Because Barristers. In the United States. Ha!

This gem in my Gmail spam today: 

"BARRISTER SAMSON LUCAS <sales@bosssecurityservice.com>	11:33 AM (3 hours ago)

 

Federal Bureau of Investigation

 

 

 

 

Counter-terrorism Division and Cyber Crime Division J. Edgar. Hoover Building Washington DC Chris Swecker,

 

 

 

Attention Beneficiary,

 

 

 

 

Records show that you are among one of the individuals and organizations who are yet to receive their overdue payment from overseas which includes those of Lottery/Gambling, Contract and Inheritance. Through our Fraud Monitory Unit we have noticed that you have been transacting with some impostors and fraudsters who have been impersonating the likes of Prof. Soludo /Mr. Lamido Sanusi of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza, Bode Williams, Frank, Anderson, none officials of Oceanic Bank, Zenith Banks, Kelvin Young of HSBC, Ben of FedEx, Ibrahim Sule, Dr. Usman Shamsuddeen and some impostors claiming to be The Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

 

The Cyber Crime Division of the FBI gathered information from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) on how some people have lost outrageous sums of money to these impostors. As a result of this, we hereby advise you to stop communication with any one not referred to you by us. We have negotiated with the Federal Ministry of Finance that your payment totaling $5,900,000.00(Five Million Nine Hundred Thousand Dollars). will be released to you via a custom pin based ATM card with a maximum withdrawal limit of $15,000 a day which is powered by Visa Card and can be used anywhere in the world where you see a Visa Card Logo on the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM).

 

 

 

 

We guarantee receipt of your payment. This is as a result of the mandate from US Government to make sure all debts owned to citizens of American and also Asia and Europe which includes Inheritance, Contract, Gambling/Lottery etc are been cleared. 

 

 

To redeem your funds, you are hereby advised to contact the ATM Card Center via email for their requirement to proceed and procure your Approval of Payment Warrant and Endorsement of your ATM Release Order on your behalf which will cost you $255 Usd only and nothing more as everything else has been taken care of by the Federal Government including taxes, custom paper and clearance duty so all you will ever need to pay is $255.00 only.

Barrister,Samson Lucas.(ATM Card Center Director)

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535

 

ATM Card Center Director

 

Email:barristersamsonlucas@gmail.com

 

Do contact  of the ATM Card Center via his contact details above and furnish him with your details as listed below:

 

 

 

FULL NAMES: __________________________________

DELIVERY ADDRESS FOR ATM CARD: __________________

DATE OF BIRTH: __________________

OCCUPATION: __________________

TELEPHONE NUMBER: _____________________

EMAIL ADDRESS: _____________________

 

 

 

 

 

On contacting him with your details your file would be updated and he will be sending you the payment information in which you will use in making payment of $255.00 via Money Gram or Western Union Money Transfer for the procurement of your Approval of Payment Warrant and Endorsement of your ATM Release Order, after which the delivery of your ATM card will be effected to your designated home address without any further delay, extra fee.

 

 

Barrister,Samson Lucas, DIRECTOR

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535

 

Note: Disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to be in posses   of the ATM card center who is the rightful person to deal with in regards to your payment and forward any emails you get from impostors to this office so we could act upon it immediately.Help stop cyber crime."

Inflammation!

I realize "elimination diets" vs. "eat less and exercise more" are a hot-button issue these days. Lordy, do I ever:  I've heard all sorts of name-calling and insult-slinging from both sides of the issue and been personally attached on social media for simply posting something holistic!  Yet both sides make valid points.  Perhaps it's just another chance to discover a happy medium between two extremes.

Did I mention I'm (usually) a natural-born diplomat by nature?  Or that I somehow insist on swinging the figurative pendulum both ways before I finally settle for the balance somewhere near the middle?

Consider it officially 'fessed up.

*Whew*.

I personally sway towards a more natural, holistic-based approach as a food/medical remedy whenever, however possible.  This, like everything, stems from childhood.  However, I have to admit there are certain times as an adult when you just need to buck up and go see a damn doctor.

Case in point, a few years ago I came down with something weird and itchy over my left eye right under the eyebrow.  I figured it was a bug bite as we'd been down in Norman for the Medieval Festival and it was dusty and windy as all get-out that day.  Who knows what ittty-bitty critter could have blown by and taken a small chunk off my skin along the way, right? 

Wrong.  The next day I woke up with the left side of my face puffed up to twice its normal size, and my eye was in the beginner phases of swelling shut.  I took the afternoon off work to go visit my local GP ("Dr. Feelgood" - you can't make this shit up, lol) across the street from the office.  He wasn't sure what was up with my face (Quasimodo came to mind), but provided me with a round of antibiotics and steroids, then referred me to an ear, nose & throat specialist for the next morning.  The next day the ENT specialist spent about five minutes examining me, admitted he was completely clueless about what was going on, then sent me to get an MRI of my head and neck.  Armed with more prescriptions of antibiotics and steroids, and starting to feel like as much of a freak as I looked, I headed over to the MRI department.  I experienced an allergic reaction to the dye from the MRI and wound up spending the rest of the afternoon under examination.  They still couldn't figure out what was wrong, but figured I'd live, so they volunteered me to come back the next day if things didn't improve.  Or I was dead, of course.  Captain Obvious strikes again.

I woke up the next day alive (thankfully) with my eye completely swollen shut and the left side of my face twice the size as the day before.  Didn't realize that was humanly possible before but I just laughed and reminded myself that at my worst I still looked better than Joan Rivers (RIP, she was still alive and kicking back then, btw) on her best day.  I drove back over to the ENT Specialist.  He feigned being busy, but his PA, a wonderful man who should be the doctor there instead, spent less than two minutes examining me before correctly diagnosing me with shingles of the eye.  Gaaah!!  What in the hairy heck???  HOW did that happen? 

Well, since you asked, it starts with having chicken pox as a kid.  The virus lies dormant in your system for years after you've supposedly been cured until you're stressed the f out, which I was, and your immune system is weakened (working at a law firm will do that to anyone).  Then it attacks the weakest part of your body.  It's not only mean, it's contagious until all the nasty, itchy little heat blisters pop and finally disappear.  Creepy-ugly, miserable business, I assure you.

