The Law of the Tension of Opposites

Hola!

OK, what the hell is this pretensiously-titled post about?? (Well, for those who read "Tuesdays with Morrie", the title will seem familiar.....and if you haven't read it.....watch for the twist ending!!...sorry, that was horrible....really, really horrible...no but really, I liked the book, even though it was sad.)

Actually, this post is about the various ways in which I am hopelessly confused in my daily life, especially in regards to long-term goals and dreams. You see, I have way too many interests and way too many impulsive ambitions, but far too little time to carry them all out. It's embedded in my personality - there's a psychological profile test called the Myers-Briggs personality test, which measures various personal behaviors, such as introversion/extroversion, how judgmental someone is, the degree to which people sense, think, feel, use intuition, etc....Anyway, my personality type is INTJ, which exists in a very small percentage of the population. (something like 1.x percent) One of the defining traits of this personality type is that the INTJ-ite continually comes up with creative and interesting ideas, but eventually overloads himself/herself and subsequently become intimidated by the overall quantity of these ideas. And what often happens is that few or none of these ideas actually get executed.

Although I have enough discipline to actually get stuff done at least part of the time, I feel this very same impulse/idea overload daily. Much of it has to do with the people that I talk to on a fairly regular basis, and some has to do with the fact that I have a tendency to be too easily influenced and inspired. And a lot of it has to do with my random, vividly descriptive imagination.

For example, take yesterday. I start off in a very ambitious technical Web geek mood; I'm thinking, "OK, I'm gonna complete the redesign of the NJL Web site Home Page, then I'm going to get started on an XHTML conversion of the page that conforms to W3C standards, THEN...etc.."....

When I get to work, however, I get 2 rage-laced calls, and my focus suddenly turns to REVENGE against the nameless asshole callers that have tormented me for over a year...For about 5 minutes, I thought up a scenario taking place during the Salem Witch Trials, where one of the callers (a lawyer dressed in a suit and tie, anacronisms notwithstanding, and is tied to a wooden post, with wood and brush surrounding him) is calling out, "Please Mr. Partyka! I didn't mean to be rude to you! I...I was under a lot of pressure! I needed my case THAT DAY...[nervous laugh]...you understand, right Jeff!"...Me, being the town's high priest/mayor, loudly and uncomprimisingly reads from a scroll:

"The Good Town of Salem in thy Treasured Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay hereby declares the immediate and God-fearing execution of MR. ANGRY CALLER, as sanctioned by the majority town mandate of the Wytch Identification Counsel....May God have mercy on your soul......Commence the Conflagration of God's Glory!

......Anyway, I do calm down after this imaginary scenario, but I no longer want to accomplish tech-oriented tasks at light speed -- now I want to go to a Salem Witch Trials Museum...

Later, as I begin to write my blog about Valentine's Day, my creative/comedic urges are extirpated from my brain, and I envision myself as a semi-famous writer doing a book signing at Borders in East Brunswick (OK Butterscotch, there's your bookstore reference...LOL)......Of course, I am wearing designer eyeglasses and chatting with other intellectuals/dilettantes (the very same people who become Borders employees, BTW)....To a fan, I spout off literary drivel, such as:

"..well...yes, I would have to say, most certainly, that the motivations of Murray, while not entirely removed from a Faulkner protagonist, do, however, exhibit the very same underlying exhuberance and...dare I say...girth??"

Later that night, I work on my Internet Radio Station (more details to follow later this week), and I think about the possibility of doing a radio show once a week....I think about various angles and witty one-liners I can dish out during my broadcast...I even think of a nifty way to open up the show.....I then get the impulse to watch "Good Morning Vietnam", and I dream about becoming an underground Internet radio DJ.

Finally, I talk to my brother Dave, and as always, we engage in intellectual, socio-philosophical conversation about....whatever....this motivates me to become a sociology professor, where I speak slowly and carefully, with a commanding, didactic voice, and spout off something like:

"Sympathy in any given social interaction system...like anything else...has a LIMITED NUMBER....OF .....CREDITS...write that down....If one uses all of their credit.......THEY LOSE GROUP CREDIBILITY..."

And that's all I have time to blog about today...Tomorrow: WEDNESDAY NIGHT CHARACTERS!!!