Lost with Myers Briggs

My first thought about Myers Briggs and Lost was that the whole faith vs. logic conflict is really a conflict between NFs and NTs. The faith side is led by Ben and Locke and the rational side is led by Jack. Wouldn't it be tidy if that's how the Myers Briggs worked out. But it doesn't.

First off, I think Ben is a cold, hard rationalist, maybe ENTP. He understands and manipulates people's motivations so well that I think he really must be an extravert. I don't think introverts have as much curiosity about people's motives as extraverts and therefore they have less insight. He always has a plan, but he's quick to revise it on the fly, which makes me think he's a P but I could be persuaded to ENTJ.

Locke is definitely an NF, only an NF would be conned out of a kidney by his evil father. Maybe INFJ. He's always looking for (and finding) meaning, and he's obsessed with figuring out his destiny and that of the island.

Jack's a bit harder for me, because my inclination always seems to be to divide people into either NT or NF. So first I figure he's an NT (and that fits better with the faith vs logic dichotomy) but then I think about his sense of right and wrong, his desire to protect people, to fix broken people, and I think maybe he's an SJ. And then I realize I may have just described an NF with that romantic need to fix. All in all, though, I'm thinking INTJ, especially because he goes crazy as soon as he goes near emotion territory, like he just doesn't have a clue what to do with feelings or how to integrate them into his world. (I'm not saying all NTs do this, just the really badly damaged ones.)

I think Sayid must be another rationalist, and I have to go with ENTP. I'm guessing that extracting information from people with torture requires considerable insight into people's motivations AND an ability to distance yourself emotionally from your victim.

Kate was also tough for me at first but then I come down to ESTP. She's a human chameleon and mostly seems to go for the quick fix rather than the long-term strategy. The way she can go on the run for long periods and improvise her movements, the way she's adopted personas... sounds pretty ESTP to me.

Sawyer - pretty sure he's another ESTP. I don't think you can be a con artist unless you're extraverted. But he reads a lot on the island and doesn't get too involved in all the group shenanigans, so then maybe he's an I? Nah, I think he's just the sort of worst-case manifestation of ESTP. (Again, not saying all ESTPs are con artists and criminals -- just the ones who as children watched their father kill their mother after being swindled by a con artist.)

Charlie - my first thought was ESFP because of the whole rock star thing. But with his heroin addiction and moodiness, I wondered if maybe he was a tortured NF. I'm quite curious to see if certain MB types are prone to certain mental illnesses and addictions... somewhere online I saw that heroin's for NFs and cocaine's for SPs - or was it NTs? Whatever... I still fall back on ESFP for Charlie.

Desmond. Oh, Desmond. I just love Desmond. I'm not sure I'm capable of the emotional distance required to type him, but I'll try. The tricky thing with him is it's hard to tell which circumstances he's created and which ones just happen to him randomly (as if anything on Lost is random but you get my drift). He seemed pretty sane after a very long time by himself in the Swan, which makes me think he's an introvert. He's done so many different things in his life that I think he may be an SP but his undying loyalty to Penny, and his fondness for work in hardcore hierarchies (the army and the monestary) swings me back to SJ. Maybe ISFJ? No, ISFP. I have a hard time putting Desmond into SJ.

Juliet - I'm thinking INFP. She's got a pretty cool, calculating streak, but I think at heart she's an idealist who believes the best of people until they are proven absolutely guilty.

So far there aren't a lot of SJs on the island. I'd think SJs would be extremely useful if a plane crashed on a (not really) deserted South Pacific island. It's reasonably clear that everyone on the island was destined to be there, that the island pretty much hand-picked them. Does the island not want SJs? Or is the absence of SJ's the result of my own personal handicap-slash-bias? I think I just can't put myself in the shoes of SJs... I just don't quite get what makes them tick.

So bring on the SJs:

Sun: She's developing quite the streak of cold, hard logic so first I think INTJ. But then, she didn't leave Jin when she had the chance in the airport, so that loyalty makes me think SJ. ISTJ?

Jin - he's very concerned with class and propriety, and he follows Sun's dad's authority pretty unquestioningly, so I'm thinking ISTJ for him too. Not sure if it makes sense for people of the same type to get married, but it does explain a lot of their problems with no E and no F to draw the other one out.