He referred me to a local eye clinic, and from there they discovered I had not only a viral infection in my eye, but a bacterial infection as well.  Had I not persistently gone to the doctor and insisted (God, I'm stubborn!) on getting a proper diagnosis - or had I stayed with strictly holistic healing - I would have lost my left eye.  Unfortunately, I waited too long to catch the virus in its infant stages, so I incurred neuralgia in the wake of the shingles, which was far more painful/annoying/debilitating and lasted about six weeks.  Thankfully, today there is only a scar to remind me of what could have been far, far worse. 

Somehow I still feel like nothing debilitating I ever have is quite bad enough to justify seeing a doctor and incurring a huge medical bill after a copay (Grrr, WHY???)  I also hate taking medicine - especially antibiotics.  But sometimes you just need to, and there's certainly just cause.  Learn from my example, please.

This is from an email I receive regarding the Paleo diet.  I think it's great information, and have tried it, ditched it, and tried it again.  Admittedly, I felt pretty good and shed weight pretty fast with a diet like this plus daily walking/bike-riding.  Use at your own peril, but in all fairness, it hasn't done me any harm. 

http://blog.paleohacks.com/6-ways-to-eliminate-inflammation-naturally/

6 Ways to Eliminate Inflammation Naturally

 

Inflammation is a hot topic right now, but what is it, how do you know if you have it, and why does it matter to you?
The answer is that inflammation is a very real process happening in your body all the time, which can get out of control and lead to disease.
I recently saw a patient who is a great example of how this can happen. He was a young man in his early 30s, active and fit, running a large successful company. He looked like the picture of health from the outside, but had been suffering from asthma and debilitating allergies his entire life. He had seen all the best allergists and immunologists all of whom told him to take inhaled steroids and antihistamines daily, and who assured him that he would need these drugs for the rest of his life.
When he came to see me it was clear he was inflamed. From dust to pollen to air pollution to common detergents – even a stressful event at work – practically anything triggered a major reaction from his immune system that included symptoms like congestion, hives, and asthma attacks.
We call this a “hypersensitivity” of the immune system and we now know that it is often caused by a phenomenon called “leaky gut,” also known as intestinal permeability, where the single cell layer that lines the intestines becomes damaged over time. Things that cause this damage include eating certain foods, over-the-counter and prescription drugs like antibiotics, and chronic stress, all of which disturb both the ecosystem of helpful bacteria that live in your gut, and the complex barrier of your gut wall, which is designed to perfectly separate you from the outside world that comes in through your mouth.
When the digestive system’s lining doesn’t work properly, and the trillions of bacteria that live in the digestive system and help repair and regulate that lining are disturbed, then sometimes large proteins, harmful bacterial products, and other toxins that are meant to stay in the digestive tract get through the “wall,” leading to the activation of the specialized immune system that lives in the gut – which accounts for nearly 70% of the immune power in your entire body.
When the gut immune system is activated chronically, the whole body’s immune system gets involved, doing it’s regular job of producing inflammation but then often overdoing it, leading to the kinds of symptoms my patient had, other symptoms as varied as acne, arthritis, and headaches, and even serious autoimmune diseases.

How do you fix it?

We started by putting my patient on an elimination diet, which meant taking away commonly inflammatory foods that tend to activate the immune system, like gluten, dairy, sugar, and alcohol. We also gave him probiotics to help create a healthier climate for his immune system in his intestines and we gave him anti-microbial herbs to help more permanently shift the bacterial population in his digestive system to one that does its job of protecting the lining and directing the immune system.
We also gave him a hypoallergenic protein shake packed with nutrients that helped support his body’s natural repair mechanisms, and that contained L-glutamine, which is healing fuel for the damaged cell layer lining his digestive tract. And we gave him a fish oil supplement, because Omega 3 fatty acids help stop the inflammation cascade.
Finally we tested his Vitamin D level, which was precipitously low, and started him on 5000
IU of Vitamin D daily. Vitamin D is interesting because it works like a hormone in the body regulating not just calcium absorption but also inflammation levels.
After only four days on this program my patient’s allergies and his asthma were gone, and three months later he feels great, has none of his old symptoms, and is on no medications.

What happened?

What happened was that we removed the triggers that had been causing his immune system to over-react to the world for years and healed the damaged lining of of his gut, effectively turning off the tap of inflammation that had been driving his disease. Instead of trying to suppress his symptoms with drugs that did nothing to fix the underlying issue, we got to the root cause of the problem.
By calming his immune system we cleared his system of inflammation, not only ending the vicious cycle of immune hyperactivity, but also allowing his body to heal, his digestion to regulate, and his energy level to increase. His mood even improved.

So, what is inflammation?

Inflammation is a natural process that you need to survive. When your immune system confronts what it perceives to be an intruder – whether it’s a virus, bacteria, a toxin, or a food – it turns on the inflammatory pathway in order to get rid of the intruder and to clean up the damage caused by the fight.
This pathway starts with flooding the affected part of your body with chemical messengers. These messengers bring in white blood cells that fight kill and engulf intruders, by causing localized small blood vessel leakage so that liquid rich with anti-pathogenic proteins called antibodies can get to the battle field, and by inducing repair proteins and cells to come clean up the collateral damage.
For example, when you get a cut on your arm and harmful bacteria enter the skin, the swelling, redness and pain that you experience are the result of the inflammatory process killing the bugs and repairing the wound.
If this process didn’t work all the time in ways both subtle and obvious you would die. But, this process is meant to stay local both in terms of physical place and in terms of time. You want the inflammation just at the site of the cut, or turn on temporarily when you have to fight off a virus. But you don’t want it on all the time, creating the equivalent of swelling, redness, pain, heat, and ongoing battles and damage control all over your body constantly.
Today we know that when inflammation is widespread and chronic it leads to organ dysfunction and ultimately disease.
Inflammation is now believed to be the common denominator for many chronic diseases that are rampant today including diabetes, heart disease, asthma, cancer, autoimmune diseases like Psoriasis, and even Alzheimer’s disease, which some people are calling “Type 3 diabetes.” Inflammation has also been shown to speed up the aging process by changing your DNA.

Where is all this inflammation coming from and how do we stop it?

