This is a compilation of all the effort it has taken Sam to score his first goal in soccer this year. It was his first ever season, and they are small, 4 on 4 games. He had lots of near misses, and breakaways.

Cast: Erik Briggs

Tags: Soccer and kids

Similar, perhaps, to "Knifey spoony," "Frisbee, Shield, Sword" is a game for all ages, depending on levels of bravery. This game can be played by as little as two, and scale up massively, given the right circumstances. There are no points involved, just fighting to the death (that's all!).

Although it should be self-explanatory from the name, make sure you have an ample supply of shields, swords and frisbees. You will see why.

Also, armor can be added, depending on the "enthusiasm" used by the players.

Cast: Erik Briggs

Tags: Backyard fun, games, swords, shields and frisbees

This was just yesterday (Aug. 23, 2011). It was Sam's first soccer game. We learned some important lessons and had a lot of fun. It was great that Grandma was in town to see it too. Now she has seen Father and Son play soccer in Utah.

Cast: Erik Briggs

Tags: children, kids, soccer and sports

So, the last I knew was his first ride video. I came home a couple of days later and Annelise told me he wanted to show me something. I went outside and turned on the video. I hope you don't get motion sick, because if you do, this video is going to make you hurl. Aside from that, it shows a boy's first real bike ride, all by himself (with the obligatory crashes).

Cast: Erik Briggs

Tags: Bike and child

They were watching the end of a Shawn the Sheep episode, when this dance came on. They both did it once, so I rewound with again and pulled out my phone to get this video. We're not sure where he got these moves from. The last move is the best.

Cast: Erik Briggs

Tags: children and dancing

Here he is just 5 days old.

Cast: Erik Briggs

Tags: Bath, Baby and Infant

Also at 4 years old. Sam did this the day I came home with a $5 bike from the thrift store. His normal bike (with training wheels) had a flat and nobody sells tubes for 10" tires. I decided he should have some balance, so let 'er rip. This is what ensued. His uncle Jared (now 25) still doesn't like riding bikes, so he must be jealous!

Cast: Erik Briggs

Tags: First, Bike ride and child

Here he is at 4 years old in his first At-Bat at his first T-Ball game. Not bad eh?

Cast: Erik Briggs

Tags: T-Ball, Baseball and At-Bat

When I was younger, growing up in Southern California, my friend Kevin and I wanted to go to Magic Mountain.  He had a car and we both found a day that would work for us.  I had tried to go once before with friends, and we ended up showing up on a day when it was closed.  This time was going to be different.  We planned it out and the day finally came to go.  We got in his jeep and started up the freeway to get there.  Now, I feel I should note that this is the 90’s we’re talking about here.  There was no such thing as Google maps, so we took the 5, which goes through the heart of LA.  (I mention this, not only for the topic I’m speaking on, but because google maps would direct us today to go a different route)

Along the way, we heard a few noises coming from his engine, but thought nothing of it and continued.  Slauson, Washington, Olympic, Alameda, Long Beach and South Central were some of the street names we passed along the way.  For those of you that know the area, or have heard stories, you know what I’m talking about.  A few minutes later, some smoke started spewing from his engine and we had to pull off the freeway.  We got off the offramp and pulled over on the side of the road.  I honestly don’t remember what street I was on, but I knew we were in the wrong place.  We looked at each other, with wide eyes and knew two white gringos had no business in this part of town. 

Now, this story pre-dates cell phones, so we had no way of contacting anyone without getting out of the car.  The rest is a little blurry, but I do know that he got out and found someone to take him to a phone.  I got to sit in his jeep to watch it while he was gone.  I have no idea how long he was gone.  Hazy or not, I do know that I thought to pray at that point in my life.  However good I was (or wasn’t), active in the Church or otherwise, praying was easy at that moment.  I don’t recall what I prayed for, but I can tell you that he got back, and we got towed without any harm or bodily injury coming to us.  His car needed some work, and I still haven’t ever been to Magic Mountain, despite two failed attempts, but I’ll take it.  I’m here.

Many of us have grown accustomed to praying when the going gets tough.  Like in my story, most of us would think to pray when we were in (what we perceived to be) mortal danger.  I found multiple sources online that say that 90% of Americans pray.  I bet they would have prayed then too. 

There is a more important question to consider, however.  What about when we aren’t in mortal danger, or when we perceive no danger at all?  That is when we need to start to try and understand how today’s world is different than it was 15 years ago, or more.  In today’s world, that story probably wouldn’t have happened like that.  The computer in the car would have probably warned us weeks in advance that something was wrong and that it needed to be checked out.  Even had we ignored the warning light, cell phones or Google maps would have made the experience much different.  Looking at that route today, the map would have taken us a much safer way.

With today’s technology, it is never tough to find that which we seek (and also that which we don’t seek).  Coupled with this ease is the temptation to feel at ease, and therefore not pray. 

