Knitnut.net. Watch my life unravel...
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Posted by Zoom! on February 3, 2010, at 6:55 am |
On Day 2 of the COPE program, I learned I was an INFP in the Myers-Briggs personality assessment – Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceptive. I did an online version awhile back and apparently I’ve changed from a thinker to a feeler since then. Not sure how I feel about that (or what I think of it, for that matter…)
Anyway, here are some of the careers an INFP should AVOID:
Police Detective
Management Consultant
Corrections Officer
School Bus Driver
Coal Miner
Social Services Worker
This is interesting, because a lot of them involve being an authority figure, and the idea of being an authority figure makes me squeamish. I wasn’t even comfortable being an authority figure to my own child.
Apparently, we INFPs are much more suited to nice, civilized, non-authoritarian career pursuits such as art, counseling, writing, editing, and architecture.
Posted by Zoom! on February 2, 2010, at 6:41 am |
Day 1 of the COPE program was interesting. We did personality tests (results on Day 2) and some career interest tests from a website called Career Cruising. (Sadly, it’s password-protected and I’m not allowed to give you the password, otherwise we could all take the test and compare notes.)
Career Cruising asks a series of questions about things you might like or not like in a job. For example, would you like a job that involves lots of calculations? Would you like working with small children? Would you like working outside in all kinds of weather?
Based on my answers to the 116 questions, it narrowed the field of possible careers from 30,000 down to 40.
After the first round of 39 questions, these were the Top Ten Suggested Careers for me:
1. Gerontologist
2. Abuse / Crisis Counsellor
3. Personal Financial Planner
4. Bereavement Counsellor
5. Addictions Counsellor
6. Political Aide
7. Activist
8. Print Journalist
9. Writer
10. Market Research Analyst
And after the final round of questions, these were my Top Ten:
1. Epidemiologist
2. Certified Management Accountant
3. Political Aide
4. Public Policy Analyst
5. Market Research Analyst
6. Chartered Accountant
7. Medical Transcriptionist
8. Writer
9. Researcher
10. Gerontologist
Most of those are careers I think I could sink my teeth into. I don’t have the time or money to attain the education required for some of them, but I’m impressed that the test was able to come up with such an intriguing list.
Interestingly, webmaster made the Top 40 list, which is what I used to do. And so did criminologist, which is where my educational background lies.
Posted by Zoom! on February 1, 2010, at 6:37 am |
This is what I’m doing for the next eight days:
COPE (Career Orientation Pathways for Employment)
The COPE (Career Orientation Pathways for Employment) Workshop is an interactive 8 day Career Decision Making Workshop to assist participants in determining the next “step” of their career pathway.
Participants have the opportunity for hands-on career exploration in
relation to current labour market info/trends and self discovery.
Each participant creates a Personal Profile through vocational
assessments. As well participants are provided with the tools to conduct
effective occupational and labour market research, and learn to conduct
effective informational research exploring current labour market trends.
In combining these elements, participants create their own COPE Career
Action Plan, which focuses on moving forward with positive and realistic
goals and actions.
Discover your talents!
Uncover your potential!
Set your Career Path!
Our services are FREE to ALL unemployed individuals!
We’re here for YOU every step of the way!
The description gets a little manic towards the end there with all those exclamation points and capitalized words, but I’m optimistic that the program will be better than the blurb.
Either way, I’ll be sure to let you know…
Posted by Zoom! on January 31, 2010, at 2:34 pm |
 John A Last night GC and I found ourselves at the Umi Cafe for a book launch and poetry reading. The author of the book, Akili Castlin, was not there, because he’s in Pelican Bay State Prison in California. He’s 37 years old. He’s been incarcerated since he was 23. He’s been in solitary confinement for the past decade. He spends 23 and a half hours alone in his cell each day, reading, writing, and waiting.
