lame poetry: i'm an old car

(Everyone needs a jump-start every now and then, right?)
-


I'm an old car.

Antique.

Treasure me. Trash me. Pawn me.

Repair.

Turn me
electric or solar.
Really, I don't care.

Make me, once again, useful
and so much more meaningful
than before. Grab the keys, kid.

Let's drive.


-lilxerica

thought: "eradicate this font" what?!

Ban Comic Sans?

It's awful and silly!

I used to love Comic Sans in first grade (now, I've clearly moved on, but I can't dislike a font that's given me so much nostalgia). I was considered creative compared to the other kids in the class that used Arial and Times New Roman--I don't think they knew how to change the font (we used to use the brand new, shiny blue/red apple computers with floppy disks back then). 

Silly, it is that there is a hate group against a font. It's like an over-played song on the radio--James Blunt said this about "You're Beautiful"--if you don't like the song, turn off the radio. Let it be the same with fonts: if you don't like the font printed, close your eyes or glare at it and suck it up. Lordie, people get riled up for most futile things nowadays. Can't we just channel such zeal and enthusiasm to more important topics, such as child abuse, genocide, and other worldly issues?

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123992364819927171.html?mod=yhoofront

-lilxerica

essay: johari window

Haha,
I guess I did finally do my psych essay.

No time to edit.
Ah, well. We'll take everything in steps.

The Johari Window:
Window to Becoming Aware of Oneself

The Johari Window is essentially a window to one’s awareness of oneself in terms of personality trait expression and serves as a useful tool in understanding how information is given and received in relationships. The model is basically, a rectangular figure divided into four distinct sections: the Arena/Open, the Blind Spot, the Façade, and the Unknown. In developing a Johari Window, peers of the subject are asked to select five or six personality traits from a set list that they believe best describe the target individual, whom already selected traits about him/herself. After several peers have evaluated the person, the window begins to take form.

The Arena/Open area describes the quadrant in which information is known about the individual under mutual terms between the public and him/herself. The Blind Spot represents the section where characteristics that are perceived by others are present, but not known by the subject. In the third quadrant, the façade dwells, where traits about the individual are avoided or hidden and not known by the public. Lastly, the Unknown contains information that remains inexistent and yet to be elicited.

Developed in the 1950’s by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, the Johari Window is appropriately named with the combination of the model’s creators (Joseph + Harry = JoHari) and remains a new contribution to the world of psychology and work. When viewing the grid, the method of benefiting from such heavily supports ideas of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Passing the bottom of the pyramid and going directly to the top of Maslow’s diagram, the Johari Window emphasizes on self-improvement and in Maslow’s case, self-actualization. In addition to the humanistic approach of becoming better people, the Johari Window may also be incorporated into Freud’s theories of the unconscious in respect to the Unknown area of the model. Freud also thought consciousness is like the tip of the iceberg with vast area containing our judgment, morals, and unconscious beneath. In a way, the Johari Window maps out the little details that can help reveal the iceberg or expand our sense of reality and act accordingly.

The goal of the model is to simply help people understand themselves and others; and through mutual understanding, optimize productivity within the working place. New teams begin with larger hidden and unknown areas with blind spots slowly forming from first impressions. Overtime, team members’ should be evoked by either self-discovery (bringing into the hidden), others’ observation (into the blind spot), or together as a team (into the arena). It is advised that a good team have a large Arena of openness and understanding in comparison of other quadrants. A large hidden area and blind spot signifies that members are distant.

In order to expand the Arena and minimize the other sections, feedback and self-disclosure is important in a group or environment. Feedback solicitation gives others a chance to express how they feel about an individual with open ears to listen and make changes. Self-disclosure is all about telling others about oneself in an effort to gain interest and information to bond.

Although the Johari Window provides a great method for evaluating the growth of closeness and openness within a team, such results render useless if members of a team or individuals are unwilling to act upon the newfound information of the model. More disadvantages of the window include the competence of those evaluating—for example, do participants know the difference between being knowledgeable versus intelligent? Of the provided list of fifty-five adjectives, how many may be perceived as synonyms of each other? Such items need to be taken into consideration.

