Myers-Briggs Typology Indicator

This is a professional grade personality test that grades you on sixteen different types of personalities. The first time I took this test was with the Army a few years back. I don't quite remember what I got then, but I think it hasn't changed much from the test now. I actually took it twice with some other online tests and got quite a range of results. However, when I took it with the school's version, I got the accurate result I feel I had recieved last time I took it.

MBTI Jung Typology-
HumanMetrics
SimilarMinds
TypeLogic

I got INTP - The Thinker (The Architect)
Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
DOes this fit me? I would think so, and most people who know me personally probably agree.
Defining INTP

Actually, depending on my mood, I can act extroverted, and in some circumstances, I will be an extrovert. But overall I tend to be into my own little world and oblivious to what is going on around me. Yeah, that's totally me.

In The Halloween Spirit

I mutilated a Pumpkin this week. Its been a while since I carved a pumpkin.

I had to plan out the pumpkin of course.

My sister's pumpkin is the 'cute' one.

Once I got the idea of what I wanted to do, I grabbed the knife and dove right in.

If you put anything that can be used as a weapon in my hand, I guess I get this happy look in my face.


This is the final product. Um, nothing too fancy. I've never been an artist at carving pumpkins.


The two pumpkins in the front were done by my niece and nephew. They are 3 and 4, and we thought maybe they were a bit young to be handling knives, so we gave paint brushes instead. There were faces on those pumpkins for a minute. . .

Friday Ferrets

I took my ferrets to their first visit to the vet today. They did fairly well for Ferrets, and they appear to be pretty healthy. They weren't to fond of the rabies shots however.

Since I already had them out of the house, I decided to take them to the pet store (I needed to pick up some things) and brought them along. Abby does not stay in her harness, and I found out that unless its on him prety tight, Blaine will slide out of his so I had myself an interesting situation where I kept Abby perched on my shoulder (which she does pretty good at for a while if you can keep an eye on her) and attempted to do some shopping.

I have decided for future endeavors that if I take a ferret out again, I'll only take one with me. Double trouble is just to much to handle in a public place.

Meanwhile, the easiest time to take pictures of the little furballs is if you wipe them out enough that they pass out. I've been leaving them out for longer periods lately.



Aren't they cute?



These guys have really grown on me.

Image Editing

So far my image editing class has been interesting. A lot of this stuff is repeat of things I already knew but I'm also reinforcing techniques and picking up on some stuff I didn't know. I've been enjoying the class immensely.

My first assingment I was given three black and white photos of butterflies and was told to put them into a collage in some manner. This was in essense a practice of the Marquee, Lasso and Magic Wand Tools. This is what I came up with.



Nothing fancy really, me mostly playing around and messing with the color.

The second project was reinforcing the ideas of the first, except for we had to find a full body image of a human either online or a picture of ourselves and at least five additions to it, whether it be articles of clothing, background or what not. I didn't feel like searching for an already made image, so I used myself. I mean, i have Photoshopped myself before. And then I looked for the strangest outfit I could find. It was really tough finding a pair of shoes that would work. But overall, I had a lot of fun.



I actually bought a hat like that in Bulgaria. More for the novelty of it then anything.

This week's assignment was a practice with the Gradient Tools and an enforcement of colors. We had to create a 'still life' using geometric shapes. Well, I wouldn't really call this a Still Life so much, more of me goofing around (which a lot of these assignments seem to be) and for a bit I was thinking that this wasn't going to work. And then I messed around with it a bit more and then discovered that I actually really liked it! I'm not much of a color person, I'm more into subtle tones, monochromatics and neutrals. This is bright and cheerful, and it looks sweet! I see one thing I should probably go back and fix but overall, cool!



I do one to two images a week like this, one major assignment for that week. The fact that I have prior experience with Photoshop (and a lot at that) has really helped, and so does the ownership of a Wacom Drawing Tablet. Don't do Graphic Arts without it!

Sports of Choice

I had another Dressage lesson today. This is going to be great for my butt when its all said and done. Now I do private lessons every Thursday, (and possibly going to do group lessons on non-drill Saturdays in Western Pleasure) and I think I'll be doing them into December, until Snowboarding proceeds to take up most of my time.

