Don't understand the INTJ?

I found and fell in love with the Myers Briggs personality test a while ago, and indeed our whole family seemed to find it useful when it came to understanding each other. However, for Aragorn and I, as we entered late-teen/early-adult years, our personalities shifted from being fairly identified with Purring Piggy's and Clankeeper's to being strongly identified with an entirely different one. We are, unlike our parents, INTJs. Unfortunately, not only are INTJs rare in any given population, they are odd, quirky, and even cryptic to others. So I have learned from experience. To fit in with normal society, we usually have to play some kind of role.

But if you're at all curious about what really goes on behind how we appear in public, or just want to understand why weird things happen sometimes, this is the place to find it. Be warned: it's bitingly sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek, also brutally honest, and has a few swear words sprinkled in. That being said, take away some of the sarcasm and brutal honesty, and it's so so true. (At least for me; I'm not sure how strongly INTJ Aragorn is.)

Interesting

From here: "We guess http://bethsperaindomino.blogspot.com is written by a man (60%), however it's quite gender neutral."

Michael Crichton speech

I've admired the books of his I've read, but this speech gave me a lot more respect for the man himself.

Strange song juxtaposition

I often play my iPod on shuffle, with very random playlists, so pretty much anything can come up. Occasionally, though, the choice seems fortuitous. Just the other day, I was tickled when the song "My Eyes" came up right before the song "Give Me Your Eyes". Even stranger, though, is how eerily well those songs fit thematically in that order when you look at their lyrics.

Hundreds of unique accents

When I first found this site, I didn't think much of it. I love learning about accents and what makes them what they are, and especially just hearing and being able to recognize them, but I'm not a big expert on them. This site, though, is for people like me—it has all the expert information, but if you're just curious about accents, it works like that too.

One thing that this site was very helpful for was distinguishing the various British accents. It's so common for Americans to just go "Oh, he has a British accent", and not realize that the Brits have more distinct accents than even we do in one country. Unconsciously I picked up on that from watching so many British-produced things, but it was nice to put my finger down on what the differences were.

The Evolution of Wedding Dance

I saw the popular online video called "Evolution of Dance" a while ago, and even though I got a lot of the references, I didn't find it too entertaining. This, however, which probably won't make sense unless you've seen the original, I loved. Maybe its the more "everyman" feel to it, or the quirky humor of where it was done and who did it (I could actually see some of my friends doing something like this). But whatever the reason I liked it, it's worth a watch: The Evolution of Wedding Dance

A few of my favorite things...

I have found a few new things this week!

Pepperidge Farm makes Chocolate Mint cookies that taste just like the Thin Mint cookies that Girl Scouts sell! I dip them in milk and they bring back all those warm fuzzy memories of my childhood. Mmmmmm.

I love Cook's Illustrated magazine! I tried their new pumpkin pie recipe, the pumpkin cheesecake recipe and their slow roasted turkey recipe this year for Thanksgiving. All were awesome! The turkey was SO moist! The pie was incredibly smooth and silky...I have never had anything like it. A lot of work, though, but worth it I think. I also tried their pie crust recipe that uses vodka with the cold water and it makes a wonderfully moist and supple dough that is easy to work with. I even liked the taste of the crust, which has never happened before...normally I consider pie crust a necessary evil and I don't eat it. The only draw back was having to enter a liquor store to buy the vodka.

Krispy Kreme is making a new doughnut that is actually worth eating in my opinion. I am not a big doughnut eater, but I did stop recently to treat the children. While there they had a mocha cream filled doughnut that I tried...oh, my, that was good! Thankfully, the closest Krispy Kreme is too far for regular visits. And that is a good thing!

Latest favorite music

"What Life Would Be Like" by Big Daddy Weave

"Companion" and "Mal's Song" by Vixy & Tony. These are what is colloquially called "filk" or songs inspired by books/movies—in these cases, Doctor Who for one and Firefly for the other.

"The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" by Lemon Demon. A really fun, silly, geeky song that I downloaded from the official website (caution, a couple bad words).

"Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath

"Good Riddance" by Green Day

"Home" by Daughtry

"Suerte" by Shakira. The song that made me realize I liked Latino music.