How many of us have ever visited a foreign place alone, or with few people we know?  Whether this is within an unknown part of a city we know or in a faraway place doesn’t matter.  How many of us have ever prayed when in this foreign place in a foreign land?  As we venture further and further from our comfort zones, it seems easier and easier to remember to pray.  As the natural emotion of fear creeps ever deeper in, we have the tendency to think upon that which we know is safest.  For many Church goers, and even for many people, this means thinking of their Heavenly Father. 

Now, if such is true with many of us in the world, what about the virtual world?  How many of us have ever prayed when we were going to browse the internet for something?  If you are like me, that almost never crosses your mind.  Consider, however, that the virtual spaces in which we visit are just as dangerous, if not more so, than those in the real world in which we have no problem remembering to pray when we lose our way.  This technology has made it so easy that it has us deceived into thinking we are safe.  We lose our way on the internet every day.  Trust me, I get paid well and have plenty of job security because of this single fact.

I am the Sr. Network Engineer for Central Utah Clinic, where I run a network with over 2000 devices, 2000 phones, with over 1000 users (both inside our business and public users) spread across over 20 sites from St. George to SLC.  We do video conferencing and voice-over-IP (VoIP) along with our mission critical Electronic Medical Record application, which is accessed by all these computers.  It needs to be running and working efficiently 24/7. We have firewall devices, internet filter appliances, access rules on routers, traffic shaping policies, along with antivirus and antispyware software on our computers.  We have computer policies limiting who can do what.  All of these measures do not stop me and my staff (8-10 of us) from spending a week (40 hours) about every 6 months trying to cleanup something that has infected our network. 

The effects are ranging, but hopefully the example is clear.  None of us have anything close to that on our home networks, where we and our children are trying to navigate the internet on our own.  We need help.

In researching for this topic here are some of the things I came across, on purpose or otherwise:

• The LDS.org website, reading talks
• Old posts and comments made by “friends” on Facebook
• A new hover motor cycle made by a man in Australia, fascinating
• The Mormon.org website watching videos
• My own blog, reading old posts
• A site called Facebookcheating.com (more on this later)
• Google maps to find freeways in CA
• Magic Mountain’s website
• A Yahoo Answers page trying to answer the question: if atheists were put into mortal danger, would they pray?
• This list goes on

These examples were just to illustrate the point at what type of place the internet can be.  You get distracted VERY EASILY on the internet.  Navigating it isn’t like opening the taps on a stream of water, letting it flow at the speed and temperature of our liking.  It is more like being in a raft without paddles going down a class 6 rapid (the highest level of difficulty/danger). 

Now, it doesn’t have to be this way, but unfortunately, if we don’t do our part to learn how to wield these powers (or the internet’s power, as the case may be), then it certainly will be.  Things like good search habits, a good internet filter, and having the computer in a public place are some of the ways in which we should be protecting and educating ourselves with Heavenly Father’s help and guidance.  None of those things cost money.  The tools are available if we just look.  If we have no problem doing a search for one thing on the internet, why not a free internet filter (like K9) or better search habits (try searching for “internet searching tips.”

Now, I am mainly referring to the actions of “wading” through the “depths” of the internet.  An errant Google search can get you to places you never had imagined or intended.  I'm sure you've all experienced this.  Those types of experiences can seem more corollary to being in a foreign and scary place.  What about places like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, World of Warcraft, along the many other social media sites or games, etc.?

Elder Bedinar, of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, cited in a recent talk entitled “Things as they really are” that “Nearly 40% of men and 53% of women who play online games said their virtual friends were equal to or better than their real-life friends.”  I'm sure he was citing Nick Yee, who has been studying the virtual worlds for many years now.  Bedinar cautions that we should pay attention to fidelity.  He continues “The term fidelity denotes the similarity between reality and a representation of reality. Such a simulation can be constructive if the fidelity is high and the purposes are good—for example, providing experience that saves lives or improves the quality of life.”  He goes on to point out how this type of fidelity can be used for good:  It is used by pilots to practice safe flying maneuvers in dangerous situations and weather.  Doctors can practice surgeries and procedures many times, so that when it is time to do it for real, they are prepared and ready to go.

Elder Bedinar goes on to point out about the other use of “fidelity:”

“[A] simulation or model can lead to spiritual impairment and danger if the fidelity is high and the purposes are bad—such as experimenting with actions contrary to God’s commandments or enticing us to think or do things we would not otherwise think or do “because it is only a game.”

How much of what we do on the internet is now considered “only a game,” whether literal or otherwise?  If you don't play games on the internet, that still doesn't mean you don't consider online interactions trivial (like those only playing a game would).  Our most popular social websites (like Facebook) integrate games with social interaction.  How many people do you know that you get updates on via Facebook countless times a day based on their progression in some game built into the website?  Or what about getting challenged by friends or poked, etc?  I wish it was just games we needed to worry about.

Recently, a study conducted by Loyola University stated that Facebook is cited in 1 in 5 divorces.  They also stated that Facebook is the number one destination for online evidence (in court cases involving internet-based evidence).  In over half of those cases, it’s the primary source of this evidence.