Speaking of which, the Ski Swap is this weekend. I'll be off to buy a helmet for the season, in case I faceplant into any more trees, or have any more mysterious Memory Loss Episodes.

Its been chilly lately, so I'm hoping it will be a kick butt winter season.

Meanwhile, I keep saying this but I need to just break down and do it. I have to start running! *bleh!* Only because my last PT test was way to close for comfort.

Movie Reviews

So, in the last few months, I've seen exactly one movie in the theaters.

Out of pure boredom, I also rented three.

Jet Li's Hero edit:Fearless was the movie of choice when I went out on a date a couple of weeks back. I won't go into details about the date (let's just say he was a nice guy, but I doubt there will be a repeat in the near future) and because there was nothing else that really perked our interest, we saw Fearless.

We didn't know it was subtitled. But I don't care, I still liked it! I think it was all the fancy effects and fight scenes. Pretty wicked!

Actually, I take that back. I've seen two movies in the theaters lately. Can't forget Open Season. Oh wait, yes I can.

Funny sight gags, but overall I thought the plot was a little lame. Did anybody forget that bears eat deer? And all of the other assortment of cute critters in the flick? And coming fresh out of a summer in Yellowstone, I kept thinking 'HAH! Yeah, like THAT would ever happen!' I don't know, if I see a movie that contradicts my own experiences (war movies are notorious) I tend to get annoyed by them. Although I do have to keep in mind that this is a cartoon about talking animals.

I doubt I'll ever get into watching Barnyard, for the very reason that a bunch of characters that are supposed to be Male Cows have Utters (and I have a problem with watching feminized male characters that aren't actually gay. If they are gay, I can laugh, if they are supposed to be straight, I'll cringe)

Tonight, out of the blue, I stopped at the local Hastings and picked up a few movies and watched them back to back to back while the Ferrets ran loose. (I've never let the ferrets run loose that long before).

Click was the first one I saw. I've kind of been wanting to see this movie for a while now because I like the premise behind it, a guy who has a universal remote of his life. Plus its an Adam Sandler flick and I'm easily amused and wanted a few laughs. However, I didn't expect to cry in an Adam Sandler movie, and I did on this one. I mean, I really liked this movie! I think I'll probably even buy it!

My Sister In Law really looks a lot like Kate Beckinsale.

Nacho Libre was weird, and I think I'll have to watch it again to see if it will grow on me like Napoleon Dynamite did. I had a few laughs, but I also admit I was distracted and didn't pay attention to it. Its kind of got that pacing that if you're focused on something else, you'll miss some points. But hey, I was kind of 'eh' on Napoleon Dynamite the first time I saw it too so. . .

Thank You For Smoking, I don't know, I've heard a lot about this movie and it perked my curiosity so I decided to go see it. My brother and I agreed that the Gun Lobbyist probably wouldn't be so foolish about his gun, but I really liked how the main character thought. And furthermore, I love the final outcome of Katie Holmes' character, because for some reason, lately I haven't been able to stomach her. Maybe it has something to do with her shacking up with Tom Cruise (can we say double yak?) But overall, maybe its got liberal undertones and it drops the F-bomb more times then I would have liked, but I still liked it.

There's a few other movies that have come out recently as well that I'm interested in picking up, but I think I'll take a break from movies for a bit and get everything caught up in life.

Otherwise, I've been watching a lot of animation. Maybe its that whole being an Animation major, but after watching the first Season, The Tick is perhaps one of the funniest cartoons from the 90's that i never got into.

Things That Shouldn't Be Boughten Cheap

I have learned that there are some things you shouldn't be cheap with. Like when buying a digital camera, if you go ahead and spend the few extra bucks (or in this case, the few extra hundred bucks) you'll have a great camera that will take great pictures and last a while. If you skiff on this kind of stuff, you'll get grainy and crappy pictures. you might as well stick with the disposables, they take better pictures then a cheap digital camera does.

There are things that you can save a few bucks on by getting a bargain brand. Clothes come to mind (you usually have more then one outfit anyway), or whatever.

But don't be cheap with your Toaster.

We didn't have a toaster and at the time I didn't feel like spending a lot of money on something I may use once a week if that. So I went to Walmart (yes, I'm still convinced they are evil, but conveniant, see earlier post) and got a deal on a Toaster for like $6 bucks!

