Headspace

Part 1

and 2

For Scadians this is worth listening to though not terrific in itself.

M asked me to take an enneagram test, and with two questions why not. I feel it is relatively close to truth though at this time we were most interested in the parenting section. This seemed quite close to what I read about myself (see, I like to read about myself ) from Dr. Keirsey’s book all those year’s back. I do hope that this particular kind of parenting will suite our family, not too worried about it though, but wondering. Also there are some questions due to the duality of my qualities but I do believe this is who I am in my interpersonal private life.

Your result for The Quick & Painless ENNEAGRAM Test…

4- the Individualist

you chose BY - your Enneagram type is FOUR (aka “The Romantic”)

“I am unique”

Romantics have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.

How to Get Along with Me

• Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.
• Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.
• Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.
• Though I don’t always want to be cheered up when I’m feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.
• Don’t tell me I’m too sensitive or that I’m overreacting!

What I Like About Being a FOUR

• my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level
• my ability to establish warm connections with people
• admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life
• my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor
• being unique and being seen as unique by others
• having aesthetic sensibilities
• being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me

What’s Hard About Being a FOUR

• experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair
• feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don’t deserve to be loved
• feeling guilty when I disappoint people
• feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me
• expecting too much from myself and life
• fearing being abandoned
• obsessing over resentments
• longing for what I don’t have

FOURs as Children Often

• have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games
• are very sensitive
• feel that they don’t fit in
• believe they are missing something that other people have
• attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.
• become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood
• feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents’ divorce)

FOURs as Parents

• help their children become who they really are
• support their children’s creativity and originality
• are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings
• are sometimes overly critical or overly protective
• are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed

Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele

The Enneagram Made Easy
Discover the 9 Types of People
Harper
SanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages

You liked the test?
so S P R E A D I T ! tell everyone!!!
(use Quick-Paste below)

you wanna know MORE?
so check out, what Wikipedia says about your type…

…even more you’ll find in Google

or do you prefer to

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You are not completely happy with the result?!
You chose BY

Would you rather have chosen:

AY (EIGHT)

CY (SIX)

BX (NINE)

BZ (FIVE)

Take The Quick & Painless ENNEAGRAM Test at HelloQuizzy

We’re still in hospital, Our daughter got out of the blue light yesterday morning and both of my girls are doing well.
Mogi had a lot of visitors yesterday but didn’t mind ‘em at all. First to come were the maternal grandparents, then Leke brought my mum over and the final switch was to E. But no fears, as our daughter is somehow very zen, great mystic who does interesting signs ofprobably immense significance with her little hands while pondering the secrets of universe. As a recap to possible foreign friends still lacking the information, she was born on Wendsday June 18th to rowan smelling summer rain, she was 48.2 cm tall, weighed 3670 grams and was little hairy and otherwise perfect too.

Again, couple photos of our little starlett. These were taken yesterday as she was napping in daddy’s arms, looking serene and incredibly beautiful. I tried to capture the look, but unfortunately my cellphone camera didn’t do justice to our little jedi.

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Sony BMG that has practiced all sorts of nastiness (mob style hunting of music users, installing root kits to their users’ computers…) in order to capture unauthorized listeners of their recordings, whom they call pirates has been engaged in rather interesting practices namely unauthorized software usage , it seems. This has been reported in wired with a Finnish translation at Piraattiliitto.

According to the news, it would seem that pirating software is a standard operation procedure at Sony’s, now how quaint is that. One more news source on the matter, this with a lot of interview material from the infringed party.

The SCA Grand Council had gotten an assignment to ponder “Pay to Play” structures, their relevance and possible applicability to the Society. Let’s just say at the beginning that this didn’t please yours truly one bit. Couple of clarification letters were forwarded to the Kingdom list and our current representative being the kind she is, commentary was asked from Drachenwaldians. Here’s what we sent as commentary.

Unto Mistress Ariel do Lord Dubhghall and Baroness Mór send their
greetings.

Here are comments regarding the issues being discussed by the
Grand Council.

1. ‘Pay to play’ as a means of developing loyalty to the SCA as
organization

> We have discussed the fact that people develop loyalty to their
> local group, their household, their Kingdom, but not the
> Organization. Why is that?

Loyalty grows from belonging to and being a participant in, and
namely a participant with rights. From our Aarnimetsian/Finnish
point of view the inclusion of the members to the SCA, Inc. is
very limited. An average member has little say in the matters of
the Society. Quite often even getting heard is extremely
difficult, not to mention having a “vote”.

