Myers-Briggs Personality Test

When a Facebook friend recently commented on herself, "Some days even I question my sanity!!!!", I'm thinking "maybe".  Just a little humor there because if anything Mandy sometimes fails at filtering how she says thing which I find endearing as long as I'm out of ricochet range.

So, I'm sitting here trying to describe my recent visit to my mom who's in a hospice.  It's more difficult than I thought to put those three days of confusion and contradictions into words.  Anytime I can't find the words its a big clue that I'm neither comfortable with the words I want to use nor with what I'm trying to say.

This lead me to recall a few of us in the office a taking a personality test, the goal being to solidify team building by learning other's reaction to different office situations.  Four of us shared the results with others.

Me?

Michael values close, personal relationships, and he will often put the needs and desires of those who are loyal friends ahead of his own needs. He is an even-paced individual who thrives in a peaceful, harmonious environment. Michael will work to avoid conflict and sudden changes in his lifestyle and finds joy in keeping tradition.  Systematic and detailed, Michael focuses on the process. Others see him as practical and logical. He tends to be sensitive to criticism, but prefers to internalize his emotions rather than expose them. Michael likes to clarify expectations before undertaking new projects, because he works hard to meet the standards  that are set for him.

Michael would prefer things stay the same, rather than to risk a new venture (unless it is proven and true) . He is typically peaceful and low key, and is usually seen by those around him as a good friend and listener. He tends to adopt a "wait and see" attitude about things, rather than taking charge of a situation, usually preferring to let others take the lead.

Michael usually avoids being the center of attention. He tends to pick his friends carefully and is usually cautious and not overly "open" to strangers. Michael may sometimes come across as being skeptical of what others tell him they will do, but once a person has proven their reliability, Michael is willing to invest more time and trust in the relationship.

Let's see if now I can describe my Iowa visit to say my final goodbye to mom.  Its more confusing than sad since we've learned she won't be leaving us in the foreseeable future.

Weekend

Grumpy Old Man Seeks Ann-Margret

Perhaps not grumpy yet, but there have been moments.  And, my youthful thoughts of dedicating my retirement to wine and women in thongs just isn't working out.  Not having a job is affecting me more than I imagined, though unemployed/under-employed is the nature of writing military technical manuals.  I've certainly enough interests (photography, music, motorcycle/bicycle, guns, bible study) to keep me busy, but the continuous motivation is difficult to maintain.

A recent discovery has helped.  It seems that several universities (Yale, Princeton, and others) and educational websites (TED) offer free entry level, college lectures and symposiums .  These have sparked my imagination and hopefully maintaining my mental agility above the level of bingo.

It's going ot be interesting to see how this plays out.

My Obituary

No, this isn't a cyber prediction of my impending demise, but rather an intellectual exercise on how I be remembered. What will my obituary say about my time on this earth?  What will others think on hearing of my passing?

Actually, this is a tool in a book on setting goals, which at 60 years old is pretty much limited to my admireable vices.  Still, its an interesting game defining the high points of my family, work, social, and spiritual life.

I'll play with this idea for a few days, and then let is pass without putting anything on paper, and it'll be an interesting exercise.  Who knows, I may find something important to devote my retirement to. 

It Has A Name; Collaberative Consumption

As so frequently happens when I post a video, my mind does hand springs about its content.  The following is just another example.  While I'm both intrigued and involved in this gal's economic ideas, there's a hidden agenda lurking in my mind to promote the ted.com website in general.

It was only after viewing this video that I realized the extent of the economic and sociological effects on us.  I've seen this so often lately, but never until now connected the dots.  Austin has the yellow bicycle program, Stephanie and one of her friends are sharing home schooling aids, there's website where I can loan/rent my power washer (guys know machines need to be used to stay in good condition), and the list goes on.

Most importantly, this post is a plug for ted.com, with its intelligent, articulate speakers talking on a variety of subjects for only a limited amount of time.

Forks in the Road

Decisions - these are what defines our lives and the lives of others whether we like it or not.  The year's end always brings thoughts of recent events which leads to lifes decisions in general.  What if?

Recovery/Repair Utility Rant

I've been fortunate to see our computer technology evolve into what we have today.  I got my TRS-80 Model 1 before there was an Apple; when Steve Jobs and the Woz were still sweeping up solder splash from their garage floor.

However, there's one area seriously lacking advancement.  That is in software repair programs. 

Let's start with my current problem and provided a catalyst for this rant.  My Outlook address book is toast.  Why isn't so much important as the dialogue box telling me the PST file is flawed and I need to run scanpst.exe.  My problem is if Outlook sees the corrupted file and knows how to fix it, why doesn't it just execute the file for me?  It makes probably thousands of other decisions without my input, so this should be a no-brainer.

Word Perfect word processing software is another example of inept recover/repair software.  Firstly, all of you knowing I'm a technical writer, I use either Microsoft Word or Word Perfect about equally.  Word Perfect has a problem with documents, say over 25 Megabytes, causing the data file to become corrupted and useless.  Of course Word Perfect sees this and reports such back to me and then automatically executes a program where I'm to send the details back to the home office.  Nice except the report never leaves my computer nor does the attempted repair ever work.

In my mind if a software company distributes a recovery/repair utility, it tells me two things.  The company is aware of a defect in its application software and it either can't or won't fix the cause of the corrupted data file.

Frequent backup copies of files are the only reliable safety net.