WHAT TYPE ARE YOU?

Are you a Type A personality, or a B? Type C is rarely mentioned, but there's a new "D" category now. Are you a type D personality? Finding out your type is like buying a pair of shoes.

Does the question intrigue you? Why? Because you want another career? Because you're restless? Bored? Or do you wish you had another sort of life style? (I don't like being categorized, but probably I'm a Type A. )

Basically: Type A is a worrier, tense, stressed achiever, who may die younger than a Type B, who is patient, relaxed, easy-going, generally lacking an overriding sense of urgency. (This sounds like my husband.)

Type C thrives on details and accuracy; they are often accountants, engineers, who dress neatly, fashionably, and are very calculated, precise, reliable in just about everything they do. (The C's I know are irritating.)

The D personality does not like change, prefers guidelines, doing the same thing over and over. Type D's are motivated by security, are punctual, consistent, content with themselves, and life in general. (I know a couple of semi-D's, but I don't trust them -- I figure they're A's pretending to be happy.)

Initially the categories were defined by heart specialists, evaluating risk factors for heart attacks.

I tried two of the tests. I didn't learn anything about myself, but ... well ... you might find the tests interesting.

The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by Isabel Myers-Briggs and her mother, Katharine Briggs, to present the personality theories developed by Carl Jung in a practical, useful way.

It measures:
introversion (I)
extroversion (E),
intuition (N)
sensing (S),
feeling (F)
thinking (T),
perceiving (P)
judging (J).

So you could be an I N T P and an E N TJ -- the questions were interesting, but it seemed awfully complicated. Also some of Jung's theories have been discredited, so before you take the MBTI test, try the "Big Five" theory.

This is based on the concept that there are five personality traits, as per these definitions:

Openness: appreciation for emotion, art, unusual ideas, adventure, curiosity, imagination, and variety of experience.

Conscientiousness: a tendency to act dutifully, show self-discipline, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior.

Extraversion: positive emotions, energy, self-confidence, out-going-ness, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the comfort of others.

Agreeableness: a tendency to be cooperative and compassionate rather than antagonistic and suspicious towards others.

Neuroticism: a tendency to experience negative emotions easily, such as depression, anxiety, anger, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability.

When you answer the questions, and the values are scored, you'll see a graph that shows you how you fit in, or don't fit in, with what's normal.

Click here for the free EBTI.
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/mmdi/questionnaire/

Read, insert your answers, submit; the report will l tell you about your personality. They say it's free but they offer you a chance to buy more information. (I couldn't figure out how to check out without buying an extra report for about $3.00. I suggest that you skip this test and try the next one first.)

Here's another link. I answered the questions and got an evaluation of my personality that was credible, but didn't tell me anything that I didn't know before I took the test.
http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

But it's fun. It might be fun to take the test for your lover/friend/best buddy, and see if you're compatible.

Now that I've learned that I'm not compatible with my husband, or my son, or any of my friends, I'm amused, annoyed, and seriously mistrustful. I think trying to put myself in a category is like buying size 6 shoes when I know I wear a 7 and 1/2.

So, okay -- take the test.

If the shoe fits ...

PICTURES

My friend sent these pictures with just the title:

PICTURES TO MAKE YOU SMILE

And here I am smiling, still smiling.

SHIRLEY SHERROD

Does the name ring a bell? Shirley Sherrod had a remarkable 15 minutes of fame.

Back in July, Sherrod was forced to resign from her job as Georgia State Director of Rural Development, after blogger Andrew Breitbart posted on his Website, video excerpts of an address Shirley Sherrod made at an NAACP event.

The Breitbart video made Sherrod, an employee of the US. Department of Agriculture, sound as if she were a bigoted black seeking revenge on whites for their racism.

The NAACP and U.S. government officials immediately condemned her remarks and accepted her letter of resignation.

News alerts, headlines -- a big to-do it was! Then, the un-edited, original video was seen, and what Sherrod actually said at the NAACP event was heard.

