England/Ireland Trip Highlights- Getting there

We didn’t want to take one long flight with Liam, so we broke up our flight out to London, into shorter flights- New York during the day, overnight flight the next day to Iceland (cheaper ticket), and then after one hour layover in Iceland on to London.

A day or two before we left for our England/Ireland trip I started to get a little nervous. All the regular concerns; can I fit 3 weeks worth of stuff in a carry-on, are work tasks going to be ok, do we have our plans and addresses and proper communications when we get there, and on and on and on. And then you add on the element of taking a 9 month old across continent and on overnight flights, packing baby food, diapers, stroller, cot for him to sleep in. Everybody around you looks at you like you are crazy, and not knowing what is going to happen you start to feel like you may be crazy too.

Here are a few highlights of our first international adventure with little Liam.

Mike Linton is no Ken Jennings

On the plane flight over there we played the delta trivia. I of course put my name as KenJen because Ken Jennings is the best trivia master ever. Half way through the flight, after I lose a round to others on the plane, a mother and a son come back to where were sitting and they introduce themselves as the others playing the trivia game and they just wanted to say “”hi”. I congratulated them for beating us. Well, I thought that was odd, but then I remembered what my screen name was- KenJen. They thought that they had just beaten Ken Jennings the trivia master and I saw the disappointment on the kids face when he finally made his way back to our seat 22e and found little old me and not Ken Jennings. That gave us a good laugh.

So some highlights from New York.

Saw the 9/11 Memorial

Then we observed the “Occupy Wall Street” protests, which I found quite intriguing, interesting and full of irony.

Found ourselves feeding and changing Liam anywhere and everywhere- this time in some random church cemetery (Michelle just informed me it was one of the oldest churches in NYC). And I was still taking pictures of everything. 

After our day tour of NYC, we made it back to the airport to catch our flight. We were a little nervous about the red-eye flight and having a baby that could cry all night, making it both uncomfortable for parents and passengers a like. We got three seats to ourselves for our overnight flight to Iceland. We discovered Liam loves drinking out of a water bottle, he is not too good at it, but he likes it. Well, he ended up doing really well on the whole flight

Liam slept like a little angel. All our worries for the 14ish hours of flying across continent were put to rest as Liam slept like he was in his crib. He cried for about 7 minutes on the overnight flight over to Iceland, but his mother pacified him and mostly the loud sounds of the airplane and the fact that everybody has earphones in helped it not be as stressful as we thought.

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Idea 3,417: GoDash Key Chain Stylus for iPad

Many of you know that I have a chronic problem of losing pens and any writing utensil. In fact, when I got married and Michelle started going through my closet she found a large shoe box full of pens. She thought and then asked ” This is crazy, why would somebody need all of these pens?” I simply replied that those pens wouldn’t last a year now that my stash was found and available for use and loss, explaining that if I lost an average of 1 per day, they wouldn’t even last a year. Anyway, you get the idea- I have a problem.

Enter iPad, enter new problem. Of course, all my 100 pens wouldn’t work on my iPad to take notes for meetings (I use an awesome app called Notes Plus) and to draw and doodle and think with- I needed a “capacitive” stylus. So I bought a few of those expensive suckers that are about 5-20 times more expensive than the 100 pens stashed away in my closet. After about a week of blissful use, they were nowhere to be found, and although our son is now starting to eat solids, he is not quite old enough to start blaming for little lost items that inexplicably disappear.

After struggling with my dilemma for a few hours, I knew what I needed- the solution- a key chain stylus. A stylus that would easily connect and disconnect from my key chain and prevent loss. I tried to find a good one on Amazon.com or other stores, but to no avail. I tried connecting a mini stylus with a string to my key chain- after a few attempts of untangling my keys from the string, I gave up. I took apart my Inka Pen (key chain pen) and super glued and cut and drilled, and in the end, it didn’t work well and I ironically lost my several prototypes. I didn’t give up.

After a few weeks of constantly thinking and talking and developing a better keychain stylus, to the point where I’ve been asked not to talk about it for four hours a day, I finally created a workable, sell-able iPad keychain stylus that I haven’t lost and that works well. After a few more weeks of risky wire transfers to other parts of the world and receiving hundreds of imported styli (or styluses), manufacturing the GoDash Stylus, becoming an Amazon reseller, and selling my first units to loving and caring family members (including my wife) who feel bad for the thousands of stupid ideas I have come up throughout my life, I finally have a product that has been sold to non-family members (as of yesterday) through Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055CQ106.

So don’t hesitate, I suggest you order soon because the supply really is limited. Note: this also works on smart phones and other devices that require a capacitive stylus, and is great for the cold winters when you are wearing gloves and need to navigate your device.

 

 

 

 

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Journal Writing Day #17: Writing about Journal Writing

I have really enjoyed writing about journal writing. I have indeed learned more about journal writing and my daily entries are better than they have been in the past- I hope that is the same for the hundreds and thousands of you that are reading this blog. Thank you all for your support and comments. Any other comments are very welcome.

Side note: I guess that writing and sharing about something is a good way to help ones self achieve a goal. Extra pressure to do what you said you were going to do.

So the challenge is over, I hope it has been helpful and I invite you to make a goal to continue writing in your journals daily.

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Journal Writing Day #16: One more day

I hope everybody (all 6 of you) that committed to this 17 day challenge of Journal Writing, is actually still writing in your journals everyday and you’re having a good experience doing so. I would love to hear about any experiences people have had- good or bad, with regards to journal writing everyday for 17 straight days.