Inflammation is often caused by the same things that were trouble for my patient – all the things that cause leaky gut and cause the immune system to turn on it’s inflammatory healing process chronically.
Though controversial, gluten, a large protein in wheat and wheat related plants that many people appear to have sensitivity to even if they do not have Celiac disease, is a common trigger. Dairy is also a problem, because many people are sensitive to casein and whey, two of the proteins it contains.
Sugar is a major cause of inflammation and underpins problems as diverse as diabetes, high cholesterol, and hormone dysfunction. The average American eats 150 pounds of sugar each year and refined sugar is added to over 80% of all packaged food products in the US. We are literally killing ourselves with sugar that is often hidden in the processed foods we eat.
Other causes of inflammation include exposure to toxins including alcohol, and prescription and over the counter drugs. And as we saw above, stress is also a significant cause.
The good news is that leaky gut and chronic inflammation can be healed and eliminated by changing your diet and your lifestyle.
Here is my 6-step guide to eliminate inflammation and avoiding a lifetime of chronic illness.
1. Do an elimination diet for 21 days. Cut out gluten, dairy, sugar – including soda, processed and packaged foods, and alcohol. The 21 day mark is important because it takes at least 21 days for your immune system to fully turn off it’s reaction to an intruder it has seen, so you won’t fully know what life is like without the foods you eliminated until you get to that point.
2. Support your elimination diet with specific supplements like the ones I use in my practice. Be careful of supplements you buy over the counter – many have found to be counterfeit or contaminated. It is best to work with a licensed health practitioner who has access to tested reliably therapeutic supplements. The top supplements I typically recommend taking to lower inflammation are:
     a. An L-glutamine-based supplement that includes aloe, licorice, and zinc-carnitine, all of which help heal the lining of the intestines.
     b. A probiotic containing the best-researched strains of probiotics especially lactobacillus and bifidobacteria species.
     c. A berberine-based antimicrobial herbal formulation to help reduce the presence of harmful bacteria in the gut.
     d. A fiber supplement that contains both insoluble fiber that supports regular bowel movements and balanced blood sugar, as well as soluble fiber that feeds the important bacteria that help regulate the immune system.
     e. A multi-vitamin that supports phase 1 and 2 liver detoxification and anti-oxidant production. Anti-oxidants are important because they soak up the free radicals that are produced as part of the inflammatory process and that cause DNA damage and faster aging.
     f. A fish oil supplement with at least 2000 mg of EPA/DHA, the important omega 3 fats that have been shown to reduce inflammation by blocking part of the inflammatory cascade process.
3. Replace your old way of eating with what I call a “Plant Based Paleo” approach. The following is a breakdown of what kinds of foods I mean.
     a. Eat at least 20 grams of non-dairy protein with every meal. Options include a plant-based protein shake like the rice-protein shake I use, or responsibly raised, organic, and hormone/antibiotic free chicken, beef, turkey, eggs and fish.
     b. Eat organic vegetables with every meal, favoring cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, collards, and Brussels sprouts which support the liver’s detoxification process, and leafy greens like mustard, chard, beet greens and spinach which are packed with important nutrients like calcium and vitamin C.
     c. Eat a rainbow of vegetables on every plate – each color represents a particular subset of phytonutrients that our bodies have evolved to use as cofactors for thousands of enzymatic reactions.
     d. Consume lots of healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, flax seed oil which is packed with anti-inflammatory Omega 3 fatty acids, borage oil, walnut oil, and sunflower seed oil. Chia and hemp seeds also make excellent high protein healthy fat based snacks.
4. Avoid medications like NSAIDs (aka ibuprofen) and antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. These drugs are toxic to the health of your gut. 5. Take stress seriously. Find ways to build relaxation into your life daily to counteract the effects of the modern, always on the go lifestyle. Meditation has been shown to have all kinds of lasting effects on the nervous system, the cardiovascular system and the digestive system and helps people be more effective in their lives.
6. Avoid processed foods that contain refined flours and sugars by cooking your meals and eating at healthy restaurants that use organic, quality ingredients from local sources.
If you think you are suffering from the effects of inflammation, following this plan is an excellent place to start the process of unraveling your inflammatory picture, getting to the root cause of your immune system’s dysfunction, and cooling the fires of inflammation for good.

Robin Berzin

Robin Berzin MD is a functional medicine physician and the founder of Parsley Health. Her mission is to make functional medicine affordable and modern, so that more people can access this holistic, root-cause approach to health. A Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Robin went to medical school at Columbia University -- where she co-founded the physician communication app Cureatr – and later trained in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. She is also a certified yoga instructor and a meditation teacher, and has formally studied Ayurveda. Robin writes for a number of leading wellness sites, and speaks regularly for organizations including the Clinton Foundation, Health 2.0, Summit, and the Functional Forum on how we can reinvent health care. To learn more about her background and philosophy, her 12-day detox program, and upcoming retreats and events, visit robinberzinmd.com.

- See more at: http://blog.paleohacks.com/6-ways-to-eliminate-inflammation-naturally/#sthash.QTnOysUb.dpuf

Because I have 5 more minutes to kill.  Oh, and I'm a lefty. 

Thanks, Leftyfretz.com!

"One really interesting factoid that I picked up was from a scientist who believed that left handed people tended to be more independent as a result of having to adapt to a world which is largely built for right handed individuals.  Here are a few more fascinating pieces of trivia related to being a lefty…

Scientific Left Handed Facts

• Make up between 5% and 10% of the population (depending on who you ask)
• More likely to have allergies
• More prone to migraines
• More likely to be insomniacs
• Use the right side of the brain the most
• Three times more likely to become alcoholics – the right side of the brain has a lower tolerance to alcohol!
• More likely to be on extreme poles of the intelligence scale
• Tend to reach puberty 4 to 5 months later than right handers
• More likely to suffer stuttering and dyslexia
• Twice as likely to be a man
• Better at 3D perception and thinking
• Better at multi-tasking
• Live on average 9 years less than right handed people
• 39% more likely to be homosexual

Interesting Left Handed Trivia

• Left handed pens are a thing! Who knew!?
• Make especially good baseball players, tennis players, swimmers, boxers and fencers (almost 40% of the top tennis players are lefties)
• Celebrate left handed day once a year – August 13th – International Left Handers Day
• Draw figures facing to the right
• Recover from strokes faster
• More likely to pursue creative careers
• Of the seven most recent U.S Presidents, 4 have been left handed
• Left handed college graduates go on to become 26% richer than right handed graduates
• On a QWERTY keyboard there are 1447 English words typed solely with the left hand, whilst only 187 are typed with the right hand.

