From the helpful folks at monster.com:

Life as an INFJ
(Intravert, Intuitive, Feeler, Judger)

People of this type tend to be creative, original and independent; thoughtful, warm and sensitive; global thinkers with great passion for their unique vision; cautious, deliberate and planful; organized, productive and decisive; reserved and polite.

The most important things to INFJs are their ideas, and being faithful to their vision.

Here are just a few popular and often satisfying careers for people whose Personality Type is INFJ:

• Special education teacher
• Alcohol and drug addiction counselor
• Diversity manager / trainer
• Speech / language pathologist
• Career counselor
• Therapist
• Director of religious education
• Editor / art director
• Writer

uh yeah.

And can I just say that I was listening to Fresh Air on the way home after a particularly bad day in retail land and it just plain out stinks that Fred Rogers is dead. Stinks. Totally.

Written at: 12/30/2003 10:18:00 PM

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A QuiltArt member, Barb Groves writes what can only be deemed a brilliant hypothesis on the whole "where do the socks go" question:

There is something built into washers and/or dryers by the sock manufacturers, maybe. While the laundry spins and the socks are having such a good time, their brains boggled and whirling, giggling like tickled children, fondling stranger socks as they pass, they stumble over the edge in the washer into SockDivorce. Didn't you notice they'd been quarreling for several laundries, wrangling in a tangle? We should pay more attention to what our socks are up to.

Thanks Barb for giving permission to spread this wonderful imagery and explanation!

Written at: 12/28/2003 06:04:00 PM

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Thanks to "Channelling Cupertino" for this great experience.

A bodysuit of horns - Trust me. Go now. It's streaming and if you are on a Mac you will need the latest version (9.0) of Windows Media Player

Written at: 12/27/2003 06:45:00 PM

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Are you anxiously waiting for news of our holiday gifts? Click above to see the latest installment!

Written at: 12/26/2003 06:53:00 PM

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Happy Holidays to you and yours!

This year's holiday card for you.

Written at: 12/24/2003 10:32:00 PM

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Tis the season - the Fruitcake season that is! I was just interviewed on WSBT AM (South Bend Indiana) regarding The Society for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake.

And I hope, if you are the keeper of fruitcake but not an eater of fruitcake, that you'll consider participating in the 2003 Fruitcake Amnesty Program!

Written at: 12/22/2003 07:52:00 AM

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Where am I?

Lost in the depths of retail, I'm afraid. Seeing as I've apparently blanked out last year's "holiday" season, I'd guess that it was almost as bad. Several people have told me this year is worse. One person told me he had seen in person what he had seen only in movies - two cars trying to pull into the same parking spot and refusing to yield. Much hand gesturing.

Myself, it took over an hour to get a parking space yesterday, the dread Saturday-before-Christmas. I'd gone out pretty early and carefully planned my trip to avoid major shopping areas and intersections until I had to. First stop was an independently owned shop where I was one of two customers. I went to one smaller mall and found a spot right away, but then I don't mind walking. Went in, bought my stuff, was able to check out without a line. Ok, I thought!

Decided to go to the mall I work, with a couple hours to kill, do a little shopping, get a decent lunch and be ready to go. Instead I spent an hour in the parking lot. Finally** I found a less travelled aisle and just put it in neutral and waited. As people got into a car a couple cars away, two cars came down the aisle, one from each direction. I sent out clear and loud thoughts of "you have to be crazy if you think you're getting this spot" and with that I pulled into it, giving the departing car a cheery wave.

Many hours later I went for a short walk in the mall, just for a snack and encountered a woman I knew from a long-ago work. She was wandering around looking a bit stunned. We had a nice chat about the "want" lists of people. It's a bit much we agreed looking for cuff links for a young boy who you know is going to lose them. (I wondered to myself who would IRON the shirt that the cuff links go into?)

When I came out at 12:30 AM - yes the mall was open til midnight on this last great shopping day before the big holiday - the stars were brightly reflected in the parking lot ice, there was plenty of parking available, and walked far across to my car listening to other mall workers chatting about their day's experiences. Happy holidays.

** This post made possible by one of my co-workers who recommended I try listening to Pat Metheny's new album (iTunes users click here others click here.) Thanks to my co-worker no one was injured in the parking lot and I arrived at work pretty calm and cheery.

Written at: 12/21/2003 10:57:00 AM

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Support Anti-Spam Workers and Legislation!

This just in from the folks at KnowSpam who have prevented a whopping 7500 bogus emails from reaching my inbox. (From the messages of others, that's a real drop in the bucket, but it's a pleasure to me!). Anyway, in a note about something else, they report

60% of spam comes from just 250 domains (90% of which have never sent a valid piece of email to knowspam).

Read that a few times and when you wrap your mind about the multitudes of emails which bog down systems and steal time and resources from all of us - when you understand it - know that DOING something about it is well within the realm of possibility. It's not tens of thousands of twerps out there (although they are out there). It's not coming from mostly legitimate ISP/email services (although some does). It's from domains that exist purely for the purpose of sending Unsolicited Email.

