As seen on Jollyblogger (not that he tagged me. I’m just poaching) via that pungent pub across the alley:

0) What’s your name and website URL? (optional, of course)

Call me Bill. http://outofthebloo.com/blog or http://thinklings.org, among others.

1) What’s the most fun work you’ve ever done, and why? (two sentences max)

In ministry, working with students in general and working with the student worship bands for seven years in particular. In regular work, developing software in general and, in particular, developing Bloo

2) A. Name one thing you did in the past that you no longer do but wish you did? (one sentence max)

(Maybe) working with the worship bands or being in a worship band?

B. Name one thing you’ve always wanted to do but keep putting it off? (one sentence max)

COMPLETING MY NOVEL!

3) A. What two things would you most like to learn or be better at, and why? (two sentences max)

1. Writing, 2. Reading and understanding ancient Greek

B. If you could take a class/workshop/apprentice from anyone in the world living or dead, who would it be and what would you hope to learn? (two more sentences, max)

The obvious answer is learning from Jesus about how to be a disciple, and the honest answer is that that scares the crud out of me. If not Jesus, I’d love to learn how to write from C.S. Lewis.

4) A. What three words might your best friends or family use to describe you?

responsible, smart, and kind of nerdy.

B. Now list two more words you wish described you…

introspective and overly self-conscious Oops! I missed the “wish” and was just continuing on with my list of traits.

Now that changes things . . .

Fearless and unashamed.

5) What are your top three passions? (can be current or past, work, hobbies, or causes– three sentences max)

Easy: Jesus (as in “learning to follow”), Computers (as in “programming”), and Music (as in “playing”)

6) Write–and answer–one more question that YOU would ask someone (with answer in three sentences max)

Q. What trait do you most wish you had? A. Fearlessness Already answered in 4.B above, now that I’ve actually read the instructions.

Here’s my new answer:

Q. What do you want to be doing when your life ends? A. Something brave and God-glorifying.

I’m supposed to tag five people, which will be difficult because my blog only has three readers. But, here goes:

1. Jared of The Thinklings

2. Blest at Blest With Sons

3. Phil at Brandywine Books

4. Ellen at MzEllen & Co.

5. Eric at The Fireant Gazette

6. And, because hope springs eternal, and because I think he might even exist, Blo of The Thinklings

(saw this on the LJ of someone I don’t know . . .)

Because everyone needs a theme song . . .

1. If you could pick your own theme song, what would it be? – Just because it has a cool feel: Smoothie Song by Nickle Creek. Either that or Joe Walsh’s Life’s Been Good To Me So Far

2. Now be honest…if others had to pick a song that described you, what would they choose? – I’m Just A Bill by Schoolhouse Rock

3. What song would be/was the first dance at your wedding? – Well, we got married in ’88, so probably either something by Chicago or [Cheese Alert!] Precious And Few by Climax

4. What song gets stuck in your head most often? – Here With Me by MercyMe (but the version I hear is the 249 North band version)

5. What song would you want played at your funeral? That’s easy: You Alone by Passion. The lyrics are below:

You are the only one I need

I bow all of me at Your feet

I worship You alone

I’m alive, I’m alive

I’m alive, I’m alive

I’m going to tag five of my three readers (wait, wrap your mind around that!) to do this meme. They are:

1. “Philip” of The Thinklings (Expect five Metallica songs from our resident heavy-metal Southern Baptist pastor)

2. Blest

3. Jen

4. Scot McKnight (who doesn’t know this blog exists. But what the hay, I can dream, right?)

5. Ellen

Technically, Raindream tagged my Thinklings persona, but he tagged me here on OOTB, so I think I’ll post this here.

4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over

1. The Lord of the Rings

2. It’s a Wonderful Life

3. Parenthood

4. She’s Having A Baby

4 Places You Have Lived

1. Missouri

2. Japan

3. Germany

4. Texas

4 TV Shows You Love To Watch

The sad fact is that it’s not so long ago that I could have said “none”. Either TV has gotten better or I’ve gotten dumber (uh oh)

1. 24

2. Lost

3. The Office

That’s it!

4 Places You Have Been On Vacation

1. Skiing in Austria as a kid

2. Pisa, Italy as a boy scout

3. Ruidosa, New Mexico (last year w the family. Skiing!)

4. The Western Panhandle of Nebraska (yes, you read that right. Wanna make something of it? 🙂

4 Websites You Visit Daily

1. The Thinklings

2. National Review Online

3. Michelle Malkin

4. Kevo’s LJ and his friends link

And a whole lot of other ones.