Overall, some may view the Johari Window as a silly activity where individuals fish for compliments, and in that way, the model may be seen as a singularly appreciable exercise, but others may walk away with something more—the seed of motivation for their quests for self-actualization and improvement.

Lilxerica's Johari Window

Arena (known to self and others) complex, intelligent, observant, patient, reflective, self-assertive	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, accepting, adaptable, bold, calm, caring, cheerful, clever, confident, dependable, dignified, energetic, extroverted, friendly, giving, happy, helpful, idealistic, independent, kind, knowledgeable, logical, loving, mature, modest, organised, relaxed, religious, sensible, sympathetic, trustworthy, warm, wise, witty
Façade (known only to self)	Unknown (known to nobody) brave, ingenious, introverted, nervous, powerful, proud, quiet, responsive, searching, self-conscious, sentimental, shy, silly, spontaneous, tense

Dominant Traits

53% of people think that lilxerica is friendly
57% of people agree that lilxerica is intelligent

All Percentages

able (15%) accepting (23%) adaptable (7%) bold (3%) brave (0%) calm (15%) caring (19%) cheerful (11%) clever (3%) complex (3%) confident (11%) dependable (34%) dignified (3%) energetic (19%) extroverted (11%) friendly (53%) giving (3%) happy (11%) helpful (15%) idealistic (3%) independent (7%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (57%) introverted (0%) kind (15%) knowledgeable (23%) logical (15%) loving (7%) mature (38%) modest (11%) nervous (0%) observant (11%) organised (19%) patient (7%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflectiverelaxed (3%) religious (3%) (3%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (11%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (3%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (7%) tense (0%) trustworthy (26%) warm (7%) wise (7%) witty (3%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 16.4.2009, using data from 26 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view lilxerica's full data.

thoughts: not doing psych paper

"That's what she said."
Words from yesterday.

I'm not doing my psychology paper tonight.

What is failure?

That seems extreme.

I'm not a failure.

I am just a poor person
with no sense of time management
with big ideas and dreams

and a lazy disposition.

This can get discouraging.
("But we've got to hold on to what we've got...")

Sometimes, I confuse myself
whether I am more optimistic or pessimistic.

-lilxerica

event: easter

Happy Easter!

( Y ) 
( ._. )   +
c(")(")   |

Truly, He is Risen.

He is Risen, indeed!

thought: lidocaine is cool.

Two weeks ago, I went to the dentist and got numbed with some lidocaine. 

Apparently, novacaine is no longer used due to a number of allergic reactions and remains simply a term to describe numbness (kind of like the mercury in thermometers deal). Upo

n getting numbed, a peculiar cognitive bubble seemed to float about with the excitement over a new sensation of being treated with an anesthetic. I thought it would be slightly entertaining to include my immediate thoughts on the situation below. (The quoted text was written two weeks ago, moments after the dentist appointment.)

Lidocaine is cool.

Today, I got a filling done on a cavity on the side of one of my molars and Dr. Finkle numbed the right side of my cheek. It took quite a while for the tingliness to change to heaviness, but this is how numbness really feels: like I got a fat lip. I try to grin and outcomes a wry smile. Much effort is needed to pull the tips of my mouth up. Effortless, my face is Abe Lincoln's--half smile, half indifference. My cheek feels soft and tender (haha, kind of like a baby's bottom) and the wetness of my bottom lip may oddly be compared to the sliminess of an uncooked piece of chicken thigh, the fatty part that we often pick with our finger and slice off. What an odd feeling this is as there is actually none (haha or the nerves rather)! 

Lordie, I'm so weird.

Despite my fun, it took four hours for the numbness to fade away. When eating dinner, I took special precautions in chewing slowly to make sure I did not accidently chomp on the cheek. Ah, the food tasted so strangely that meal. Placing quiche into my mouth lacked true joy and the flavors could only be tasted by half of my tongue. I continued to eat and chew with the left side of my mouth--for it was not numbed-- with the discontent feeling of dull weight being plopped gently into the right cheek. Later, the tingling feeling returned. I marveled at how the numbness vanished and the true feeling of touch was finally restored.

-lilxerica