How Well Do You Know Mark Jackson?

Over on Facebook, I created this How Well Do You Know Mark Jackson? quiz & invited folks to play. Here's the scores (revised for the mistake on question #8 - see below)...

73% correct

• Shari Becknal Jackson (wife)

46% correct

• Jeremy Nordmoe (South Gate BC, Nashville)

40% correct

• Chris H Herndon (Dalewood BC, Nashville)

33% correct

• Sara Emily Lewis Foreman (Dalewood BC, Nashville)
• Jennifer Collier-Madon (Dalewood BC, Nashville)
• Liz Salacinski (sister)
• Heather Usack Winters (the church @ hickory hollow, Nashville)

26% correct

• Paul Durham (the church @ hickory hollow, Nashville)
• Aaron Kellar (NewLife Community Church, Fresno)
• Todd Lewis (Dalewood BC, Nashville)
• Sarah Jones Underhill (Dalewood BC, Nashville)
• Tim Walker (Dalewood BC, Nashville)

20% correct

• Michael Green (Gulf Games, the Gathering)
• Margaret Kellar (NewLife Community Church, Fresno)
• Alaina Lawless (Dalewood BC, Nashville)

13% correct

• Charles Glaser (Game Central Station, Nashville)
• Winton Lemoine (gaming)
• Tony Potter (Hedge homeschool group, Fresno)
• Tom Sims (fellow pastor, Fresno)

I think the results tell us that it helps to have (a) known me a long time & (b) have read my blog.

Now, the questions, the answers... and some commentary. The correct answer is in bold.

1) I considered all of the following professions as a kid, except...

a) construction worker

b) architect

c) defense lawyer

d) professor

e) stage actor

I wanted to be a construction worker (thanks to Legos & building blocks) until I saw my cousin & uncles walking a beam when they rebuilt the barn - I got vertigo just seeing THEM do it. Then I wanted to be an architect until I learned how much math was required. By my early teens, I was interested in being the next Perry Mason... until I realized that Perry Mason had a weird client list, where everyone he represented was innocent. My high school years were filled with dreams of being in a rep theater somewhere, acting Shakespeare plays & oddball classics year round.

Oddly enough, as much as I enjoy teaching & preaching, I've never really wanted to be a professor.

2) Which incident is not a part of my gaming history?

a) played Monopoly on the floor with Grandma Jackson

b) my aunt bought me my first Avalon Hill game

c) nearly attacked by an angry D&D player

d) attended the Gathering 6 years after I got invited

e) was one of the founders of Gulf Games

One of the fondest memories from my childhood is playing games with Grandma Jackson (my dad's mom). He says she was the same way with him & his buddies when he was young.

My aunt (dad's sister) bought me my first AH game: Outdoor Survival. She even played it with me once, which is going way above & beyond the aunt call of duty!

I've told the D&D story before on the blog... you can read it at The Day I Quit Playing D&D.

Alan Moon invited me to the Gathering of Friends back in 1996, when I ordered Phantoms of the Ice from White Wind Games and he & I had a great chat on the phone. I didn't actually get to use that invite until 2002... and I haven't been able to get back since. Man, I'd love to go again!

I am NOT one of the founders of Gulf Games - that honor belongs to Greg Schloesser, Ted Cheatham & Ty Douds. I did, however, attend the 2nd Gulf Games & was a fixture there for many years (until we moved to California.)

3) The age difference between Shari & I is...

a) 7 months

b) 11 months

c) 3 years

d) 4 years

e) 6 years

When Shari & I started dating, she had only graduated high school 6 months earlier. The biggest issue with our age separation actually has come up in working with youth, who tried to say that a 14 year old girl dating a 20 year old guy is the same thing as our marriage. Well, no.

4) At my last full-time youth ministry position, our group mascot was:

a) a lion

b) an aardvark

c) a pig

d) a redbug

e) an elephant

The pig has been a subject of a couple of blog posts (The Tale of the Pig (and How He Still Influences My Life) & Pig Quotes). Wish I had a good picture of him.

The redbug was the team mascot of the Fordyce Redbugs - yep, the chigger as a mascot. That's rural Arkansas for you.

5) "This church sucks less than any other we've been to." Which church?

a) Good Shepherd Baptist Church, Silsbee, TX

b) First Baptist Church, Fordyce, AR

c) Dalewood Baptist Church, Nashville, TN

d) the church @ hickory hollow, Antioch, TN

e) NewLife Community Church, Fresno, CA

This is an actual quote from a teenage girl who attended with her dad - we considered using it in advertising ("We suck less than any church in Nashville") but decided it was a little too "in your face."

6) Something you're likely to hear me say during a sermon...

a) Bow your heads & close your eyes.

b) Turn in your Bibles to...

c) Like I was saying...

d) So what?

e) People... come on!

Shari suggested that "Like I was saying..." was a pretty common statement in my youth talks. Currently, I end almost every message with a "So What?" point - props to the pastors at Fellowship Bible Church for getting me into that important habit.

7) Which of these descriptions doesn't fit one of my many roommates?

a) BSU officer & ladies man

b) preppy heavy-metal devotee

c) theater major

d) loner guitar player

e) accountant/gamer

I never actually roomed with BSU (Baptist Student Union) officer... but I did room with a guy who wore Ozzy concert tees with creased blue jeans (freshmen year), a very talented actor & musician who was also a bit of a gamer (senior year), a guitar player who didn't really like to socialize (also senior year), and the best man at my wedding, Tim Formby, who was my main gamer buddy for the latter half of the 1980's.

This was a tough question - only Heather & Paul got it right.