The thing is, everything that I toast tastes like diesel fuel. I was hoping it would go away after multiple uses, but you have to toast something three or four times to get a charbroiled crisp (because if you toast it once or twice it will come out slightly warm) and by then the smell is saturated.

I guess for now, it will sit on the counter and I will eat gasoline flavored toasted sandwiches if I feel the need until I buck up and buy a better toaster. And then it can go into the Garage Sale Fodder for next Spring.

Vanity, or Lack Thereof

I've got this DVD player that I recently bought that records DVDs. Theres also a VHS player attached so you can record old VHS tapes on DVD. Plus, well, its built to take your camcorder and plug it in and convert your home videos onto DVD (or VHS, if your old school like that)

I took out my tapes I took last year in Kosovo and was kind of watching them a bit just now. Now, I don't mind what I looked like going through the mobilization process and all of that, but I got a tape of me half way through the deployment (like, in July or something) and I kind of got in a squirm mode. Nothing like a deployment to sap all the feminine qualities out of a person, plus I had my hair short in that awkward mid growth phase and I just felt, well, ugly.

The thing is, you were surrounded by ugly people, you looked at yourself every day like this, and you really didn't notice it. In fact, I never really called myself a real beauty ever in my life but when I was in Kosovo and I was looking at some of the pictures of me as a civilian and I remember actually thinking 'man, I did look really good.' Its because Kosovo is what I knew, and seeing myself in that light made everyone else look glamorous. I mean, you looked at people back home or whatever and even if they were average, well, from my point of view they were knock outs.

I have come to the conclusion that I only need to cut my hair Dyke short once in my life and I did it January 2005. Never again I tell you. I liked my hair in the spikey look, but the growing out phase is just more hideous then I can stand.

At least now I can look in the mirror again and think 'ok, I look pretty good now.' However, any time I go back and see pictures of me last year, I want to scream and run the other way.

Strange how you get into those mindsets.

Ferret Blogging

Its Friday.

That means I update on the Ferrets.

Its actually taken me a couple of weeks to get used to the little carpet sharks, I was thinking maybe it was a mistake getting the two of them, but they've kind of settled into the place and I've gotten used to them. I've also gotten to know their little quirks so they aren't as overwhelming when they are out anymore. Like, make sure you put some newspapers down in the one corner because they'll ALWAYS go there. Also, have lots of air freshener on hand.

In fact, I'm glad I got the two because they often will keep each other company so I'll work on something and let them run amok.

And I can even get a picture of them now, though they still look around every which direction.


I often put Abby on my shoulders, and she'll usually be pretty good about staying perched up there for a few seconds (Blaine finds a way off as soon as you put him up there) but she also has a tendency to sniff your ear. Its kind of ticklish.


If you want to pose with Blaine, you have to hold him the old fashioned way.


I've got ferret leashes for them both and one of these days if there is something going on downtown I'm half tempted to take one of them with me and keep them in a backpack.

CERT

Community Emergency Response Team.

The purpose of this course is in a case of a disaster, emergency response systems are fairly stretched thin. These people will go out into the community and help respond to those disasters and give out information when emergency teams such as the fire department are able to finally make their rounds. It could be something as simple as a severe thunderstorm, fires, snowstorms, or other weather related incidents.

They teach you how to work a fire extinguisher, what to do if you run into casualties, how to triage, do first aid, do light rescue, and provide psychological help to those victims who are severely stressed. Its seven weeks long, and I've got two more sessions after this and then I'm certified. Of course, its volunteer, but its information that is handy to know in case something happens and you don't have access to 911.

If you go check out your local Fire Station, you can see if there is a program set up by your city government to train you. It is a free class and actually very informative. Plus, its volunteer points.

Volunteering is good for the soul as well.

Riding Lessons

Boy its suddenly gotten quite chilly lately! In other words, it feels like fall.

This does get me excited for winter to officially come forward. Its been raining for the last two days, and if precipitation continues at this rate, there should be snow on the mountains before to long.

Meanwhile, I've been searching for things to occupy my time, so that I am forced to leave the house. The PT job should be one. And I've got CERT classes for another three weeks. And there is always school.

Don't forget the army.

