The result are in ...

So it turns out I am a INFP. Not exactly sure what that means, which is to say that the entire excercise is wasted on me.

But I have a problem with the whole thing. We did the exam in two parts, one that was done online beforehand and the other that was done in a group. My primary concern is with the introverted/extraverted deal. The online portions that we did were very pointed towards our relationships with people. So things like, "Do you prefer large groups at parties," to which my answer is obviously "yes." But then when we did this group portion, the questions were like, "Do you like to interact with people/things?" Do I like to interact with things? What kind of piss-poor question is that? Of course I interact with things. I can think of few questions that could be more broad.

Sure, I quite enjoy breathing air. Technically, that is interaction with air molecules, which are technically things. Or if I go camping for a weekend to reflect on nature, would building a fire for warmth classify as interacting with a thing? I think by definition it would have to be, right? So in the group portion I definitely classified as an E because, yes, I like to interact with things. At the end of the group portion we got our online portions back, and, of course, I scored a 30/30 as an introvert. After that I lost a lot of faith in the Myers-Briggs test.

My second major concern with the test is that we would separate ourselves into groups to provide insight on how the different sides of the dichotemies think about and manage life differently. But no one answers honestly. We all answer with our lettered caps on, depending on what we just jotted down on our grids. So, for example, we were asked to analyze a tea bag. The Intuitives vs. the Perceptives in this one. And we all knew exactly how to answer, it didn't matter what we actually thought. We just wanted our instructor to stand back, look at the boards at the opposite side of the room and say, "Now that is interesting. Isn't that interesting, class?" And then we can look over to the other side of the room, to those Ps, and say, "Oh, you're all bad people, thinking about a tea bag that way ...", and so that they can do the same.

But in the end I am an INFP and there is only 4.5% of the U.S. population that is like me. I was hoping for ENFJ, because that's the creme de la creme, the exculsive 1.5%. After all, diamonds are expensive because they are rare.

Myers Briggade

Back on the home front, my friends and I had somewhat of a weekend ritual of sitting on what we called "the bench." It was, as you might imagine, a bench. It was downtown on Idaho St., and we would go there as spectators in a phenomenon common to downtowns nationwide called the cruise. This was a time and place where teenagers would drive around in circles waiting for something to happen, although I was never sure what. Instead of driving around, we sat on the bench, ate pizza and drank Dr. Pepper. Good times, fond memories, etc.

At one point, we thought we could make good (better) use of our hours spent on the bench by finding me a date to homecoming. You see, I was a rare breed of social outcast, one who thought he was better than everyone else, yet was petrified of the world outside of his basement or beyond the sound-proofed walls of the band room. As such, I did not go to many school dances because I said I was too good for everyone but actually because I was scared of everyone. Anyways, we actually Kinkoed ourselves some flyers to hand out on the cruise which consisted of a brief checklist that would qualify or disqualify my would-be dates.

I will not go into too much detail, but generally things like "Are you an heiress to a thrown" and "Do your friends describe you as 'easy'" (there was much dispute as to whether this was a qualifier or a disqualifier). One of the questions that to this day I consider to be most brilliant was this: "Do you take offense to fat jokes?" Although it gets the point across, it does so with the utmost diplomacy. It is a question to which no one can take offense, but that everyone has to answer honsetly. That was the idea at least.

The reason I mention this is because I took the Meyers-Briggs exam today and I found a lot of the questions to be along the same lines as "Do you take offense to fat jokes?" Now, I don't know the results (I will find out tomorrow morning), but here's what I understand so far. You don't want to be an overly emotional, paranoid loner who can't mind his own business. However, the questions in the exam try to ask you exactly this as subtely as possible.

• "So, ummm, do you have a lot of friends?" (Are you a complete loser?)
• "And do you generally trust those around you?" (Are you paranoid of everything in life?) "
• "Do you frequently give others advice?" (Are you a nosy busybody?)
• "Okay then, do you eat brownie batter and watch SpongeBob Squarepants late at night on Nickelodeon?" (Are you an absolute emotional wreck?)

In the end, I think that it just tells you if anyone will like you. Any bets how my test results will be?