On the original, unedited tape, we heard an educated, articulate woman explain why and how she'd helped a poor white couple -- they were losing their farm -- a bank was foreclosing on it. Though it wasn't part of Sherrod's job, she went out of her way to get a lawyer to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy claim for them, and prevented the elderly couple from ending up homeless.
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Sherrod explained that when she was a child, her father had been murdered by a white man who was acquitted by a white jury -- that she could have sent the white farmer and his wife on their way without helping them. She said, very simply, "I didn't discriminate. In the end we became very good friends."

The story of a black woman who had every reason to hate whites, who bent over backwards not to discriminate against them, was touching.

President Obama apologized. The head of the Department of Agriculture. Tim Vilsak, apologized. The NAACP apologized. There were screaming headlines. Sherrod shouldn't have been fired! Obama made a mistake! Vilsak should be fired! Breitbart should be fired! Sherrod was suing Fox News and Breitbart. Vilsak offered Sherrod an important new job! Obama offered her a job! Over and over, the nation got alerts and replays of the Shirley Sherrod story.

The story became old news. Politics and other scandals were exploding. Having read somewhere that she turned down the new job, I figured she was working with lawyers, suing Breitbart.

Last week, when reporter Juan Williams, a Black, was fired, or almost fired, or about to be fired, because of the knee-jerk reaction of NPR regarding his comment about being afraid on a plane when he sees people dressed in Muslim-style clothing, the media grabbed his story. They mentioned Sherrod's name, connecting Shirley and Juan, amplifying, blowing up his story like a balloon, like the balloon boy's folks did, when they were names in the news.

I wonder what Shirley Sherrod is doing. Maybe she's writing a book, or her story's been optioned. She's 62. Her husband, the Rev. Charles Sherrod, a Baptist minister and Professor teaching at Albany University (in Albany, Georgia), is a civil rights organizer, who participated in many of the arenas of the '60s movement. Maybe she's working with him on a local civil rights project.

I like her -- she's a kind, sophisticated person I'd enjoy getting to know. I feel any question I asked, any subject we might discuss, would get an interesting, truthful response. Her deeds, her "I did not discriminate"-- what she did and said to the NAACP has put a new word in my vocabulary.

If you have an problem, political or personal, because of race, age, or religion, Sherrod it. "Sherrod" is a way of fixing things.

Shirley Sherrod's 15 minutes of fame is more than minutes -- it's a light that's still glowing.

WARNING FOR WOMEN

Yesterday I warned guys -- don't get hooked on makeup.

This post is a hush-hush warning for women only, about our daughters, and the next generation, and maybe the next.

Turn back the clock and remember the day, the moment, that you got hooked -- was it nail polish? Was it your mom, your sister opening her compact, patting on powder? Was it the way she dabbed on lipstick -- smack smack, and blotted her lips? Did her way become your way?

I don't wear any makeup. But once a week, when I'm taping videos for Air Broadcasting for a Vlog I do with my husband John Cullum -- on go the bright lights. I behold myself via the camera eye on the monitor of our MAC computer.

Out come my pancake makeup, sponges, pencils, lip gloss, eye shadow, mascara, rouge, and the umpteen times I've donned makeup for a stage performance is in my fingers and my brain as I proceed, automatically, to pat, puff, draw, and apply the stuff that will make me look my best.

Girls, click the link. (if a guy clicks and peeks maybe it'll help him with his own fixations), and be warned about how a female's obsession with makeup evolved.

BAD GOOD NEWS FOR GUYS

You can buy stuff that'll make you look younger, handsomer, cover up a zit, age spots, circles under your eyes, and frown lines.

Yes, it'll cost money, but more and more men are doing it, and the word is out -- you will have a better social life (sex life!). And a better-looking you has a better chance of moving up-up in the business world.

AND it's chic. It's IN -- a lot of guys are doing it. Terry Bradshaw, famous former football quarterback, and country singer Tim McGraw -- also other celebrities, names you'd never guess because their makeup is subtle, but using makeup is definitely not something famous guys chit=chat about, with Letterman or Leno.

Fascinating facts: Men spent twice as much on grooming products last year as they as they did back in pre-recession days. Since 1997, sales of cosmetics for men went from a $41 million yearly gross to $217 million.

Sales of L'Oréal's men's line, "Menaji," has been grossing more, selling, 70% more every year for the past three years.

