Note: This list really needs to be updated. – BR, 7/13/2024

1. My name is Bill
2. I’m married to Jill
3. Yes, our names rhyme. Very cute
4. I really, really love my wife. She’s awesome
5. We have four kids. They range in age from 29 to 21,
6. Our two oldest are grown up and married
7. We have five grandchildren. They are awesome
8. I can’t believe I get to be a parent and now a grandparent
9. We have awesome kids
10. Every one of our kids is different, and each in good ways
11. Someone once asked me why I wasn’t nervous before giving a talk in front of a few hundred people at work. I replied “I’m a parent. I know what fear is. This isn’t it.”
12. I’m a Christian
13. I follow Jesus imperfectly, and am an often timid and tentative disciple
14. Jesus has changed my life in ways that take my breath away
15. In my life, I’ve found that things that didn’t make sense at the time generally make a lot more sense later on. I’ve found that the hand of God is generally recognized in hindsight
16. I believe that one big purpose of living is to learn humility
17. Humility is learned through the cool ways life has of teaching you that you don’t know as much as you thought. Getting your rear-end kicked is one of the “cool ways” that life uses to teach you these lessons
18. I think I’m learning humility, because I’m a lot dumber now than I used to be
19. I’ll know that I’ve arrived, humility-wise, when I no longer notice that I’m learning humility
20. I’m not “post” anything (many thanks to Jared for that line).
21. I find usages of “post” to be primarily a form of chronological snobbery. I feel a post coming (no pun intended).
22. I often have post ideas that never get posted. Probably about one in 10 post ideas I have ever hit this blog
23. I like blogging, but have had serious problems in actually doing it these last few years
24. No one really reads this blog. That’s a feature, not a bug
25. I’m not a big fan of most of the blogosphere. Too much heat, not enough light
26. I’m even less of a fan of most social media
27. I minister to College students. I also have a day job. But I think ministry is my true calling.
28. It’s a challenging ministry. I need to get better at it
29. Growing up, I lived in the United States, Japan, Okinawa, and Germany
30. We’ve lived in the same house for the past 23 years.
31. I’m shy in a lot of circumstances, but not all
32. For instance, I don’t mind talking in front of large groups, though I don’t get that opportunity very often
33. Sometimes I find it harder to talk to one or two people than I do talking to a lot of people
34. I like Chinese food. Only one other member of my immediate family shares this like, so I don’t get too much Chinese food at home
35. I’ve been told in the past that I have a dry wit
36. I’m terrible, though, at snappy comebacks. I generally think of them about two hours after the fact
37. For many years I worked with junior high and high school students at church. I have a special place in my heart for them
38. I don’t like violent movies
39. Except Lord of the Rings. But I somewhat justify that because the majority of the violence is not human on human
40. Does that make any sense? I didn’t think so
41. But seriously, violent movies mess me up
42. If a movie is honestly redemptive, I’m going to love it
43. Even if the movie gets bad reviews
44. I’m a sucker for redemption
45. Although I don’t like it too formulaic in movie format. Kid sports movies where the underdog team wins at the end don’t do much for me
46. One reason The Bad News Bears worked was because it wasn’t formulaic. They lost at the end.
47. I tend to have a really good memory for what I’ve seen in movies. Case in point, that last item. I haven’t seen that movie in thirty years
48. It will come as no surprise that It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie
49. I like history. A lot
50. I tend to delve deeply into subjects I care about. I’ve learned a lot of minutiae about, for instance, the Civil War and the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs
51. I like soccer. I didn’t used to, but one of my kids plays it a lot and I’ve grown to really appreciate it
52. Soccer is the world’s sport
53. The previous statement had nothing to do with me and so probably doesn’t belong on this list
54. I can’t park
55. Seriously, I’m the world’s worst parker. I almost always leave one tire over the line
56. I’ve never been in a wreck
57. I’m an extremely defensive driver, because everyone else on the road is tripping on crack and ‘roids
58. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve run over a curb I’d be a wealthy man
59. I think this all points to me being seriously deficient in navigating through three dimensional space
60. I also have a really bad sense of direction. Much of my life has been me, driving around in tight, panicked, lost circles.
61. But I’m getting better . . .
62. GPS helps
63. I’m a musician of sorts
64. Guitar is probably the instrument I’m most decent at. I used to be better
65. I learned how to play bass a few years ago and got decent at it. But not so much anymore. I used to be better
66. I was a drummer through high school and college. I also played drums for our church for awhile years ago. I used to be better
67. I can make my way around a piano. Never was particularly good, though
68. My mind is a much better musician than my hands
69. I am really good at computers
70. I like programming. I do it for fun. Weird, no?
71. I’m a big fan of open-source software. This blog used to be based on software I wrote myself. But it became abandon-ware in 2011
72. Computers don’t scare me, and I’m usually pretty good at figuring out what ails ’em
73. I’m not as handy in real-space. I wish I was better at fixing my house
74. I’m learning, slowly
75. God is good
76. I am his child