25 Random Things

Before I decided that Facebook was a bad thing for me to use, my daughter asked me to complete this. I learned a bit about myself...

Not Quite 25 Random Things About Me

Rules:

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1.) I am very proud of my daughter Rhianna. She's incredibly smart, and talented, funny, and beautiful. She amazes me everyday! (and this will probably embarrass her)

2.) I have permanent nerve damage in my left arm because of my bunk neck. The most irritating thing about this is that I play my guitars like a beginner (again). That bothers me a lot. Every now and then I have to remind myself that I avoided a wheelchair. I have similar damage to my left leg due to lower back issues... I trip a lot.

3.) I have never really understood "hate", and I have no patience for the narrow-minded pinheads that get caught up in the whole us/them, I'm right and you're wrong dynamic. There are always at least six sides to every argument, and if you can't acknowledge that the other person might possibly have a valid point you should go sit in the corner until you can behave rationally. This applies to most Republicans... and Democrats, Christians, Muslims, Hebrews... you get the idea.

4.) I have three cats that have absolutely nothing in common except for being cats. I have a laundry cat, a kitchen cat, and a bathroom cat. The laundry cat has since moved to the bedroom, and the bathroom cat has passed away. I now have a lap-cat, which makes it very difficult to get things done.

5.) People look at me funny when I start a sentence with, "One of my ex-wives..."

6.) I firmly believe that NOT choosing is a choice.

7.) When I first started working with Developmentally Disabled Adults, I felt that I had to justify what I did because I made so little money. Then I noticed that a lot of people apologized for what they did because they felt their profession wasn't as meaningful. Eventually I figured out that as long as you're happy, it doesn't really matter what you do for a living. Unless you are really self-centered, you will have a positive impact on the people around you.

8.) If you can't laugh, you probably need to go the bathroom. Everyone needs a sense of humor.

9.) Someone once said, "A good book is like an old friend." He was very wise. I would rather read, or re-read a good book than watch TV... of course I need to eat while I do it.

10.) I have wanted a sailboat since my parents got their first sailboat, the Jabberwocky in the early 90s. After my first divorce I started budgeting for a 27 foot boat; we spent that money fixing up and selling my second wife's house. We then agreed that we would put her through graduate school, after which I could get a sailboat. Well, she went to graduate school anyway. I 'd still like a sailboat, but other things have become more important.

11.) I am deathly afraid of heights! It doesn't matter if it's an airplane, ladder, or roof of my house... I can't do it. Despite that, I took a running jump off a boathouse roof, and I have flown in an airplane seven times; it wasn't at all fun.

12.) I have had some sort of webpage since the late 90s. My first site, The Cavymage Pages was my opinions on socio-political things. My second, and current site at www.frogdrool.blogspot.com/ is mostly devoted to humorous emails I've received, plus a little bit about me or my family.

13.) I am a wallflower. Being the center of attention, introducing myself to strangers, making friends, or even asking for help is very difficult for me.

14.) I absolutely can't stand hurting people's feelings. This is almost funny, or maybe very sad, when you consider I have been in supervisory positions for over twenty years. I have probably terminated more employees than all of my immediate coworkers combined. I will say that I am very protective of the people who work for me, but sometimes they just have to go.

15.) My favorite analogy is that, "People are like swiss cheese. Their holes, their skills and abilities, their shortcomings, faults and blind spots are of varying sizes, and differing locations."

16.) I have treated some very good people badly. I don't know how to fix that... I'm very, VERY sorry.

17.) After having several girlfriends and wives, I can safely say that having compatible beliefs is essential for a successful relationship. Arguing about politics and religion is great among friends, but not with someone you live with. The same can be said about temperment; boring people and exciting people don't do well together. I'm pretty boring, and excitement gives me ulcers.

18.) I met retired Brigadier General Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay. He dropped the atom bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan on August 5, 1945. He believed that he did the right thing given the circumstances.

19.) I was a member of the Communist (Trotskyist) club my freshman year of college.

