Rave reviews

Hey everyone! The 2013 BASOTRUSSLs are about to arrive, so all 2012 models must go! Due to all the conferences and temple dedications and whatnot over the past few months, we have surplus inventory that we MUST get rid of! This weekend only, get two for the price of one! (Check here and here for the study guide info on the final two Book of Mormon lessons.)

If that deal isn't enough to convince you...check out the glowing reviews I've received for my most recent BASOTRUSSL!

You're so cool! I don't suppose I've truly read through a single thing like that before. So good to discover somebody with some unique thoughts on this subject. Seriously...many thanks for starting this up. This website is something that is needed on the Internet, someone with a little originality! -- Anonymous

You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be actually something that I think I would never understand it. It seems too complicated and very broad for me. I'm looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it! -- Anonymous

Hi! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog. Is it hard to set up your own blog? I'm not very techincal (sic)  but I can figure things out pretty fast. I'm thinking about making my own but I'm not sure where to start. Do you have any tips or suggestions? -- Anonymous

I feel this is among the such a lot vital info for me. And I am happy reading your article. But wanna remark on some common things. The web site style is ideal, the articles is in reality great : D. Just right process, cheers. -- Anonymous

Pretty high praise, and it's much appreciated. But you guys, you don't have to be shy! There's no reason to be embarrassed about liking my writing, and wanting to share what you liked in a way that makes it think English is not your first or even your second language. It's totally cool to attach your name to it! If you do, maybe I will visit your websites about futures trading demos and fish food!

Anyway, it's been a great year for BASOTRUSSLs. I hope that my blog helped at least one person, at least one time, to do some scripture study that they otherwise wouldn't have. I invite you to continue reading the Book of Mormon on a regular basis, and now adding the Doctrine and Covenants to your schedule as well, starting next week. See you in 2013!

Holy Shiz

Well, it looks like the world isn't going to end today. Trust me, it's for the best. If you want to know of the horrors that accompany the complete, systematic annihilation of an entire civilization, you need look no further than the final chapters of Ether, which are covered in this week's Sunday School lesson.

With Christmas just a few days away, you're all likely running around like a Shiz with its head cut off (see Ether 15::29-31) trying to get ready, so I won't keep you long with this week's BASOTRUSSL. I'll just leave you with this funny list I came up with a while ago. I buried it at the bottom of a blog post last year, and as a result I don't think many people saw it.


TOP 10 NAMES LEAST LIKELY TO BE GIVEN TO MORMON CHILDREN

10. Gog
9. Magog
8. Jezebel
7. Lilburn
6. Laman
5. Barack
4. Potiphar's Wife
3. Korihor
2. Gadianton
1. Shiz

(It turns out those might be the only names not given to Mormon children. Or to new babies in general. Holy Shiz indeed.)

Merry Christmas!

This is my Skyfall. I have to defend it!

Hat-tip to my friend Michael Brown for the title of this post. And I got the above image from here.

I made a quick weekend trip to New York last month, and while there I saw the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. It might seem strange to devote a few hours of a short getaway to watching a movie, but when you're on vacation, you do things you normally don't do. And I almost never see movies in the theater at home.

Shortly after leaving the theater, I posted on Facebook that Skyfall was a blatant ripoff of Home Alone. I might not have been the first to publicly express that notion, but I had to have been one of the first, since I saw it in the afternoon of its opening day. I'm also quite confident that there aren't many who have explored the two movies' similarities as thoroughly as I have.

I've waited until now to write in detail on the subject, out of deference to those who haven't seen the new Bond flick yet. But it's been out about six weeks now, so I'm not too worried about posting spoilers at this point. And I wanted to get this up before Christmas passes, and we forget about the masterpiece that is Home Alone for another 11 months. So here we go.

There's an obvious setpiece at the end that is the main tipoff to the connection between the two films. In it, James Bond returns to his childhood home, and with the help of M and the caretaker of the old house, uses everyday objects to prepare various booby traps and defenses to fend off an invasion from a more powerful intruder. Pretty much everyone who's seen both flicks has made this comparison at this point.

But there are so, so many more plot points from Skyfall that seem to have been lifted directly from the Home Alone screenplay. Here are the ones I've identified thus far, listed in order from "could just be a coincidence" to "Ian Fleming's estate owes John Hughes' estate some serious royalties."

1) Both heroes are of Scottish descent. Bond literally returns to his Scottish roots, and McCallister is a great Scottish name.
2) The protagonists each employ a creative method of descending stairs quickly--007 sliding down the escalator while chasing Silva, 00-Kevin using his sled.
3) Both movies have a bearded old man with a mysterious backstory who helps save the day.
4) In both films, the hero was abandoned at the beginning by "Mom."
5) The Home Alone tarantula was replaced by either the scorpion or the monitor lizard, depending on how you want to look at it.

Do you guys give up, or are you thirsty for more? Good.

6) In both movies a second building across the way is used as part of the escape, but the bad guy catches up to them there anyway.
7) Silva wasn't the first villain with fake teeth to pretend to be a cop.
8) Each movie features unnecessary shaving--00-Kevin (I like that nickname) is too young, and 007 shaves in the middle of the night--what?! Why?!
9) The bad guys in both shows easily bypass shoddy attempts at security (Silva blowing up MI6/escaping from his cell/etc.; the Wet Bandits figuring out the automatic lights of every house in the neighborhood).

Obviously, this not only proves that Skyfall is little more than a remake of Home Alone, it shows that somebody needs to get on the "grown-up-Kevin-McCallister-as-a-super-spy" movie. I would totally watch that. If you can think of any similarities between the two movies, mention them in the comments. In the meantime, I've got one more for you:

10) Both movies include blatant beverage product placement early on (Heineken for Bond, and "Fuller, easy on the Pepsi!"), but later the hero gets their favorite, classic treat (a shaken-not-stirred martini and a lovely cheese pizza ("just for me"), respectively.

Keep the change, ya filthy animals.

DIY

You may have noticed the lack of a BASOTRUSSL post last week. We had a special third stake conference for the year. No boundary adjustments or leadership changes, just a General Authority who wanted to visit.

Anyway, back to normal this week. Well, sort of. In this Sunday's Gospel Doctrine lesson we'll be covering one of the best-known stories from The Book of Mormon--the time the Brother of Jared saw the finger of the Lord as it touched and illuminated a bunch of stones.

As you may remember, the brother of Jared had come to the Lord for assistance in providing light for otherwise-pitch black barges that were to be used in a trans-oceanic voyage. The Lord in turn challeneged the brother of Jared to come up with an idea on his own (see Ether 2:23-25). He ultimately "did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones" (Ether 3:1) and asked the Lord to touch them, which He did.

If that method is good enough for God, it's good enough for me. So this week, rather than come up with my own convoluted comparison between the scriptures and something from my life, I'm challenging YOU--my readers--to do it for me.

So hit the comments, folks, and let me know what you would write about if you were molting your own BASOTRUSSL blog post out of this particular block of scripture. Take my word for it, it's really fun.