what we are vs what we have

In a conversation with a friend yesterday he chose a word to describe me, and I laughed, admitted that it might apply, but then commented that I didn’t think that the word would have made the list of top ten words I’d come up with if someone asked me to choose some to describe myself. (No, I don’t remember what word he used, but it doesn’t really matter in terms of the direction I plan to take this rambling bit of text.) He promptly countered by asking what 10 words I would use to describe myself. Therefore, after admitting that I’d likely come up with a different set if asked on a different day, I proceeded to choose ten descriptive words (again, I don’t remember what they all were, but ‘intelligent’ and ‘neat-freak’ both made the list). He then promptly asked “but are you happy?”

That question stopped me in my tracks—yes, I am happy and generally known as such, but I never would have thought to include it in a list of ten words describing myself. Why not? Because I see descriptions as being about what a person *is*, and emotions as being something a person *has*. Sure, in English, we use the phrase “I am happy” (or sad, or any other emotion one can name), but when I think about it, emotions are (or can be) fleeting things. They are a measure of how one feels at this very moment in time—a sum of one’s reactions to the stimulus one is exposed to. Expose a person to lots of good things and they are more likely to be happy. Expose a person to all of their pet peeves in quick succession, and they are likely to be annoyed, if not downright angry. Many of us have the capacity to run a whole gamut of emotions over the course of a day (or an hour) as we react to different circumstances.

Including an emotion in a description of a person, be it myself, or my perception of another would be akin to including what colour clothes they are wearing. One’s clothing colour today is helpful information if you are scanning a crowd looking for them, but there is no guarantee that it will be the same from one day to the next, and so has no place in a general description. Even those of us whose wardrobes contain a very limited colour pallet (can you say black and navy blue are always a good thing?) still have clothing in different colours, even if it is just because the older items have faded while the newer items are still at full dye saturation. While it is true that, some people experience one emotion so much more often than others that it might make sense to include that one in a description of them, I think that even people suffering from a broken heart or clinical depression still have happy moments now and again, and even people who are generally happy still see moments when enough of their pet peeves have been demonstrated in their presence to feel a flash of annoyance.

So, there you go, now you know why I don’t list emotions when asked to describe myself. Now, had he asked for ten words about how I feel…

what we are vs what we have

In a conversation with a friend yesterday he chose a word to describe me, and I laughed, admitted that it might apply, but then commented that I didn’t think that the word would have made the list of top ten words I’d come up with if someone asked me to choose some to describe myself. (No, I don’t remember what word he used, but it doesn’t really matter in terms of the direction I plan to take this rambling bit of text.) He promptly countered by asking what 10 words I would use to describe myself. Therefore, after admitting that I’d likely come up with a different set if asked on a different day, I proceeded to choose ten descriptive words (again, I don’t remember what they all were, but ‘intelligent’ and ‘neat-freak’ both made the list). He then promptly asked “but are you happy?”

That question stopped me in my tracks—yes, I am happy and generally known as such, but I never would have thought to include it in a list of ten words describing myself. Why not? Because I see descriptions as being about what a person *is*, and emotions as being something a person *has*. Sure, in English, we use the phrase “I am happy” (or sad, or any other emotion one can name), but when I think about it, emotions are (or can be) fleeting things. They are a measure of how one feels at this very moment in time—a sum of one’s reactions to the stimulus one is exposed to. Expose a person to lots of good things and they are more likely to be happy. Expose a person to all of their pet peeves in quick succession, and they are likely to be annoyed, if not downright angry. Many of us have the capacity to run a whole gamut of emotions over the course of a day (or an hour) as we react to different circumstances.

Including an emotion in a description of a person, be it myself, or my perception of another would be akin to including what colour clothes they are wearing. One’s clothing colour today is helpful information if you are scanning a crowd looking for them, but there is no guarantee that it will be the same from one day to the next, and so has no place in a general description. Even those of us whose wardrobes contain a very limited colour pallet (can you say black and navy blue are always a good thing?) still have clothing in different colours, even if it is just because the older items have faded while the newer items are still at full dye saturation. While it is true that, some people experience one emotion so much more often than others that it might make sense to include that one in a description of them, I think that even people suffering from a broken heart or clinical depression still have happy moments now and again, and even people who are generally happy still see moments when enough of their pet peeves have been demonstrated in their presence to feel a flash of annoyance.

So, there you go, now you know why I don’t list emotions when asked to describe myself. Now, had he asked for ten words about how I feel…

some work done this weekend

Today's work progress involved a couple of hours making new salt cylinders. This is a fun process that is essential to the experiments I run. I'd used up the last batch, so it was good that I finally got back to doing them.

In other progress I helped clovis_t finish up his cover letter, and that job has been applied for. This inspired me to play a bit more on LinkedIn for myself, adding more background details and finding more people I know there. It may be odd, but I actually enjoy all aspects of job searching, even the in-between needing jobs prep stuff, like this. It is fun to have a reason to talk about that subject I know best in the world: me and what I've done/learned/know. It is also fun to help others do that for themselves, to draw them out and get them thinking positively about what they have done/learned/know.

I had sort of planned to work on that paper today, too, but I was having so much fun with the other stuff it didn't happen. Ah well, I will write it when I'm ready. Perhaps tomorrow.

Tuesday I've got microprobe time again. Tomorrow I'd best polish the most recent experiment in the morning, so that the new coating of expoy it will need has time to dry.

some work done this weekend

Today's work progress involved a couple of hours making new salt cylinders. This is a fun process that is essential to the experiments I run. I'd used up the last batch, so it was good that I finally got back to doing them.

In other progress I helped clovis_t finish up his cover letter, and that job has been applied for. This inspired me to play a bit more on LinkedIn for myself, adding more background details and finding more people I know there. It may be odd, but I actually enjoy all aspects of job searching, even the in-between needing jobs prep stuff, like this. It is fun to have a reason to talk about that subject I know best in the world: me and what I've done/learned/know. It is also fun to help others do that for themselves, to draw them out and get them thinking positively about what they have done/learned/know.

I had sort of planned to work on that paper today, too, but I was having so much fun with the other stuff it didn't happen. Ah well, I will write it when I'm ready. Perhaps tomorrow.

Tuesday I've got microprobe time again. Tomorrow I'd best polish the most recent experiment in the morning, so that the new coating of expoy it will need has time to dry.