Silverware Thief

As done by aSeamstress.

1.What is the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?

The best advice was from my Dad. Rather than being a piece of advice he has given on one particular occasion it has been his general exhortation to me in life. Distilled down to a pithy saying, it would be something like, “Don’t worry about what people think, concern yourself with what God thinks. Don’t try to please people or win their approval. Seek to please God and have His approval.”

I believe that is good advice, and try to live accordingly.

2.If you could relive any moment in your life, what would it be?

None. While I have many fond memories of times past, I have no desire to go back and experience them again. I look forward and see what is ahead as better. I would rather go forward and experience the better things awaiting.

3.Do you have any weird habits?

Many.

The problem with asking that question is that I’m not very cognizant of how weird my various habits are. I asked my family and got a very long list. If they were pare them down, a short list might include:

–I sing a lot. I sing in the shower, while cooking, while cleaning, and while driving the car (so long as I am alone). Basically any time when my brain is not deeply engaged and I’m not physically exerting myself so much that I don’t have any spare breath. However I seem incapable of remembering all the lyrics to any song, so I end up singing one or two lines of various songs over and over and over again. Then I will sometimes get bored with singing that one line the right way, so I will start singing it loudly, badly out of tune, or mutilate the lyrics.

–I go out biking three times a week . . . no matter what the weather: torrential downpour, snow, or twenty-degrees below zero.

–I twirl and tug on my beard when thinking or daydreaming. This is something of a bad habit as if I get really engaged in thinking I’ll twirl and tug just about every hair on my face until it is all rather frayed and the roots are sore.

–I’m a light sleeper, sensitive to noise and light. Often I will wear ear-plugs and put something over my eyes so it is “properly” quiet and dark.

–I think chickens and ducks are nutty, and I end up acting like a nut around them. I end up speaking in a high pitched girly voice and acting crazy (like a chicken, in my mind)–all sorts of things no intelligent and self respecting person would do.

–I often think to myself, or carrying on an internal conversation with myself, and I will smile or shake my head in response to those unheard things (perhaps giving this visible reaction at a socially inappropriate time). This provokes the reaction of “What??? Why are you smiling?” And I usually say, “Oh, nothing. Just my thoughts.”

–Related to the above, I have been told that I act very weird when I am writing.

I carry on an dialog with myself while writing, which consists in whispering what I am writing while I type, shaking my head as I deliberate (if I’m not satisfied), grinning, chuckling (if I am pleased), and turning away from the computer screen to staring intently off into space while contemplating some inner scene or thought (people have claimed that it looks like I am staring right through them). I will then sometimes get up and start pacing around the room (especially if I’m having a brain over-load, or am trying to sort thoughts out).

Thus I might write a few sentences while whispering to myself, then get up and walk in a circle, shaking my head, occasionally smiling or muttering to myself, then sit down again and write a few more sentences, then stare off into space before getting up and repeating the process all over again.

Apparently this can be very weird for someone watching.

Obviously a lot of my neurosis involves writing.

4.Name a book that you’re currently reading, and in twenty words or less, describe your thoughts about it. (actually, I’m kidding about the twenty words or less part you can make it as long as you want)

This question comes at a bad time as at this very minute I’m kind of between reading material. While waiting in doctor’s offices, etc. I’ve been reading Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual, but that is basically a manual, so it doesn’t really count. And I’m also reading a new novel to my Grandpa that my Uncle dropped off, but I don’t think that counts either.

So, I’ll answer the question by writing briefly about what I recently read, and what I am going to start reading.

I recently finished reading Joshua Harris’s three books I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Boy Meets Girl, and Not Even A Hint. I was initially very leery of these books as they were packaged as “popular” and I find popular books often severely lacking in substance. Once I flipped through the books I saw they weren’t so bad as I feared. As I had already thought about the matters covered in the books and come to my own conclusions I didn’t feel a strong compulsion to read them immediately, but recently I did finally get around to them.

I would say I am largely in the same ball-park as Joshua Harris on the matters covered. I do have some criticisms of what he says in certain places. Distilled down in essence, it is that he fails to fully grasp the truth of desiring (and putting into practice) the reality of living for God in obedience to Christ in every aspect of life. And as much as Joshua Harris does grasp it, he is inconsistent in applying it.

For reading next . . . I recently bought the entire back issue collection of Searching Together Magazine. I am interested in reading them all, but will start with the Spring-Autumn 2003 Edition, Women in the Body of Christ: Functioning Priests or “Silent” Partners? because the subject with is one I have been pondering and seeking to solidify some of my own thoughts in writing, so having someone else to react to would be good.

5.If a vending machine stole your money, what would your initial reaction be?

“I knew it!”

I expect vending machines to steal my money. I expect it so much that I find it difficult to be surprised when it happens. When I stick my money in the slot I already half expect that I’m flushing my money down the drain. There is a certain wrathful self-righteous smugness when the filthy machine does exactly what I expect.

Now its your turn to play if you wish!

Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions, and I will message or comment you with them and these directions. Just update your blog with the answers to the questions and include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.