Category — Memes

How many countries can you name in ten minutes?

HT:kottke

Coming Soon….

Jason tagged me…

1. One book that changed your life:
Reforming Marriage, Doug Wilson

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Leave It To Psmith, P.G. Wodehouse

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tokien

4. One book that made you laugh:
Penrod, Booth Tarkington

5. One book that made you cry:
Guess How Much I Love You, Sam McBratney

6. One book that you wish had been written:

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Congo, Michael Crichton

8. One book you’re currently reading:
Darwin’s Ghost, Steve Jones

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
The Lord’s Service, Jeffrey Meyers

10. Now tag five people:
I shall refrain from this, but if you want to take part in the fun, by all means, list me as having tagged you!

I don’t know how many of you know me in real life, but I figure it would be interesting anyhow…

Johari Window

I saw this on Geof’s blog, and wanted to do it.

Open iTunes to answer the following:

Total number of tracks: just songs-3430, everything (including songs, audiobooks, lectures, sermons, banter, etc.)-5772
I’ll just just songs for the rest…

Sort by song title:
* First Song: “-Vienna Teng 1 song-”, Over the Rhine, 2004-06-26 – The Dame
* Last Song: “Zooropa”, U2, Zooropa

Sort by time:
* Shortest Song: “One Last ‘Whoo-hoo!’ For The Pullman”, 0:06, Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
* Longest Song: “The Tain, parts I-V”, 18:35, The Decemberists, The Tain[1]

Sort by album:
* First Song: “Untitled #8″, Sigur Ros, ( )
* Last Song: “Numb”, U2, Zooropa

Top 10 Most Played Songs:
1. “Save Ginny Weasley”, 36 plays, Harry and the Potters, Harry and the Potters
2. “One Evening”, 29 plays, Feist, One Evening – Single
3. “The Godfather”, 25 plays, Harry and the Potters, Harry and the Potters
4. “The Human Hosepipe”, 22 plays, Harry and the Potters, Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock
5. “Wizard Chess”, 20 plays, Harry and the Potters, Harry and the Potters
6. “The Godfather, Part 2″, 20 plays, Harry and the Potters, Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock
7. “Of Minor Prophets And Their Prostitute Wives”, 20 plays, Pedro the Lion, It’s Hard To Find A Friend
8. “Telescope Eyes”, 18 plays, Eisley, Room Noises
9. “Always Returning”, 16 plays, Glen Phillips, Always Returning – Single
10. “Stick it to Dolores”, 16 plays, Harry and the Potters, Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle:
1. “The Bartender Song”, Dave Matthews Band, downloaded somewhere-don’t know what it’s from
2. “Mayonaise”, Smashing Pumpkings, Siamese Dream
3. “Motel Rooms”, Don Chaffer and Waterdeep, Whole ‘Nother Deal
4. “Peace On Earth”, U2, All That You Can’t Leave Behind
5. “Believe”, Grammatrain, Lonely House

Search for:
“sex”, how many songs come up?: 5 (1 being “Wessex Carol”)
“love”, how many songs come up?: 184
“you”, how many songs come up?: 359 (a bunch are from “your”, some from “young” (including several with a note about Cliff Young), and probably other permutations)
“death”, how many songs come up?: 3
“hate”, how many songs come up?: 16 (2 from “whatever”)
“wish” how many songs come up?: 24

[1]If that is cheating, then the next longest is “I Dream A Highway”, 14:39, Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)

I confess to hesitating in tagging folks with the 4Things meme. But, I went throug with it, considering it an opportunity to learn more about some folks.

But Matt’s reply to my tagging him, I have to say, is even better than the actual meme.

I was tagged.

I suppose it is my duty to answer. I even created a new category for this type of post: Memes.

