We haven’t had any resource problems for the past several hours. I’m cautiously bringing the main index back online. If it starts to flare up again, I may have to go back to the barebones index. Read More

Is there a program or utility that will tell me what parts of T & S are using server resources? Right now, I’ve got cpanel, and that’s it. So I can watch our resource use spike, and I can turn off plugins. And I can pull the index offline. And see if that helps any. But it would be nice if I could get a more exact picture. (i.e., “server use – 10. Breakdown: 2.0 for index.php, 1.0 for wp-comments-post.php, and 7.0 for blacklist.php” which would tell me “aha, the blacklist is what’s tying up resources”). Suggestions? Read More

Okay, that didn’t work. We spiked again, knocked out Apache again. I took down our index file and reverted back to the out-of-the-box default wordpress index. (Pretty, huh?) We’ll see if that helps. Maybe there’s a script in our index that’s crashing the site. Read More

We just had a technical mini-crisis. I think it’s past. Read More

An interesting discussion has been taking place in the blogosphere. It begins with recent studies showing that very few academics are conservative or Republican. (The ratio is about 15 to 1). Paul Krugman’s op-ed in today’s New York Times suggests a few reasons for this imbalance, among them the influence of anti-evolution politics and the idea that “today’s Republican Party – increasingly dominated by people who believe truth should be determined by revelation, not research – doesn’t respect science, or scholarship in general.” It is not surprising that Krugman’s op-ed has not been received with unanimous approval. Read More

A few days after I returned from my trip to New York, I packed the suitcases again–this time with the children’s pajamas and toothbrushes, too–and flew to Utah for the annual conference of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, where I was slated to read a paper. Read More

– And, Brother Decoo, could you come in your native dress? It’s this time of the year again. Circus by the aliens. Officially it’s called Cultural Heritage Night, or International Fashion Show, or LDS WorldFest. Mormons love it. Read More

My wife bought a basketball standard this winter. It was on sale, our oldest son had been asking for one for months, and my wife is a great basketball player. The only problem: assembly required. Read More

When Pope John Paul II was named “Man of the Year” in 1994 by Time Magazine, I cut off the cover, framed it, and put it up in our apartment. We kept it up, from one apartment to the next, for a couple of years, and even at one point had a framed photo of President Hinckley on the wall next to it as well. (No visitor ever commented on our arrangement, though I often wonder what some of them may have thought.) So yes, you could say I was a major fan of the Pope. I mourn his passing,… Read More

This is the place, as it were, for comments on conference. I’m going to stop typing and listen. Read More

Jim’s post “A Small Thing” and the comments it elicited reminded me that good Mormons not only can’t have beards, they can’t have tattoos either! Read More

We’ve been in close negotiations to purchase some used karaoke equipment from a despondent Steve Evans. Given the course of negotiation, we’re confident that we’ll close the deal soon. And so, without further ado, it’s time to announce our latest regular feature: Times and Seasons karaoke! Once we get a few technical bugs worked out, we’ll post the first installment, which is Nate’s not-to-be-missed performance of My Way. We expect to follow shortly afterwards with Kristine’s rousing rendition of Dancing Queen, as well as a special performance of The New Kids on the Block – Please Don’t Go Girl, sung… Read More

Wow — I didn’t see this one coming. It is with a heavy heart that we announce a major shake-up in the blogosphere. Steve at BCC is calling it quits. We would say that we enjoyed reading BCC; that its posts were always top-notch; that it made the sunshine brighter and the birds song sweeter. But none of that is really true. I mean, how far can a blog really expect to go when its founder is a Canadian? But we’ll miss BCC around here. We’ll miss having them around as a convenient foil. We’ll miss the cautionary tale element… Read More

Theodore Geisel’s treatise Green Eggs and Ham (Beginner Books) is an ambitious work. It seeks to unify themes of longing, friendship, anger, acceptance, and culinary conformity. In addition, the book delves into Mormon themes — as one might expect, given Geisel’s little-known affiliation with the Mormon church — including blood atonement, polygamy, eternal progression, Kolob, Facsimiles One and Two, and sugar beets. Covering all of this ground would be a hard task under any conditions. And Geisel’s attempt to do so in a mere 62 pages is breathtaking in its audacity. One must give the man credit for his gumption.… Read More

The leaks are just too many to ignore. It’s apparently official. Following the legal victories of alternative marriage advocates in state and federal courts, the Church will announce this weekend that the doctrine of plural marriage has been restored. Read More

We’re happy to announce our next installment in the 12 Questions series. Our new participant is someone you’ve all heard of, and whose name is often discussed in the bloggernacle itself. Yes, that’s right — we’re going to be doing 12 questions with Zelph. Zelph, as you all know, was a white Lamanite and a righteous man. He participated in some of the great battles of the late-era Nephite-Lamanite wars, and was a personal friend and follower of the prophet-general Onandagus. We’re very excited to get a chance to interview Zelph and get a glimpse into late Nephite culture. So… Read More

A sometimes charged little threadjack discussion has been going on in Julie’s latest book review, over a statement by Adam. Adam’s initial statement was “In my experience, the more sympathy and prominence paid to feminists, the more excluded people like my wife feel.” Adam’s reasoning is, I think, a good example of a broader phenomenon which I think deserves closer scrutiny, and which I will (with Julie’s permission) focus on in this thread. That is the argument that any movement towards feminism in the church necessarily demeans or diminishes Mormon women who do not consider themselves feminists. If this argument… Read More