Thursday, December 18, 2008

Handwriting analysis....

I couldn't help myself. My friend Heather completed one and I was a little too curious and caved...



"

This personality profile is based on the writing of K W created at the website: Handwriting Wizard.com - Handwriting University's Official automated personality report creator based on standardized basic personality traits as taught through Handwriting University's Certification Level Program.

K is moderately outgoing. Her emotions are stirred by sympathy and heart rendering stories. In fact, she can be kind, friendly, affectionate and considerate of others. She has the ability to put herself into the other person's shoes.

K will be somewhat moody, with highs and lows. Sometimes she will be happy, the next day she might be sad. She has the unique ability to get along equally well with what psychology calls introverts and extroverts. This is because she is in between. Psychology calls K an ambivert. She understands the needs of both types. Although they get along, she will not tolerate anyone that is too "far out." She doesn't sway too far one way or the other.

When convincing her to buy a product or an idea, a heart rendering story could mean a great deal to her. She puts herself in the same situation as the person in the story, yet she will not buy anything that seems overly impractical or illogical. K is an expressive person. She outwardly shows her emotions. She may even show traces of tears when hearing a sad story.

K is a "middle-of-the-roader," politically as well as logically. She weighs both sides of an issue, sits on the fence, and then will decide when she finally has to. She basically doesn't relate to any far out ideas and usually won't go to the extreme on any issue.

People that write their letters in an average height and average size are moderate in their ability to interact socially. According to the data input, K doesn't write too large or too small, indicating a balanced ability to be social and interact with others.

K will be candid and direct when expressing her opinion. She will tell them what she thinks if they ask for it, whether they like it or not. So, if they don't really want her opinion, don't ask for it!

K has a desire for attention. People around K will notice this need. She may fulfill this need by a variety of ways depending on her own character.

K can be defiant. She sometimes has the attitude that if someone doesn't like it the way she is doing it, then they can just "go to hell!" This trait may reveal itself in a rebellious nature that is always ready to resist forces which she thinks are infringing upon her freedom of action.

In reference to K's mental abilities, she has a very investigating and creating mind. She investigates projects rapidly because she is curious about many things. She gets involved in many projects that seem good at the beginning, but she soon must slow down and look at all the angles. She probably gets too many things going at once. When K slows down, then she becomes more creative than before. Since it takes time to be creative, she must slow down to do it. She then decides what projects she has time to finish. Thus she finishes at a slower pace than when she started the project.

She has the best of two kinds of minds. One is the quick investigating mind. The other is the creative mind. Her mind thinks quick and rapidly in the investigative mode. She can learn quicker, investigate more, and think faster. K can then switch into her low gear. When she is in the slower mode, she can be creative, remember longer and stack facts in a logical manner. She is more logical this way and can climb mental mountains with a much better grip.

K is a practical person whose goals are planned, practical, and down to earth. This is typical of people with normal healthy self-esteem. She needs to visualize the end of a project before she starts. she finds joy in anticipation and planning. Notice that I said she plans everything she is going to do, that doesn't necessarily mean things go as planned. K basically feels good about herself. She has a positive self-esteem which contributes to her success. She feels she has the ability to achieve anything she sets her mind to. However, she sets her goals using practicality-- not too "out of reach". She has enough self-confidence to leave a bad situation, yet, she will not take great risks, as they relate to her goals. A good esteem is one key to a happy life. Although there is room for improvement in the confidence catagery, her self-perception is better than average.

Something is incomplete in K's life. She feels frustration relating to her physical needs and desires. Somewhere in her life there is some disappointment, non-fulfillment, and interruption. This is very likely to relate to K's sexual needs.

K is constantly disappointed when trying to reach success. She works very hard, perhaps harder than most, then just before succeeding, something happens that keeps her from success. Often, K changes to a second project just before the first one is finished, thus failing to complete the first project. Sometimes she changes because she feels she needs a different challenge. K feels dejected. This feeling relates to her failures. This trait is very important in a working situation and in a relationship. She must be handled in a very special way to get the most work from her or to make a relationship last. Concerning this trait, personality modification is available to change her life.

