How Much Closer are We?

How much closer are we to going in to Iran before "you-know-who" vacates the White House? I am getting the feeling that it is much closer than any of us would like. Mother Jones has put together an interesting group of people to answer questions regarding this issue. An Israeli intel correspondent, an Iranian American activist, an arms expert, a former peace negotiator, and an anti-war intellectual. You can post questions, it is a blogging type situation, and then they will discuss it among themselves and the readers.

Check it out and see what you think.

New Ink

This is not my arm, but it is the same tattoo that I just got on my right arm yesterday. He changed up the flower colors a bit and made them brighter, but basically the same. I loved that it was silly and made me laugh.

Got Junk?

Newsweek magazine has an article about what our junk reveals about us. Our clutter, the crap we have piled on our desks and the type of crap that we save or have just not thrown out. Sam Gosling, a psychology professor, has written a book; "Snoop: What Your Stuff says about You".

He says that the things that people have, and keep, can tell you more about them than face-to-face meetings. This stuff serves as the "non-verbal" cues to who and what we are that is not so apparent to the rest of the world.

He uses his study of the Greek way of defining the personality types and even the Myers-Briggs testing styles to come up with the style that he uses to help you equate people based on their junk. He has five areas that he uses; openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neurotic ism. OCEAN for short. How we organize our spaces decides where we fall into each of these areas. Messy people tend to score high for extroversion, but low in conscientiousness, while people with generic or un-decorated bedrooms and office spaces will tend to fall high in conscientiousness, but low in openness.

If this book is inexpensive I think I might pick it up for fun. I would like to take a walk through my spaces and see where it puts me and how closely it is. Years ago I took the Myers-Briggs assessment, for one of those group building/dynamics courses. Trying to get us all to see how to work more effectively with the other "types" in the mix. I came out as an extrovert-sensor-feeling-preceptor. I don't know if any of you have ever taken that assessment, but it is a somewhat lengthy test and then you do find out some intuitive things about yourself and it was quite accurate to my style, especially in the work and group areas. I did see that they also have an easier/user friendly version on the Internet if any of you want to check it out and see where you fall. I am "classified" as the Joker and it does truly fit my work style and life.

As I have gotten older I find that the people that I am most drawn to also seem to have the same home style and types of junk that I do. It must be that we are drawn to those that are most like ourselves. One of my favorite quotes that I keep posted on my fridge is, "Clutter is a sign of life being lived".

And so I live on.

....but I Prefer Black.

Your Mind is Blue

Of all the mind types, yours is the most mellow. You tend to be in a meditative state most of the time. You don't try to think away your troubles. Your thoughts are realistic, fresh, and honest. You truly see things as how they are. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about your friends, your surroundings, and your life.

What Color Is Your Mind?

Like a Vacation

Seems as if I have been on a vacation. I have been eating all the time; cooking out steak, burgers & dogs. Wine of the white & red varieties. Cheesecake. Lots and lots of corn-on-the-cob dripping in butter. Night fires in the pit and late nights. No, not a vacation, but rather John has been home for three weeks!

He left this morning for another tour in Australia. Another new town and a company that has never had one of these machines before, so we expect a 3 week or more trip.

I told him that I was almost glad that he was leaving because all I have done since he has been home is eat. I think I only ran twice and worked out a handful of times. This has really been like a relaxing vacation! It seemed as if we both hung out around the house and got some much needed tasks accomplished as well as watching a little junk TV. We hung out in the yard often and threw enough tennis balls for the dog to feel like we were pitching in the majors!! When she got tired of that we opted for a Frisbee.

We drank coffee outside in the morning and watched the birds come to the feeder. Drank wine and beer outside, at night, and either had a fire where we would take turns poking it, or on the porch under the dim summer lighting that I put up.

It was the most relaxed that I have been in weeks. I have had no interest in politics at all and could care less about the election right now. I have barely looked at the news aside from a little Internet news. Part of my good state of mind is possibly due to cutting out all the negative crap that is out there on a daily basis. I have thought about blogging, but just did not think of anything important to say.

Then it dawned on me...I don't really have to always be timely and pertinent. I don't always have to be engaged in some big discussion or argument about about world events or things that piss me off. Life is too short to always be either angry or blaming someone. It is about the good things, family, friends, a good dog, a nice fire to poke and a bottle of your favorite red or white.