Four jobs I’ve had:

• Day School ‘counselor’
• painted houses one summer
• OfficeMax register clerk
• Allstate Insurance Company Customer Service Representative

Four movies I could watch over and over:

• Primer
• Star Wars
• Monsters, Inc.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark

Four books I could read over and over:

• Leave It To Psmith
• To A Thousand Generations
• Pride & Prejudice
• The Chronicles of Narnia

Four places I have lived:

• Fort Huachuca (Sierra Vista), AZ
• Camp Zama, Tokyo, Japan
• Yongsan Army Garrison, Seoul, Korea
• Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Four TV shows I watch: I have to confess on this… I really don’t watch much television… so the notes below are important.

• Lost, when it airs
• House, download when new episodes show up
• The Greatest American Hero, downloaded episodes 1-6 of season 1
• The A-Team, downloaded episodes 1-3 from season 1

Four places I have been on vacation:

• Kyoto, Japan – deer bit my behind
• The Phillipines – got the worst sunburn of my life
• Cape Cod, MA – it was cold and rainy and dreary
• San Diego, CA – went to Sea World and the Zoo. Loved it.

Four websites I visit daily other than email:

• http://board.derekwebb.com/
• http://rocksmyfaceoff.net/forum/index.php
• http://www.bloglines.com
• http://homestarrunner.com/ – okay, it isn’t every day. but it should be!

Four favorite foods:

• Soda Pop
• San Fran Chops
• Cranberry Chicken
• Ice Cream

Four places I’d like to be right now:

• Home
• On the Way Home
• Paris, but only if Megan were with me
• Some place in Tokyo, also with Megan, and the girls, too

Four bloggers I’m tagging:

• Jason
• Raekwon
• Travis
• Matt

Chris passed the musical baton to me… in June. I didn’t realize it until a week or two ago, and then I forgot about it again! I am a bad relay team member.

But, I’m posting this now so that I’ll be sure to come back and do my duty this evening.

Amount of music on your computer?
9.9GB, 2632 songs. But that doesn’t include the majority of live recordings I have that aren’t in iTunes (because I don’t want them on my iPod). I guess it’d be easy enough to find out how many of those I have… okay, another 2.9GB/652 files.
That brings it to a total of 12.8GB/3284 tracks

Currently listening to?
Nickel Creek – Why Should the Fire Die?
Sufjan Stevens – Illinoise
Randall Goodgame – The Hymnal
Harry and the Potters – their free stuff that’s online (though I really want to buy both their albums)

Five songs that mean a lot to you?
Mark Heard – Brown Eyed Sue. I got this song as an mp3 from Paste Radio. Right around the time Geneva was born. I would play it while holding her, and putting her to bed, and just generally when I was in her presence.
Nothing I would rather do
Than laugh a laugh with brown-eyed Sue
No place I would rather be
Than where I am when she’s with me

Another that makes me think of my girls, this one more particularly Ashley for some reason. It’s Randall Goodgame’s song My Best Friend. Like I’ve mentioned in the past, I totally rip the song out of context when I apply it to my daughters, but hey, sometimes you just can’t control these things.
All I want to do is love you
And whereever you fall I want to be
I want to be there to lift you
All I want to do is love you
And where you are
I want to be there with you

Jack Johnson – Better Together
It’s not too terribly often that Megan and I find an artist that we both really, really like. Don’t get me wrong… we have plenty of music overlap, but typically the stuff that I really, really like… she finds acceptable. And vice versa. But with Jack Johnson, we come together. Plus, we discovered Jack Johnson together, and grew in our enjoyment of him together. So, really, any Jack Johnson song means the same thing to me… reminds me of Megan, and our good times together. But this song, for obvious reasons, is what I’ll put on the list.
I believe in memories, they look so, so pretty when I sleep
And when I wake up, you look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We’re better together

Speaking of AP, his first national release, Carried Along, came out in March of 2000. I believe it was the 21st or something like that? Anyhow… it was the week that my mother died. That album, as I’ve told Andy, was a tremendous source of encouragment to me at that time. I’ll just pick my favorite song from the album, since they all pretty much mean the same thing to me in regards to my mom, and that period of time. Shiloh
“Come home, come home and rest awhile
Come home, come home and rest awhile
Get on home to Shiloh”
The farther I have wandered off
The fonder I have grown, Shiloh
Yeah, all the while I find a smile
Thinkin’ about my home
The autumn breeze is calling me away
Calling me home to Shiloh

