Brain

Hello world!

So, right at this moment, Mrs. Smith's web page is down so I can't look up the other pages I have to write tonight, but such is life.\

Anyway, last Wednesday (yes, I'm already behind in my work) we had a very interesting class period. During class we were told to complete a "Personality Puzzle" and an online survey by the Art Institute of Vancouver. I'll start off with the "Personality Puzzle."

This puzzle of personality pitted four adjectives in a group, and asked you to pick whichever fit your deep personality best. There were both strengths and weaknesses on this survey, including groups like Daring, Delightful, Diplomatic, or Detailed (I was "Diplomatic"), and groups like Worrier, Withdrawn, Wants Credit, Workaholic (Withdrawn). Yes, all of the groups started with the same letter. When you were done, the packet instructed to copy your answers onto the back, which put the adjective answers into four different groups. These groups were the Popular Sanguines, Powerful Choleric, Perfect Melancholy (keep this one in mind), and the Peaceful Phlegmatic. As demonstrated by the titles, the Popular Sanguines were very popular, but boastful and loud, the Powerful Choleric were awesome leaders, but manipulative and rude, the Perfect Melancholies were, to say the least, pretty much perfect, but were easily hurt, and the Peaceful Phlegmatics were low-key but selfish, lazy and indecisive.

Now, whoever wrote that packet worked very hard on that, and I have to give them kudos for the whole matching letters thing, but my brain and I have some problems with the whole grading system. Granted that these multiple-choice personality tests aren't the most effective way to generalizing a personality, but this grading system is not at all legitimate. Let me start my short rant from the top, the Popular Sanguine. In this category, there is a weakness of "can't remember names." In life, people are more likely to answer to their name because it makes them feel like the person cares about them. So, wouldn't someone who people enjoy being around be more likely to remember someone’s name from someone who is quiet and doesn't learn names as often? In the Powerful Choleric category, there are also faults to the assessment. This is the only category that has the strength of “Born Leader." Most of the people I follow do have leadership skills, but they also have people skills also, which is to say that about 75% of the weaknesses in this category don't apply to these leaders. The Peaceful Phlegmatic is my next victim. First of all, the author of this sheet has the attributes "Has administrative ability" along with "Lazy and careless" and "Lacks motivation." Hopefully that speaks for itself. Now, ladies and gentlemen, for the main event (insert dramatic music)! The Perfect Melancholy. I don't really have much of a problem with the other three categories, but this one just blew my fuse. I don't even have to get into the strengths and weaknesses for my first point, which is that there is a "Perfect" category.This says to kid who are pre-teens to about Sophmore-Juniors, "Hey, this is the only way you can be perfect, so adapt these qualities" As if kids in puberty don't already have enough on their minds. Next point. One of the weaknesses in this category is "Enjoys being hurt." First, please reference the last point I made. Second, no one enjoys being hurt. Being hurt is horrible, and although it can cause one to be stronger, one comment can also be the straw the camel’s back. I think the thing that bothers me the most, though, is that they have a category named "Perfect," not just of the whole self-insecure messages it brings out, but because of the nature of perfection. To have a "Perfect" personality, one would have to not have any weaknesses. This is impossible, for to not have a weakness is a weakness in itself. Weaknesses give one the ability to work on bettering that weakness. Since Dan Pink loves metaphors and so do I, I'll use one here. Personalities are like faces. They both have highlights and lowlights; some are beautiful, while some are ugly. People often have different criteria for judging them, and the ideal isn't always the best. Also, they both are never perfect. There is no one who has a perfectly smooth face which every detail is accounted for, and no one has a flawless personality either. In my perspective, life is a constant struggle to achieve perfection. You can't achieve perfection by just taking some little personality puzzle, and to be quite honest you can’t even get close. Overall, I think this survey was not so fabulous, but I defiantly give kudos to whoever made it for their hard work, because some other kids in the class seemed to really like it. Its ok that I didn't like it, though, because the next test made up for it.

Also that day, we took an online survey provided by the Art Institute of Vancouver that showed whether we were right or left brained. Here are my results: Click to open (sorry on the weird format, I just cut&copied)

As you can see, I am just a tich more left-brained than right-brained. Even though this is true, I was happy when I saw my results, because it means that I am still in the ballpark with the right side of my brain. Yes, I'll still have to start exercising that side of the mind, but that won’t be too hard. For example, just look at this layout on my Wiki! I personally think its pretty sicknasty, if I may say so myself. Not too shabby for someone who's 54% left-brained, eh (I especially like what I've done with the navigation bubble). Overall, the online quiz really showed me that I'm not too far off from becoming right-brain dominant, but I still have some work to go.

So, overall, the first quiz was sort of mediocre, but the second quiz was a good warning light to where I stood.