Results are in...

So, as you might have noticed from my previous post, I took a bunch of quizzes to discover whether or not I really have a type-A personality or not. While my research was quite conclusive, and my methods faultless, I'll leave it up to you to interpret the results:





Your score is 5!

1-5: You're a real team player. People have to earn your trust, as they should. You've got a perfect handle on life.







Your score is 6!

6-10: There are nice people and not-so-nice people. Don't you think it's a little boring to be in the wishy-washy middle ground?

Your Existing Situation

Relatively inactive and in a static condition, while conflict of one sort or another prevents peace of mind. Unable to achieve relationships of the desired degree of mutual affection and understanding.









  • You are a WRCF--Wacky Rational Constructive Follower. This makes you a Paul Begala.
  • You are unflappable and largely unconcerned with others' reactions to you. You were not particularly interested in the results of this test, and probably took it only as a result of someone else asking you to.
  • You have a biting wit and intense powers of observation. No detail is lost on you, and your friends know it--relying on you to have the facts when others express only opinions. You are even-tempered, friendly, and educated. Foolish strangers may mistake your mildness for weakness--they will be surprised.
  • You entire approach to life is enviable. You will raise good kids.


















You are 14% geek. OK, so maybe you ain't a geek. You do, at least, show a bit of interest in the world around you. Either that, or you have enough of a sense of humor to pick some of the sillier answers on the test. Regardless, you're probably a pretty nifty, well-rounded person who gets along fine with people and can chat with just about anyone without fear of looking stupid or foolish or overly concerned with minutiae. God, I hate you.







My pirate name is:





Black Tom Rackham







Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!





Arr.

Ben, the Year 2003 will have lots of ups and downs for your love life. It's easy for you to meet new people as you are easy going and fun to be with. You shouldn't expect to find your true love in every flirt. Don't be impatient and give your relationships some time to grow. When a flirt doesn't develop into something more, you will sooner or later find another sweet girl. The Year 2003 has lots of opportunities for you to find your true love. Good luck!









Your score is 85. Kissing is definitely your thing and you do it well. Keep up your skills by kissing that special someone often.

You are...

The Cingulate Gyrus!!!



Brainalicious!



Snugly encircling the superior thalamus, and sitting atop the corpus callosum, you are an integral part of the limbic system. You remain a mystery, but common thought is that your reciprocal connections to the frontal cortex and limbic system link decision-making and emotion! Although you are mushy in consistency, you are a great friend to those around you and your word is as solid as oak. You detest it when people prod you, so you do need to lighten up a bit. All in all, though, you are a solid citizen. (And without you, people often find themselves unable to talk or move!)







I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile.

Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away

I let mine out, and chatter all the while.



I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day

Is any day that's spent without a friend,

With nothing much to do or hear or say.



I like to be with people, and depend

On company for being entertained;

Which seems a good solution, in the end.




Natural is a word often used to describe style and fragrance. To you, "natural" describes the flair of Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston. Both are elegant style junkies, but never over the top, never overdone, always giving off an air of almost innocent enchantment and earthy good nature. You, dear, have the sensibility of the All-American It Girl.



You Are Emperor Palpatine!





Ben, You scored 55 percent in this test!

Ben, your witty comments and your seductive looks hit the bulls-eye every time. If somebody knows how to flirt then it's you. No matter if your heartthrob is shy or a go-getter, you know exactly how to bring her out of her shell and twist her around your little finger. When you're interested in somebody, you'll really get things moving. Because you are sensitive and know how to put yourself into your heartthrob's position, it's easy for you to give attention to your partner.



How Smart Are You?

Congratulations! You got a score of 10/10!

Your Rating: This is not the first time you made this test!


You Are: Rock/Pop! Get into the groove! You tend to be upbeat, so your music should be too. You love to dance and feel the beat. You've probably been known to sing in the car and bop around in your seat. There's no doubt rock 'n' roll revolutionized music, so be proud to be a part of the pop culture.





Denethor, Son of Ecthelion, Lord and Steward of Minas Tirith
People like you are rare. Unfortunately the closest person is Denethor. His obsession with knowing the future and suspicion of others is characteristic.

Everything that happens is important and you do not want to miss any of it. Others often look to you for courage, leadership, and wisdom. Social interaction energizes you. The more people the merrier. You have a tendency to introspection. While providing compassion and being considerate, you may have the tendency of being soft-hearted or even "too emotional" You like keeping your options open. Closure is probably not one of your strong suits.

The Orcs display the evil side of this personality with their lengthy torture methods.

Traits: Empathic, benevolent, looking to the future. On the dark side you could be sadistic.



You're a reliable and practical friend who can be counted on to come through when needed. You are rarely unprepared and would prefer to play it safe rather than take an unnecessary risk: Your ride is a Toyota Camry or Honda Civic


Case closed.

