Psychic personality test?

A blogger described herself with an enneagram number. I'd never heard of it...and down the rabbit hole I went.

In my immersive journalism pretentions, not only did I look it up, but took one of them. (I was bored). I was not concerned about any data they could use, took precautions and looked for a free test with free results.

It's a personality test, allegedly used by companies to hire people or blah blah blah. The test claims to have been put together by psychologists. Two hundred questions, very basic preferences; "when there's a deadline do you prefer perfectionism to team work" or "do you like helping others" etc.

Half way through, I realized that it was biased self reporting with some questions that offered no possibility to answer accurately.

The made up example that I'll use:

When you drink Acai berry juice, do you prefer it sweet or tart?

I've never had Acai berry juice.

No option to skip it or choose not applicable because it it was a strongly agree/disagree/sometimes response.

Poorly designed unscientific questionnaire. Then I got a number for my personality and the free result printout would be 99 dollars for a limited time.

Looked it up elsewhere. Basically the same grift as psychics. It told me what I already knew because I had told it what I already knew about myself. The rest was wrong.

Psychics do the same. Everytime I watched van Praagh, (he's been debunked), it's mostly cold readings. But he comforts his subjects, so I can understand the appeal.

Ah well.

Where I recently got confused, including this type of test, is the redefinition of introvert vs. extrovert. I think it's a label that limits and doesn't take into consideration that people change over time.

The test wasn't clear on work vs leisure. The behavior is quite different in each scenario. It also kept guiding the subject into either/or answers.

Not an insightful or useful test.

Cake as metaphor

 

I've returned to a world I do not recognize. There were several posts meant to describe how serious our global situation is and that without understanding it, we can't make necessary changes.

What's the use or the point?

I'm still dealing with long covsshh. After an appointment, I needed to pick up a few things; the only place in the vicinity an overpriced health food store, but I simply did not have the energy to get to and through the regular kind.

While looking for a few staples I'm starting to ignore the new vegan cold cuts and new choices that aren't. BUT. It was quiet. I could spend time reading labels and fine print. No hassle and bustle. Friendly customers, when I almost collided with another shopping cart, laughter about the right of way. No eye rolling or impatience. A father who was calm, while his little toddler girl was talking to yoghurt, instead of throwing a tantrum. No weirdos in the store. I spent a little extra time there because it was civilized. Normal.

The idea of cake as metaphor happened on my walk home. Imagine that the goal of global interaction is a perfect cake. Nuts and ingredients are perfectly distributed throughout. Every ingredient comes together to create a delicious whole. Every country gets an equal piece at the end, at which one is satiated and satisfied because it hit the spot perfectly.

Obviously, perfection doesn't exist.

How many of us need to be taught to stop eating cake batter as immature children? It requires an adult often an exasperated mother to come up with giving us a little bowl with batter in it. Or watching like hawks so we don't pull the cooling cake off the rack. If the cake is destroyed somehow, we start all over. With the same ingredients or new additions. Sometimes there's a natural disaster; the oven burnt it. Mistakes were made. And yet we continue to bake cakes. If a recipe doesn't work out, we find a new one just to keep baking cakes.

Global diplomacy is the same. Since the late 40s we've tried to get a great cake made. Treaties, tireless diplomacy, accepting lesser ingredients just to end up with a cake. Incremental because some want to eat the whole thing, others want the biggest slice. Some don't even want to contribute baking soda. Others contribute baking powder instead. Then real Vanilla is replaced with the synthetic kind. A neighbor refuses to give you a cup of flour. Someone picks out all the raisins and so on. The recipe keeps changing.

We ended up with a mess. Eventually, I hope, we'll get back to baking.

Aging is a state of mind

 

In my thirties, I decided that I was never going to "act" like a senior once I became one. Obviously, physical constraints permitting, I was not going to age gracefully. When there was a trend of forty is the new thirty, I thought that we are heading in the right direction. I am not a senior but it has been a long time since I have done something like sledding or snowball fighting with other adults. I am a goofball at home, but when did everyone get so serious? The last time I went impromptu sledding was when someone borrowed food trays from a cafeteria and down a hill we went. We were all laughing so hard, steering was optional.

I came across this video recently of two Canadian women trying out all winter Olympic sports with a good dose of humor.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LtwjMsJoOZc

When did life get so serious that one forgets to have that type of stress-relieving fun?

Netiquette on this blog

 This blog follows netiquette. Until I can phrase it myself. Here are some guidelines. I'm not a stickler on grammar, but will be strict on not permitting certain comments. They will be moderated. People have been pretty good on this blog, not so much on others. Respect eachother, communicate and/or discuss.

Obviously, repeat commenting is fine especially if one forgets to add something or within a conversation.

Not discussing politicians on this blog remains in place.

Clarifying will become especially important as AI is replacing our voices and words. 

I'm keeping this group small so that I can always comment back.

Added: Please note if you consider the mutual sharing of knowledgeable information, fact or opinion on art, literature and science as "condescending", this blog will not appeal to you.

Moments

 

I am calm by nature and calmed by it. In situations where there is nothing I can do about it I've never understood why people get aggravated. Traffic is one of them. Once it's clear that one is stuck in it, I have a good collection of music and sing myself through it.

In fact, I stopped car sharing because certain colleagues would bang on steering wheels, swearing. We won't get there any faster.

It snowed again. I stepped out to see if I was up for a walk. The sun was shining, it was beautiful. A person with issues was talking to me. I'm in a good mood, but was not in the mood for conversation. He was doing this to everyone who walked by. I decided to wait. By the time he was gone so was the sun.

A few hours later I stepped outside again. There was a little snow, about a foot, it was still coming down and it was so pretty that I simply took in this moment. Snowflakes reflecting lights. Fresh snow without tire marks. Calm and not windy. In the past I would have put on my snowboots and gone for an invigorating stomp.

Still dealing with long covsssh, so I enjoyed the moment. A father with his teenage daughters was walking by wanting to take a pic because it was so pretty. I hate snow one complained. This is sh..t the other agreed. Just enjoy it I thought. These moments are few and not that small.

Darwin had a bad day. Repeatedly.

 It took Darwin fifty years to think about the and publish the Origin of species. (1859). This is making the rounds in the science community.

Valentines, creativity and caring

 

Valentines is around the corner and to say I dislike it is an understatement. It is the least creative holiday and since I have a preference for certain colors and not others, the whole red and pink color scheme irritates me.

It also feels as if it's the one holiday we're marketing and design departments updated nothing in a century. The same trite be mine. Candy that tastes like baking soda and sugar in shades of pastel pink. Every year it looks the same as if there is some giant warehouse that carries decades old stock.

The whole concept is forced romance to me and since adolescence is already a confusing time listening to repetitive stories of romantic getaways with dinner and rose petals wasn't my idea of love.

At some point caring about friends became part of valentines and socially acceptable. One of my friends had gone through a bad breakup and no matter how I tried I couldn't get him to go out. Until valentines. It took me three hours until I convinced him. We'll go celebrate our friendship you can be depressed afterwards, I promised. I took him to a great place. we ate and by dessert and coffee he was happy. A great meal can do wonders even if it's just one evening.

Among my friends we did surprise care packages when someone was going through a rough time. A few years ago I walked by a high-school pre-final exams that had countless posters all over with Cheer messages on them. You can do this addressed to specific students. How neat.

Several years ago, on Pinterest I think, the trend of very creative cheer clothespins appeared. You surprise pin them on a backpack with words of encouragement. The creative trend of caring continues.

If kids and teens can figure out what people need and how to care about eachother, why can't adults?