Mid-50s in August? Seriously?
Also, I slept til 3:30 today. shite...
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Reflections upon the occasion of my being a special snowflake
I've come full circle. I got the INFJ (well, don't that sound vaguely medical) back when I first started playing around with Myers-Briggs stuff, probably around freshman year of high school. Over the eight (eight? omfg) years since then, my personality has proven fickle, cycling from INFJ to INFP to INTP to INTJ to INTP to my present INFJ state (though I tested as INTP, the "Loser"--perceptive!--as recently as a week ago). In the interest of navel gazery, I'm breaking this shit down:
I - well, duh. I hadn't imagined that I'd be up in the 80% range of introversion, but eh, not even too surprised by that. I do like people, but I am and always will be an introvert.
N - I guess I'm a dyed-in-the-wool intuiter, too, but lord knows I've never really understood what that meant. I'll smile, nod and go with it, 'cause it doesn't seem like it's gonna change any time soon.
Now, the tricky parts. Notwithstanding the idiosyncratic 68% Judging result in my personality badge on the blog sidebar, I'm hardly ever over 55% on any one of Thinking, Feeling, Judging OR Perceiving. This is where the desire to answer "but it depends!" to so many of these personality test questions probably does the most to impede said tests from assigning me, once and for all, forever and ever amen, a personality:
T/F - looking at my history I apparently went through a significant T-leaning phase. Unsurprising, given that a lot of my identity had grown to revolve around a respect for critical thinking, general smarty-pantsitude, intellectual snobbery and deification of logic etc. (Thankfully, I have evolved somewhat.) I think the F is correct here, though--whenever I make a big decision, I tend to go with what feels right. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of facts and reason and all that jazz, and I spend forever thinking and finding a way to logically justify what I believe is compelling... er, wait, wouldn't that just make me a hopelessly subjective rationalizer? (Well, we're all hopelessly subjective rationalizers...) Or wait (again), maybe the "feeling" I describe is really "intuition." Yeah. I think it is. So why the hell am I an F? Just because I can be emotional? Cause I picked mercy over justice (mercy CAN be just, fuckers..)? Or what? ...okay I don't want to talk about this anymore or I may have to go lie down for awhile.
J/P - now, this one's interesting to me as a general category. My understanding of the difference is that J-leaners like to check things off lists, have decisions made and out of the way, get tasks done and so forth. P-leaners are go with the flow, open to change, flexible, and have a vaguely earth-mothery all-is-connected-and-is-endlessly-evolving sort of view of the world. Now, I love making lists and ESPECIALLY crossing things off lists. Ooh, how I love crossing things off lists. It's like huffing ether or something. Er, anyway... so in that manner I can definitely see how I'd come up "J." Thing is, I view this as a character flaw. Not the narcotic thrill I get from striking through various tasks with my lovely extra-fine-tipped roller ball pen (although I guess that's a little weird), but to have such a closed-down view of the world. It's the control-freak mindset, and more than that, it's a basically faulty outlook. We're never really "done" with anything. Always more information to be taken into account, revisions to be made, infinite rivers to step in and all that. The P's have it. Or they have the right approach to successfully deal with it. I dunno, anyone want to put a different spin on this or redeem the J side of things for me?
Wow--that there was a lot of blather about myself. Granted, I DO score fairly high on intrapersonal intelligence over on aforementioned personality badge. Gotta keep my skillz sharp somehow.
I - well, duh. I hadn't imagined that I'd be up in the 80% range of introversion, but eh, not even too surprised by that. I do like people, but I am and always will be an introvert.
N - I guess I'm a dyed-in-the-wool intuiter, too, but lord knows I've never really understood what that meant. I'll smile, nod and go with it, 'cause it doesn't seem like it's gonna change any time soon.
