Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Sailing...Just One of the Seas Today, Thanks

Today was not a typical workday. My company is putting everyone through a program which includes a Myers-Briggs personality test and a fun afternoon of sailing. I knew it would be starting at 8am sharp. Unfortunately I was still 5 mins late due to a bit of over-eager exercising combined with an inaccurate traffic report. Cue stares as I enter. Plus I ate yogurt for breakfast instead of popcorn. What an odd day! But eventually I settled in. I had learned a bit about M/B before and previous tests had pegged me as an INTJ. Today's results were no different. 5 of my coworkers (roughly 5% of my company) are also INTJ. In the US, only 2.1% of folks are INTJ making it the third least common type of the 16. Commonly given characteristics of INTJ include:
  • Insightful, conceptual, and creative
  • Rational, detached, and objectively critical
  • Apt to enjoy complex challenges
  • Likes to do things his own way
  • Usually seen by others as private and hard to know
Listening to the lecture, I pegged Listgirl as an ISTJ. If I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll hear about it in the comments or elsewhere . Interestingly (to me anyway) the N/S dichotomy between us is something I notice over and over in the way we converse. (I approximate and say "close enough" while she wants a more precise description of things.) So score a win for M/B. Enough intellectual talk from this morning. After lunch we got to ride on a sail boat! Specifically, the race-winning Stars & Stripes. Photobucket The afternoon included a "race" with another boat, the Barracuda. (Somehow I think the "race" was rigged. I did not intend the pun as I don't have that personality type.) We did have an advantage in that the other boat's sails were not in tip top shape. If you look at the edge you can see the patches and a rip right in the center of the photo. Photobucket We also passed by a slower but beautiful large vessel, the California. Photobucket Too lazy to click the link above? I've got ya covered. The boat weighs roughly 25 tons, 20 of which are under the water. It's 80' long and 114' high. The two sails cost about $150,000 and are only used for about 15 hours by racing crews; a few months for us tourists. With all that weight it was a smooth ride even for a normally queasy person such as myself. And finally, I got to ride it for free today. Nice! Sadly I still don't know which side is starboard. Photobucket I never did actually steer the boat. The wind-swept hair is real though. Photobucket Ken did steer. As did Raina. Photobucket I did take a whirl at grinding. It's a bit different from computer programming - lots of physicality. Grinders on a racing boat make $100k/year and are in great shape. So if you are young and strong and don't want to work at a desk maybe you can check it out. On the downside, the ocean tends to smell worse than an office building. Here's me taking a picture of grinding. Photobucket Couple more photos... Photobucket The back-of-the-boat social club. (They also helped.) Photobucket Some people can't leave work behind...

7 comments:

  1. Brian Conrey8/25/2009 10:28 PM

    Starboard is the right side of the boat as you stand at the back (stern) looking towards the front (bow). Port is the left side of the boat, and it's easy to remember because they both have four letters!

    The green/red lights used on boats are also used to signify starboard and port for other vessels to see your direction of travel in the dark. I think green is port and red is starboard, but it's been a loooong time so I could have that backwards.

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  2. I'm an INTJ, too, based on the MB Personality Test I took back during my premarital counseling (haha!). My highly scientific Facebook MB testing confirmed it again a week or so ago. But I'm not entirely sure I agree with it. Back then it seemed pretty accurate, but at this point in my life I don't think I'm either private OR hard to get to know. That's pretty much my only bone to pick with it, though.

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  3. what a beautiful day outside and how great your pictures are!! Fantastic!

    Sorry, my English isn´t good enough to understand the important things inside your post!

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  4. Wow, what a beautiful day, and so nice to get out of office for a while! Great pics!

    I've been to a leadership training some years ago, and we also did some personality test, but I'm not sure it was M/B. Anyway it was very interesting and gave a lot of aha-moments! :)

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  5. IBM sent my group through the M/B testing. (that was about 13 years ago, right before I went on maternity leave and never returned.) Anyway, I scored an ESTJ..and, as Peppermint has already mentioned, FB confirmed this last week! ;) My highest score is in the S part..I gather my information through my senses. So, if I can't see it, smell it, touch it, etc...it doesn't exist. It's a hard life, but I manage :D.

    Love, Love, Love the sailboat pictures..riding on a sailboat is now going on my bucket list. Just riding, not owning one..who knew the sails cost so much??

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  6. I am SOOOO JEALOUS!! The Stars & Stripes looks AWESOME!! Makes our dinky boat look...well...dinky :D HOWEVER, since bigger boats require more deck hands, larger and more expensive sails, expensive moorage, etc...I AM THRILLED TO BE the wife of the OWNER OF A DINKY BOAT :D especially since he works for an ocean towing company that lets us moor the dinky boat on the other side of their tugboat dock, since it's small enough to fit, FREE :D

    Looks like you all had a great time :)

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  7. The sailing pictures are great...I have never been sailing, but it looks like it would be great fun and you had a beautiful day for it.

    I am also an ISTJ--although I haven't taken it in awhile, but still think it is pretty accurate.

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