"My Eyes" and "My Freeze Ray" by Felicia Day & Neil Patrick Harris. These are two really lovely songs from a little independent internet musical called Doctor Horrible's Singalong Blog.

"How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty

"I'm Letting Go" by Francesca Battistelli

"Love's Lookin' Good On You" by Lady Antebellum

"Have You Ever Seen the Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

"One of These Days" by FFH

"Carry On Wayward Son" by Pickin' On Series. I enjoyed the original of this song, but I prefer this bluegrass cover.

"Wondrous Love" by Jadon Lavik. Possibly one of the happiest songs I've heard in a long while, and the original was written in the 1800s.

"Jesus Freak" by 4th Avenue Jones

"Wherever We Go" by Newsboys

Twilight the movie

Aragorn and I went out tonight to see Twilight for opening night. In some ways it was a disappointment, and it others it surpassed my expectation.

There was a very large crowd—the theater was sold out—but this made it very enjoyable as an experience. The many teenage fangirls were pretty vocal about gasps and squeals at certain scenes/characters/lines, but not to the point where they were louder than the movie. And it was almost more fun to giggle at their excitement with the moms in the theater, than to actually watch the scenes they were getting excited about.

The scenes that were awkward or forced in the book, were unfortunately translated perfectly to screen. Edward and Bella played off pretty flat and/or victims of multiple personality disorder, depending on the scene—so it was accurate there. However, the scene near the end when Bella is attacked by James was very moving and suspenseful, despite the fact that I hadn't cared for her before. As a side note, Bella was too pretty and Edward not handsome enough.

The minor characters, however, were very well cast, especially the Cullens and Bella's school friends. Sometimes their lines were cheesy or just plain bad, but they pulled off what material they had very well. The storyline, also, was pulled straight from the book. I was hoping that they'd tighten up the dragging will-he-won't-he romance part of the book and make the movie faster paced when it came to the action, but they didn't. So the first half of the movie was slow and awkward in places, and the latter third was intense and very well done.

This movie is overflowing in cheese and eye-rolling, but I did enjoy myself in a good deal of it. Though it occasionally got too artsy, the filming style was absolutely gorgeous and perfect at some key moments, and the soundtrack was superb. There were a few genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, and a good amount of giggles (more of them at the silly girls in the audience, but by no means all).

I would definitely watch this movie again, but I would also be fast-forwarding through about two thirds of it. What they got right, they got perfect, but the rest was soundly so-so. I liked the way they ended it, too, and wouldn't be surprised or disappointed to hear that a sequel was being made.

Orson Scott Card's Ender series

Have you ever had that feeling after you finish a book when you're not sure how to qualify what you've just experienced? Sometimes I finish books and go "Meh, that wasn't bad"; other times it's "That was fun, but nothing great"; and othertimes it was "I loved that!". I didn't feel any of those after finishing "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. Instead, I had this vague feeling that this wasn't a book that you could make a quick judgment about, that I wouldn't understand exactly what I'd read for a while. Maybe a long while. Maybe not until I'd read the book again. It was a strange feeling, and one I hadn't remembered feeling before, unless back when I finished some of my forever-favorite books like "The Lord of the Rings" or "Pride and Prejudice".

Whatever I was feeling, I had really enjoyed the book, so I carried on to the next book in the series, "Speaker for the Dead". And about halfway through that I then realized, my feeling had been right. I didn't just love these books, they had deeply touched me. I had almost forgotten how that felt after reading so many books that I lived in for a few hours and then left to sit on the shelf ever after. These weren't like those books; these were books that didn't let go, that followed me around and whispered their words to me long after I had finished the last page. And when I realized this, I felt a bit of a shiver down my spine.

It wasn't like I wasn't prepared to love these books; they'd been recommended by several people whose opinions I trusted as some of their all-time favorite books, even above such classics that people normally name. I was a bit skeptical, not being a big science fiction fan, but I wasn't going to toss their opinions out just on that. And I'm glad I did, because "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" aren't just fluffy fun adventure stories like the stereotype of science fiction says they should be.

