Category Archives: Memes

Art Vandelay, Architect

I’m not sure what compelled me to do this now2, but… I figured out my Myers-Briggs personality type. This is the general description of the difference between each of the 4 choices, with my preference in bold:

  • Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).
  • Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).
  • Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).
  • Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

Based on those either/or choices, I’d be an INTP:

Seek to develop logical explanations for everything that interests them. Theoretical and abstract, interested more in ideas than in social interaction. Quiet, contained, flexible, and adaptable. Have unusual ability to focus in depth to solve problems in their area of interest. Skeptical, sometimes critical, always analytical.

So that sounded about right, but could it be that easy? Don’t people take tests to determine these things? So I found one. And the result was: INTP.

Introvert(67%)  iNtuitive(88%)  Thinking(50%)  Perceiving(11)%

You have distinctive preference of Introversion over Extraversion (67%)

You have strong preference of Intuition over Sensing (88%)

You have moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling (50%)

You have slight preference of Perceiving over Judging (11%)1

That site also offered this bit of info:

Generally, INTPs build successful careers in areas requiring quite intensive intellectual efforts and calling for creative approach. INTPs are often found in research, development and analytical departments. INTPs often make a very successful career in academia thanks to their strong and versatile way of thinking and originality.

You don’t say! 😉

Of course, me being me, I couldn’t stop there. And also, couldn’t help but question the accuracy of every category (except introvert, obvs.), as well as, you know, whether this was all too much woo-woo to be believed. More after the jump!

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Good Things

One day, a month or so ago, when I was reading through my feeds, there happened to be a bunch of posts with a similar idea behind them:

This confluence of posts inspired me to re-start the Friday FUM. Here’s today’s.

I love making lists (my favorite apps are probably the list-making ones). So satisfying. The idea of making lists not to cross things off, but to be mindful of the good things from your day? Brilliant. But I think the reason it so resonated with me is because mentally I’d already been doing this.

In writing, we speak of missing the forest for the trees, i.e. getting so caught up in the details of a sentence or paragraph that we forget the overall story. But in life, I think sometimes we miss the trees for the forest. That is, whatever big thing’s going on in your life has a tendency to overwhelm everything else. So if whatever’s going on is bad, the impulse is to think everything in your life is bad. Which it isn’t. It doesn’t matter how overwhelming the big picture, there are always little things for which to be appreciative. True, the good things may be very little things compared the Big Bad Thing. But they are still good things. Even if they are little. A hot shower after a run. That first cup of coffee in the morning. Waking up to a sunny day.

Whenever someone remains positive despite tragic circumstances, people marvel. To a healthy person, the cheerful dying person is an enigma. But after the past while, I think I understand. Feeling sorry for yourself feels like crap. No one wants to be cast in the role of victim.

I have a long-standing policy of refusing to worry about things I have no control over. You know how people are always griping about gas prices or taxes or other things that the average person has no power to change? And then they wonder why they feel angry and frustrated and put-upon all the time? I can’t see the point. Agonizing about such things isn’t going to change them. Venting might make you feel marginally better briefly, but in the end, it just makes you feel worse.

Choosing to appreciate little good things in the face of a Big Bad Thing is empowering precisely because you’re making a choice. You’re taking control, saying, “Ok, I have no control over X. I do, however, have control over a, b, and c. So instead of spending my time being angry about X, which won’t change anything anyway, I’m going to spend it appreciating a, organizing b, and doing c.”  And on a micro-level, that feels good (even if the big picture is bad). So you keep doing it, because when it comes down to it, everyone wants to feel good (especially when they’re feeling bad).

From the outside, it might seem ridiculous to think that someone could be simultaneously grieving and yet still taking pleasure in life. But you only get one. It’s your choice what to do with it. Even when it doesn’t turn out like you expected.

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.  —Randy Pausch

Some things worth watching/reading:

Giant Inflatable Beavers

I saw this at So Anyway…

Share ten absurdly true things about yourself.

