Rock band meme

In an effort to do something mindless that totally ignores all of the work I have to do today I am participating in a meme from Renee via Marko - I have started a band. No, really. Just kidding, just a game - first, generate a random wikipedia entry to get your band name, followed by random quote - take the last 4 words from the first random quote, that is the name of your hit song, and finally, a random flicker image, the cover of your first album.

Here's my band's debut:

Bataka Squad

and our hit song:

The road, take it (from Yogi Berra's famous fork in the road quote)

and our album cover - extraordinarily beautiful!



major props to niccodeamus

Want to play along? Tag yourself and post in the comments and I'll link to your blog post.

What have I done?

Great meme list (or Heidi finds something mindless to do while she should be doing something else...)

What have you done? (copy & bold your own - I am also italicizing the ones I think I might be able to do one day)

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

via Stephanie

Google Photo Meme

I just got this meme from renee and thought it sounded fun:

The questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.

Photo Credits:

Heidi
Lobster
Badger High School
Cobalt Blue
Jason Bateman
Black Coffee
India
Sugar Free Raspberry Pie
Mosaic Artist
The Turners (my family)
Passionate
HeidiRenee

Freedback: Unilever - Update

Dear Unilever Brands,

I want to take this time to thank you for all of the work you are doing through Dove brands and beauty awareness. This campaign is life giving beautiful work. I want my daughter to grow up knowing the things that the Dove Beauty campaign is teaching the Western world.

I stood at the pharmacy today to spin the bottle of AXE body spray in my hand because for the past couple of days I have seen some of THE most offensive commercials I've ever been exposed to for the young male teen body spray. I was crestfallen to see that YOUR VERY SAME COMPANY was the maker and purveyor of this backward, obscene trash. Young girls stripped to their underwear in public buses and grocery stores. "HOW CAN THIS BE THE SAME COMPANY BUILDING UP MY DAUGHTER" I ask myself. I am sickened by your divisive messages. How is my 12 year old daughter supposed to understand this, or my 10 year old son? Stunning young women stripped from their clothing so they can be ogled by some scent-spraying predator? Is this truly the message you want to send?

Women reduced to body parts in one ad, followed by another that tells them the exact opposite. Shame on you. It's pandering. It makes me wonder if you really mean what you say in the Dove commercials or if it's just a marketing tool used to woo the money from the pockets of women? I cannot stomach such hypocrisy. I have never held major corporations in high esteem. I know you are profit driven - but this Dove campaign won me over. I really believed you. I am so disappointed.

Friends - if you are as frustrated as I am with this mixed message please blog on this and then follow this link and tell Unilever about it. Leave me a comment and I'll add the link to your blog post here, consider this a meme, and I've tagged you all.

I am really considering a major switch away from any and all product lines they manufacture and promote. I am not a boycotter at heart, but this really saddens me.

CONTACT UNILEVER HERE

I will also post any response I receive from Unilever here.

These are the brands I have in my home at this very moment made by Unilever:
Bertolli, Dove, Hellman's, Wishbone, Knorr, Lipton, Sunlight & Vaseline... that's quite a loss of shopping revenue.

Here's the response I've gotten from Unilever UK:

Hi Heidi,

Thanks so much for writing!


Unilever is a large, global company with many brands in its portfolio. Each brand's efforts are tailored to reflect the unique interests and needs of its audience. As a manufacturer we feel it is a major responsibility to provide our friends and consumers with the most creative and informative means of advertising possible.

In developing product messages, Unilever and its agencies may not always anticipate all possible implications of an advertisement or television commercial. It is never our intent to offend anyone.

Consumer comments are very important and evaluated on a regular basis. Your comments have been forwarded to the appropriate staff within the company.

Chris Green
Unilever Consumer Services

Response from Dove Canada

Hi Heidi,

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us. I'm sure you can appreciate that as individual brands, and as a company, Unilever takes its marketing responsibilities very seriously.

We have a wide portfolio of everyday consumer brands across both foods and home and personal care - offering products to consumers that address different needs. Each of our brands talks to its target consumers in a way that is relevant and that communicates its own unique proposition.

What unites all the products in the Unilever portfolio is our Vitality mission, which seeks to promote products that help our consumers look good, feel good, and get more out of life.