It would seem that the more a person is involved in the decision
making of the group, the more loyalty is felt towards it. Thus
often the strongest loyalty is first to one’s household and to
the local groups in ascending order. This is only natural. The
more I’m a member, the more it is “my group”. The high level SCA
organisation is so far away that it is difficult to develop
loyalty towards it.

This said, so far it would seem that the affiliate system is
working quite well in Aarnimetsä. As an example, the canton of
Humalasalo was not doing very well five years ago. At that point
it was decided to remove the local membership fee and to put all
effort into recruiting new people, getting them on a mailing list
so they could be kept in the loop, and arranging a variety of SCA
related activities. The SKA affiliate agreement coming into
effect finalised the success of the plan: the new SCA membership
system could be effectively communicated and explained to the
people, and it was obvious how being a paid member not only
brought benefits (like event price discounts) to the individual
but it also supported the local group (the canton), the barony
and the whole SCA. Today of all the Aarnimetsä cantons,
Humalasalo has the most paying affiliate/SCA members!

We believe (Mór having been the seneschal of Humalasalo for
several years during this process) that the key to getting paid
members is communal thinking. The membership fee needs to be
affordable and it needs to benefit both the one who’s paying and
the society they are supporting. To get the benefits of a
communal feeling (”loyalty”) to all levels of the hierarchy, the
membership must address all of the levels. In the affiliate
system:

1) The benefits for the individual:
- Discounts of event fees, in stores etc.
- A paying member has influence in the bureaucracy of the canton
(as per the Finnish law regarding non-profit associations).
- The member knows they are supporting the local group,
i.e. canton, see below

2) The benefits for the canton:
- The canton gets a set part of the fee as per their own choosing
(Humalasalo takes no membership share, some other cantons may
take a small share).
- The canton’s influence regarding the decision making in the
affiliate society level (SKA) depends on the amount of paying
members, so by paying for a membership, a person supports the
local canton in this way too.
- Due to the affiliate system in Aarnimetsä, a canton doesn’t
need to put resources into collecting the membership fees,
upkeeping a registry of the members etc. since SKA does all
that and publishes the baronial newsletter.

3) The affiliate association level
- The affiliate society collects the fees and uses them to
provide services (bureaucracy, newsletter, a Finnish insurance,
shared rules and regulations, important SCA events such as the
Baronial Investiture and Kingdom level events etc.) for the
cantons and their people.

4) SCA, Inc.
- Gets a share of the membership fees as agreed.
- Provides the main frame for the whole of the Society.

As a huge improvement to the old system, not only is the
membership fee much more affordable in relation to the local
economy, and easier to pay (since the affiliate society handles
all overseas money transfers), the system also grows loyalty
towards all levels of the system (also SCA, Inc.) by having the
membership shared between all levels and the said levels
co-operating in a rather seamless manner. All levels provide
services that in the end benefit the members.

In the Finnish affiliate organisation the costs for the society
are reduced by handling the functions as volunteer work. This is
possible when the membership bureaucracy is handled not on the
international but on the local level. Since in the affiliate
system most of the services are handled locally, this might be a
way to reduce the costs, since in the SCA Inc. Corporate budget
the office and salaries are the two most prominent expenditures.

2. Tiered membership

> The tiered membership is a useful thing to consider as well…a
> membership level for students perhaps, for people who want to
> come and watch, those that want to participate at certain
> levels…so that the people could pay for what they use. What
> should come with these tiers?

What does this mean then? What would be the levels of
participation? In normal SCA-officer jargon the levels refer to
Society, Kingdom, Principality, Barony etc. If this is the
meaning here, wouldn’t this have an adverse effect to the stated
intention? “I play to participate only at my barony level, so I
most certainly won’t do anything in the Kingdom” as opposed to “I
can participate on local, Kingdom, Society wide levels as the
situation develops”.

Or are these tiers intended to be such that at the cheapest
levels one can’t participate to the in-Society hobbies? Which
hobbies would these be and how would they be chosen? No fighting?
No dancing? No listening to lectures or participating to
workshops? We have found that the in-Society activities are very
important to the people. It benefits the whole Society that there
are many participants, including both people willing to teach and
people willing to learn. Membership fee requirements for
participating would hinder this. More regarding ‘pay to fight’
and thoughts on ‘pay to receive awards’ in the next section.

