You Can't Make Mistakes.

Testing… Testing. Is this thing on.

We are always, it seems, interested in measuring or coding personality. I read this article [PDF] this morning over my coffee and found it fascinating. The results aren’t necessarily fascinating, but the idea is.

The gist is: can we something about the personality of an individual based on their e-mail address? This is an age-old question, of course. The primary use of astrology, in this author’s estimation, has been to parse personality traits. For example, Virgos are particularly mercurial. Their interests wander and range vastly. Is this true? Well, it probably is, for some.

The difference between the former and latter types of personality profiling is that the former uses a trait generated by the individual in question, whereas the latter has very little to do with them, at least on the surface. Then again, perhaps there are more factors that we are not considering, such as weather, personalities of parents and mood/temper changes based on time of year. Who knows?

Then there is the personality inventory. I took my first one a few years ago as part of a study conducted by a counseling psychology student for her thesis project. She was testing the Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory. I’m not sure about the particulars. Regardless, the questions are tricky and vague, but their compiled results are supposed to tell you something about your personality. My test indicated that I either had a personality disorder, or was a genius. Now, I don’t think that I am a genius, not even a little, but it was the more comforting alternative. There was more to it than that, something about frequencies, blah blah. Boring stuff. Sort of.

It made me interested in these types of tests though. Do they really tell us anything about ourselves, and, if so, what?

A few years later, I took the Myers-Briggs test. This one I liked. The results are a bit more human-readable—not that psychologists are not human, but well, you get what I mean. Since taking this, I have always tested the same way, which is also interesting. The questions on different exams will vary greatly, but they are designed to indicate personality traits when answered in a specific way.

I am an ENTJ [Extraversion - iNtuition - Thinking - Judging], apparently.

You have the following traits as options: Attitudes—Extraverted or Introverted, Functions—Intuitive or Sensing, Thinking or Feeling, and Lifestyle—Judging and Perceiving.

Here are a couple of tests for your enjoyment. These are obviously just intended for online amusement, not for real use. These type of assessments are best administered by a professional. But, then, when have we ever cared about that. Each one takes about 4-5 minutes. If you have a few minutes to kill take one—or more—and post the results as a comment here. It would be interesting to see what sort of personalities we all have, wouldn’t it?

A general Myers-Briggs assessment

An assessment for programmers

An interesting assessment with sliders

Well, that should help you to waste about 15 minutes today. Try it out and post the results.

It’s a big week for gays in the news, folks!

Check out these stories and breaking news from the past week:

1. UK reconsiders asylum for Gay Irani teen

   This represents progress, I think. It is indicative that the government in the UK is thinking outside the box a little bit in recognizing that problems exist where they exist.

2. US representative Kern stories:

   Associated Press Story

   You Tube video

   Needs no comment from me.

3. Stuff White People Like #88: Having Gay Friends

   This is actually true. And the source is reliable.

I was surprised, while researching this post, to find that if you type the word “gay” into google, #4 on the list is gayegypt.com. This has something to do with the fact that I am in Egypt right now, but it is interesting nonetheless. Who can say what it means? A study needs to be done, but this will be difficult. Perhaps some industrious sap who studies communications can do this for us.

Does anyone have any recent stories in this vein to report?

She’s a Reporter Now!

Much in the same spirit of the following video—which we regularly see on one of the satellite channels from Dubai—my dear friend and flatmate in Cairo has recently become a reporter for our old standby hometown newspaper: the Kalamazoo Gazette.

For clarification: the woman in this commercial piece has dandruff, and then gets some Sunsilk shampoo—which cures her of dandruff—after which she suddenly—and mysteriously—becomes a reporter and then interviews famous blonde people. For further clarification: Stacey does not have and has never had dandruff. And anyone who says otherwise is a damn liar.

You can view her recent journalistic debut by following the link below:

Iraqis Grateful for Health-Support by Stacey Pollard

I am currently trying to convince her to be a foreign/local correspondent on this humble blog. That would take some pressure off of me to blog constantly. Then maybe everyone wouldn’t bay for my blood after a month of not blogging. We shall see.

with contributing investigative reporter Amanda Wood

Some wizards just don’t know what is good for them

There is a phenomenon here in Egypt whereby the porters in blocks of flats are very involved in the lives of the tenants of the buildings in their care. This is the story of one such porter by Amanda Wood, investigative correspondent in Alexandria.

“Having made the acquaintance of the porters in our building, we noticed a cheeky element in the character of our night porter,” says Amanda, lighting a cigarette. “Upon further discussion, my flatmate, myself, and our guests uncovered his secret.”

The porter in question, it was determined, was not a porter at all. Rather, he was a defunct wizard whose powers had been suspended for a few hundred years. As it turns out, he had a tendency to play pranks on lesser mortals. One such prank ended in the suicides of hundred of Vodafone customers when he convinced them that there were tiny people trapped in their phones.

This infraction was too much for the High Wizarding Tribunal. they summarily stripped him of his wizarding powers and set him up as a porter in a block of flats in Moharrem Bey, Alexandria. He was left with only the ability to control the actions of the cats living near the block. This has resulted in a great deal of inexplicable cat dancing in the street in front of the building.

At first, this was amusing and provided explanation for a great deal of odd goings on in the building, such as power cuts, phones not working, elevators sticking between floors, and the inability of anyone to ever find the address. It seems that the Wizard Porter had not learned his lesson and was up to his old tricks.

“We at first found comfort in the fact that we had an ex-wizard as a porter with contacts in the High Wizarding Tribunal seeing as we are two young women away from our homes and families,” muses Amanda. “Unfortunately, upon the departure of my blonde flatmate—as blonde, it seems, is #&*%ing currency amongst Alexandrian men—he has turned his hand away from simple pranks and innocent goings-on to all out nosy interfering in my day to day life. As a woman of Middle-Eastern origin I am not unaccustomed to the standards to which women are expected to conform. Indeed I have been a model of modesty and good behaviour [sic - Amanda is British]. After all, when in Rome… and in my case, Rome is not that far from home.”

It turns out that as the porter’s frustration over the removal of his wizarding powers deepened, he became increasingly interested in controlling the minutiae of the everyday lives of his tenants. He apparently feels it is his duty, as a man, to protect the the interests, honor, reputations—indeed even chastity—of his young, impressionable female tenants and save them from their own evil ways and any temptation. “Someone of weaker character might assume that he had been paid to do so by certain male members of her family. However, upon further reflection, resting safely in the knowledge that all I say and do is fully endorsed by my family—including gallivanting off to the Middle-East to pursue deeper knowledge in the language and culture of my forefathers,” reflects Amanda. “However, to entertain such a ridiculous notion would do an grave injustice to the rational, modern, forward-thinking familial background I come from.”

Ultimately, Amanda has decided that the Wizard Porter is just a controlling prick. It seems that he simply cannot fathom the idea that a young, Western, woman of mixed-race origin from London—den of iniquity—could not possibly make decisions about her own comings and goings which would not lead to her inevitable demise.

“So bless his heart of solid gold,” Amanda exclaims, stubbing out her cigarette, “for taking time out of his busy and important life in order to see to my well-being. One would think that he wouldn’t have the time, what with having to deal with going before the High Wizarding Tribunal in order to have his powers reinstated. Just bless him.”