K has a healthy imagination and displays a fair amount of trust. She lets new people into her circle of friends. She uses her imagination to understand new ideas, things, and people.

K exaggerates about everything that has a physical nature. Although she may not intend to deceive or mislead, she blows things way out of proportion because that is the way she views them. She will be a good story teller. This exaggeration relates to all areas of her material world. K allows many people into her life because she is accepting and trusting. She is sometimes called gullible by her friends. That only really means that she trusts too many people. K has a vivid imagination.

K has a very unusual lower zone y loop. If the data input is correct, K's y or g is large and opens up to the left side of the page. This is not a common trait, but the implications are very interesting. As you begin to study handwriting analysis, you will learn any loop indicates imagination. This lower loop indicates the amount of imagination K has regarding sex and physical things. So, her lower zone stroke is large, so her sexual imagination is large and open. Furthermore, because the loop is incomplete and extends to the left, this indicates a particular fascination with certain aspects of sexuality that have not been fulfilled, yet. In a nutshell, K is open to some very new ideas sexually and is willing to try anything once.

K has a very unusual lower zone y loop. If the data input is correct, K's y or g is large and has triangle shape to the lower loop. This is not a common trait, but the implications are very interesting. As you begin to study handwriting analysis, you will learn any loop indicates imagination. This lower loop indicates the amount of imagination K has regarding sex and physical things. Her lower zone stroke is large, so her sexual imagination is large and open. Furthermore, because the loop has a triangle shape, this indicates a particular curiosity with certain aspects of sexuality. In a nutshell, K is open to some very new ideas sexually and is willing to try anything once. I'd say K is quite a dynamic and playful lover. Watch out world!

For a graphologist, the spacing on the page reflects the writer's attitude toward their own world and relationship to things in his or her own space. If the inputted data was correct K has left some white space on the left side of the paper. K fills up the rest of the page in a normal fashion moving the entire writing rightward as she moves down the page. If this is true, then K has a healthy relationship to the past and is ready to move on. The right side of the page represents the future and K is ready and willing to get started living now and planning for the future. K is leaving the past behind and moving on to what she perceives as an exciting and enticing future."

Expatriation

I was reminded today that I lived a very sheltered life. I'm not going to go into the details of what triggered this reminder, but I realized that I had allowed myself to succumb to a very dangerous mindset - egocentrism. This is something I've spent a great portion of my life fighting against in other people because it was this nasty little bug that caused me great pain many years ago and from that I've been able to see how it causes pain in others. It is destructive and in the grand scheme of things, very little good comes of it.

For anyone who has caught the brunt of the version of me that's not myself that's been fermenting for the last 4 months or so, I'm sorry - so very, very sorry. In light of this, my mind often turns to my greatest Teacher. This particular gentleman (meant in the truest sense) is known to a number of other students as a master teacher. I've sat through many of his lectures but until I wasn't until college that I started to take stock in what he'd been trying to teach me all of those previous years. It was then, and only then, did the world open up further to my eyes. The times when I failed to remember my lessons were when a whole other Me was created - one that had fallen into a subconscious inawareness, where I wasn't what I really wanted to be. But, like the master teacher he was, he'd check in on me from time to time to see how I was doing and I'd awaken from the other conscious, and realize, again, almost with the same initial zeal as I had many years ago, that someone who is so afraid, unkind, unaware, stagnant and just wholly self-centered, wasn't for me.

So I walk away...

Monday, December 08, 2008

Forbidden cake?

I was in the shower this evening pondering life as I scrubbed it off at the same time, and I got to thinking (I do my most profound thinking while in the shower, btw) about defying idioms. There's one in particular that I've been at odds with lately, namely the one that goes "You can't have your cake and eat it too."

Why not?