  1. When was a kid I hated cola, mustard, and cheddar cheese.
  2. In elementary school I’d always end my stories when I got to the bottom of the page, i.e. a story could be one full page or two full pages, etc. but not 1 1/2 pages or 2 1/4 pages.
  3. As a child I wondered (but did not investigate) why children in British novels were allowed to run around with flaming sticks. I was very disappointed when I eventually found out that their “torches” were just flashlights.
  4. I also didn’t figure out that “jumper” in British-English meant sweater until standing in the kitchen of a hostel in Australia with some dude who was talking about how he was cold so he put on an extra jumper. If my life were animated, a giant lightbulb would have appeared over my head at that moment.
  5. Until I was 16 or so, people often thought I was a boy. More specifically, they thought I was my little brother’s little brother.
  6. When I was in grade 9, I got the school medal for the Pascal Contest. They gave it me at the end-of-year awards assembly with like, everyone and their parents there. I was so embarrassed. (While I secretly liked being a math nerd, I didn’t want it advertised, ya know?)
  7. People often come up too close to my face (think: the close-talker) and ask if I wear colored/novelty contacts.  (Answer: No.)
  8. I can’t remember any French except for random words and French for Dummies sentences like  “Je ne comprende pas.”  It makes me sad because now there are lots of things I’d like to be able to read in French.
  9. I converted all my old cassettes to mp3s, thus preserving for all time! the quality 😉 only overplayed 20+-year-old cassettes can have.
  10. I am wearing a beaver hat. I think this means I am officially a collector of beaver stuff  (I blame Bellman & Baker; they started it ;-)). I am also a tweeter of beaver news (see #theelusivebeaver).

Hey, look! Giant Inflatable Beavers! And they’re trending!

Credit: Monkey See

This seemed apropos.

(I’d post more of these silly memes if I didn’t have to mess with the coding every time to get WordPress to display them correctly. Kind of spoils the spontaneity.)

You Are a Question Mark

You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning. And while you know a lot, you don’t act like a know it all. You’re open to learning you’re wrong.

You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more. You’re naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises.

Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. (But they’re not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!)

You excel in: Higher education

You get along best with: The Comma
What Punctuation Mark Are You?

But of course I’m Kate.

Your Score: Katharine Hepburn

You scored 19% grit, 38% wit, 42% flair, and 11% class!

You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet. You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who like strong women.

The Classic Dames Test.

5, er 10, Reasons Why I Blog

  1. For my #1 Fan.
  2. Writing posts is more productive (for a writer) than endlessly tweaking site design (which is what I mostly did with my old Web 1.0 website).
  3. I’m optimistic that this blog is more interesting than the aforementioned old website.
  4. Even sporadic journal entries add up over time. Who knows? It might turn into… something. Or not. As the case may be. It’s the possibility that’s intriguing.
  5. It encourages me to write more than I would otherwise.
  6. It’s good practice for figuring out what I am and am not comfortable writing about.
  7. It’s satisfying to keep track of the books I read and taking photos of the food I make entertains me. (The flower photos are an homage to Georgia O’Keeffe and Imogen Cunningham.)
  8. It’s far easier to write one interesting blog entry than it is to write 5 or 6 interesting emails. So if I owe you an email, here’s something for you to read whilst I procrastinate.
  9. People (relatives) who don’t know me that well (read: at all) could perhaps get to know me better should they ever express a desire to do so.
  10. I’m writing my thesis on blogging, so I’d be a big ignoramus/hypocrite if I did not have one myself. 😀

Inspired by Erin & Debbie.

Another Silly Quiz

Ottava rima? Hrm, can’t say I’m familiar. But I guess any result that includes the phrase “gleeful spite” is all right by me 😉

Ottava rima? Me? That can’t be right!
Too frivolous? But tut, there’s no such thing!
Let others ponder thoughts of wrong and right,
Or sit and think how much they love the spring;
I’d rather spend my time in gleeful spite,
Or maybe laugh, or maybe sit and sing.
Besides, it might be fun to be inspiring –
But surely it would get so very tiring.

What Poetry Form Are You?

Apparently, if I wasn’t an ottava rima, I’d be a sonnet:

I am the sonnet, never quickly thrilled;
Not prone to overstated gushing praise
Nor yet to seething rants and anger, filled
With overstretched opinions to rephrase;
But on the other hand, not fond of fools,
And thus, not fond of people, on the whole;
And holding to the sound and useful rules,
Not those that seek unjustified control.
I’m balanced, measured, sensible (at least,
I think I am, and usually I’m right);
And when more ostentatious types have ceased,
I’m still around, and doing, still, all right.
In short, I’m calm and rational and stable –
Or, well, I am, as much as I am able.

What Poetry Form Are You?

Seen at: scribblingwoman.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

What Kind of Reader Are You?
Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm

78%
You’re probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people’s grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Book Snob

78%
Dedicated Reader

76%
Literate Good Citizen

75%
Fad Reader

2%
Non-Reader

0%
What Kind of Reader Are You?
Create Your Own Quiz

Shocking, I know.

Seen at Queen of West Procrastination.