However, one of the things that I did enjoy doing this summer is go horseback riding. But being a self taught rider that kind of learned from neighbors and friends, well, when I was wrangling with a bunch of people who actually knew what they were doing, I often got the distinct feeling from them that they didn't consider me a true horseperson. And really I wasn't. Well, not formally at least.

I've been interested in getting a horse again. But looking into it, right now I certainly can't afford one. Another option would be a partial lease, but even that is really not to my benefit at this time. I just don't have the time to make it worth while.

What I could use, however, are some lessons to get myself in the mindset in case this is doable in the future. And it gives me enough horse experience during the week that I can sit back and have fun the rest of the time.

Winter's off season, so there are deals for private lessons during this time of year. I've always ridden western and I decided to get some lessons and learn english.

And now I am.


This is BP. You might be thinking 'well, isn't that the name of a Gas Station?' And you would be right, his name is British Petrolium. Back in his show days, his sponsor was BP so it kind of stuck. He's a Thoroughbred dressage horse that is multitalented and can be ridden both in english and western styles.

My instructor started at the basics for me, from the way I sit and how I hold my legs and head. The entire lesson I rode without stirrups just so I could get the feel of riding down. I do tend to slump, so it felt really awkward for me to sit tall like this. I can see how this is going to be a workout.

It turns out that a lot of western Reiners take Dressage lessons to learn how to properly sit on a horse among other things. So I can take these lessons and apply them to how I ride western as well. Actually, for somebody who's been riding horses off and on since I was about 7, I learned a lot about them today.

I just got to get used to riding and feeling a little more comfortable up there on the saddle.

This is going to really help me work my legs and butt. And don't forget my stomach. I think I'll be doing this into December.

Once the snow really starts to come down, it'll be difficult to get out there to take lessons. And honestly, by then I'll want to be Snowboarding.

But for now, it looks like I'm going to be riding horses about once a week.

Ho-Hum

So lately my life is encompassing school and a couple of ferrets. Every now and again I get the privelege of going to an army drill, but all in all, my life has become rather mundane.

The search for employment continues. I'm looking at getting a job through the VA Work Study Program (I can do it as long as I have GI bill coming in) which is tax free. And tax free is good!

I've also looked at other things to do to occupy my time. The CERT course (Community Emergency Response Team) has been helpful in taking up a portion of my time on Mondays, and I can use it as Volunteer points. So far I really enjoy the class.

In regards to the army, nothing like getting hazed for delaying your entry into Drill Sergeant School. They would prefer I go in January. I keep insisting that I've been there and done that and would prefer to go in March. So that's what I'm doing. I was half tempted to change my mind and go in January but I decided to stick with the March date for three reasons.

The first, its bloody cold in January. As I said before, been there done that.
The Second, it fits so nicely in with my schooling to wait until March. When I come home in May, I can just transition back into school.
The Third, well, being a Snowboarder and all that purchased a season pass. . . I would prefer to be able to use it and not cut my season short.

So that's it in a nutshell. Me and the army and the rest of my hum-drum life.

Defining Success in Health

In Success Strategies, one of the initial assignments we were tasked with was to define success and what success meant to us in various areas, such as education, career, relationships and so forth. We were to answer and then respond to other people's definitions as well.

This was my definition of Health Success:

Health - Free of disease and independent in movement, keen use of all five senses, weight height proportional. The ability to run, jump and swim. I will consider my health failed when I can no longer endure riding a Snowboard.

One of my classmates didn't like my definition so much, as it was somewhat pessimistic. THis was her response to me.

I agree with you on some parts such as education and relationship but on your views on health when you get older and are no longer able to snowboard will your health be poor then? I feel I live a clean drug free lifestyle and even though I might not be able to climb mountains or ski that I'm still healthy. Perhaps though when you get older and are no longer able to snowboard that you will find another hobby or something that will mean just as much to you as snowboarding.

Well, I fear I had to clarify what I meant. So I did.

The health comment about snowboarding was a bit tongue-in-cheek, mostly because I never really thought about this question and right now that's one of my motivators in life.

However, looking at my history, Snowboarding may be hazardous to my health! So far I've ended up in the Emergency Room twice on account of running headfirst into a tree (battle scar on chin to prove it) and coming home with Global Transient Amnesia (true story!). And I still Snowboard! Call me crazy, everyone does.