8) My first crush introduced me to a number of things, except:

a) kissing

b) the Beatles

c) the musical "Evita"

d) Gone With The Wind

e) exchanging rings

This is the question I messed up on... those of you who answered "exchanging rings" got a freebie (I meant to type "exchanging gifts".) My first crush (Julie) is the one who introduced me to the Beatles, to "Evita", and to "Gone with the Wind" - but we didn't kiss.

9) I first felt "called" to be a minister...

a) ...during a revival at Rose Drive Baptist.

b) ...at Centrifuge.

c) ...at a Summer Missionary commissioning ceremony.

d) ...while taking part in MasterLife.

e) ...at a BSU retreat.

While I had some amazing spiritual experiences during all of the times listed - esp. the Summer Missionary commissioning ceremony that convinced that God still loved me even though I had pretty much turned my back on Him - it was at a Centrifuge camp at Glorieta, NM in 1982 where I felt called into ministry.

Following my senior year of high school, my youth group drove from Southern California to Glorieta, New Mexico, to participate in a Centrifuge camp. Early during the week of camp I had committed my life's profession to God... and later in the week, God showed me just what that profession was to be. During what seemed like the longest invitation I'd ever been a party to, the pastor asked if any of us were considering special services. He told us that he would like to pray with us and if we were, would we raise our hands? My arm was halfway up before I realized what my body was doing. I nearly yanked it down before it hit me... this was exactly what God had been preparing me for since I was a child. I spent the rest of that night on a roller coaster of emotion, running down the trails above the chapel at Glorieta, laughing with joy at the incredible clarity I felt, then weeping with a tremendous awareness of my unworthiness and inadequacy to be a minister.

I've told that story over & over... so it surprised me that so many folks missed it. Only Liz (who was actually there!) and Aaron got it right.

10) Which of the following board games did I NOT playtest?

a) Dia de los Muertos

b) Scream Machine

c) Heroscape

d) Clue DVD

e) Heroes, Incorporated

I really enjoy playtesting games... and the correct answer here is actually a loophole answer, the kind of thing you'd try to prevent in a "for real" playtest.

I've playtested 3 of Frank Branham's games (Nodwick, Battle Beyond Space & Warhamster Rally) - but the one I get actual rules credit for is Dia de los Muertos, which I only played once in playtesting.

Joe Huber's Scream Machine was one that I playtested a good bit & enjoyed. (Sadly, the prototype graphics were better than the published game.)

I'm not sure how I ended up invited to playtest Heroscape expansions... but we had a blast doing it for about a year. (I worked on figures like Dund and Hot Lava Death expansion.)

That same Hasbro connection meant I got to playtest the American conversion of Clue DVD... it's still my favorite implementation of Clue. (Note: I haven't played the newest one, though I'd like to.)

And here's the loophole... while I didn't playtest Heroes Incorporated, I did help proofread the rules rewrite for the expansion.

I'm guessing that most of you had no clue that I playtested that many games, let alone which ones. Anyway, this was another tough one: only Shari Jo & Jeremy were correct.

11) I met Shari...

a) ...at Baylor.

b) ...at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

c) ...at a small group Bible study.

d) ...at College/Career Sunday School.

e) ...at a honky-tonk.

Baylor U. was a memory by the time Shari & I met... I graduated in May of '86 and Shari & I met in the summer of '88.

And while I was attending Southwestern (SWBTS) when I met Shari, she was a freshmen at Texas Wesleyan & I was in my third year of seminary.

The most common wrong answer was "small group Bible study" - probably because we tell the story of our first date which she thought was just her small group leader getting to know her better.

The only honky-tonk I've ever been in was to see Dwight Yoakum in concert with a different girl... and that's another story all in itself.

We actually met in Sunday School - which my accountant/gamer roommate taught.

12) What is my #1 "must visit" Disney park?

a) Disneyland Paris

b) Animal Kingdom

c) Disneyland Tokyo

d) Tokyo DisneySeas

e) EPCOT

I've already been to EPCOT & Animal Kingdom, though I'd be thrilled to go back to them. (Must... ride... Everest...) Disneyland Paris has Discoveryland, which used a lot of the Discovery Bay ideas - I'd love to see that. Disneyland Tokyo has some neat stuff (their version of the Pooh ride is superior to anything in the States), but...

...Tokyo DisneySeas is an almost completely new park set around a volcano - new rides, new themes, wow! It's not gonna happen any time soon, though - the airfare alone would bankrupt me.

13) I grew up in Orange County, CA... but I was born in:

a) Missouri

b) Washington

c) Oregon

d) Tennessee

e) Arkansas

While I've lived in Oregon (1965-1969), Arkansas (1990 - 1992) & Tennessee (1992 - 2003), and my parents both grew up in Missouri, I was actually born in a suburb of Seattle, WA.

14) My family is great. I have...

a) ...one older brother.

b) ...one younger brother.

c) ...one older sister.

d) ...one younger sister.

e) ...no siblings.

My sister, Liz, is two years younger than me. We didn't get along all that well as kids but I think she's the cat's pajamas now.

15) Which game do I like the least?

a) Monopoly

b) Euphrat & Tigris

c) Settlers of Catan

d) Power Grid

e) Race for the Galaxy

I've played Race for the Galaxy nearly 200 times (2/3 of them solitaire games)... I think it's possibly the best card game ever designed. Settlers of Catan is another game with 150+ plays. I haven't tracked my plays of Monopoly, but I've been playing it since I was 7 years old and never went through a "too cool for Monopoly" phase.

Which leaves the two possible candidates (neither of which I own): Power Grid and Euphrat & Tigris. While I like the original game, Funkenschlag, better, Power Grid is a really good economic expansion game. Euphrat & Tigris is much more abstracted... and is a game that I can respect but don't really like to play. (That makes me running the E&T block at Kublacon back in 2006 even funnier.)

So, E&T it is. And only two of you knew that: Jeremy & Paul.