Now, the tricky parts. Notwithstanding the idiosyncratic 68% Judging result in my personality badge on the blog sidebar, I'm hardly ever over 55% on any one of Thinking, Feeling, Judging OR Perceiving. This is where the desire to answer "but it depends!" to so many of these personality test questions probably does the most to impede said tests from assigning me, once and for all, forever and ever amen, a personality:
T/F - looking at my history I apparently went through a significant T-leaning phase. Unsurprising, given that a lot of my identity had grown to revolve around a respect for critical thinking, general smarty-pantsitude, intellectual snobbery and deification of logic etc. (Thankfully, I have evolved somewhat.) I think the F is correct here, though--whenever I make a big decision, I tend to go with what feels right. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of facts and reason and all that jazz, and I spend forever thinking and finding a way to logically justify what I believe is compelling... er, wait, wouldn't that just make me a hopelessly subjective rationalizer? (Well, we're all hopelessly subjective rationalizers...) Or wait (again), maybe the "feeling" I describe is really "intuition." Yeah. I think it is. So why the hell am I an F? Just because I can be emotional? Cause I picked mercy over justice (mercy CAN be just, fuckers..)? Or what? ...okay I don't want to talk about this anymore or I may have to go lie down for awhile.
J/P - now, this one's interesting to me as a general category. My understanding of the difference is that J-leaners like to check things off lists, have decisions made and out of the way, get tasks done and so forth. P-leaners are go with the flow, open to change, flexible, and have a vaguely earth-mothery all-is-connected-and-is-endlessly-evolving sort of view of the world. Now, I love making lists and ESPECIALLY crossing things off lists. Ooh, how I love crossing things off lists. It's like huffing ether or something. Er, anyway... so in that manner I can definitely see how I'd come up "J." Thing is, I view this as a character flaw. Not the narcotic thrill I get from striking through various tasks with my lovely extra-fine-tipped roller ball pen (although I guess that's a little weird), but to have such a closed-down view of the world. It's the control-freak mindset, and more than that, it's a basically faulty outlook. We're never really "done" with anything. Always more information to be taken into account, revisions to be made, infinite rivers to step in and all that. The P's have it. Or they have the right approach to successfully deal with it. I dunno, anyone want to put a different spin on this or redeem the J side of things for me?
Wow--that there was a lot of blather about myself. Granted, I DO score fairly high on intrapersonal intelligence over on aforementioned personality badge. Gotta keep my skillz sharp somehow.
Friday, August 17, 2007
I'm a special snowflake.
Your Score: Freak- INFJ
13% Extraversion, 66% Intuition, 46% Thinking, 53%
Judging
Well, well, well. How did someone like you end up with the least
common personality type of them all? In a group of 100 Americans, only
0.5 others would be just like you. You really are one of a kind... In
fact, I do believe that that's one of the definitions for the word
"FREAK."
Freak's not such a bad word to describe you actually.
You are deep, complex, secretive and extremely difficult to understand.
If that doesn't scream "Freak!" I don't know what does. No-one actually
knows the REAL you, do they?
You probably have deep interests in creative expression as well as
issues of spirituality and human development.
You've probably even been called a "psychic" before, because of your
uncanny knack to understand and "read" people without quite knowing how
you do it. Don't fret. You're not actually psychic. That would make you
special and you'll never accomplish that.
You're also quite possible the most emotional of them all, so don't take
this all too hard. Nevertheless you most definitely have the strangest
personality type and that's not necessarily a good thing.
*****************
If you want to learn more about your personality type in a slightly less
negative way, check
out this.
*****************
The other personality types are as follows...
Loner
- Introverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving
Pushover
- Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging
Criminal
- Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving
Borefest
- Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging
Almost
Perfect - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving
Loser
- Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
Crackpot
- Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging
Clown
- Extraverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving
Sap
- Extraverted Sensing Feeling Judging
Commander
- Extraverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving
Do
Gooder - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Judging
Scumbag
- Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving
Busybody
- Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging
Prick
- Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
Dictator
- Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging
| Link: The Brutally Honest Personality Test written by UltimateMaster on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test |
Diminishing marginal returns: the substance abuse edition
I gave up coffee cold turkey over last year's winter break, since I was drinking WAY too much, but I've recently returned to it--it's just so much more efficient than diet soda. Also, I was drinking way too much damn diet soda.