I know this idiom refers the choices and sacrifices that must be made when we come to those penultimate crossroads in life, but I've come to despise the times when people use this phrase defensively or haphazardly in a debate. Who honestly thinks this could even possibly applies to every situation?

Yes, I will agree there are those situations that exist where you cannot have it both ways (i.e. simultaneously dating more than one individual for a substantial length of time, for the lack of a less pitiful example). And barring matters of the heart, where you really can't have it both ways, any other supposed "tough choice" where merely presents itself to me as a challenge with a less obvious solution just WAITING to be solved.

Maybe I'm taking this too lightly. Am I'm neglecting those situations where there are more than one scheming individual involved? No, no, no...I thought of those as well. In those pinches, it's just your job to out think the others. To very loosely reference "The Art of War", you must come to know you enemy if you are to defeat him. If you're as good as you think you are, you'll be able to jerry-rig the situation to your favor.

In light of the way this argument has turned, it almost seems like if you want your cake and to enjoy it, you need to work for it. Maybe it's really suppose to mean, you can have your cake after you've put in your time, have gone through the lengths to learn to make it correctly, being the mindful creator. And once it's reached its perfection, through trial and error, you'll have something worth enjoying.

...that is, unless you've become sick of testing cake and the frustration that can come piggy-backed with this ordeal, then in that case, you really would have your cake, but couldn't eat it, as well....

hmm....

Monday, December 01, 2008

Profit and learning

I once heard a statement that went something along the lines of, "Within every criticism, there is a kernel of truth. It is our duty to find this truth and build upon it." Now, it is not my intention to necessarily focus on criticism, constructive or otherwise, but rather the rooting out the kernel of truth. It seems like we often find ourselves in various situations where we consider ourselves fortunate or unfortunate, I know I do, but then I habitually ask myself, Why? I try not to ask this so much with the fortunate situations, but the latter begs it to be asked overwhelmingly more.

Asking Why in an unfortunate situation initially presents itself as a third-party plea for pity, but for some of us, its merely because we're trying to learn from our mistakes - rooting for that kernel of truth that we are to learn from and build upon, and I think it is this mind frame that needs to be striven for more by society. It possess an air of responsibility and ownership that seems to be lacking to a certain extent in today's society, as well as the spirit of progression. Yes, not-so-ideal things happen, some were under our control, others weren't. It is the essence of the advanced human race to progress forward, and that can only occur through learning:

1 : the act or experience of one that learns
2
: knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study
3
: modification of a behavioral tendency by experience (as exposure to conditioning)
synonyms see knowledge from m-w.com


To learn is to apply knowledge, and what is knowledge but solidified truth....

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Midnight Musing Section

Curse the nights you can't sleep because you took a nap earlier in the day. *sigh*

Monday, November 17, 2008

Jill of all trades...and a balancing act of many

There was a time in my life when studying the human brain scared the crap out of me. It wasn't the physical anatomy of it, but more the applied physiology part of it all. I know, hard to believe, now that I'm strongly considering a specialty in Neuro rehabilitation in addition to sports medicine, and automatically psychoanalyze everyone as a result of my fields as well. One thing about neuroscience that has always fascinated me is hemispheric dominance. Those who are more Right brain dominant are the artists, creative thinkers, whereas the Left dominants are more apt with math, facts/figures, and science related items. So, what happens when you're supposedly both?

I recently took a self-administered exam that was to generally suggest which side of your gray matter was more dominant, after the scoring had completed it was apparent that I was...equal... right and left brained. Talk about frustration! Here I am, a woman of science, and yet....I half wish I had pursued a career in a more creative arena. I recently commented to my roommate and her boyfriend that if I was smarter that I would have gone into music. I realize I had misspoke when I implied that someone has to be more intelligent to tackle music than a science profession, or that I was regretting my decision to pursue physical therapy. I love my work in athletic training and physical therapy, but I was blessed with a mind that likes and loves a lot of other things...

