Test.

Ok - I stole this one from a bunch of you because I was procrastinating writing my already late development plan at work. (Does anyone else HATE writing development plans as much as I do???!?!?!??)

anyway.

test is here: http://mindmedia.com/braintest.html

This makes me sound a lot more awesome than I really am. I kinda want to take it again in a few days to see if I really would score differently. I am surprised that my left and right are so close. But it is correct on most accounts: I can't make decisions to save my life and I do often get anxious as I alternate between logic and impulse. I have math anxiety. Even though I kind of like math. I hate being tested. But I also like it. huh. I am pretty happy most of the time. Or at least I try to be. I am MUCH MORE than a LITTLE critical of myself and I don't think I downplay my creativity, but who knows, I spend so much time apologising for not being good enough at things that perhaps that is exactly what I'm doing. huh.

Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 37%
Visual : 62%
Left : 52%
Right : 47%


Arwen, you exhibit an even balance between left- and right- hemisphere dominance and a slight preference for visual over auditory processing. With a score this balanced, it is likely that you would have slightly different results each time you complete this self-assessment quiz.

You are a well-rounded person, distinctly individualistic and artistic, an active and multidimensional learner. At the same time, you are logical and disciplined, can operate well within an organization, and are sensitive towards others without losing objectivity. You are organized and goal-directed. Although a "thinking" individual, you "take in" entire situations readily and can act on intuition.

You sometimes tend to vacillate in your learning styles. Learning might take you longer than someone of equal intellect, but you will tend to be more thorough and retain the material longer than those other individuals. You will alternate between logic and impulse. This vacillation will not normally be intentional or deliberate, so you may experience anxiety in situations where you are not certain which aspect of yourself will be called on.

With a slight preference for visual processing, you tend to be encompassing in your perceptions, process along multidimensional paths and be active in your attacking of situations or learning.

Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself -- and of others -- while maintaining an "openness" which tempers that tendency. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity may not be in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, obvious and the more functional.

Sorsha

I took my new bike on her first ride two weekends ago. She did very well, although it will take my body awhile to get used to all the things that are different: frame size, pedals, handlebars, wheels, blah blah blah... Elizabeth and I did a nice, long ride to fairfax and then back through the full paradise loop into tiburon and then home. It's about 55 miles door to door.

About 30 minutes into the ride, my neck, right shoulder, right hip flexor and right knee started hurting. I figured out that there was something jabbing me in my calf on the right side. It was making me bleed. I was tweaking my leg to make it stop, thereby creating all the pains on my right side. We got it fixed at Mike's Bikes. They were awesome and did it for free. I bought some fingerless gloves from them. Soon after, those pains abated. About 30 miles in, my butt started to hurt. a lot. By the time we were done, I was toast and, well, so many things ached, I will not bore you with the inventory... or the fact that she is sooooo much lighter than Mr. Speedy that I thought I was going DIE coming downhill into Sausalito with all the wind whipping at me from front, side and back. Twas scary. But I lived to tell the tale.

BUT.

Near the end of the ride, she told me her name. Her name is Sorsha. Who knew? It seems to fit her though. And I think I like it. :)

Elizabeth and I rode again this past Saturday and even though I had a few more new things (new pedals to go with my new road bike shoes), Sorsha felt SO MUCH better than the first ride. This is impressive since Jim, who met us about half way, commented on just how bad a head wind we were dealing with the whole ride. Head winds suck. Wind in general is pretty annoying. Sorsha is not. And she's really pretty. I think we'll get along just fine.

Moving Forward

Wow. I've had this blog for just about 3 years to the day. Wow. I have to give myself a little pat on the back. I admittedly have a habit of getting super excited about new things, have a honeymoon period with them (lasts somewhere between a week and a year), and then suddenly I feel like I've had my fill and just stop. Things that make it past that time frame are generally around for the long haul. I guess that means the blog somehow made it. Huh.

I've been rather useless lately. I got socked with a really, really terrible cold last Monday night (it hit right as the lights were going doing at the IMAX theatre where we were seeing 'The Dark Knight'. You should see it. You should see it on IMAX.) I stayed home from work Tuesday and half of Wednesday and felt like utter shit all the way through the weekend. As you can imagine, Serafina's death on Thursday was like a double whammy. :( But I'm FINALLY feeling a wittle bit better. Ugh. Still spewing tons of snot out my nose and waking up tired every day, but a tiny bit less tired than the day before. I say again - ugh.

