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LDS Church Internet Television?

The Church already has an official internet radio station. I’ve listened to it periodically; I like it. I’m not an avid radio-listener, but, as it progresses and improves, I think I’ll like it even more to listen to from time to time.

Today, however, I received an email from Deseret Book asking me to do a survey. I gladly did, but it turned out that the survey was actually for the Church Audiovisual Department– I’m assuming that they simply asked Deseret Book to send the survey to its list seeing as how Deseret Book is one of the main distributors for LDS media both Church-official and non-official (the fact that the Church owns Deseret Book probably helped, too). I’ve never thought of the Church as creating its own actual entertainment aside from music with the Mormon Tabernacle choir, but this survey has me thinking otherwise.

The survey began with the typical survey questions: male or female? Where do you live? Are you LDS or non-LDS? Monthly income? Education?

Then it began to ask the unexpected:

Are you aware of any of the following Web-enabled devices?

• Roku
• Apple TV
• TiVo
• Wii
• PlayStation 3
• XBox360
• Web-enabled television
• Boxee
• Google TV

If the LDS Church were to produce any of the following types of Internet video content to be viewed via Web-enabled devices on television and/or via the Internet, what type of video content would you watch? Please mark all that apply.

• LDS Talk or Interview Shows
• LDS Church News Magazine
• LDS mini-series
• LDS reality TV
• Mormon Tabernacle Choir performances/tours
• On-going LDS dramatic series
• LDS Documentaries
• Live LDS musical performances
• On-going LDS comedy series
• Animated LDS television programs and films
• LDS music videos
• Made-for-TV LDS feature films
• LDS tributes
• LDS Church News
• Prominent LDS member profiles
• LDS celebrations

I was then asked how long I thought each program I checked should last, and then which of these programs I’d watch on my smartphone.

Since this is coming from the Church’s Audiovisual Department, this can only mean that the Church is considering adding internet television to its multi-media. I don’t know exactly how the Church would go about doing official Church-approved entertainment– if it’d be Church-approved at all– but I’m sure we’d see the standard “This doesn’t necessarily represent the views of the LDS Church nor its leaders and etcetera” disclaimer that we already see on all of the non-doctrinal stuff that comes out of Deseret Book and other media outlets.

Regardless of how the Church will be doing this, this is an exciting development for LDS members. I never watch television myself, but, since the media is becoming increasingly filthy and corrupt and wasteful, this would certainly provide safe, enjoyable entertainment for those who like television. I’d actually be immensely interested in the documentaries personally.

Traditional television is going away, and “free” television is moving to the internet. I’ve been planning to not have any television antennae in my future home, and this will make that quest all the more easier.

If this does happen, I doubt it’ll even begin beta phases before five years pass, but I’m excited to see what it turns out to be.

The Basic Good of People

“People are basically good.” Someone said that. eBay repeated it. I believe it, but sometimes I feel so emotionally pummeled that I wonder if the world hasn’t twisted many people’s “good” beyond comprehension.

Despite differing morals (or the complete lack thereof) and differing viewpoints, I do believe people are basically good. When you spend much of your time working and learning via the internet, though, you begin to wonder if that’s really true. For some reason, a large portion of public communication tools– blogs, comment sections of news sites, forums, etcetera– seem dominated by people who simply hate. I saw it while helping with OSNews– though admittedly OSNews has a much higher class of a community that is tolerant and usually somewhat respectful even while disagreeing– I see it in the comments on videos on YouTube, I’ve seen it on EggXpert, I’ve seen it on the comments of people’s personal blogs, I see it in the comments of KSL.com, Deseret News, and the Salt Lake Tribune websites, and I see it prevalent elsewhere. In fact, I now tend to avoid those areas simply due to the fact that people there aren’t civil and that they thrive off of hateful argument and putting down others.

Still, there’s always someone who restores your faith in humanity. The following was recently commented today on my YouTube video that I submitted to be in Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir. It really wasn’t all that great– especially only by itself without other parts– but it warms one’s heart to see pure gratefulness and kindness on the internet once again!

This is quite amazing. Good job though Im only a wind ensemble player. I really appreciate how you appreciate the music. Thank you for keeping music alive. ^_^ Keep it up haha.

