Once again, I'm late. But this time only by a day. So I'm improving.

1. What was the last TV show you watched? Will & Grace, Thursday night.

2. What was the last thing you complained about? Being tired -- this morning. Last night I was up until 2:30am playing Monopoly with Joel and April. Well, actually, when the game started, Genia and Andy were playing too, but they both left the game significantly before the final three of us. In the end, I won with $10,008 in cash and a total worth of over $21,000 -- this was not counting Joel's cash and property that he folded to me to end the game.

3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say? Genia. I told her this morning how cute she is!

4. What was the last thing you threw away? A coke can.

5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited? BlogShares. I'm addicted.

My friend Tom and I have channelled our U2 fanaticism into a new top ten list. It's the Top Ten Reasons Bono is Our Pontiff. Check it out!

Bono: "Excuse me, what are you doing in my chair?"

This is something I've wanted to do for a while, and I finally found that perfect combination of time and motivation. I've created a full page of Top Five lists covering music, movies, books, and assorted other topics. At the very least, you can find something to argue with me about. At best, you can learn a little bit more about me. Check it out! Also, I'd like to do a second installment of the John and Genia FAQ, so if you have any interesting and or funny questions, post them in the comments box.

Apparently the BlogShares system had some kind of error that caused it to sell out all the stock available in my blog when it merged in an alternate url. This was not planned by me, and I'm sorry to anyone who bought shares or received shares as a gift from me.

Yeah, it's Monday. I should've done this on Friday, but I'm doing it now, and you're gonna like it!

1. Who is your favorite celebrity? Bono! Without a doubt. He spends the "currency of celebrity" (as he calls it) better than anyone I can think of. He's an amazing singer, songwriter, performer, advocate, and yeah, kind of a personal hero. If I could pen one song as great as half of U2's canon, I'd be pretty pleased with myself.

2. Who is your least favorite? This is a tough one. Kid Rock? Nah, cause I like his song "Picture" with Sheryl Crow. Britney? Too easy. Christina? Again, too easy. Fred Durst? For the third time, too easy!

3. Have you ever met or seen any celebrities in real life? I met the guys in Matchbox Twenty when I went to one of their concerts in Birmingham (pre-"Push" thank you very much). I met the guys from Jars of Clay last year. They were really cool, and they complimented me on the U2 shirt I was wearing. And when I visited my friend Andrea while she was working on the set of Scream 2, I saw Neve Campbell preparing for a scene. She looked at me. I was 17. I thought it was amazing. Now, not so much -- she's no Genia!

4. Would you want to be famous? Why or why not? I think I would. For all the supposed hassle, I think it would be a lot of fun, and open a lot of doors that are not currently open to me.

5. If you had to trade places with a celebrity for a day, who would you choose and why? Who else? Bono! But only if it was a day they were playing a concert! I want to be up on that stage singing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

Isn't Genia completely adorable?

This is wonderful and encouraging news: Iowa Bans Carman Performances. Hopefully the other 49 states will fall in line soon. And then maybe we can even follow the lead of the Vagrant Cafe Forums and ban the use of his name in print. (Yes, the article is satire.)

Genia and I have really been lamenting the amount of stupid television commercials lately. We'd pretty much decided that all commercials were stupid, and then I saw an amazing commercial from Honda called Cog. It's stunning -- you've got to see it to believe it. And actually, you probably won't believe it after you watch it, but this article says it's real. No CGI, no computer editing of the effects. Wow.

The good folks at RazorMouth are at it again. This time, we have a commentary entitled Dr. Evil's Shagadelic Kitsch, wherin author George Grant explains what Saddam can really teach us about sin. It's an interesting, and amusing, read. Check it out, and then join Joel Miller as he examines our Fickle Faith.

