StrengthsFinder 2.0

For the big annual planning meeting (where we work on personal and company development), we're each going to receive a copy of this book and take the corresponding personality quiz.

It seems like a pretty cool idea in general: instead of focusing on the things you are bad at that would be really difficult to change, it focuses on your strengths and how to work with them to achieve your life's goals. Well that is my interpretation of it (obviously I haven't read the book yet).

The thing is, I'm really nervous. I really like my strengths, and I think I generally use them gracefully, but I don't think they are good (or typical) engineering strengths. Many of my coworkers probably already suspect this. But I don't want them to know for sure. I don't want them to know that I'm not an Acheiver or Deliberative, that I lack Discipline and Responsibility... I am afraid what they will think when they discover that I am a spaz and a dreamer.

A Thoroughly Creepy Dream

I was riding the train into work when we slowed down unexpectedly. Out the window to the left was what looked to be the abandoned remains of an old train. I had never noticed any trains abandoned on this route before, so I was surprised to see it. I peered out the window and realized that it hadn't been there long. Quite recently, the top had been blown off entirely and there were people sitting in every seat. Their faces were frozen and waxy, like dolls' faces with their eyes wide open. There wasn't any blood, just black singed hair, skin, and clothing. A couple hundred yards further, on the right-hand side lay another burnt and smoking train, and then somebody in our car received word that the subways had also been bombed.

I looked for my sister Esmerelda, who'd boarded the train with me, but she had moved further up in the car to find an available seet and was now lost in the shuffle. As we approached a familiar at-grade crossing, the air became thick with grey soot; papers and debris floated everywhere, and people were just roaming the streets. The conductor blared the horn, because we wouldn't have been able to stop anyways, and fortunately all of the people managed to get out of the way.

Finally pulling into the station, the city was unrecognizeable. There were hardly any people, and most of them were wandering aimlessly, standing around on street corners smoking or leering at the few people who were hurrying to their destinations. Every time I saw someone who looked like my sister and called out her name, the person would turn out to be a hooker on a bicycle or something. I finally decided the best bet would be to go to my office and call my house to see if anyone had received word from her.

I reached the office and there was only one other person from my company. We went through the phone list, recalling that this person was on vacation, this person had been in a meeting in DC... we had to call our homes and then the other employees to make sure they didn't try to come in to work today.

Home Terminology

Why does everyone refer to a "house" as a "home"?

As in "they just put in a new row of luxury homes," or "we just bought our first home." I hate thinking of it as a commodity that could be constructed or purchased just like that. Really, the physical building is more of the shell of the home, just as the body is the shell of the soul. And it can be in any sort of place, not just a single-family dwelling: rental apartment, old shack, college dormitory... I have found home in all of these places.

Home is something sacred, the place where a person feels safe, accepted, and unconditionally loved. You cannot purchase it with money and you cannot build it simply with a construction crew and a pile of 2x4s. It is something that is patiently woven by delicate spiders with warm and pulsing hearts. These spiders do not even need to be related.

Equating house with home degrades that beautiful word into something that can simply be fabricated with enough cash. Developers use the pleasant imagery conjured by the term to achieve their aims, to sell their product to accepting families who believe the purchase will finally provide a “home.” But what a lot of people don’t realize is that the home is something that we carry in our hearts whenever we dwell with those we love. Referring to the physical structure as a home seriously limits our thinking.

Heheh... and anyway, how will we ever fight suburban sprawl if everyone thinks this is the only option?

A Grand Day Out

"Hector." Mrs. Gobbles glanced over at her husband. "Please be serious."
“Sorry sorry, Augustina.” Mr. Gobbles eyes scanned the perpetually-shifting swarm of offspring. “Have we got everybody? Wobbles… Hobbles… Squabbles…”
“Mom, Dad, can we go now? Can we go yet?”
“No it’s not safe just yet.” Augustina herded a recalcitrant child back towards the group while her dear husband continued to count the bouncing little heads.
“Hang on… Flobbles… Dobbles… All right, we have everyone.”

Mr. and Mrs. Gobbles peered carefully to the left and then to the right and finally to the left again. The coast was clear.
“Okay. Everyone, GO!”

And with the skittering of fifteen sets of talons on tarmac, the turkey family crossed the road to the shady brush on the other side.

Life Lessons Learned

1. Do not buy CDs from street performers. They'll almost always disappoint: rarely sounding as good on the recording as they do in real life. Oh he had such a LOVELY voice... coupled with that small guitar... what purpose did it serve to throw in the synthesizers???
   
2. Vehicles need to be registered in the state of Massachusetts, except for bicycles.
   
3. Do not park a scooter on the sidewalk at Walden Pond. This is no longer the mid-nineteenth century. We have RULES, people. We have a tourist attraction to run.
   
4. Even on the eve of the seventh Harry Potter book, when all the world is dressed in geeky black robes, wearing pointed hats, and reveling in the streets of Harvard Square, you will still find an enthusiastically devoted contingency of Red Sox fans huddled around the TV in the store window, oblivious to the magical mayhem which surrounds them.
   
5. The man who stands behind the giant handmade puppet performing Hippie Karaoke with young children will immediately switch to singing about his favorite herb and moving the large plastic "cigarette" to the puppet's mouth once said children leave.
   
6. My gosh I love MA.
   

4th of July Conversation

For the celebration of our nation's Independence Day, my mother made blueberry muffins for breakfast, complete with red, white, and blue star confetti sprinkles on the tops. I was "supervising" my younger brother as he washed the dishes and he unwittingly blurted out something extremely alliterative. I don't remember what the original statement was, but we went back and forth a few times, trying to out-alliterate one another.

P: Amazingly awesome alliteration!
K: Wow! What wonderful words we witness.

At this point E stumbled into the room, just barely awake after a sound night's sleep. She did not appear pleased with all of the excessive and unnecessary yammering at so early an hour (on a state-sponsored holiday, no less), put us in our place with one swift, clean blow...

E: Breakfast before babble.

...and trailed into the other room, hair all poufed to one side and blanket dragging on the floor behind her.

Happy Independence Day!!!