Bizarre Left Handed Statistics

• Adjust to seeing underwater quicker
• Less able to roll their tongue than a righty
• Nails grow faster on the left hand than the right"

 

I Am Leo

Again, per Elephant Journal (and guess which sign of the zodiac I belong to?):

This is How to Love a Leo.

Via Bryonie Wiseon Aug 5, 2014

(Many moons ago, my dearest friend Sara Crolick wrote a piece called What it Means to Love a Libra (if you haven’t read it, you should!); the words below are inspired by hers.)

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”

~ Khalil Gibran

To love a Leo—madly, truly, deeply—takes one hell of a determined heart, for she is as wild as they come.

In her commitment to ever-evolving and ever-transforming her self and this world we live in, she will push and pull—she understands that any life worth living well must be built on a solid foundation of truth and so to love a Leo, the beating in your chest must be strong and you must know how to root down and stand your ground.
Her ways, which she learns as she goes, will shake the dust until everything that does not belong falls away—and at times, this might mean she pushes you away, too.
As fierce as she is, hidden in her heart of hearts is a too-big doubt that she can be loved completely and so be prepared for her to bare her teeth if you get too close to the place where she hides her fear; this is both a test of your intention and a way to keep her sacred heart safe, for to love Leo, you must love all of her and the most-vulnerable parts you must love most of all.
There will be moments when the need to race through the jungle (or around the world) takes over and she will bolt, with no explanation (she will try to her best to tell you why, but how a Leo lives is through feeling and even though words are a part of her craft, in these instances, her wildness can find none); and so she will go, her mane flowing behind her, soaking life in through all of her senses for she must do in order to understand how life works—and when you find yourself feeling forgotten, her heart will beg you to be patient, for she will return to you as soon as she can, panting and heart pounding, full of all she has learned.
(A Leo is loyal and understands that before she can show up for the one she loves, she must first learn how to show up for herself and it is through this strengthen of will and compassion that she asks you to invest your trust in her; for while her heart holds love for all beings, the kind she has for you will move mountains and light all the stars in the sky.)

She needs this freedom to feed her creativity and she will look at you with her knowing eyes to see if you see it all, too, for because she is who is she is, she will want you to be who you are, too—nothing more, nothing less.

She knows the unsaid things—the ones we hold onto as our mouths move and the opposite words fall from our lips, instead; she will often get alarmingly still and this is because she needs to in order to hear it all. In the hush, she will gather information and file it away, for if a Leo is anything she is organized and everything has a place (and there is even a place for things-that-don’t-have-a-place).
To love a Leo, understand that her lair must be in order before she can do anything; her mind is the largest of libraries, for she is of this world and many others, and there is always work and learning to be done. (In fact, it’s likely that if find yourself in love with such a creature, your brain might roar at an incredible volume, too, for this is one of the locks your key must slip into in order for you to be an imperfect-perfect match.)
Before she can settle her attention on you fully, everything must be in place and then she will curl up, serene and surrounded by her furry beasts, for she speaks all tongues—and maybe, if the day is slow and the moon just right, she will purr as she waits for you to crack your chest open and show her your raw, beating heart.
(The idea of this might make you recoil, but please know that she has made it her practice to spill open—and so while she doesn’t expect you to make it yours too, there is a certain kind of give and take that offers balance to every union. So, from time-to-time, honor her—and more importantly, you. Show her that thing about you that you’ve taught yourself to hide away, for I can promise you that a Leo will not shy away and she knows in every stitch of her bones how to love like the ocean.)
She will transform what she has learned in these moments of deep listening into wisdom, and as she gets older, she will learn how to rule herself accordingly. It is likely that on her path, this one that has no footsteps to follow; the one she designed for herself back before the start of time, that she will fail many, many times. She will be uncomfortable in her impatience and when you stop by for a visit one night, you may well find her in pieces on the kitchen floor, her body not able to lie or to hold it all in, tears and snot running down her face—and here is where you will witness the strength that vulnerability brings.
(A Leo has shown you everything in this moment, for that is what she is here to do. She will stay there, and ask you to stay with her, until it is time to pick herself up, again. Your presence will fill her heart with gratitude, and she may even slide her hand into yours, or lay her head on your shoulder, and let out a mighty sigh—she is shy when it comes to this sort of thing—accepting the support she so desperately craves and fears, so let it unfold, slowly and carefully.)
You will hear rumors about the lioness you have your eye on; they will say that she likes to be the center of attention and that she demands riches and gold. They will say a Leo is happiest with the weight of ten thousand jewels around her neck and that her ego rules her heart—and they will tell you that this feline is proud and does not like to be reckoned with.
In everything, there is a grain of truth; trust that the one you love is as rare as they come; her heart rules all and so that this can’t be argued with, she will wear it, without apology, on her sleeve.
She will yearn not for a castle on a hilltop, but for a cabin in the woods, so that she can sit by the river that runs through the land and listen to the lessons the four directions has to share. She will bow down and touch her forehead to the ground often, in an act of reverence, gratitude and prayer—and she will understand that the breeze that whistles through treetops carries with it messages meant just for her.
She will need just-enough to sustain a simple life, for a Leo knows that richness lies in the slow, humble moments of laughter and figuring it out, together. She will feel like royalty if you return from a walk in the woods with a handful of wild flowers and if you take her on a date to gaze at the stars, she will devote her heart to you, and you alone.

She plays battle with her ego and with the years marking themselves on her body as time often does, she has learned how to tango with the righteous voice that can sometimes fight to be heard.

A Leo is prideful—yes—let not that pride be mistaken for anything other than the highest form of integrity; she will prefer quiet nights in to loud nights out and she will be happiest curled up with a book, for within the pages lies where her life began.
A Leo will make things with every blink of her eye and every pound of her heart, for she thrives on seeing the harmony of elements meeting and falling in love—and she will want you to find new ways to keep her falling in love with you, too.
She is stubborn—but she is kind and her compassion reaches to the far corners of the earth. In her heart, she holds it all; the joy and the sorrow, the laughter and the tears. As much as she wants you to wrap your arms around her and be held, she also needs long moments to hold herself, for a Leo feels so deeply at times she wonders if it is a blessing or a curse.
So to love a Leo, you must first love yourself; let the space in your togetherness be like the sea and in her rhythm, you will learn the meaning of a heart roar.

“To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow—this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

*SWOON*

Good Advice

I love the website Elephant Journal.  After all, I'm no longer religious, I'm quasi-spiritual. 

