Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The "Random" Meme (Isn't that Redundant?)

My Godblogger 2005 friend Charlie Lehardy has tagged me for a "meme". What's a meme, you ask? Well, on the Internet it seems to be defined simply as one blogger asking another blogger to answer a series of questions, so that we all can get to know each other a bit better. Isn't that special?

I don't always like memes, but this one looks like fun. Charlie's meme answers were both interesting and amusing.

Here's the rules for this particular "Random" meme (which, as I ask in the title of this post, seems redundant, since all memes are a bit random, right?):

* Let others know who tagged you.
* Post 8 random facts about yourself.
* Post these rules.
* Tag 8 others to continue the meme

And now here are 8 random facts about myself.

1. Lousy jobs I was lousy at: One of my first jobs was being a messenger (by foot) for a printing company in Manhattan. I once lost a package en route to my destination (left it on the seat in the subway platform--miraculously, I wasn't fired).

I was also an ice cream scooper at a popular Häagen-Dazs store in Greenwich Village. Somehow, I beat out an entire city block of people who had interviewed for this coveted position. Soon thereafter, I quit. (At the time, I could eat a pint of their ice cream and not gain an ounce. Now, I gain weight just thinking about eating a pint of Häagen-Dazs).

In the summer of 1985 I had a job folding towels in a factory- yes, really. I got fired because I wasn't folding fast enough (I don't know how I got this job in the first place--I suck at folding towels)!

2. To calm me down as a baby, my Mom would put on some music, which mesmerized and fascinated me. I was so cute.

3. When I was in fifth grade I won my school's spelling bee, but then lost in the regional competition. I remember the spelling of words by "seeing" them in my mind.

4. I didn't get a driver's license until I was already in my early twenties (which isn't completely unusual if you're growing up in the New York City area). My first car was a white Toyota Tercel I bought from my Mom for a dollar. It lasted a long time, but towards "the end", the steering wheel would shake almost uncontrollably whenever I drove the car, like it was possessed. Fortunately, I turned in the car to the dump before it killed me (turns out the axle was on the verge of snapping).

5. Charlie and I have this trait in common-- while I often don't remember the words to songs, I have fantastic "auditory" memory. Especially on songs I really like, I can recall their parts in detail; bass lines, harmonies, drums, guitar parts, etc.

6. When I was 18 or 19, I played the lead part of Tony, leader of the Jets, in a community production of "West Side Story".

7. I wasn't raised in a church-going family, but by God's grace came to be a Christian in my early twenties. Among the odd means God used to reach me was the Hal Lindsey book, "The Late Great Planet Earth, and also a documentary film called "Say Amen Somebody".

8. I would have thought I'd be interested, but for some reason I never examined the Arminian/Calvinist debate very closely until recently, after already being a Christian 20 plus years. However I believe life-changing and positive results will emerge from this study of the "doctrines of grace".

To continue the meme, I hereby tag the following bloggers:

Steve Camp
Dan Edelen
Josh Harris
Mark Swanson
Tim Challies
Rich Tatum
Amy K. Hall
LaShawn Barber

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