Claire - Oh jeez. This is getting hard. Some characters' personalities just aren't as evident. ESFJ? I'm not sure that sits quite right though because she's awfully gullible and flaky. Now I'm thinking NF. ENFJ?

Hurley - I give up. All afternoon he's been preying on my mind and I just can't get my head around his type. My gut says SP but would be SPs be prone to depression? Maybe with an F tendency... let's say ESFP.

So. Still here? What do you think?

And if you don't watch Lost, you should... the space channel is starting it from season one in the fall or you can catch up by dvd, so there's no excuse.

notes towards an MBTI analysis of Lost

My obsession with Myers Briggs continues, only now it's intersecting with a renewed interest in Lost, thanks to my recent discovery of Lost and Gone Forever. That blogger can THINK!

So I really want to do an MBTI analysis of the main Lost characters, sort of along the lines of what Bea did for Harry Potter. I can barely focus on work. And I keep finding myself caught up in loopholes and exceptions and roadblocks.

I think Bea is either INFJ or ENFJ, and she has a great ability to see patterns and group things within a structure. As an ENFP, I think I'm a bit more concerned with the individual and I tend to jump into things without a plan or a structure. So when I attempt an analysis of Lost characters, I see a sea of individuals and I can't seem to group them together.

I'm also discovering a few assumptions that I'd like (you) to validate.

I suspect that extraverts might have more insight into people's motivations and consequently a bigger capacity for manipulation. Does that mean anyone who manipulates people, for whatever reason, cannot be introverted?

I also think NT's have way more capacity for deception than NF's. Does that mean anyone who willfully deceives people cannot be an F?

What do you think?

In the meantime, I'll keep working on my unstructured analysis...

Lost without internet

Our internet at home is broken again and I can't spend my work day blogging. How unfair! Just in case we don't get it fixed soon, that's why I'm not able to visit... I'm seriously twitchy with withdrawl.

Oh -- and I've been wanting to talk about last week's episode of Lost but I don't know many people IRL who watch it.

Was Desmond's "I love you. I've always loved you," speech knee-weakening, or what? I think he overtook Sawyer in my Lost fantasies with that episode. What did you think? What are your theories about the island and all that?

I think I'd rather be Redhot...

Apparently Sawyer would call me Whitesnake. (I can't believe the limited hair colour options... surely he'd have a blast with redheads?)

What's your Lost nickname?

Eight is the loveliest number...

(updated with links)

Yay! I've been tagged by Beck for 8 facts about me.

1. I didn't like the authoritarian tone of the rules that MUST be posted first in this meme. But I would have grudgingly followed the rules if it weren't for Alpha Dogma's brazen flouting of them. Now I feel empowered. (Oh - and I'm awfully jealous of AD's kick-ass sesame street video that she used to illustrate her meme.)

Here are the rules:

A. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.

B. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.

C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

2. I haven't really belly danced since I started back to work in early March. I just haven't been able to balance it with blogging family life. But I really really really want to get back into it, especially after seeing my classmates dance in their student recital last weekend. I want to work towards doing a solo in the November show to Natacha Atlas's cover of "I Put a Spell on You," which you can listen to here (I said exactly the same thing last summer but it didn't happen).


(This isn't me. You probably know that. It's my beautiful instructor.

3. We also went to Peterborough last weekend. I took a lot of photos, but I think this one is my favourite. See the dog in the window? It took a lot of work to make him visible against the black black shadow and retain the detail in the bricks.



4. I really hate it when Sugar D takes the soap from the bathroom sink for a shower instead of performing the Herculean task of getting a new bar of soap from the cupboard.

5. Until last weekend, I didn't know that some dogs understand and can employ irony with considerable success:


Although I suppose it goes along with biting the hand that feeds them.

6. I don't like lobster. I don't really like any shellfish, although I used to like eating mussels the same way I liked doing shots of tequila without the salt and lemon thing. I thought it made me look tough. My current aversion to shellfish is a vestige of my vomit/food poisoning phobia.

