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8.22.2006
My cat is manipulative.
Tonight, as I was getting ready to go to bed, Simon was already laying there - right on top of his favorite toy (one of those stick-string fishing pole dealies), which was sprawled across the bed. That meant that to go to bed I would have to move the toy - and moving the toy meant awakening him and also meant play.
I have the smartest cat in the world.
Here's some video. (I just uploaded it to youtube, so hopefully it'll work by tomorrow morning...)
I'd forgotten about what a trip some of those old Sesame Street cartoons were. This is like H.R. Puffinstuff meets Monty Python meets Earth, Wind, and Fire. But it (and other animation segments much like it) taught me to count.
Bethany tagged me. I don't usually do these things, but this one's about books, and I like books.
1. One book that changed your life: The Bible is the cliche, and besides that it hasn't so much changed my life as been in it since the beginning. I'd say Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies, but my significant other already used that one, so I'm not allowed to. Grenz/Franke's Beyond Foundationalism changed a lot of the way I think, as did Newbigin's The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, but I don't know if that counts as changing my life. So, uh... I'm going to go with The Monster at the End of this Book (Now with linky goodness!). That book changed my whole outlook on monsters.
2. One book you have read more than once:The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, and The Brothers K by David James Duncan. That's two, but I couldn't decide which one.
3. One book you would want on a desert island: See (2). I'd have a tough time deciding between those two and the Bible, but as a seminary grad I've memorized most of the Bible anyway and so probably wouldn't need it (ha!).
4. One book that made you laugh: Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them was really hilarious, as was America: The Book by the Daily Show people.
5. One book you wish you had written: Geez. I don't know. It would have been nice to interview all the Burning Man people for This is Burning Man like Brian Doherty did, but I got to cite him and I'm hoping to interview some myself for the next wave of thesis/book expansion. I'd like to have written a great work of fiction, but honestly, I'm not much of a fiction guy. I guess the book I wish I'd written is the book I'm working on now, because when it's written and (God willing) published, I'll get to see my all-too-handsome face on the inside of the jacket cover and have a book release party and have literary groupies. Chicks dig writers.
6. One book you wish had never had been written: Consensus opinion seems to be anything by Ann Coulter. I find it difficult to argue with that. I know I'm supposed to answer with something like Mein Kampf or The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but we're kidding ourselves if we think Nazism and anti-Semitism wouldn't have existed if not for those things. Come to think of it, we're kidding ourselves if we think mindless, obnoxious conservatism* wouldn't have existed if not for Ann Coulter, but she has the added bonus of being one of the more insipid people ever to step in front of a camera. Hitler at least had that funny-looking little mustache going on, and is rather humorous to watch with his wild gesticulations and crazy angry voice.
7. One book that made you cry: I don't cry at books, but the closest I've come was the aforementioned The Brothers K.
8. One book you are currently reading: One book? Try five. The Brothers Karamazov (again), Beyond Foundationalism (again), Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich, Talking of God: An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis of Religious Language by Terrence W. Tilley, and Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh.
9. One book you have been meaning to read: I've been meaning to read the complete works of Nancey Murphy, Stanley Hauerwas, and Stanley Grenz, as well as the postmodern/prepostmodern theorists like Foucault, Derrida, de Man, and Nietzsche. I've also been meaning to read the great historical works of political theory, from Plato to Mill to Marx and on. I keep a long reading list.
10. One book you wish everyone would read, and why: I'm going to cheat again and name a few. The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder, Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr., God Has A Dream by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott are on my "everyone should read" list. If a person reads those four books and takes in everything the authors have to say, I can't imagine him or her not coming out a better person on the other side.
Now I'm supposed to tag five people. Mom (obviously) Michelle (won't get to it for a week or so because she's on vacation) Jenn (who has no excuse not to get to this tomorrow) Charlie (to enrich his intellectual life now that he's reached the ripe old age of 24) Danny (to make sure he's getting a proper literary education in college)
* There is such a thing as intelligent, non-obnoxious conservatism, but Ann Coulter ain't it - nor are Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, or any of those other blowhards. George Will is an excellent example.
posted by jimmy at 17:52 -
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8.04.2006
Today's mail...
...brought this.
(For those who didn't figure it out, that's a Burning Man ticket.)
Burning Man is only 24 days away... I'm so excited...
posted by jimmy at 18:03 -
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