Weather update for Alexis

Alexis, what you say is true, regarding our weather.

It is what makes the British Isles so green, after all. Though there is an area of desert in the East Anglia region, I believe. Not the deserts you know in California, however, of course.

Not far away we do get a sort of tidal event, on the River Severn, it is called the Severn Bore and it is an event caused by high tide in the Severn Estuary which is a long way away.

It's basically a wall of water that flows up the river. Mostly spent by the time it gets to Shropshire, but still interesting to see. I have been able to see it once. Some people closer to the source of the Severn Bore have been known to surf up the river.

And I recall that back in the lack 1960s or early 1970s a popular BBC TV programme called Blue Peter took one of their presenters out on a small boat to film it. The boat capsized and the presenter had to save the life of the cameraman who could not swim.

Some days after they mentioned the disastrous adventure on air, a woman and her child were walking along the river bank and found the TV film camera. The BBC collected it, took it to their processing laboratory (it was a 16mm film camera) and processed the film.

The picture was not perfect but it showed the whole event right up until the moment that the boat capsized and the camera slipped under the water. Very dramatic!

Poor weather for a Public Holiday!

It's a Bank Holiday in Britain. Which, of course, means that the weather has been appalling all day with fairly strong winds and driving rain, both of which made it feel much colder than it really was.

It is brightening up a little now, it is 3.24pm, but hardly anyone has gone out anywhere. No trips to the coast and the fact that this is National Barbecue Week in Britain seems a little ironic. No barbecues today, I fear! Certainly not for us. Maybe next weekend, instead? Weather permitting, of course!

An animation that I liked very much! It is called Heavenly Appeals

Well, here we are, Sunday and the weather is rough

It is a Sunday in late May and supposed to be our summertime in Britain.

The reality is that it has been windy and rainy for several days. So much so that you could be forgiven for thinking it was early October rather than towards the end of May!

My mother tells me she has had to have her heating on, so cold was it earlier in the week.

It is supposed to be National Barbecue Week from 30 May (details at National Barbecue Week) but unless there's a major change of weather I think all the burgers, sausages, fish, steaks, chops, etc, will be cooked and eaten in doors, instead!

Ah well, perhaps it will get better, soon? One can only hope...)

The Story of Stormy and Stormy's One and only as told my him

The story of Stormy and her one and only

The above link will take you to the true and on-going story of Stormy and her one-and-only.

It is a heart-warning story of two lovers who got together and how their true and pure love for each other was crushed by the false religion of Mormonism, but it tells how, despite all of this, they got together again and are to be re-married. Without Mormonism.

Seriously, this needs to be turned into a book and a film.

I might -fingers crossed- be in California in September

Not for long, under a week, probably, but I have an invitation to a business conference of sorts.


I have never flown before, so that would be interesting.

I think soon it wil be time for some exmo poetry

Yes, I will be posting some exmo poetry, soon.

Perhaps rhyming, perhaps blank verse, perhaps Haiku, might even be some magnetic poetry or some special experimental stuff.

Here is a mangled version of a recent post, altered by several passes through Google Translate and turned into an experimental poem:-

Weekend was my birthday

He was 54 years old.

During the six years time, God willing, I'm still here, I'm the seventh decade.

My boss is almost 70 hours, and congratulated me, dressing is a good thing,

when he asked me how old I was.

Surprisingly, however, I think less than they were founded 30 years ago.

I'm certainly a better time.

Do not forget that I was faithful Mormon, then!

And this is a big difference.

Hmm. Interesting. Perhaps it might even have artistic merit? Please let me know what you think!

You can try this yourself, translate it via as many languages as you can, then back into your own language and look at the result.

It was my birthday

Over the weekend it was my birthday.

I was 54 years old. In six years time, God willing that I am still here, I will be sixty.

My boss, who is nearing 70, now, congratulated me on wearing well when he asked me how old I was.

Strangely, however, I feel less mature than I did 30 years ago. I am certainly having a better time. Mind you, I was a believing Mormon, then! And that does make all the difference.

Hayfever

This morning I am suffering from hayfever.

I did not suffer from hayfever as a child, only developing it at about fifteen or so. And now, many summers later, it is here again.

An Olbas-infused paper handkerchief is helping (made, most thoughtfully, by the people at Lotus) and they are available at most chemist shops and supermarkets. Thanks Olbas! Thanks, Lotus!

I have work today and can do without hayfever, but that's me and the millions of other sufferers. Oh well!

Idea for a new book on why people left Mormonism

I am thinking of writing a new book called: "Out of Mormonism."

It would be a book with stories from various contributors who have left Mormonism. Why they left, how they left, etc.

If anyone is interested in contributing, please email me at matt_exmo@yahoo.co.uk

Hello again!

Hello, again.

I haven't been able to post on my blog for a couple of days. Apparently Blogger.com was out for nearly two days.

It seems something went wrong during or after a scheduled maintenance period and it took the Google/Blogger engineers and technical people a long time to figure out what had happened and to fix it.

Well done, folks! You must have put in some long hours! Glad you got us back on line!

Things that make you say: "What???"

The following post is nothing to do with Mormonism, by the way.

Details have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty, but this is, in essence, a true story.