I hope the habit has been formed and that we are all able to continue reaping the benefits and blessings that come from journal writing.

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Journal Writing Day #15: Consistency in Journal Writing

I think the principle that Elder Bednar teaches below can be applied to somethings as simple as journal writing. I have found that it isn’t the individual entry that matters, but the many entries over a period of time that bring the blessings.

Referring to Family Home Evenings and family scripture study, Elder Bednar said,

“The consistency of our intent and work was perhaps the greatest lesson—a lesson we did not fully appreciate at the time.

In my office is a beautiful painting of a wheat field. The painting is a vast collection of individual brushstrokes—none of which in isolation is very interesting or impressive. In fact, if you stand close to the canvas, all you can see is a mass of seemingly unrelated and unattractive streaks of yellow and gold and brown paint. However, as you gradually move away from the canvas, all of the individual brushstrokes combine together and produce a magnificent landscape of a wheat field. Many ordinary, individual brushstrokes work together to create a captivating and beautiful painting.

Each family prayer, each episode of family scripture study, and each family home evening is a brushstroke on the canvas of our souls. No one event may appear to be very impressive or memorable. But just as the yellow and gold and brown strokes of paint complement each other and produce an impressive masterpiece, so our consistency in doing seemingly small things can lead to significant spiritual results. “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33). Consistency is a key principle as we lay the foundation of a great work in our individual lives and as we become more diligent and concerned in our own homes.”
http://lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/more-diligent-and-concerned-at-home?lang=eng

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Journal Writing Day #14: Write about People You Know Well Right Now

We are surrounded by people who are constantly shaping who we are and how we think.  Then through the course of our lives  we move or our friends move and we forget about all the people that have influenced us for good or bad. When I put my mind to it, I remember my roommates, but I can’t remember all of them or what they were like and what I learned from them, and what experiences we shared, good and bad. I try to remember all the Elders Quorum Presidents or friends that I had in my wards, but I have forgotten many of them.  As I was leaving my last ward, I sat in Elders quorum and wrote down the names of all those that I sat with every single week for a couple years, I then wrote something about them so I could remember them. When I read the quick descriptions and just the names of the people that I spent so much time with, it brings a smile to my face.

Still, I would like a better description of each of the people that are affecting my life now, and so I have decided that at least once or twice a month I am going to write about somebody that is now influencing my life. This way I will remember later, and have descriptions of the people and experiences that are shaping me. I guess at the end of our lives anyway, we are just a summation of the friends, experiences, and thoughts that we have had.

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Journal Writing Day #13: Write to Remember

Writing, I think, is not apart from living.  Writing is a kind of double living.  The writer experiences everything twice.  Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.  ~Catherine Drinker Bowen, Atlantic, December 1957

I have found that some of my favorite memories are only remembered because I wrote them down or took a picture. It has helped me relive and learn from my past experiences. It is really fun to be reminded about the fun times like when my friend and I jumped out the bus mid traffic jam down the canyon and tried to ski down the road thinking that we could go faster than the bus, I had forgotten my poles so we shared his and it was exhausting. We finally gave up after the bulldozer was coming up the canyon and totally buried us- we luckily found the bus that kindly let us back in- all the people laughed at our attempt- I thought it was a great fun, my friend, not so much. I learned that it is really difficult to ski down a road- especially with only one pole.  As I read my journal about the whole experience, I remember it with a smile.

“As Alma reminds Helaman, written records “have enlarged the memory of this people” (Alma 37:8). Modern memory experts agree that writing down experiences can help us remember them longer and with greater accuracy.” (https://lds.org/ensign/1999/09/why-write-it?lang=eng)

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Journal Writing Day #9: Random Writing

Write down the thoughts of the moment.  Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.  ~Francis Bacon

In order to do this, I quickly send an email to myself about an idea and/or a thought to develop later. I am waiting for this quote to prove itself true and for one of my ideas to be valuable enough to make me more than $20. Until then, I won’t quit my day job.

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Journal Writing Day #8: Capture Life

“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.  How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?  For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone.  That is where the writer scores over his fellows:  he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.”  ~Vita Sackville-West

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Journal Writing Day #7: Helps Develop Thoughts

I thought I really liked this thought about how journal writing can help us develop our thoughts.

“Thoughts are created in the act of writing. [It is a myth that] you must have something to say in order to write. Reality: You often need to write in order to have anything to say. Thought comes with writing, and writing may never come if it is postponed until we are satisfied that we have something to say. … The assertion of write first, see what you had to say later applies to all manifestations of written language, to letters … as well as to diaries and journals” (Frank Smith, “Myths of Writing,” Language Arts58, no. 7 [1981]: 793, 795)

It makes me think about what President Packer said about bearing a testimony- he said-
“Oh, if I could teach you this one principle. A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it! Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that “leap of faith,” as the philosophers call it. It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and stepped into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two. “The spirit of man,” is as the scripture says, indeed “is the candle of the Lord.” (Prov. 20:27.)(http://lds.org/ensign/1983/01/the-candle-of-the-lord?lang=eng)

I think that journal writing does help us develop our innermost thoughts and feelings and helps us figure things out. I’ve made it a goal for the next 10 days to write more in my journal and make it more thoughtful rather than just writing the simple happenings of the day.

“The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.”  ~Norbet Platt

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