Orson Scott Card doesn't make it easy to get into his books—he just thrusts you into his universe with no explanation, and hopes you'll be intrigued enough to continue on until the plot and characters grip you. Maybe it's his test for his readers, to see if they're willing to think and not just be mindlessly entertained. Maybe I just forgot how good writing is not straightforward. But once you've read a few chapters, you're not thinking about the writing style anymore, you're caught up in the lives and adventures of the people he writes about.

One thing that science fiction has going for it as a genre is that its authors are full of imagination without escapism. Fantasy is full of wonder, but sometimes it seems to be an ideal world that the author wishes was our own, with nothing to offer those of us who are stuck on this one. Normal fiction, on the other hand, is often full of crippling realism—flawed people, tragic events, gritty and tough situations—even to the point of being depressing or at least without any hope for anything better. Science fiction can also fall into these categories, but the best of it has a little of both. There's the wonder of discovering new forms of science, with all the hopes it provides for the human race, but mixed with the day-to-day reality of things like human nature and the basic laws of science that rule our lives.

And that's what Orson Scott Card gives. His world isn't any better than ours, his heroes no mythological figures, but he also doesn't say that that's all there is. Even when they make terrible mistakes, his characters long for the ideal, for the good, for the truth, for a better world. And they don't just idly long their days away, they actively strive for it. Sometimes they fail, and sometimes the result are brutal and painful, but sometimes they succeed and it's beautiful, and Card seems to be saying to us the reader that we can too. All we need to do is keep trying.

I thought about giving a summary of these two books, but decided against it. Words don't do plots like these justice, especially because these books are so definitely not plot driven. They're theme driven and character driven, and even the elaborate nature of the plot doesn't overshadow that. I can't describe what I loved about these books by giving my favorite scenes, but more how the whole thing made me feel. And sometimes, these books had me hurt, made my heart feel sore because of the painful truth being expressed. But other times, there was piercing beauty and quiet inspiration, and my heart swelled, and these books fulfilled some need that I couldn't quite express with words.

I don't know if my experience was personal, but I hope it wasn't. These books reminded me why reading is not just for entertainment, and I strongly recommend them to others.

(Edit: Since writing this review I also finished the third book in the series, Xenocide, and I have to say: I'm still thoroughly hooked to this series. I just started rereading Ender's Game, and I'm finding that it's better than I gave it credit for the first time around.)

My life was actually interesting today...

Four intriguing things from school today:

1. In my history class, I received 100 out of 100 points on a paper that I only thought was pretty good. One thing I've learned from writing college papers is that there is no objective view; it's all about learning what each individual professor is looking for.

2. Also in history class, we will be putting Caesar Augustus on trial tomorrow for the destruction of the Republic, as a whole class. We divided into three groups: defense, prosecution, and judges. Both defense and prosecution may call up witnesses, but they can only be students taking on the role of a historical figure, and those witnesses may only speak the arguments of their historical figures. The lawyer for each side may cross-examine both sides’ witnesses, though, and the judges/jury will decide in the end—so all fairly normal court procedure. I will be taking the part of the defense attorney, and so far all the groups seem to be getting really into the project. So much so, that we all volunteered to come in sheet-togas. Sometimes I just love this class.

3. In Spanish, we learned the concept of “conocer” versus “saber”. Consider this conversation:
Persona Uno: Sabes la poema “The Raven”?
Persona Dos: No, no la conozco.

Basically translated, this conversation is:
Person 1: Do you know the poem “The Raven”?
Person 2: No, I know it.

Strange? In Spanish, though, they have two different words for different *types* of knowing. Better translated, the conversation is:
Person 1: Do you know the poem “The Raven” by heart?
Person 2: No, I only know of it.

4. Likewise, in Spanish, they have two forms of the verb that means “to be”. Like so:
Seattle es nublado. Phoenix está nublado. (Basically translated: Seattle is cloudy. Phoenix is cloudy.)

“Es” means that something is habitually or characteristically so. “Está” means that something is like this right now, but it is probably just a stage. When you use “Es”/”Está” in terms of people, it is helpful in distinguishing whether they are usually like this, or it’s just these circumstances. If someone “es” shy, that means they are always pretty reserved. If they “está” shy, they’re normally just fine in social situations, but this particular one is making them with draw.