These are ways of how this great and powerful technology can be used in the wrong way.  Let's not forget that that is only the tip of the iceburg.  Chatting, instant messaging, and texting are all forms of virtual interaction that are enabled by today’s great technologies.  Our pens never hit a piece of physical paper for these types of communication.  Many of these forms of communication have no history (by default).  This allows us to easily be influenced into developing sly justifications for doing or saying things that we otherwise would not to in person or face to face.  In some ways this can be good, as we try to overcome our social weaknesses (encouraging us to step outside of comfort zones that we might not otherwise).  In many other ways, however, this is a dangerous thing, on a slippery slope.  We need to always be mindful of the words of King Benjamin, and “…watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith…”

Developing the habits of being bolder in online has a snowball effect if it continues unchecked.  This bad habit is also a way of misrepresenting ourselves, which is lying when all the justification is stripped away.  It is easy to do, because it seems like there is no recourse.  It’s just text, right?  That’s like saying that the jerk-of-a-driver who cut you off is just a car!  It wasn’t “that guy,” but the “guy in the blue BMW” or even “the blue BMW.”  Once we dehumanize someone, it is much easier to justify saying or doing unkind things.  Heck, ask Hitler or the KKK.

The exact same thing happens every day with text-only communication.  When there is no face to look at, you don’t get the luxury of being able to see the reaction to what you are saying.  Couple in the lack of history and you have a free-for-all where you can say and do anything without recourse.  This is a nice recipe for chaos, or perfection depending on whose eyes you are looking at it through.  I’m sure the adversary just loves to sit back and watch the show.

Over the years, and even in recent years, the leadership of the Church has continued to recommend to us to keep a journal.  The Church website also has many articles about blogging.  In my family, we have combined the two.  We use our blogs as an online journal of sorts.  Because it is online, I back it up regularly, so that we can keep it safe.  That is our way of effectively using our time.  We’re sharing with each other and sharing the gospel through sharing our life experiences.  I spend a lot of time working on that website to keep it working well for my family’s needs.  I see this as a highly effective use of my time, since I am helping us kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.  I have noticed over the years we’ve had the site, however, that more and more, much of our online time is spent on sites like Facebook because it is easier than the blogs.  With better integrations to our smartphones (like iPhones, etc.), Facebook seems to get used more than the blog these days.  This has always given me mixed feelings. 

I’ll try to explain…

There is nothing inherently wrong with Facebook.  I would, however, urge you to research what it is you do there and why.  Did you know that Facebook only typically keeps only 30 days’ worth of your information easily accessible?  I would caution people to know why and where they are spending their time.  Sites that are just for the quick gratification do not fulfill our need for journaling, although it certainly seems that way.  We share all sorts of our information on there.  The good news, though, is that although they didn’t in the past, Facebook now does have an export option, where you can request to download your Facebook historical data.  The downside is that it only goes back so far, and contains so much.  This data, however, could easily be used to turn into a blog, or to save or print somewhere so we do not lose this history.

Another downside to using Facebook as a journal is that it makes it harder to have serious gospel topics get the attention they deserve.  When the news feed scrolls from top to bottom in mere minutes (depending on how many friends you have and what your settings are), your gospel sharing can get lost easily.  To have our gospel/journaling “pearls” be surrounded by so much other media and distraction can detract from the potential good it can have.  Be careful that you do not think you are keeping a journal on these types of instant social gratification sites.  I would point toward other more lasting forms of record in order to do these things, whether online or not.

Now, to be clear, I am not saying you need to stay out of Facebook.  I am just saying that you should evaluate what things you do there, and what could be done elsewhere.  Even the Church itself has over 20 separate Facebook pages dedicated to its various programs.  Facebook has much potential to do the good we are encouraged to do from the Brethren. 

You can also use Facebook and blogs in concert with one another.  With my family’s blogs, we can set Facebook up to post whenever we make a new blog post.  This fills both needs, and keeps things tied together.  This way, our Facebook friends can still see links to our blogs, and then click a link to go read it on a page that has fewer distractions on it.  I would even go as far as to say that that is going to be more conducive to the Spirit should we be sharing our testimonies or gospel-related topics.  LDS.org mentions this in a page dedicated to answering questions about using Blogs to share the gospel. 

The church website also has many articles encouraging us to “join the online conversation,” by using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and others.  This online interaction has led to many great and wonderful things: For example, the Church website cites one survey in past years showed that as much as 80% of the information in various searches about the Church was inaccurate and negative.  More recently, with many Church members contributing and speaking up online, this has reversed.  There are now almost 80% accurate and positive results to searches about the Church.

Now, where does that leave us?  There is danger all around, yet we are encouraged to get in the mix so we can have a good influence as well.  I would say this is where we go back to the beginning.  When we are in peril, the thought is to turn toward our Father in Heaven, in prayer.  The world we live in nowadays is no different.  We need to rely on the Lord to be able to successfully ride the tides of today’s perils.  Heavenly Father has equipped us with all the tools we need.  The core of His gospel is actually very simple, so it should be able to stand out amidst all the media, and distractions that come with today’s technologies.  May we not fear, and remember to pray.