A survey! Every blog has to have one of these now and then. I saw this on Mander’s Blog, although I’m removing the sixth question. It’s about what you want me to bring you back from Scotland. I’m not in Scotland, so you’re out of luck, boo. 🙂
Here’s the survey. I’ll put my answers in the comments, and then each of my three readers will put their answers in the comments too, and so we’ll have . . .
[Bill takes a second to do some intense calculation]
. . . a total of four comments! Woohoo! 🙂
a) What’s your favorite Christmas carol?
b) What are you doing this upcoming weekend?
c) What does your family eat for Christmas dinner?
d) What was the last book you read?
e) What’s God been teaching you recently?
a) What’s your favorite Christmas carol?
Hands down. O Holy Night
b) What are you doing this upcoming weekend?
Our church is putting on five White Christmas/Christmas Cafe performances. I’m the bass player, so I’ll be trying real hard to play the right notes, keep my ear monitors in (they always fall out), keep from falling over, dropping my guitar, playing from the wrong sheet music, etc. It’s very complicated. 🙂
c) What does your family eat for Christmas dinner?
Great question – while my grandmother was alive, on the years we went to Nebraska, we always ate this great, homemade chicken soup. Now that she’s gone, we’re still not settled on a traditional meal.
d) What was the last book you read?
Well, I’ve still got a few pages to read, but I’m going to say Tolkien and the Great War
e) What’s God been teaching you recently?
Great question. He’s teaching me to trust in His faithfulness, not just to me but also to the ones I love, and not to worry.
a) What’s your favorite Christmas carol?
“Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” I like the whole ‘God and sinners reconciled’ bit. That’s good stuff.
This might get me flamed, but I actually don’t like many Christmas carols.
They’re not carols, but I pretty much love everything on Hadel’s Messiah and Bing Crosby’s Christmas album.
😉
b) What are you doing this upcoming weekend?
Saturday, Becky and I will have our first date in months. Her assistant offered to watch the girls as a Christmas gift to us. Awesome. I love getting out with my baby, and we just aren’t ever able to do it unless family is in town to babysit.
c) What does your family eat for Christmas dinner?
A longstanding Wilson tradition that began on my mom’s side: Tamales.
At Beck’s family’s: the traditional turkey and stuffing.
d) What was the last book you read?
I finished pretty much on the same day Georges Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual and Geerhardus Vos’s The Pauline Eschatology.
e) What’s God been teaching you recently?
I’m a moron, so I have to learn the same lesson roughly every couple of weeks, which is that rest must be earned through actual work. 😉
I’m very lacking in the self-discipline department.
Oh, I also forgot:
Since this is our last weekend in town this month, we’re doing our little Christmas with the girls Sunday. (Beck and I exchanged gifts a week ago.)
a)Just off the top of my head I would have to second Jared on this one for the same reason.
b)Megan, our daughter, has her second basketball game of the season on Saturday.
Ok, I totally scrwed up! What’s new? Might you be able to fix this for me Ninja Master Bill?
Continuing b) GO LIONS! I’ll finish getting my mom’s email set up. Hopfully I’ll get a lot done on a model car that I’ve publicly commited to finishing by the end of the year. Haven’t started it yet.
c)We will either have prime rib or turkey. We are lazy and get a packaged dinner from the grocery store so no one has to be away from the guests for an extended period of time whether for cooking or cleaning up.
d) Perelandra
e)Grace and mercy. All my life I’ve been too much about justice.
a) What’s your favorite Christmas carol?
A Tie between One Small Child and O Come, O Come Emmanuel
b) What are you doing this upcoming weekend?
I just found out that Hubby and I will be having baby in July, so Saturday evening will be spent at my parent’s house celebrating. Sunday is Church in the morning, getting the music ready for the next Sunday’s services (my husband is the worship leader, and I play bass guitar) in the afternoon, then church again Sunday night.
c) What does your family eat for Christmas dinner?
I will be at the in-laws house, and I can’t remember what they eat for Christmas dinner. I usually fill my plate with my mom’s cornbread dressing and Cranberry sauce (only the canned Cranberry sauce).
d) What was the last book you read?
