Learning Something New About Myself (probably)

Today while I was studying for Management (urgh) at work, I came across the Myers-Briggs Personality Test in my notes. It occurred to me that I have never taken a satisfactory personality test--I never even got the results of my job aptitude tests in high school. And while I don't necessarily trust these types of things as all-encompassing truth, it's still interesting. So I decided to give it a try and hit up the internet.

After taking several tests, me results came back pretty consistent:

INTJ

61% Introverted (versus Extroverted)
55% Intuitive (versus Sensing)
63% Thinking (versus Feeling)
71% Judging (versus Perceiving)

Eeeeeenteresting.

Apparently only 1-4% of the population fall into this category. Wikipedia says INTJs are "most comfortable working alone and tend to be less sociable than other types. Nevertheless, INTJs are prepared to lead if no one else seems up to the task, or if they see a major weakness in the current leadership. They tend to be pragmatic, logical, and creative. They have a low tolerance for spin or rampant emotionalism. They are not generally susceptible to catchphrases and do not readily accept authority based on tradition, rank, or title."

Most of what the Wikipedia article has to say resonates with me, in fact. Psychology! But, as my coworker Lex remarked, "It's like a horoscope, only a little bit more real."

Indeed.

If you want to take the test, here's one that I did:

http://similarminds.com/jung.html 

Goodbye, World.

This is my farewell to you all. You probably won't see me for the next few months. In the last five days, my life has gone from depressingly empty (school + nothing = boredom) to oh-my-god-what-am-I-going-to-do full (school + new job + Phi Sigma Pi + Sigma Tau Delta + College of Arts and Sciences Ambassador = AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH).

So yes. Let me explain.

Other than the receptionist position I mentioned in my previous post, I have made a few decisions that will henceforth make me a more involved human. The first is that I decided to join UNT's chapter of the co-ed honors fraternity Phi Sigma Pi. After visiting a few information meetings, a couple of friends and I decided that the people are awesome and the "fraternity" part is really more of a formality than a lifestyle, so I applied. And now for the next six weeks I'm going to be going to Rush class every Sunday and doing service projects/events with all these lovely new smart people.

Secondly, I am applying to Sigma Tau Delta, the fancy-schmancy English major honor society (another fake-Greek organization), which does cool things like have visiting authors speak and go to English conferences. Luckily, this is a relatively minor commitment with monthly or bi-monthly meetings, so this might not be the death of me.

Thirdly, my English major adviser (Dr. Penner's-mother Lyke lolololol) asked me to be an English major College of Arts and Sciences Ambassador, which sounds awesome to me -- talking to incoming freshmen interested in English and basically convincing them that the English program rocks. Right now it doesn't seem like too big of a commitment, just a few evenings here and there, but we will see if I actually have time for it. I really hope I do.

All of these things excite and interest me. I just hope I'm not taking on too much. But either way--wow. A week and a half ago I was spending three-quarters of my day staring at the Internet and halfheartedly flipping through my agenda to see when things were happening (or more likely, not happening). Now I'm employed and a prospective member of multiple organizations and potentially friends with ALL THE PEOPLE! :D

So farewell. I will see you in the summer. If I make it that far.

General Life Announcement.

So yep. It's official. I got a job! I'm going to be a receptionist at the Gateway Center, which I can see from my window (as pictured). Woohoo! Employment! Money! Etcetera!

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

I'm convinced. Hank Green is a genius. 

When Hank first announced his side-project, a modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as a YouTube video blog, my first reaction was, "Oh, that's cute." Loyal nerdfighter that I am, I subscribed to Lizzie Bennet's fictional YouTube channel and occasionally took six or seven minutes out of my week to watch Ashley Clements as Lizzie rant about her silly parents, her sister, her grad school, and this jerk she met at a wedding called William Darcy. 

It was fun. It was cool. It was new. And it soon became a fully-fledged fandom, with all the trappings of yet another collective obsession belonging to thousands and thousands of bored internet-lurkers. People like me -- young, outspoken, and always looking for something new. 

Now, I'm not as intense of an internetter as some. I'm afraid of twitter and tumblr, and I'm only slowly acclimating to such big forces of the virtual world as Reddit and Imgur. But I follow YouTube religiously. I Facebook. I even Pinterest from time to time, and obviously I have a blog. So I'm not ignorant of these things. Maybe just a little late to the party, but I'm getting there. 