7. I'm very upset with the SYTYCD judges for the June 28 results. First, they should never have said goodbye to Cedric before the votes. It makes people buck against authority. Second, Neil and Lauren should have gone home long before Jesus and Jessi. I'm especially heartbroken about Jesus, because he and Sara were my favourite couple. That said, I suspect they don't trust Jessi's health; she was kind of evasive about that.

8. If Swee'pea cries in the night after I've been watching Lost, it takes me a long time to understand that he's not in charge of things at the island or having premonitions or carrying out nefarious research on us. AND I think Sawyer is my new favourite character... I like that his arrogance has softened a bit so now I can just enjoy his dimples and the way he keeps looking at Kate. (I've also had a few nice dreams about him.)

(I think that's more than 8 facts really, but whatever. We're heading out the door for the weekend, so I'm not going to bother linking my tags: christine, mimi, kyla, bubandpie, metro mama, denguy, aliki2006, and niobe. I also don't have time to go and tell them, so I guess that means I'm breaking another rule (I'm such a rebel!). I'll fix it on Monday.

Summer of Love - Day One (one week late)

Well, our Summer of Love is not off to a blazing start. Last week we had our first day off together. But it was really really cold and gray and windy. So we did something we've never done before: we went to the mall just for sake of going to the mall. We have gone to the mall before, but we always have very particular things we're going to buy, and then we leave as quickly as possible because we don't actually like it much.

But last week we just went to get out of the house without having to brave the cold gray wind. And I discovered that Chapters is actually a pretty kid-friendly place. Swee'pea gathered around a train set and traded/stole toy trains with a bunch of other boys who were mostly older than him but not much bigger. Sugar D and I took turns watching him play with the trains while the other looked at books.

I used to be a total bibliophile, always checking out used bookstores and almost never leaving empty-handed. But when Sugar D and I got together and combined our vast book collections, and we moved into our small house that is bursting at the seems with stuff, I have done a complete 180. Because Sugar D continues to bring books into our house at a rate that our groaning bookshelves and other surfaces cannot keep up with, I have set and follow VERY strict rules for myself. I only read books from the library, making one exception for Fiona Walker books, which I only allow myself to buy if I am about to take a plane ride. I do allow myself to buy other books on occasion, but only if I am absolutely certain that I will refer to the book again and again. I never buy any books on impulse; I must consider carefully whether a book is worthy of being allowed into our house on a permanent basis.

Last Tuesday I did something I haven't done in years -- at least eight: I allowed myself to buy two paperbacks, just on a whim, because they looked interesting. I bought Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent on the strength of the first paragraph: "I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to." (Although I can also be reasonably certain that I will probably lend it out to someone, which is another criterion for allowing myself to purchase a book so that one wasn't a total departure.) The other book I bought is Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald, mostly because it has a cool cover. And I had to hold myself back not to buy more books.

(26 pages into Holy Cow, I must say I'm impressed and absorbed. She's not afraid to tell it like it is, that India is kinda dirty but somehow she does it with respect... and I think these early pages are setting her up for a turnaround. Hey, her website is pretty cool too.)

See, in recent weeks, I have discovered the limitations of my library. Reading blogs and blogging about some of the books I read has re-engaged me in the world of books, so now I don't just go to the library for books on a particular subject or of a particular genre, and I just take what I can get. Now I go to the library in search of specific titles and authors, and more often than not I have been disappointed. So I think I may have to relax my policy.

Anyways back to the Summer of Love: I bought some books I didn't plan to, then Swee'pea got cranky so we went home. We went for a blustery walk not fit for June later, and that was just about it. Today is my first weekday off since then, and Sugar D has been working on cover letters for job applications and then we cleaned the house when the cleaning woman arrived so that she could actually clean*, and now I'm blogging.

Two things I clearly forgot when I started going on about the Summer of Love: we aren't very exciting people; we like to hang at home. And we're not really into discomfort (as in long car rides with a cranky toddler or a lot of stinky hot outdoor time followed by a long drive with a cranky toddler. Anyways, stay tuned for more tales of teenage mostly housebound adventures as the Summer of Love unfolds.

