Eight Things About Me

I was tagged by the young fogey:

Here are the rules…

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I did not live in a house with a television from 1976 to 1986. My knowledge of TV trivia covering this period is understandably sparse.

2. I have owned or been the keeper of more Nissan cars than any other make. Since 1983 I have had six Nissans, two Fords, one Suzuki, and one Vauxhall.

3. I was born on a Sunday evening in the last year of the baby boom. The moon was a slight waxing crescent.

4. I have owned six guitars. I have been playing for 27 years.

5. At the age of 16 I expressed my teen angst by writing a large collection of poems in which my friends were named with characters from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

6. I once shot two deer at the same time with an open sight (i.e., no scope). One was shot while they were grazing; the other while they were on the run. Both were does.

7. I have never shot a bird in flight, though I once shot a chickadee out of a tree with a BB gun.

8. I constantly consider what I would have for my last meal if I was about to be executed, and whether I would regret my choice or eat my food in a less than ideal order.

My eight tags: Michael, Elizabeth, Philippa, Deb, Mary-Leah, Margi, Grumpy Teacher, and Dcn Steve.

Six Weird Things

I’ve been tagged by Huw. Here are six wierd things about me. I’m sure there are plenty of comtemporary ones, but most of these are historical:

1. If possible will I only drink hot drinks out souvenir mugs. We have two kinds of plain mugs in our house. When making tea for others, I will only use the white ones for tea and the yellow ones for coffee.

2. I went to a college that pre-dated Christ College and Patrick Henry College by a number of years. During my junior and senior years, I lived in a two-bedroom house that at one point housed eight adults and a pre-schooler in the middle of a 500-acre farm. It was so rigorous that I found graduate and post-graduate education remarkably easy. This suited the fact that I am quite lazy.

3. Before I went to college, I was planning to not go to college at all and be a missionary, following the advice of Keith Green.

4. Almost the entire time I was a Republican County Chairman, I lived (actually, though unofficially) outside that county. My living situation changed about a month after I was elected. I was still the most active GOP chairman the county had seen for a number of years.

5. The first time I visited a Christian Coffeehouse in Indianapolis, someone on staff someone came over and started intensely quizzing me about my theology. I found out later it was because I sat where someone recruiting for a cult had been the night before. Within a few months I was the emcee – one of most fun things I ever did on a regular basis.

6. I was thrown out of the restaurant on my very first date. My date was self-conscious about her size and wouldn’t have anything to eat. The owner wasn’t happy that we were taking up table space just drinking Cokes. Within a matter of months I led the successful campaign to prevent them from extending their alcohol license to 2:00 am. Maybe they should have just let me keep that table.

Tagging: Michael the meme-aholic, Elizabeth, Grumpy Teacher, GCW, the Brit and/or the Grit, Philippa, and Margi.

Seven Things

It’s been a long time since I’ve been tagged with a meme. I got this from Greg Wallace:

1. Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies:

For the Life of the World by Fr Alexander Schmemann. This is the book that opened my understanding to sacramental theology and completely revolutionised the way I understand worship.

2. Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music:

Asleep in the Light by Keith Green. It was my introduction to contemporary Christian music and my introduction to music that encouraged action.

3. Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue:

Apollo 13. I have only just gotten to where I don’t worry if they are going to make and can avoid crying at the end.

4. Name a performer for whom you suspend of all disbelief:

Tom Cruise. Only because in every film I never once remember that he is only four feet tall.

5. Name a work of art you’d like to live with:

The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck. It was the first piece we studied in my undergraduate class on the history of Christian art. I have seen it several times in the National Gallery in London. It was purchased by its present owners for £600, though that was a bit more money in 1842 than it is today. Still, a pretty good investment.

6. Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life:

Taliesin by Steve Lawhead. It is the first work of fiction that I remember causing me to feel drained but not tired when I finished it. It also sparked my interest in the Age of Saints in Britain, which has remained unabated to this day.

7. Name a punch line that always makes you laugh:

W-w-w-well, M-m-mister Ch-ch-charles, he was aw-aw-aw-already dead. M-m-m-miss Mar-mar-mary Louise, she see-see-seemed aw-aw-alright til me and J-j-j-junior turned her head around. This goes back to my childhood and is from a story my dad used to tell, especially to unsuspecting new friends.

To do one better than the seven topics, I’ve ambitiously tagging eight people: Elizabeth, Philippa, Michael (tempting him to take a hiatus from his hiatus), Deb, the young fogey, Huw, the Traditional Frog, and the Grumpy Teacher.