I am usually reading a few things at once (I am working on my master’s in literature, so I am always trying to balance a few texts at once). But, I finished Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid and At the Back of the North Wind last week.
e) What’s God been teaching you recently?
He has been teaching me to lean on Him. We are very excited about having a baby, but we were planning on waiting a little while longer (we’re just ahead of schedule!). I have been having those “oh my, I’m having a baby” worries, but God is providing.
I should have included church on Suandy but that should go without saying unless I’m on the road.
[Bill stops gathering sticks for the burning stake]
Oh, you went to church? Oh, ok. 🙂
B – that’s awesome about the baby! Wonderful news!
Also – what kind of bass do you have? That’s really cool that you’re a bass player
“Saturday, Becky and I will have our first date in months”
Jared – you two crazy kids have fun!
Okay, I guess I’m just another “Bill Reader Number 3” seeing as how three people have already commented.
a) What’s your favorite Christmas carol?
If it’s hymn, probably O Holy Night. But if it’s just any ol’ Christmas song you might sing caroling, then Little Drummer Boy. And if it’s Christmas song I want to hear on the radio, then U2’s Baby, Please Come Home, Band-Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas, and that Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas Canon song all tie in my wanting to hear them. Am I making this too hard?
b) What are you doing this upcoming weekend?
My parents are flying in. My daughter is 6 1/2 mos. old, and believe it or not, it’s my dad’s first time to see her. It’s been a heartbreak for him, but this should be a good weekend.
c) What does your family eat for Christmas dinner?
Ham, stuffing, and whatever other fantastic vegetables and desserts my mother-in-law cooks.
d) What was the last book you read?
Either Fourth Grade Rats by Jerry Spinelli or Feed by M.T. Anderson. Also, non-fiction I finished N.T. Wright’s Mark: For Everyone.
e) What’s God been teaching you recently?
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Also, and this is semi-confessional and probably speaks of my faith both now (most importantly) and in the past and my upbringing, but this whole deal about going to church on Christmas — and not really that, but going to church to worship corporately, period. Growing up, we went to church most Sundays, and it was important to my dad, I knew – but every once in a while we missed, and as I got older we missed more, especially moving around like we did. And when I went to college, I basically just went when I wanted to – also I went through a spell then better to just drop. But those habits carried into my adult life, and I really have never given enough thought about the importance not only of the Church but of church as well. I teach Sunday School, but have regularly missed worship – an awful, awful lot, not really understanding the value and ignorant of its importance. I know people make fun of others who “learn religion” over the blogsphere, but I’ve gotta say, a lot of what I’ve learned is really gut-wrenching and enlightening, and I wouldn’t have learned it in my own Baptist church. Also, reading N.T. Wright has pushed me a lot regarding church attendance (not just SS). Anyway, it’s repenting time, I suppose, and time I got my house in order. And while I’m the one feeling the lesson, I’m fairly sure it’s the Lord teaching it, wouldn’t you think?
Anyhow, sorry to spill here, Bill. It was just suppose to be five easy questions. Rats.
Rich, How did you like N.T.Wright’s Mark for Everybody? I’ve seen it and thought of getting it but have stopped short as I’ve generally been spending too much money on books. One does need to protect the domestic tranquility. 😉
Brian,
I really enjoyed it. In fact, I’ve gone and procured For Everyone versions of Luke, which I’m reading now, John (Part 1), and Romans (Part 1). Wright gives you a lot to think about. Plus, the little historical tidbits are great. For instance, he mentions in the story of the paralytic being dropped through the roof and subsequently healed by Jesus, that “most people don’t realize this, but this was probably Jesus’ home.” And so when Jesus tells the man his sins are forgiven, it adds a little something to the story. That’s something that never occurred to me reading that passage of scripture, and NTW is full of that kind of enlightening to scriptures we’ve all read, but maybe – especially as 21st century Westerners – don’t have a clue on (well, you guys might, but I don’t).