Type A Personality

We were talking about personalities at lunch today, and I commented that "I used to be a complete type-B personality, but now I think I'm becoming more of a type-A personality." Two people at the table immediately chorused, "you're type-A." They knew me well enough to make such a call, and they didn't sound uncertain. It worried me.



After all, no one wants to be a type-A personality. It's almost become code for "uptight prick," which is a level to which I hope I have not decended yet. We all have the same sort of vision of a type-A person:







Nobody wants to be that guy.



Have I become so stressed that I've completely reverted my personality to a type-A, and lost my type-B roots? I used to make fun of people for being type-A, since I was so type-B. I fell asleep in class all the time without shame (now I at least feel shame), never did homework, never worried about anything, and was always the person who was level when everyone else was freaking out about how busy everything is. I mean, c'mon, everyone wants to be a type-B sorta guy:



Look how relaxed he is. He's letting the world come to him, like all the great type-B heroes do: Zonker Harris, and, uh... I can't think of anyone else. 'Cause most go-getters in the world are type-A. This is not necessarily a good thing. After all, you know that Hitler had to have been type-A. I mean, he got up in the morning, got stuff done while all his slacker friends stayed in bed, and boom - there's the Third Reich. Now his lazy buddies have to do jumping jacks for propaganda videos. That'll teach 'em.



Before this post runs to far into dangerous waters, I came up with a few reasons why I really am type-A, and shouldn't feel insulted about it:



1. I'm really only type-A by comparison. I'm in college. Most of the guys that I know spend virtually all of their time playing video games and watching TV. Which I wholeheatedly approve of, but that's not nearly as much my thing as theirs. I spend a whole lot more of my time out of the dorm, talking to people. No one is more in favor of sloth than me, but if I sit for too many hours in front of the TV, I feel like I should be up and doing something. And that should certainly qualify me to be type-A.

2. I'm only type-A about media communication things. And this I fully admit to be true. When it comes to a film project, or a radio promo, or a sound board, I get really worked up about it, and want to make sure that everything is perfect. This is great for my grades and my work, but not so good for my friends, who have deal with me in these sorts of situations.

3. Everyone's a little type-A about some things, and a little type-B about others. My roommate is very protective of certain items, such as the coffee table, or the Playstation 2, and has certain rules about how close food can be in proximity to these items. He goes over his outfits very carefully. And yet he's fully willing to spend an entire evening playing video games without worrying anything else in his life. To me, this is how it should be - sweat somethings if it means a lot to you, and don't worry about the things that don't. And don't worry about what it is that means a lot to you. My roommate knows it's kind of silly to be protective of a Playstation 2 controller, but he is anyway, and so I respect the greasy-hands-free-zone around such areas. I could care less about how someone treats my stuff - I lose so much of my stuff through general carelessness that it doesn't matter anyway. But all my projects have to be perfect. That's the way it is.



However, while searching to find the answer to my completely unnecessary crisis of the spirit (a true type-B person wouldn't care if anyone thought he was type-A), I came across a bold visionary in the world of type-B personalities. He inspired me to forget my type-A ways and seek out my type-B roots. For that, I am indebted to him.



I've decided to test this "type-A" accusation, though, through the most accurate measuring instrument known to man: online quizzing. Stay tuned for results.

Posting at School

I believe that I'm posting merely for the sake of finally getting something down on my blog. After all, I've been here nearly a week, and my schedule has yet to calm down enough to really allow time for posting. I've realized I'm creating 4 films this semester. It's been pretty hectic, and it's only going to get worse. Here's this semester's schedule:



January



I've volunteered to storyboard with Greg Weidman for the movie that Asbury's shooting in HD. It's a pretty big deal. But we didn't realize that we'd be storyboarding the entire movie by ourselves. So we're going to spend all of January storyboarding, so that it's ready for shooting in...



February



The film will shoot Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday nights this month, but there'll be some Saturday shoots. And Friday shoots. Also, we might shoot longer than we thought. I'll be working on the behind-the-scenes documentary on what happens with the film crew. We also have to edit the movie, though I'll be more than happy to leave that up to Greg Breiding, who technically has that job, since he's leading this whole operation. Poor guy. Nobody else has to shoot and edit for this movie. Fortunately, shooting for the movie will be finished in February, or at the least in...



March



I'll be shooting my Script to Screen movie this month with Jeremy White, which should be incredibly fun. This will probably be my favorite of the films I shoot this semester, 'cause it's the one that I've got the most freedom with. Plus, Jeremy's idea is hot. Which reminds me, I need to meet up with him and start working on the script, because I also need to work on my Media Ministries script, which shoots in...