Still, this project, LBD, took me by surprise. As the story progressed, I became more and more engrossed, and so did the rest of the internet. The geniuses behind the project branched out into other areas, giving their characters fictitious twitters and tumblr accounts, facebook pages, company websites and email addresses. Other characters began to vlog, including Lydia, Charlotte, and Darcy's sister. These actors took on alternate identities almost as real as their own, in the virtual world at least. Now you could be browsing around on Pinterest and come across some of Jane Bennet's fashion pictures or Lydia Bennet's not-so-sound partying advice. 

It's all amazingly three-dimensional, a story experience unlike anything the world has ever seen, to be overly dramatic. The extremely broad fan-base experiences the misadventures of the Bennet sisters in real-time, in real-life detail. And yes, there are some campy bits, like the fake demonstrations of "Pemberly Digital's new video-chatting technology" that are obviously contrived, but the scope of the project is so huge that things like that are added bonuses rather than unconvincing plot complicators. 

I fully expect to see more of these in the future, a whole new genre of internet storytelling. And I welcome it, giving life to these old stories, making them relevant to young people today who may love or hate them. This is the future! Huzzah! 

Anyway, go watch them if you haven't already. Start from the beginning. 

www.lizziebennet.com

Cooking adventures!

Today I made this beautiful (if I do say so myself) little cake for my mother's birthday. It is full of rich chocolatey goodness covered in chocolate ganache and almonds. Yum!

But seriously, it could not be simpler or more classy. Though I made about thirty dishes, I did this in just over an hour between classes. Worth it? Yes.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
(adapted from a recipe from KirbieCravings.com via foodgawker.com)

Cake:
7 oz semisweet or milk chocolate chips (I used bittersweet and added about a 1/4 c. sugar)
1/4 c. butter
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. almond extract/dark rum/orange extract/whatever you feel like (optional)

Ganache:
1 c. heavy cream
9 oz chocolate chips
powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line a 6-7" round pan with parchment paper (cake will stick to a greased-only pan).

Microwave chocolate and butter in 30-second intervals, stirring between each go, until melted and smooth (probably about 1 - 1.5 minutes). Meanwhile, beat eggs at high speed for about 7 minutes until almost tripled in size. Add egg mixture by thirds into chocolate, folding carefully until no egg streaks remain.

Pour into pan and bake for 22-25 mins, or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Will not rise very much.

Ganache: Heat cream over medium heat until just boiling. Pour over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Add powdered sugar for sweetness or thickness. (You can also cool it in the fridge and then whip it for a lighter frosting.) When cake has cooled slightly, poor over it starting in the middle and working toward edges.

Add chopped almonds and powdered sugar (or orange peel, or sprinkles, or whatever floats your boat). EAT WITH A VENGEANCE!

______________________

I also recently made replicas of Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits. I've never had the real thing, so I'm not sure how close they actually come to the real thing, but they were extremely good. Worth making if you're craving deliciousness.

This is actually the recipe I used (or a censored version of it...ha. Thanks Imgur.)

4 c. Bisquick
1 1/3 c. water
4 oz shredded sharp cheddar




Mix!





Bake @ 375F for 10-12min

Combine:
1/2 c. melted butter
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp salt
black pepper

Brush as it comes out of the oven!

EAT!

Wichita Mountains!

Last Saturday Jackson and I drove three hours north to the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma (which we've pretty much decided is the only place worth going in Oklahoma...)

We wasted no time and soon discovered that our camp site was the feeding grounds of choice to a mother deer and her baby!

(pictures coming soon.........)

Then we saw buffalo and more buffalo:

Drove to the top of the tallest and oldest of the mountains, Mt. Scott, to look out over all of Oklahoma:

And, after locking my keys in my car and learning that one of the jobs of a police officer is breaking into vehicles for absent-minded people like myself, we climbed (literally climbed) the baby mountain Little Baldy right near our campsite:

The next day, we woke up to a flock of wild turkeys harassing our deer friends. Unfortunately, they were gone before we could get pictures. But then we hiked up the ~600ft Elk Mountain, a long and arduous 4-mile round-trip journey of impressive views and massive rocks:

Finally, we packed up and left as quickly as we could, sore and dirty and sunburned and tired. Three hours later, after driving twenty miles in the wrong direction out of Wichita Falls and missing the turn off for Denton (seriously), we made it home and I'm pretty sure I died for twelve hours immediately afterward. 