So, I heartily recommend it but, at the same time, am right there with you on overspending on books. If there’s any one book of Wright’s that I’d recommend – if you only had funds for one – it’d be The Challenge of Jesus. But other more knowledgeable Wright fans might steer you better than me.
Thanks Rich! I’ve got The Challenge of Jesus, just haven’t gotten to it yet. I guess I’ll have to pick those books up.
I’m afraid I’m in the same boat you’re in compared with the Great and Mighty Thinklings. At least when their powerful speed boat goes by it pushes us a little farther forward in the right direction.
Great and Mighty Thinklings?
It’s all a sham. Truth be told, I was de-Thinklinged because I threatened to whistle-blow on them. They have a secret . . .
I’ll tell it to you now . . .
They really aren’t, in fact, the “nexus of the intellectual universe”. Darn close, mind you, but not exactly “nexus”.
And now I’ve just blown my chances of ever getting back into their good graces
*sigh*
Well, I’m happy here, in my little space, with my splendidly fun little software project and my three very loyal readers 🙂
Oh, geez, I really blew it! I had completely forgotten you were DE-Thinklinged! Well, you know how it is, out of sight out of mind. Even though I don’t pay any attention to you I’ll still read your blog. Well, that is, if you don’t mind. 😉
I don’t mind, Brian – I don’t know if I could handle having only two loyal readers!
Out of the Bloo: Nexus of the Unintellectual Void
Ooooohhhhh, Jared! That’s a zinger! Now I’m thinking of the peculiar similarities between Bloo and Blo! Coincidence or conspiracy?
Nexus of the Unintellectual Void
Ouch! Hey, waitaminnit. I resemble that remark. No wonder I wandered from Thinklings over to here. It’s downright cozy in this place. And there’s that low, rhythmic hum that just goes: Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
a) What’s your favorite Christmas carol?
-O Holy Night I like. I wouldn’t sing that at someone’s doorstep, though. For those singalong types, I like O Come All Ye Faithful. For listening on the radio, I like All I Want For Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. (That’s pretty much the only Mariah song I like)
b) What are you doing this upcoming weekend?
White Christmas and hanging out.
c) What does your family eat for Christmas dinner?
For Christmas Dinner it’s Turkey and Ham. Last year, I got to Deep-Fry the Turkey. YESSSS. The Christmas Eve Tradition is Tamales and Chili.
d) What was the last book you read?
I’m in the middle of TLTWATW right now.
e) What’s God been teaching you recently?
How important prayer is as well as staying fresh, in general. By “staying fresh” I mean spending time with God.
I like you Bill. You’re awesome.
Sorry Quaid, for the uninitiated, what is TLTWATW?
Ya know, it takes someone like Quaid to come in here and toss things like TLTWATW around for me to realise that maybe this is my proper place anyway! Those thinklings, man, I just don’t know. Movie spoilers are posted before people get a chance to see the movie. They mock the abuse of frightened little goats! Oh, when will it ever end! Oh, where will it ever end! I’m with you Rich! We must stand in solidarity to the ruthless onslaught of the pseudo intellectuals that journey from the so-called nexas.
Hail the mighty Bloo! Home Sweet Home!
I think I can help you out with TLTWATW, Brian, since I think it may be the same “spoileraged” movie you’re referencing. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
But I’m totally in solidarity with you. Petrified goats. Every once in a while pictures of monkeys looking like opposums right before the car strikes them. Casting the De-Thinklinged from the heavens of the Intellectual Universe. Far from the nexus am I, Young Skywalker.
Here in the Wild Bloo I find peace where my mind can vegetate. And if someone asks me a question, I can just stare at the computer screen without answering and feel just as if I’ve done my fair share. But most important, like Quaid, I want to reiterate: I like you Bill. You’re awesome.
[Of course, as soon as I get a chance (after my 24 hours are up), I’m going back to the Blog Awards to vote for the Thinklings again — but, like we’ve referenced, they float in cosmos I’ve yet to see.]
Yeah, I’ve been voting of the Thinklings too, even though they De’s De. Thanks for the help on the initials. At this point I’m hoping I can be a major contributor to making this the most highly commented post in De’s blog.
