Grand Re-opening!

Welcome to the new and improved "Council Bluffs' blog!" I've made some changes as you can see and this first entry is going to explain the changes.

The colors: yeah, I know they're different. I don't particularly like the white background, I'd rather it be light blue, but I couldn't find another template that I liked much. I like the red, blue, and black lettering.

The addition of a scripture or quote: I hope that everyone will read this. I guess this is my way to share what touches or inspires me and why it does.

The addition of a slideshow: I really like these sunset pictures, I'll probably change it to some other pictures someday but for now we'll stick with the sunset. I'm a sucker for nature pictures, they really relax me.

The addition of a survey: This'll keep things fun...and democratic.

The addition of links: I'm not trying to take traffic away from Becca's, Chelsea's, nor Cannon's blogs. These have been my hubs in the past, but this way people who visit my blog can visit the blogs of my friends and get to know them a little bit. I think readers of my blog should pretty much just open up all these links and read what I read everyday. I don't think I need to explain why I added those particular links, to find out, just click them.

The addition of a picture I really like: Also to keep things fun.

The addition of a news feed: President Hinckley said that we should find out what is going on in the world. In case readers don't click on the news links then maybe they'll get a brief summary from here at least. It's pretty cool, though, I can add different words and google will find articles related to the words. So I have: politics, Council Bluffs, BYU, John Beck, and Romney. You can click on those words and see the most recent news about those items. If you want me to add items, leave a comment on my latest post.

The addition of a google ad: I don't honestly think I'll make money from my blog, but it doesn't hurt to make a couple extra sense here and now. Maybe someday I'll be able to buy 3 del tacos from my google revenue.

The reason for change: A couple reasons: 1) I got a little tired of my old format. 2) This might help me climb higher on hits for "Kasey Beck." 3) I also now look at my blog as a way to spread the Gospel a little and do my part to improve the world. I'm not sure if this will mean that I'll post more often, but I am trying to get more people to visit the site and maybe interest them a little and do what I can to help out people. You never really know if you helped some random person on the internet have a better day or come closer to Christ. The notes to the article at the end helped with this too.

We had an awesome trip to Council Bluffs for P-dub's wedding. Here are some pics that somewhat tell the story:

Friday morning when we were driving, we hit a big snowstorm in southeast Wyoming, so we had to go down to Denver and then take I-76 back to Nebraska. At the Flying J in Julesburg, Colorado there was this awesome sunrise.


The sun was doing some weird and cool things Friday morning.

It was a weird sunday on a Friday.

Maybe I thought too much of it.

It was just awesome, though.

K, last Friday morning sun picture.

The good ole Midwest. You can't really see it, but there were lots of birds in the sky and there was a lot of mist coming from the ponds to the side of the interstate.

Here's a picture of the Winter Quarters Temple at 12:15 PM, I think, Saturday morning, while Sara and Justin were getting married.

This is the Sealing Room I think they were in. ETERNITY!!!!!

We had a lot of fun with the cameras at the reception while we were waiting for the food.

We had a lot of fun when we got the food too. This is the chocalate covered Budha strawberry.

Alan saw the strawberry and lost it.

I don't think I've ever seen him laugh so hard.

I thought the chocalate covered alien strawberry was funnier.

It's almost creepy looking.

On the way back I was driving and this huge semi jumped the median, came onto our lanes and played chicken with me. I won...and got a picture of it in the process.

I've always wanted to get a picture of this. It's at about mile 32 in Nebraska.

What's this supposed to even mean?

You can kind of see the bent mile marker. This is where the mile marker sign used to be until Trishy tore it up. I went off the road about 30 feet.

Fencing

This just cracks me up. Facebook has two purposes: to stay in touch with friends and to entertain. It is a toy.

The Daily Universe had a really good article about blogging. Here are some excerpts:

The foundation receives its name from Joseph Smith, who stated that Mormon meant "more good." The goal is to provide a non-authoritative voice that promotes LDS beliefs and encourages members to share their beliefs with the world. Richard Miller, executive vice president and BYU business graduate, said people often don't want to believe leaders or authorities but they will believe regular people. "I think members can provide that non-authoritative voice," Miller said. "I think the church membership can add a lot of credibility for the church by speaking about what they believe." The More Good Foundation decided that the Internet was a prime way to encourage discussion and to improve the image of the church. The foundation already has 80 different Web sites online; some of them are major projects. Lds.net, started about three months ago, is one of the foundation's premiere sites and already has nine thousand members, Miller said. This online network combines blogs, chats, forums, photos, and videos. Richard Miller said it is similar to myspace.com but isn't trying to compete with it.
Curtis, who is on lds.net and has his own blog, said he thinks the web is an easier venue for members to share the gospel. Even students can be sharing the gospel, he said, even though most of the people they live with are already members. With the web, students can reach out to people everywhere.

Another important project that the foundation is working on is Christ.org. This site will be solely about the man from Galilee, his life, ministry and doctrines about his importance.
The More Good Foundation also hosts Mormonwiki.com, the free online encyclopedia for people to read about the LDS church and find answers to questions. The site already has over one thousand articles in English and has hundreds translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages. This site is a dot com and not a dot org because mormonwiki.org is an anti-Mormon website.

The More Good Foundation also sponsored the LDS Facebook application and over 20 thousand people have already added it. With this application, members can share their testimony, favorite scriptures, and also check up on the latest in church news.

While the More Good Foundation started working with the Internet years ago, recently, several apostles of the church have encouraged members to use online media. Elder Russell M. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve encouraged BYU-Hawaii students in December to use new media to promote discussion of the church. "May I ask that you join conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the new media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration," Elder Ballard said. "Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true."