So I've joined this online game called BlogShares which is, in short, a fantasy stock market game for weblogs. Weblogs are valued based upon the number and quality of incoming links, and you buy shares with the fictional $500 you get as a new member. Here's a list of the blogs I have stock in:

MoveableType (A popular weblog/content management program)
Dave Barry's Blog (Yep, that Dave Barry)
Blogs4God (A directory of Christian bloggers)
Rick Klau's Weblog (Tech blog)
Jeroen Bekkers' Groove Weblog (Tech blog)
Faraway, So Close (Personal blog named after a U2 song)
Hugh's Ramblings (Tech blog)
Signal vs. Noise (Group blog of a renowned web design firm)

And later this week, I'll be answering the question "What is the meaning of life?". Not really, it actually seems that I have more questions than answers. Of course, you do have to ask questions before you can get any answers, so I suppose I'm making progress. For a couple of weeks in our group Bible study, we started discussing "the will of God" or, more specifically, the different "wills" of God. The study we were using, written by my sister-in-law's father, a pastor, proposed the idea that God doesn't have a specific "perfect" will for individuals other than to follow his moral will and his sovereign will. It turned out that I'd been pondering such a concept in my own head for a while, and it makes a lot of sense. For a good explanation, go read Vexation #17: Are You in God's Will?. It's a very solid Biblical explanation of this idea.

Something else I've been pondering lately is Calvinism. This is due in part to the fact that Genia and I have been attending a Presbyterian church since we moved to Chattanooga. I am attracted to many of the aspects of the Reformed worldview -- see RazorMouth for excellent articles from a Reformed perspective on culture, politics, education, and of course, theology. However, I still have questions and issues with election, which is at the heart of the Reformed theology and worldview. Basically, Calvinism teaches that God specifically elected certain people from all nations for salvation, and that he specifically elected others for damnation. That's a tough pill at first glance, isn't it? I still haven't been convinced one way or the other, but I continue to look into it. One interesting Reformed concept is that God is "God-centered" instead of being "man-centered." This concept is best e!
xplained and promoted by John Piper's Desiring God Ministries. A weblog I frequently read called Truth Becomes Lies has an interesting post entitled "God's Glorious Conspiracy of Self-Exaltation" discussing this concept as well.

One final link, added at the last minute: Desiring God Ministries also has an interesting article discussing their concept of Christian Hedonism, and why they think being a Christian Hedonist is the way to live. Check it out, it's an interesting read.

Ah, MacPhisto. What I wouldn't do to have been able to attend a ZooTV show! Anyway, that's not exactly the kind of vision I'm talking about. This morning I ran across the following quote from Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church, which we attended for two years while living in Atlanta. Hopefully it will mean something to you, wherever you are in your journey:

"If God has birthed a vision in your heart, the day will come when you will be called upon to make a sacrifice to acheive it. And you will have to make the sacrifice with no guarantee of success."

When we were in Anniston for a couple of days, my mom bought us a copy of 35,000+ Baby Names to help us choose a name. 35,000+ sounds like an overabundant amount of names to choose from, and I guess it is, but I haven't found too many I like. Genia and I really love the name Aidan (Irish, meanning "fiery") for a boy, and Madison (English, meaning "good") for a girl, but we haven't found much else that really strikes us. Please give us your suggestions!

My friend Michial has a rock band called The Shots of Perspective. He's got three big shows coming up in Lawrenceville and Toccoa, Georgia, and Hartsville, SC. The show in Lawrenceville will be his first with the newly formed full band -- up until now, Michial's shows had all been solo efforts. So if you live in Atlanta metro, you should definitely check out the show in Lawrenceville, or at least print this awesome flyer (designed by you know who) to help him promote the show. The show in Toccoa is big because he's opening for The Lost Dogs, one of the legendary bands of Christian music in the last 30 years. The show in Hartsville will be Michial's first acoustic show in a year. There's an awesome flyer (designed by me, with Photoshop brushes courtesy of vBrush) for that show as well.

Wow. I'm gonna be a dad. I have to admit, this is both very unexpected and very exciting! It's also pretty daunting, when I really think about it. This child will depend on Genia and I for everything -- food, water, clothing, and most frighteningly, spiritual growth. We are entrusted by God with this child to teach and raise according to His ways. Ways that we don't successfully keep ourselves most of the time. So many people have issues with God and Christianity because of the ways their parents introduced them to religion and how their parents "used" religion in their lives. It's pretty scary. Changing a diaper will be easy. Shaping a life will be much harder. Of course, this is nothing new under the sun, and nothing that I can't receive grace to handle.