Oh wait -- I do have more: we've been watching a lot of Lost. When I rented the first dvd I suggested to Sugar D that he might enjoy it too, but he scoffed at me, saying it was just like Survivor. As I watched the first season, he couldn't help but be in the same room from time to time and occasionally I told him bits that I found intriguing. Well by the last dvd of the first season, I busted him (not so) secretly watching from the kitchen. Finally, he admitted that he was hooked too. Last night we finished the last episode of season two; tonight we'll see if the bonus features are any good. (Mr. Echo has now replaced Sayid as my favourite character, but I guess he's probably dead, along with John Locke and Desmond, who I also really like. Boo.)

Swee'pea's been a bit sick -- again! The other day he had a low fever that spiked in the middle of the night to 103.2 -- his highest fever ever. It disappeared the next day and he just has a bit of a runny nose today, nothing major. But last night I woke up in the middle of the night with him crawling all over me and crying inconsolably. As I struggled to swim to consciousness, I imagined Sugar D asking what was wrong with him, and me responding that Swee'pea had gotten it into his head that he had to teach us something, or show us something, like Mr. Echo's dreams on Lost.

Eventually I figured out that that thinking was pretty dreamy, silly really, but it took a long long time to shake it. And even longer for Swee'pea to settle back into sleep, with lots of loud crying and arguing with Sugar D about how to stop it. That's three rough nights in a row, and I'm really starting to feel it.

* The last two times we've had a different cleaning woman who is either deliberately thwarting my toilet paper strategy and trying to teach me to just put the damn roll of toilet paper on the holder myself like a civilized person, or is just NOT a strategic thinker. Faced with two rolls, one fat new roll and one nearly finished roll, she puts the thin roll on the holder and the fat roll back in the package on the floor. Both times she's been here. Has she never heard of optimization?!?

somebody stop me!

I seem to have developed an annual tradition. Every summer,when crap tv gives way to crappier tv, I start to watch crap tv on rented dvds. Last year it was Grey's Anatomy, the year before that House and the year before THAT it was Sex and the City (yes I didn't start watching Sex and the City until the series was over and then I devoured it like chocolate. I'm always last to jump on a bandwagon).

This summer, it looks like it's Lost. I caught something about it the other night after the Grey's Anatomy season finale and thought it looked interesting so I picked up the first dvd of season one on Saturday night. I'm hooked, well and truly. As of this afternoon (Tuesday) I have watched eight episodes since Saturday evening. And this afternoon I told myself I would go without since Swee'pea hasn't gone to bed for the last two nights and I've just gotten grumpy that my Lost time was messed with AND since Design Inc. and House are on tonight, I don't need it. But as this afternoon got hairier and Swee'pea got grumpier, what did I do? I put him in the stroller and got a new Lost dvd... ahhhhhhh... sweet relief. It feels better just knowing there are fresh episodes that I can watch when Swee'pea sleeps (since he's no longer sleeping in his crib - again - he is a bit of a ennabler in my burgeoning addiction: I don't mind holding him as long as I can watch Lost).

This new addiction means I am getting to know the clerks at my local video store. Last summer it was mostly manned by a young guy with a trenchcoat and a body odour problem. This year my visits have been split equally between a good-looking guy with an eyebrow ring who's so happy and friendly I thought he must have gotten laid - no, fallen in LOVE - the night before I first got served by him. He erased a large late fine from November just because it looked wrong and he was in a good mood; he even went to the trouble of giving me a lie just in case his boss questioned me about the fine getting erased. The second time I got served by him, I decided I just wanted whatever he's been smoking.

The other clerk is a young girl, can't be more than 19, who ends every sentence with either Sweetie or Hon. As in, Did you find everything you were looking for, Sweetie? What's your phone number, Hon? That'll be $2.55, Sweetie. Have a great day, Hon! (She seems to alternate each one.) Given that I have at least a decade, a foot, AND 70 pounds on her, these diminutives rather put me off. (Such words would be perfectly acceptable, desirable even, coming from a 70-year-old Brit but from this wee girl it just rings false and annoying.)

Anyways, the point is I'm hooked on Lost. I'm fascinated with the characters and love learning about them via flashbacks. The eye candy is great, way better than Survivor. And I loved Lord of the Flies, even if it did disturb me. My one misgiving is that the main men maintain the exact same amount of sexy stubble from day to day. If they're going to shave, like Locke does with his creepy straight razor, shouldn't they be clean shaven one day and stubbly for the next few? How DO they do it?