I also love Rebelle Society's blog.  I can be slightly-to-full-blown rebellious, especially towards the uber-conservative, overtly fundamentalist religious elitist snobs with whom I was raised, then I discarded. 

Thus, these blogs and their writers speak to my soul.  They tag me 98% of the time, regardless of the subject matter, which, in turn, I love to pass along to my overcrowded Facebook wall.  Sometimes they speak to my friends as well - some more than others.  Let's see how they fare here.

This post from Elephant Journal caught my attention today.  I've never married despite six engagements over the years (not exactly The Runaway Bride here, but not exactly NOT The Runaway Bride; come back later, perhaps I'll expound upon this in the future), which doubtless stemmed from not being allowed to date growing up and assuming early on as an adult I should marry whomever I did date on a more serious scale.

Terrible advice, by the way.  These things take time, history, communication, mutual respect and affection, and loads of planning.  At the very least.  Just glad I followed my heart and didn't marry (yet, there's always hope), rather instead choosing to learn a lot from those relationships - among others.  This post culminates many of my own personal views after numerous relationships run amuck, refining my own desires for what I prefer in a life mate.  No one is perfect, but it's absolutely perfect to have solid-set standards and ideas for what you will or won't tolerate from someone else for life or somewhat shorter. 

Without delving into my own sordid dating history and resulting baggage, hard-won life lessons and dirty laundry too much (yet - cliffhanger!  Woohoo!), just know I fully support this author's take on what a decent man to know, date, and eventually marry and procreate with should resemble.  Good, experienced reasons exist for this.

Marry a Man who Knows you are Real.

Via Khara-Jade Warrenon Mar 13, 2015

Perhaps you are magical. Perhaps you already know it. I’m not sure about that, but I do know that you are also real.

Marry a man who knows you are both.

A man who can navigate the wild tangle of your mind, past the castles it builds and around the mythical creatures it conceives, to pursue the truth beneath your story. 

A man who can kiss you both tenderly and fiercely. Whose hands you can trust to know your each freckle and fold and to hold you as you shudder with ecstasy or with grief. A man who can magic away all hurts for your children with those same lips, and teach the ultimate art of fort-building with those same hands.

A man who anchors you.

Such a man can look into your eyes and know your quiet power but patiently wipe away your loud, impetuous tears of frustration at things that don’t matter. Even when he knows you know better, are better.

Marry a man who adores your flesh and bones, who sees your heart, but doesn’t shy away from your ugliness, your realness. He isn’t bothered by your morning breath and (in emergencies only) lets you poop while he’s in the shower. He holds your hair back when you’ve had too many mojitos on your first night out together in years. He paints your toenails (messily) and trims your bush (delicately) when you’re so pregnant that you can no longer reach or see either. Just to help you feel sexy again. He is right there with you, holding your hand and giving you lollipops and sips of water through the birth of both your babies (even when you growl at him).

A man who rides the waves of your volatile emotions like an expert seaman through oceans of confusion, pain and self-pity. And he knows just how to steer you calmly back towards the shore of reason and balance. Every time.

A man who always sees your strength and beauty, even when you can’t. But he will call you on your bullshit too, even when you fool everyone else.

A man who knows that you can be marvellous and mundane at the same time and without conflict, because he understands the magic of the ordinary. He is the same.

A man who reads, questions, fantasizes and philosophizes but also has X-box binges, leaves his underwear on the bathroom floor and loves a good dirty joke. He is no less magical because of these things.

A man who will debate (and sometimes argue) with you way past midnight. You’ll talk about colonialism and education in Africa, whether there is a God and how to raise your rowdy 4-year-old son to be a good man.

Marry a man who will walk through life by your side. Through mistakes and heartbreak. Through charmed times and hard times, from holidays on the Italian coast to eggs on toast for dinner for the third time this week because things are tight. Through births and death, from deepest loss to greatest triumph and on all the ordinary days in between.

A man who will be your son’s hero: a man who ‘knows everything about the world’, according to him. A man who will encourage him to be curious, to find out how things work and how to improve them. He will change dirty nappies without flinching, make up nonsense lullabies and stay up late rocking a fussing baby so that you can get some sleep, even though he has go to work tomorrow.

A man who loves you for all that you are and despite all that you are. He is by your side not because of some vows he made or a spell you cast over him or because you are his fairy princess but because you are home.

What you have will be sometimes messy, sometimes difficult, sometimes complicated, not always magical but always, always real.

Body Part Stuff

Who knows if it's really true or not, but today I'm enjoying research on body parts, their shape, and what that purportedly "says" about you.

Feet:

 I have long, slender feet with a longer middle toe (got dumped for this once by a foot-fettished-doctor-in-training boyfriend who thought me a freak due to this; how did he not know it's an ancestral trait associated with supposed mad crazy leadership skills?) and a super high arch (the plantar fasciitis gods hate me right now).  The toes tend to lead toward the pinkie toe.  So you can throw me into a personality mold from that information tied into an insightful infograph I found here:   http://visual.ly/what-do-your-feet-say-about-you.

 

Hands:

 

This is a fascinating article confiding more about your hands and fingers than you ever know possible:  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/man-woman/Just-your-hands-can-say-a-lot-about-you/articleshow/18381521.cms

 

 

Finger Length Helps Predict Test Exam Results, Homosexuality, Cancer, Musical Ability and Aggressive Personality -- Study Shows