20.) I taught a small child to sing to her potatoes before eating them. I also taught her to spit and play darts... and I taught my cousin's daughter to pick her nose. Eventually, children learned to check with their mothers before acting on anything I told them.

21.) A nerve conduction study (EMG) was the most painful thing I had ever experienced... until I had a balloon catheter removed. During an EMG they hook you up to a bunch of electrodes, and administer electric shocks while listening to your nerves scream. After an hour of shocks, they start poking you with long and rather thick needles, and they wiggle and twist them while they're embedded in your muscles. Do I really have to explain about catheters?

22.) Although I never tell him, my Dad is my hero. He compares favorably to DaVinci in every way... and maybe beats him out in a few areas. Go Dad!

23.) I don't believe there is such a thing as equity in real life.

24.) I value integrity above any other character trait, and am painfully aware of every time I haven't measured up. I don't think I will discuss my shortcomings here. I would prefer it if my family doesn't discuss them either.

25.) There are some people that for one reason or another, you are tied to for the rest of your life. For me, these include: my daughter, Rhianna the reasons for whom I think are self-explanatory; my third and best wife, Shannon for whom I would do anything; Shannon's mini-man, my son Tim who reminds me of the importance of humor on a daily basis; Shannon's daughter, Amber whom I would be proud to call my own if she'd let me; my former stepdaughter, Branwen who has my sense of humor; an one-time almost stepdaughter, Madeline who believed I would always be there to save her; two of my clients, Brian and Melissa with whom I spent 9/11 at a Creative Options conference; a former client, another Brian whose eulogy his parents asked me to give during his memorial service; and then there are those people who have caused me incredible amounts of pain... I 'm tied to them, and they probably know who they are, but I don't think I'll go there... sometimes remembered pain is as awful as when it first occurred.

Risk Attitudes Profile

Risk Attitude Index: Low

Risk Attitudes Profiler

Toiler

PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT

People of this type, engaged in their customary productive work, do not think about its "higher sense", and proceed from purely pragmatic personal needs - for themselves and their families. Characteristically, they are farmers and laborers, owners of small businesses, minor municipal or government employees and bank clerks, teachers - and pensioners.

Their claims are modest, they do not expect great riches through their career, or greatness or glory. They want a reliable basis for their current material and social status, and hope that they will gradually move up the social and financial ladder. Success in the lives of such people is conditioned on hard work as well as on individual ability. The more able ones can succeed better in their chosen career if circumstances are favorable, but they can easily lose their position when competing with more psychologically motivated persons.

This type of person is not politically ambitious, and is unconcerned with politics in general. He needs to be able to rely on the government only to preserve the current order also in the future. In all other things he wants to be independent of the state while at the same time remaining a part of it. During elections he tends to vote like the majority, leaning towards conservative leaders. Even if he has his own point of view on any issue, he dares not oppose it to the "general opinion", being afraid to lose a feeling of solidarity with the majority. During great social upheavals he tends to congregate with crowds of like-minded people which makes him feel part of a large strong body and relieves him of the burden of responsibility for his opinions. In general this type of person is an individualist in his personal life and collectivist in his social life. He is against any radical changes in the state and in society and reacts negatively to all those who like changes in their country. He is not interested in foreign affairs except in the catastrophes and natural calamities happening there.

For this type of person, only the present time and the place where he lives are real. To him the future seems the same as present and he wants to make it as secure as the present. In his mind, the past is always tinted in rosy idyllic tones and is not important. This type of person prefers a traditional rhythmic way of life. However, psychologically and physiologically, his needs for the occasional thrill and sense of danger is satisfied during the inevitable difficulties of living and also in sports competitions while rooting for his favorite team. This type of person looks upon sudden and significant changes for the worse in his life as irreparable catastrophes to which he adapts badly, and which may even cause him to become ill.

