Layne's Lunch

I had the unfortunate opportunity to be in Times Square in New York City on Black Friday 2017.  The details of why I found myself in that crush of people are not important other than to say I had to give up some of my agency to be there.  As I looked around and saw the sea bodies a thought came to my mind that is captured in 3 Nephi 18:31. ". . . I know my sheep, and they are numbered" I have come to know through personal experience with the Spirit that I am known of Him, but as I struggled through the press of people I couldn't help but wonder if he can really know the millions of people on this earth?  How is that possible? As I looked through the cross references for the scripture in 3 Nephi, I re-read John 10:14: "I am the good Shepard, and know my sheep, and am known of mine" This scripture gives us additional confidence that he knows his sheep, but the second part of the scripture causes me to ponder the questions, Do I know Him?.  He he said t...

Here are a few of my favorite quotes about reading the Book of Mormon. We live in a time of great trouble and wickedness. What will protect us from the sin and evil so prevalent in the world today? I maintain that a strong testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of His gospel will help see us through to safety. If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so. If you will read it prayerfully and with a sincere desire to know the truth, the Holy Ghost will manifest its truth to you. (Thomas S. Monson, "The Power of the Book of Mormon", April 2017 LDS General Conference) Last April, President Thomas S. Monson gave a message that stirred hearts across the world, including mine. He spoke of the power of the Book of Mormon. He urged us to study, ponder, and apply its teachings. He promised that if we dedicated time each day to studying and pondering and kept the commandments the Book of Mormon contains, we would have a vital testimony of its truth, and ...

Project Planning and executing.  Why is it so difficult?  To answer this question I went back to my Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) from the Project Management Institute and looked at the process group interaction diagram.  Wow!  If anyone looked at this they would immediately get discouraged.   Have we made it unnecessarily complicated?   This week I have been re-reading the updated edition of David Allen's "Getting Things Done".  It is a fantastic book and I would commend it to anyone.   David Allen’s natural planning model is fairly simple.  It contains 5 steps.   Define purpose and principles  Outcome visioning Brainstorming  Organizing Identifying next actions As I reviewed it again, I started thinking about my own project model.  It took me a few minutes to think through it and capture the essence of it, but here it is, along with a bit of explanation about...

Why isn't there a Blue Zone in Utah? This question has been on my mind for over a year.  Ever since I heard about Blue Zones I have been wondering why some small town in Utah didn't make the list.  But first , what is a blue zone? Blue Zones  is a concept used to identify a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives. The concept grew out of demographic work done by Gianni Pes and Michel Poulin. The five regions identified and discussed by Buettner in the book  The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest : Sardinia ,  Italy  (particularly  Nuoro province  and  Ogliastra ): one team of demographers found a hot spot of longevity in mountain villages where an amazing proportion of men reach the age of 100 years. The islands of  Okinawa ,  Japan : another team examined a group that is among the longest-lived on Earth. Loma Linda, California...

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about using the highlight feature in the gospel library app to differentiate between gospel topics. Why do we highlight in the first place?  The answer is simple.  It comes from the day when most people used paper scriptures.  They used colors and highlights to help you find scriptures.  Most of us do not have the time or the capacity to memorize the references for hundreds of scriptures so we relied on the our memory to get us close.  For example, the scripture about the natural man being an enemy to God, in my mind is not in Mosiah 3:19, but it is located in the first few chapters of Mosiah on the right hand page in the right column toward the top.  So, to find it I would simply flip through the first few chapters of the Book of Mosiah until I locate the highlights that I made on Mosiah 3:19.   This system served me well until we all started using electronic scriptures.  Now there are no pages or columns....

I am kind of a notebook junkie.  See my blog post on notebooks . I have been keeping a notebook-based journal for many years, but recently I listened to a pod cast that suggested some ideas for an electronic journal.  While I'm not ready to make the switch completely, I do believe there are some benefits to journaling electronically. Initially I came up with some ideas that might help make an electronic journal successful. Create a template that you can replicate on each day. Choose a method that will allow you to add to your journal with your phone, tablet, and desktop computer.  Have brief journal sessions throughout the day.  Do it as inspiration strikes you.    I did a search for some ideas on how to do an electronic journal and there are dozens of ideas out there.  My paper journal was turning into basically a daily log, Occasionally I would put down some thoughts and ideas, but mostly is was a list of the things I did.  I though...

I want an amazing Burrito de Vegetales. Unfortunately after multiple attempts to find one, I am still looking. I have found that there are only two types of veggie burritos.   1. The food torpedo. Go in any of the fast casual Mexican food places and you can have them wrap up some beans, rice, pico, and perhaps some sautéed veggies in a tortilla with beans and rice.  These are not too bad for a quick lunch, but they are not amazing.  2. The food blob.  Go to your typically Mexican restaurant and they will take a big flour tortilla fill it with some fajita veggies, throw on some sauce and cheese.  Then add a couple of sides of completely unremarkable rice and re-fried pinto beans and call it a veggie burrito. Basically they no idea what to do when someone orders a veggie burrito other than take the meat out of their fajita burrito and call it a veggie burrito.  I'm hoping one day I can find a chef that will scrape the mediocre off the pla...