Ah yes, I probably won't live to see old age at this rate, so when I finally become paralyzed from my adventures in snowboarding, I'll consider my health finally failed. If I retire from snowboarding in good health and all my brain cells in tact, then I'll consider my health a 'success'.

Though if Snowboarding doesn't get me, the military might.

DS Status

Somebody mentioned wanting to have an update on the Drill Sergeant thing.

I'll have to be clear in that I'll likely only update my status on becoming a Drill Sergeant once a month. That would likely come around my drill weekend, or the more correct term being Battle Assembly.

As a Drill Sergeant Candidate, I am not a Drill Sergeant yet. When I go to drill, I learn various modulations that will be necessary for me to know when I gain the badge and go down range to train soldiers. They also work on my marching, cadence calling, drill and ceremony, and how I carry myself. Basically the things I will learn in Drill Sergeant School are reinforced before hand, helping me get an edge on what I'm expected to know.

I actually don't go to school until March, so I have a while, and while I'm at school I don't expect to have any internet access so my blog will likely be down. Until then, I will be expected

Because I did so well at the range last drill, I won't be firing at this one and have been given the task of teaching a class on Stoppages and the Eight Function Cycles of an M16. This is also to show that despite the beliefs of some people, I can prove that I really am competant enough to teach a class. I'm looking forward to the opportunity, and it is important that I am able to do this as teaching and training others is a primary task of a Drill Sergeant.

I am eagerly looking forward to going to school and proving myself, I have mentioned this before but this unit has given me a motivation to excel in the military again.

I'll update more on this over the weekend.

Looking Back and Accepting It

From time to time, I look back on my life and assess different situations I have gone through. Often times I look at them and try to figure out how I would do it differently if I could go back and do it again. One thing I get out of this excercise is that if I come across similar situations now, I can see myself handling them differently then in the past.

A lot of this thought process goes back to my time in Kosovo. Its no secret that I had a tough year last year and dealing with a complete idiot who seemed to want to make my life a living hell didn't help matters. If I could go back and go through those situations again, I would handle them completely differently. I would know how to handle them. Like when I recieved what was quite possibly the worst counseling session ever (or frankly any counseling session), how I would conduct myself when I lost my KFOR badge, how I would handle that last briefing, or what not.

A year ago today I was given a counseling that basically told me that I was worthless as a soldier and had no business being in preventive medicine. My NCOIC was looking at ways to remove my MOS. Yes, an egocentric E6 felt he had the authority to take away the Military Occupational Speciality of an E5. Which in one word is retarded. From this point on was the descent of my professional relationship with that man. I lost all respect for him and in three months I was completely out of his section with no love between the two of us.

Looking back and playing the scenerio in my mind, I have discovered that how I would respond now vs then would probably result in me getting kicked out of the military for insubordination. But truthfully, at the end of the rotation, I had my former NCOIC completely on the defensive, meaning he didn't dare try anything with me. And I realize now that looking back I came out on top of the situation.

But say that I did happen to find a time travel device and could go back to the start of the deployment and fix things, I realize that I learned so much from this deployment that I wouldn't want to go back and change anything. I have often looked back and realized how much fun I had that year, what I was able to accomplish and the lessons I learned both good and bad and if I could go back in time, I don't think I would change anything. Last year was an important growing experience for me. I had to endure those trials, discover myself, fumble and falter because if I didn't, I wouldn't have learned the lessons I did.

Going back to change one thing would likely change everything that followed, especially in that tumultuous year. Change one thing, and the entire year would had a completely different outcome. For good or bad, the experiences would have been different.

The memories I gained, the people I met, the experiences I had, it was all worth it. If I had to go back to October of 2004 and make up my mind all over again on whether or not I would go to Kosovo, I wouldn't want to change a single thing.

Except maybe telling SSG D to Sod Off a little earlier in the deployment.

Quick Class Update

Latest on classes now that I've actually had an opportunity to sit down and evaluate them.

Well, so far, my Success Strategies class appears to border on being extremely useful to extremely cheesy. But I like the text book. And it looks like it will be my easy class.

Critical and Creative Thinking has gotten me into the thinking mode again, as I go through my assignments, I'll likely post my responses on here. The questions posed are blog worthy. Sometimes.

