Seth, my norsk hero.

I'm feeling rather prolific to make up for my complete summer of non-posting. So I'm going to brag about my buddy Seth for a second.

First of all, Seth is one of the coolest people I know. I determine his coo-ality, and basically anyone's, using one key metric: independence. I love people who do their own thing. I love people who know what they want and go for it. I love people who are true to themselves no matter what. So while Seth and I have little in common other than a sketchy past in a collegiate a capella group, a love of all kinds of movies, and a keen intellect (if I do say so myself), I love him and put him in my top five friends any day of the week.

Seth is in Norway right now, at the beginning of an incredible six-year program where he is learning Norwegian (so he can understand his classes) and Electronics in lovely Trondheim. As far as I know, Seth has no ties to Norway whatsoever. He just found this program and has committed six years of his life to it. He's pretty much my hero for that. I'll miss him while he's in Norway, but I'll probably see him just as much as I did when he was in Boston and I was in Seattle (which is to say, about every 2.5 years).

I'll keep thinking warm thoughts of him (I understand it's cold in Norway), and hoping he doesn't get arrested for dumpster diving, or kill himself trying to play Ultimate Frisbee indoors. If any of my dear readers would like to read more about his adventures, he's blogging about it at Norwhuh? Be warned... Seth takes a rather free-form approach to blogging (actually to just about everything, now that I think about it [including his facial hair, which is getting rather impressive]). It's not for the faint of heart.

Rhymes with Smeckonciliation

That's right, it's all fixed up for the time being. Thanks to those of you who listened to me vent and spew forth nonsense. You are all my favorite. A nice talk and a few compromises fixed everything right up.

Now, onto the real blogging... I watched "Big Love" last night. I really think that I am over that show. Instead, I spent most of the show playing my new favorite game on yahoo games--"Chocolatier." In "Chocolatier" you are a--well, chocolatier--and you travel around the world finding recipes, sourcing ingredients, and selling your wares. It's actually a lot of fun, and highly playable for me, because it appeals to my love of systems (and chocolate.) Of course, after the one hour trial, you either have to buy it for $19.95 or play it in 5-minute "extended trials." I tried to buy, it but yahoo locked down on my credit card account for some reason, and I was so hooked I literally kept playing this game for two more hours, five minutes at a time.

After losing some ground in the first few "extended trials" I developed a plan for how to use my five minutes most effectively. There are some missions that are so time consuming (switching one of your factories to a new kind of chocolate, for example) that you can only really start them at the beginning of the time, or the clock will run out in the middle, and all your work will be lost. So, I worked on getting my factories setup at the top of the five minutes, and sourced ingredients at the end. I was getting quite a little system going, really.

Honestly this five minute extended trial has added a whole new dimension to the game for me. Now I'm not even sure I want to buy it, because only having five minutes at a time adds another level of challenge.

Anyway, I highly recommend "Chocolatier" for anyone who has a five minute attention span, and enjoys systems.

Cult of Personality

I have long been fascinated by personality tests. I took a Myers-Briggs test a few years back, and discovered that I have a "rare" personality type: the INTJ. INTJs are rare enough out in the world (only about 1% of the population), but female INTJs are about as rare as it gets (25% of that 1%).

Having been given a reason for some introspection lately, I have gone back to the old Myers-Briggs information to do some "soul" searching.

Upon my search for meaning, I came across www.personalitypage.com which had the following to say:

INTJ Strengths:

• Not threatened by conflict or criticism
• Usually self-confident
• Take their relationships and commitments seriously
• Generally extremely intelligent and capable
• Able to leave a relationship which should be ended, although they may dwell on it in their minds for awhile afterwards
• Interested in "optimizing" their relationships
• Good listeners

INTJ Weaknesses:

• Not naturally in tune with others feelings; may be insensitive at times
• May tend to respond to conflict with logic and reason, rather than the desired emotional support
  
• Not naturally good at expressing feelings and affections
• Tendency to believe that they're always right
• Tendency to be unwilling or unable to accept blame
• Their constant quest to improve everything may be taxing on relationships
• Tend to hold back part of themselves

I have struggled with a lot of these weaknesses in my relationships, and while it's nice to know that they are a part of my personality, I can't seem to figure out how to reconcile them with my life.