–MergGates1

Secular Mormonism

In my digital travels, I’ve stumbled across several websites online that are focused at looking at Mormons and Mormonism in a secular light– not a biased, hateful, anti-Mormon light, mind you– simply a more educational approach. This is all fine and dandy, I suppose, but I personally really dislike such sites. They don’t promote faith in Jesus Christ. Not for me, anyway. They do succeed with any or all of the following:

• Confronting anti-Mormon rumors face-to-face
• Spreading little-known truths that may help defy an anti-Mormon for a time, but don’t help much with testimony
• Spreading little-known disinformation that also may help defy an anti-Mormon for a time but also don’t help much with testimony
• Spreading doubt amongst the ranks in an intellectually clever way
• Promoting the reliance on the knowledge that man can provide and not the knowledge that God can

My opinion on the matter is to let anti-Mormons dig their holes and pour the gasoline on by themselves; we don’t need to help them light the match, either– they’ll gladly do it themselves. I hate argument, and I hate the intellectual black hole that some of us LDS tend to be sucked towards when trying to confront anti-Mormon rumors and arguments. I don’t say that we ought to all shun education and finding the truth via academic means, but I personally very much dislike the idea of building up one’s testimony academically, and I also dislike the obsessions of studying the Mormon culture, beliefs, and history in such a way that it nearly feels odd to see such an obsession– it doesn’t feel right. When one is so obsessed with such things, it simply doesn’t feel right. I also have found that there are many who have embraced the academic means of knowledge over spiritual means, and they end up “learning” their way right out of the church or into strange, dark corners of pseudo-Mormonism. I can’t quite explain it, but when I come across these websites or people with such academic obsessions, I get a strange feeling; like it said, it doesn’t feel right.

There are those, of course, who love to study Mormonism in an academic light yet seem to be so bound to the faith that no upheaval of Mormon rumor could sway their beliefs one iota– Bushman, Maxwell, and Nibley are the three who come to mind first. Perhaps it is my trust in those who are established in the local media and the church and my disbelief and doubt in those who merely have a website to offer their obsessive opinions (especially when their opinions are rather shady while they still laud themselves to be Mormons) that causes this. The internet isn’t the best source of information especially when it comes to learning about Mormonism because half of the intellectual fodder dealing with Mormonism on the internet is false due to the extreme opposition towards (against?) the LDS Church even before Joseph Smith (by this I’m referring to Satan as he was around well before our dear friends the anti-Mormons). Even then, I’d read the scriptures or words from a general authority– especially one of the twelve apostles or the prophet (past or present)– or a fictional book having nothing at all to do with Mormonism rather than a non-fiction addressing LDS topics and LDS history; I care more about the pure truth found in the scriptures and from the mouth of the Lord’s servants rather than all of the academic “just-for-fun” information that may or may not be completely accurate and that is most definitely not necessary for my salvation.

Basically, it’s better to have a firm testimony in Christ and be unlearned than to have all of the “knowledge” (much of which, as said previously, is, in fact, disinformation) in the world and doubt Him. It’s better to know the pure and simple truths provided in the scriptures than to be burdened down by extensive teachings and rumors and lies (all separately) that could lead one away “on strange paths”. Learning spiritually comes before learning academically in my book. In my book, “secular Mormonism” is a hard life to live and reaps little lasting benefits.

The Rejection of the Communication Method of the Second New Decade

Supposing that this second millennium A.D. marks a new set of decades distinct from all other decades before (and it does in so many ways both glorious and repulsive), and supposing that Facebook is the communication method of this first and second decade of the second millennium, I, ladies and gentlemen, have rejected the communication method of the second new decade.

After considering quitting ever since I starting using it and upon reading this wondrous article about a computer scientist who decided to drop his use of email entirely, I decided to make a similar change in my own life.

Facebook: the epitome– the armpit, as it were– of all mediocrity.

No! you cry. It’s why I’m happy! It’s why I wake up in the morning! It’s how I met my wife! It’s my entire life!

Whatever. Here’s a Kleenex.

What’s the first thing I think about when I see McDonald’s? Facebook. What’s the first thing I think about when I witness a pair of seventeen-year-olds exchanging saliva? Facebook. What’s the first thing I think about when I see a Twilight advertisement? Facebook. What’s the first thing I think about when someone blasts up their High School Musical CD? Facebook. What’s the first thing I think about when I witness 40-year-old men going to verbal and sometimes physical blows over the outcome of a sports event? Facebook. What’s the first thing I think of when I witness a male drooling over a woman with fewer clothes on than my dog? Facebook. What’s the first thing I think about when a man high on heroine sits next to me on the train? Facebook. And tazers.

What do all of these subjects have in common (aside from the fact that they’ve nothing to do with Facebook)? They’re all of them entirely mediocritous. Why is Facebook mediocritous? In lieu of saving online bytes (and my time), I won’t reiterate; instead, you can read why here.

In combination with my utter hatred of the Great Blue Beast, reading that article, and probably receiving some sacred gifts the other day, I changed the lock and then had the blacksmith destroy the key. For those too addicted to the Fascistbook that their minds have now completely melted, this is an allegory that basically says, “I changed my password to my Facebook account to a generated 21-character string and destroyed any evidence of that string so that I would have no way of breaking back in.” It’s been 24 hours, and already I feel twice as splendid as I ever have the past year and a half.

