Two memes

Bryan recently tagged me with two memes: the 'seven little known things' meme and the 'what's in your/on your' meme. I'll do them both as one post, but I'm not going to tag anyone at the end. It's like multi-level marketing. After you've done it once and gotten all your friends involved, you are more hesitant to do it again. So if you want to be tagged, leave a comment and I'll tag. I promise. Please specify which meme(s) you want to be tagged for, since these are two different threads, and ought not to get tangled.

Meme #1 - Share seven little know things about yourself.
1. I had the leading role, Ebenezer Scrooge, in my fourth grade class play.
2. I wore a UCLA T-shirt to my first real concert, Metallica, in 9th grade. I had all kinds of real concert T-shirts that I could have (and should have) worn, but I have always hated doing things just because everyone else is doing it.
3. During my first week in the dorms at college, I blasted Madonna's Immaculate Collection as loud as I could in my room. I had all kinds of other more appropriate CDs that I could have (and should have) played loudly, but I have always hated shunning pop culture just because all the 'cool alternative people' are doing it.
4. I signed up for Latin in college because I wanted to read the Bible in its original language. I figured out in the first week that the Bible wasn't written in Latin, but I took three semesters anyway. I have never done a thing with it. (A little like learning Russian to read Marx in his original language.)
5. I can recite the alphabet backwards in less than three seconds.
6. I routinely consider moving to another country (England, Israel, India, and Costa Rica are among the options that I often think of) but I probably never will.
7. I'm a total neat freak. Oh wait, no, I'm not. I'm the total opposite of a neat freak, whatever that would be called.

Meme #2 - What's in your/on your:
CD player?
The Ancient Church, lecture 5 (for a distance ed course). On my mp3 player I have the first three lectures of Church History by Gerald Bray. You can get all kinds of free evangelical seminary courses at biblicaltraining.org.

DVD player?
It's empty. I think the kids were watching a VeggieTales Larryboy show last. I don't actually watch movies. I'm a Christian after all. :) Actually the last movie I watched was Babylon 5: A Call to Arms. At the beginning of the year we borrowed season 1 of Babylon 5 and we finally finished all five seasons plus all five movies. Good times.

To Read list?
Henry Chadwick, The Early Church; J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines; Jaroslav Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (All for the same distance ed course, though the Pelikan book is part of 1000 pages reading that I get to choose for myself, and was on my to read list already).
I am still only half-way through Kevin Vanhoozer's Drama of Doctrine. It's a great book, but I keep stopping after each chapter to read other books. That's everything on the front burners right now. To see what's on the back burners, see my Amazon wish list.

To see list?
The Parthenon, Paris, Rome and Vatican City, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, the Great Pyramids

Mind?
I spend too much time on the computer. Also I'm thinking about the relationship between theology and knowledge, and the Resurrection of Jesus - both especially in terms of comments I have recently gotten, both on my blog and through email. This kind of stuff usually takes me a week or two to process.

Jake's One Book Meme

Jake, at The Blah Blah, just got tagged with the One Book Meme. But since a book meme doesn't really make sense to post on an mp3 blog, I offered to let him guest post here. Here is how Jake responded:

1. One book that changed your life:The Cross and the Switchblade, by David Wilkerson - He goes into the inner-city gangs of New York with the gospel, almost gets killed, and changes kids' lives. What more could you ask for?

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:Disciples are Made, Not Born by Walter A. Henrichsen - I didn't choose to read it multiple times (but it is very good). I was in a number of groups that used this book about making disciples.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:The Ultimate Guide to US Army Survival SKills - 962 pages of pure survival goodness.

4. One book that made you laugh:Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road, by Donald Miller - It takes a little time to get rolling, but once the story picks up speed, you'll laugh as Donald and his buddy road trip half-way across America and find God in Oregon.

5. One book that made you cry:A Walk Across America, by Peter Jenkins - a great, encouraging, well-written true-life story that will make you laugh, cry, and want to travel the world. I cried hardest when his dog died, for whatever that's worth.

6. One book that you wish had been written:A Foundational Retrospective History of Egalitarian Cross-Cultural Movements among Endangered Hybrid Systematic Elves of Upper Norway. Either that or some really well-written, engaging novels based on Biblical stories and characters, some books that bring everything to life.

7. One book that you wish had never been written:The Koran (not even deserving of an Amazon.com link) - This book has destroyed so many people's lives. I couldn't think of a better one to permanently delete.

8. One book you’re currently reading:Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire, by Brother Andrew - amazing stories and inspiring stuff about Christians making surviving in Muslim territory.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock, by Andrew Beaujon - a non-Christian journalist's perspective on the Christian music scene.

10. Now tag five people:Mudpuppy, Man of Steel, WorshipCity, Jaybrams, Matt

One Book Meme

I begged Bryan L to tag me with the "One book meme" that started a year-and-a-half-ago. I'm like the pathetic kid on the playground, running up to whoever is it and yelling, "Tag me, tag me!" just to get some attention. (This will all change January 1 when I join the cool kids at Wordpress. Then people will tag me without me asking. Oh yes, they will tag me.)

1. One book that changed your life:
N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (1992)

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Stanley Grenz & Roger Olson, Who Needs Theology? (1996)

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
John Lofty Wiseman, SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea (2004)

4. One book that made you laugh:
Anders Henriksson, Non Campus Mentis: World History According to College Students (2001)

5. One book that made you cry:
John Perkins, Let Justice Roll Down (1976)

6. One book that you wish had been written:
The author of Matthew, I Acts (Matthew's version of the history of the early church, with Luke's version becoming II Acts)

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon (1830)

8. One book you’re currently reading:
Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine (2005)

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
David Bentley Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite (2004)

10. Now tag five people:
I tag Jessie, J.K., Brian, Tom, and Daniel