This type of person usually has a narrow circle of friends, formed long ago, to whom he is tied by special occasions enjoyed together and by mutual help. He tends to spend his free time quietly - working in his garden, or taking his family on vacations to holiday hotels or on well-organized tours. When he watches TV he chooses light entertainment programs and sports competitions. Some persons of this type like to attend sports events in stadiums where, together with large crowds, they find an outlet for their emotions. He spends his leisure time in various ways. He may have a serious hobby or he may be a "Jack of all trades" who enjoys making home and garden improvements.

His attitude towards the opposite sex is appropriate to the different stages of his life, and in the majority of cases he will have good partner relations in all aspects with his spouse - sexual, family and economic. Food preferences are individual but not sophisticated, and within the framework of customary meals.

Persons of this type will, in general, live within the bounds of their abilities and powers. If they are successful, they will cautiously increase the level of their expectations. If they fail, they must learn to face adversity with more courage, planning their future better and remembering that it often brings changes for the better. Generally, such people are conservative and conforming. Though each single one does not have much chance to stand out from the common mass of the population, together they form the body of the nation, making for stability.

Risk Attitudes Profiler

Rational

PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT

You are a steady and rational person. You can define goals precisely, distinguishing between what you really need and what you can easily do without. You are able to learn from previous experience. You feel and value the present and think seriously about the future. You take your projects seriously, evaluating carefully their importance to you as well as the feasibility of their implementation.

You are capable and disposed to evaluate soberly your possibilities within the context of various circumstances. You consider the consequences of your actions. You have the courage to make a decision but also, when necessary, to reject it. Having made a decision you don't hesitate, but carry it out energetically. You are cautious but not shy. In trying to reach your goal you are capable of overcoming many obstacles and difficulties. At the same time, you can evaluate the importance of this goal to you and your potential for achieving it, as well as your possible gains and losses. The moral aspect of any affair is of great significance to you. You are, first of all, preoccupied with solving your own psychological problems and only afterwards with objective external ones.

You are socially active. You have your own opinion on many social and political issues, but don't like to thrust it on others. You are open-minded but don't like extremism or aggressiveness. You easily become friends with people who make a good impression on you and you have many friends to whom you gladly give whatever help you can without expecting compensation or profit.

A sense of self-dignity is intrinsic in you. You are aware of the limits of your abilities and are satisfied when you have exploited them to the fullest. You are not egotistical and do not need to prove your merits to others nor demonstrate superiority over them. You are not vain, and at times this leads to insufficient ambition.

Men of this personality type treat women with respect, being especially aware of their physical attributes. Women of this type prefer clever and spiritually attractive men. Your relationships with the opposite sex are based mainly on spiritual empathy.

You like to eat well but don't demand gourmet food. You prefer an active vacation - traveling to interesting places that are new to you.

Your nature is well-balanced between stability and safety on the one hand, and risk and daring on the other. You try to set yourself realistic goals but this limits the level of your expectations and the realization of your potential. You must force yourself to be more daring. Success will encourage you to aim at higher levels and to attain goals you previously never hoped for.

Men of this character type resemble Benjamin Franklin and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and women resemble Margaret Thatcher.

If I remember correctly, I got this off of humanetrics.com

My DVC Learning Styles Inventory

The results of your learning inventory are:
Visual/Nonverbal 32 Visual/Verbal 30 Auditory 20 Kinesthetic 26

Primary learning style is:
The Visual/ Nonverbal Learning Style

You learn best when information is presented visually and in a picture or design format. In a classroom setting, you benefit from instructors who use visual aids such as film, video, maps and charts. You benefit from information obtained from the pictures and diagrams in textbooks. You tend to like to work in a quiet room and may not like to work in study groups. When trying to remember something, you can often visualize a picture of it in your mind. You may have an artistic side that enjoys activities having to do with visual art and design.