Wow – I leave the door unlocked for just a few hours and get comments all over the place!
Where to start. . .
Jared: you are an evil person.
Quaid: I like you too!
Brian and Rich: I appreciate your compliments, and I’m glad that my blog is a place where you can stare at the computer screen like cattle in a darkened barn, untroubled by anything remotely approaching intelligence.
Thanks!
(um, I think) =8-D
Oh, and about Blo = Bloo. Nevah!!!!
Oh, and finally – this post is now at the top of the top ten, baby! As John Lennon used to say to the other lads
“Where are we going boys”
“To the Top!”
“To the very top?”
“To the toppermost of the poppermost!”
(seriously, everyone, thanks for giving this thread some comment-life. Yes, even you, Jared. You rogue. 🙂
Bill, dude! Shouldn’t you be like, asleep or something!
You are most heartily welcome, I aim to please!
a) Either O Come All Ye Faithful or Carol of the Bells. Is that technically a carol? I don’t know. I just think it’s pretty.
b) Decorating my grandmother’s fake tree for cash! LOL 🙂 Other than that, I haven’t the foggiest.
c) Whatever my grandmother cooks for the whole brood. 🙂 Probably either turkey or beef.
d) Technically, the last book I finished was Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles, but the last *really good* book I finished was Jane Eyre. I’m also midway on Classical Music for Dummies. Does that count?
e) That my sinning is no different or worse than anyone else’s. That when I stumble I’m not suddenly the worse person ever, simply human, and that I shouldn’t let it get in the way of my relationship with Christ.
Bill,
I play a 5-String Yamaha RBX series bass guitar. She’s a great guitar and fun to play.
That sounds awesome. I like that you call your bass “she” 🙂
I have an ibanez Ergodyne – the four string model (I bought it before I got into five string bass – wish I had a five string).
This weekend I played the church’s five string Fender Jazz.
What kind of music do you guys do? (for example, what was your list of songs from yesterday)?
I am personal with my favorite things. I have a crazy habit of naming everything (cars, computers, instruments, etc). My bass is named Claudia. The first bass I was given is named Bertha. She is in semi-retirement, though.
The Ibanez Ergodyne is a smooth looking guitar–as is the Fender Jazz.
I love having the fifth string. Bertha only has four, and I would find myself wanting to go a bit lower at times but the notes just weren’t there!
We do a pretty good mix of songs-anything from I’ll Fly Away to In Christ Alone. Yesterday we played:
Trees of the Field
Be Thou My Vision
My Life is in You Lord
Angels We Have Heard On High
In The Garden
Redeeming Love
Hear Our Praises
Here I am to Worship
At Calvary
And more, but I can’t remember the rest!
I go to a very small church that ranges in age and taste, so we try to do a little bit of what everyone likes. It’s a blast! We are even getting everyone used to clapping (like in Trees of the Field), which is unusual for an Independent Baptist Church! Yesterday, everyone was pretty much in rhythm. Amazing!! The only problem now is trying to figure out how to play Claudia with an expanding wasteline!
Someone help me convince my wife it’s okay to call our new Buick Rendezvous “Umberto.” She won’t let me do it, but won’t pick a replacement name. Until she does, I say Umberto it is.
Jared, you’ve shattered my image of you! Naming cars,ugh!
I might think differently if I had a street leagal Porsche GTR 3 but I don’t so….
There is nothing wrong with naming cars! You can’t go around calling a car “it”. That’s not nice.
Umberto sounds like a good name for a Buick Rendezvous. It means famous warrior or something like that, right? I like naming vehicles something that sounds like a protector. My first car was named Jehu who, as you probably remember, destroyed the temples of Baal and those who worshipped Baal. Also, it was appropriate because of the verse that talks about him driving his chariot furiously (I was just learning how to drive, and it was scary!).
I didn’t say there was anything wrong with naming cars, I might do it myself under the right circumstances. I just think that about 90% of the cars out there aren’t worthy of names. My wife had named her cars until the last two unless you can count cr*p as a name. 😉 I’ll say that if there was a name I could really support it would Jehu!
