{"id":239,"date":"2006-02-16T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-16T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2006-02-16T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-16T21:00:00","slug":"i-interview-myself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/16\/i-interview-myself\/","title":{"rendered":"I Interview Myself"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>You have noticed that important people get interviewed. A few interviews of interest include that of John Piper<\/a> (mp3), Justin Taylor<\/a>, C. J. Mahaney<\/a>, John MacArthur<\/a> ($6!), and Steven Spielberg<\/a>. Nobody ever asks to interview me and I’m a-thinking that it ain’t going to happen any time soon. So I thought I’d entertain my readers with me interviewing me.<\/p>\n

Me: Todd, thank you for joining us today.
\nMe: My pleasure.<\/p>\n

Me: You’re a teacher. Has that always been your life dream?
\nMe: I remember being a senior in high school and the teacher asked our class who wanted to be a teacher. One person raised their hand (not me). It simply was not viewed as desirable. But as I worked my way through college, and came to Israel for the first time, it became apparent to me that this was both my desire and my gifting.<\/p>\n

Me: Do you have a favorite class to teach?
\nMe: Well, I don’t teach any classes that I don’t like. That’s a real privilege that I have. I tend to like most whatever classes I’m teaching at the moment. Right now that would be History of Ancient Israel and Jerusalem Archaeology.<\/p>\n

Me: How do you feel after a day of teaching?
\nMe: Incredibly blessed as I love these subjects so much. Also tired. Teaching makes me tired.<\/p>\n

Me: What makes you the most tired?
\nMe: Museums – either teaching in them or visiting them.<\/p>\n

Me: What is one of your all-time favorite words?
\nMe: Context<\/p>\n

Me: That sounds like it could be the subject of a future post.
\nMe: Yep.<\/p>\n

Me: What is one of the questions you dislike the most?
\nMe: “How many kids do you have?”<\/p>\n

Me: Any others?
\nMe: “Do you plan to live the rest of your life in Israel?” I just think, Does anybody in the world really plan that far ahead? I’m having trouble with just knowing what I’m doing today.<\/p>\n

Me: We understand that you’ve lived in Israel for a long time. Are there any places you still want to visit?
\nMe: Actually I have a full page (two-column) list of places. Not all are ones I haven’t visited, but I may just want to return or to photograph them at a different time of day or season.<\/p>\n

Me: Can you give me some examples?
\nMe: Sure. In Jerusalem: Monastery of St. Onuphrius (traditional Hakeldema), Pontifical Biblical Institute, Jason’s Tomb (at 1 p.m.), and Lifta. Elsewhere: Beth Zur, Bethlehem of Galilee, hike through the Michmash Pass, and see the latest excavations at Hippos\/Susita.<\/p>\n

Me: We heard that your first wife was a real babe. Is that true?
\nMe: Yes.<\/p>\n

Me: We heard that just after you started dating her, you went on an archaeological excavation?
\nMe: Indeed. In fact, I highly recommend that for potential couples. It really shows whether they can handle hard times. That and dirt and pots and pans.<\/p>\n

Me: Where were you digging?
\nMe: Tell Beth Shean. Late Bronze.<\/p>\n

Me: What do you have trouble remembering?
\nMe: Events in my life (major ones excluded). That’s why nearly all of my examples in teaching come from things in the previous week.<\/p>\n

Me: What do you not have trouble remembering?
\nMe: My students. I remember very clearly their name, when they were my students, and what they look like. I can almost never remember what grade they got or what their paper was about.<\/p>\n

Me: What book of the Bible is your favorite?
\nMe: I usually like whatever I’m reading (save Leviticus). I especially enjoy teaching 1 Samuel though I never get to go slowly enough. I’m in 1 Samuel now in one of my classes.<\/p>\n

Me: Do you have any struggles right now that your friends could pray for you about?
\nMe: Well, one that I’ll mention is my need to complete a certain course that I am enrolled in. The subject is difficult for me and time is elusive.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Me: Why don’t you just quit blogging; then you’d have more time.
\nMe: I’ve certainly thought about it. But I usually don’t spend that much time on it per day. If I can’t do it fast, I don’t do it. Which is why you usually don’t read long deeply-thought-out posts. I also see this as something of a ministry, as an extended classroom. Thus far, it seems worth my while.<\/p>\n

Me: Tell me about a good book you’ve seen in the last, oh, day or so.
\nMe: The Sacred Bridge<\/a>, by Anson Rainey and Steven Notley. I was absolutely blown away by it. It costs $100, so I suppose I should be blown away. It’s one of those books that I just want to sit down and read cover to cover. I expect I’ll write more about that here in the future.<\/p>\n

Me: Any favorite songs lately?
\nMe: God Moves is an old hymn recently put to a new melody. The words are here<\/a>. The whole song used to be available for free; now I only see the first 1:20 available<\/a>. (or here<\/a> for $1). Another song from the same CD is free here<\/a> (see right sidebar).<\/p>\n

Me: Thank you for the opportunity to interview you today.
\nMe: The honor is all mine. By the way, you’re a great interviewer. :-)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have noticed that important people get interviewed. A few interviews of interest include that of John Piper (mp3), Justin Taylor, C. J. Mahaney, John MacArthur ($6!), and Steven Spielberg. Nobody ever asks to interview me and I’m a-thinking that it ain’t going to happen any time soon. So I thought I’d entertain my readers\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-things-i-like"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}