I admired those who, in their chosen profession, are ultimately driven and focused; those who have TRULY specialized. There are days I wish I was that focused in what I do. These are they who I think make the great discoveries because they don't bog their mind with irrelevant information. Maybe they do and I'm just vying after an intellectual gift that I wasn't meant to have. Maybe I'm just jealous. Actually, I am jealous. I've always wanted to be one of those people with a photographic memory who could do multivariable calculus and diff eq in their sleep while they save Africa from a starvation epidemic with some brilliant economic idea and pretty much performed any task given to them with flawless execution. Flawless. mind you.

Some might say that this impossible delusion is what drives me to force myself into experience various things, but if that was the case, I wouldn't be as ultimately happy as I am, I don't believe. (PS, blogger's spell check is faulty, it didn't recognize ulitmately as being incorrect... and still doesn't actually). I'd be in a consistently stressed state of depression from continually recognizing that I'm falling short of my ideal. Always. Perfection cannot exist in this mortal life. But we can sure as hell try...

I may be a master of none of my interests, but I think the key is not necessarily how much is instantly retained and immaculately applied, granted that is a large component, rather the heart that goes into it. This is most likely the still jealous part of me jabbering but I don't care. Barring raw, innate talent, I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone you admire who didn't take an active interest in their work. They're constantly reseraching, studying, making sure information is correct and current. They analyze what's working for them, what isn't and make appropriate adjustments. They, too, have their own ultimate goal for which they are striving but weren't afraid to do what it took to go after it. (Even though I'm not necessarily referring to formal occupations, this probably could be applied to that realm to a certain extent. To me, a job is work that you don't like but it's a paycheck. An occupation isn't work, but activities that could be described as a job, but you wouldn't know it. All about the mindframe).

So how do you reconcile what you want with what you know you're pretty much given?

My advice...stop comparing yourself to others and concern yourself with culturing your own level of interest, as long as you enjoy it. As soon as you stop enjoying whatever is important to you is when you need to take a break, step back, and let the scales balance out.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The road to the exta mile is never busy...

I remember when my oldest brother had just begun college, it was when email was first making it's mark on society. We had this whole list of instructions to perform to (for the most part I remember having to hit the return key 4 times on two separate occasions - but back then I had that routine down PAT!) just to be able to send this message over some modem connection through ASU servers and on to BYU. However, as the world wide web progressed to version 2.0 from the analog green screen action we were introduced to, his emails one day had this tagline at the end: "The road to the extra mile is never busy."

This phrase struck me much like any other meaningful phrase would, but it found it's way to my soul, for lack of a better, less cliche phrase. It's curiously amazing at how true that phrase is, that the road to the extra mile is never busy, but why? What is it about putting forth that above-par effort that is so repulsive? It's true, as organic organisms who are bound to the laws and suggestions of physics and chemistry, we tend to prefer paths of least resistance. It conserves energy, allowing us to store up for more worthy and worthwhile ventures. It also keeps us out of messy matters, thereby saving the added extra resources devoted to clean-up. I'm sure there are other reasons that I haven't mulled over while sitting here, but for the time being, we'll play with these.

And then you have those who don't mind expending the extra energy. What is it about being around those who don't mind taking the extra time that almost makes you, the regular Joe Shmoe, mildly guilty, or envious, jealous, or resentful of that other individual? I guess it depends on how we value our time and involvement in a project as it's compared to effectiveness. We tend to put more time and effort into things we value and have an interest in, whereas those other items and projects that are left over get assigned a lower level on the priority totem pole, leaving them at the mercy of superficial attention. To be fair, though, it would be near impossible to give everything in our lives equal amount of attention.

But we can sure the hell try.... Why? Why not. I guess my biggest problem with peers being lackadaisical when it comes to helping one another. One of my interests is people. I love people (everyone has a story to tell), and I can't remember a time when I didn't really like people. Yes, I know there are those out there who feel the exact opposite of me on this topic, but hear me out and allow me to make a case for improved quality of civil service. At the root of it all, people need each other (sorry, Bon Jovi). It doesn't necessarily matter for what purpose, but, again, at the root, I believe it to be psychological. In this particular time when we're the most psychologically distant from those we don't know, I believe many of our problems, both personal and social, could be mediated, curbed, remedied, what have you, by the simple investment of time and genuine interest. That man next to you in the street is your brother whether you like it or not, and in the end, each other is all we've got. The least we can do is take care of one another.