(And for anyone who's fluent in Spanish, yes, I simplified things a little—it's the concept that I wanted to share, that's all.)

Album review: Roots Run Deep

Sometimes I'm a bit new-fangled for the older adults in my life. I like remixes of old songs which seem to be blasphemous to them, ruining what was perfectly good in the first place. I can't help it—I like things that are new and different. But there's always something special about the traditional, the original. Especially when it comes to hymns. Oftentimes there's nothing so beautiful as an a capella church singing classic hymns, even if not all four parts are equal and not everyone's perfectly on time. I love that, and I don't think I'll ever lose that appreciation. New is good, and old is good too, and I can be happy with both in my life.

But sometimes a song will shake up my complacency and have me wondering for a second. Recently, it was actually an album that did it. I rarely pay attention to albums, since I don't normally like more than a couple songs on them, but when it came to Jadon Lavik's Roots Run Deep, I was pleasantly surprised and felt a review was in order.

Strictly conservative listeners will not go for this album. It's not a capella, and he does bump up the rhythm of these hymns, but there was something different here than in most albums of covers of hymns. Often, it seems like modern Christian artists' renditions of church songs are what they consider the "new and improved" version, because the original just wasn't jazzy or rock'n'roll enough. Maybe it's just my impression, maybe they don't even realize that's how it comes across, but I can understand why some Christians could protest.

Jadon Lavik's music didn't give me that impression at all, though, which was a surprise to be honest. When I first heard his music, falling deeply in love with his renditions of "Come Thou Fount" and "Wondrous Love", instead of hearing the modern remake of old hymns, I heard a respectful tribute to the good old classics. My first indication might have been when he used the original lyrics—"flaming tongues", "dreadful curse", and all. Not even most hymnals are that faithful, and I appreciated it in Roots Run Deep.

The other thing I grabbed on was the lack of "fun" in the songs. There's no irreverence in his treatment of these old hymns, even if he adds some backbeat and speeds up the tempo just a bit, no implication of "the old way was boring". Instead, what he adds to the hymns is a wonderful and deep sense of joy. Especially in "Tis So Sweet" and "Wondrous Love", you can hear how much he loves these songs and how joyful they make him feel. Not just happy, but that Biblical idea of joy that only Christian music seems to have. You want to dance to some of his music, but not because it's light and fun, but because his joy in these classic hymns of praise and worship is too infectious to ignore.

Perhaps I'm still a little heretical in thinking that sometimes, as a church, we make Christianity a little too stiff. Some songs are sung slow and steadily because they are solemn and grave, but so many others whose words are full of nothing more than contentment, peace, and joy are given the same treatment. Jadon Lavik's album reminded me that God always intended us to rejoice in the Lord always, and to live with a joy-filled heart.

Kids are awesome

I've been sick of all the political talk since it started, what, 3 years ago? But this video totally made my day.

Where I've Been...

After reading a post by Joyful Student about how many states she had visited in her lifetime, I decided to see where I have been. This is what I found:


visited 26 states (52%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

WPM

84 words

Typingtest

Homemade pretzels

I'm often a little hesitant about making certain things from scratch, not because I don't think they'll taste amazing, but because they just taste different. Clam chowder, for instance, and cheesy biscuits—I've never gotten them to taste like they do in restaurants. However, sometimes a perfect recipe will come across my path, and I came across one yesterday.

This pretzel recipe turns out flawless pretzels with a minimal amount of work. I was astonished to have them come out of the oven looking gorgeous, and tasting exactly like the best pretzel you could get at any pretzel stand. The crust was perfectly chewy-soft and a dark golden brown that only egg-wash will make it, and the dough inside was moist and soft.

This was just the first try, so I'm not sure how far this recipe will go, but we're already thinking about trying to replicate pizza pretzels we have by replacing the egg wash with tomato sauce and covering them with cheese. Even if that doesn't work, I'm positive that we'll be making these again...and will never have to feel compelled to buy them for $3 a piece elsewhere.

Sand improv art

These are amazing...I wish I had even this artistic talent for simple pictures.

Pie recipe

I was so happy to find time to make this... It was one of the best apple pies I've had.