I have mixed feelings about the pep talks I give myself. When I feel distracted, overwhelmed, or exhausted; I begin to feel as though I have "lost it". That my youthful energy is fading away and being replaced by surly, foggy ineptitude.

Oddly enough, it helps to remind myself how troubled and flawed I have been my whole life. That I used to frustrate and baffle my elementary school teachers, or how I would spin off into odd tangents even while I considered myself happy and successful. I think about how much success I have had and what I have managed to achieve, and I'm reminded of how clueless and flakey I've been all along. Somehow, it's better to feel that I've always been a loser than to think I'm becoming one now.

Please remember to listen to your potential customer's questions and make sure they are all answered clearly. Repeatedly interrupting someone when they are asking important questions does not provide confidence in your offerings or the respect you desperately need to close the deal. This goes double for big-ticket items and long-term contracts.

If you have already made the mistake of interrupting or talking over your customers, you can avoid further embarassment by avoiding the following:

• Any definitively-stated fact that you don't plan to substantiate
• Uncomfortably intimate details about your other customers
• "Of course, I'll do that for you!" (keep in mind that you don't know what "that" is because you're talking instead of finding out)
• The frequency with which you and your wife purchase dishware
• The phrase, "I'll have to add that to my list of things to memorize"
• Anything followed by a nervous giggle
• Your fabulous referral bonus

Among the more interesting trivia about me is the fact that I can't smell. I don't know the cause, but I have been missing out on olifactory indulgences for as long as I can recall. I tell people about this early on while getting to know them - especially if they come into my house and I feel the need to explain away potential pet or housekeeping-related odors.

I have a well-rehearsed conversation about this. Most people ask the same questions and have the same reactions. I usually sum it all up with, "well, if I had to pick a birth defect, that's the one to have!". Because there's not much of an impact on my life that can't be addressed by freshness dating, routine hygene and smoke detectors

So I was minding my own business, filing bug reports and looking at email in my gmail account, when my focus was snatched by the following:

  Early Humans Were Often Eaten

That's it.  No more doing what I was doing.  Now, I was thinking all kinds of thoughts, none of which had anything to do with mod_ssl.

I've seen lots of distracting headlines up there on the top of my Gmail screen, passive-aggressively pleading for attention in that innocuous font.  In fact, I see all kinds of things demanding all kinds of attention at every turn, and I seem to fall prey to it more and more often.

Most days I sit on my couch, working all day on my laptop.  I work and I work.  When I'm not working, I'm googling or reading blogs - more numb than work, but using the same posture and processes.  Sometimes, I feel hungry.  And I wonder why I should feel hungry, since I've just eaten.  But then I realize that my last meal was over 8 hours ago, and the only reason it seems like a few minutes is because I haven't done anything "new" in that time.

And I look out the window, which my optometrist tells me is a good thing.  In fact, he gave me a great big lecture last time I was in there.  He talked on and on about Stephen Covey and tool-sharpening, obnoxious bosses,  gas-powered leaf blowers, and canoeing to work.  Those rants used to put me off, but now I really look forward to getting my eyes checked.

It was a disappoinment to watch the the original Saturday Night Live stars fade.  They all grew up, got clean, had kids and started turning out uselessly unfunny crap.  But must they go out of their way to prove they're not Peter Sellers?

Sgt. Bilko should have sufficed. 

If I made a New Year's resolution, it was to be more expressive.  Sometimes I'm out and about, and an old woman winks at me while flashing a winning, dentured smile.  Perhaps one will come up to me and tell me I have lovely hair, pretty eyes, or I look just like one of those Hemingway girls.

It's usually old women.

And it makes my day.  Why wouldn't it?  So unexpected! So flattering!  A random act of kindness!

 If I want to be one of these old women, I have to start soon.  Like now.  But the thing is, I'm oblivious to pretty eyes, nice coats and passing resemblences to faded celebrities.  Surely, I could develop my own style, but it's going to take some work.

Sometimes I hit "send" when I really shouldn't.

Perhaps I should be hitting "Draft" instead.  Or maybe even "Cancel".

But nope, today is a "Send" day.  We'll see how it all pans out. 

I'm always blown away when I read MBTI information on INTP's.  How can I be so easily pegged by a generic summary?!

Anyway, I'm stashing these notes from here so I'll remember the stuff I ought to be working on: 

Personal Growth As with all types, the INTP can achieve personal growth by developing all functions that are not fully developed, through actions such as:

• expressing appreciation towards others
• working within other people's limitations
• accepting and praisi

This old favorite comes up a lot during technical discussions, and I've been thinking about it a lot lately.

Original