Learning Strategies for the Visual/ Nonverbal Learner:
Make flashcards of key information that needs to be memorized. Draw symbols and pictures on the cards to facilitate recall. Use highlighter pens to highlight key words and pictures on the flashcards. Limit the amount of information per card, so your mind can take a mental "picture' of the information.
Mark up the margins of your textbook with key words, symbols, and diagrams that help you remember the text. Use highlighter pens of contrasting colors to "color code" the information. When learning mathematical or technical information, make charts to organize the information. When a mathematical problem involves a sequence of steps, draw a series of boxes, each containing the appropriate bit of information in sequence.
Use large square graph paper to assist in creating charts and diagrams that illustrate key concepts.
Use the computer to assist in organizing material that needs to be memorized. Using word processing, create tables and charts with graphics that help you to understand and retain course material. Use spreadsheet and database software to further organize material that needs to be learned.
As much as possible, translate words and ideas into symbols, pictures, and diagrams.

Myers-Briggs Personality Profile

INTP

Introverted: 78%
Intuitive: 75%
Thinking: 50%
Perceiving: 11%

Qualitative analysis of your type formula

I am:
• very expressed introvert
• distinctively expressed intuitive personality
• moderately expressed thinking personality
• slightly expressed perceiving personality


The Portrait of the Architect Rational (iNTp)

(Copyrighted © 1996-2005 Prometheus Nemesis Book Company)

Of the four aspects of strategic analysis and definition, it is the structural engineering role -- architechtonics -- that reaches the highest development in these Rationals, and it is for this reason they are aptly called the "Architects." Their major interest is in figuring out structure, build, configuration -- the spatiality of things.
As the engineering capabilities the Architects increase so does their desire to let others know about whatever has come of their engineering efforts. So they tend to take up an informative role in their social exchanges. On the other hand they have less and less desire, if they ever had any, to direct the activities of others. Only when forced to by circumstance do they allow themselves to take charge of activities, and they exit the role as soon as they can without injuring the enterprise.
The Architects' distant goal is always to rearrange the environment somehow, to shape, to construct, to devise, whether it be buildings, institutions, enterprises, or theories. They look upon the world -- natural and civil -- as little more than raw material to be reshaped according to their design, as a formless stone for their hammer and chisel. Ayn Rand, master of the Rational character, describes this characteristic in the architect Howard Roark, her protagonist in The Fountainhead:
He was looking at the granite. He did not laugh as his eyes stopped in awareness of the earth around him. His face was like a law of nature-a thing one could not question, alter or implore. It had high cheekbones over gaunt, hollow cheeks; gray eyes, cold and steady; a contemptuous mouth, shut tight, the mouth of an executioner or a saint. He looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He looked at a tree. To be split and made into rafters. He looked at a streak of rust on the stone and thought of iron ore under the ground. To be melted and to emerge as girders against the sky. These rocks, he thought, are here for me; waiting for the drill, the dynamite and my voice; waiting to be split, ripped, pounded, reborn, waiting for the shape my hands will give to them. [The Fountainhead, pp 15-16]
Many regard this attitude as arrogant, and Architects are likely, especially in their later years, after finding out that most others are faking an understanding of the laws of nature, to think of themselves as the prime movers who must pit themselves against nature and society in an endless struggle to define ends clearly and adopt whatever means that promise success. If this is arrogance, then at least it is not vanity, and without question it has driven the design engineers to take the lead in molding the structure of civilization.
Albert Einstein as the iconic Rational is an Architect
Thomas Jefferson and Robert Rosen are examples of the Architect Rationals

Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
by Joe Butt
Profile: INTP
Revision: 3.0
Date of Revision: 27 Feb 2005