Mr Exx comes home from work one day. He finds his wife in a state of considerable distress and anger. "What on Earth is the matter?" asks Mr Exx, who is concerned and worried about his wife.

"It's that bloody 'friend' of mine, Mary! She just will not leave me alone to get on with any housework! She was here for hours today! Just sat there, gossiping! "

There then followed a sixty minute rant about how evil Mary was, what a worthless person Mary was, how Mrs Exx wished she had never met Mary, etc., etc., etc.

After sixty minutes of this episode of the "Everyone Hates Mary" show, Mr Exx was becoming more than a little agitated, himself. He said: "Well, logically, the best thing to do is tell Mary not to come round to our house, if she is that much of a nuisance to you, and seeing as how much you hate her?"

It was at this moment that a logical disconnect suddenly sandbagged Mr Exx. "Aha!" Shouted Mrs Exx, triumphantly. "Now we have arrived at the truth! You do not want me to have friends! You want to keep me isolated from everyone!"

Apparently, without Mr Exx being aware of this fact, someone had switched channels from the "Everyone Hates Mary" show to a new programme entitled: "Mr Exx, the Evil, Sexist Pig" show.

There then followed a rather rancorous two hour 'debate' in which all of the alleged failings of Mr Exx, and of his parents and his siblings were brought out and made to dance like holographic puppets.

After this, whilst Mr Exx was virtually shaking with anger, having naturally been left feeling terribly upset, Mrs Exx abruptly stopped being a ball of fury, instantly calmed down, smiled sweetly and said: "Do you fancy a cup of tea?"

All Mr Exx could say was: "Yes please," because he knew that if he had said anything else, he would not have been able to control his tongue let alone his temper.

It's probable that Mrs Exx transferred the rage (justified or unjustified) that she felt towards Mary on to her husband, Mr Exx. Is this blame transfer a common phenomenon, or not?

I would be pleased to have your comments on this.

To those of you who had to attend a Mormon church service but do not believe

I am sorry that you had to go through this. Seriously.

I mean, life's difficult enough without having to put up with the added burden of Mormonism.

It must be like having to attend Multi Level Marketing meetings even though you do not want to!

Have courage, my friends! You will be able to escape from Mormonism, eventually!

Mormons are special

Some Mormons, that is. There are many Mormons who seem allowed to get away with any old stuff they care to try, yet some get disciplined for very minor offences, even!

Why is that?

Some people are Mormon Royalty, others are not.

Some get the full three course meal, others merely get the stale bread. Water they can only get if they beg nicely.

'Mormon' Bank in violation of rules. Pays $8M

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US government announced an ciivl money penalty against Zions First National Bank, Salt Lake City, Utah, for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

Zions, without admitting or denying the facts or allegations, consents to an $8 million civil money penalty, which was assessed with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and this was satisfied by a payment of $8 million to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

FinCEN determined that Zions violated the requirements of the BSA as it failed to establish and implement an effective anti-money laundering (AML) programme in respect to its foreign correspondent banking relationships with casas de cambio, banks, casas de bolsa and foreign corporate customers, and also failed to file 'timely' suspicious activity reports.

"Both traditional and emerging products and services, such as remote deposit capture, must be accompanied by appropriate compliance measures to manage the risk for abuse," said FinCEN Director James H. Freis, Jr.

"While the violations were to some extent historic, lapses or breakdowns in compliance can nonetheless result in civil monetary penalties, as warranted. Particularly with new product development, financial institutions must stay abreast of emerging risks and informational sources such as government advisories, publications, examination manuals and other relevant materials to mitigate such risks."

(Well, so long as they did it 'prayerfully' that would have been OK, then? Sometimes these kind of things make one wonder...)

20% Discount on Mormonism, Con or Cult!

I just noticed that I can apply discounts to books I publish and sell on Lulu so I have decided to apply a discount of 20% on all sales of the book in order to say thank you to all of my followers on Not a Mormon.

"Is the Mormon church all that it seems? In this highly personal book, the author examines the history and present of the Mormon Church. He poses the question: 'Mormon Church: Con or cult?'"

The link to purchase is on the right side of this blog.

New design on a blog I am following

Alexis over at The Many Banes of My Existance, http://alexisar.blogspot.com has come up with a nice new design for her blog.

Is it time for a new blog design here at Not A Mormon? Well, perhaps it is!

My book, Mormonism, Con or Cult is still available to buy

A little while ago, I decided to publish a book, "Mormonism, Con or Cult?"

It is still available via Lulu at the reduced price of £1.88, though you can, of course, use your local currency to purchase this e-book.

It's based on the material from the early days of my blog, Not a Mormon.

The link to buy the book is on the right hand side of this blog. There's also some totally unrelated Christmas stories for sale there, too!

Osama is dead.

So says the news reports.

I don't know how to view this news. Should I be happy or sad? Or what?

The strange thing is that, far from living a life of austerity in a mountain cave, it seems he was living the type of life his wealthy family had always lived. In a luxury villa, whilst surrounded by some of the world's most awful examples of genuine, heart-breaking poverty, disease and ignorance.

Is it a pity that the vast wealth he had amassed was not used to help alleviate the suffering of some of the poorest, most destitute followers of Islam?

Health care, education, employment opportunities, there is so much that could have been done, which was not even begun, let alone finished.