Personality Test

This "all knowing" test just told me that I am an extravert, intuitive, judging, and in touch with my feelings. For the most part I think it was pretty accurate. I'm pretty outgoing but mainly with people I know, not just around random strangers. Comedy is probably my biggest example of that. I guess I'm kind of intuitive but when I think of intuitive, I think of someone whose intellectual solutions to everything get in the way of everyone else having a good time. I think sensible is a better description. I do judge but I at least give people a chance to defend themselves before I arrive at a final verdict and even then, I don't shun them for it. And last but not least.....I really am kind of an emotional guy. My feelings dictate a lot about how I react to things and how people look at me. If someone close to me is upset, people tend to notice that I'm often just as upset as they are. It can be nice but also a real pain. It's really a blessing wrapped in a curse.

This week's reading

Book: Ship Breaker

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Pages read this week: 59

Sentence of the week: "He sucked air, flooding his lungs with shining clean oxygen, starved for all the life he'd been sure he'd lost" Ship Breaker

Ship Breaker Cont....

Today I read a little more of the Ship Breaker and reached a part where the main character Nailer came home after a really bad day working in the ship to his drunk father who attempted to instigate whatever conflict Nailer would throw at him. Nailer avoided saying anything that his father could use against him and got to go to sleep without any major drama. What really got me, though, was that in the middle of his father's prying at him to try and get him to budge, Nailer contemplated making a run for it.......away from his own father. Now I understand that this isn't all that rare with kids that have strained relationships with their parents, but I have trouble imagining it actually happening. I mean I get upset with my parents, all the time actually, but I never actually fear for my safety. I'd like to think that I'm quite close with them and one of the reasons is that we have such an open relationship with each other, we're constantly joking around with each other and, for the most part, know that I can come to them with anything if I really need to. It's a really good balance of friendship and authority, a balance that I'd like to instill in my household when I'm older and married. I have friends though that don't even see their parents for days at a time or even talk to them for that matter. I can't even imagine the kind of person I'd be if that were the case....

A New Experience

      I've never been much of a reader so this class's requirements are proving to be quite difficult. Today i sat in my bed, under a mound of blankets (quite womanly I know) and for the first time in a long time actually opened a book with the intent to try to enjoy it. The book I chose was "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi. The first thing that really grabbed my attention was the amount of references to the "Christian church". There were multiple times that they used things found in the common christian church such as the church bell to appeal to the reader's senses. What struck me as even more unusual was the the use of the phrase "Scavenge God" as if they'd created there own sense of spirituality around the job that they do, day in and day out. I'm not going to lie to you, it kind of weirded me out. Coming from a pretty religious family it was odd to read about a god that was based on the materials the people worked with every day. It was awkward in a sense but it almost became normal the further I read into the book. The main character, Nailer, reminds me a lot of myself. Nailer has strong opinions of people and whether good or bad, he doesn't really let that dictate how he acts around them. Early in the book there is a conflict where Nailer's father is ridiculed by his boss but instead of exploding, he composed himself and put his response in a respectful yet slightly taunting manner. I find that I myself have a lot of emotions, at times it feels like an overabundance of them. But those emotions, whatever they may be, usually come out as a form of humor. I learned early that if I could make fun of myself and make other people laugh, they wouldn't even bother trying because they know I'm going to do it to myself eventually. It's that sort of on the spot adaptation that binds me to this character. Hopefully more things continue to present themselves to me throughout the book that help me develop a closer relationship with the guy.