Unilever is a large, global company with many brands in its portfolio. Each brand's efforts are tailored to reflect the unique interests and needs of its audience. "The Dove brand is dedicated to making more women feel beautiful everyday by widening today's stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves. "As part of this commitment, the brand created the Dove Self Esteem Fund to educate and inspire girls on a wider definition of beauty. The brand is dedicated to reach 5 million girls by 2010 with self-esteem programming. (in addition to the million girls they have reached thus far)

The Axe campaign is a spoof, of "the mating game" and men's desire to get noticed by women and not meant to be taken literally. "This campaign is targeting guys 18-24. Axe regularly tests its campaign with men and women who have shared that they see these ads as clever and funny .

Consumer comments are very important and evaluated on a regular basis. Your comments have been forwarded to the appropriate staff within the company.

Chris Green
Dove Consumer Services

I guess they don't have any problem at all with their mixed messages... sigh.

Never Gonna Happen Dinner Meme

Marko has blogged his dream dinner guests and turned it into a meme of sorts. Here are the rules:

- the person has to either be a) dead, or b) alive, but no way you’ll ever have a chance to have dinner with them.
- real people only. no fictional characters.
- it’s not 6 individual dinners. it’s a dinner party with 6 people (plus you). think of the mix.
- assume no language barriers. in other words, it doesn’t matter if they speak or spoke another language than you and your other guests. you have magic instant translation technology.
- Jesus doesn’t count. it’s a dinner party. therefore, 2 or more are gathered. therefore, Jesus is already there.

I've been in a blogging blah so I thought maybe this would shake something loose.

1. I'd have to start with Joan Chittester, Sister Joan has been a wonderful voice in the wilderness for me in these past few years. Her social conscience and prophet's tongue get to the heart of the matter very quickly. Keith & I have been working through her Rule of Benedict for far too long now! She understands deeply about being a woman in the church under that stained glass ceiling and still fully uses her voice and gifts. I just love her.

2. Parker Palmer - His book Let Your Life Speak changed my life. Understanding that "in and through" the emotional landscape instead of the duck and cover that I had learned growing up gave my life a richness and depth I never understood before. His authenticity and articulation of big thoughts shakes everything loose in me and helps me put it back together.

3. Anne Lamott - the kingdom doors blew wide when I first read her work. I grew up being told Methodists weren't conservative enough to go to heaven, let alone Philistines like Anne. And yet she loved Jesus in such a fresh new way, and He loved her right back. Her humor on this journey spills into my own and makes me look at life in a way I had never done before. She is an inspiration to me and I adore her.

4. Stephen King - I hate horror movies, but this man has a rich soul. His prolific writing always captures my imagination and I would love to pick the brain of a man who struggled with his own demons in Delores Claiborn and found redemption in Shawshank & the Green Mile.

5. The Apostle Paul - no, not to be spiritual - I really want the straight goods - untarnished by translators. I want it from the horse's mouth. Give him a chance to set the record straight. I also think he'd be a much better story teller in person than he was in scripture. I'd really like to see his heart and find out what he thinks of the mess we've made of the church today.

6. Hadewijch of Brabant - she was a Benguine mistress martyred for her work with the poor, orphaned and sick. The church despised these amazing women, working outside of their power, but doing the work of Christ. She is one of my heroes and I long to pick her brain and sit and listen to the way they did the hard work of caring for the forgotten.

So there's my list - all authors, storytellers and saints of some strange distillation - I could make a dozen more lists - but this one I think would be a marvelous blend of insight and clarity. Three women, three men - all with great passion and prophetic voices. All have influenced me deeply and I fear one dinner just wouldn't be enough to find the answers to every question I have.

Thanks Marko - great challenge! I'm going to tag a few:

Dan Wilt - Conversations on Emerging Worship

Mark Peterson - Open Hands

Bob Carlton - The Corner

Renee - Ianua.org

Hope - A Song Not Scored for Breathing

Lisa - Author Intrusion

and anyone else who'd like to play! Just leave a comment if you do and I'll link to you!

Six weird things about me

I got a tag from Dizzy Lizzie to share six weird things about me.... hmmm, only six, eh?

1. I have an anonymous blog that I've been maintaining for the past three years. It's where I share the really weird things about myself. I started it anonymously not because of the weird stuff I wanted to share like most people think, but because of the journey I was/am taking theologically. I was raised in a super-duper conservative church where women were silent with their head's covered - I live very far from that now, but getting to this place was excruciatingly painful and full of questions. They weren't safe to ask while in ministry - we were supposed to the "the answer people" not the question people. I love the support and friendship that came about through that blog. I am best friends with some people I have never met face to face because the blogosphere has the ability to link kindred souls together that would never be found in a face to face community.

