I'm a sucker for these things
Rather than e-mail this along, I thought I’d just post these silly questions here for your possible passive reading pleasure…
1. Do you like blue cheese? yes, especially on salads
2. Have you ever smoked? only a few cigars
3. Do you own a gun? no
4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite? something red
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointment? sometimes
6. What do you think of hot dogs? yum, with sauerkraut
7. Favorite Christmas movie? The Bishop’s Wife
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? coffee, some mornings
9. Can you do push ups? I haven’t tried in years
10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? my engagement ring and the blue topaz studs Bret gave me for Christmas
11. Favorite hobby? paper crafts
12. Do you have A.D.D.? nope
13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? yes, glasses
14. Middle name? Leigh
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I hope Natalie’ not getting sick; I love“The Parent Trap” (it’s on in the other room); my oatmeal’s now cold
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water and tea
17. Current worry? That Natalie and Bret are going to get the cold I’m recovering from
18. Current hate right now? congestion
19. Favorite place to be? Anywhere with Bret and Natalie, especially home
20. How did you bring in the new year? with sleep
21. Where would you like to go? right now: the shower; someday: Europe (Italy, Spain, Ireland) and Alaska
22. Name three people who will complete this: not sure three people will read this…
23. What color shirt are you wearing? bright green
24. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? no, bamboo is nicer
26. Can you whistle? yes
27. Favorite color? celery green
28. Would you be a pirate? no — I’m not a fan of the open sea or rum
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? hymns if any
30. Favorite girl’s name? Natalie
31. Favorite boy’s name? Benjamin and Patrick
32. What’s in your pocket right now? a used tissue
34. What vehicle do you drive? 1999 Mercury Mystique
35. Worst injury you’ve ever had? a twisted foot/pulled arch that now causes hip problems
36. Do you love where you live? absolutely
37. How many TVs do you have in your house? one
www.halfpennyorchestra.com
For the last few Februaries, Ryan Miller and I have written songs for FAWM under the name Halfpenny Orchestra. We registered the halfpennyorchestra.com domain but never really did anything with it. Well, we’re doing something with it now.
From time to time, we find ourselves lamenting that we’re too busy, that we don’t push ourselves enough to be creative, that we feel like we’re not using what gifts we have very well. Our friend James Van Lommel feels similarly, so we three decided to start a blog together.
The main purpose of the site is really to provide mutual accountability and creative encouragement for ourselves. We’re each committing to post some sort of original content or commentary there at whatever interval we can, with an ultimate goal of weekly posts from each of us. We’ve started with two essays and a photo with commentary, but future posts may include music, book reviews, sketches, short fiction, and all sorts of other things.
So, if you’re interested in seeing what we’re up to, you can find out at www.halfpennyorchestra.com. Please feel free to peruse whatever is there and leave comments…and please pester us if you notice that it’s been a couple of weeks since something new was posted. :)
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
So, after finding a link to this site on Craig’s blog, I decided to try it and see how I’d do. After all, it’s just the kind of meticulous eye strain-inducing test that we all like to take for fun now and then. Right? Are you with me? Guys?
After spending long enough on it to discover a few helpful strategies and develop a mild headache (translation: way too long), I nervously hit Score Test…and got a zero. Every colored block in the correct place. I’m pretty surprised that it turned out that way, since there were a few that didn’t look quite like they fit anywhere, but apparently I guessed right. Anyway, I’ll take it.
So what were the strategies I came up with? Turn your monitor brightness up and adjust your screen angles if you’re on an LCD. Move the blocks which most match the extremes toward the ends first and then try to fill in the middle. When you’re getting close, try moving each square left and right by one space and decide if the spectrum is better or worse than it was before the move.
And in the end, remind yourself that it’s a meaningless amusement on the internet, and not really worth a headache…
I suffer from this sometimes...
