I did it.  I finally pulled the trigger.  I have enrolled in a class at Mesa Community College.  It is TEC 111, or “Clothing Construction”.  I’ve been thinking about enrolling in a college class for quite a few years now, and I have actually enrolled several times both at ASU and MCC.  Each time I chickened out, or decided that my schedule is too busy, or it’s too expensive, or it’s not really a class I want to waste my time on.  This year things changed however, when the Feenster, the baby of our family, headed off to all day kindergarten, taking most of my excuses with her.
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Jeff G is an old friend of this blog so I thought it fitting to point out that he is back in the saddle and blogging about Philosophy and Mormonism at a new blog.

So far, the posts have taken the form of an ongoing dialogue between two interlocutors, much in the same format as a recent discussion between someone and himself here at this blog (ahem). The two participants are “David” (who seems to represent the actual Jeff G’s and his views) and “Jeff” (who seems to represent Jeff G’s best, tho usually losing, defense of Mormonism).

I have always found Jeff G to be one of the smartest and most interesting people in the bloggernacle. You’re not likely to find much in the way of Mormon apologetics at his blog, but if you’re interested in a skeptic’s ruminations about the intersection of philosophy and Mormonism, take a peek over there.

Leader: Sin and Death separate us from God.

YM1: Even God sins, just look at the flood.

Leader: God doesn’t really sin, we’ll talk about it in a minute.

YM2: I thought was like the God before our God who did all that stuff.

Leader: There was no God before our God.

YM1: Yes there was, there were Gods the made him God.

Leader: Well it is possible there is an infinite regress of Gods, but…

YM1: Yeah, and Zeus was the First God.

Leader: [exasperated sigh]

I made some major errors in this post initially. Please read this revision

In 2002, M. Russell Ballard, with the endorsement of President Hinckley, issued a challenge to the church that we strive to send those who are truly able and worthy on missions. A few years after, Blake Ostler posted over at Times & Seasons lamenting the loss of those who were seemingly now being denied the opportunity to go, as well as the loss of converts due to this. (see follow up posts on this, and see appendix for follow up on those posts) Today I am revisiting those numbers.
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