It was fun and exciting and adventurous and pretty and buffalo-tastic, but Jesus, I am done with camping for the next several years if I can help it. Twice in one school year is more than enough. Bleh. 

Back at School

Well, the new semester has officially started. Ah well. I was getting bored of sitting at home doing nothing anyway. But to all my friends I saw (and some I didn't see) -- good luck and I MISS YOU!

(And I hope you feel like this dinosaur when you go to all your new classes.) 

Anyway. Besides re-organizing my dorm room and putting up these excellent Christmas presents/posters

(Thanks, Brother!)

I have been getting up at the ungodly hour of 8am to attend class. But this morning, there was a surprise! 

That's right! Snow! And barely half an inch of it! But still, freezing cold, slippery white stuff that for a surprising few of my friends was their first-ever real snow. Everyone was a little too optimistic about the university shutting down, but alas, it did not, and I got to go to two new classes. 

The first was Advanced Readings in French Literature, which seems very interesting and potentially fun if I'm not intimidated into muteness by the handful of native-speakers and ridiculously fluent non-native speakers that like to dominate discussion with their weird Quebecois and Senegalese accents that I cannot for the life of me understand. I also accidentally lied and said I was a sophomore instead of a freshman, so I probably set myself up for criticism when I don't actually have that extra year of studying the language under my belt. 

But we will see. 

I want to share this poem that we read in class, for those of you who might kind of sort of speak French, because I think it is charming. 

Le Bonbon 

Robert Desnos

Je je suis suis le le roi roi
des montagnes
j’ai de de beaux beaux bobos beaux beaux yeux yeux
il fait une chaleur chaleur

j’ai nez
j’ai doigt doigt doigt doigt doigt à à
chaque main main

j’ai dent dent dent dent dent dent dent
dent dent dent dent dent dent dent
dent dent dent dent dent dent dent
dent dent dent dent dent dent dent
dent dent dent dent

Tu tu me me fais fais souffrir
mais peu m’importe m’importe
la la porte porte

TRANSLATION: 

"The Candy" (Le Bonbon)

I I am am the the king king

of the mountains

I have beautiful beautiful scratches beautiful beautiful eyes eyes

It is hot hot

I have nose

I have finger finger finger finger finger on on

each hand hand

I have tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth 

tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth

tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth 

tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth tooth 

tooth tooth tooth tooth 

You you make make me me suffer

but I do do not not care care

the the door door

The other class I had today was Honors Advanced Technical Writing, which was surprisingly fun. I know a lot of people in that class, and even though I am one of two English majors in a room full of chemists and engineers, I look forward to the rest of it. I have a feeling that I am going to be very, very good at technical writing, because it focuses so much on form, grammar, and that sneaky magic thing that gives sentences and paragraphs the smooth, stark sound associated with professionalism and academia, something that comes naturally to me most of the time.

My classes yesterday were much less interesting--Modern American Literature, for one, intimidates me. The professor's expectations are understandably high, but it is his cold scholarly manner for such a young dude that makes me wonder if he will be the one to see through my act as a good essay-writer and interpreter of literature--the act I have been playing since middle school--and see me for what I really am in English classes: someone who has absolutely no idea what she's doing.

On the other end of the spectrum, Astronomy of the Solar System is going to be a typical large-scale lecture course--but I predict it will be infinitely more interesting and easier than my waste of an archaeology class last semester. And there is a reassuringly small amount of math, according to my professor. I look forward to hopefully finally taking a science class I actually care about!

My last new class is Organizational Behavior, a management class for my minor. I have it for three hours every Monday afternoon, and oh god, I think it's going to kill me. The subject is dry and unchallenging, the professor is quiet and rambly, and the students are all Business majors, who are a special class of polished faux-rich kids who have their own language of well-rehearsed business quips and are somehow already middle-aged. I felt like I had walked into some sort of baby-CEO church when I entered that weirdly professional building, like they could tell just by looking at me that I was decidedly not a future stockbroker or business owner or financial adviser and were wondering what the crap I was doing in their center of worship and when, exactly, I was going to leave, as the Dow-something-whatever flashed across the little screen in front of them.

So. That was my first two days back at college. What have you been up to? :)