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I have (finally, shamefully) uncovered the lyrical wizardry of Bob Dylan for myself.

When I began exploring Nina Simone’s impressive repertoire, looking up the background of  most of her songs simply became a habit. Her performances simply have a way of communicating to parts of me which remain otherwise uninterested in communication to begin with. Whether that is the immediate result of some deliberate steps taken some time ago, or ones which I am taking even today is irrelevant to me to think about at this moment.  In any case, it quickly became apparent to me that some of her best performances were actually Bob Dylan covers, or were songs written by the man. While his voice is not particularly impressive to me, his lyrics are on a plain unreached by any musician that I have ever known of. I cannot help but feel like I am uncovering something spectacular for myself.

Let us stick with the theme of productivity. When work is slow and the mind is only stimulated largely thanks to sleep and glorious caffeine, I tend to browse YouTube while I wait for my MW’s WotD email to arrive. As is proven by the posts here this week, Photoshop becomes a toy and game news become a fun thing to look at again, if only to look at while behind the bars of a needlessly packed schedule which I oddly enough do not completely mind being set up in this manner.

I also tend to look up my Myers-Briggs type, the INTP. For those of you who do not know what the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality assessment is, well, that: It is a personality assessment which measures, based on specifically tailored questions, the four specific areas of inclination of one’s personality:

1. Extroversion vs Introversion (attitudes)
2. Sensing vs Intuition (function)
3. Thinking vs Feeling (function)
4. Judging vs Perception (lifestyle)

I have taken most of the tests available (for free, do not fall for scams, or ones that ask for your e-mail address) online and according to their results (and excessive research to satiate a legitimate overlapping in claims of my being this specific personality type) it turns out that I am an INTP, and for the first time in a long while (since I figured this out), I makes sense to me, as per the descriptions of what the INTP does, acts like, and the alleged persuasions which said INTP tends to circle.

And for the record, this is a far more valuable, credible assessment to go by, flawed as it may be, in comparison to more mainstream dribble like astrology, in which case, I like my astrology extremely insane, and am a wood rat, my ying yangs.

Read more on the MBTI here, and here, and here.

Want to know what your type is? Take all of these tests, answer as truthfully as possible, and the most redundant result is probably your type. Though if I were you, I would read up on all of the results and see what sounds the most like me.

Needlessly long preface aside, I have begun reading up on what the INTP needs for personal growth, and yes, my skepticism is alive and well while having skimmed through this page.

Onwards to productivity!

Information
Name: Dragon’s Dogma
Developer: Capcom
Genre: JRPG
Platforms: PS3, XBOX 360
Release Date: May 22, 2012 (Just over two weeks left!)

I am filled with a tiny amount of dread at knowing that I will not be playing this game in as many extensively long sittings as I was once able to. Needless to say, I do not mind staying up late and pulling a few all-nighters and then going to work just to experience this game in as immersed a manner as possible. If there is caffeine, I can manage.

I have not downloaded the demo for this game yet, but the game play videos that I have looked at have only excited me at the thought that this game not only coming out, but coming out very soon. In a little over two weeks, I will have either bought (or ordered) this game and  will be playing it and going after the biggest enemies I can find. There is a flexible class/job system which players can switch to/from, as well as a pawn system which essentially means that I not only get to be a flexible fighter, but hire my own posse.

I have picked out three videos after the link below, and the one that truly captured my heart is the last one depicting an epic battle between a ninja class player, their posse, versus two cyclops and a few stray mobs. You will note that the AI is not only intelligent, but formidable.

Seemingly an unexpectedly great game, from the looks of it. It has Japanese-style gaming elements (see: class system, character stylization) and Western-styled gaming elements as well, (see: expansive, open world, Eurocentric renaissance theme, and dragons) it seems like Elder Scrolls with wings made in Japan. The emboldened, almost frenzied sense of JRPGs in a Westernized gaming setting.

(Continued)

Introduction:
The Work Ethic Series is most likely going to become a gradually growing number of articles based on the attitudes which I have sensed, suspected, or plainly noticed in the work place. Yes, I finally got a  job, and it is in the public sector, and it needs rescuing.

Work Ethic Series: The Attitude

Perhaps the most jarring thing about the public sector, more so than the stagnant level of productivity, is the downright rotten attitude which some employees carry. It is absolutely destructively clear in its lack of spirit, and creative only in how it is expressed.

Seemingly, the entire point of having a job is not to show up and work, it is to be as loudly entitled to as little work and much pay as possible and vocally so, at least within the constraints of social etiquette: some people seem to be enraged at the notion of working at work. (Continued)

She was almost as tall as I was, just about my age and with twice as much stubbornness that I ever had (I am told that I have plenty of it, enough to fill industrial warehouses and then some) but the look in her eyes was one that I prefer to think is jaded, and can only come with age.

I would have loved to feign whimsy and wonder just where someone so youthful would have so much conviction, but let me be harsh enough to admit conviction does not come at the stipulation of age. Indeed, feelings, despite our greatest efforts to surround in a fortress of flagrantly established emotional law to exemplify as things that are only developed, even honed with harvested years, rarely need to be developed, but only noted. (Continued)