4 Of Your Favorite Foods

1. Chinese

2. Mexican

3. Japanese

4. Breakfast Cereal

4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now

1. Well, I’m at home right now. And I like being at home. So “Home”.

2. San Antonio

3. New Mexico

4. Nebraska

4 Bloggers You are Tagging

Most likely you’ve all been tagged already, but I’m not good at keeping up with that.

1. Bride of Beau

2. BlestWithSons

3. Katelyn

4. Shrode from the Thinklings

Even if I didn’t tag you, I’d love to see your answers in the comments.

BlestWithSons has pegged me with another “Sevens” meme. My results are below (and I hope I’m not depressed in a year when I re-read this):

7 things I want to do in 2006

1. Find a new place of service in my church

2. Get into a regular writing routine on my novel

3. Lose weight (*sigh*)

4. Record a family CD on ProTools

5. Release Bloo into the public domain (if I haven’t done this by February I’ll be pretty bummed, actually)

6. Love God more

7. Have my blogging become more of a ministry

8. Work harder at work (ok, this is 8 but it needs to be said)

9. Pray more (ok, 9 . . . 7 just isn’t enough)

7 things to do less of in 2006

1. Eating

2. Surfing the web, and particularly the blogosphere

3. Wasting time

4. Being afraid – of anything

5. Not enjoying the now

6. Being content with “OK”

7. Not knowing enough about what’s going on in the world

7 ways I‘m going to be a better husband/father/friend in 2006

1. Pray harder for my kids

2. Pray harder for my wife

3. Spend more time with the kids individually

4. Be more outgoing

5. Be more fun

6. Take better care of myself to make the first five more possible

7. Grow spiritually

7 Scripture Passages I want to memorize in 2006

Hmmm. This one’s hard . . . But if I had to choose:

1. Romans 8

2. Romans 12

3. Romans 14

4. Isaiah 40

5. Lamentations 3

6. John 1

7. Psalm 73

7 Books I’ve Never Read that I‘m Going to Read in 2006

Note: many of these have been given to me and I feel terrible for not having read them yet. It’s mainly because I haven’t been convinced that I’m mentally up to it.

1. The Divine Conspiracy – Dallas Willard

2. The Gagging of God – D.A. Carson

3. The Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoffer

4. The Story of Christianity, Vols 1 and 2 – Justo L. Gonzalez (Ok, I’m cheating here, because I am currently reading these, and will finish in 2006 🙂

5. Not a Tame Lion – Bruce L. Edwards

6. Of the Imitation of Christ – Thomas Kempis

8. Lennon Revealed – Larry Kane

7 Movies I’ve Never Seen that I’m Going to Watch in 2006

1. Citizen Kane

2. King Kong

3. hmmmm. To be honest, I’m just not that into movies . . . As BWS did, I’m asking for recommendations.

7 people I want to join in too

I’m going to cheat and reuse some of my last list, except I’ll spare BWS another tag

1. Shrode from the Thinklings

2. Bethany or Bethany 🙂

3. Molly

4. Susan

5. Bob

6. Jen (although she’s going to be out of pocket for awhile 🙂

7. Sherry

Chances of me actually doing all the stuff above? No comment. 🙂

Laura at Pursuing Holiness has tagged me. And, doggone it, weren’t you in the mood for a new meme? I sure was. So here goes:

7 things to do before I die:

1. Publish a book.

2. Grow old with my wife and best friend, Jill. I want us to be one of those cute old couples that still flirt with eachother when they’re like 85. Although if God wants to take me before then that’s totally cool too.

3. Release the Bloo software into the public domain, and see it be used by people I don’t know.

4. Do something courageous.

5. Walk both my daughters down the aisle at their weddings.

6. See my sons grow up to honorable manhood.

7. Play with my grandchildren.

7 things I can’t do:

1. Dance

2. Sing

3. Do woodwork

4. Park a car (seriously, I’m a terrible parker)

5. Have a sense of direction

6. Stay neat (I’m somewhat of a slob)

7. Understand that complex and crazy entity that is the human being. Especially me.

7 things that attract me to my wife:

1. Her beauty

2. Her smooth skin (smoothest skin ever! The first time I touched her face I was blown away)

3. Her laughter

4. Her laid-back, peaceful attitude to life

5. The way she loves our kids

6. Her steadfastness in the Lord

7. Snuggling!

7 things that attract me to blogging:

1. The community

2. The immediacy

3. The software (I love writing blog software!)

4. When someone says that something I wrote has blessed them

5. Being able to keep up with people I know who have moved away

6. Interesting comment threads

7. Bizarre but strangely compelling comment threads

7 things I say most often:

1. “Whoa!” (If I die in a car accident, my last word will be “Whoa!”)