Yep, men, guys in the regular world, and even soldiers, are buying and using "Menaji" (it's never referred to as makeup). Menaji is generally shipped to GI's in a cigar box style package.

Guys are using CAMO BRONZE, $24 (like camouflage), and 1.5.oz. of MOISTURIZING AFTERSHAVE, $24,' , EYE GEL, $32, and POLISHING SCRUB,$24.

You can get it in a travel bag, or a sports bag, for an extra $70, You can also purchase a tube of lip agent, an anti-shine powder, anti-wrinkle eraser. and a glycolic skin toner. The recommended "deep cleanse" pack in a cigar box is $100.

Guys, don't do it! Don't buy it! Don't get caught in the save-your-youth care and maintenance frenzy -- you're going to be stuck with silly, foolish, time-wasting costly routines that may make you feel better, but make very little difference to the over all affect of AGING.

THIS IS A WARNING:

DON'T GET HOOKED, GUYS. ONCE YOU START, THE MIRROR WILL BE YOUR ENEMY, YOUR DAILY-DEADLY-CONSULTANT, FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

WATER! WATER!

"Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink ..."

That people don't have safe water to drink, can't bathe, isn't really real to me.

Haitians drinking unsafe water has created a serious cholera epidemic in Haiti. I've seen pictures of people in India bathing in the water into which sewage flows. Photos from other countries, of parched, thirsty babies, children, and adults, are shocking, but all I know and feel about thirst is what I've seen in the movies.

Of course, in my household, we use water carefully; brush teeth. wash dishes, bathe and shower economically. But, golly gee, if our city ran out of water, if bountiful rich, civilized America the beautiful, starts running out of water, what will happen?

My mind stops. It's a fence. I feel as if I can't handle another problem. I'm still recovering from the election -- I haven't really recovered from the months of ups and downs about the oil spill.

But it seems as if water is going to become a precious liquid like oil. There's already a business corporation working on capturing water from Sitka, Alaska, transporting it, piping it, into countries that have a desperate need for water.

The town of Sitka is situated on a large lake, a blue-hued body of water that's called "Blue Lake." It has trillions of gallons of water, so pure that the water requires no treatment. The True Alaska Bottling Company is making plans to develop a big industry there -- siphoning Blue Lake water into tankers normally used for oil, shipping the water to a bottling facility near Mumbai, (Bombay, India), and selling it to several drought-plagued cities.

But experts and authorities warn cities that allowing private companies to supply water can be excessively costly and unreliable -- a private company is out to make money. True Alaska won’t weigh the needs of water-starved areas like Phoenix, Arizona or Ghana, against the needs of Coca-Cola or Nestlé. They will charge what market can bear. They'll spend as little as possible on maintenance and environmental protection

While food shortages can be handling by switching to other food products, there is no substitute for water. There are currently two other giant private water companies, Suez and Veolia -- together, they are delivering water to 260 million water-taps around the world.

Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Santa Fe, N.M. already need to get water from private suppliers. New York, with its water shortage, is piping in water from the Catskill Mountains; Southern California pipes in water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Colorado River Basin.

But individual cities can't moderate or control what a private company does. Veolia spilled millions of gallons of sewage into San Francisco Bay. Last year Camden, N.J., sued the Suez Company for $29 million because Suez turned off the sewage pumps for a couple of hours a day, to save money;

I feel as if I'm Scarlett O'Hara on the top of a hill, looking down at my unsafe home and land, muttering into the air "I'll think about it tomorrow."

Experts say unless we manage our water better now, we will run out. When that happens, no pricing or management scheme in the world will save us from a time when people will be warring with their neighbors over water.

Good God, I can't think -- I don't want to think about this! Not today! But I have to. We have to think about this now.

FACING FACEBOOK AGAIN (video)

Emily Frankel hasn't told John Cullum what they're going to discuss, but the moment she mentions the name, he remembers that they've discussed Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook before.

John has no time or real interest in social networking. Emily updates him on how her attitude has changed. She's gone from "Eeek! I don't want to join Facebook" to realizing that with Facebook, her blog, "Em's Talkery" has been able to develop a large number of readers.

Emily confesses that she has started a professional page, a fan page in Facebook for "John Cullum," and asks John to take a look, when he has more time. Though John is surprised, he promises that he will.