April



This one's going to be interesting, because as of right now, the script is mostly about sex. So I'm going to need to tread carefully on this one. But I think this one has the most potential of all my films to be something dramatically different, groundbreaking, eye-opening. But I'll have to edit it fast, because my Media Ministries and Script to Screen are both due in...



May



And then I leave. Whew.



Let me finish this with my current thoughts on the busy-ness of my life: I'm not going to care. I mean it. I'm going to be busy - but it's all with things that I love. I love filmmaking, and the reason that I'm doing all of these things is because I love filmmaking. So, I'll just put it all out of my mind, and live in the moment. Let tomorrow worry about itself. If you scroll back down to my New Year's Resolutions, you'll note that I said I wouldn't worry about my filmmaking. I'm holding myself to it. You can hold me to it, too.



This post is dedicated to Cassie, who is sitting here watching me type this post, and complaining that I spelled her name "Cassie" instead of "Cassi," and that I never remember anything that she says. But she's made up for it by giving me expensive chocolates to eat while I'm typing, and always letting me cheat off her in class. Therefore Cassi will also get rated today:



Cassi: 4 stars out of 5. Though she's whining about not getting enough stars. Oooh, someone thinks she's perfect.










Review: Faithful

By Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King



King's name you recognize, while O'Nan is a bit of a dark horse, though he's written such best-sellers as Snow Angels, The Speed Queen, and Prayer for the Dying. It's O'Nan who carries most of the book, giving the play-by-play on each game, while King hangs in the wings, providing profanity-strewed commentary every couple of days.



Play-by-play? Couple of days? What is this book? Faithful, as its tagline notes, is "Two diehard Boston Red Sox fans chronicling the historic 2004 season." It's essentially a diary - O'Nan and King decided to collaborate together on a book about the season: they'd sit together at Fenway, exchange e-mails about the team, call each other for updates, and write individually about the season. And write they do, more than 400 pages of journal entries, every day from February 21st to October 28th. It's a weighty volume, and one that no Red Sox fan would pick up if they didn't already know that it had a happy ending.



If you wondering why this season is historic, or what the purpose of reading the book to live through a baseball season that we just lived through, than this book, and indeed this review, is not for you. Click away. This book is for Sox fans only.



Ultimately, that's what makes the book interesting. Faithful has become the Christmas present of the year up here in New England (we gave away a few copies for Christmas and got one in return) because this a year that Red Sox fans actually want to re-live. Normally, we'd cringe at the thought, faced with another September swoon or playoff failure to those hated Yankees. In Faithful, we get to live it all again, good times and bad - but we know that just on the other side of the book, we get to see that beautiful October blossom all over again. That makes it worth once again living through the season: the early season domination, the June Swoon, the sputtering through the summer, the Garciaparra trade, the desperation at the beginning of August, the sudden string of victories, catching back up to the Yankees - we know that once we make it all the way through, we'll get to beat those damn Yankees again.



That's the only reason to read this book. If that thought doesn't excite you, than you won't make it through more than a few dozen pages. This book is written by Red Sox fans, for Red Sox fans, and that sole thought of beating the Yankees is what dominates this book - that desperate, impossible dream that somehow, magically, became a reality.



O'Nan's steady, solid writing carries the work all the way to October, but it is King who thrives when the drama mounts as the playoffs begin. When the Red Sox falter in the ALCS and are on the verge of failing, it his eloquent writing that reminds the reader of that desperate feeling, before we knew that the Red Sox would turn it around:



"Yet we are still faithful; still we believe. Tonight we'll once again fill the old green church of baseball on Lansdowne Street, in some part because it's the only church of baseball we have; in large parte because - even on mornings like this, when the clean-shaven Yankee Corporate Creed seems to rule the hardball universe - it's the only church of baseball we can really love. No baseball team has ever come back from a three-games-to-none deficit to win a posteseason series, but a couple of hockey teams have done it, and we tell ourselves it has to happen sooner or later for a baseball team, it just has to.



We tell ourselves Derek Lowe has one more chance to turn 2004 from tragickal to magickal.



We tell ourselves it's just one game at a time.



We tell ourselves the impossible can start tonight."



Ultimately, the thrill of this book lies in the anticipation of the ending, not the actual payoff. You could probably acquire the same thrill through watching the World Series tape over again. But in mid-season, you just can't put it down, waiting to see what happens when Cabrera finds his rhythm and starts hitting, when Millar gets hot, when the team suddenly gels and starts playing championship baseball. And if you're any sort of Sox fan at all, you can't help but smile to see it all again.



The payoff: Three stars out of five - the book doesn't provide the same joy as a World Series win, but it's at least on par of the visceral thrill of say - watching Varitek give A-Rod another two-handed shot to the mouth. That's good enough for me.