have people comment on things I may have missed or gotten incorrect.*
  
• I most instances I don't mind wearing my thoughts/emotions on my sleeve
• Posting here is primarily and almost solely for me, not for others. Writing out one's thoughts can be both personally enlightening and cathartic. Enlightening because I have found that as I work out how I want to write something down I figure out better what it is that I think on that topic.
  
• I am extremely analytical (which is not the same as judgmental).
  
• I enjoy some talk radio and politics. Discussing them and religion can be an easy way to offend others, so writing them on MY blog is much less combative than directing them at a specific person.
  
• I like to back up the church. Not because I feel a need to put up a facade for personal doubts, but because it is surprisingly easy on most subjects, and it goes along with paragraph one of this post.
  
• Despite my desire to work out details on questions that I have about anything, I hesitate to discuss/ponder or spend too much time on as Joseph said, "the thin branches of the tree" for fear of having them break from underneath me. That being said, I don't ignore them either.
• I usually take the Happy Medium option. When I have to make a decision on what stance to take I usually think of the two logical extremes and end up somewhere in the middle. Why "look beyond the mark," or "fall short of the mark" when you can hit it dead on?
  
• I love to vacuum. What else allows you to be deep in thought and get things clean at the same time? I have spent countless hours vacuuming cars and concrete slurry at two of my teenage jobs.
• I really enjoy Contemporary Christian music.*
• Growing up in Utah has made me strive to not fit stereotypical molds. Now that I am out of the insecure years of "youthhood" I don't worry about this as much, but I believe it has greatly influenced the creation of my personality.
• It still shocks me to hear people talk about how they see me as such a confident person. I had a time in my early childhood where I had very little confidence. I consciously used Alma 38:12 "Use boldness, but not overbearance." and Ether 12:27 "then will I make weak things become strong unto them." to change that.*
• I married the most perfect woman in the entire world for me and my personality.*
• One of the greatest ways to offend me would be to call me lazy.
• I used to have pitiful writing skills. Through a lot of school and a very smart wife I have raised my skill level to mediocre.
• Last, but not least...I would enjoy some discussion on topics of my choosing so feel free to comment. Hopefully others will join in. I will reply frequently to what others say as well.
  

* = great story goes along with this item. I will probably do a future post discussing it.