Popular Psychology Personality Quizzes

I am a sucker for pop-psych quizzes.  I’ll even take those called “What is the first letter of the name of  man you will marry”  just for the hell of it.  However, I found one unlike any I had ever seen before.  It is a right-brain vs left brain quiz, and according to the quiz results–I am definitely right-brained.  I remember coming across  a saying something like “If the left side of the body is controlled by the right brain, then left handed people are the only ones in their right mind.”  I am not left-handed, but I have always wanted to be left handed.  I can write with my left hand (slowly, but legibly), I have always eaten with my left hand, and I sometimes brush my teeth with my left hand…you know, it case I break an arm or something.

As a right-brained individual, I should consider careers as a forest ranger, athlete, beautician, actor/actress, craftsman, or artist.  Nowhere does it say anything about me being a physician or pilot which are two of my goals in life.  Although it may explain some of my hobbies:  photography, fencing, swimming, hiking, and  my goals of competing in a triathlon and buying an old house and restoring it (as much as possible) on my own.

I also am an expert procrastinator.  Instead of doing these pop-psych quizzes, I should be studying instead of goofing off on the computer–which is what I am going to do.  In just a few minutes.  I promise.  I have promised myself that if I do well on this next test, I can go see Harry Potter in the theater on Tuesday.  If not, I’ll have to wait until it comes out on video.

Things I hate: Shopping, running, and unpacking

Today I went shopping for clothes.  It was the first time I’ve gone shopping since I went with Emily, Corinna, Dasha, and Steve (do you see the anomaly in that group?) in Trujillo last year.  I got  6 shirts, 2 pairs of pants and a dress all for $47.  I did not get what I went in for, which was a black skirt.  I pretty much hate clothes shopping.  I always have always hated it, but its done and I shouldn’t have to do it again until fall.

I have signed up for Running Racig’s virtual mile.  The rules are pretty simple.  I have the entire month of July to run it.  It has to be run outside, I have to take a picture of me wearing the virtual mile racing bib, and  I have to be honest about my time.  Since I am currently clocking in at just under 15min/mile, I probably won’t send in my time until closer to the end of the month–just so it won’t be completely embarrassing.  I have decide that the Lake Rabon triathlon will be my first.  I just don’t think I’ll be ready for the one on July 17, and I really only had 2 goals:  to finish and to not be last.  But if I do finish last, at least I finish.  This one is on August 13.  The swim is 300 yards, the bike is 12.8 miles, and the run is 3.1 miles.  I guess they have something against  using the metric system–otherwise it would be 275m, 20k, and 5k.

On a different note,  I finally ordered some of my photos from my South America trip.  These will go in the frames that I have hanging photo-less on the wall.  I hope to be settled in soon.  After all, I’ve been here 3 months…I should be unpacked and decorated by now.

On the Gran Savana

Photos from Los Llanos in Venezuela

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Living life in Rio de Janeiro

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Some photos from my time in rio…

Brazilian Pantanal

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The Brazilian Pantanal is located in southeast Brazil.  It is the world’s largest wetlands.  It is its own little world completely different from the rest of the country

Inti Wara Yassi

OK…it is not easy to get to–it is well off the beaten path,  and it is not very well- known, but the Comunidad de Inti Wara Yassi is well worth the time and effort to get to –especially if you are an animal lover.  The animal refugees  contain animals that have [usually] been abused by humans or abandoned [in the case of the cats] when they became too big and unmanageable [usually by circuses].  These beautiful animals were left to fend for themselves in rather remote and harsh conditions.  Yes, they are animals…even wild animals, but when a kitten/cub is stolen from its mother, it looses the opportunity to become a successful wild animal.  This mentality is hard to understand in Bolivia.  CIWY has founded and manages three wild animal refuges in south-eastern Bolivia [closer to Brazil and Paraguay than other Bolivian cities] and strives to educate the Bolivian population to uphold values that promote life, conservation, preservation and the recuperation of biodiversity.  Inti Wara Yassi’s deep, uniting ties with the whole of the Bolivian public are symbolised in its name – Inti means sun in Quechua, Wara stars in Aymara and Yassi means moon in Chiriguano Guarani.  Below are some of the rescued animals that call CIWY home.

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Peruvian portraits

My favorite part of traveling is taking pictures.  My favorite pictures to take are landscapes [channeling Ansel Adams], followed by city scenes.  My next favorite part of traveling is meeting new people, but I don’t generally like photographing people. [Animal yes, people not so much]  First, I think it is rude to just whip out a camera and start clicking away.  Nor do I like the idea of paying people to pose for photographs [propina, propina].  But sometimes I do it anyway.  In an effort to improve my photographic skills [and conversational and social skills] I am taking more pictures of people everywhere I go, but especially here in Peru since I have spent so much time here.

  My pilot over the Nazca lines.  He was good and I got to sit in the co-pilot seat [although he wouldn't hand the controls over to me...in retrospect, probably for the best.]

Crossing guard in Trujillo.  He loves his job.

Selling burgers and cake near the Adventura Mall in Trujillo.  How can you not love someone selling food from their hatchback?

This is the type of photo you get by not paying people who want to be paid for snapping their photo [mean, angry face]

And this is what you get when you cough up the S/1 per person ‘sitting fee.’

Peruvians hardly ever smile [but the chicharron de pescado was good]

but when they do, it’s priceless.

This is the shopkeeper from the yellow market [I called it that because it has a yellow awning over the door.] Since I lived in the apartments next door, that makes her my neighbor.  That, and the fact I go to the yellow market EVERY SINGLE DAY is probably the reason she posed for this photo.

I would never ask to photograph religious people.  I just put on the zoom lens and hope for the best.

Or little kids.  I just try to capture them in the moment.

Action shots can be hit or miss.

This one is more of a miss, but you can still tell it’s all men playing the pan flutes

Sometimes you get lucky.  Really lucky.

and sometimes, not so much.

But when taking photos of people, you have to take the good with the bad.

Drawing lines in the sands

At first glance, Nazca looks like a big pile of baked Earth, and if you stay on the ground, that is pretty much all you see. But should you take to the air, amazing sights can be seen in the form of a these interesting lines. Who knows what they are, where they come from, or how they have survived. The lines make over 300 figures, and the most well-known ones are the lizard, monkey, hummingbird, astronaut, and candlestick.

 

4 days in Cajamarca–photos

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Mas de Huanchaco and Trujillo

The following photographs are pictures that didn’t fit in anywhere else, but still need to be shared.  Some are of Chan-Chan, some are of the Huacas, some of Huanchaco, some of the areas near Huanchaco, and some are  of Trujillo. Enjoy.

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