6.02.2008

Other things, et cetera, and so on #6

A Good Kind of Exhaustion

The weather Saturday--rain showers off and on all day--put a kink in my grandiose yard work plans, but Sunday was perfect. I mowed, weeded, trimmed, put the cover and mosquito netting back on the gazebo on the patio (it makes the patio usable even in the hot afternoon sun), pruned some bushes, overseeded and fertilized a sparse patch of grass, sanded and stained my favorite rocking Adirondack chair and ottoman, and picked up a special-order kitchen cabinet that will form a new breakfast bar in-between the kitchen and dining room.

Today, I feel like I spent the entire day at the gym. Everything hurts. But I got so much accomplished, and I always feel a twinge of satisfaction when I feel a twinge in my muscles after a hard day's work. Now I just have to try and not think about all the projects I didn't get to.

A First Time for Everything

I rarely take these online quizzes--or memes, though this use of that word always sounds inappropriate in the context of what amounts to little more than a chain letter--and even when I have taken them, I haven't posted my results. But after Monica, RationalJenn, and Gus all posted their results for the "What Kind of Flower Are You?" quiz and they were all quite different, I thought I'd see what the deal was.

You Are a Canna
"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."
This was too good to not post! Though I wouldn't say I particularly enjoy actively letting people know about my pride. What's the point of that? Sounds like the person who made the quiz doesn't have a full grasp of the true egoistic nature of pride. Which brings up my next point...

When I have taken these quizzes in the past, it has always made me wonder how they are created. Some of the questions are just bizarre or oddly leading in one way or another. I'm guessing that someone creating a quiz would decide beforehand on 5 or so "personality types", associate them with some sort of object/fictional character/whatever that represents it, and then assign points to each question and a score range to the answers.
  • 5-15 points - "You are a microwave! -- you are quick to anger, your moods are often uneven, and some people consider you superficial."
  • 16-25 points - "You are a refrigerator! -- you are well educated and maintain a wealth of information, you are very reliable, but some people consider you cold."
  • etc., so on and so forth.
Does anyone have any insight into how these things are done? And yes, I know I'm reading waaay too much into these silly things, but that's part of the fun.

6 comments:

Jenn Casey said...

The quizzes are an entertaining distraction for me. Sometimes the results reflect who I am; sometimes not. I most enjoy the quizzes that are clever, where you can't see where the questions are leading. I've often thought that most quiz-makers must use the Meyers-Briggs (or other) personality types as their template, but I have no idea if that is really so.

I like your Kitchen Appliance quiz--you may have a future in quiz-making! I'm guessing I'd be an oven--somewhat traditional, baking a bun--but more often I am an actual dishwasher, 'cause that's all I seem to ever do!

Monica said...

No clue how they are conducted or constructed, but still fun.

I agree that they can often be ridiculous. Especially if they are based on only 5 questions or, upon repeated tries, you test out as three different and contradictory items (which often happens with me, and I choose the one I like). blah. Still... they are fun. Do only narcissistic people like us like these quizzes, I wonder? ha. (just kidding).

Some of the longer ones, like the Harry Potter quiz, seem very accurate, though, in their abilities to characterize the personalities of many people I know.

On the other hand, most of them strike me as having the accuracy of zodiac predictions found in the newspaper: each one is generalized enough to apply to anyone and everyone... a sort of self-reinforcing system of belief like pressing the elevator button which always results in the elevator coming faster.

Lynne said...

What kitchen appliance are you?

You have been working in the hot sun. I actually think this would be a funny quiz if the rest of the appliances were as sassy as the fridge and the microwave. You should finish the "personality types" and then research how to make the quizzes. I'd bet there is a website where you can do this.

Almost regardless of how stupid they are, they're rather addictive little things aren't they? I'm curious as to why we all find them so compelling even when the questions can be interpreted, and therefore misinterpreted in so many different ways and the results are as telling as what is seen in Madame Fortuna's crystal ball.

I was addicted to the Harry Potter Meyers-Briggs personality test for a while. It's fun if you're a fan.

Anonymous said...

I, too, took the test and am also a Canna! Is it bad that there are two Cannas in the same house? I have a feeling A. and R. would be Cannas as well. Hell, so would one of our dogs! Yikes!

There was also a a quiz in yesterday's Boston Globe called Are you an optimist? That one was ridiculous because it's one of those quizzes where you clearly know which answer is "right" before you answer it. Who wouldn't try to be "win" the quiz and be the most optimistic ever? This compulsion to be all glass-half-full-ish was underscored by the fact that it was right next to an article in the paper about how optimists are more prevalent in society than pessimists and other studies that show that there are measurable health benefits to being optimistic. Of course, being the competitive person (and Canna ) that I am, I answered the questions in a manner that would guarantee that I was super-optimistic. Well, wouldn't you know it... if you read the whole article *before* you take the quiz, you find out at the end that being too optimistic is bad! Argh! Super-optimists don't plan ahead and rarely have a back up plan. While I struggled with the fact that this does in fact describe me to a T (feel sorry for C. August for being stuck with me and my unrealistic and naive optimism) I re-took the test and LIED so my results would make me just the right amount of optimistic. Clearly this is important because so much is riding on the results of this quiz. And the results will have an impact on who I fundamentally am. Duh.

The conclusion from all this quizzing? I am a bozo.

And as far as kitchen appliances, in C. August's case, he is both a microwave and a refrigerator. God how I love him.

Lynne said...

Oh yes, I forgot - I took the quiz and am a snapdragon like Gus. I don't know why - I suppose because they couldn't come up with a sarcastic flower.

Mrs. C., it cracks me up that you retook the Optimism test and lied to get just the right amount of optimism! Being an optimist, I can relate. I am always concerned that I am just too naive to be a pessimist and strive to achieve the perfect optimistic attitude (without appearing like a Pollyanna).

C. August said...

So it sounds like I need to flesh out my Kitchen Appliance Quiz. There is clearly a strong demand for people to know where they stack up!

Jenn, that's a good point about the Meyers-Briggs connection. The structure of most of these quizzes seems to fit into a "Meyers-Briggs-lite" mode.

Monica, the really short quizzes that seem arbitrary are the ones I tend to ignore. I may take a minute to try them out if the topic seems funny, but I usually finish wondering why I wasted that 90 seconds of my life. I know, I'm a stick-in-the-mud. But the longer ones do tend, as Jenn alluded to with the Meyers-Briggs connection, to come out pretty close to accurate.

Though some of them do have that astrology, "mean anything to anybody" way about them.

LB, thanks for the Quizilla link. I figured there must be a "make your own" site out there. It may be worth checking out to see how the quizzes are created.

To my dear wife: I don't think it's bad that there are 5 Canna's in the house. Sophie the non-Canna dog can take the brunt of all of our sublime arrogance.

And I think I'm more fridge than microwave. I'm also part Espresso Machine:

You are set in your ways and take things very seriously. Many people find you bitter, but to those who know you, you are warm and engaging.