A highly scientific analysis of the Thinklings' Moot-ichlorian counts:

thinklings moot-ichlorian counts:

rod: 35,000

bird: 28,000 with tolkeinian pipe (20,000 without)

bill: 21,500

shrode: 19,000

blo: approx. 18,500 (never around long enough to calculate)

I came in third, which is pretty respectable (ignore the fact that Shrode, who is a capital fellow by all accounts, has never been to Moot and this "blo" Stroke refers to is not a real person).

But this seems right. Rod is the Hub of the Thinklings Wheel and we all pretty much spend our time in awe of him anyway (and hope he posts again soon). And Bird is the bees knees, pipe or not. I can't imagine a Moot without Bird's running, hilarious commentary.

As unpromised, then re-promised, here is the lone surviving video from Moot, which is Blo trying to wrap his tiny Sasquatch brain around original sin and coming this close to the heresy of Pelagianism. ;-)

Blo on Total Depravity from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.

It was a great Moot! We hit IHOP around 3:45am, and I finally crawled into my own bed around 6:00am for a quick hour and a half nap before church.

Jared was kind enough to come to our College and Young Singles class this morning to teach on Gospel Wakefulness. It was a fantastic message.

Back from a fun lunch with everyone.

I'm ready to crawl back into bed again.

We're inside now, talking about Job.

Jared's also sharing some great things about what's going on at his church in Vermont. It's neat hearing about how Jesus is changing lives.

Blo keeps dragging us back into his exploration of Calvinism.

Like I said. Calvinist by IHOP.

He'll be a Calvinist by IHOP.

Stroke just made a great observation about me. He said "With Bill, it's always semantics".

So true. Semantics trip me up every time.

Two Calvinists, straight up.

Two Sovereigntists. One is an Arminian-Sovereigntist, the other a Calvin-Soveriegntist. I can't tell you which one Blo is, but I'm the latter.

One "no flag planted in the ground but leaning towards" Calvinist.

One former Calvinist-but-troubled-by-the-problem-of-evil-and-the-Augustinian-concept-of-Original-Sin but still on the Sovereignty train.

One aBloist.

We're recapping ten years of theological questions, flag football games and the resulting broken Blo-fingers.

Jared's currently grilling Blo about Blo's 0-point non-Calvinism. The rest of us are eating popcorn and watching the show.

Jared: What does the Bible teach about the ability to choose.

Blo: Wait, wait, can you repeat the question?

(and on and on).

Step One: Engage Jared in a conversation about "better".

Jared's Mom rocks the casbah, as does her fudge.

Even though Servetus did commit a capital crime (according to Geneva law), we've all decided that it wasn't cool that Calvin presided over Servetus' execution.

Jared just explained what Twitter's all about. I was all confused before, but now it all makes sense. And I'm not even being sarcastic.

Dateline: Moot, Jared's parents' patio.

We're not sure if this is really our tenth anniversary of Mooting, but we're going to say it is.

The steaks have been grilled and eaten, veggies have been cooked and eaten, and Blo has eaten his salad (we had to convene a council to determine if "salad" is truly Moot-food. In the end, after a close vote, we allowed it).

We are now engaged in conversation. Jared's holding forth.

Moot rules.

I attended Book-Moot last night with our newly published author Jared, Jared's bro Stroke, and the mythical Blo, to celebrate the release of Jared's new book Your Jesus is Too Safe. Moot went hard.

The only downer of the night was that Bird wasn't able to be there. We had great conversations, but I mentioned to Jared late in the night that we needed Bird's well-honed ability to inject his own unique brand of comedy into the middle of deep debate. We missed you Bird.

Some pictures:



Holding my copy (signed by the author!). This is a dream come true, something long hoped for and prayed for. Jared, may this be the first of many. I'm proud of you.




Yes, he's a big-time author now, but he still puts his pants on two legs at a time and grills his own Moot-meat.




Blo temporarily manifested himself as a corporeal being and held forth on the merits of Jared's manifesto.

It was a great Moot - or should I say half-Moot, since we didn't go all night but only till about 1:00am - and it was topped off by an ancillary mini-Moot over IHOP pancakes for Blo and me. Jared couldn't attend that, as he had to rest up for the book signing at the Woodlands Lifeway today.

Heading to the book signing now!

Very belatedly, here is the fourth installment of the Thinklings 2008 Mootumentary. I recommend you watch this one, as it contains vital information you will need to survive World War Z. It also aptly demonstrates how punchy we start getting around 2:00 am.



More Mootumentaries will be forthcoming. Sorry for the delays. Above-normal busyness and a busted Mac (now temporarily fixed) delayed this one.

To see all the Mootumentaries, click on the "Mootumentaries" link in the navbar.

And remember: blades don't need reloading.

Here's the next chapter in our series of Thinklings Mootumentaries. In this one, you'll get a taste of the free-wheeling debate and conversation that occurs frequently at Moot, in between steak eatings and discussions of zombie digestive tracts.



This also illustrates how the Thinklings are not monolithic in our beliefs when it comes to the non-essentials of the faith and dynamic, politically gifted Governors of Alaska.

To see all the Mootumentaries, click on the "Mootumentaries" link in the navbar.

Enjoy . . .

(There are several more chapters to come. Might be a few days till I get the next one up)

As many of you may know, the Thinklings enjoy an annual (and at times semi-annual) all-night tradition known as the Thinklings Entmoot. We had a great Moot last weekend. You can read about the moot here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. **

A series of short "Mootumentaries" are being put together to capture the spirit of this gathering. The first one is below. There are probably 3 or 4 more coming. I'll be posting another one later today.



You can watch this in HD on Vimeo

Note: the two as-yet unidentified persons in the video are Bird's brother Sha and my eldest.

** I know to many of you this endless re-capping of our Moots must seem like mega-hubristic navel-gazing. In many ways, you're right! :-)

Moot forevah!!!

A few more I must mention:

- Waking Sleep Paralysis, caused by D's (in Blo's case. Not in Bird's. Bird is in league)
- Sha's record-setting post-12am Moot participation
- Sneaking into the communion services of other traditions and pretending to be one of them. There were some guilty parties at this gathering.
- Trans versus Con
- "Are you smarter than your pastor?" (Note: I'm not)
- The future of the totally secure Bloo versus the future of the totally hacked Blo