My Weekly Personality Analysis

One day earlier this week. I got a new gig to go to tomorrow.

You scored as James Bond, Agent 007. James Bond is MI6's best agent, a suave, sophisticated super spy with charm, cunning, and a license's to kill. He doesn't care about rules or regulations and somewhat amoral. He does care about saving humanity though, as well as the beautiful women who fill his world. Bond has expensive tastes, a wide knowledge of many subjects, and his usually armed with a clever gadget and an appropriate one-liner. James Bond, Agent 007 71% Batman, the Dark Knight 67% Neo, the "One" 63% Captain Jack Sparrow 58% The Terminator 58% El Zorro 58% William Wallace 54% Maximus 54% The Amazing Spider-Man 42% Lara Croft 33% Indiana Jones 25% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

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Sticks Don't Kill People, Nuts Do

Every time I argue against the banning or restriction of martial arts training and weaponry, I get my foot shoved in my mouth by idiots like this.

This is from an old friend from Fight Club. He's on a mailing list which he describes as...

...unfortunately half filled with Irish Catholic religious zealots who view western fighting arts as the physical component to their faith (similarly to shotguns in the Bible belt I suppose). anyway, after a lengthy discussion about christianity and a few of us asserting that a WMA group is not the place...one wrote:

"Unless Christ was a stick fighter, can we end this thread?"

Which is pretty funny, until a response came:

"Actually the only account I recall indicated he was proficient with the use of a cat-o-nine-tails. . . . However many of his followers were/are proficient in many arts."

I know, you're thinking, "Sure, rip on the Irish Catholics. What about anting-antings?" Hey, that's one thing. But most people just don't believe, as some Filipino FMA practicioners, that the Santo Niño de Cebu is holding an escrima stick. Or that the "angle one" strike, known in some systems as the strike of San Miguel was actually taught directly by St. Michael.

And, what the hell is "were/are proficient" supposed to mean?

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"What Is PC Load Letter!?!"

To all you republicans, that helped me win
I sincerely like to thank you
Cuz now I got the world swingin’ from my nuts
And damn it feels good to be a gangsta

Geto Boys, "Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster"

I got the gig! I start the day after tomorrow!

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Evangelism

I've said it before, and I'll say it again when and wherever I can: The ScrapBook extention for Firefox es muy bueno.

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Long Live the King!

You've probably all seen the original ad. For pete's sake, the King is creepy anough without the nightmarish thought that you could wake up and find him in bed next to you. I enjoy their breakfast sandwiches, but I wouldn't want to have him touching my knee to get one.

But have you seen the BK doing a pole dance?

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Today's Music

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!


Just can't keep my mind off Cassandra, can I?

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Who?

Yes, I'm geeky over it but not as some who actually debate whether this "new" Doctor Who is "Series 2" (which it is--if that's what the production credits say, isn't that freaking good enough?) or "Season 28" (i.e. a continuation of the old series).

But, I'm still geeky, especially after the latest episode, called "Tooth and Claw." Why? Dropped references to the old series? SFX by the same folks involved with the third Harry Potter movie? Better...

SPOILER (highlight to read):

STEAMPUNK, baby! Actual Steampunk, too, more than just the Jules Verne-esque type TARDIS console from the 1996 Fox movie.

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Listening Pleasure

Not too long ago, I took about 10 minutes to Photoshop together some covers of CDs that I was listening to. The day after, I discovered a site that pretty much does that for you.

So, here's my writing music for the weekend.

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

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My Weekly Personality Analysis

I'm not sure if I took a test of the same name or the same test. Oh, well. Wish there was a picture to go with it.

The Subtle Hipster Sweet jesus. you're 86% hipster.

You're pretty hip, but not in a ridiculously over-the-top kind of way. In fact, you probably look like a regular person generally and almost blend in with the masses, but you wear a few subtle signifiers of your hipness. In fact, hipsters probably don't realize how hip you are until you get into conversations about music, movies, and politics. You're at a healthy level of hipness. Rock on. Don't try too hard.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 54% on hippoints

Link: The Are you a Hipster Test written by honeysuckle17 on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

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The 'View

Had the three-hour interview at the Big Red Barn which consisted of three separate meetings. The first was with the human resources manager of the department I'd be working for. I figured it'd just be to fill out various and sundry forms, which I did. And then, she started explaining benefits packages to me. When she asked if I had any questions, I wanted to say, "Why are you telling me about benefits packages and giving me info that would only be of interest to me after I got hired?"

Next was the meeting with my would-be immediate supervisor. I think that part went well, IMO. I took some advice about "interviewing them." I've never been a stiff in interviews, but this was the first time I tried that. I think it worked (though I guess the proof will be in the pudding).

