Careful Thought

This one took a bit of work, but it’s pretty interesting.  Open Mosaic Maker. There you choose 3 columns and 4 rows. Go to the Flickr search page and search your answers to the questions below. Choose a photo on the first page only, open it and copy the URL into the appropriate line of the Mosaic page. When done with all 12 lines, save the result and upload it to your posting.

The questions:

1. What is your name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. Which school did you attend?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Which celebrity do you consider to be your favorite?
6. Your favorite drink?
7. Your favorite holiday?
8. Your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you value most in life?
11. One word to describe you?
12. Your blog’s name?

Note: The photos correspond with the questions in the sequence:

1…2…3
4…5…6
7…8…9
10…11…12

(HT: The Cactus Patch)

Technorati Tags: memes, photomene

Tags: memes, photomene

Interesting question from Mmmm, That’s Good Coffee…:

If you could have dinner with anyone (besides Jesus), who would you have it with, and where would you have it?

I’d have to say lunch with Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane, the model for Jack Aubrey, Horatio Hornblower and any number of ‘Age of Fighting Sail’ sea captains.  The only place to have it would be aboard HMS Victory at Portsmouth, UK.

Yours?

Technorati Tags: books and writing, history, memes

Tags: books and writing, history, memes

Jamsco tagged me with this one.  Good thing this is a pretty easy one, because yesterday was Travel Day From Heck.  I tweaked the format a bit.

4 Favorite Songs:

• Jimmy Buffet – A Pirate Looks at Forty
• As I Lay Dying – I Never Wanted
• Blue Öyster Cult - Veteran of the Psychic Wars
• Colorado Wranglers – Orange Blossom Special

Two Favorites from Your High School Days

• Bob Seger - Night Moves
• REO Speedwagon - Ridin’ the Storm Out

Two groups with too many good songs to choose just one:

• Led Zeppelin
• Queen

Two artists/groups who are grossly over-rated: (Just two???)

• U2/Bono
• John Lennon

One group with only one good song:

• Loituma: Ievan Polkka (also known on the interwebs as Leekspin)

One ‘guilty pleasure’ song that doesn’t fit with the rest of your musical tastes:

• Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Iz Kamakawiwo’ole

And, finally, one word to describe your musical tastes:  Eclectic

Tag, you’re it.

Technorati Tags: favorite songs, memes

Tags: favorite songs, memes

Single.  Words.  Only.  No.  Repeats.

1. Where is your cell phone?  Desk
2. Your significant other?  Working
3. Your hair?  Thinning
4. Your mother?  Visited
5. Your father?  Missed
6. Your favorite time of day?  Morning
7. Your dream last night?  Unremembered
8. Your favorite drink?  Malt
9. Your dream goal?  Christlike
10. The room you’re in?  Office
11. Your ex?  None
12. Your fear?  Legacy
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years?  Published
14. What you are not?  Motivated
15. Your Favorite meal?  Ribs
16. One of your wish list items?  London
17. The last thing you did?  Bathroom
18. Where you grew up?  Farm
19. What are you wearing?  Clothes
20. Your TV is?  Nuisance
21. Your pets?  Peeves
22. Your computer?  Drainer
23. Your life?  Blessed
24. Your mood?  Comfy
25. Missing someone?  Family
26. Your car?  Guzzler
27. Something you’re not wearing?  Spats
28. Favorite store?  Bookstore
29. Your summer?  Driving
30. Your favorite color?   Ehh
31. When is the last time you laughed?  Yesterday
32. When is the last time you cried?  Cried?
33. Your health? Reasonable
34. Your children?  Teens!
35. Your future?  Eternal
36. Your beliefs?  Christian
37. Young or old?  Established
38. Your image?  Crusty
39. Your appearance?  Neanderthal
40. Would you live your life over again knowing what you know?   Betcha

(HT: Night. Writer.)

Technorati Tags: memes

Tags: memes

Which books have changed your life?  I’m not talking about good or even great books, or memorable ones, or favorite ones. I mean books that altered your behavior, changed your mind, redirected the course of your life.  These books added something permanent to me - an insight, a vision, an attitude.

Here’s my list, in roughly the order they entered my life:

• 50 Short Science Fiction Tales, edited by Isaac Asimov and Groff Conklin.  This one opened my eyes to the incredible possibilities of sci-fi and speculative fiction.  I’ve read this one many times over the years.
• Worldbook Encyclopedia.  Okay it’s not a book.  I used to pick a volume and just start reading.  I discovered that there is knowledge outside my sphere of experience.
• Flap, novelization of a Clair Huffaker screenplay.  An eminently forgettable 1960s movie starring Anthony Quinn as a drunken Indian.  Mom saw me reading it and was aghast that I would read such a thing at my tender age.  The incident (not the book) made me understand the power of books to influence - and offend - others.
• The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R Tolkein.  This was my first introduction to the concept of exceptional talent in an author.  It made me a dyed-in-the-wool bookworm.
• Illusions, by Richard Bach.  Everything is an illusion and we create our own reality.  I ran into this New Age mumbo-jumbo in my teens and it screwed me up for years.
• Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.  Showed me the destructive decadence of modern liberalism.  Rand is a tediously self-important writer, but her concepts blew me away.
• Razor’s Edge, by Somerset Maugham.  Another one that screwed me up for quite awhile.  The story of a disillusioned WW1 fighter pilot who seeks enlightenment.  He finds Buddhist ‘wisdom’ on a mountaintop.  I found this book when I was searching for The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.  I should have read Douglas Adams instead.
• The Bible, by God.  I didn’t know any better, so I started at Genesis and read to Revelation.  I’m glad I did.
• Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge.  Eldredge is frequently criticized for his answers, but not for his questions, namely, why are Christian men wimps, and what are you going to do about it?
• Stand Into Danger, by Douglas Reeman (writing as Alexander Kent).  The second or sixth or eleventy-twelfth book in the Richard Bolitho series of nautical fiction set in the Age of Sail.  It was while reading this book that I decided I could write at least as well as the author.
• On Writing, by Stephen King.  Exceptional insight into what it takes to be a writer. 

