20070317

Maryland, Gettysburg, and my truck.

Working at Biolife has certain benefits. Included in the benefits is three weeks paid vacation and eight personal days. I decided to take my first paid vacation this past week. I was going to take it sooner, but my mom's surgery and recovery prevented that from being a good idea. Because it would have been too expensive to fly, I elected to drive down to Maryland which is also costly, but in this case still cheaper to flying when you add in gas to get to Detroit, parking for a week, the plane tickets and then the drive back to Grand Rapids. More on the truck later. My mom is doing better, though I've found out that she's going to have to have yet more surgery due to the kind of medication she's going to need to be on to help reduce the chance of the cancer coming back, which is something she's really not looking foreward to having. In the past she's always come back from surgery must faster than the normal person, and this time its taking longer for her, which is frustrating. Other members of my family are doing well, though my younger brother and sister can't seem to understand that mom isn't able to take as much right now.

As I've recently become interested in studying the Civil War, yesterday my father and I went out to Gettysburg and toured the Battlefield, or atleast, the Museum located at the battlefield. The battlefield was closed due to a bad snow storm. A couple days previously the weather had been in the 80's. The museum was nice, and they have an electronic map which shows with lights the progress of the battle at Gettysburg, its interesting how close the CSA came to winning that battle.
After the Museum visit, we walked around downtown a looked in some of the shops, I bought a CSA bowie knife, which features R.E. Lee astride his horse on the handle, and on the blade lists the states of the Confederacy.

I found out that my truck shouldn't have been able to make a 9hr drive to Maryland. Part of the engine is self destructing by rubbing against something else, the water pump was barely hanging on, the muffler wasn't muffling . . . I was unaware of all of this. The only thing I knew was that the truck didn't sound right, the cure for which was turning the radio up and placing tape over the warning lights. Before you go into a panic, no I didn't really place tape over the warning lights, although I did turn the radio up (Engines are much louder without the muffler).

So now my truck is being fixed before I can drive it back to Michigan, luckily that shouldn't take too long.

20070312

My eharmony Report

I don't know if I'm seriously going to consider using eharmony, but I thought I would check it out anyway. I did all of their questions, and this is what they've come up with:

This week, Agreeableness.

You are best described as:
TAKING CARE OF OTHERS AND TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

Words that describe you:

Fair
Considered
Collaborative
Responsive
Sensible
Diplomatic
Contemplative
Indulgent
Rational

A General Description of How You Interact with Others

You are important. So are other people, especially if they are in trouble. You have a tender heart, but you know how to establish and keep personal boundaries. You are empathetic and compassionate, but you also believe that it's best if people solve their own problems and learn to take care of themselves, if they are able.You are deeply moved by the needs of others, but you know that if you don't take good care of yourself, you'll wind up being of no use to anyone. So yours is a thoughtful compassion. You strive to be fair and sensible, taking care of others while also taking care of yourself.When someone really is in trouble, you like to collaborate with them toward a solution; they do their part, you do yours. You consider carefully, and respond in a sensible way; they do their part, and together you move through the difficulty. You seldom act impulsively; rather, when a problem arises, you take your time to think through the situation. This contemplative quality usually means that you'll arrive at a diplomatic solution, one that's fair for the other person and also fair to you. It's frequently a win/win situation.

Negative Reactions Others May Have Toward You

For people who are ruled by tender-hearted compassion, your more diplomatic response to problems might seem too cool, too focused on fairness and not filled enough with sympathy and selflessness. For them, when someone's life is on fire, what is needed is not collaboration but rescue. And the person who experiences their life on fire may resent the time you take to contemplate. "I need you, and I need you NOW! This isn't about fairness, it's about the fire." "All deliberate speed" may seem too deliberate and not fast enough, either to the more compassionate or to people in genuine trouble. At the other end of the spectrum of compassion, those who believe people should take care of themselves may find even your thoughtful sympathies too soft. They expect people, themselves included, to work their own way out of trouble. They are convinced that the helping hand you lend just fosters dependence and is not good for the development of character, either in you or in the person you assist.

Positive Responses Others May Have Toward You

Many people, perhaps the majority, will come to appreciate your balance as a compassionate person. The more they get to know you, the more they will admire your thoughtful compassion for others and its compliment in the sensible ways you take good care of yourself. Those whom you help will appreciate the way you leave them with their dignity by expecting them to collaborate in their own rescue. Those who are more tender-hearted will find in you a balance they lack; when they've run out of energy because they fail to take good care of themselves, you will still have enough compassion left to lift others out of trouble. Even the tough-hearted, those who believe people should solve their own problems, might come to admire your tenderness which they don't find in themselves. So the people you help will be grateful, and the people who see your balance between self and others will admire you. Certainly, balanced is not bad at all as a way to be known among your friends.