( from http://xkcd.com/ )
Update: There are some weird comics on that site, but this one just made Andrea and me laugh out loud…
Miscellaneous Thoughts From Bret
I haven’t posted anything since February (wow…really?), so I thought I’d put up a few quick links, thoughts, etc. just to show that I’m still around, blogwise.
Links:
- Garfield Minus Garfield is wonderful…
- I tilted my chair back at work after reading this.
- Here is an interesting essay/speech from writer Clay Shirkey called, “Gin, Television, and Social Surplus.” Definitely worth reading.
- Stuff White People Like is amusing too, although it’s heavily skewed towards “stuff upper middle class urban white people like.” Yet, several of them are spot on for me, for better or worse.
Music I’ve Purchased/Found Recently:
- April by Sun Kil Moon – Slow, deliberate, moody and beautiful. Go listen to it.
- Boxer by The National – Paste Magazine’s album of the year in 2007…after initially giving it a three-star review. It’s a “grower,” and it’s growing on me rapidly.
- Third by Portishead – Their first album in 11 years, and they come back with a much more experimental sound, somewhere between their last album and Kid A and static…but in a fascinating way. Not for everyone…
- The Archivist EP is a free 6-song download which I think is great…
Random Thoughts:
- I’m buying Natalie a 21st birthday present soon…a small bottle of 2007 Sauternes. If you haven’t heard of it, Sauternes is one of the great dessert wines of the world, amazingly rich and complex when done well. It can also last for decades when aged properly. If you ever get the chance to have some, do it.
- Pastor Brian’s sermon from two weeks ago has really stuck with me. In talking about sin as foolishness/anti-wisdom, he mentioned Cornelius Plantinga’s definition of wisdom as, “the knowledge of God’s world and the knack of fitting oneself into it.” He then went on to say that developing that knack requires careful attention to detail when it comes to creation (and especially relationships). Rooted in scripture, we should approach the world with a connoisseur-like appraisal, seeking deep and nuanced understanding. This connection between wisdom and nuance is something I hadn’t heard stated so explicitly before, but it instantly resonated with me and has continued to bounce around in my brain. So thanks, Pastor Brian!
Locke rocks!
Minor Lost season one spoiler alert…
1. I thought I recognized John Locke — he was Howard Hughes in The Rocketeer! I loved that movie, and I always thought that actor was charismatic … something about his eyes and his voice…
2. I am such a mom … I got tears in my eyes when I realized that Locke was making a cradle for Claire…
Get to know your friends
Flo posted this on her blog with an open invitation to answer the questions. I’ve got so many nebulous thoughts and unanswered questions percolating in my brain right now that an irresistibly fun questionnaire hit the spot. (I’ll share more about said thoughts and questions in an upcoming post — I’ll have more time (theoretically) after this week since it’s my last week of work!)
I invite anyone to copy/paste/answer it in the comments section here or on their own blog…
1. What is your occupation? proofreader (for two more days); mother; writer
2. What color are your socks right now? bright pink with gray birds on them
3. What are you listening to right now? chili cooking on the stove and Bret talking on the phone to a friend
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Gouda, cave-aged Gruyere, and whole-grain crackers
5. Can you drive a stick shift? maybe in an emergency (it’s been a long time)
6. What color would you be, if you were a color? Celery green
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Josh Burson (when he called for Bret); Sarah Miller before that
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes (I guess Flo ‘sent’ this to me)
9. How old are you today? 29
10. Favorite drink? iced tea and Grenache
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? baseball
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? yes, only a few times in college
13. Pets? none at the moment
14. Favorite food? shrimp — any way, any time
15. Last movie you watched? “Peter Pan” (Disney animated)
16. Favorite day of the year? My birthday tied with Christmas
17. What do you do to vent anger? cry and write in my journal
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies and Legos
19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? um, right now spring (because it’s almost spring)
20. Cherry or blueberry? cherries — neither as artificial flavors
21. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? sure
22. Who is most likely to respond? hopefully everyone who reads this
23. Who is least likely to respond? Bret
