A night for analysis (my brain is fried)

Over at BitterGrace Notes, the blog is subjected to Typealyzer (that's not a typo) and GenderAnalyzer. I haven't been up to writing, reading or doing much of anything today, so I, too, merely typed in my blog's url into these site's boxes and let their mysterious analyzers work their magic. This blog appears to be written by a woman (63% certainty) and by an "Entertainer", Myers-Briggs personality type ESFP:

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Moi? The bad drawing of a woman leaning against a bar with a bubbly drink in her hand didn't do much to help me see how I just might have some of these characteristics.

Then, I strolled over to Monkey Mind, where, lo and behold, I thought he'd subjected his blog to the same analyzer. But no, he took the Enneagram Test.

Still, it was an odd coincidence. Of course, I had to take this test, too, but it's much more involved than simply typing in my url. I had to answer 108 questions.

The results?

Main Type	Overall Self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

A potential tyrant? I suppose it's possible. I have no idea what the second box means, and so, I took yet another test. Yes, this is exactly the kind of nonsense I engage in when my eyes hurt, my head aches, and I should be asleep. But no, I went ahead and took the Jung Preference Exploration text, which is even longer.

I tried to post the results of this test, but it's html causes my entire blog to rearrange itself. Not good. What were the results, now that I've wasted almost an hour trying to correct the coding problem (and failing)? I am a "persuader", who wishes she could be a persuader, and is attracted to peruaders. But wait - I had to take the same test on a different site, so I could find out what my four letter analysis was (because I'd forgotten it in the space of about two minutes), but it had slightly different questions and told me I am a "strategist" (INTJ). I looked up their definition of a persuader and those four letters didn't look familiar. I comtemplated taking the other test again, all 140-odd questions of it.Oh dear, it's now two in the morning! Have I lost my mind? This is the kind of web activity that can be a problem.

I think I should go to sleep now, don't you?

Image note: An "official" Rorschach test. What do you see? Leave your comments. If I get at least three responses, I'll tell you my mine (in all its ridiculous detail).

Addendum: And now I find out that TMC's done a quiz tonight, too. I'm afraid to look at any more blogs. This is the sort of synchronicity that makes me think astrology isn't a crock. I have enough trouble with reality as it is. I can't start thinking about the possibility of unproveable things. Next thing you know, I might start thinking I've been abducted by aliens, implanted with probes, and am sending signals back to the mothership for real analysis.

Addendum II: It's now 3:03am. I took the How British are You quiz (45%, just like Over-Thinker). After seeing the results of that illuminating quiz, I took the "What Tattoo Should You Get?" quiz, and the answer was "The all over your body kind!" I've already got that. I was rather expecting the answer to be "A tattoo? Not for you!."

Addendum III: Obviously, I'm aiming on feeling awful tomorrow. It's 3:19 and I keep taking these stupid quizzes. Who writes these things? Evidentally, I should live in Barcelona but my "inner European" is Dutch.

Addendum IV: I had to take that test again. I misread them the first (or was it second?) time round, and didn't see that my results created a "tie", where I could be either a ENTJ ("Field Marshall". The basic driving force and need is to lead. Tend to seek a position of responsibility and enjoys being an executive. 1.8% of total population) or a ENFJ ("Persuader". Outstanding leader of groups. Can be aggressive at helping others to be the best that they can be. 2.5% of total population). Sheesh, you'd think I'd be rich and successful, considering these results. Grrr.

PS.I don't blame you if you've forgotten about the ink blot test. Now, what do you see?

PPS. As I'm supposed to be a persuader, a tyrant or a field marshall, I suggest not only leaving a comment about the inkblot, but taking this test.Karmadillo did. `

File under "wow"

Buddhist monks from Thailand's Sisaket collected a million bottles to build the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple. See more photos and read about it here.

Ten reasons why I'm probably a nerd

1. I watch the Big Bang Theory. I thought "Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock" was funny, even if I didn't get Sheldon's reasoning, but I'm not a theorectical physicist. Note: After I just watched the clip (with it's overly loud laugh track), I actually get it.

2. I went to one of the first Star Trek Conventions. I always thought I went to the first one, but after a quick google search, I apologize for my ignorance. That convention was at the Hilton Hotel in New York City, where a bunch of my friends and I rented a room. I don't remember us being die-hard Trekkies, but it was more of a science fiction convention, and besides, it was an opportunity to rent a hotel room in the city.

Sadly, this is my biggest memory of the convention: I was walking in the lobby of the hotel, smoking a cigarette (yes, you could smoke inside then). A man passed me, and as he did, he said, "Don't you know smoking is bad for your health?" I said, "Oh, f*ck off, old man." Then I realized he was Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov! He was one of my heroes! I may have been a nerd, but I was also a rebellious jerk teenager. I also had no idea how to employ snappy comeback lines. If I was going to be a jerk, I wish I had been more clever.

3. I wish there were more science fiction movies. Also, I wish there were more well-written science fiction books.

4. I read the New Yorker mainly for their science articles and wish there was a magazine devoted to science writing for the jargon-impaired.

5. I was fascinated with cryptology when I was a kid and actually fantacized about working for the CIA (or whoever hired cryptologists), but my family's politics made me think that I'd never pass the background check and that the CIA was probably evil. Early interest in codes is a dead giveaway for nerdism.

6. I love Scrabble. One of my favorite books is "Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players."

7. I like British (aka cryptic) crossword puzzles. What I like even more is to make my own, and one of the "100 things I'd like to do before I die" is get a crossword puzzles published in the New York Times. Somehow, I think this is not going to happen, but one can always dream.

8. Buying the Oxford English Dictionary was one of the most happy moments in my life. I love reading it. Unfortunately, it's too heavy and using that magnifying glass drives me crazy. I wish I had it on DVD, but it's three hundred bucks, and besides, I hear people have complained it doesn't run well on their computers.

9. I am one of those annoying people who tell complete strangers, in the course of conversation, what the origins of an interesting word is or how some idiomatic expression came to be. I also inquire of others, "Did you know that __________?" about obscure factoids, when they probably neither know nor care.

10. I would be lost without the interlibrary loan service.

Bonus: I have a crush on Dr. Reid on Criminal Minds, but I suspect that even non-nerds do. He was a model once (which disappoints me greatly).

Photo note: And, I have a soft spot for "GI Joel" Sherman, a professional Scrabble player and prototypical New York-style nerd. While googling his name, I discovered there is a documentary about called "Scrabylon". Why didn't I know this? I'm going to see if it's on Netflix right now.