Soaking It In

It is kind of odd, but I am feeling quite content right now. Things are a bit crazy with the upcoming job uncertainty, but I am enjoying things. Work has seemed a bit slow for me lately, but I have established why.

Recently the team that I work with ended up getting this book where you to take a test online to see what you strengths are. Not wanting to be left out as a lowly contractor, I bought the book for myself as a birthday present (with Wifey's permission). After reading the short introduction to the book (about 20 pages that took me all of 10 minutes to read), I found myself skeptically getting ready to take an online test. What worried me most about the test is that I only had 20 seconds to answer the questions. I am one who likes to think things through, so after mentally biting my nails down to nubs, I pushed the "Start test" button.

I was glad that I didn't exceed the time limit on any of the questions. But I was even more glad that I was able to find a test that took me less than a half an hour that told me a lot about myself. Because I overthink these things, I tend to get scattered results on personality tests. I start to answer a question, but then I change the scenario in my head, and then start weighing which of these two scenarios come up most in my life, but then a third scenario comes along...

Well, you get the picture.

But this book pegged me to a "T." I was pleased to find out my top five strengths, and they seemed very valid to me. While these strengths might not be the most glamorous of strengths, I found it useful information to have. It helped me to understand better how I work, and why I enjoy some tasks while I loathe other tasks. Wifey was reading a book while I was taking most of the test, but the few that she did see, she told me afterward that she would have chosen the exact opposite of what I chose. I must be Type B (when we were dating, she told me that she had dated one type of guy. Then she told me that I was Type B. She was right.).

One of my strengths that I was happy to find was that I was a learner. I have always known that I loved learning, but I had never seen that as a strength. But it does explain why I had such a hard time picking a major in college. I went through ten majors, and I wondered why none of them kept my interest. Now I realize it is because I had learned a bit about the subject, and after I had become semi-fluent in the new language, I became disenchanted. It wasn't because I wasn't competent, but that I just lost interest.

Looking back, I probably just should have picked something and stuck with it. But I thought that there was something intrinsically wrong with me. If I frame it as a strength, it makes me feel much better.

As you might have guessed already from my synopsis of previous personality tests, my strongest strength was being deliberate. I had never seen that as a strength, but I guess that being methodical is a good thing. And the way that the book explains it really makes sense to me.

Now that I know this stuff about myself, I am more likely to look on it with a fresh perspective. Instead of saying, "Man, I am dumb for being this way," I can now look on things I do and say, "I'm glad I'm this way. It makes me unique."

One thing that really stuck out to me in the book was the fact that we often spend our time looking to see our weaknesses and trying to improve them. While there is something to be said about that, there is also something to be said about spending your time where you would really shine. I know that I am not going to enjoy being an accountant, so why would I spend time looking into accountancy skills? Instead, I can use the skills I have to better my situation or reframe it.

So, in the mean time, I am going to start taking a different approach to life. I am going to start trying to find ways that I can use my strengths to fix problems instead of ways to improve my weaknesses to fix problems. Soak in the good, and leave the bad out.

Now, to find a job that will let me do that...

Picking on Politicking

I have always had a sour taste in my mouth when people start talking about politics. When these discussions start, there is generally a polarizing effect that takes place. People start picking on the incumbents and candidates, and it is never a very humane conversation.

Today I realized why that is.

I suspect that many people (myself included) feel duty-bound to vote and don't pay much attention to how things are going until a bit before election day. The ads start to come on TV, the signs start to pop up around town, and you occasionally catch words like gubernatorial or tea party in bits of passing conversation. While I would enjoy having a conversation about the candidates, I find it hard to do so in a civilized manner. You can look to the advertisements on candidates as a springboard for our discussion.

Most ads that I see on TV fall into one of two categories. On one hand, we have the mudslinging, and on the other hand, we have scare tactics.

Mudslinging
Most of the fodder that comes from these ads, I immediately dismiss. They talk about one candidate (generally the incumbent) voting for this or that, and how terrible it is that this candidate would try to take money away from education (or spend more money, or try to quell economic growth, or a myriad of other things that seem intrinsically good that the candidate opposes). While I understand that a candidate's values might not align 100% with your own, I also understand that lawmakers are sneaky.

There are always things added on to a bill. These little amendments can be unrelated to the original intent of the bill. If the bill is on increasing funding for education, there might be a little amendment that says that they are going to sell public lands, or give tax cuts to businesses. If a candidate feels that the education portion is important enough, he or she will pass the bill while conceding to the other point that he or she might disagree with. If each bill was as straight forward as, "Do you want to increase funding for education? We will get the funds from X, Y, and Z," then I would find these ads a lot more compelling. Until the day that these non-related items keep appearing in bills, I have a hard time buying anything that these ads have to say.

Scare Tactics
These kinds of ads generally talk about the terrible state of the nation, and sometimes include some of the mudslinging tactics as well. The main message is, "This candidate's party has messed things up, and if you want it to keep on getting worse, then vote them in." I have a hard time taking these ads seriously as well, because in a lot of ways, I feel that bi-partisan politics has become similar to a game of football in elementary school.