2. I read about six non-fiction books all at the same time. It takes me ages to get through non-fiction because I only read what I think is transformational and I truly want it to change me - so it takes me such a long time to move through the books - I have them placed all over the house and read them in different spots. Right now I am enjoying Sleeping With Bread by the Linns, Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott, The Dawsonwood Diaries by my dearest friend and adopted mom, Connie Knighton, So I Go Now by another blogging friend I have yet to meet, Jeff Jacobson, Weight, Sex & Marriage by Richard B. Stuart & Barbara Jacobson, Women Who Run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and finally A Tree Full of Angels by Macrina Wiederkehr. Okay, that's 7, I snuck the Sleeping with Bread in because I'm using it to help me work Step 9.

3. If I have to explain something to someone, Keith or my kids (or maybe even others) I say a quick prayer asking God for a word picture or a metaphor that explains this concept well and I am regularly astonished at how they come to me and I am able to help the person I am talking to understand almost exactly what I mean because of it.

4. I type faster than I can write, and usually even faster than I can think... It's very frustrating for me to have to use a pen/pencil and paper sometimes. It's good because it engages my emotions more quickly than typing, but I still find it very stilting and frustrating that I can't just "move stuff around" at will like I can with a word processor...

5. I loathe the smell of cigars and cigarettes. It engages deep emotions within me and I hate being exposed to second hand smoke.

6. I love broken things. Beach glass, broken pieces of pottery, mosaic and collage speak of redemption to me. Outsider art is my favorite and it moves me very deeply to sit with a piece done by someone else who feels as "outside" of things as much as I do.

I tag anyone who wants to play - just leave a comment and I'll post a link to your 6 weird things!

Theology Meme??

Okay, I give. My Anj has tagged me for the meme that has been floating through the blogosphere and I have avoided up to this point. It is a theology meme - what are the best 3 books of theology published in the past 25 years???

Sigh. I wasted my young, brilliant brain on really bad theology, so I have avoided it henceforth (or is it forthwith?) Needless to say I have found that the "having all the answers and everything all figured out" that finds it way into theology books seems to makes me itch lately.

I do tend to be a practical woman, and practical theology has changed my life. I believe that what we truly believe, not what we say we believe, shows up in the choices we make, the ways we live our lives and how we treat those around us. Most Christian leaders today look very little like Jesus, and so I don't trust a lot of what they write.

I also seem to have lost my brain somewhere along the mommy-train. Sitting down to actually read NT Wright or Miroslav Volf sounds dreamy and intellectual, but in reality I doubt I would truly get very far these days. Maybe I'm selling myself short, but I find that I can devour good fiction, but non-fiction is slow going as I really sit with the ideas, contemplate them and allow them to change me. Reading good non-fiction quickly makes me feel like a glutton.

So, coming up with three books that a) I have actually read and b) I would consider "best" and c) are actual theology books made me realize that 1) this is my list, and 2) if it changes the way I look at the church and God it becomes a theology book to me, right? So here is my list:

1) Life of Pi - Yann Martel - "I have a story that will make you believe in God"

It did.

2) My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potek - "If You don't want me to use the gift, why did You give it to me?"

I felt like this through my whole life in wondering why God made me a woman in love with theology and the church and called me when I didn't have the "right plumbing" or chromosomes? Watching Asher Lev struggle with the God-given gifts that his faith culture told him he was sinful to use changed my life and my understanding of God. Maybe it wasn't God that was the problem???

3) Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke - “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions”

I had always been shamed by and ashamed of my questions. The fear that runs rampant in the church when it comes to mystery was stifling to me. Not being afraid of the questions anymore gave me my mind back. It opened the door to all of the wonder and mystery that is God.

So that's my list. These are some of the books that have shaped my theology in the past few years. I know they aren't strictly "theology books" and it will shock anyone from my old life to see that I'm learning more through story than I am through "scripture" lately. But the surprising thing is that story is giving me scripture back.

I should also mention that there are many theologians that I read in snips and bits and they have helped me to rearrange the furniture on my theological landscape. Those mentioned above have helped restore my passion for theology. Others who are helping are Brian McLaren, Phillip Yancy, Parker Palmer, Scot McKnight and even my own pastor Peter Fitch. Maybe one day I'll get my brain back and begin again to be passionate about theology books and doctrine, but right now I find the outworking of that theology to be much more giving of life and hope.


If you haven't done this meme yet and want to play along, consider yourself tagged.