After that was a lunch meeting with the #1 and #2 men in charge. Apparently, there was a mix-up where the #2 man had dug into my sandwich. No biggie for me, but the paranoid me wonders if it was a test :). I know, you're asking, "Damn, are you really that paranoid?" All I can say in my defense (without divulging too many details) is that if I'm, as B calls me, a "psychology ninja," then I was meeting with the 9th and 10th degree grandmasters. Put another way, I was a rusty Jedi standing before Mace Windu and Yoda. Anyway, they were light on the questions, but I knew they were observing and quite possibly, they knew that I knew. They were able to cite parts of my resume, even though I couldn't see it anywhere at hand (theirs, that is). I believe what they said: the purpose of a lunch meeting with them is to see if I "fit," and the second I realized that they weren't going to grill me, it let me relax but still keep "the game face" on.

All in all, I have to say that regardless of the outcome, I think this was one of the best interviews I've ever had. I could be completely wrong, but I think that even if they assume half of everything I said was utter bullsiht, they'd still have to like the remaining half enough to hire me. Basically, they want someone who won't freak out at the clientele and who knows how to function in what's basically a busy mental health practice. And, that's me.

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Topical Solution

That's "solution" in the chemical sense, i.e. a mixture of solutes. (Hey, damn, that's pretty good--that's what I'm going to call these types of posts from now on!)

ITEM 1
Guru Mushtaq said some kind words for this blogger. By the way, he's 85% quirky. Given his silat skills, I dunno how I'm gonna sleep at night knowing that--hehe.

ITEM 2
I've known for awhile that I've got way too many RSS feeds. I gloss over most of the ones I've collected with only five or so exceptions like Mushtaq's. Imagine my pleasant surprise as I revisited Stickman's Blog. Stickman is a legendary name in Filipino Martial Arts circles as one of those fortunate individuals to train directly with Angel Cabales, and his knowledge is priceless. You could pay a lot of money for the insights Stickman gives away for free on his blog to be linked and tagged with del.icio.us.

ITEM 3
I'm reading two compilations right now.

Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles de Lint contains stories from his series dealing with stories from his mythical city of Newford. I have to confess that I'm not enjoying them very much. The writing's exceptional and the stories are okay. They just don't hold my interest. I find very little, if any, tension in the tales I've read.

Of course, people have said the exact same thing about Raymond Carver's stories. I suppose it's probably an unfair comparison, commenting on de Lint while reading Carver, but there it is.

There's very little that's fantastic (i.e. pertaining to fantasy) or mythical about Carver's stories. And yet, I can't put them down.

I was initially drawn to Where I'm Calling From mainly to explore the short-short form, because whatever you might say about Carver's writing, very few can combine briskness and intensity like he does. I will say that there have been a couple of stories that I didn't get at first. But I prefer that to "Who cares?"

ITEM 4
Just food for thought: Should it be any surprise when you get rejection letters from anyone who has to go through a slushpile during a holiday weekend?

ITEM 5
T-Minus 33 hours to the interview at the Big Red Barn.

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Number 10

Not Downing Street, though this is sort of in that neighborhood.

Doctor Who, Season 2 in the USA UK, now!


Because, as Paula Cole sang, "I don't wanna wait."

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Fill In the Blank

I've come across a few things lately that were designed to make your life easier. For me, at least, they seem to be living up to that promise. It makes me wonder, to paraphrase Tom Baker a la his Symphony voice-over outtakes...

How did the world ever exist before fcuking _____________ came into it?

DEL.ICIO.US
My first and favorite Web 2.0 app. Yes, it's meant to be a "social bookmarking" site where you can share your links with whoever. Fine, fine, I'm not (all that) greedy about my links. This saves me the trouble of not only saving bookmarks, but having to organize them. This does it all for me.

SCRAPBOOK
This is by far my favorite Firefox extention! Ever wish you could save a webpage on your hard drive and cut out a bunch of unneeded crap or plaster sticky notes on a particular section of a page? Now you can. No more jotting down a link or saving the freaking webpage on my hard drive, and then forgetting what the heck I wanted to do with it! It's invaluable if you do even the slightest amount of research using teh Intarwub. Now, I can clear out my bookmarks!

DIY PLANNER
Based on David Allen's Getting Things Done, I've come to love these forms. No, I haven't given up completely on the old Franklin Covey planner. I deliberately paid about $100 for the thing about seven years ago because I knew that was the only way I'd keep using the thing. I can't let go of some of their calendar layouts, though--I'd rather keep buying them than printing them out anyway. But I don't know how I've gotten by without some of these DIY Planner forms. Actually, it's not just the forms. They're nothing I couldn't custom-make myself using a myriad of the tools at my disposal. But, I've always hated reinventing the wheel. Anyway, it's the concept behind the DIY forms that I like--for example: To-Do lists with enough space to make note of the context of that task.