Your finger length can predict how you will do on various tests in school. They can also tell if you are likely to be homosexual or straight, if you will likely get certain cancers, be a musician, writer or a scientist, or if you will have an aggresssive or passive personality.The two fingers that are important are the index finger -- the one you use to point to something -- and the ring finger. Reading, writing and arithmetic...In a recent study from the help of online universities, the results of mathematics and literacy (reading) tests for seven-year-old children could be predicted by measuring the length of these two fingers. In a study to be published in the British Journal of Psychology, scientists compared the finger lengths of 75 children with their Standardised Assessment Test (SAT) scores. They found a clear link between a child's performance in numeracy and literacy tests and the relative lengths of their index (pointing) and ring fingers. Scientists believe that the link is caused by different levels of the hormones testosterone and estrogen in the womb -- and the effect they have on both brain development and finger length. This is nothing new, since scientists have known for many years that elevated levels of testosterone -- or other hormones closely resembling testosterone -- can cause the brains of both males and females to be more "masculine."It has long been known that boys tend to do better on math tests while girls do better at writing, reading and verbal tests."Testosterone has been argued to promote development of the areas of the brain which are often associated with spatial and mathematical skills," said Dr Mark Brosnan, Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, who led the study. "Estrogen is thought to do the same in the areas of the brain which are often associated with verbal ability. "Interestingly, these hormones are also thought have a say in the relative lengths of our index and ring fingers. "We can use measurements of these fingers as a way of gauging the relative exposure to these two hormones in the womb and as we have shown through this study, we can also use them to predict ability in the key areas of numeracy and literacy." How they did the researchThe researchers made photocopies of the palm of the children's hands and then measured the length of their index finger and ring finger on both hands using callipers, accurate to 0.01mm. They then divided the length of the index finger by that of the ring finger -- to calculate the child's digit ratio. When they compared this ratio to the children's SAT scores, they found that a smaller ratio (i.e. a longer ring finger and therefore greater prenatal exposure to testosterone) meant a larger difference between ability in maths and literacy, favouring math skills relative to reading and speaking skills. When they looked at boy's and girl's performance separately, the researchers found a clear link between high prenatal testosterone exposure, as measured by digit ratio, and higher numeracy SAT scores in males. Previously, researchers have found a link between index and ring finger lengths and homosexuality (see article in viewzone.) They also found a link between low prenatal testosterone exposure, which resulted in a shorter ring finger compared with the index finger, and higher literacy SAT scores for girls. This, says the scientists behind the study, suggests that measurements of finger length could help predict how well children will do in maths and literacy. "We're not suggesting that finger length measurements could replace SAT tests," said Dr Brosnan. "Finger ratio provides us with an interesting insight into our innate abilities in key cognitive areas. "We are also looking at how digit ratio relates to other behavioural issues, such as technophobia [fear of science], and career paths. There is also interest in using digit ratio to identify homosexuality, developmental disorders, such as dyslexia, which can be defined in terms of literacy deficiencies, and aggressive vs. passive personalitity traits. Other interesting observations about finger length:Bodily characteristics that develop in distinctly masculine and feminine ways are usually the product of sex hormones. Some features differentiate at puberty, such as breasts, muscle development and jaws. But other sex differences are already set by the time we're born, relative finger lengths among them, and seem to be the result of fetal androgens (hormones such as testosterone or related hormones) masculinising the males. some of those hormones come from fetal testes and adrenal glands, the rest make it across the placenta from the blood of the mother. But exactly how much comes from whom -- and what alters the balance -- are still not entirely understood."Prenatal development is a black box," says John Manning of the University of Liverpool. He is one of a small number of scientists beginning to wonder if fingers could be used as a way of peering into that "box."Finger lengths may predict cancer!In a paper just published in the journal Medical Hypotheses (vol. 54, p 855), Manning highlights conditions such as heart disease, breast cancer, autism and dyslexia. Both heart disease (in men) and breast cancer have been linked with high levels of the female hormones Eestrogen and Progesterone. Most of the studies of this link have looked at circulating levels in the adult, but evidence is mounting that too much of the wrong hormone in the womb, before birth, may be the real culprit.Oimitrios Tricopouos, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, proposed a decade ago that breast cancer may originate in the uterus of the mother (The Lancet, vol. 335, p 939). He suggested that high concentrations of estrogen may create a "fertile soil" for cancer to develop later in life. He also thought that variability in estrogen levels during pregnancy may help to explain why breast cancer rates are generally higher in women born to Caucasian mothers compared with those born to Oriental or younger mothers. Recently he and his colleague Karin Michels showed that high birth weight in girls-another sign of high prenatal estrogen levels-was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.If high estrogen levels are indeed to blame, Manning thinks that high 2D (see illustration) ratios could be used to identify women who are at increased risk of breast cancer. "I don't know of other sexually dimorphic traits that are so stable," he says. "That's what makes it so exciting." He interviewed 118 women in a breast cancer clinic, measured their finger lengths and noted how old they were when the first tumour appeared. "It was earlier if there was a higher ratio," he says.Finger length linked to left-handedness!The developing brain is also sensitive to hormones in utero. Knowing this, Norman Geschwind and his graduate student Albert Galaburda, now at Harvard Medical School, made a controversial claim in 1985. They suggested that prenatal testosterone slows the growth of certain areas of the left hemisphere and facilitates the growth of corresponding regions of the right hemisphere. At the time they wondered whether testosterone was partly to blame for such things as left-handedness, dyslexia and autism (Archives of Neurology, vol43,p 428).Galaburda and his colleagues have since developed a way to induce selective brain damage to the frontal lobe of newborn rats to mimic some of the symptoms of dyslexia. Curiously, while male rats with this kind of damage have trouble responding to rapidly changing sounds -- much like dyslexic humans -- females don't. "We induce the malformations in males and females," he says, "but only the males have trouble."It is clear that there is a "genetic component" to dyslexia. But Galaburda thinks fetal testosterone plays a role too by reducing plasticity in the young brain, making males, susceptible to brain malformations that females manage to overcome.Intriguingly, when female rats are given extra testosterone, they too show signs of dyslexia. Ratios of 2nd digit (index finger) to 4th digit (ring finger). Manning hasn't yet checked the finger lengths of human dyslexics to see whether they also point to a testosterone link. But he has already checked out the left-handed idea, using a dexterity test. People are not always straightforwardly right or left- handed: many have been trained to use their right hand for writing, even if they are more skilled with the left. So Manning and his colleagues tested how quickly 285 children could move 10 pegs from one row of holes to another row five inches away, using one or the other hand.Children with low 2D:4D ratios (see illustration) are believed to have high exposure to testosterone in the womb and are more likely to be quicker with their left hands than the kids with higher ratios. This, he says, suggests that our degree of left-handedness (and more generally the way the brain divides up tasks between left and right hemispheres) may be influenced by hormone levels in the womb.Finger Length & AutismManning has begun examining autism too. He teamed up with Simon Baron- Cohen and Svetlana Lutchmaya from the University of Cambridge, who have used samples of amniotic fluid to directly measure the levels of hormones that babies are exposed to in the womb. When the children reached their first birthday, the researchers measured their vocabularies and ability to make eye contact. Poor language skills and an unwillingness to make eye contact are early hallmarks of autism. They found that babies who'd been exposed to high levels of testosterone in the womb fared the worst."What we're hoping to look at is whether finger ratios can be used as a proxy for hormones," says Lutchmaya. Amniocentesis (sampling the amniotic fluic surrounding the unborn baby) is a risky procedure that only a few mothers choose to undergo, she says. But by measuring finger lengths instead, researchers can assess a random sample of children for possible early signs of impaired language and social skill development. Currently, they are checking the fingers of children for whom they have amniotic samples. Meanwhile, Manning and Baron-Cohen have looked at the finger ratios of 49 children with firm diagnoses of autism, 23 with a mild form of the disorder called Asperger's syndrome, and their families. The researchers found that autistic children tended to have very low 2D:4D ratios (see illustration). Interestingly, children with Asperger's syndrome had ratios that fell between those of autistics and unaffected children. "It fits exceptionally well with the theory," says Manning.Clearly genes play a role too in these conditions. But could fetal hormone levels explain other cognitive differences between the sexes? Janel Tortorice at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, thinks they may. She has measured finger ratios in 2D:4D ratio (see illustration) gay women and found that their hands were significantly different from those of heterosexual women-in fact, they tend to resemble those of heterosexual men.But she has also found differences in the way these women's brains work. "They have more masculine fingers and more masculine cognition," she says. On tests of spatial and verbal ability, lesbian volunteers perform more like men than heterosexual women, she says. If this can be confirmed by further studies, perhaps Manning's most recent suggestion is not as outrageous as it sounds. He claims that musical talent, too, is nurtured in the womb.
Finger lengths foretell musical ability!
Manning recruited 54 male musicians from a British symphony orchestra. He discovered that these men had significantly lower 2D:4D ratios than controls -- they had a very "masculine" ratio. Even more striking, when he compared the top-ranked "first" musicians with their lower-ranked colleagues -- a measure of their relative ability-the former had significantly lower 2D:4D ratios. Could testosterone really predispose the brain to be more tuned in to music? Manning thinks so.Musicians with short ring fingers and lesbians with long index fingers needn't lose heart, however. Even if fingers win a place in the pantheon of diagnostic medicine, it's unlikely that prospective employers or partners will ever be able to predict our fortunes from our hands. Tortorice reminds us that males tend to be taller than females. "But," she says; "we don't use height to determine whether you're a man or a woman." How well does this apply to YOUR fingers? We'd like to know.UPDATE:Hormone That Affects Finger Length Key To Social BehaviorAccording to a report in ScienceDaily, research at the universities of Liverpool and Oxford into the finger length of primate species has revealed that cooperative behavior is linked to exposure to hormone levels in the womb.The hormones, called androgens, are important in the development of masculine characteristics such as aggression and strength. It is also thought that prenatal androgens affect finger length during development in the womb. High levels of androgens, such as testosterone, increase the length of the fourth finger in comparison to the second finger. Scientists used finger ratios as an indicator of the levels of exposure to the hormone and compared this data with social behaviour in primate groups.The team found that Old World monkeys, such as baboons and rhesus macaques, have a longer fourth finger in comparison to the second finger, which suggests that they have been exposed to high levels of prenatal androgens. These species tend to be highly competitive and promiscuous, which suggests that exposure to a lot of androgens before birth could be linked to the expression of this behaviour.Other species, such as gibbons and many New World species, have digit ratios that suggest low levels of prenatal androgen exposure. These species were monogamous and less competitive than Old World monkeys.The results show that Great Apes, such as orangutans and chimpanzees, expressed a different finger ratio. The analysis suggests that early androgen exposure is lower in this groups compared to Old World monkeys. Lower androgen levels could help explain why Great Apes show high levels of male cooperation and tolerance.Emma Nelson, from the University of Liverpool's School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, explains: "It is thought that prenatal androgens affect the genes responsible for the development of fingers, toes and the reproductive system. High androgen levels from a foetus or mother during pregnancy, may alter gene function and lead to subtle changes in relative digit length and the functioning of the reproductive system. Finger ratios do not change very much after birth and appear to tell us something about how very early androgens affect adult behaviour, particularly behaviour linked to mating and reproduction."Dr Susanne Shultz, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford, said: "Humans are unique in that they live in large multi-male, multi-female groups, but maintain strong bonds and show high levels of group cooperation in both males and females. In most other species males are competitive rather than co-operative. Research from finger ratios may help us understand more clearly the development of human sociality and its evolutionary origins."This research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, is supported by the British Academy Centenary Research Project, Lucy to Language -- a multi-disciplinary project that aims to understand the complexities of human social evolution.


