Sherry, one of the blogosphere's foremost book and history buffs, tagged me with at "eight things" meme. Here are the rules, which I intend to flagrantly disregard: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

OK, 8 things. I'll do everything I can to make these moderately interesting, even if I have to shamelessly fabricate them. In fact, I guarantee that one of these 8 things is an outright lie...

1. When I played pickup basketball in Chiapas, Mexico, about a decade ago, I was considered a player of above average height with professional potential.

2. When I was sixteen, I was indentured to a Marine-style Basic Training for eight weeks and learned how to, among other things, take a 30-second shower.

3. I am picking the Jayhawks to beat Memphis tonight. KU 83 / Memphis 75

4. Before the summer is over, I intend to submit a book proposal to half a dozen publishers.

5. When Lindsay and I initially "met," her first impression was a very good one--but it was based only on the back of my head, since I was sitting in a meeting, several rows in front of her. Needless to say, I've been trying to live up to the impossibly high standard set by the back of my head ever since.

6. I'm a big fan of old movies, especially those film noir flicks starring dudes like Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum.

7. My first car was a 1982 midnight blue Ford Mustang that guzzled gas and
made metallic shimmy-shanging sounds when I started it, but it came with Jayhawk license plate holders (which is probably why I bought it).

8. If push comes to shove, my favorite Kansas City bar-b-q joint is Jack Stack. Bar-b-q is high on my personal food chain, and in all my experiences, in-state and out, Jack Stack burnt ends are unbeatable.

Done! If you feel a nagging impulse toward self-disclosure, I hereby nominate you to assure that this meme has posterity and lives to a ripe old age, surrounded by its grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great, great-grandchildren, etc.

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There's a certain type of building--usually old and echo-filled, with lots of stone and soaring ceilings--that creates a quiet you can feel as well as hear, an atmosphere that you'd almost swear is holier than normal meeting spaces built with steel and drywall. This type of building used to satisfy the part of me that enjoys solemnity and reflection and ritual. Now this type of building makes me very, very nervous. And maybe for different reasons than you think.

It's because inside these buildings, silences linger. Every period may as well be an ellipsis. A question mark at the end of a sentence lengthens into a round of soul searching. A dramatic pause lasts for about an hour. And it's exactly at that moment-hour that Aidan says, "COLOR MORE BALLS, DADDY?" At which Asher laughs, an open-mouthed guttural chuckle that really, really carries, and I think, Oh boy, here we go again.

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Tarheel Domination!

Goodbye, Roy Williams, and no hard feelings! I know when to be magnanimous. ;)

Lindsay and I started downing Tums-Alka-Seltzer-Advil cocktails to combat our heartburn, nausea, and general sickness when the Jayhawks forgot how to score for 20 minutes after going up 26--but then Sherron Collins' out-toughed UNC and KU started throwing the ball back inside again.

ROCK CHALK! Bring on Memphis!

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Just a heads-up: a book discussion group is in the works, most likely to be hosted on a separate site with enhanced discussability options. Mark Driscoll's Vintage Jesus provoked the most interest, so it'll be our first title.

Vintage Jesus is a no-holds-barred introduction to the person of Jesus Christ. Who is he, what did he do, where is he now, why should I care? With cultural savvy and a flair for the dramatic, Driscoll makes these questions very accessible.

If you'd like to jump in at the contributing member/committed reader/cool admin level, you need to do a couple things. 1) Shoot me a note, and 2) grab a copy of the book. On a less involved level, comments on the new site will be open for anyone who wants to throw $0.02 in.

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We hope this picture is indicative of what KU will do to UNC tomorrow. (Playing the underdog card.)

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I've been holding out a little, but now it's Final Four time. Here are some links to get you started.

Nice Breakdown of the Final Four teams by ESPN's Andy Katz
FOX's Jeff Goodman asks, What Can Cost Each Team the Title?
Goodman, again, (I like the guy) identifies 10 Matchups to Watch in the Final Four - including a bunch of KU-UNC confrontations.

And now, the more Jayhawk focused stuff...