Image Editing is the class that presently I'm most frustrated with because A) its a seven credit class which menas B) its expensive and C) I know a lot of this already and if I had done it correctly, I could have saved myself a bunch of money and tested out of it. But when all is said and done, I hope to learn a thing or two.

I didn't leave the house today, or get dressed. I just worked on homework. I can see how I will both love and hate this arrangement.

School's in Session

So, today was the first day of my school.

Wow, I'm in for a wild and crazy time. Fortunately I have plenty of time right now to work on classes, though I do admit its a bit distracting when Glenn Beck is on the radio in the background.

For those of you who don't know, I'm going to college via Online through Westwood College Online. They have an acredited program and I'm hoping to get a degree in animation.

I will likely be displaying some of my course work within my blog. My website will also be showing some of the things I learn and be going through a metamorphisis over the course of the next few years. I can't wait to learn how to use Flash.

My current classes are:
Success Strategies - Granted, this is not the class I'm most excited about attending this quarter. But I think I will learn a lot of valuable lessons from it, especially as I focus on my career. I think this is also a class to help me get accustomed to the online learning environment, and I will admit that I'm a little intimidated by this medium of learning. I know my strengths and weaknesses, and I know that I'm not my strongest in this learning environment. So that means I need to be dogging myself. Hopefully, this class will really help with all of that.

Critical and Creative Thinking - I had to work hard to get in this course. Its actually a 400 course and I'm in my first quarter at Westwood. Despite that, this is not going to be my workhorse class this quarter. This class is manageable and I'm looking forward to using this part of my brain again.

Image Editing - Remember my photoshopping blitz? Well, expect more of that. I'm going to be formally trained on Image Editing Software (think Photoshop, latest edition) and learn all of the fancy tricks of the trade. This is going to be SWEET! However, this is an intense course. Read, 7 credits.

I will be spending the next ten weeks going to school online. The unfortunate thing about online classes is that I get really distracted when I'm online. The good news is I don't get distracted nearly as much as I have in the past.

I'll post my status check as class continues.

The 'Kami' Face

I am often in a sluggish mode, in that I don't like to do a whole lot with my appearance on any given day. Especially if I don't make it out of the house (mind you, I'm going to school online and am searching for a job currently so I don't get a whole lot of opportunities to get out. I hope to rectify this).

Well, I actually put make up on today. It is Saturday afterall.

Just because, I took some self portrait pictures. You know the lamo digital picture you take of yourself? Yep, those. They are so handy because you can take as many as you want.

My brother saw one of the pictures and asked "What's with the Kami face?"


Indeed, what is with the Kami face? Except for the fact that it made me semi-famous? It's like my own version of 'Blue Steel' off of Zoolander. The slight tilt of the head, the arch of the eyebrows, the angsty look of 'who's ass can I kick now?'.

Why do I make this face? I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever know.

Ferret Friday

I'm still adapting to the Ferrets. I may have mentioned that I've never owned ferrets before and they do take some getting used to. But once you have their quirks down, they are quite amusing.

One thing that always brings a few laughs is to keep them a bit pent up in their cage all day and then block off a room and let them at it. It may take them a little bit to wind up, especially if they just woke up, but give them about ten to fifteen minutes and they'll be poinging off the walls.

Literally

I created a YouTube account. Anyway, one day Abby started to go straight into Ferret Boing mode and I got a bad capture on video.



I think I'll be using this feature more in the future. Hopefully with better footage.


Trying to photograph a ferret is like trying to snuggle with one. Both are damn near impossible. With an attention span all of 3 seconds, you might catch their attention with a camera for a few seconds and its on to something else. They aren't that cuddly either. They wiggle out of your grasp soon after you pick them up, because something more interesting has just caught their attention. Probably something shiney.

Like your lens cap.

My Signs

I don't usually do a whole lot with Astrology, but being a Cusp Baby (I'm a Scorpio/Saggitarius) I often do these things to get a feel for how accurate astrology is.

In this case, I'm a wee bit more Scorpio that Saggitarius

You are 73% Scorpio

How Scorpio Are You?

You are 60% Sagittarius

How Sagittarius Are You?

I think I've done this before. Chances are I'll do it again in the future.