Yes, it may take some time out of our busy schedules, but the road to the extra mile is never busy... and I believe the potential benefits, while not assured, to be worth the effort.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

To one it was given 5 and to another 3....

What is it about the experiences that we don't have that make them so attractive? The proverbial greener grass, I suppose, but at the same time, I can't help but be curious. I'm curious to what about each of our lives that warrant certain people to experience certain things and others not. Additionally, there seems to be more ways to skin a cat when it comes to learning a central concept. In my short-sighted view, I cannot help but relate my life to this case.

For instance, a good friend of mine was recently told by a significant other that it was time they go separate ways after being together for nearly 2 years and it's been evident that it's hit my friend very hard. He's been muscling through it, but I've coached enough of my friends through relationship endings to know better. I've always found a bit of irony when I find myself in a well-worn confidant seat in that I've never been in a long standing relationship and, in theory, I should be the last person anyone turns to for understanding, sympathy, and salving advice. Maybe it's because I just happen to be standing there at the time, who knows, but at the same time, what is a love lost but nothing more than a lost friend. And I know lost friends.

I've always wondered what my friends were suppose to have learned from failed relationships. I believe everything happens for a reason, for our own profit and learning if you will (and I will). For everyone it's different with every episode, for some it's to learn respect, for others, it might be to gain emotional strength, and for yet another it might be to learn to be selfless. But, if I may be selfish for a moment, I can't help by wonder why I've never had that luxury. Everytime I express this sentiment, I'm consistently told that I'm lucky, but is that true? To never have that banter with another human being, to never have a broken heart....it almost seems to be part of the quintessential human experience to have your heart broken at least once.

However, while I cannot sympathize, I can empathize. I may not have a resume for matters of the heart, but I do have a resume for interpersonal relationships. And as I said before, what is love lost, but nothing more than a lost friend. Love comes in many forms, and the purest form, the kind that lasts forever, I believe is a combination of them all. In my profession, I don't just treat musculoskeletal conditions, I treat people. It's on that basic level that I maintain everything should exist, and that is how I treat my patients and athletes. I treat them as a person, and is that not how a friend treats another friends, or a lover treats a significant other?

So I guess the moral of the story is that I should consider myself lucky... and yet I still wonder about that other patch of grass...

and for those of you who are still curious, I've never had a relationship because the timing has never been right. My education and my work present a daunting exterior to prospective suitors - someone like me is not for the faint of heart. I've always remained open to the challenge and the opportunity of devoting myself to just one person, however, there are some lessons I still need to learn apparently before I am granted that privilege. And it is a privilege.... never treat it like it isn't. Until then, I devote myself to the people I am called upon to mend...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Hope for the pack rats

I know I shouldn't be writing this, but I am anyway. Over the past few days, I've been thinking about how I don't really keep records of my life in traditional ways. I've tried journals, believe me, but I just can't keep them. I'm insanely lazy when it comes to documenting my existence formally, and I use to make the excuse that my being a pack rat does that for me anyway. It's true, I keep just about everything. There are those out there cringing at the very thought of all the stuff that I've accumulated, but I can't help it. I'm a sentimentalist, it's my way of showing what I've done and where I've been (sort of), it helps me remember past times, and it's bailed me out of some sticky situations (like when I was applying to PT schools - THIS IS WHY YOU KEEP YOUR SYLLABI!).

