Saturday, February 9, 2013

More stuff and things (pt 3)

My final installment of the 30 Things challenge (Here is the original)

21.  If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you with it first?
TELEPORTATION!!! I have given this one a lot of thought.  I don't know what I would do first, but here are some things I have daydreamed about:
*jump ahead in lines at amusement parks
*rescue people from burning buildings
*Free fall skydiving without a parachute; simply teleport before crashing
*Photobomb celebrity events, can you say unannounced live cameos?
*Of course there is all the illegal stuff, like teleporting into a bank vault, or just taking whatever I want from somewhere, I mean, even if they catch me, they can't hold me..... mwhahaha!
*Create urban legends by wearing a gorilla costume and showing up in unexpected places for small periods of time

I could go on, but I gots lots to do today (I might get it all done if I could only teleport...)

22.  Where do you see yourself in 5 years?  10 years?  15 years?
     In five years, I hope to have established myself in my career, with a balanced client load, diversified income stream and be out of personal debt.  In ten years, who knows?  I couldn't have imagined where I am now ten years ago, so it almost seems improper to dream that far out.  I know I want to be deeper in love with Christ, with my wife, with my kids.  10 years out, my kids will be either exiting high school or in college or that transition.  We will be on the brink of empty-netsting.  It would be nice to have reached a point that when the kids are out of the house, Amelia and I can travel for business and pleasure.  In 15 years...  who knows?  Maybe there'll be grandkids on the way.  I had two kids already when I was in my late twenties.  Maybe I'll have published a book or gone back for my Ph.D.

23.  List your top five hobbies and why you love them.
  1. Photography.  I got a nice DSLR about 7 years ago and, drawing on lessons from a class I took in college, I started learning about how f-stops, shutter speed and ISO are linked.  I learned a lot about taking pictures, from the asthetic side, like the rule of thirds and framing to the technical sides like depth of field and bokeh.  I get to be creative and have immediate validation when I look into the viewfinder. 
  2. Reading.  I love sci-fi and fantasy.  Getting to lose myself in a good book is an amazing way to escape from reality for a little while and train your brain to imagine... what if?
  3. Blogging!  I enjoy the discipline of putting my thoughts together and making sense of my world and I enjoy sharing it with others.
  4. Gaming.  I enjoy a variety of gaming, from pen and paper RPGs to CCGs like Magic:TG to board games to video games.  I wouldn't call myself hard core in any particular genre, but I enjoy almost all of them.  Except sports games, you know, like Madden, or MLB video games or Basketball emulators ... if you want to enjoy a sport, play the actual sport.
  5. I don't get to do it often, but I love to travel with my wife.  I hope that it becomes more of a recreational thing for us in the future.
24.  Describe your family dynamic from your childhood versus your family dynamic now.
     The rythym of our family life when I was a kid was dictated by the Air Force.  I was born in Lubbock, TX and by the time I entered the 8th grade, I had lived in more places than many people get to visit in a lifetime!  I loved being in a military family and getting to live in different countries was an adventure that I treasure.  I am the 3rd of 5 children, and the only boy and when I think back on my relationship with my siblings, I feel like it was pretty typical.  We cared about each other, but fussed and fought like any other sibling group.  We looked after each other and teased each other and annoyed each other and stood up for each other when we weren't blaming each other for not doing chores.  I remember feeling loved and supported, generally.
     Thinking about the family dynamic we have in my household now that I am the parent and not the kid, I am pretty pleased with how we do things.  There is, without a doubt, love in our house.  Amelia and I work mostly as a single parenting unit when it comes to values and discipline.  We have a great relationship and model respect and love for each other to the kids.  We do a lot of things differently in our household than either of us experienced growing up, but it is not dramatically different.  It is interesting to me to contemplate giving my children the roots that I didn't have growing up... being connected to grandparents and cousins in deeper ways... not having to adjust to changing schools and houses every few years.  Those differences aren't bad, just different.

25.  If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
    Disclaimer: This is not a definative answer, depending on my frame of mind, I would probably give a different answer to this question on any given day.  There are so many interesting figures in history and so many good foods!
     I would like to have dinner with anyone who was not a "main character" in an encounter with Jesus.  Anyone whose life he touched directly, to hear a sort of Paul Harvey "The Rest of The Story" from their perspective.  We'd dine on frozen desserts because, hey, they've never had FroYo.

26.  What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
     YOLO.  This mentality is pervasive and allows us to behave in ways where we can minimize the consequences of our attitudes, thoughts and behaviors on our world and our relationships.  IMHO, it would be better for people to understand that WALE (We all live eternally), and how we choose to live in the here and now influences how we will live eternally: in close relationship with God, the creator of our souls or eternally separated from the Eternal Loving One. 

27.  What is your favorite part of your body and why?
     My mind.  The mind fascinates me.  There is so much about the brain that we don't know, and so there is a lot of research coming out daily about how neuroscience is advancing our understanding of how we function and why we act/think/feel the way we do.  I love knowledge and trivia and learning and intelligence and it just gives me a thrill to think that the mind/brain is connected to it all.  I like puzzles and the feeling I get when I solve a puzzle or figure something out.  I like learning and the way I feel about myself when I learn something new.  I enjoy wit and sarcasm and humor and drama and none of it is possible without a learned brain.  I love listening to other people and being exposed to new ways of thinking.  I am energized and honored when others come to me for help and I am able to walk with them into new understanding and behaviors. Other than that, when I think about my appearance, what I like the most is my calves.  I have shapely calves, I think.

28.   What is your love language?
     So, long ago I read the book and determined that my primary love language was Acts of Service.  However, I just went to the website and took the online quiz and the results of it this time were:
a tie between Words of Affirmation and Physical Touch, with Quality Time, Acts of Service and Giving Gifts coming in in that order.  So... maybe things have shifted a bit for me.

29.  What do you think people misunderstand most about you?
     It has come to my attention several times in the past that I can come across to others as arrogant or condescending.  This is a real blow to me because I don't see myself that way.  I once tried to justify that others sometimes see me that way because I have a lot of self-confidence and because I am educated and intelligent and so my word usage can seem to be in a different vocabulary register than others'.  When I was able to be more honest to myself, it was probably because I didn't take the time to get to know those people and let myself be known.  I may have been seeing them as less than what they are because of my own shortcomings.

30.  List 10 things for which you hope to be remembered.
  1. A follower of Christ.
  2. A loving and devoted Husband and Father
  3. A great friend
  4. A helpful counselor
  5. A laughing soul and wit
  6. For leaving a legacy for others to emulate
  7. Heh... as a multi-millionaire
  8. A memorable writer (does blogging count as writing?)
  9. A discerning steward of resources
  10. Touching other's lives in a positive way
Well, readers... I hope you have enjoyed my journey through this "30 Things" process.  Feel free to comment or send feedback.  If you choose to do it as well, link it and let me enjoy your responses! 

-jeff