 Because Akili wasn’t able to be here to read his poetry at his book launch, a number of people here in Ottawa each agreed to perform a poem or two on his behalf: John Akpata, Yavar Hameed, Free Will, Faye Estrella, Stephane L., Max Rowsell, Zoe Maggio, Peter Pants and others all participated. The event was hosted by Tara Lyons, and was taped for future radio broadcast in California where Akili might be able to listen to it.
 Max Rowsell and Tara Lyons I’d never heard of Akili Castlin before, but what’s probably more surprising that I’ve heard of him now. So many prisoners disappear into solitary confinement and are permanently and completely isolated from the rest of the world. It’s a devastatingly lonely and alienating place to be. It destroys a lot of people. This book – Who Am Eye – is a testament to Akili’s capacity to flourish and remain creative under such dehumanizing conditions. It’s also a testament to the people on the outside who work with prisoners to help ensure they are not completely silenced and forgotten.
It seems like a long time ago now that I was helping retired bank robber Paddy Mitchell with his blog. He would write the material, snail-mail it to me or Linda, and we’d type it up and put it on his blog. It was a fairly slow, laborious process as blogging goes, but it meant a lot to Paddy to be a writer and to be part of the world outside prison. He died about two years ago now, of cancer, at the Butner Medical Center for inmates. His final book – a novel – is being published posthumously in the next week or two. I’ll be putting something on his blog soon about the book and how to order it.
Posted by Zoom! on January 30, 2010, at 10:04 am |
I spent two hours and ten minutes at the gynecologist’s office yesterday. Most of that time was spent alone, half-naked in an examining room, with nothing to read but quit-smoking pamphlets and osteoporosis posters. I entertained myself by making deals with myself like “If nobody comes back into this room by 1:15, I swear I’m going to push the Code Blue button.” They came back at 1:10. Lucky for them.
Anyway. They’re suggesting I have my uterus and ovaries removed. The uterus because of the fibroid, and the ovaries because when you have breast cancer, it’s not such a good idea to have ovaries and no uterus. (That’s because the ongoing hormone treatment for breast cancer changes once you go through menopause, and if you have ovaries but no uterus, they’ll have no way of knowing when you’ve gone through menopause.)
After doing some research, I’m inclined to think I’m not going to do it. I’m ready to let my uterus go, but not my ovaries. Because of the breast cancer, I wouldn’t be a candidate for hormone replacement therapy, so I think having my ovaries removed would mean an instant end to hormones. I like hormones. Among other things, they protect against heart disease, osteoporosis and wrinkles.
Anyway. Did you hear about the guy who got busted for possessing Simpson’s porn? He’s a registered sex offender now, because Australia considers underage cartoon characters being depicted in sexual situations to be child pornography. Australia has also banned small-breasted women of any age from appearing in adult films, presumably on the grounds that it might arouse pedophiles. The world just keeps getting weirder.
Posted by Zoom! on January 29, 2010, at 9:46 am |
I had hoped to blog about something interesting today, but nothing is coming to mind because all I can think about is how bloody cold I am.
It’s 34 below zero outside with the wind chill. That’s -29 Farenheit. I’m FREEZING. And I’m not even outside – I’m in my house, which is 18 C, or 64 F.
My programmable thermostat is still set to what it was when I was working, which is pretty chilly during the day and overnight (17 C), but warmer first thing in the morning and evenings and weekends (19 C). (How warm do you keep your home?)
When I was a kid, I was cold all the time. I lived for about five years in an old brick schoolhouse which was very cold and drafty and expensive to heat. My bedroom was in the basement at the end of a hallway, and it didn’t have a heat vent going into it. I promised myself, as I lay shivering in my bed every night, that when I grew up I would live in a nice warm house.
But then I grew up and lived in a series of apartments, most of which allowed me no control over the temperature. Some of them were hot, some were cold. My cumulative life experience was that I had no more control over the indoor weather than I did over the outdoor weather.
Until three years ago, when I bought a house. Now that I finally have control over the temperature, I’ve discovered I tend to be kind of cheap when it comes to home heating. I’d rather wear three sweaters than crank up the thermostat. I think subconsciously I interpret warmth as a sign of waste. Maybe it was because I was raised that way, I don’t know.