INTPs are pensive, analytical folks. They may venture so deeply into thought as to seem detached, and often actually are oblivious to the world around them.
Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off. While annoying to the less concise, this fine discrimination ability gives INTPs so inclined a natural advantage as, for example, grammarians and linguists.
INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to almost anything until their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and inflexible. They prefer to return, however, to a reserved albeit benign ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves.
A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They spend considerable time second-guessing themselves. The open-endedness (from Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a sense that one's conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked some critical bit of data. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition. In this way INTPs are markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their competence and willing to act on their convictions.
Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play, similarly languages, computer systems--potentially any complex system. INTPs thrive on systems. Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can overtake the INTP's conscious thought. This fascination for logical wholes and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli are held at bay. Accomplishing a task or goal with this knowledge is secondary.
INTPs and Logic -- One of the tipoffs that a person is an INTP is her obsession with logical correctness. Errors are not often due to poor logic -- apparent faux pas in reasoning are usually a result of overlooking details or of incorrect context.
Games NTs seem to especially enjoy include Risk, Bridge, Stratego, Chess, Go, and word games of all sorts. (I have an ENTP friend that loves Boggle and its variations. We've been known to sit in public places and pick a word off a menu or mayonnaise jar to see who can make the most words from its letters on a napkin in two minutes.) The INTP mailing list has enjoyed a round of Metaphore, virtual volleyball, and a few 'finish the series' brain teasers.
INTPs in the main are not clannish. The INTP mailing list, with a readership now in triple figures, was in its incipience fraught with all the difficulties of the Panama canal: we had trouble deciding on:
1) whether or not there should be such a group,
2) exactly what such a group should be called, and
3) which of us would have to take the responsibility for organization and maintenance of the aforesaid group/club/whatever.

A Functional Analysis -- by Joe Butt
Introverted Thinking
Introverted Thinking strives to extract the essence of the Idea from various externals that express it. In the extreme, this conceptual essence wants no form or substance to verify its reality. Knowing the Truth is enough for INTPs; the knowledge that this truth can (or could) be demonstrated is sufficient to satisfy the knower. "Cogito, ergo sum" expresses this prime directive quite succinctly.
In seasons of low energy level, or moments of single-minded concentration, the INTP is aloof and detached in a way that might even offend more relational or extraverted individuals.
Extraverted iNtuition
Intuition softens and socializes Thinking, fleshing out the brittle bones of truths formed in the dominant inner world. That which is is not negotiable; yet actual application diffuses knowledge to the extent that knowledge needs qualification and context to be of any consequence in this foreign world of substance.
If Thinking can desist, the INTP is free to brainstorm, calling up the perceptions of the unconscious (i.e., intuition) which are mirrored in patterns in the realm of matter, time and space. These perceptions, in the form of theories or hunches, must ultimately defer to the inner principles, or at least they must not negate them.
Intuition unchained gives birth to play. INTPs enjoy games, formal or impromptu, which coax analogies, patterns and theories from the unseen into spontaneous expression in a way that defies their own comprehension.
Introverted Sensing
Sensing is of a subjective, inner nature similar to that of the SJs. It supplies awareness of the forms of senses rather than the raw, analogic stimuli. Facts and figures seek to be cleaned up for comparison with an ever growing range of previously experienced input. Sensing assists intuition in sorting out and arranging information into the building blocks for Thinking's elaborate systems.
The internalizing nature of the INTP's Sensing function leaves a relative absence of environmental awareness (i.e., Extraverted Sensing), except when the environment is the current focus. Consciousness of such conditions is at best a sometime thing.
Extraverted Feeling
Feeling tends to be all or none. When present, the INTP's concern for others is intense, albeit naive. In a crisis, this feeling judgement is often silenced by the emergence of Thinking, who rushes in to avert chaos and destruction. In the absence of a clear principle, however, INTPs have been known to defer judgement and to allow decisions about interpersonal matters to be left hanging lest someone be offended or somehow injured. INTPs are at risk of being swept away by the shadow in the form of their own strong emotional impulses.

Famous INTPs:
Socrates
Rene Descartes
Blaise Pascal
Sir Isaac Newton
U.S. Presidents:
James Madison
John Quincy Adams
John Tyler
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gerald Ford
William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of Psychological Types, etc.)
William James
Albert Einstein
Tom Foley (Speaker of the House--U.S. House of Representatives)
Henri Mancini
Bob Newhart
Jeff Bingaman, U.S. Senator (D.--NM)
Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids)
Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist)
Tiger Woods
Fictional INTPs
Tom and Fiona (Four Weddings and a Funeral)
Dr. Susan Lewis (ER)
Filburt (Rocko's Modern Life)

Copyright © 1996-2007 Joe Butt

I pulled this off of humanetrics.com