Thursday, January 31, 2013

New Myers-Briggs Personality Types Disclosed

When I originally completed the Myers-Briggs "type indicator," my personality fell into the ESTJ bucket.

According to the graphic above, as an ESTJ (top left) I am a natural-born supervisor in the tradition of such legendary administrative types as Queen Elizabeth I and Joseph Stalin.

As an ESTJ (Extrovert-Sensing-Thinking-Judging), I am energized by my interactions with humans (and golden retrievers), I like concrete data (like the indisputable facts you find in Facebook and Twitter updates), I make decisions based on logic (unless I'm pissed), and I am miserable when situations are unresolved (you should be too).

Not so fast though! Based on exhaustive research just published online at McSweeney's, there are 11 new personality types. I'm certain that if I took the test again today, I would be re-classed as WDDD.

McSweeney's Additional Myers-Briggs Personality Types
  • Unfeeling Uncaring Judging Screaming (UUJS)
  • Lurking Touching Hurting Regretting (LTHR)
  • Lying Denying Confessing Lying (LDCL)
  • Smoking Dancing Laughing Fucking (SDLF)
  • Moping Whining Crying Leaping (MWCL)
  • Loving Buying Owing Impoverishing (LBOI)
  • Hating Marrying Abusing Divorcing (HMAD)
  • Running Swimming Boxing Fencing (RSBF)
  • Writing Drinking Drinking Drinking (WDDD)
  • Opening Sniffing Tasting Questioning (OSTQ)
  • Eating Sleeping Videogame Playing (ESVP)

I'd love to hear if anyone else is questioning their original Myers-Briggs type in light of these new classifications, or if perhaps, you think they may have left something off the list. (Anyone else out there think they might be an ABCD - Angsting Bitching Complaining Delaying?)

Daily Zen - Thursday, January 31



It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it. 

                   ~ Dale Carnegie

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Daily Zen - Wednesday, January 30




There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still

                ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Manuscript Peep Show

A quick blog post for my writer friends.

My Twitter pal Nat Russo recently tagged me into Melanie Sokol's Manuscript Peep Show.

To recap the rules:

1. Go to the 77th page of your work-in-progress
2. Count down 7 lines
3. Share the 7 lines that follow

My contribution is an excerpt from the second draft of my novel-in-progress.


June was anxious to seize any opportunity to escape a McCory holiday gathering, but she didn't want to appear too eager. The legend of our Orphan’s Thanksgivings permeated the family consciousness, and I believed each of my aunts, uncles, and cousins secretly longed to enjoy turkey dinner at our house. Compared to hours of drunk Seamus spouting nonsense or sober Doris spouting bible verses, our long afternoons of tryptophan-induced napping and quiet evenings of riverfront wine-sipping had to sound like heaven.

Daily Zen - Tuesday, January 29




We are the makers of our own lives. There is no such thing as fate.

                ~ Swami Vivekananda

Monday, January 28, 2013

Daily Zen - Monday, January 28




If you are honest, truthful, and transparent, people trust you. If people trust you, you have no grounds for fear, suspicion or jealousy.

                   ~ Dalai Lama



(This guy really seems to have a good handle on Buddhism. You can follow him on Twitter @DalaiLama.)

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Weekend Zen, January 26-27




Tell me about despair, yours, 
and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on. 

                      ~ Mary Oliver

Friday, January 25, 2013

Daily Zen - Friday, January 25




Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.

                 ~ Søren Kierkegaard

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Bad Lip Reading in the NFL

Just in time for the Super Bowl, the folks from Bad Lip Reading are taking their "talents" to the NFL. I took a break from BLR videos after the November election, but this one is too good not to share.

All your NFL favorites - Adrian Peterson, Tom Brady, Payton Manning, and more - spouting gibberish that will make you laugh 'til you pee.

Daily Zen - Thursday, January 24



The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.
                 
                     ~ Cyril Connolly

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Daily Zen - Wednesday, January 23




What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.

                    ~ John Steinbeck

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Daily Zen - Tuesday, January 22



Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning do to do afterward. 

                 ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Monday, January 21, 2013

Daily Zen - Monday, January 21



When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.

                ~ Jean Shinoda Bolen

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Weekend Zen, January 19-20




Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'

              ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Daily Zen - Friday, January 18




Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.

                  ~ Danny Kaye

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Daily Zen - Thursday, January 17




Following the bend in the river and staying on your own path means that you are on the right track. Don't let anyone deter you from that. 
                           ~ Eartha Kitt



(Today is the birthday of Eartha Kitt and a ridiculous variety of other famous people. See the list here.)

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Daily Zen - Wednesday, January 16



The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.

                 ~ Ralph Marston

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Daily Zen - Tuesday, January 15




The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.

                   ~ C.G. Jung

Monday, January 14, 2013

Daily Zen - Monday, January 14




They must change often, who would be constant in happiness.

                   ~ Confucius

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Turn Style: Best Book Jackets of 2012

Posted By: Jeff McKown

Flavorwire.com has polled a group of book jacket designers and published their picks for "best" book covers of 2012. My picks for best and worst from their list are below. I'd love to hear which ones you like or don't like, and any great book jackets from last year you think were left off the list.

Click here to see all the jackets the experts selected (but don't, of course, judge the books by their covers).

My favorite from the list: The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus
(concept flames, symmetry, color, three-dimensional)


And my least favorite from the list: NW by Zadie Smith
(surely more refined artistic eyes see something special, I see two letters)


As a bonus, here is one of my all-time favorite book jackets. The book is My War Gone By, I Miss It So, a poignant chronicle of the horrors of the war in Bosnia published in 1999 with stunning prose by British journalist and self-proclaimed war junkie Anthony Loyd.

Weekend Zen, January 12-13




A little nonsense now and then,
 is cherished by the wisest men.

                 ~ Roald Dahl

Friday, January 11, 2013

Daily Zen - Friday, January 11



Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.

               ~ Robert Fulghum

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Daily Zen - Thursday, January 10




By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day. 

                     ~ Robert Frost

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Daily Zen - Wednesday, January 9




Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
               ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Monday, January 7, 2013

Daily Zen - Monday, January 7




I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. 

                  ~ Jerome K. Jerome



The start of the new year means it's time to get our butts in gear and get back in the groove. We'll feature quotes about work this week to get you in the mood!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Weekend Zen, January 5-6



It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life, and find at the end one has no more to offer by way of advice than "try to be a little kinder."

                  ~ Aldous Huxley

Friday, January 4, 2013

Daily Zen - Friday, January 4




"I have done my best." That is about all the philosophy of living one needs.

                 ~ Lin Yutang

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Daily Zen - Thursday, January 3




Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

                 ~ Thomas A. Edison

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Daily Zen - Wednesday, January 2




Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

                    ~ Jim Rohn