I've had the chance to read a lot. I finally finished "Case Histories" by Kate Atkinson. I recommend it. Good detective novel with really solid, well drawn characters and just the right amount of wry British humor. Jen Weed just loaned me her first novel, "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" which she says she liked even better than "Case Histories". Sweet. I just started it two days ago, so we'll see. Dave and I finally finished "The Siege" by Jonathan Stroud. It had been our bedtime book for far too long. He's the guy who wrote the Bartimaeus Trilogy (which is awesome). This one was not. Boring. Ah well. We've just started "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke and it is already more exciting. I also TORE through "Waiting for Daisy" by Peggy Orenstein. (Thank you Sarita) LOVED it. It's a memoir about a woman's struggle to decide to have a child and then when she finally makes up her mind to go for it, she is diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She then becomes so obsessed with being able to have a child that she almost loses her marriage and her mind in the process. It was fanfuckingtastic. She was exactly my age when she first started wrestling with the 'I'm getting older… am I going to do this or not?' demons as well as the 'I'm an independent woman. An artist. I love my life. Why would I want to change it?' as well as 'but I'm a woman, this is what I'm made for, how can I lose my chance at this experience? How can I lose my chance at creation? At that kind of love? ' etc etc and so forth. Let's just say it resonated and we'll leave it at that. ;)

I've also been on a graphic novel binge. About a month ago, I finally finished "Watchmen" by Alan Moore. Brilliant. Freaking brilliant. But it seems as if everyone already knows that. Please read it before you go see the movie. Please. Also got through the first set of "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" also by Moore. Totally fun. I've been told NOT to see the movie. By, um… everyone. I also burned through Neil Gaiman's "Books of Magic" which I've read before, but I wanted to read the next set of graphic novels by a different writer and I couldn't remember what happened. Also fun. And I finished a short OZ related graphic novel (eh.) and one called "Planetary" (by Warren Ellis) which follows a group of 'archaeologists of the impossible' (liked it a lot and think I'll check out some more) AND read my first two comics on the computer, both by Brian K. Vaughan: "Ex Machina" and "The Pride of Baghdad" - definitely a different experience than holding a book in your hand, which I prefer, but they looked really fantastic on screen and well, I still really enjoyed them both, so they must have still translated in some way. "Pride of Baghdad" is actually based on a true story about a pride of lions that escaped from the Baghdad zoo during the US invasion. If I tell you more, I will ruin it.

Midsummer/4 got a really nice write up in the Berkeley Daily Planet: HERE and if you are interested in checking out the show... more info: HERE

I tried to add a Beginning Aerial Silk class to the fall schedule at the Circus Center and was told that the schedule is 'full'. I don't entirely know what that means, but, okay, fine. I will just need to find victims, I mean, students who want to take privates. Any takers? Any of you out there burning to try the silk? Or have friends who have said, "Gosh, I'm really wanting to suspend myself 30 feet in the air and dance around?" Anyone? Anyone? I'm really nice and patient and a very good teacher. I promise.

Oh - never told you about the rest of my birthday. Basically, on the actual day, I went to circus class and had my ass kicked, had to drive to Berkeley for a stupid modeling audition that I do not even think merits mentioning, I went home and cleaned because it made me feel better and once Dave got home, we decided to use a gift certificate from Mikey for one of his new restaurants - Terzo. It's up and over the hill on Steiner near Union Street. It's a very fancy wine bar and small plates place. It was extremely tasty and had lots veggie stuff and even though our waitress totally had a stick rammed so far up her ass I could swear it was coming out her head, we had a nice time. That was where Dave told me about my beautiful new bike. She is very shiny and pretty and still in the process of being built. After dinner, we went home and watched Battlestar Galactica. Pleasing.

On Tuesday something happened, but I don't remember anymore. And on Wednesday I went to the korean spa with carrie paff carrie paff. it was sorta for my birthday and sorta to say goodbye. She left 24 hours later to start her whirlwind Joan Rivers tour. Anyway - it was Bliss. Always is. And that seemed to be the official end of my gluttonous birthday. Although little things kept trickling in through the mail. Thanks y'all. I felt like one very loved arweena this year.

And finally, we buried Serafina on Sunday. I can't tell you where or I would have to kill you, but she's in a beautiful spot over-looking the bay and the ocean. We put her in the ground surrounded by some of her favorite things: a carrot, some millet, a nutriberry, a feather from each of the other three birdies, a few choice seeds and a haiku I wrote for her. Dave played her song on guitar. We said goodbye. It was so cold and so foggy that it seemed like the sky was crying with us. But it did help me make some amount of peace with the whole thing. The power of ritual... even when you've created it yourself... maybe especially when you've created it yourself.... potent.

sad

still so very sad. :( I keep seeing her little face whenever I am not focusing on something else. :(

we even went to see wall-e tonight and followed it up with a jubili... but i'm still sad.

so sweet. so pretty.