Andrew Postman on Neil Postman.

As we approach the holy season of SuperSunday, let me pose to you my favorite football trivia question. It's my favorite because I came up with it myself. No answers from thse who've gotten this from me in person.

How many US states are home to exactly two NFL teams? What are those states?

I vote for this guy for my favorite ukelele player. Thanks Chris.

We had the local director for Pregnancy Support Services speak at our church today on the anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision (it was also, oddly, the 20th anniversary of the founding of our church). Here is Todd's post on abortion and the episcopal church. Read it and weep.

Monetary news of the day, for those who like that sort of thing.

Don't you wish you could have seen this? (google video link via AKMA)

Somebody try this out for me, alright?

Another of these silly things. I was going to call it dumb, but it's from my wife, so I'll just call it silly.
Four Jobs I Have Had:

Tour Guide
Landscaper
Life Insurance Salesman
Janitor at a Funeral Home


Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:

The Castle (probably the (non-veggie) movie I have seen the most of in the last few years)
The Hudsucker Proxy
Waiting for Guffman
Brazil

Four Books I Could Read Over and Over
I don't typically read the same books very many times at this point in my life but I'll answer this the best I can

I've read though the Patrick O'Brian saga twice, and probably will again
I'm planning on rereading all of the Robertson Davies novels over the next year
Johann Sebastian Bach's Well Tempered Clavier
Edvard Grieg's Lyric Pieces

okay, those last two were a different sort of reading, but I do read those over and over and haven't grown tired of them yet.


Four Places I Have Lived:

West Bloomfield, Michigan
Wildwood, New Jersey
Durham, North Carolina
Houghton, New York

Four TV Shows I Watch:

I'll just list my old favorites since we don't watch (live) tv anymore

The Simpsons
Seinfeld
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Firefly

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:

Clearwater, Florida
Gull Lake, Michigan
Vienna, Austria
Stockholm, Sweden

Four Websites I Visit Daily:

Well, lessee, I go here to sound smart,
I go here for amusement,
I go here to feed my addiction,
and here to find out what's going on in my house.

Four Favorite Foods

(I'll just list ones I like to make)
Borsch (got a big pot in the fridge right now)
Black Bean Soup
Omelettes
Bread Pudding with Whisky Sauce

Four Places I'd Like To Be Right Now:

(I'll take "right now" as "places I generally enjoy")
L'viv, Ukraine
Mebane Public Library (will probably be there later today)
Boone, NC
Church of the Good Sheherd

Four Bloggers I'm Tagging:

Al
Paul D
Mark (just cuz I never see him do these things)
and, Michael (NOT Kristen)

Interesting (and lengthy) article here about the changing place of sex in american thought and media here. I think one quibble I might have is that I tend to use the term "liberal" simply to name the sort of capitalist ethic which is the dominant ideology in america, rather than as a contrast to "conservative", but I'm weird that way.

Our sermon yesterday by our beloved Jerry Currin (available here) was perhaps the most "catholic" sermon I think I'll ever hear in a prebyterian chruch. I just love my church. Jerry, btw, was a baptist for a long time.

A happy Trogday to all my readers. Or at least those who know what I'm talking about.

Here is the consummate love song for today's youth.

Is this A) creepy, or B) really creepy.

"Till we can become divine we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for a change we sink to something lower."

I thought this was a fascinating look at the problems of advertising on the internet.

As for my resolution, you can view the first part of my 2006 reading list here. I am very systematic in my reading, so I know these are approximately the first 20 books I'll read this year.

My new year's resolution for this year is simply to keep track of the books I read. I read about 150 last year, but I didn't keep any notes and have a hard time remembering exactly what I read and didn't read, thus making any sort of year end list like this a little tricky. I'll try to post a few highlights though.


Also, feel free to chime in if you'd like to see me reprise my best book contest. I did this two years ago, allowing people to nominate the book they thought I would like the best, with a free book being given out as a prize. I like doing this just to get great recommendations from all you readers.

Thanks to AKMA for pointing to this post on the issues of choosing to play at evil in online gaming. I haven't played World of Warcraft, so I'll have to take Castronova's word on how things work there.

I used to play online games quite a bit, namely Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot. In Camelot there were no particularly evil races, simply three nations of sorts all in perpetual war with the others. In Everquest, it was a bit more complicated. You could play an orc or a troll (or a dark-elf), which were considered "evil" races, but the only real consequence of that was that you had restrictions on trading in most of the cities. In terms of gameplay, it was pretty much all the same and evil races joined up in parties with good races all the time.

But I think Castronova is quite right to be asking the sorts of questions he is. I have found that gamers take very little time to reflect on the ethics that might be involved in playing their games, aside from the issue of what constitutes cheating or fairplay within the game. As I suggested in the comments on AKMA's site, I think this lack of reflection may be defensive, as players today often spend huge amounts of time within online games and don't want to consider the idea that there could be something morally vicious about doing so.