There are two opposing teams, and while you have the quarterback calling some of the shots, both teams are really running the same plays. Yes, there is variation between the parties, but candidates are attempting to be as conservative as they can and stay within their party's favor. Many candidates do not agree 100% with their party's ideologies, (which is good, in my opinion) but when I have tried to figure out what makes someone democrat or republican, I have a hard time getting a straight answer. People have ideas of what they think it means to be democrat or republican, but I have a hard time finding a source that will tell me what the party stands for. I feel both parties are trying to be as beige as they can while retaining their independence.

So, while the candidates are saying that one party ruined everything, and that the other party needs control to fix all the other issues, I don't buy it. They are both beige, while one might be a little bit darker, and the other, a touch lighter.

So, being the duty-bound citizen that I am, I will be spending my time looking into websites for the next little bit to try to find a synopsis of political candidates. Even though a candidate might run on a platform and become elected doesn't mean that the candidate will be able to accomplish what they claim they will.

But I do know one thing. If a candidate had a platform that I mostly agreed with and promised to be transparent and own up to the decisions that they made instead of trying to blame another party, they would have my vote. I think people spend too much time trying to place blame, and not enough time working together for the common good. I get tired of the bickering and name calling, so I am going to try to be more diligent in finding out about candidates this election so that I can make a relatively educated guess when the elections roll around. If you have any hints on websites for me, please feel free to leave them in the comments box.

Introduction to Technology

When we were over to dinner at my parent's home this past week, my mother showed me a small card that she was very impressed with. It had a column with text in it that was next to a piece of clip art. My mind immediately started thinking of how to make it, and then quickly got bored because of the simplicity of the task.

After dinner was over, I mentioned to Mom that I could easily show her how to make something like that. She looked at me a bit skeptically, but took me up on the offer because she wanted me to install their scanner on the computer.

Before I go any further, let me tell you two stories about Mom that will help you understand her interactions with technology in the past.

Dad was a college professor in the Education department, and as part of that work, he started some of the first computer labs on campus (Funny aside: I now work with someone who helped him establish those first computer labs. Small world.). Dad was used to drawing things in Basic and typing up reports for his thesis and dissertation, so computers weren't anything that caused him worry. But Dad has his way of doing things, and if you stray from that path, you aren't doing it right, even if it yields the same (or better) results.

We had an Apple ][e at home for a personal computer. If you don't know the type, think of a large, dusty-gray looking box with two disk drives under a green and black monitor, and that is pretty much it. You had to have a 3 x 5 floppy disk inserted in disk drive 1 in order to get the thing to do anything of value. Mom helped Dad type up some of his reports and things, so she was a good typist. But if she ever needed to do anything beyond typing, Dad would start to explain it. Once he had an suspicion—even an inklink of a suspicion—that she was going to do something wrong, he would say (in a not so calm voice), "Ah, don't do that!"

Needless to say, Mom gets nervous about using a computer. She once called me to ask me if she was in trouble because she had just gotten an error message that told her that she had performed an illegal operation. Poor Mom....

My second story illustrates just how limited her interaction with the Internet has been. One day, she mentioned to me that she wanted to find some illustrations from children's books. She had never been on the Internet besides checking email, and I didn't really count that because they didn't even have a web-based email account. I brought Mom to the Google homepage.

Having grown up with this technology, I asked her to start typing in what she wanted to look for. She said books for kids, so that is what she typed in. Of course Google returned over nine million entries. I showed her the amount of entries that she had come up with, and she was floored. And then she innocently asked me, "Well, how am I going to get through all of these links?" I told her to get through them by using more search terms. I suggested maybe using art or artwork in there as well.

So what did she do? She erased the books for kids entry and put in artwork. I did a mental facepalm, and then told her to put all of those terms in. She just sat there and said, "Oh. You can do that type of thing?"

Don't let these stories fool you. My mother is very intelligent and capable. She just has never really had the opportunity to play around on the Internet, and because of her introduction to computers via my father, she is reluctant to just play on the computer.

I told Mom that I would show her how to make the card, and then let her do one while I was there. At my suggestion that she try one herself, she laughed and rolled her eyes. I opened up Pages for her, and showed her how to make a quick card using one of the existing templates in about two minutes. She kind of blinked, a bit surprised that it was over so fast. I could tell that she hadn't ingrained what I had just showed her—despite the fact that she was taking meticulous notes on a sticky pad that was nearby—so I had her take the drivers seat.

She opened up Pages again, and we started looking through the templates. She quickly said, "Now, I don't remember which one you used. Why don't you tell me?" Instead, I asked some leading questions, and she selected a different template after recognizing the one I had used. She put the picture that she wanted in, and then I showed her how you can zoom in and use a mask to highlight part of the picture.

I had to help her pull her chin off the floor. Not only was she amazed that she could zoom in and out, but she was amazed that she was doing it. I had her do a few more copies on the same template while I was there, and then we went to go get the cows in. On our way outside, she walked up to Dad, starting to tell him excitedly that she could make a card with a picture and writing, and that you could zoom in and out, and focus on one flower from the flower bed, and that she could do it all herself. Dad just grinned, and threw out a characteristic, "Wait a minute. You know how to do all that?"

