Analog by Night

Major Criteria Spider Graph

Every 2 years since December 2005 I’ve taken an online NEO IPIP Personality Study. It’s a 250+ question test available online that measures you against the Big Five personality inventory. I blogged my results in 2008 as well.

This image shows some interesting changes in the test results over the last two years. I’ll get into the detailed analysis after the jump. » Read the rest of this entry «

A poem by Ogden Nash entitled ‘My Dream’.

This is my dream,
It is my own dream,
I dreamt it.
I dreamt that my hair was kempt.
Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it.

“…Indeed, the saddest thing of all in America is probably the fate of most of its teenagers. For at sixteen or seventeen, no matter how oppressive the Corporate State, there is still a moment when life is within their grasp. There are a few years when they pulse to music, know beaches and the sea, value what is raunchy, wear clothes that express their bodies, flare against authority, seek new experience, know how to play, laugh, and feel, and cherish one another. But it is a short, short road from Teensville to Squaretown; soon their senses have been dulled, their strength put under restraint, their minds lobotomized; bodies still young, cut off from selves, walk the windowless, endless corridors of the Corporate State.”

Charles A. Reich, The Greening of America

Here’s one easily understandable reason we’re interested in nuclear proliferation in those countries it’s the complex truth in Ashton Carter’s comment to Sam Nunn.

“A nuclear custodial system is only as stable as the social system in which it is embedded. And it’s really made up of people and institutions and so forth, not just gizmos. When all of that is in middle of a social revolution, you’ve got big trouble.”

- pg 385 The Dead Hand by David Hoffman

By the way, he was talking about Russia in the crazy 80s.

I’m so out of sorts I’m trying to figure what I want to do with my time. My gut says, work, create, sweat, learn. I think other people want me to “enjoy the sunshine.” I put it in quotes because it sounds sorta foreign, and I’m not sure I know what it means, or maybe I just don’t want any of that. I can’t tell.

I met you somewhere in a hell beneath the stairs
There’s someone in that room that frightens you when they go boom
Boom, boom, boom…

The color you say is black is the one you might lack
In the size of your eyes, is there a righteous prize?

I met you…

There’s something wrong with our hearts
When they beat pure they stand apart
In the black room, the light, watch the seabird fall
Real love, it finds you somewhere with your back to it

I met you…
You know, you know, we belong by the stream, to the dawn

Linda Morabito, archaic computers and a hot Voyager tee-shirt

This fine young lass is Linda Morabito, and she was probably one of the most desirable young ladies working anywhere in Pasadena, but certainly at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Check out that stylish computer she’s working with. She’s telling you, yes you, all about the discovery of volcanoes on Io.

Rick Spencer – Have you ever been away from something so long that when you’re near some semblance of it, you get innappropriately excited?

Ana Pirri – I’m the queen of inappropriately excited. What’s making you so?

Rick Spencer – Well, there’s a [creative person in a place I frequent], and it’s a woman, and she’s kinda cute, and super easy to work with, but this happens at conferences [also], and really any time i’m around other smart people and creatives. Male or female, I get this sort of low frequency urge to secure them in my life, and my body/brain translates that into sexual desire. It’s like I’m starving, but I get a little TOO turned on by food.

Ana Pirri – But rick, i can’t imagine you ever being away from the type…

Rick Spencer – I’m so starved of the company of other smart creatives that my lizard brain tries to use all it’s tricks to keep them around, or to show my adoration/appreciation. [It's been] at least two years now

Ana Pirri – !

Rick Spencer – Pretty much 90% starved of fellow creators.

Ana Pirri – Well, did it work? oh rick!

Rick Spencer – [One time I did have a sexual relationship with a another creative.]

Ana Pirri – It hurts it hurts!

Rick Spencer – and withdrawing the sex made everything sour.

Ana Pirri – Sure.

Rick Spencer – That’s when you realize that for you, creativity really IS something you need to survive. When your lizard brain turns on the bad behaviors, and emotional conflict, and all those urges and energies to GET it. It’s more powerful than I remember. Anyway, I have to [go], but I thought I would share that with you. Can I ask a favor?

Ana Pirri – Of course

Rick Spencer – I would like to blog this dialogue/monologue. Would you mind if I did, if I anonymized you?

Ana Pirri – Yes – honored.

Rick Spencer – Cool. I’ll give you a rad pseudonym.

Ana Pirri – Excellent

- end

The parts of this exchange that are bracketed are edits with varied degrees of verisimilitude. I have done so to obfuscate experiences that could be embarrassing to others, or simply to enhance readability.

Looking back on this experience I think ‘creatives’ may not have been the right word. Maybe ‘imaginatives’ would have been better. Then again I haven’t been explicitly deprived of imaginitives either. I have known one or two very creative and imaginative people in the last two years, but we certainly met in contexts that were hostile. I know it’s the trendy thing to do but I’m going to quote Teh Mad Menz, “You came here because we do this better than you, and part of that is letting our creatives be unproductive until they are.“

I took this test sometime in 2007. I got the results the day I was laid off. I haven’t cracked that envelope until now. It’s pretty much what you think it is. Here’s your personality traits, here’s your co-worker’s. He’s not an asshole, you guys just differ. Interesting for a moment, but ultimately sorta…blech. They don’t really give you STRATEGIES for utilizing what you know.  Here’s what it says about me:

“This profile is triple dominant, with three preferred quadrants. These primaries occur in Upper Left A, Lower Right C and Upper Right D quadrants. This is a multi-dominant profile that would be characterized by the well-balanced processing modes of Upper Left A – analytical, logical and rational processing: Lower Right C – interpersonal, emotional and intuitive thinking modes combined with the artistic, creative and holistic processing modes of the Upper Right D quadrant. The Lower Left B secondary quadrant would be functional, yet clearly of less preference in terms of organizing, control, structure and conservative thinking styles. This profile is also double dominant in the cerebral modes, both left and right. This individual would be more experimental than safe-keeping and more emotional than controlled. Occupations would involve those with less administrative detail and more attention to broad concepts, strategic planning as compared to operational planning and those occupations tending towards a more ‘generalized’ nature. Positions involving technical innovation and future planning fit this profile along with human resource and development  professions. Work that is considered a “Turn On” would include: solving tough problems, explaining things, taking risks, designing, seeing the big picture, being part of a team and helping people.”

Most comfortable communication approaches may include:

• A good debate
• Technical accuracy
• Providing an overview
• Idea chunks
• Involving others
• Personal touch/sensitive to others

But may overlook:

• Written schedule and plan
• Punctuality

The most natural problem solving strategies would include:

• Visualization
• Free-flow brainstorming
• Intuition
• Analysis
• Building on ideas of other team members
• Defining the problem

But may not consider:

• Strict procedure
• Time lines

To make a decision, a person with this profile may ask:

• Have I seen all the hidden possibilities?
• Do I have all the facts?
• How will others be affected?

But may overlook

• The details
• An appropriate sequence

I just finished the Richard Avedon exhibition, and I am out of breath, overwhelmed, Having a religious moment. My heartbeat is up. I feel like I just had a first kiss with the girl I watched all year from across the room. In middle school.

I am rightly humbled, inspired and purged.

I had a Rothko moment earlier. That may have started it.