Live and Let Di

What's Your Type?

***BEWARE: Lots of links to follow. You don't have to click all of them. But you might find yourself compelled to click at least one!***

I love reading John McIntyre's site, You Don't Say. As I finally started catching up on my blog-reading, I came upon his post It Knows My Type. (To truly understand why I LOVE McIntyre's site, you need to read his post How To Pronounce It, turn the sound up and watch the brief video...this is especially recommended to my grammar geek friends.)

His latest post enticed me to click a link because he claimed that something called the Typealyzer could guess at my Myers-Briggs profile from the content of my blog. Or maybe it's my BLOG's MBTI. Although Karen at verbatim mentioned this very thing a few weeks ago, I must not have been in a linky frame of mind.

So, here's what it came up with for my type:

When I first took the MBTI through one of my employers, I was a solid ENFJ. So have I changed? Or does my blog bring out some strange alter ego? Those who know me well...discuss.

Curiously, Karen's profile came out exactly the same as mine! As did Heather Armstrong's...the mighty Dooce. (No wonder I have been having those sympathetic pregnancy symptoms...nausea, weight gain, etc...or that might just be wine-related.) I tried the URL's of 5 or 6 other blogs I read and they all came out ESFJ as well! Nicholas of A Gentleman's Domain, however, generated a different profile.

Come on...let's play. Let's see what YOUR profile tells you.

Di

MIA

Some of my regular 10 or so readers may have noticed that I have been MIA for a while. Some have noticed that I have been MIA for as long as Elizabeth Edwards has been...ever since John Edwards' affair rocked the Democrats, and not in a Sheryl-Crow-Rock-The-Vote cool kind of way. It's only a coincidence. My husband has not had an affair...at least I don't think so. If you have evidence to the contrary, please do not bother sending it as I am WAY too busy to do anything about it.

It's the daily continual parade of tradespeople coming through my door every day. After building a house, there are lots of little things. Oh, like someone forgot to turn the water to the steam shower on. And the hot and cold were reversed in our shower. And I REALLY need cabinet pulls since I have broken all of my nails opening and closing cabinets and drawers. And the gas to the fireplace can't be turned on until after you get the CO...which we actually didn't get until about 7 days after we moved in. And Hurley doesn't like where they put the cable outlet in our room. And the HVAC guys wanted to give me a tutorial on how to use the thermostat. (I'm SO glad they did.)

But another reason that I've been scarce is that I have been helping to edit a book. Really editing, not just noticing things like this on the street and taking pictures and being appalled:

I mean, come on. If you had the slightest question on the spelling of "biscuit," you could have looked to the NAME OF THE RESTAURANT!!!!

No, it's not John Irving's next tome or Anne Lamott's Even MORE Thoughts on Faith. It's a high tech book. Here are some unusual things about the book I'm editing:

The word "capacitor" is used without the modifier "flux" and with no reference to Back to the Future.

The word "via" is a noun.

I think some of the authors make tongue-in-cheek in-jokes in their writing but I don't even understand them because I'm not an engineer

Karen at verbatim taught me about the subjunctive case when the choices are "was" and "were"

I am addicted to the Chicago Manual of Style

I have created my own Di's Manual of Style for the specific technical terms in this book

It's fun...but I promise to blog soon about my friend and now my boss...with pictures...watch out Barb!

Di

Uninspired

I am feeling uninspired lately. I guess it's part of what The Beast steals from me. It could also be from being in the throes of the final details on our house and the continually receding move-in date.

I can't find it within myself to blog just for the sake of blogging.

If you feel that you can inspire me, please feel free to do so! Otherwise, I might be on temporary vacation.

Di

Crashing the BLOGHERNOT '08 Party

I just went to the most amazing party. It's BlogHerNot 2008. I wasn't invited. I totally crashed it. And then I even stole the banner!!!

Apparently this weekend all the cool blogging women have gotten pedicures, abandoned their children, packed their stiletto heels and jetted off to San Francisco to get drunk network with all the other cool blogging women at BlogHer '08. As is typical with anything cool, I didn't hear about it. I will probably go in the future...the year AFTER it becomes as cool as the faded plastic Santa on your lawn in February.

I'm not sure how I found BlogHerNot 2008, but I found it about an hour ago and it has changed my life!!! Before BHN08, I was feeling left out, ostracized by the pretty girls, the girls of the hundreds of comments, the girls who make money on their blogs instead of by getting cash back when they pay for groceries and pretending it was part of the cost of the food. I can't imagine anyone doing that, can you???

I'm sitting here in the sweatpants and Durham Bulls Baldelli t-shirt I slept in last night. I have black swaths of last night's leftover mascara under my eyes. My hair is sticking out in all directions. I'll spare you the photo. I'd rather you remember me thus:

My weekend plan was to eventually put the two empty laundry baskets on my living room floor back where they belong. Empty laundry baskets! How cool is that? Then tomorrow I was going to unfold my chair at a ballfield and sit for hours watching game after game after game. Do they REALLY need a loser's bracket? Couldn't they reward the loser parents by letting them go home? Then, because no one should be allowed to have so much fun in one weekend, I was going to drive my daughter and her friends to camp!

I'm still going to do all that, but now I will have a mission, a driving force...I will be BlogHerNotting! It's kind of counter-culture. It's a movement against the establishment before it even gets a chance to get established! I am such a rebel!

Di

It's too hot to blog.

