Salon.com Life | Yes, I’ve had tarry bowel movements! So what?

Salon.com Life | Yes, I’ve had tarry bowel movements! So what?

This is a good read for anyone who feels compelled to label themselves during an introduction by tacking on their Myers-Briggs score.

I’ve pretty much refused to take the Myers-Briggs test, as well as many other ‘recognized’ personality tests. In my case it is not that I believe them to be invalid; I just refuse to be pigeon-holed. I prefer people to not have preconceptions about me based on how I felt when answering a subjective test on a given day. I have known people who cater to what they believe is their personality type, and never consider that their personality can change, if they want it to. I revel in change. Chaos is my bitch. I will not take your silly tests.

Blood Money

So, I’m sitting here in Atlanta. We’re at DragonCon, and are supremely happy to be out of Tampa for the weekend. (Well, Nan and I are. Mel is in limbo at the momemt.) Nan is in the shower, and Mel and I are watching the Weather Channel to see how bad of a beating Florida is taking from hurricane Frances. Up pops a commercial for a new commerative coin. It is made in tribute to the World Trade Center and the as of yet unbuilt Freedom Tower. One of the ‘features’ of this coin is that it was made from silver recovered from a vault in the trade center. The world trade center has been a favorite target of terrorists because it was a huge symbol of the economic power that the US has wielded over other countries. The target is hit, thousands die, and silver recovered (probably from one of the very banks used to fincancially force the will of the US on other countries) and it is used for a collector’s coin.

I can’t imagine a coin more bathed in blood than this one. I wonder if they are only making 30 pieces of this particular silver?

ESP

ESP has many meanings. The two most scientific descriptions of this would be:
“Something of which a Human can percieve but is not detectable with the ‘Five Senses’.”
Or, the expanded version “Something of which a Human can percieve but is not detectable with modern scientific apparatus.” When ESP appears in television or books, it is often accompanied with the trappings of mysticism. I suppose that is only natural, for as Aurther C Clark said, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The truth is that we just haven’t learned the mechanism, and therefore we can’t devise equipment to detect the presense of such activity.

For me, ESP means doing something incredible to impress dates. 🙂

From 1994 to 1995 I lived in a second floor apartment in a converted victorian in San Francisco. For a few months there was a guy living below me named Trevor. Trevor liked to listen to very loud music. So loud that when my room mate Robin would go down and kick his door Trevor wouldn’t even hear it. Trevor’s ears were for shit. His mind, on the other hand, could hear whispers.

One night the music was loud and I was tired. I started to think about how if the music didn’t quiet down soon I was going to have to go down there, and I wasn’t going to kick on the door. Silence. The music was turned off. I’m sure I dnd’t even think about it that first time. But then, every time I would find myself thinking about my threshold before I was going to go down there the music would silence. It never failed, either to work or to impress dates.

I never did ask Trevor about the timing of his turning off his music. It was never at the same time, but it was always when I thought about my annoyance. I just kind of took the situation for granted. Silly me.

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