What’s on your list?

Technorati Tags: books, memes

Tags: books, memes

You have 150 characters to send a message to the world.  Punctuation doesn’t count.  Here’s mine:

Love God, love man.  That’s about it. Anything else?  Um… Nope, that’s all.  And brush your teeth every day. Twice.  Root for the Rockies – they need it.  Pray unceasingly.  That means ‘a lot.’  Do good to all.

Ha! Two characters to spare.  Let’s see what Karen, KingDavid, and Jamsco have to say.

(HT: dustbury)

Technorati Tags: memes, message to the world

Tags: memes, message to the world

Favorite item used for an unintended purpose:  Do pennies in the fuse box count?  (Kidding!)

Favorite way to buy music:  Favorite or easiest? iTunes is easiest, though Amazon now alleged has cheaper, DRM-free music. My favorite method would probably involve telepathy. We haven’t worked out the bugs there yet.

How clean is your car?  Reasonably clean, though it’s a constant effort to get #1 son to shovel out the back seat.

How clean is your apartment/house/room?  It’s a running battle with clutter.  Clutter is winning.

How clean is your office?  If you look in the door, it’s fairly tidy, but I have lots of stuff stashed under the desk.

Favorite laundry detergent:  Whatever’s on sale.

Favorite weekly free time:  Saturday morning before anyone is up.

Is there a word, phrase, or gesture that is identifiably yours?  Nope.

Most effective medicine for one (or more) of your ailments:  Extra-Strength Tylenol usually works well enough. Or Single Malt Scotch.

A favorite thing you try to sell/push/encourage your friends to try:  Common sense. (It’s not working.)

Favorite new (or new-to-you) thing:  L&L Hawaiian Barbecue

This is open to anyone who’d like to play along; I swiped it from Dustbury.

Technorati Tags: memes

Tags: memes

Martin LeBar at Sun and Shield shares a very interesting Scripture meme: the 10 events from the historical books of the Old Testament which he would like to have observed.  Here is my take, though I’ve broadened it to all of Scripture.  In no particular order:

1. Creation (Genesis 1 and 2).  We argue till the metaphorical or actual cows come home about how long it took God to do the deed.  Of course it happened in “God time,” so our imposition of days or eons is irrelevant, but I would still like to have seen it.
2. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9).
3. Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (Gen 32:24-32).
4. Elijah Smacks Down the 450 Prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:16-40).
5. Angels Revealed to Elisha’s Servant (2 Kings 6:8-23).
6. Nehemiah and the Returned Exiles Rebuilding the Walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah)
7. Who Do You Say That I Am? (Matthew 16:13-20).  One of the most important NT passages.  All of Scripture comes down to this:  who do you say that Jesus is?
8. The Last Supper (Luke 22:14-38).  What an intimate, humbling event.
9. Peter’s Sermon (Acts 2:14-41).  Forget Star Wars movies, this really was the story of A New Hope.
10. The New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:10-27).  Our new home.

I’ll tag KingDavid, Jamsco and Karen to see what goodies they can come up with.

Technorati Tags: faith, memes

Tags: faith, memes

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Steve!

1. If you break Steve, you will get seven years of bad luck!
2. Steveology is the study of Steve.
3. Wearing headphones for an hour will increase the amount of Steve in your ear 700 times.
4. Steve can sleep for three and a half years.
5. Originally, Steve could not fly!
6. In his entire life, Steve will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
7. The National Heart Foundation recommends eating Steve at least three times a week!
8. The eye of an ostrich is bigger than Steve.
9. More than one million stray dogs and half a million stray cats live in Steve!
10. Twenty-eight percent of Microsoft’s employees are Steve.

(HT: the Surrealist)

Technorati Tags: top ten trivia

Tags: top ten trivia

This is the ‘You Are’ meme.  Put “[your name] is a” in a Google search and list the results.  Then do the same in Google Image Search and post the result.

• Steve is a tongue-in-cheek parody
• Steve is a DJ in Boston.
• Steve is a fairly interesting guy, having graduated college in 3 semesters
• Steve is a coding stud.
• Steve is a brave, brave soul. I’ve never met the guy. I’m kind of glad I haven’t. His breath probably smells like old gym socks with a dash of sewer water.
• Steve is a breath of fresh air for those who seek sound Biblical counsel
• Steve is a bad boy.
• Steve is a great resource to have in the area.
• Steve is a freshman at Pearl Bailey High School.
• Steve is a champion of the men and women of the United States
• Steve is a master. Best of all, he’s young, so we have many more years of his writing to look forward to
• Steve is a Fellow of the Royal Society
• Steve is a 50-something married man who’s been around the block.
• Steve is a tough old boot.
• Steve is a long-time Governing Member of the BSO

One or more of these may actually be true. I’m not telling…