 

 



The Secret Life of Flowers

Or, perhaps "The Secret Meanings of Flowers", but the winning title sounded more interesting, IMHO.  Below is a nifty little article discovered via Groupon today.  Not quite sure how I arrived at it, but thought it poignant enough to share, regardless.  :)

http://www.drweil.com/   What???  NO!  Not that, but he's cool, too.  WTH, Internet Explorer??

http://www.groupon.com/articles/flower-bouquets-to-help-you-say-what-you-really-mean?utm_source=GPN&utm_campaign=50&z=skip&mediaId=249842

OK, that's better.  Let's see if this copy and paste works for the pretty pictures...

The Hidden Messages Behind Custom Flower Bouquets

BY: STEPHANIE MCDANIEL | 2.6.2015 |

Most people know that a rose is the universal symbol for love. Fewer people, however, know that an eryngium represents independence, or that a campanula can be used to express gratitude.

All of these flower meanings take on added resonance around Valentine’s Day, when picking the right bouquet might mean the difference between a kiss and a kick to the curb. Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of nine flower combinations to help you say the right thing, whether it’s “I love you” or “I accidentally used your toothbrush.”

1.

“Will you be my best friend?”

2.

“I’ve had a crush on you for years.”

3.

“I’ll be yours forever.”

4.

“Let’s get married but keep our own bank accounts.”

5.

“I love you. Just kidding! No, really.”

6.

“I love you. Please open this cage.”

7.

“Can I stay the night?”

8.

“I know you’re a vampire.”

9.

“Please don’t ask where I bought you that fighter jet.”

Color-Based Results Test

This was pretty nifty.  I'm mostly a Blue.  And one of the most controlling personalities in the color spectrum, per this assessment, which asks you to answer a list of questions per you AS A CHILD.  Sheesh, who hasn't changed since then that's still alive and kicking? 

Well, one would hope, anyway.  But, admittedly, I can be a bit of a control freak.  Or perhaps "organizational life executive" would be more pc and less brutal?