2. “Cr*p” (I know, I really need to work on that. It’s my all-purpose expletive)

3. “I love you”

4. “Freakin'” (See my note on #2)

5. “I like what you’ve done here” (from Wayne’s World)

6. “I like alcoholics?” (substitute “alcoholics” for any suitable word – this is a quote from She’s Having a Baby)

7. “Ooooo-kaayyyy”

7 books I love:

1. The Bible

2. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

3. The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis

4. The Space Trilogy – C.S. Lewis

5. Watership Down – Richard Adams

6. Till We Have Faces – C.S. Lewis

7. All The Trouble In The World – P.J. O’Rourke

7 movies I watch over and over:

1. The Lord of the Rings

2. It’s a Wonderful Life

3. Parenthood

4. She’s Having a Baby

5. The Incredibles

6. The Emperor’s New Groove

7. West Side Story

7 people I want to join in too:

1. Blo from the Thinklings (hey, hope springs eternal, y’know?)

2. Bethany

3. Molly

4. Susan

5. Bob

6. BlestWithSons (although I’ll bet she’s already been tagged)

7. Sherry

Donna has tagged me for a meme that is making the rounds of the blogosphere these days. (Note: turns out this meme originated a year ago with the excellent Marla Swoffer.)

Here’s how it works. If tagged, you pick out five occupations from the list below and finish the sentence on each. You can add more occupations of your own if you like.

If I could be a scientist I would . . .

If I could be a farmer I would . . .

If I could be a musician I would . . .

If I could be a doctor I would . . .

If I could be a painter I would . . .

If I could be a gardener I would . . .

If I could be a missionary I would . . .

If I could be a chef I would . . .

If I could be an architect I would . . .

If I could be a linguist I would . . .

If I could be a psychologist I would . . .

If I could be a librarian I would . . .

If I could be an athlete I would . . .

If I could be a lawyer I would . . .

If I could be an innkeeper I would . . .

If I could be a professor I would . . .

If I could be a writer I would . . .

If I could be a llama-rider I would . . .

If I could be a bonnie pirate I would . . . (what the heck’s a “bonnie pirate” I wonder?)

If I could be a service member I would . . .

If I could be a photographer I would . . .

If I could be a philanthropist I would . . .

If I could be a rap artist I would . . .

If I could be a child actor I would . . .

If I could be a secret agent I would . . .

If I could be a comedian/comedienne I would . . .

If I could be a priest I would . . .

If I could be a radio announcer I would . . .

If I could be a phlebotomist I would . . .

If I could be a pet store owner I would . . .

If I could be a computer programmer I would . . .

If I could be a police officer I would . . .

If I could be a politician I would . . .

If I could be a mom I would . . .

If I could be an underwater basket weaver I would . . .

If I could be a reality tv host I would . . .

If I could be a forensic pathologist I would . . .

If I could be a key grip on the next Star Wars film I would . . .

If I could be a fairy god parent I would . . .

If I could be a cast member on “Smallville” I would . . .

If I could be an Airbus pilot I would . . .

If I could be U2’s equipment manager I would . . .

If I could be a computer nerd I would . . .

Man, this is hard . . .

OK, here goes:

If I could be a phlebotomist I would practice phlebotomy to the best of my ability.

If I could be a linguist I would learn Greek and Hebrew, and would also translate Homer’s The Odyssey from ancient Greek into English just like C.S. Lewis did when he was a kid.

If I could be a key grip on the next Star Wars film I’d beg George Lucas to swallow his pride and let Peter Jackson direct the film.

If I could be a writer I’d write a redemptive novel that inspired people to seek redemption.

If I could be a computer nerd I’d . . . hey, wait a minute, I am a computer nerd!

Those I have decided to tag:

1. Andy at GodVerbs.

2. Eric at The Fireant Gazette – Update: Eric has already done this meme, so the lovely and talented Molly has graciously taken up the challenge.

3. And the elusive, ethereal (and possibly mythological) Blo over at The Thinklings.