One possible way to read this would mean different fees for
differently ranked individuals. This promotes the idea of awards
as a kind of a caste system instead of associating the awards
closely with the contribution to the Society. If there was any
sense of justice in the thing, hardworking peers would be paid
for their attendance wherein a newcomer student would pay the
highest price. This would however add a very unpleasant feature
to the award system and also discourage new members from
joining. If it was done the other way around, it would in fact be
punishing those who have done most for the society! We view the
award system as something that should inspire the recipients and
others to continue to serve the Society, not as a rank that
perhaps cannot be bought but should continuously be paid for ever
since.

3. ‘Pay to’ models in the SCA

> The different “pay to…” things in different Kingdoms should
> be considered too. Some are pay to fight, some are pay to
> receive awards, same are not. How does this impact
> things…should it be consistent across the Organization?

Absolutely not! The kingdoms of the SCA differ vastly in their
culture, regarding the things that are appreciated, and how
business is conducted. While we may be able to appreciate that
in some kingdoms it indeed is perfectly legitimate to expect
people to show their commitment first and foremost by purchasing
a membership, it is entirely out of the question in these parts
(Perhaps all of Drachenwald; in any case it applies to
Aarnimetsä).

Here the participants are expected to contribute to the Society
first and foremost through their effort. Helping in events (quite
often not a small deal), working as officers, etc. This ethos is
something that we also try to teach to and inspire in our new
members (who are quite often students of various degrees with
limited financial possibilities). If we tell people that they’re
welcome to pay and help, that doesn’t sound too good for the
newcomers. “Come and join us in this shared effort and enjoyment
of living the medievalish dreamworld” is much more beckoning than
the alternative.

Regarding ‘pay to receive awards’. The idea that we’d teach
people to work in this Society that has a set structure (awards)
for recognising hard work and effort in service to the Society,
and would then consider them un-eligible for that recognition had
they not made a financial contribution to the Society is quite
appalling. This is contrary to everything we consider the SCA
spirit to be.

For the landed gentry granting the awards, this would also be
quite a hassle. In addition to the merits of the possible
recipient they would also need to consider their membership
status. And what of the people who fail to remain members at some
point? Would it lead into situations where granted awards would
have to be nullified as the recipient wasn’t eligible for them
per regulations? Surely a ‘pay to be awarded’ system would only
have effects adverse to the awarding system’s desired function.

As for ‘pay to fight’, the waivers are no longer required from
fighters here and thus the membership card is unnecessary for the
functioning of the in-society combat hobby as such. If this kind
of a thing would be implemented, it would appear to be ripping
off the fighters as opposed to other in-society hobbies. It might
also encourage the false idea that fighters make their
contribution only through their combat prowess and financial
support of the society.

To us it seems that not only ‘pay to play’, but all ‘pay to’
structures mentioned so far are detrimental to the hobby and
would create negative effects.

In Service,
Dubhghall and Mór from Aarnimetsä
mundanely known as Henri and Maria Laine

So it goes this season for me. Christmas/Yule, New Year and then my birthday.

This year the yule season was quite a trying one. We bought the apartment in the intersection of November and December so most of the season was spent in preparation to the move, or in the moving process. Thank goodness, we had the good sense of using professional movers as moving our entire life from the old apartmen to the new one wasn’t a small feat. We now live on the southern borders of Tampere, which is quite nice though getting used to the new surroundings will likely take a while. The apartment itself is terribly nice and required no renovations on our part.

Of course we both got sick for the move, Murphy’s law was really at work there. I recovered soon, for M it took somewhat longer. For Christmass we drove up to M’s parents with my Mum on board. Even if there was a lot of sickness wreacking havoc on our Christmass, everything worked out in the end and it was a lovely Christmass. That continued (with couple of nassssty days of cleaning the old place in the middle) up to the previous weekend, when I dropped mum home, visited grandparents (who were in good health and had the stamina to enjoy the visit for several hours) and a friend’s birthday party as a last of that day. (all this in one day before returning home in the middle of the night)

New year’s eve in the daytime we picked last stuff up from the old place and returned keys to the housing office. Felt a bit funny as I moved there spring 2001 and M had had it a bit before that. It’s a long time so it was no wonder that the move was big. After this we visited the local mall for lunch, post office visit, some shopping and then drowsed the day somewhat wondering if we really should go to see a movie as we had planned. M said that the age is obviously starting to show as it was quite a wrangle to go to movie even if we had tikcets aging out and a movie that both of us wanted to see. Yeah, the age is showing as the reasons for not going were along the lines, too tired, moviegoing generally leaves one not happy but furious for the various sideshows (usually over talkative teenagers, who can’t shut their damned trap and / or cellphone for two hours) . In the end, we decided to go with the idea that most likely the worst idiots wouldn’t be out on new year’s eve (they weren’t the over talkative teenagers behind us were mostly unheard through the movie) and the movie was attractive one, Golden Compass.