BACKPACK
I've heard people rave about Backpack, which is a nice little Web 2.0 application that's basically a nice task list. So, I decided to give it a whirl. I wouldn't depend on it, for the simple fact that it's all online (although there is a downloadable version for your HD for Mac). But, it's nice for seeing everything about a project all in one page; no flipping through sheafs of notes and lists. I've chosen to rely on something offline, but people could do a lot worse than to use this as your project organizer. If nothing else, I can now take those annoying little text files of lists and random info (I thought I was the only one who did that. I was wrong) and put them all in one place. Really, do yourself a favor and check it out.

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Put That Coffee Down

So, B's got some bad news on his blog. But, it's not gonna keep him down. One door shuts, and he automatically starts feeling around for another one. I gotta hand it to him for that, and for working in sales. I couldn't do it.

This has been up before, but this one goes out to him and all you salesfolks out there: Alec Baldwin's speech in Glengarry Glen Ross.

You may have to turn up the volume on the Quicktime module to hear it. Oh, and it's written by David Mamet, so that should clue you in on how SFW it is.

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Split Seconds

Ever have one of those moments where you see something take two seconds to go all wrong, but time seems to slow down just enough for you to take in the full scope of it? Like when you're looking at your keys in the ignition as your hand is shutting the car door? Or, when you're watching that stray shopping cart head straight for your fender? Or, when you reach out to grab a teleporting mobster?

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My Weekly Personality Analysis

Your Quirk Factor: 64%

You're so quirky, it's hard for you to tell the difference between quirky and normal. No doubt about it, there's little about you that's "normal" or "average."

How Quirky Are You?

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Organized Chaos

I'm sure it's easy to look at this picture and say, "Now, that doesn't look so bad. And, besides, you're here blogging, so how busy could you be?"

It's also as easy to punch the throat of anyone who might say that to me at this moment. Last night was the first full night's sleep I've had all week. It was pharmaceutically-induced, and just not enough. But, I'm not griping, really. Again, just things that can't be helped.

Coffee and blogging is helping me loosen up the fingers and the brain right now, so that I can turn 90° to the left and face this pile o' stuff. It's taking the time to decompress that I haven't allowed myself to get into the proper frame of mind.

To use the "time is money" metaphor, I've basically dipped into my savings to pay for the new transmission, forcing me to use Visa to buy my groceries, and even then I can't afford anything (needed or not) that I can't get at Aldi's.

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Avatar of the Week

I can relate to this puppet, who constantly asks others, "Do you have any idea how fcuking busy I am?"

This has been a week of setbacks. The first half of the week was my fault--too much putzing and traveling and thinking, "Oh, if I can just get all of the big errands out of the way, I'll have the whole rest of the week." Wrong. It's no one's fault, it was just wrong. Okay, I understand that "life gets in the way" and "other things are important, too" and it's all true, 100%. But now that I'm a week behind on some self-imposed deadlines, which means I'm butting up against some real deadlines, it's time to entrench.

Sometimes, you can't help it if "Hans Brix" comes knocking on your door. But, I don't have to let a Chechnyan stand here, telling me when he's gonna take a fcuking "derivry," either.

This week's metaphors on productivity and prioritization brought to you by Team America: World Police.

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Back Home (Musically)

This is why it's important to support your public library!



Don Byron and Nicholas Payton are old rotation staples for me. I have Tuskegee Experiments on cassette somewhere, and have been looking around for the CD for quite awhile; it's a deep album complete with poetry by Saddiq on the track "Tuskegee Experiment" (which, I never noticed before now, is not a "title track").

The others--Lonnie Plaxico, Jacky Terrasson, and Greg Osby--have all been linked with singer Cassandra Wilson. And, we all know how I feel about her. I'd been especially anxious to listen to Plaxico's stuff. I also noticed for the first time that he played on Tuskegee Experiments.

So, why is this post labeled "Back Home?" Because it's another example of the cyclical nature of things. It started with Chicago XXX last month. Just like most of the others, I got sucked into the horn licks, which made me pull out the old albums (especially, Chicago V and VII), and before you know it, I've got the old jazz CDs out. But, I wanted new stuff, so as I idly perused the jazz CD section at the library, I came across the monsters up above. So, despite the hellish nature of the past week, I've managed to extend my stay in musical heaven.

Ah, memories. If only I'd taken the other fork in the road. Anyway, if you want true modern jazz by, to use the jazz parlance, some bad ass motherfcukers, check out these albums.

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My Weekly Personality Analysis

Late again. Maybe I'll just do this on Fridays for awhile.

Bacardi 151 Congratulations! You're 134 proof, with specific scores in beer (100) , wine (150), and liquor (69).

All right. No more messing around. Your knowledge of alcohol is so high that you have drinking and getting plastered down to a science. Sure, you could get wasted drinking beer, but who needs all those trips to the bathroom? You head straight for the bar and pick up that which is most efficient.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 69% on proof You scored higher than 75% on beer index You scored higher than 98% on wine index You scored higher than 50% on liquor index

Link: The Alcohol Knowledge Test written by hoppersplit on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

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