GFMorris.com

This is the interview game. Thanks go out to Rick for asking me the questions. Here are the rules:

1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I’ll ask you five questions.
3. You’ll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You’ll include this explanation.
5. You’ll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

And here they are…

1. Now that it has been 6-years since leaving MSMS, what do you remember the most about those two years?

Sadly, I don’t remember very much. I remember turning Chiang [my true-to-the-stereotype Asian roommate] into a slacker. I remember the ongoing battle with Tim Harmon that ended when he got booted out of school. [Why did I have to be at Oak Ridge when that happened? Why?!] I remember the day that Anderson Prewitt and I went to the showers at the same time and we all realized in AP Physics that he had fallen asleep in the shower. I remember the day that Willie Mauldin and I ended our feud and decided to become friends. I remember being your Secret Pal and thinking that I was sneaky.

I remember more when I think about it, but let me tell you … Junior Year is such a haze for me these days. 95% of the stuff I can remember is from Senior Year, and the bulk of the Junior Year stuff I remember involves either Science Bowl or Erik Brown.

2. I read a lot, and I seem to remember that you are wont to settle down with a good book on occassion. Are there any good ones that I should know about? (please, I need something to draw me away from Star Wars)

Well, if you want to keep reading series-novels and are willing to read stuff about war, you can’t go wrong with W.E.B. Griffin’s Brotherhood of War or The Corps. BoW has this weird gap in it where Griffin seems to have ended the book, then he drops back three years and starts over with mostly-new characters. He’s inconsistent [minor characters are always changing slightly, whether it's their first name and middle initial or what languages they can and cannot speak], but the pace is quick.

Other than that … I just finished Michael Lewis’s Moneyball the other night, and it was a really fun read. I was already a stathead, but it was interesting to see how the A’s employ analysis in their organization, and it is quite a good read on the mind of Billy Beane. I know have a far greater understanding of the man.

Before that, it was Jeffrey Zeldman’s Designing With Web Standards, which I don’t recommend as a starter book but as a book to be read after you’ve done just enough designing to be dangerous.

I’m currently trying to decide what I’m going to be reading next. I’m really at a loss for something to read.

3. Why Caedmon’s Call? (I’ll just leave it at that and not steer your answer into any particular direction)

A fun question.

CC came along at a time when I was getting tired of the “Yeah God” CCM subculture. There were only two artists at the time who seemed to be getting it right: Jars and dc Talk. Jars has kept on getting it right [if you ignore If I Left the Zoo], and dcT has, unfortunately, bought into their own hype.

Caedmon’s had very deep lyrics and a catchy style. They still do, in a lot of ways, even with all the turmoil in the band [both major songwriters having cut ties]. CC is a band that I consider to be a prototypical “college band” because of their musical and lyrical style.

What I really appreciated was that the music did indicate faith but not preachiness. I mean, all you’ve got to do is look at the lyrics to “Not The Land” to figure that one out.

It is interesting to be as involved with these guys as I am and to not be a Reformed theology freak. Many fans have bugged me about it, and even Andrew Osenga has wondered if I might not have brush-ups with Derek Webb about being one of these unwashed free-willers. But really, I don’t have a problem with them–Derek and I have even talked theology [though we avoided the C-A debate]. Frankly, I find very little differences between Wesleyan theology and Calvinistic theology in an applied, practical sense. But I digress…

4. How hard is it to be a fan of Cincinatti sports? (both the distance and the losing ways of the Bungles)

Well, for one you have to deal with people spelling Cincinnati incorrectly.

For another, you have to deal with Carl “Banana Boat” Lindner, who’s too cheap to spend money on the Reds.

For yet another, you have to deal with Mike “Legacy” Brown, who’s been too cheap to spend money on the Bengals.

I’m convinced that Marvin Lewis has finally turned the organization around … it’ll just be next year before they’re back to .500. I thought for a while that it might be this season, and then I looked at the schedule and realized that was a pipe-dream.

I’ll be happy with 5-11 or 6-10.

The distance is an issue, but the Internet has truly helped. In fact, it was the Internet [specifically, Usenet] that got me involved in sportswriting in the first place. Had Gary Gambino and I never met on alt.sports.baseball.cinci-reds, well, I’d never have been involved with SportsBytes or Top Of The Key or anything else, really.

5. Knowing that you plan to go into the ministry, I am curious to know from you perspective the answer to the question… “Who Is God?”.

There are very few concise ways to answer that question. I will use two:

Yahweh [or, if you prefer, YHWH].
God is the Author of the Universe.

Anything more specific than that would be far too long and drawn-out for such a forum as this.