tags

Kerenza tagged me. So it's all her fault.

The rules
... are on Kerenza's blog post. She said I had to post them. But she already had so why duplicate the work?

The facts
... I haven't thought of any and it's nearly midnight. Maybe I'll come back to them later?

Kerenza's questions:
1. Which confectionary or product that is no longer available do you miss and would like to bring back?
Fish 'n' Chip crisps - we only ever had them after swimming!

2. What was your favourite cartoon or kids programme as a child? Tell me what it was about!
So hard to choose! I loved Pigeon St when I was really little, or Muppet Babies.

3. What is your favourite word and why? (sorry, I liked that question!)
I go through real phases with words so it changes all the time.

4. Which place do you really have no desire to go to on holiday and why?
Never really been interested in Australia or NZ. Not sure why, it's just never grabbed my attention so it doesn't seem worth flying for 24 hours to get there!

5. Likewise, where would you MOST like to go and why?
Everywhere I haven't been! I love exploring new places, experiencing new cultures. Having said that, going to places with charity groups really changes the way you see towns and cities. When we visited Morocco as tourists last year I found it quite hard because I didn't feel like I was really seeing what it was like to live there.

6. How many _________ does it change to change a lightbulb. Give me your best q and answer to this joke!
How many sound technicians does it take to change a lightbulb? 1, 2, 1, 2
How many sound technicians does it take to check it works? Testing 1, 2

7. What do other people say is your best personality attitribute? What do you think of this?
I think people say I'm quite laid back and relaxed which is apparently contagious!

8. Who is your favourite author and why?
Argh I hate the "favourite" questions! I can never settle on just one.

9. Kindle, paperback or hardback- choose which and why?
Paperback because I don't have a kindle and don't like reading from a screen and hardbacks are always so expensive and heavy.

10. If you could obtain tickets for any Olympic event this year, which sport would it be and why??
Gymnastics. I've always been fascinated by it. Particularly the rhythmic stuff.

11. If you could play a musical instrument, which would you play and why? (and no choosing one you can already play!)
Well apart from wanting to play all my current instruments better, I'd love to learn cello. Or french horn. Or oboe. And I'd like to buy a viola.

My tags and questions...
... are there even 11 people who read this?

tagged: the ccm praise meme

Reading through a few blogs over the weekend, I found that I'd been tagged by Tim to participate in a meme that's doing the rounds.

So here it is:

Please try to name ONE (I know, there are so many to choose from) CCM praise song that you find unbearable and at least 2-3 reasons why, pointing to specific lyrics if you must.

Tim writes a good answer, and links to a few others who make valid points about the lyrical content of some of the songs being sung in churches these days.

Well, Tim et al, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I can't participate. Not because I have any problem with the meme as such (although it is a little negative, and perhaps not the best way to encourage our worship songwriters to improve on their lyrics in future writing?) It's this...

When it comes to worship songs, I have literally no memory for them. In the moment I'm fine - the lyrics come back to me and I can join in with many songs without needing to see the words. But take me out of that context and ask me to suggest a song and I won't be able to think of more than one or two.

I was part of the service planning team at the church I worked at for a while, but this sieve-like aspect of my memory does become a fairly obvious disability in such situations and it wasn't long before the decision was made that my skills were probably better used elsewhere!

There's probably a reason for this, but I can't work out what it is. I'm married to a musician who has spent a fair amount of his time travelling across the country to play in worship bands at various conferences and events. Since 1998, Dan and I between us have worked at 17 weeks of Spring Harvest, 4 Keswicks, 9 weeks of Soul Survivor, 3 Soul In The City projects, 5 Youthwork conferences, 2 childrens ministry conferences and played at several services and concerts with the All Souls Orchestra. On top of that there's all the church services in various churches. So the exposure has been there!

It might be that I almost never listen to Christian music, worship or entertainment. There's reasons for this, which are probably for another blog post, or maybe better off not being publically aired at all?

So there are probably many songs that I could use for this meme. Lyrics which I find amusing or confusing or that I totally disagree with. But I can't remember what they are!

Having declined to answer this myself, some might say that I have lost the right to tag other bloggers. I'm going to do it anyway. I tag Liz, Jude and The Vicar's Wife

The 7 Link Challenge

The Church Mouse has just posted his response to the 7 Link Challenge

His blog is far better than mine, with more depth and a hugely wider readership but I thought I'd do it anyway, if nothing else, as an excuse to look over my blog archive...

So...

* Your first post
My first post? It was short and really quite pointless. Still, you've got to start somewhere...

* A post you enjoyed writing the most
That'd have to be "Someone I'd Like You To Meet" written just after my Grandad died. It was sad because he died, but I really enjoyed thinking through who he was and why I admired him. An amazing man.

* A post which had a great discussion
"Discussion" isn't something which happens often on my blog. People comment occasionally, but to call it discussion would be a bit of a stretch. My most commented blog is this one in which I asked people to name my new puppet.

* A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written
There are many of these. I wish I'd kept a record of more of them - in fact this meme has inspired me to start that, hence the link list in the sidebar. Here's one...
Just Keep It To Yourself, by Nick Baines

* Your most helpful post
That'd have to be either of my two advisory posts:
How Not To Arrive At An Interview
101 Ways To Guarantee A Good Seat On A Train

* A post with a title that you are proud of
Not thought much about this one. This is probably my most intriguing title... the rest are either ridiculously practical, or silly puns.

* A post that you wish more people had read
That'd have to be "Don't Buy Me A Birthday Present" because if more people had read it, more people might have acted on it and we could have made even more of a difference. There's always next year...