You have got to be kidding me. Whenever I turn on my Instant Messenger, a pop-up window appears, giving me crap like “CNN Top Stories” or asking me to “Rate-a-Buddy!” Today, the pop-up window had a pop-up window.
Day: August 23, 2002
Since it’s been — what? a week since I last posted the results of online personality quiz, here we go again:
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Ananse the Spider of African folklore is both wise and foolish in the best tradition of tricksters. If you’re like Ananse, you’re clever and like to be thought well of, but sometimes you outsmart yourself. You’re always trying to figure the best angle and you’re intelligent and creative, but you have a crude streak. Still, you like to show off your knowledge and that makes you a good teacher..
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Which Trickster are you?
Take the Trickster Test at www.isleofdreams.net
Neat. Found through Thudfactor. I don’t remember ever reading too much about Ananse, even in my senior English seminar on trickster myths, but I was always amused how in African American folklore the name became “Aunt Nancy”.
Again, the Friday Five:
1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not? I’m a Staff Assistant with the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Penn State University. Although I suppose it could be argued that I chose to be doing this, what I tell people is that I sort of fell into it. My friend Sharon suggested I contact her old boss about possible part-time editing work, which I was at the time (and still) interested in procuring. That segued into a couple of hours in the evening five days a week (and some weekends), doing a lot of what I do now, just to a lesser extent and with more direct one-on-one work with my boss. Then, in September, a full-time position became available here, and I accepted it, not least of all because I make about three times what I did at my old job, and I don’t have to be on my feet all day in the basement of a bookstore. I do not, however, consider this my “career”.
2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be? If talent were no object? Shouldn’t it be? Shouldn’t that be the main criteria in deciding on your dream job? I mean, the idea of being a gourmet chef sounds intriguing, but I can’t cook worth a damn, and so I probably wouldn’t enjoy it half as much as something for which I had genuine talent. I am, in the theory, a writer. “Not enough time”, “not enough money” — these are just excuses. A writer writes. I know this. Getting myself to do it is another matter altogether. Right now, I’d desperately like to start a zine (web or print — there are benefits to each), but writing an entire issue on my own seems like an impossible (and not particularly appealing) undertaking.
3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices? My father is a chemical engineer, a director of research and development at Con Edison, while my mother is a registered nurse. I don’t think this has had any particular influence on me, although I sometimes note with amusement that neither my sister or I seem to have inherited our parents’ knack for the sciences.
4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family? No, not even remotely. I don’t really have a career, and the only family is the one I was born with.
5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why? The easiest job in the world is the one, most likely, least worth doing. The hardest job is the job you don’t enjoy and in which you can take no real satisfaction.