For The Fun Of It

Five Senses Friday

/ Ally Bean / 5 Comments

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Feeling:

slightly anxious about home improvement decisions that we will be making this weekend

Hearing:

orchestral version of “Somewhere” (West Side Story) on classical radio station [not quite sure what’s up with that]

Tasting:

freshly brewed black coffee

Seeing:

bright pink petunias growing every which way in the planting bed next to the front sidewalk

Smelling: 

the slightly herbal, kind of citrus-y scent from my bath soap

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{This wonderful idea is from abby try again.   If you wish, you may play along in the comments below or on your own blog.}

Apparently I Belong In Canada

/ Ally Bean / 4 Comments

“How do you define a better life?”

An intriguing question, yes?

One that I’d never put much thought to until I found the Create Your Better Life Index, a simple interactive tool, which helped me focus on what is important to me and how to prioritize it.  Using this tool I realized that for me the topics that make life better are: community, education, safety, housing, jobs, health.  I place much less emphasis on: environment, governance, work-life balance.

By evaluating my preferences, the Create Your Better Life Index told me that I belong in Canada.  Or Australia.  Or New Zealand.

Okay, I can see that.

I also learned that I absolutely don’t belong in Chile.  Or Mexico.  Or Turkey.

Well, no big surprise there.  

And as for the USA?  It turns out that it is my 11th perfect country to live in on earth.  It follows seven northern European countries.

Hmmm.  Didn’t see that one coming.  

While I take the results of all online tools with a grain of salt, this one made me smile and reflect upon the fact that we are who we are– no matter where we live on the earth.  Geography exerts its influence, but temperament trumps it more times than not.

N’est-ce pas?

[Added 06.06.11 – Check out this article from MSNBC: “US doesn’t make cut for happiest nations list” – More info re: top 10 happiest countries.]

In Which We Learn A Bit More About The Beans

/ Ally Bean / 9 Comments

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I took the Right Brain vs Left Brain Creativity Test.  It was straightforward.  No right or wrong answers.  A fun kind of test.

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It said that I am 52% Right Brain and 48% Left Brain.  My most dominant Right Brain characteristics are Fantasy-oriented & Intuitive.  My most dominant Left Brain characteristics are Verbal & Linear.

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Does this mean that I’m well-balanced?  Or does this mean that I’m equally mediocre on each side of my brain– not being able to excel in one direction or the other?

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Being more Right Brain than Left Brain means that I am a creative thinker who visualizes the “whole” picture first, uses what appears to be illogical and meandering thought processes, yet finds an innovative solution to the problems at hand.

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Yep, that’s me.

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Zen-Den took the test.  He is 56% Left Brain and 44% Right Brain.  His most dominant Left Brain characteristic is Verbal– just like me.  His second most dominant Right Brain characteristic is Fantasy-oriented– just like me.

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 I’m guessing that it is the overlap of the same strong dominant characteristics that makes us so compatible.  ‘Cause on the surface we are very different.

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He is described as a critical thinker who uses logic to collect information, sees only parts of the “whole” picture, which he puts together in a step-by-step systematic manner to arrive at the conclusion.

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Yep, that’s the hubster.

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The results of this test were surprisingly accurate.  It confirmed what we knew about ourselves and helped us understand what we didn’t realize about ourselves.  Very interesting.

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If you get a chance to take the test (allow 10 minutes), let me know what you think about your results.  Do they describe you, or not?

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[Please note: the italicized portions of this post represent my summary of the test’s conclusions using mostly their words.  I’m too lazy to punctuate properly today.]