You simply can't use "It's who I am" as an excuse for being insensitve. At the same time, my partner should be understanding of who I am, and what that means. I don't always see what other people need, and I have an almost unreasonable expectation for explicit communication from others, who don't always "get" why I need such explicitness.

Here's a case study of that need for explicitness: if I don't think I need to do something and you ask me to do it, I'm not going to do it unless I know (and perhpas more importantly, understand) why you need me to do it. It really isn't enough that you ask me to do it. It doesn't mean that I don't care about you. It means that I don't operate the same way you do.

I have often heard about the perception that men generally think that INTJ women are the "perfect" wives because we value independence and communicate directly. But the problem is that we actually are independent and really do communicate directly, often without regard for other people's feelings. So I'm really trying to be more sensitive, but there's only so far I can go.

That's enough introspection for a Monday morning.

Sex and Death 101

Today is the final day of the Seattle International Film Festival, and I had a day chock full of cinematic goodies.

First, I watched the final film of the Secret Festival, which obviously I can't tell you about, because it's a secret. Suffice it to say that it was a good film, and definitely the best of the three secret movies that I saw, but that's not really saying much. I'm not really sure that the films they showed this year were worth the $12/ticket price of admission, especially since I didn't get to see either of the two movies I was really hoping to see, secretly.

Next, I watched "Interview" which was directed by (and starred) Steve Buschemi. He stayed for a Q&A after the film, which was pretty interesting. It was a nice character-driven piece about the trappings of celebrity and snobbery, with a bit of intrigue thrown in. It was a remake of a dutch film by Theo van Gogh, who was murdered as a result of a short he made about sexual abuse endured by Muslim women. (Which has nothing whatsoever to do with this film.) Two of his other films are about to be remade, one by Stanley Tucci, and one possibly by John Turturro. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, so I'll look for the others. The original version of the film wasn't released in the states, but Mr. Buschemi said that they might release this version and the original on DVD together. It would definitely be worth watching.

The last movie I saw today (although I had tickets for a fourth movie, I just couldn't sit there for one more minute) was "Sex and Death 101" which was written and directed by Daniel Waters, the writer of "Heathers." The tone of the film was similar to "Heathers," with elements of surrealism and some pretty outlandish humor (not to mention Winona Ryder trying to kill people). I really liked this movie, but it wasn't quite awesome. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a dark comedy today. I don't know. It didn't hit me right.

Anyway, as for my personal crises, still nothing to report. Hopefully things will turn out for the best. A phone conference with Sherry proved to be both uplifting and revealing. Apparently those who have known me longest and best have been on red-alert for a while now. What can you do?

"Race" for the Cure

Today I participated in the 5k "Race" for the Cure on the viaduct. I put race in quotes because it's hard for 20,000 people to "race" anywhere, since we really just walked like sheep being lead to pasture. That's not quite the way my Jewish husband put it, but I don't really feel comfortable making jokes about the holocaust. It was a nice day for a walk, so I enjoyed that part, but I don't like being that close to strangers, so it was a bit of a challenge for me. I also could have done without the cheerleaders.

Steven has some lovely pictures of the crowd on his blog. Why is it that Steven's cameraphone pictures are better than pictures I take with a normal camera? But I digress...

Paranoiac that I am, I kept having visions of the viaduct crumbling to its foundation with all of us cancer racers on it. I can't imagine how that thing can still hold cars. I think I'll avoid doing any driving on it in case the big one (or even the teeny tiny one) hits.

After the race I had an interesting conversation with my husband, the final results of which remain to be seen. It's been hard on us with him working so much (literally 20 hour workdays), but I'm sure that things will work out the way they are meant to, whatever that is.