Sunday, September 6, 2015

This I Believe #28, Freewriting

I will free write on the number 28 of my list, that sunsets are more beautiful than sunrises. I am having a hard time coming up with things to say when I'm more focused on keeping my hands moving,clacking away on the keys. Don't stop, bug think of something to say about sunsets. I like sunsets because... because because they signal that the day is ending. No more hot weather, no more heavy traffic. God I hate rush hour traffic. At three am you never encounter traffic jams in my town. I like driving at night. And I guess sunset is the barrier separating day from night. I am noticing typos now and I want so badly to stop and fix them. I wonder if i can fix them after the ten minutes of free writing is done. I hope so. They really bother me. The point of this is number twenty eight on my list. Free writing about sunsets being better than sunrises. A personal belief of mine. I guess that isn't a very heavy personal belief. Not like "I believe that the Republican party is the only hope for America!!!" or something like that. I guess it's really just a preference about which one a prefer. I feel like I should have written more already. This is difficult, and my left hand is starting to feel a little pained. I've never free written before. The colors of sunrises and sunsets are nearly identical aren't they? Is there any solid difference between the two? I wonder if i could look at a photo and distinguish if it was a sunrise or sunset. Sunrise sunset. Sunrise sunset. There is a song that begins with those words, but I can't think of who it's by right now. Maybe Elliott Smith? I'm not sure. Am I halfway done? I believe I am. I can't believe I haven't stopped writing this entire time. The sound of the fan is getting annoying, and I usually like white noise, but it's still distracting me from writing about sunsets. I think I've had so many good memories watching sunsets, they are when I can kick back, have some wine with friends, or sit on the front porch playing guitar. Night time always seems more fun to me. I remember when I was a kid, my father would work 2nd shift, getting home at midnight. I would force myself to stay awake and spend time with him. That was always fun. I wonder if that created my preference for night time over getting up very early. I wonder if that will change as I get older? I always hear that old people go to bed super early. Now I'm thinking of my grandmother because I typed old people. I need  to call my grandmother. It's been way too long. According to my clock I have one minute left of free writing. It's down to the home stretch. I think when that clock turns over to ten I'll stop just wherever a I am . Whatever sentence I happen to be on,  Sunrises are nice. I just like sunsets better. They are so much more rom

Times up. I was going to say more romantic. 528 words total. But they all sound like words from a child. I have a hard time appreciating this as anything other than gibberish.
Oh well. Freewriting.
Word count, 528 in ten minutes.

This I Believe


  1. I believe that I work hard
  2. I believe that the world is round
  3. I believe that science has most of the answers
  4. I believe science doesn't know everything, yet
  5. I believe in the importance of knowing other people
  6. I believe in the importance of knowing yourself
  7. I believe in the idea of marxism
  8. I believe that some ideas can never be executed in reality
  9. I believe that I'm running out of time.
  10. I believe that Springfield has the worst drivers of any city I've been to
  11. I believe that I am not one of them....
  12. I believe in family
  13. I believe in friends
  14. I believe in love
  15. I believe that love looks different to different people.
  16. I believe that our decisions are firmly planted in our perceptions
  17. I also believe that our perceptions can be terribly flawed.
  18. I believe that politicians get in the way of actually helping people
  19. I believe in term limits for all of congress.
  20. I believe that although America hasn't been perfect, we are still the best
  21. I believe that studying history is the best way to study ourselves.
  22. I believe I might be a little bit of a nerd, because I like history
  23. I believe this list keeps getting longer.
  24. I almost can't believe it actually
  25. I am halfway there, five minutes to go
  26. I believe those last two weren't really I believe sentences
  27. I believe that the time it takes to hold a door open for someone is time well spent
  28. I believe that sunsets are more beautiful than sunrises
  29. I believe that technology is life changing
  30. I believe that our children will some day be explaining a new piece of technology to us and we wont be able to understand how to use it in the slightest, which will aggravate the hell out of them.
  31. I believe we turn into our parents
  32. I believe that turning into my father scares me.
  33. I believe my father is a good man, one of the best.
  34. I believe I am jaded when it comes to a lot of things
  35. I believe I'm jaded when it comes to love
  36. I believe I'm cynical, that humans often times lie, cheat, and steal to do what is in their best interest
  37. I believe that I look at the wrong type of humans.
  38. I believe I should find better humans.
  39. I believe my ten minutes is up.
  40. I can't believe I just listed forty things that I believe.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Jung Typology and Writing

I am very excited to share my typology as based on the work of Carl Jung and the mother-daughter team of Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs. This test proved to be quite accurate, providing structure to the personality traits that I have always known I have had. Best of all it is based on the work of Carl Jung, my favorite psychologist, providing an even more exciting back drop to this test of self discovery. 
According to the test I scored as an INFP, with the following break down in categories: 
introvert, twelve percent
intuitive, fifty six percent
feeling, three percent
perceiving, sixty six percent

As you can see the categories of introvert and feeling were only marginally leaning in those directions, which I feel is in tune with my personality. I can definitely be extroverted at times. There are many times out of the day where I bask in the attention of others, even seek it out. The feeling category is even lower on the scale. At only three percent I'm almost split perfectly between feeling and thinking. This is another truth I find in myself. I relate well with others, sometimes even becoming overwhelmed by another person's emotions as I begin to empathize with them and feel them as my own emotions. But on the other side of that coin I do like things to be well thought out, using logic to get the results that I want. Like a chess player sometimes I find myself thinking several moves ahead.

As far as writing and my education go, with this personality test as well as my own personal examination of myself I believe I have pin pointed some weaknesses I possess. I am inherently a procrastinator. Putting things off to the last minute is often my downfall, as I become overwhelmed at the amount of work before me. According to the test results on leveraging this personality type in my favor a good way to resolve my problems with procrastination and deadlines is to set multiple smaller deadlines over the duration of the project I'm working on. This is definitely something I will be trying in the future.

One of the startlingly accurate personality traits in regard to my writing that an INFP possesses is difficulty with the beginning and end of a written work. This is all too true, as I struggle with those often. It also suggests that I begin writing by reflecting on the information at hand, as opposed to just diving right in to work. That is yet another true link to my personality, as I never start writing without first stopping to think through and plan all possible angles of the subject.

And now, true to my Jung Typology test I am struggling with the conclusion in this blog post. This is definitely a key issue I'll need to resolve in order to improve my writing. I am really quite glad to have taken this test though. It has shed some light on who I am both as a student and in my social life as well. I take all of these types of surveys with a grain of salt of course, as the saying goes. It does seem that you can never be impartial when answering questions about yourself. However, by being completely honest with yourself and the answers you give I can see just how helpful a test like this is, as it has definitely given me ideas to work on as well as strengths that I can play to.




    A First Time For Everything







    On the last day of the month I made my first blog post. Keeping consistent with my blog's name I've decided to link a video of something weird, wonderful, and a little bit wrong, by the God Father of the beat poet generation, William S. Burroughs. Burroughs has long been one of my favorite authors, and here he is giving a lecture to a class on creative writing at the Naropa Institute in Colorado during his later (and more coherent) years. Enjoy.