For those who don't know Dad, he was joking. If I ever got a 98 on a test, he would ask me why I didn't get a 100. That is just how he is.

Mom indignantly retorted, "Yes. I did three in there just now. John showed me how."

Still grinning from ear to ear, he turned to me and said, "Don't teach her too much. I might not see her anymore."

Now that I have introduced Mom to technology, I am sure that next time I go over there that she will have some cards printed up on photo paper awaiting my inspection. The fire has been lit, and it is going to start consuming her until she can get everything down. And I'll be glad to be there to help.

Some Super Villains' Kids...

As an editor and former English major, sometimes, I just have to shake my head. I often wonder if people really read what they have typed. I know for a fact that many people don't proofread their own work (myself included at times).

Yes, there are people who just don't have a way with words. I am sure that there are individuals who would rather talk in mathematical formulas or computer code (not including l33t speak, as this is typing), and they would be completely happy.

For those of us who agree that there should be spelling conventions that should be followed that aren't influenced by texting, there are times that we have to cringe. There are certain things that just require a quick editorial peek. Printed materials fall well into this realm. And one of my favorite things to loathe happens to be quotation marks.

Some people just don't realize that quotation marks are for quoting people or things (like other printed material). They aren't used for emphasis.

DANGER! Poor formatting ahead.

Here is a classic blunder, performed by a super villain:

Taken forcefully (and without permission) from the Non-Adventures of Wonderella

Yes, there are whole websites dedicated to people who don't punctuate properly with quotation marks. Some of these are pretty funny.

I was really hoping to find something good from The Oatmeal, but all I found was a poster on apostrophes. Maybe I should suggest one...

I'm Sorry

If I had to give my blog a theme for the week, I would have to say that it is Global Week. I have had people from almost every major continent this week (come on Australia), including visitors from Botswana, Thailand, the Philippines, Slovenia, and Iran. Wifey mentioned to me that maybe all the people who visited from Japan this week might have been from a class, since it would be very rare to have that many people just hop onto my blog from one island country at the same time without some form of coercion. I agreed with her.

As I have been thinking about all people coming from different countries, I can only assume that the visitors from other countries use English as a second (or third or fourth) language. While learning Finnish, I was grateful to have so many rules that were always true. In Finnish, there are only four irregular verbs—FOUR. In English, there are about four thousand.

OK, that might be an exaggeration.

But needless to say, I feel sorry for those people who are trying to learn English. Thanks to the French (and other) influence(s), a lot of our spelling is messed up. And we are lazy when we speak.

Here is something that will hopefully help you out when trying to listen to native speakers. And for those of you who are native English speakers, try to imagine learning this strange language for the first time.

Disappointed

So, this past week, I learned that I was not being considered for the local wickless candle company position that I wanted. But I didn't learn from the company. Which makes me a bit disappointed.

I did a lot of homework for this position. I spent a lot of my time making sure everything was ready. I got an in with someone who works there. I applied legitimately, as well as sent my resume to be hand delivered by my contact there. The stars were aligned—except for the person doing the hiring.

I'm not heartbroken, by any means. While this position would have been great, and given me some opportunities that I haven't had before (including possibilities for career growth in a new field), I found myself pretty prepared to hear the word no. After all, it took the company five weeks to close the position, and another four before I contacted them to hear on the status of the position.

The thing that irks me the most is that after leaving multiple messages (spread out over the course of a week) on someone's answering machine, I never got a call back. The receptionist didn't seem to know about the position, so I was thinking that the worst might happen. After a somewhat awkward conversation with the young woman (she called back to the HR person's desk to see if she was there. After receiving no response, she told me that the HR person wasn't available. I asked to leave a message, so she started taking down my name and number manually. About half-way through, she stopped herself and asked, "Do you want me just to send you through to voice mail?" Why yes, that would be great... ) I was able to leave my message.

It does not bother me that I didn't get the position. What bothers me is that a company does not take the time to let someone know that they are no longer being considered for a position. That to me is just plain rude.

So, to let the company know that I am not happy that they didn't get back to me, I applied at two other places. I'll show them.

:P

Spike and a Story

A few days ago, I had the biggest hit count I have ever had in one hour. I had 36 hits in one hour, and 19 of them were from Japan. Evidently I'm a big deal in Japan. At least I would like to think so.

My spike in meager blog readership

Since Munchkin is already one year old, I have been thinking how quickly this year has gone by. Before I know it, she will be doing things on her own and coming to her own conclusions. I like to ruminate on crazy things like that, pondering the eventualities. She is such a sponge right now, soaking up things you say, trying to mimic words, jabbering all day long. She has picked up habits already, and I am hoping some of them might remain with her through the years, while others I could do without (like waking up at 5:00 this morning).

I wonder sometimes what our future as a family will hold. What crazy things will happen to us? Who will get the first broken bone? Who will get in their first fight? Things like this.

And then I ran across this video:


Hopefully, our kids will recycle my stories like this. I would be interested to see what really happened. I especially liked the dubbing on this one. Enjoy!