It's too hot to blog. I dare you to find a blog post today that does not use at least one of the following words:

hot
blistering
steamy
sultry
tropical (and not in an umbrella-in-your-drink good way)
scorching
sizzling
sweltering
stifling

I shall take the cool, breezy, easy way out and refer you to one of my favorite places...Ten-Word Tuesday at i am bossy

After you've left your ten-word comment telling bossy how f-ing hot it is in your corner of this frying pan, tell her Di sent you. Tell her that she should add me to her blogroll. Right between little miss sunshine state and lovin' laughin' and livin'. Seriously. Every blog in the universe is on her blogroll EXCEPT mine. I'm taking it a wee bit personally.

I hope bossy likes my new summer 'do!

It's too hot to get this worked up.

Di

Things I Learned About My Dad (in therapy)

***Don't forget to enter my Eight Below Giveaway***

Who is more perfect for the job of anthologizing parenthood...the good, the bad and the insane? She has polarized the blogosphere, alternately fielding criticism for pimping out her daughter and inviting the resounding roar of millions of parents saying, "Hell, yeah!" It's Heather Armstrong, the blepitome (blog epitome for those who have not followed me following Julie Powell who coined the word "bleaders" to denote blog readers) of success with dooce. (Like she REALLY needs a link from me!) In Things I Learned About My Dad (in therapy), she gathers together a group of writers, a clique of uber-bloggers, to explore parenting from the patriarchal perspective.

Heather's posse of writers does not fear the criticism and judgment of all those perfect parents who would never dream of yelling, "I SAID STOP THROWING PEAS! DAMMIT!" They express the almost universal first-day-home-from-the-hospital feeling of "I couldn't believe that the hospital let us take a baby home and we don't even have a manual. How could they be so irresponsible?" They are willing to explore the reality that lies beyond the cutesy clothes at the baby shower and the cliche of the Dad not knowing how to hold the baby.

She could have easily gathered a collection of essays that were side-splittingly hilarious...and many of them are. But she tempers the hilarity with some doses of reality and the tenuous nature of some father-child relationships. As one writer describes it, "This cocktail of deep love and rattling frustration defines fatherhood for me." Parenthood is a strange combination of awe at the being you created and preparedness to invoke martial law in your household, with you as commander-in-chief and dictator-for-life. One part Pa Walton, one part Frank Barone and one part The Great Santini!

I think we all know that there is some incredible talent that is finding its voice in the world of blogging. Thanks Heather for finding some of those voices and bringing them to the mainstream.

Di

Summer starts here...

Today is my birthday. I'm not coy about my age...I'm 46. I'm pretty proud of it. Wouldn't trade it to be 23 again. Stevie Nicks is 60 today!!!

To celebrate, I'm tweaking my design using just the TypePad basics. I would love to have someone create an actual design for me and I would probably even pay her for her trouble. But I don't know where to start in this quest, so let me know if you have any suggestions.

Despite huge acclaim for the pink hair picture, I'm switching to a picture that looks like me on pretty much any given day in the summer. I'll be on the lookout for something a little more glamorous or spectacular or goofy in the photo department.

My husband got me this:

It's a Sky Caddie...GPS system for the golf course. I'm very excited about using it!!! I just LOVE new technology.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to people I know who share my birthday...Ken, Carol, Eddie, Susan...

Di

When in doubt...

It is with not an ounce of shame that I purloined this from Karen whose verbatim is one of my many daily addictions.

Below are 7 partial questions. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to copy and paste them into the Comments section, filling in the blanks with anything you want. I'll do my best to answer as honestly as I can.

1. What do you think of ________?

2. When did you last ________?

3. ________ or ________? Why?

4. What did you ________?

5. What’s your favorite ________?

6. How would you ________?

7. Whom would you most like to ________?

To see Karen's questions and answers, click here.

Di

 

1. What do you think of ________?

2. When did you last ________?

3. ________ or ________? Why?

4. What did you ________?

5. What’s your favorite ________?

6. How would you ________?

7. Whom would you most like to ________?

To see Karen's questions and answers, click here.

Di

 

Off with their heads!

After my wonderful, relaxing, computer-free weekend in the mountains I came back to 163 blog posts to read. Yes, it included Thursday Thirteens I didn't get to on Thursday, but still, it was overwhelming. I decided I was subscribing to blogs willy-nilly, without being as judicious as I would be in picking a book to read. And let's face it...if the blogger is prolific, I'll probably be devoting as much time to his/her blog as I would to reading a really long novel!

It's the blogosphere version of choosing a book by its cover. One witty post does not a blog subscription justify. I'm going to be ruthless here.

"We are not amused!" Di declared as she read a too-long accounting of someone's boring weekend. "Off with your URL!" she commanded if she found a grotesque grammar or editing error. (Obviously, TEAL and verbatim made  the cut!) It's time to winnow down the list and see who gets read for prime time and who vanishes into failed pilot hell, who goes into syndication and whose thirteen episodes become a really hard trivia question 5 years from now.

No one is safe. I'm not listening to Paula, Randy or Simon. Every blog must prove itself to me every day. This is not a democracy, but a not-so-benevolent dictatorship.

I am giving Dooce ONE free pass for the error in this post. But for $40K a month for blogging AND a new book on the market, I think she can stand to do a final edit before posting! Come on Heather...woman up!

Let the games begin!

Di

P.S. The winner of The Stone Gods will be announced tomorrow...maybe...I'm busy here!

The first step is...

...admitting you have a problem!

68%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
On an unrelated but coincidental note, I am leaving for the mountains in a couple of hours for a weekend of golf, friends, relaxing, food and wine. I am going to consciously take the weekend off of blogging. I'm taking my laptop, so if I have an overwhelming urge, I might write a few lines and I might read and comment on other blogs as a part of the relaxation component.

So have a lovely weekend...and check back on Monday to see who won The Stone Gods in my contest...there's still time to enter!!!

Di