True, there are a handful of people who I would really love to stay in contact with more often than a brief visit at a funeral or a marriage or a farewell and who I would hope would like to stay in contact with me in the same way, but I find that Facebook is an unnecessary evil as it provides the means of communication at the cost of self-control. By putting a little more effort into it (and this makes it that much more rewarding to both the recipient and the giver), a person can send a message much more personal via email, vintage mail, telephonic conversations, or even– imagine this– a face-to-face meeting!

Because I would hope that a person might once in a while step out of the Facebook stadium and walk across the street to the wood wherein my comfortable cottage resides, I’ve left breadcrumbs for them to follow. On my Facebook account I’ve left my email address, phone number (which one can text me and call me via Google Voice), and vintage address, not to mention links to my websites and an application that will automatically post links to each new post published here. If you desire to be in contact with me, I suggest you firstly send a message via my contact page, and then I would be extremely glad to talk to you via any of the aforementioned “archaic” communication methods.

Of course, I have only two weeks before I serve my LDS mission (where Facebook isn’t even allowed, thank heaven, though some bone-headed elders still decide to break the rules to get their periodical Faceadermic needle), so some might say that this made it easier to detach myself from the Big Blue Brother, but I honestly have become so frustrated and so disgusted with the service and with how the bulk of its 400 million members abuse the service (and we know the Facebook company wants them to abuse the service) that my fed-up levels overcame any desire I had to easily contact folks; I have no intentions of regressing when I return home– in fact, I have every intention not to.

Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday! Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live amongst such excellent and admirable Hobbits. I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. I er … I have things to do. I’ve put this off for far too long… I regret to announce this is the end. I’m going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell. Goodbye.

Lux Aurumque Abstract

I’m incredibly psyched for the illustrious Eric Whitacre’s album to be released even though that’ll be six days after I leave to the MTC. Still, Decca, the record company who he’s contracted with for this album, produced this spectacular “music video”. I’ve never appreciated music videos unless they were comedies; this is the very first I truly loved, though it could have been better. I rather wish that tree with the cosmos behind it was the beginning (or the end) of an epic or touching movie.

Sarcasm Is Unfortunately Fun

I just realized that the more I criticize humanity at large for being so ridiculously stupid, the more crusty I become and the less I concentrate on the glorious beauty that the world still contains– or, more importantly, any glorious beauty I might be able to add to it. It would behoove a crusty fellow such as myself to think less about the stupidity of mankind (and we are rather brainless for having 2.9 pounds of brains apiece) and more about bringing pure awesome into the world, if possible.

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
-Albert Einstein

…but poking fun at humanity is so very fun. Drats.

The Field Is White

…and orcs’ blood is black. My good buddy, Matt, just reminded me today that there are only nineteen days until I leave on my mission. Nineteen is a rather exciting number.

Forth, Erolingas!

Missionarywork isn’t quite that bloody (see link), but it’s ten times as glorious.

Satanic Messages from the Heart

More and more lately, I’ve been receiving notes scribbled angrily on charred scraps of paper made from -250% post-consumer content:

Jordan Spencer,

I hate you. I’ve always hated you. I will forever hate you with all of my heart.

Regards,

–Satan

I think it has something to do with the fact that I decided to serve a mission. See, Satan really hated that I decided to– been trying to talk me out of it for years.

I usually turn the paper over (instead of using more paper– just so I can balance out that -250% of environmental nightmares) and write something along the lines of:

Ha! You don’t even have a heart! Who hates who now?

After composing said reply, I put on an oven mitt and drop it off at the nearest volcano.

Eating Dog Food

I was working on the new INTRΣADA website (in progress as seen here– with a functional demo of the INTRΣADA software I coded, too!), and I was searching WordPress plugins and the web for customer management systems mainly so that any paying INTRΣADA customers could log in to view their financial account history, and then I realized that I had such a system in my hands, and I knew it better than anyone else on earth. I never thought eating my own dog food would be so pleasant.

I’ve so many new ideas to improve INTRΣADA and really make it a powerful and dynamic tool in even business’ arsenal, let alone that of the non-profit sectors. I’ll just have to write these ideas down until I can code them after my mission. I really hope that it takes off in popularity after I integrate all of these exciting new features (and that some smarty won’t come and code all of what I’ve been wanting to do while I’m gone– I am releasing the source code to the public, after all).

The True Nature of "Art"

I don’t care what pretenses he claims to have: a man who paints or sculpts naked people isn’t an artist– he’s a pornographer.