Caedmon’s Call – Mistake of My Life
This is from the album Long Line of Leavers, which was released in October of 2000. During this time Megan was in Ohio, and I was driving back and forth almost every weekend. I was a very sleepy individual during that time. We got married in December, so the content of the song should be pretty obvious as to it’s meaning. I remember, though, driving into the small town she lived in, with my windows down, volume turned up, and singing loudly this song. It was sort of my entrance song to Oxford. I’d probably sing What You Want more often, but, the lyrical content of this one is just too related to what was going on in my life at that time to pass up.
I’m in love, never been so sure of anything

Top five albums?
Hm.. tough one. These are not in any particular order. It is hard enough for me to pick the top five… putting them in order would be impossible for me.
Andrew Peterson – Love & Thunder
AP is my favorite contemporary musician. And L&T is my favorite of his albums thus far, so it definitely gets a spot. Carried Along is almost as good, but lacks a certain maturity that puts L&T on the top.

Caedmon’s Call – My Calm//Your Storm
I had not been a christian for very long when I first discovered Caedmon’s. I got a cassette copy of MC//YS from a friend, and I really enjoyed all the intricate guitar work. Then I picked up on the high artistic quality of the lyrics, and songwriting in general. Then I learned that they were a reformed band. They were my favorite band for a good number of years. 40 Acres gets honorable mention here. It’s a great record, and I only put MC//YS here because I heard it first.

The Cure – Wish
I actually bought this album when it came out in 1992 for my sister. I gave it to her, and promptly took it into my room to listen to it. I wasn’t a Cure fan at the time, and she wasn’ta big one, but I knew she at least liked them a bit. But I fell in love with the record, and listen to it quite regularly. I keep comin back to it, so I guess it deserves a place in my top five.

Toad the Wet Sprocket. It’s a tought call for me between fear and dulcinea, but I got with fear. I bought it for the single Walk on the Ocean, and discovered that every single song on the album is excellent. All of them, start to finish.

Man… that only leaves one left. I’m pretty much disallowing anything that I haven’t had for at least a year or two. I don’t know if it will have the kind of staying power necessary to have the honor of being listed in my top five favorite albums. I suspect, though, that Sufjan Steven’s Illinoise will be on this list after that time.

Jars of Clay’s eponymous release had a profound impact on me, as I had just come to believe when I discovered them. But, I don’t like the album as much anymore, so it can’t be on the list (was that cheating?).

So I just looked through the list of artists I have in iTunes, and the band that caused the deepest, most sincere stirring in my chest was Nirvana. So I guess I have to go with Nevermind. I got that album for Christmas from my sister. She had originally bought it for my brother, and had bought me Metallica’s black album. But, I had bought that at her recommendation. So she switched ‘em out. I learned what harmony was by listening to Something in the Way. I didn’t hear the harmony on the chorus for multiple listenings while a friend was telling me it was there, and was singing it. Then I heard it, and I realized that Nirvana was more than just a rock band.

Last album bought?
This past week I’ve gotten…
Sufjan Stevens – Illinoise, Nickel Creek – Why Should the Fire Die?, Randall Goodgame – The Hymnal, Sandra McCracken – Gypsy Flat Road.
Nickel Creek was the most recent of them all.

Recent discoveries?
Sufjan Stevens.

Passing on the musical baton…
Mike and Kristen
Gaines and Allison
Tim (see if he reads this…)
Derek

I don’t know if it is considered cheating or not, but I claimed things that I have at work as things that I have. Things like owning a microscope and having several subscriptions to science journals. That may have artificially inflated my nerdiness, but they are things I use regularly, so I claimed them.

Running away? You yellow . . .

What Monty Python Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
via Jason

Anyone know why circumcision was to be performed on the eighth day?