As one might surmise, I have an addictive personality; if I cut myself off from one thing, I'll swing too far in the other direction on the substitutes. So I end up in situations where I'm drinking four liters of cherry vanilla diet Pepsi Jazz in a single day. Not good. So for now, it will be a lovely free-floating non-obsessive mix of coffee and diet soda, and hopefully I'll gravitate naturally toward the caffeine level at which my body feels best. Heh. Or at least to an appropriate level of addiction such that I drink enough caffeine to give me a nice little productivity-boosting happy-making buzz, but not needing so much that I overwhelm my system and end up with stressed-out innards that make me paradoxically sleepy.
Speaking of, I kind of want a nap. And that's on account of not enough caffeine rather than too much. Coffee time...
As one might surmise, I have an addictive personality; if I cut myself off from one thing, I'll swing too far in the other direction on the substitutes. So I end up in situations where I'm drinking four liters of cherry vanilla diet Pepsi Jazz in a single day. Not good. So for now, it will be a lovely free-floating non-obsessive mix of coffee and diet soda, and hopefully I'll gravitate naturally toward the caffeine level at which my body feels best. Heh. Or at least to an appropriate level of addiction such that I drink enough caffeine to give me a nice little productivity-boosting happy-making buzz, but not needing so much that I overwhelm my system and end up with stressed-out innards that make me paradoxically sleepy.
Speaking of, I kind of want a nap. And that's on account of not enough caffeine rather than too much. Coffee time...
Thoughts?
Do we like the new color scheme? Not as harsh on the eyes, but it makes me a bit sleepy. Suggestions from those with visual acumen are welcome.
Also, I'm rather sad that I've lost the previous inane comments from various fr(i)en(d)z. Repopulate, people!
Also, I'm rather sad that I've lost the previous inane comments from various fr(i)en(d)z. Repopulate, people!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Working 9 to 5
My first day in the office as a full-time worker bee. I made an effort to look halfway professional this morning, with the business dress and the heels and whatnot. I saw myself in the mirror, and I realized that I look like a grown-up. I'm not sure how okay I am with this.
Also, I met with my senior thesis adviser yesterday to discuss grad school. There is good news. I'll blog about it after I finish obsessively updating my planner and fumble around the office server some more...
Also, I met with my senior thesis adviser yesterday to discuss grad school. There is good news. I'll blog about it after I finish obsessively updating my planner and fumble around the office server some more...
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Pseudonymalicious
And my blog re-emerges, newly aliased. No special significance to the name, except I used to sing one of her arias quite frequently for voice things. Also, it's a half-assed attempt at irony, since I'm pretty much not like the character at all. I'm less Google-able this way, I'd like to believe. And it's more interesting than my real name. Well, more interesting than my real first name, at least.
Anyway, I'm mostly doing this blogging thing in order to get into the habit of writing on a regular basis. I figure if I ever do take the plunge and become a "real" graduate student, rather than a conference-attending, real-grad-student-pestering interloper-cum-parasite, it'll be good to have had the practice. So, into the abyss my words go.
That's not to say I'm going to have a scholarly bent here, particularly initially. I'm not a graduate student now, though I'm planning on doing some auditing and journal reading in my spare time. I don't have any memories of a time in which I WASN'T obsessive about school, so this will be a lesson in moderation for me. We'll see how that turns out.
Anyway, I'm mostly doing this blogging thing in order to get into the habit of writing on a regular basis. I figure if I ever do take the plunge and become a "real" graduate student, rather than a conference-attending, real-grad-student-pestering interloper-cum-parasite, it'll be good to have had the practice. So, into the abyss my words go.
That's not to say I'm going to have a scholarly bent here, particularly initially. I'm not a graduate student now, though I'm planning on doing some auditing and journal reading in my spare time. I don't have any memories of a time in which I WASN'T obsessive about school, so this will be a lesson in moderation for me. We'll see how that turns out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Reductionism who in the what now?