Does KU Want to Run with North Carolina? (Heck yes)
The Kansas 'Oop - with diagrams
The nation's only Objective, Unbiased Analyst Picks KU to Win it All

Hold on to your seats--with four #1 seeds in the Final Four, history is about to be made.

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The KU-UNC showdown is the late game tomorrow, which means you have enough time to play this awesome Rock Chalk Rap at least a couple dozen times before tip-off. Aidan digs it. Big head nod to BicMedia.

Highlights: "A quick whipping for them hippies up at Portland State "..."Your Cinderella story's boring me"..."C'mon everybody, storm the court, 'cause we've got a score to settle with that ol' boy Roy"..."Shake it like it's Final Four"

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Not in a messy, smash-mouth way, but splitting up nevertheless. Something I've thought a lot about recently is the way the content here tends to fall into one of two contrasting categories. Here's how I would describe them, roughly.

Category 1
arts & culture news--movies, music, tv
mainstream books
coffee discussion
NCAA basketball
random family anecdotes

Category 2
Christian spirituality thoughts
emerging church news
church planting
Christian books
personal, spiritual reflection

When I started this blog almost four years ago, I decided to try and write for a strange, hybrid Christian/outsider audience by making no assumptions about where people were coming from. My theological convictions were either implicit, "smuggled in" (C.S. Lewis) or presented in an explanatory way--and it worked, to the extent that I had readers who were very much on a spiritual journey, one that hadn't reached Jesus yet. As I got immersed in seminary, I started writing more frequently about explicitly Christian topics and reviewing a bunch of Christian books, which was a different approach, but also good.

As of this week, I'm launching a blog where I will think out loud about knowing Jesus, living out my theology, and making risky plans, so it will have a personal, sometimes confessional flavor.

However, to the extent that I try to do both things at once, this blog takes on a split personality and becomes more "eclectic" than I really want it to be. I've concluded that I want to write in both "genres," and be able to both: 1) talk overtly about church planting and Bible verses--you know, insider Christian stuff, or, 2) post a dozen NCAA hoops pieces in a row without baffling some people who were looking for spiritual content (if you know what I mean).

As of this week, I'm launching a blog where I will think out loud about knowing Jesus, living out my theology, and making risky plans, so it will have a personal, sometimes confessional flavor. (That "Category 2" above.) This is where I'll write about stuff like emerging church and Christian books and tell you outright what's going on with our church planting plans. Go take a look. (Hint: If you refresh the page, you'll get different pictures in the header.) There's not a ton of content yet, but you can check out permanent links like "Our Story," "My Theology," etc. If you feel so inclined, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed over there. :) I won't be switching anyone over automatically, because...

For the time being, BitterSweetLife will become a dedicated arts and culture blog ("Category 1") where my Christianity will be implicit, not at the forefront. Eventually, I intent to relaunch BitterSweetLife as well, but one thing at a time.

This leaves you with some options. If you like the spiritual content you've found here, you can head over to the new blog and subscribe. If you like the cultural content here, you can stick around. If you like both, make sure you're subscribed to both blogs. Fair enough?

Thanks for bearing with me as I sort this out.

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Freebies are usually freebies for a reason. Not this time. This month (April), Christian Audio is giving away free MP3 downloads of G.K. Chesterton's classic mystery/theodicy/philosophy novel, The Man Who Was Thursday. I love this book, and chances are you've never read anything quite like it. Go download it and put it on your iPod now (coupon code APR2008).

Delete a few pop albums if need to free up room.

HT: Between Two Worlds.

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CT has an interview up with Steve Taylor, director of the upcoming Blue Like Jazz movie. Apparently the screen play is finished, with input from Donald Miller, and production starts in May. ETA is the first half of 2009.

Among other things, we learn that Taylor's last directing project was The Second Chance, starring Michael W. Smith. (Hmm?) But Taylor wants Tim Keller to make a cameo in the film. (Hmm.) So maybe those two items balance each other out.

My recommendation: Definitely, definitely, definitely read the book first on this one.

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