I apologize for the misunderstanding! I guess our only difference is that I believe all cars deserve a name 🙂
Yah, Jehu was a great name. And a great car…even if it was old, broke down quite often, leaked oil, leaked in rain water, had no A/C (which is tough in the summer around here) had one speaker that worked if I threw things at it, had no dashboard lights…Great first car!
My first car was an old Toyota Celica. It was named “Chad” (really – my sister named it).
I had a Dodge Van for a long time. Toward the end of its run we took to calling it “The Hooptie”.
The old Pontiac Sunbird I had during hs/college — Blue Devil
The black Ford Probe we had to get rid of before we had Macy — Denzel
The “silvery” Chevy S-10 pickup we got rid of when we had 2 kids — The Silver Surfer
The silver Buick LeSabre that just got totaled — hmmm. we didn’t name that one. maybe that’s why she wrecked herself; she committed car suicide over despair of not having a name.
Our teal minivan — The Macy-Mobile
Black Buick Rendezvous — Umberto? I like it because it sounds like a pack-mule, and the car is kind of a squatty, half-minivan/half-SUV.
Oh, man! You got rid of The Hooptie?
I have fond memories of riding to Moot in The Hooptie!
Good times . . .
Yes, those were.
Looking forward to Christmas Moot 2005!
Oh, and B, from comment #29
WOW! you guys play a lot of songs! That’s 10+ songs listed, which is nearly an hour of music! Was that all in one service, or do you play different songs for different services?
So much for, and I quote, a total of four comments! Woohoo!
We play different songs each service. We have three songs, then an offering song, a special that we sometimes play (this past sunday we played for both specials) then three more songs. We include some shorter worship songs, so it’s not too long! Practice, though, can be rather lengthy. Since we have such a small church, we don’t have two worship bands to rotate (or a contemporary service band and traditional service band). It’s lots of fun, though!
I will confess to actually coming up with a name for my van but it was mostly to give my wife a bad time. We never call the van anything more than my car or the van. That name was Data Van.
As in, “Is Data Van?”
Jared, I have no clue how to respond to your question. I don’t understand, “Is Data Van?”, sorry. You know I’m an old geezer and I don’t understand all this new, cool stuff of you youngsters! 😉
Brian, Jared is very inscrutable. Help keeps the “nexus of intelligence” myth going.
But, what the hey! Keep those comments coming! This is turning into the Gatorade thread of OOTB!
“Is Data Van?” = “Is that a van?”
Of course, if you pronounce the first vowel in data with a long a (“day-tuh”) rather than with a short a, it ruins my joke.
I pronounce Umberto “Oom-bair-toe.” Becky doesn’t pronounce it at all.
Sorry Jared, I gotcha now. That would have been daytuh as in ones and zeros. I used to be more into computers than I am now. Unless you make a career of computers it is a really stupid thing to spend too much time on. Your last line is hilarious!
Speaking of Gatorade, the Cosby Show is on right now. Man, that was a good show.
Jared, I gotta say you’re the hub of the nexus of something alrighty! What, pray tell, does Gatorade have to do with the Cosby Show?
Jared, you don’t have the green turned up way too high on your TV do you?
Whoa. I lay low for a day or two, and the comments on this thread have skyrocketed. Awesome. Maybe I should try the survey again with one-word answers this time.
Whatever else this comment is, it is # 50!!! Congrats, Bill!
Oops. Brian beat me to the punch. It was # 51.
Sorry Rich. I really wanted the coveted fiftieth comment too.
What, pray tell, does Gatorade have to do with the Cosby Show?
It’s pronounced “Oom-bair-toe.”
the sunbird jared passed on to me got a name change from blue devil to squeaky blue assassin… fyi.
Pudding Pops!
Pudding Pops? Huh?
The randomness of the comment-padding on this thread is reaching epic proportions.
Speaking of epic proportions, The Cosby Show doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Dude, you got a few comments here….
I think I’ll just steal this and put it on my blog and answer there. Then my three readers can comment!