Tell your legislators and whoever else that will listen that something CAN be done about this irksome problem which costs us all money and time and which assaults us daily!

Written at: 12/15/2003 11:41:00 PM

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Since all the cats have found heating grates and warm snuggy places to hibernate in, I've switched the web cam to have a view outside to show you the current snow. It will be dark in a few hours, but until then if you're without snow of your own, you can have some virtually. Click the web cam image at top left.

Written at: 12/14/2003 02:16:00 PM

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On my way to something else, I came across this Boston Globe list of "song lyrics and poetry that helped many cope with the grief they felt after September 11"

• Across the Universe, Lennon/McCartney
• America the Beautiful, Katherine Lee Bates
• American Tune, Paul Simon
• Change the Day, Alex MacDougall
• Colors of the Wind, Vanessa Williams
• Leap, Brian Doyle
• He Aint Heavy, Hes My Brother, The Hollies
• Jesus, etc., Wilco
• Love and Mercy, Brian Wilson
• Lucky, Radiohead
• Memorial for A City, W. H. Auden
• Musee Des Beaux Arts, W. H. Auden
• One, Cheryl Sawyer
• Chorus from The Other Side, Joie Scott and Richard Wold
• The Other Side, Don Conoscenti
• Overcome, Live
• The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry
• Rhymes and Reasons, John Denver
• Rockin in the Free World, Neil Young
• September 1, 1939, W.H. Auden
• Show the Way, David Wilcox
• Song in a Year of Catastrophe, Wendell Berry
• The Summer Day, Mary Oliver
• Superman, Five for Fighting
• There Youll Be, Diane Warren
• Through Your Hands, John Hiatt
• Trouble of the World, Mahalia Jackson
• Try to Praise the Mutilated World, Adam Zagajewski
• Victory in Defeat, Edwin Markham

Written at: 12/13/2003 06:57:00 PM

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Driving Do's & Don'ts

Do's:

• Observe posted speed limits
• Look to see if someone is nearby before changing lanes
• Use your directionals. Always. No excuses
• Slow down as weather conditions demand
• Keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road
• Stay in the center of the lane
• Learn how to know where the edges of your car are.

Don'ts

• Distract other drivers
• Drive like you're the only person entitled to get to work on time
• Make sudden turns when actually you could drive to the next road or exit and turn around
• Think that a pick up truck or some 4 wheel drive surburan assault vehicle has some magic power to keep you on the road in snow and ice. It doesn't
• Make right on red by driving up to the corner on the shoulder of the road
• Think I'm interested in whatever music you're playing so loud it makes my car seat vibrate

Twice now in two days I've been greeted, personally, by drivers in other cars.

The first time it was on a major 65 mph highway. Someone came slamming up behind me, passed me and then put on the brakes to put their car moving alongside mine. And gave me the OK hand gesture. Did he like my license plate or my Apple sticker? Who knows. All I knew was that I wondered if some lunatic driver was about to put a bullet into my car because I wasn't going 90 miles an hour.

Today I was passed by someone at a gentler speed at the base of a hill not far from home. Again I realized that the car was going along side by side with mine rather than passing. And when I looked over I could see a silhouette of someone waving a cheery greeting.

Now I realize that both times apparently the other driver had good intentions. People, no offense but PLEASE DON'T! First off, you can rarely be seen inside the car. And second, I don't LOOK inside cars. I don't really care who's driving as long as you stay in your lane. No offense, but if you see me out driving, enjoy a moment of "oh, I know her" and just let it go. You can tell me about it some other time. Thanks.

Written at: 12/13/2003 03:55:00 PM

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Will Parker over at Channeling Cupertino gives a lesson and a hearty salute to

Joshua Abraham Norton, first and only Emperor of the United States of America!

I think we could all use a dose of that! You can find out which historical lunatic you're channeling here.

Written at: 12/13/2003 11:28:00 AM

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It warms my heart, and I mean that in the most introspective, web-crazed sort of way, that The Society for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake turns up as item #4 on: Google, Yahoo and AOL search for "fruitcake".

You may not know about me that I used to work for a quasi-major web hosting company a few years ago. I spent my days encouraging and instructing people on how to build more interesting web sites and how to get their web sites "noticed" both by individuals and more importantly by search engines. Research shows that the majority of traffic to most websites is driven by search engines.

My own web site building goes back to the days when you could easily submit your pages to Yahoo for free. So the success of a small web site, very simply built and with nothing more than html, on a pretty arcane topic really floats my boat. Each year I get emails and calls from people who are writing articles or putting together radio shows, wanting more info about the Society and fruitcake.

On the other hand, with that much interest in fruitcake, who's to say it's that arcane afterall?

Written at: 12/09/2003 09:40:00 PM

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Saturday

You know the old saying? 'Want different weather in New England? Wait a half hour!' The photo above, this and this made me turn around, pull over, wait for the sun to reappear while shivering in a blustery wind. Then I got back in my car and continued on my way. An hour later, as I returned, this was the view.

Written at: 12/03/2003 12:16:00 AM

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Written at: 12/01/2003 05:51:00 AM

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Bill 1985-2005

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Maggie 1985-2003

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