24. What are your current living arrangements? husband, daughter, “detached condo” on a hillside with lovely views
25. When was the last time you cried? earlier today upon reading about the miraculous healing of a friend’s father
26. Who is the friend you’ve had the longest that you are sending this to? Gina (best friends for 15 years)
27. Favorite smell? fresh-cut grass; my baby’s milk breath; old books
28. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? cheeseburger animal style (but I’d probably love a spicy burger if I were to come across one)
29. Favorite car? don’t really have one any more (favorite, that is); I used to be obsessed with Mustangs
30. Favorite cat breed? don’t have a fav
31. Number of keys on your key ring? one too many
32. How many years at your current job? almost six months as a proofreader; six and a half years before that as a writer/editor (for the same newspaper I’m proofreading for)
33. Favorite day of the week? Friday
34. How many states have you lived in? 2
35. What is your favorite hobby? rubber stamping/card making/scrapbooking; crocheting; cooking (basically anything that involves making something creative for someone else)
36. Last book you read: I’m currently reading “Heat” (not the DeNiro/Pacino movie — this nonfiction book is about cooking, and I recommend it)
FAWM 2008
Just a quick note: Ryan Miller and I are doing February Album Writing Month (FAWM) again this year under the name Halfpenny Orchestra. If you’re interested in the songs we’ve been recording, you can find them on our page here.
It’s a lot of fun and a good excuse to step up the creative output…I know several of you out there are musically-inclined and have at least crude recording capabilities. If not this year, you really should sign up next year. I’m looking at you, Jim, Greg, Flo, Jimmy Sue, Bobby Will, Fishy Bob…
(Flo, I know you’re releasing another album so I guess you’re off the hook regarding creative output, but it would still be awesome if you wanted to do it…)
Christmas Lists...
For family and friends who may be having a hard time deciding what to give us for Christmas, here are some lists that might help…
Bret’s Amazon Wish List
Andrea’s (and Natalie’s) Amazon Wish List
A couple other suggestions for Bret:
- Zassenhaus 151DG or 154MA Coffee Grinder
- Games: Thebes, Slide 5, Zooloretto
- Funding towards the computer replacement that will probably have to happen in the next year or so…
(More suggestions for Andrea and Natalie will be added in later…)
P.S. Speaking of lists, I’ll be posting my 2007 version of this list soon, so get your mixes ready!
Book Meme : Bret
Mmm…books. Our friend Flo tagged us with some book questions and I finally have a minute or two to respond. Here goes:
My currently reading list:
- Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo
- The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1957-1982
- The 2006 International Building Code (not really a joke…I just got a big project with a strict deadline assigned to me, so I need to become an expert in the new code in short order)
- This is not even close to the complete list of books that I’m in the middle of, but they are the ones I’ll be reading if I find any free time.
Total number of books in my library:
- Well, we have 371 listed in Library Thing plus various cookbooks, little kid books, etc. Maybe 450-500 total?
Last book finished:
- The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (Modern, quirky, and ethereal…I liked it. Fair warning if you read it: there is one disturbingly violent scene, but at least it’s not unnecessary.)
Last book(s) bought (I can’t remember which was most recent):
- Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
5 meaningful books: (to me? for people in general? eh…I’ll mix and match)
- The Bible (of course…I like NIV & ESV)
- Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper (the intro and first few chapters rocked my world the first time I read them)
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (most meaningful because of the people I’ve read it to)
- The art books I used to read at Grandma and Grandpa Wingo’s house
- I don’t know about #5…I’ll fill this hole for now with Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down by Marva Dawn because it’s a good book that could use a shout-out.
5 favorite books:
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (again, for different reasons now than in the past)
- Whales on Stilts by M. T. Anderson (a young adult’s book, and a fantastic one)
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy (although this one does feel a little bit obligatory)
I tag: my brother Ryan, Brian Kay, Garret Hamner, Greg Hamerly, and Jim Richards. (That is, if any of you ever read this…if you respond, leave a comment here!)