My last gas bill was about $65. It’s a small house, in the middle of a row, but still. That’s pretty low, isn’t it?
Posted by Zoom! on January 28, 2010, at 2:06 pm |
J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye, and Dr. Howard Zinn, activist and author of The People’s History of the U.S., both just died.
I know they were old (91 and 87 respectively) and they led full lives, and they had to go sometime, but…I feel sad.
Posted by Zoom! on January 28, 2010, at 9:22 am |
 We went to Everybody’s Art Show at Irene’s Pub last night.
I love the all-inclusive concept: everybody is invited to create and donate art for this event. Everybody! So for weeks ahead of time, artists and non-artists alike are busy making art for the main event, which is a silent auction. Most, but not all, of the contributors are regulars at Irene’s. You get everything from beet juice on a crumpled paper bag, to a bicycle sculpted from a single piece of wire, to photographs and paintings, to textile art and found objects and a thing in a box.
All the proceeds go to charity. This year the charity was an organization that buys art supplies for northern communities.
 There were about 30 pieces on sale last night, including an older one of mine, called Crack House. (It apparently fell off the wall and had to be re-framed, so it wasn’t on display until yesterday.) It sold for $35 to a young woman who seemed quite happy to have it.
 Night Wind The most highly sought-after piece, judging by the fierce bidding, was the three-dimensional Night Wind by Albert Prisner. At $153, I think it ended up being the priciest piece there. There was also a native storytelling piece by Bernar’l’espirit that saw a lot of action, as well as a photograph taken by Ian Tamblyn, and another by Bob Acton. (There was some spirited controversy at the end of the bidding over who was the legitimate winner of the Acton piece; I’m not sure how that got resolved.)
 This year they had a new feature – an artist who created a painting at the show, over the course of the evening. I wish I could do that.
The event was better attended this year than last, because last year there was a wicked blizzard that day.
 I didn’t bid on anything myself this time, since my art budget is temporarily depleted. But I agreed with the popular bid – Night Wind was the one to want.
My hat goes off to all the open-minded people at Irene’s – especially Pat – who have designed an artistically inclusive event which encourages and celebrates even the most fledgling creativity and talent.
Posted by Zoom! on January 27, 2010, at 9:06 am |
GC and I signed up for a short story writing course called Snapping the Sheet. It’s taught by Joanne Proulx, who wrote a novel called Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet, which is about a 17-year-old stoner who becomes known as The Prophet of Death.
The course consists of five weekly two-hour classes. The emphasis is on decluttering your writing. Snapping the sheet. Getting rid of excess adjectives and adverbs. Getting right to the heart of what you want to say and saying it.
The teacher’s very good and I’m learning useful things, but there are some structural problems with the course.
First of all, five classes is not enough. The course just began, and already it’s almost over.
There are fifteen students – five men, ten women. Each week we spend the first hour reading our work out loud and critiquing it. An hour isn’t long enough to read and critique the work of fifteen people, so we just do the most eager people. This tends to be the men, except for GC, who doesn’t want to be critiqued because he hasn’t done his homework.
Some of the women are eager too. I’m not one of them, even though I’ve done my homework. It’s not the critiquing that intimidates me, it’s the reading out loud. My throat constricts and I can’t simultaneously get words out and oxygen in. I never volunteer, and we tend to run out of time before I can be asked to read. This is good in a way, but not so good in another way.
My story is about two sisters who find something in the closet.
Posted by Zoom! on January 26, 2010, at 9:25 am |
Remember when you were eight years old and looking up words like “fart” in the dictionary? (We all did that, right? It wasn’t just me?)
Well, a school district in southern California has banned the Merriam-Webster dictionary from classrooms because of its sexually graphic nature.
The offending term that triggered the ban was oral sex (defined as “oral stimulation of the genitals”).
A spokeswoman says school officials are now reading the dictionary, cover to cover, in search of other overly graphic words and descriptions.
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