I've Created A Monster

So, I'd say I've created a monster.  Let me start with a history lesson, of sorts, to aid in our understanding.

My dear wife, Jessica was merrily putting our daughter down for a nap when the tablet she was holding (containing a game she enjoyed playing) slipped from her grasp, descended through the atmosphere, and crashed on the tray of Isabelle's high chair.  The screen now hilariously dysfunctional and gone to meet it's eternal reward, left my wife with nothing else to do with her free time.  She had become exhausted of the parade of Netflix personalities and wanted a new hobby.

I come home from work and she asks me to help her create a blog.  Of course I'm always happy to help my family and friends with their web presence, so I didn't realize what I was doing.  I created a monster.

To place humor and superfluous parlance aside, it is a good blog.  My wonderful wife really knows how to write and weave a tapestry of words.

You can find her blog at Crafty Adventures in Motherhood.

My Life As An INTJ

So, I'm pretty big on personality theory.  It's one of several things that still makes a lot of sense to me ever since I took the required, and very cerebral and fascinating, Introduction to Psychology course during my time spent in college.

Although we only received a short lesson - as part of our section on Karl Jung - the ideas on personality theory stuck around, like glue, to the neural pathways of my brain.  I discovered after taking a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment[1] (hereafter MBTI) that I scored as INTJ.  After learning what those four letters meant (Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging), and reading a description of that personality type, I discovered that there's a clear and concise logic to how I think and perceive the world. In a way I became a sort of convert to studying personality theory in my spare time - enough that I've been able to get scary close to figuring out someone's personality.

So, what does this have to do with my life?

Everything!

Run a Google search for "INTJ personality"[2] and you'll find a plethora of search results and information to look at.  As an INTJ I tend to be enthusiastic about a massive amount of information, because that is what I need for decision making and to make sense of what is going on.  Don't worry if you're not big on a lot of information to sift through though.  However, I would definitely ask that for the sake of INTJs all over the world (estimated ~2.5%) to read up on what makes us tick (and why do we always seem have a death stare going on?).

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[1]  The MBTI assessment I took three times per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) over a period of four weeks and scored INTJ.  I only had to take it once for class, the rest of the attempts were entirely of my own initiative (I just had to eliminate any subjective bias).

[2]  Went ahead and did the search for you so all you have to do is click on the link to the search results.  You're welcome!

New Hobbies & New Happenings In Life

Okay, so yes, it's been a while.  Sometimes the distractions of life come and go and I forget to blog.  But what're you going to do right?  This would be a case where perhaps the hashtag "lifeproblems" would probably fit, but alas I haven't sunk that low yet.  I'm still maintaining my stance on keeping hashtags where they belong: on Twitter.  But I digress.

The last year of my life has been a busy one.  I moved to central Illinois to get a fresh start on life.  Leaving the northern Illinois area - which had been my home for some time - was bittersweet, because of the many fond memories I have both on and off campus and the many good friends I had the privilege of meeting, and still keep in contact with.  However, the move to central Illinois proved an important role in shaping my near future.  I quickly became in a position to grow a wonderful friendship with a woman who I will be marrying this summer, and have had a lot of time to think critically on what I need to do to take some steps in my life toward being the man I want to be.

Along the way my regular reading of the Art of Manliness and listening to their podcasts have filled me with inspiration to begin taking inventory of my hobbies and interests, something I recommend everyone to do periodically.  I highly recommend both the AoM website and the podcasts (they also have an app!).  Keeping up with the Art of Manliness has brought attention to the fact that I'd like to look at and possibly pursue a hobby - thanks to their article The Ultimate List of Hobbies for Men: 75+ Ideas For Your Free Time.  Very good stuff in the article!

So that was long-winded, many apologies!  But really, I very highly recommend checking out the Art of Manliness.

I've decided that in the near future - after I've taken care of a few things in the coming months - to take up computer programming as a hobby.  Ever since my first programming course in C++ I've acquired a taste for programming, or rather a reawakening.  My first brush with programming came in seventh or eighth grade teaching myself HTML, and since then programming has always sort of been a side thing I turn to once in a while.

Another hobby I've recently been more involved in is being a Google Local Guide.

As I've progressed through the levels of the Local Guide, I've found a taste for rating and reviewing places I've been.  And there are rewards along the way.

Ultimately my contributions give me an outlet for helping people know where to go for things like that perfect sandwich or cup of coffee, or even reviewing places like book stores and other businesses.

Well, that's sort of a digest of things and latest happenings.  I'm looking forward to what the rest of 2017 has in store, and hope that so far everyone is enjoying the start of the year.  As always feel free to follow me on Twitter @noherp2012.

Solar Eclipse 2012

On May 20 I got off work and couldn't have been more excited.  Why?  Cause there was a SOLAR ECLIPSE!!!  I admit I do get a little psyched up over stuff that most people probably don't pay attention to, but I did manage to snag a photo of the solar eclipse as the sun set.  So anyway, here's the solar eclipse...