Yet, at the rate of accumulation I'm currently proceeding at, I'm going to end up like my father. Not that I don't love my father, believe you me, I am my father's child (in many more ways than one), but there just comes a time when there is too much stuff to go through. When I feel so fed up with the stuff that I have, I wish I was more judicial and pragmatic as my mother (and just so you know, I'm as equally like my mother as I am my father - it's the price I pay being the baby of 3 kids, the older 2 are 7-9 years head of me, respectively). So you can see where my internal torment arises from, lol. Yet I can't bring myself to throw certain things away. I guess it's because I have this looming fear that I'm going to forget. I hate forgetting. I've been forgotten by my peers a number of times when I was growing up and I vowed that I would never do that to someone else. As a consequence of that vow and also being a very visual person, I need physical things to help keep me on track with that goal, a goal that has expanded beyond interpersonal relationships to every other aspect of my life.

I guess keeping things also feeds my other pseudoly subconscious fear of never being known. For example, the only way anyone outside of my athletic training program would have known that I had been there and performed as well as I did (or at least think I did) would be if you looked at the injury treatment records, a few select game films or talked to my CI's. At the same time, I get slapped with examples that my fears are silly and superficial ( like when I hear about former athletes still asking for me to treat them).

What is it about being forgotten that bothers me? Why do I even care so much? I guess I just want my progeny to know that they're ancestor lived. Some may never get the chance to know me, and I want them to know that they had a good example to look to, and from whom they might have gotten some of their traits. *smirk* It may also have to do the fact that I draw most of my identity from my relatives. I had a cool experience this summer where I was finally introduced to two sections of my family that I had only heard about but never met. The first being my biological grandfather's side of the family as a whole. Due to some poor decisions on my grandfather's part, he's never been apart of my life, and as a consequence neither have my great uncles and subsequent cousins on that side, until my great uncle "Shorty" passed away out in Dallas area. Consequently enough, his funeral coincided with my family's trip to see my brother out in Dallas, so we had the opportunity to attend. That was probably one of the sweetest, most self-defining occasions of my life, as I came to know a man who I wish I had known in this mortal life - what a good soul he was, and what he had meant to my father. Also, that man's children and what good people they were, and that it was only my grandfather who was the only "bad seed" so to speak. I had cousins! This probably isn't as exciting to some people, but when you come from a relatively small family, it means a little more.

Also, consequently, I had the opportunity to meet my father's father. The man that I had never known and was discouraged to ask my father about...he was nothing more than a man to me. We were cordial to one another and that was about it. It was weird for me to look at him and think this is my grandfather and to not have any sort of attachment come flooding over me like I do when I think of my mother's father, and even then he passed away when I was 12. The last thing I need this to turn into is a sob story about the lack of male authority figures in my life, but at the same time, it explains so much of me...

Due to my birth order, I've had to come to know many of the people in my life through their writings, their possessions, records, pictures, scraps of paper, knicknacks, and stories! My example for this comes from my great aunt's funeral I attended to support my father's mother out in Safford, AZ. My grandmother came from a fairly large family in the Pima, AZ area, which is a large farming community. A number of her siblings stayed local or in surrounding smaller towns, and since my grandmother moved to the valley after she married, that's another section of family I had never really known. I met some at a family reunion back in 1997, but I was 13 and who are we kidding, I barely remember meeting anyone. (I also realize now that everytime I lose a relative, I gain about 15 more at their funeral). But to get off that tangent, for my grandmother's family, I had only known them through stories and letters and a few pictures. It was a treat to finally put faces with the names I had so often heard from her. Meeting my great-aunts and reintroducing myself to the great-uncles and the various cousins was different - I formed attachments that day, ones that I didn't even know about until months later. (My great aunt Elouise later told my grandmother in a phone call that I was the first person in a long time who had just treated her like a human being when I met her - a great source of pride for my grandmother for one (I'll explain another time) but also for me, as that comment was a measurement for how I treat people I barely know).

I get jealous of those who still have their great grandparents living and have both sets of grandparents with lots of cousins to bend upon, but at the same time, I wouldn't wouldn't change much about my family... only that I wish we all lived much closer to one another so I can hear the stories on a more regular basis and feel the love and safety more often.

Moral of the story: it's okay to be a pack rat...