Proved a good decision as Golden Compass is a splendid movie that really deserved to be seen from the big screen. Yeasterday we resumed roleplaying that has been badly taxed by the moving and sickness. A good start for a new year and it seems that the month long break in the game is reflecting well on the character development.

Today, is my birthday and the last day of my winter- / christmass leave. Does seem like quite a good day so far

Art with one, have a look.

I am Hastur! The Unspeakable One is the master of those who seek to unveil the mysteries of death. It is through meditation upon the Yellow Sign that the devotee of Hastur seeks transcendence to the city-realm of dim Carcosa. Through a complex series of visualizations that expand the aspirants void-consciousness, the final age will arise. Ruled by the ominous King in Yellow, a new stage of reality will come to fruition. Of the Olde Ones, Hastur is considered to be one of the most difficult to work with, his teachings being reserved exclusively for the Cthonian Adepts and Lords.

Which Great Old One are you?

Again something that’s been lingering quite a while in the drafts section…

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It’s been a while since I was last abroad, so the last weekend was good in that sense too. I had a major part of my summer holidays as an SCA trip as we attended the Coronation of Alaric and Nerissa. We made the trip easy for ourselves and left Tampere on thursday to have a bit of fun in Helsinki, shopping and seeing family there, we then set to the airport Holiday Inn to be able to catch a little more sleep than if we had to leave from Tampere on Friday morning, a good beginning imo.

The flight landed to Hamburg and as we drove out Me and M were whooping about the local flora (trees and freely groing hay on the roadsides) as well as the local architecture that is beautiful to the extreme. Autobahn is a magnificent idea, especially if one happens to be blessed with driver such like our’s (hi J) who surely knew how to operate there.

Event as a whole was magnificent. The site was kewl and it was nice to get to see people I normally have only internet contact with. Made new friends too and got to see how our southern cousins handle events. Got to be proud on how we Aarnimetsians handle things and so forth.

One could have gone on and on about the event, but now sufficient time has passed that I don’t much remember the details. But it did show the major strength of the SCA, the international nature. It left this feeling that it would be great to go abroad again and already we’re making plans. Should probably really make an effort and look into how to travel with all the essentials. Here in home we pack our car so full, that there’s no hope in travelling like that to events that one needs to fly in. So, the planning shall include sleeping arrangements B&B seems like the most recommendable one. How to travel with the fencing gear and so forth. When just tripping like this time it was relatively easy, but when going with all the necessary stuff it is going to be a lot harder gig.

So I nicked yet another of the OKCupid’s silly tests from the blog of my dear wife.
Methinks the result is rather hilarious…

House Targaryen
72% Dominant, 54% Extroverted, 54% Trustworthy

Ancient. Noble. Passionate to the point of insanity. Transcending lesser beings, you are of House Targaryen.

You are a dominant personality—in fact, you are the most dominant of all eight house types. You will not suffer yourself to be ignored. You will not suffer yourself to be ruled. The phrase “I will not suffer myself to _____!” was practically made for you. You are willful, arrogant, and exceedingly dangerous to screw with. With a temper like yours, anyone stupid enough to saunter into your line of fire won’t soon forget their mistake.

You are also extroverted, which means that everyone in the world knows exactly what your intentions are. Unlike your cohorts (who hide behind smiles and courtesies and court politics), you think of it as your birthright to come riding in on an enormous dragon, breathing fire and fucking your siblings. Hey, what you lack in subtlty, you make up in style!

Finally, you are trustworthy. Your absurd amounts of power and borderline psychosis are not used unjustly. Unlike many, your general aims are just and true. You we bred for rule, and the fact that you cannot rest until you are doing so is not your fault. If you make up your mind, it becomes reality. Never one for empty threats or vainglorious lies, you can only speak the truth. And the truth is “fire and blood.”

Representative characters include: Daenerys Stormborn, Rhaegar Targaryen, and Viserys Targaryen

Similar Houses: Baratheon, Lannister,and Tully

Opposite House: Frey

When playing the game of thrones, you play it to the death.

Link: The Song of Ice and Fire House Test written by Geeky_Stripper on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test