 Here's the link:  www.colorcode.com 

And here is the free version of my results: 

Basic Analysis Results

Want to see your full four color analysis?

My Full Analysis

Motive [ Intimacy ]

Blues are motivated by Intimacy. They seek to genuinely connect with others, and need to be understood and appreciated. Everything they do is quality-based. They are loyal friends, employers, and employees. Whatever or whomever they commit to is their sole (and soul) focus. They love to serve and give of themselves freely in order to nurture others' lives.

ABOUT BLUE

Blues have distinct preferences and have the most controlling personality. Their personal code of ethics is remarkably strong and they expect others to live honest, committed lives as well. They enjoy sharing meaningful moments in conversation as well as paying close attention to special life events (e.g. birthdays and anniversaries). Blues are dependable, thoughtful, and analytical; but can also be self-righteous, worry-prone, and moody. They are "sainted pit-bulls" who never let go of something or someone once they are committed. When you deal with a BLUE, be sincere and make a genuine effort to understand and appreciate them.

Color Quiz

What's up, world?  It's Friday here, finally Spring, and the weather is just gorgeous.  Was reminded by one of the gals here at work yesterday that there are color personality tests out there.  I took one about 5 years ago and it was brutally, even somewhat cruelly honest.  Sometimes the truth hurts, but how can you grow if you don't know? 

Anyway, I Googled "Color Test" and the same daggum website pulled up second on the page.  Here's their link:  http://colorquiz.com/.

View at your own peril!

Looks like the Keirsey test is also related to the INFJ personality.  I scored as an Idealist Counselor, which matched directly with the Myers-Briggs assessment.  Here's a ditty about that, taken from Keirsey.com: 

"Counselors have an exceptionally strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others, and find great personal fulfillment interacting with people, nurturing their personal development, guiding them to realize their human potential. Although they are happy working at jobs (such as writing) that require solitude and close attention, Counselors do quite well with individuals or groups of people, provided that the personal interactions are not superficial, and that they find some quiet, private time every now and then to recharge their batteries. Counselors are both kind and positive in their handling of others; they are great listeners and seem naturally interested in helping people with their personal problems. Not usually visible leaders, Counselors prefer to work intensely with those close to them, especially on a one-to-one basis, quietly exerting their influence behind the scenes.

Counselors are scarce, little more than three percent of the population, and can be hard to get to know, since they tend not to share their innermost thoughts or their powerful emotional reactions except with their loved ones. They are highly private people, with an unusually rich, complicated inner life. Friends or colleagues who have known them for years may find sides emerging which come as a surprise. Not that Counselors are flighty or scattered; they value their integrity a great deal, but they have mysterious, intricately woven personalities which sometimes puzzle even them.
 Counselors tend to work effectively in organizations. They value staff harmony and make every effort to help an organization run smoothly and pleasantly. They understand and use human systems creatively, and are good at consulting and cooperating with others. As employees or employers, Counselors are concerned with people's feelings and are able to act as a barometer of the feelings within the organization.

Blessed with vivid imaginations, Counselors are often seen as the most poetical of all the types, and in fact they use a lot of poetic imagery in their everyday language. Their great talent for language-both written and spoken-is usually directed toward communicating with people in a personalized way. Counselors are highly intuitive and can recognize another's emotions or intentions - good or evil - even before that person is aware of them. Counselors themselves can seldom tell how they came to read others' feelings so keenly. This extreme sensitivity to others could very well be the basis of the Counselor's remarkable ability to experience a whole array of psychic phenomena."

Next, a look into Inneagrams.  Hoosah!

So lunch.  Yeah, that was a fast and tasty salad.  And I realized whilst mowing down on rabbit food that some people know absolutely nothing about INFJ's.  Or Meyers-Briggs.  Or psychology.  That's ok.  I'll help you out with understanding INFJ's by posting interesting links and blurbs as I find them.  Because "know thyself", and "To thine own self be true...then thou canst not be false to any man."  That last quote was Shakespeare (or was it?  Conspiracy theorists unite!  But I digress.)  (I really love rabbit trails.  Sorry), not sure about the origin of the other one. You can figure out the rest on your own, but I can do you the courtesy of posting links to "how to figure out your personality type".  At least that.

Getting back to the point, I like to discuss ideas, read about people, and experience things.  Who knows where that puts me on an intellectual hierarchy, and who really cares - I'm not that big of a deal or that important in the grand scheme of things, just inside my own head.  It's just a personal preference.  So since it's my blog (and hopefully a relief to my FB friends from daily overkill on their feed walls), this will probably gear more towards whatever is rolling through my brain I'd like to share with you while simultaneously increasing my typing speed and improving my writing skills. Multitasking is next to godliness, right?

The Personality Junkie ( http://personalityjunkie.com/ ) is a pretty in-depth website involving one of the more complex breakdowns of personality types I've experienced thus far.  It's very insightful. but on a slow day I'm about to pass out reading so much data.  Plus, I have a difficult time keeping the Fe, Si, Se, Ni, etc.(second cousin to musical scales, anyone?) straight.  However, this one offers a test to help you figure out where you stand in the Meyers-Briggs, so thought it worth a mention.  It also helped me realize why I constantly feel like I'm sleepwalking through life, out of body, mainly in my head, and why I've always felt like an alien observing the human race rather than actively participating as a part of it.  Kudos!

For those of you who know a tad about how Meyers-Briggs is set up, here's a breakdown of the mini-me-musical scale wanna-be breakdown, taken from The Personality Junkie's website: 

"INFJ Personality Type Development & Functional Stack

INFJs’ functional stack is composed of the following functions:
Dominant: Introverted Intuition (Ni)
Auxiliary: Extraverted Feeling (Fe)
Tertiary:  Introverted Thinking (Ti)
Inferior:  Extraverted Sensing (Se)"

INFJ's make up only 1% of the population, making them the rarest of the 16 personality types.  Doubtless a good thing.  :)

Also, courtesy of http://www.personalitypage.com/INFJ.html, this is a pretty good short summary of the INFJ type:

"Portrait of an INFJ - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging
(Introverted Intuition with Extraverted Feeling)

The Protector

As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.   INFJs place great importance on having things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it. Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.   INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff at, and the INFJ themself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it. They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive.   But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.   Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubbornness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right. In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals.   INFJ is a natural nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.   In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.   The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement."