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Jeffster Illustrates the Artisan Temperament

Jeffster

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What thread did these two quotes come from? I love them!

If you click on the little blue arrow next to my name in the quote, it will take you right to the thread it comes from. Hopefully anybody reading this topic will do that some, and see the context of some of these quotes. :)
 

sarah

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If you click on the little blue arrow next to my name in the quote, it will take you right to the thread it comes from. Hopefully anybody reading this topic will do that some, and see the context of some of these quotes. :)

Wh.... I had NO idea there was even that function. Wow, that totally improves my ability to read and follow conversations on this list. Thanks, Jeffster!

Sarah
 

Cimarron

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I forgot about that thing, too. Haha, Jeff rules.
 

Jeffster

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bumpity bump bump bumpity bump...


The Interests of Artisans


Arts and Crafts



Here's your music for today's lesson

"Art and music are pretty much my favorite things in life.........besides video games." -- my son Morgan


"In school Artisans tend to be interested in artcrafts, where they can practice the required techniques. SPs can appear to be dull, and even bored, when asked to study business (particularly clerical matters), or the humanities, or science and technology, but give them the opportunity to practice any of the arts or crafts and watch them shine. Parents and teachers only rarely give SP children permission, or opportunity, to follow their artistic interests..."

Kindergarten - We had these "stations" that we could choose different activities from. I remember there were two different ones that had blocks, there was a store replica type thing where you could exchange play money for goods, girls dress-up area, etc. I largely ignored all those other stations and spent my time in the "listening center." That was where we could listen to records, some music, some stories, but I would put the headphones on and listen for as long as I was allowed to. My teacher even had to have a talk with me about mixing things up and trying some of the other areas, but if I did so it was only reluctantly, as the art of sound was what really made me happy.

First grade - I got my first taste of acting, as I won the part of Santa Claus and first learned the thrill of performing a part in front of an audience. I had only one official performance, and I had come down with the flu prior to the day we were due to present our show, but I came to school just to play my part, as there was no way after going through the rehearsals and what led up to it, that I was going to miss my chance to perform for real.


Third grade - Our music class did "Alice In Wonderland", so I got my first role in a musical. I was the Dormouse, and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle.." The two main things I remember about that show were the elaborate costume that my grandmother made for me, and the fact that I didn't sing loud enough and people said they couldn't hear me. We only did two performances that time, so I was devastated that I didn't get more opportunity to go back out there and perform better. I never really have been a fan of musicals. ;)

Despite that, I did join the church choir around the same time, and even though I didn't particularly enjoy most of the songs we sang, I did like a few, and I definitely got into my performances, when I could get over the annoyance of the younger girls in the choir who were always giggling and acting silly when here I was, trying to take this oh-so-seriously because it was important to me. :alttongue:

Sixth grade - Headed to middle school, and we had a choice of elective class, it could be Band, Choir, or Art/General Music. My first choice was Band. My older brother had been in Band the year before, playing the flute. I didn't want to copy him, though, I wanted to play a different instrument. My parents quickly shot down this idea though, as my dad said the purchase and care of the instrument was too expensive, and I wasn't responsible enough, and my mom said I had "never shown any interest in band before but had shown talent for choir!" :steam: With my parents not allowing me to do Band, at least I could take the Art/Music class, as I was sick of Choir, but noooo, my mom refused that too, with some ridiculous thing about how that class was what the "low class" kids were in. :wtf:
So, I spent a miserable year in Choir, getting harassed by a bully that stood behind me on the risers, and hearing stupid jokes about the teacher being my mom because we had the same last name. So, yeah, I know all about that "parents not giving their kids permission or opportunity to follow their artistic interests."

In Eighth grade - finally got to be in art class, and we did some fun stuff such as painting in the dark, and glitter art and various other activities, but I remember more all the times we had to line up and walk silently around the halls because people were talking too much in class. This was one of those deals where I'd have been much happier working alone on the art projects we were given, and not have to deal with all the distractions from the people who were just in the class because they thought it was an easy grade, and didn't care about art at all.


"Remember, however, that artcraft must not be limited to the so-called fine arts, such as painting, sculpture, or the performing arts such as music and dance, but in fact includes the athletic, culinary, literary, martial, mechanical, theatrical, and industrial arts, not to mention what Donald Trump called the "Art of the Deal" in big business. Artisans have a natural ability to excel in any of these arts-- a Pete Sampras service game in tennis or a Chuck Yeager supersonic test flight is just as artistic as a Rembrandt painting or a Beethoven symphony."


In 8th grade - I was in a class called Introduction to Industrial Technology. It started out incredibly boring, as we had to do drafting, which not only did I have no interest in, but I was terrible at, mostly due to my inability to copy things from just the visuals put on the chalkboard by the teacher. I'm a hands-on learner, and don't do well at copying from a visual. There was one really exciting project we got to work on, though. We divided into groups and had to write and record on camera a newscast to broadcast to the class. I took it seriously, as it was a chance to create something cool, but unfortunately our one day we got to use the equipment for real to record, other people in the group kept screwing up and laughing and stuff and we didn't get most of it finished, and thus failed. But I did get a chance to do some broadcasting work, sort of, so it whetted my appetite for future opportunities.

Also in 8th grade, I was in my first drama/theatre class, I remember a play called "The Substitute" that was really fun, it was more like a series of monologues, and I was Mr. Cotton, the old and tired teacher who just tells the class not to wake him up and everything will be fine. That part was my first experience in old age makeup, something I found myself doing a lot, as I seemed to end up being cast as "the old guy" in many shows.

As for the athletic arts, I tried my hand at basketball, flag football, baseball, and tennis, but the sport I played the longest and got the best at was soccer. I became a defensive specialist and took pride in my ability to not let the opposing team get a chance for a shot on goal. I played soccer through my freshman year in high school, but my struggles with math would end up being my downfall, because I failed Algebra and thus missed the bulk of the soccer season as I was academically ineligible. This was another case of people in authority denying my opportunities, as a completely unrelated (and useless to me) subject prevented me from pursuing something I actually had talent in.

Drama I continued to be involved in, and all the more after quitting soccer, it was my main opportunity to sink myself into artistic action. Beyond the school drama activities, I got involved in community theatre performances, starting as a crew member and then auditioning and winning a part in a play that my father was the assistant director for. I went on to more roles, including some pretty major ones, for both my high school drama class - including the one-act play competition, as well as writing and directing my own play, and the community theater, but sadly not much after finishing high school, as I got into other things, and when my itch to act again would return, I was saddled with the responsibilities of work and parenting. I haven't given up on the idea of doing it some more though.

My junior year of high school - I took broadcast journalism, and now this was starting to really get into what I felt like would be my career. In the fall, I got the role of the color commentator on our broadcasts of the varsity football team's games. And as we headed to the playoffs and all the way to the state championship game, I got quite a bit of opportunity to hone my skills. The play-by-play guy quit, and thus for a few games I had to carry the whole broadcast as the sole commentator, getting my stats and info ready so as to have something to blab about on the air as I went, but then once again, changing things up, ad-libbing and going with it, caught up in the thrill of the game and the art of the announcing, using whatever I could come up with to give the best performance possible. I still have one of those playoff games I did solo recorded, and it's fun to pull that video tape out from time to time and watch it, and re-live the fun and the excitement of doing something I love. :)


It was also in high school that I began writing poetry. It became my number one outlet for all the crazy thoughts and feelings rushing through my teenage head about love and lust, and anger and violence, and growing up and learning about anything and everything, and feeling like I knew everything and nothing at the same time. My writing style was almost always lyrical, and a lot of the time very much just brain-dumping, with no plan of theme or structure, just pouring out what was inside me onto the page, feeling deeply whatever emotions I was experiencing, and pumping the adrenaline just as much sitting by myself in a room writing as I would performing on stage or on the soccer field, or with the microphone sitting in the cold rain on the bleachers at a football game when they ran out of room in the press box.

I kept up my writing after high school, as I started college, as I dropped out of college, and well into my working life, though it dropped off dramatically after I became a parent. I found myself for whatever reason not forming the ideas that made good poems or songs as much, although I probably never entirely stopped coming up with them, they just came a lot less frequently as I struggled with the duties of parenting, and used my artistic talents in other areas.

My interest in radio started as a young child, and in the two summers between my last two years of high school, I worked as a volunteer DJ at Texas A&M's student-run radio station. It was cool because I got to play whatever I wanted pretty much, and hone my voice and announcing skills (as well as my ability to cue everything up properly and follow the clock for the timing of things like PSA carts and such.) Though I never got a professional radio announcing job, I came close in the fall of 2001 when I got the job of writing the weekly top 20 countdown show for an internet-only radio station. The producer was in talks with the network, American Family Radio, to get the show broadcast on several hundred stations weekly, but the management company that owned the station went out of business and thus my dream of having this be the start of a successful radio career ended.

But I continued to independently work on projects like my own countdown shows, and I edited CDs of shows or music both for other people and for myself, I traded with other countdown collectors and have amassed a collection of over 2000 shows, mostly American Top 40, but some other shows as well. As of writing this, I have all but around 20 of the AT40 shows hosted by Shadoe Stevens from 1988 to 1995.

In addition to shows, I also worked on creating my own ideas for radio formats, working on song logs and format basics, following the trends in radio but paving my own way just for the fun of it, but also to be prepared should I ever get the chance to use my knowledge in the actual field for real.

At work, the wall of my office is a sort of collage of collected materials, some given to me, some that I made myself. I doodle on sticky notes, I write television reviews, heck even the posts I make on this forum are an artform in themselves. :cheese: Using those "free variables" of the next action to create and share, this has been my driving force for as long as I can remember, and continues to be today.

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Stay tuned for a special guest contribution! :)
 

Jeffster

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Here's some more on the topic from our friend, Sarah! Yaaaaaaay! :cheese:

Sarah said:
I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in making things with my hands for the purpose of delighting other people with what I'd made. It's been my hobby ever since I was old enough to hold a crayon and use scissors. Although I loved to draw for fun, the main reason I created was in order to give my family a constant stream of little gifts -- drawings, "I love you" cards (I was obsessed with making love notes for family members when I was little), bookmarks, little homemade gifts out of materials like yarn bits, fabric bits, paper towel tubes, etc. that would be just thrown out otherwise. I also gave select friends gifts of stuff I'd made for them, often as a surprise.

As Keirsey says in his chapter on SPs, I was always very good at "jerry-rigging" when it came to creating things to play with. Even though I had plenty of toys, I preferred the toys that were more open-ended, and also supplies like fabric bits, yarn, cardboard boxes, construction paper, etc, that could be used to create something new out of. Aside from certain cherished stuffed animals, my favorite things to play with were usually raw materials that could be used to create something new. I also created out of supplies already on hand, as opposed to planning a project out in advance and buying supplies specific to the craft. Most of what I did involved inventing my own ways of making things as opposed to getting into craft activities that required that I follow directions (I absolutely HATED step-by-step directions!) or following a pattern. If I couldn't make up my own designs, then it wasn't fun.

I also very much fit the definition of "Improvisor" in that I created a lot of stuff I played with out of scrap materials simply because that was what was available to me. For example, whereas my SJ older sister saved up her money to buy nice wooden dollhouse furniture, because I never saved anything, (I was a total spender rather than a saver!) my dollhouse featured furniture created out of construction paper, cardboard, paint and Lincoln Logs glued together. The people living in the dollhouse were made of toilet paper tubes, yarn and pipe cleaner, and I made them clothing out of fabric scraps.

As far as all my art and craft projects went, I mostly improvised with materials I had on hand, putting things together in inventive ways that involved playing around with the materials, finding out through first-hand experience the limits of the materials and what all they could be used for.

As for fine art, when I was around 8 years old, my sister and I took a community ed art class for kids for several months. I was thrilled that the teacher showed just as much if not MORE interst in what I was doing than in what other kids were doing, which made me feel important. I tended to worship my older sister in most aspects of our lives, but I felt that with art and craft projects, I could actually do things she would envy, which I have to say was a huge self-esteem boost.

When I was 12 years old, some friend of my parents heard that I enjoyed drawing, and she gave me a used copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards, that teaches you the contour method of drawing. I started reading it and doing some of the recommended exercises and was hooked. From that time on, I was obsessed with drawing in order to really SEE reality for what it is, instead of drawing idealized pictures of unrealistic stuff. I think at that point in my life, I'd already picked out a college major, even though I was only in 7th grade. Art wasn't my only interest, and I dabbled in a number of different crafts too, but it was important to me. At that point in my life, because I hated the 1980s fashions that were popular when I was a young teenager and really adored the whole 1920s historical period because I'm tiny, "cute" and flat-chested (hey, a girl's gotta celebrate what she's got, right? ) I got into sewing clothing without using standardized patterns -- I learned some basic sewing methods from books and from my mom and created my own fashions (some of which didn't actually look so great on me, and made me look "artsy" and "bohemian" at best but not exactly desirable to the opposite sex -- but hey, at least I had fun.)

So, a lot of my time from early childhood up until adolescence was spent happily tuning out other people, playing around with materials and creating things with them either to play with or give away as gifts. I can't stress enough that it was a HUGE DEAL for me to give my creations away as gifts to people, because I loved seeing other kids' faces light up when they got something they really admired that I'd made.
Once I hit my teenage years, I began to really want to express my feelings through drawing in particular, and I completely fell in love with the whole "natural way to draw" Kimon Nicolaides/Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain stuff.

And I later went on to major in fine art in college. A lot of my art was very feeling-oriented -- mostly visual narratives that were intended to evoke feelings in viewers, sometimes disturbing feelings of being confined or anxious, other times feelings of contentment, release, joy, etc. One of my art professors once told me he my art was too "voyeuristic" in that he thought I was forcing people to experience my feelings and he preferred to remain detached -- now that I know more about cognitive processes, I can see how probably introverted feeling played a huge part in what subject matter I chose to draw, paint and make prints about, and why it was so feeling-oriented.

And what about nowadays? Well, when I left home permanently and got my first apartment, I had a lot of fun arranging the space and seeing what second-hand furniture I could transform with paint and new fabric and a little ingenuity so that it became a personal artistic statement for me. After college, I wasn't so much drawn to creating "fine art" (art that makes a statement about something deeply important to me) as I was to seeing everything in my life as a big ongoing artistic composition. I wanted everything I touched to evoke my personality and be unique and striking-looking. I've been doing that ever since. Six years ago, my husband and I bought a house that's about 100 years old, and it's been my ongoing project to transform the space into something really beautiful that honors its' innate nature but also speaks about who Greg and I are as people. Oh sure, I do some drawings every now and then, and I even bought myself some watercolors recently, thinking I'd get back into doing that sometime this year, but I never want to lose sight of the fact that I see all of my life as an art project, and that artistic expression is more than just creating something meaningful to me about how I feel about the world and recording it on paper (which was mostly what my college art was all about). Since my job involves working with children, I also have gotten into planning, presenting and promoting art programs in the library for kids (which my supervisors are happily pleased to have me do!), and that takes up a lot of creative energy and makes me feel excited and happy.

So, what do I love about art? Color, shape, texture and line have always excited me, and visual media is my favorite method of expressing how I feel about myself and what I experience. Although I'm told I can write well, I prefer to communicate kinesthetically and/or visually, and art satisfies that desire. Oddly enough, I have absolutely no interset in creating art in order to sell it. In fact, the idea of putting a price tag on my stuff totally leaves me cold, and I'd have a hard time doing that. I'd rather give specific people I love certain things I've created that I know they admire and love, and being generous makes me happy. (I suppose this also relates to the Keirsey description of Artisans as wanting very much to be generous givers, and spenders rather than savers...)

Sarah

Thanks so much for your contributions, Sarah! It was awesome to get another perspective on the greatness of art! :)

Next time, we'll talk about "Techniques." Stay tuned!
 

JRT

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I love this thread! Keep on postin' :thumbup:
 

lane777

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I usually get all pissy when people strain my attention span by writing more than 2 paragraphs, but I endured here. One of the most amusing threads I've read in a long time.
 

Jeffster

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The suspense is over! Class is back in session!! :jew: :D

Techniques

Here's today's musical background:

Yeah, huh? Or this one. You know, whatever. ;)

"Artisans don't spend much time worrying about morality or morale, and they have only a passing interest in devising technology (the concerns, respectively, of the Guardians, Idealists, and Rationals.) But they are always interested, even preoccupied, with the acquisition of technique. In regard to this distinction between SP technique and NT technology, it is necessary to understand that, although the two resemble each other in a superficial manner, they are fundamentally different. Both are derived from the root "tech" which means they have to do with effective building, but they are entirely different ways of building. Technology is the theoretical study of method, technique the empirical perfecting of method. And this is where the Artisans shine. No matter what the cost in time, energy, hardship, peril, or expense, they must perfect their repertoire of techniques."


Hey, if you're not cheating, you're not trying. And it's only cheating if you get caught.

Begin taking applications for "Jeffster of Love" reality show.

See, I hear people say that all the time, and I completely disagree. Movies are good for that exact reason. You don't have any pressure of trying to make awkward conversation. You spend time with someone and get a feel for their reactions to things. Make it a comedy, though. Too heavy stuff and you walk out all dazed. You can always go somewhere to talk after the movie. If it was good, you have something to start off talking about. If it sucked, you can talk about how terrible it is. You can compare to other movies you've seen, and the characters to people you each know in real life, and go from there. I have done this several times and it almost always went well. Bada bing.

I always say if there's a way to injure myself, I'll find it! :D

Yeah, it's much better to talk about our preferred weapons or the proper way to go about a riot at a basketball arena. ;)

Yeah, I mean you could start counting from the moment I "accidentally" drop a coin in her cleavage when walking by, and say "Oh! I'm so sorry, lemme get that for you!" :cool:

I WON MY FREE TICKETS FROM THE RADIO STATION!! :D

and it wasn't even by being a random caller like usual, I actually had to earn it by texting who is the Big 12 coach of the year and why in one sentence.

My winning entry:

"Mike Leach - because a crazy band of pirates from Lubbock is in contention for a national championship!"

:D

I've actually spent quite a bit of time worrying about morality, but then it seems ISFPs are more prone to that then the other Artisans. When it comes to techniques, though, reading this stuff was an eye-opener to me, just in the sense that I never really thought much about it before. Developing techniques in life has been something that just sort of happened from experience, not something I consciously focused on trying to do usually. Actually, it was the times that I DID focus on trying to do that when I usually failed miserably.

Acting, voice skills, writing, athletics, improvising in all areas, adapting and reacting to situations - a lot of the stuff we've already talked about before - these are the areas where I have learned and perfected techniques, almost always through trial and error.

One basic thing that comes to mind that I have improved on is my techniques with people on the phone at my office. I have been in the office since May 2005, and during that first year, I got caught by a scam that cost us money on toner for our copier/fax. What they would do is have one person call and say they were calling from "the copier company" and needed to check the model type on the copier. And also asked who was the one who ordered the printing supplies. Well, the first time it was somebody else who answered the phone and gave them that information, so when they called back, they asked for me. The story they gave was "the price of toner for your Toshiba 3200 (or whatever it was) is going up, but I can send you one more shipment at the old price." Not being aware of the fact that all of our toner is included in the monthly service contract that we have, I went ahead and agreed to the order of toner.

At that time our company president was still paying the bills herself, and when that invoice came across her desk, she paid it, so of course this "data systems" company realized they had a fish hooked so they were going to try it again. Armed with my new knowledge the next time, I would not fall for it, though. Now when someone calls and asks for the copier information, I ask them "what company are you with?" Usually the response is "your copier company", so I say "what company is that?" At that point, they hang up because they know they are not getting the scam over on me. Obviously, operations like that stay in business because there are a lot of companies where they talk to some receptionist that is clueless about how the supplies are paid for (as I was the first time) so they can easily convince someone who doesn't ask them enough questions.

I have saved myself a lot of time at work by learning better questions to ask telemarketers and other folks to quickly determine if the call is legitimate or not, and not have to go through a long time-wasting process before I can let it go. So the office phone area is one place I can see a real improvement in my technique.

When it comes to the stuff like drama, radio, internet role-playing, sports, all that stuff I talked about in the arts section, so much of it is timing. Learning to respond quickly to what is presented in the given situation is a trial-and-error process where you have to have some sort of response or tactic first even it's a lousy one, and you figure out what does and what doesn't work, and do your best to repeat the stuff that does. ;) Learning from each little missed opportunity, where you let the soccer ball get past you into the goal because you misread the movements of the striker, where next time you will see it just a little bit sooner, judge correctly and get a hand on the ball to knock it away before they can score. Where last time a joke fell flat because you ordered the words a little wrong or your timing was a bit too late, or you didn't have the right facial expression or vocal inflection, but you keep trying it and then you get it where you nail it every time. Heck, driving in traffic, where you keep missing your exit because you can't get over into the lane fast enough, maneuvering through the cars from left to right, but you learn the patterns and to read the cues to see the openings and then hell yeah not only did you make it there, you were smooth doing it too, so eat my dust!

Parenting is of course another area where techniques is a huge part of it. My son can be the annoying scam artist or the soccer striker, or the bad traffic, or the tough audience, and every day and every encounter and situation is an opportunity to learn which buttons to push, which rewards and punishments and responses yield the best response, and which are best not to try again. I had to learn there are times when the most effective reprimand is silence, and times when the point needs to be made vocally and sometimes loudly. It's like a sports coach who has to know when to get in his player's faces to motivate, and when to back off a bit and let them find their own motivations based on their own desires for success. My son is a very intelligent 9-year-old, and most likely another Artisan, and I know full well from my own experience, that too much in-your-face and he is simply going to tune it out or be more determined to act to get a negative reaction. I have to be able to let him see the consequences of his own actions sometimes, and let him be the one that takes the proactive position to make a situation change by altering his tactic.

Next up, we'll talk about the tools of the trade, i.e. equipment. :)
 
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Jeffster

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Equipment

Here's some music to listen to


"Artisans are happiest when working with any and all sorts of equipment. Apparatus, implements, machines, and instruments captivate them; they are things to be used -- employed, deployed -- and the SPs cannot not operate them. They must drive the bulldozer, pilot the plane, steer the boat, fire the gun, toot the horn, wield the scalpel, brush or chisel. Something about equipment strikes a chord in the character of the SPs, extending the reach, augmenting, amplifying, and sharpening the effects of many of the techniques they increasingly acquire and perfect."


When I was a little kid, one of my first cherished toys was a little rubber Fisher Price dump truck, mostly yellow with blue wheels and an orange bed that I would load up with whatever other little toys and materials that would fit inside, drive the truck to some other destination in my room and dump the contents out. It could keep me occupied for quite awhile, collecting various things to load and dump all around the room, it was probably the first time I got a taste of power or control, really having the ability to make something happen of my own design.

dumptruckcake.jpg


No, that's not what it looked like, but I'm not going to look through more than 12 pages of google images to find something closer. ;)

I remember I also loved clocks. I had a fascination with the different kinds of clocks, and I had a plastic toy owl clock that I loved to play with, moving the numbers and hands around. I also had one of those calendars where it's cardboard with numbers and special holiday squares that you stuck in the spots to make the months. I would put those in and take them out, over and over for long periods of time, experimenting with all the different ways the calendar could be set up.

As I got older I moved on to record players, tape decks and the first of my real lifelong loves, the radio. As much as I've always loved music, the radio and the tape players and record players weren't just sources of music to me, they were equipment to test and manipulate and tinker with and utilize in my own way, with my own methods, with whatever creative stamp I could put on them and amuse and entertain myself or others with. Of course, when I got a clock radio for Christmas one year, that was the greatest invention ever, as it combined two of my childhood loves into one awesomely adaptable and usable piece of fascinating equipment. :D

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I also played all kinds of sports as a kid, which of course brings its own slew of equipment, from bats to balls to gloves to sticks, racquets and hoops, and I got creative in this department too. Although I played team sports with other kids - soccer for 10 years, little league baseball, basketball, floor hockey, and a little flag football, I didn't limit myself to only playing in scheduled games with others, as my hunger for athletic action wouldn't always wait for sanctioned arenas and even the limits of my own observable ability. At home, both inside and outside, I played and created, with whatever equipment and whatever methods were at my disposal. Football season would be split between playing outside with an actual football in my yard, using two sets of two pine trees as my opposing goal posts when fieldgoals and extra points were tried, and inside where I sometimes used soft foam footballs but also would use a plastic orange halloween pumpkin with a hole in it meant for party favors, that served as pretty much whatever ball I needed in whatever sport I was playing.

Most sports were pretty easy to play in my room by myself, as the pumpkin could be slapped back and forth between my spread out hands for tennis and pitched and hit (with me holding onto it) across my room for baseball, and passed across my room to myself in football (this one I tried when I could to save for when my dad wasn't home because he would get mad at me for continually hitting the floor whenever I tackled myself.) Basketball actually required a bit more homemade equipment, as I actually had to have a makeshift hoop, so I usually used a small trash can which I would line with soft enough stuff that it wouldn't make too loud a noise when it landed in the can on a long shot. Of course this was the game that was the hardest to control, as I could miss a lot and the hard plastic pumpkin could go flying, hitting various things around the room including, yes, windows. (I had the pumpkin taken away from me a few times but I always managed to get it back. ;))

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Legos and erector sets, toy weapons of all sorts, model rockets, bicycles, power tools for things like shaping a block of wood into a toy car, fishing rods, camping equipment, cooking equipment, all just more examples of the stuff I utilized growing up.

Along with the radio and musical stuff, my other main lifelong love has been anything to do with cars, roads, and driving. Not the mechanical repair work stuff, but pretty much everything else having to do with them. The dump truck and baby-type cars gave way to Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, and a rubber mat with roads and streets on it that I drove many a toy car through, imagining it as all sorts of different towns and counties and states. When we took real trips in the family car, I loved to trace our route on a map, and wonder about all the other roads that we didn't take, and where they went, and how I'd love to drive them. So when I finally got my own car, it was only so long before my desire to hit the open road and explore could no longer be contained. And my two greatest equipment-loves would come together as I could operate all the switches and levers and pedals and buttons to keep the car in motion, and I could also operate the radio and the tape deck to tune in the different radio stations or play the tunes to create the soundtrack of my travels. :)

All through childhood, we had computers and various video game systems in the home too, and as an adult when I got my own home computer, and especially when I got internet access, that equipment carried with it all sorts of new avenues for amusement and creativity, but that's another story....
 

Unique

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While this is all entertaining its very SFP not STP and we're still SPs don't you forget :p
 

Halla74

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While this is all entertaining its very SFP not STP and we're still SPs don't you forget :p

Muhaaa! LukePD strikes again! LOL! :D
 

Jeffster

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While this is all entertaining its very SFP not STP and we're still SPs don't you forget :p

Feel free to chime in with your STPness any time you want, dude. :yes:
 

Halla74

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Jeffster, your view into the SFP world is actually quite entertaining to ESTP me.

I am "F" retarded, I swear. :doh:
 

d@v3

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Wow, Jeff, this is interesting to read. :yes:
 

Jeffster

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I guess my point is you were trying to explain SPs as a whole

I wouldn't dream of it! ;)

I'm simply providing examples from my life of the different personality traits of SPs given in the book. I never claimed the examples would be all-encompassing. I can only write about what I know. That's why any other SP who wants to chime in with relevant stories to each topic is welcome to do so. If I tried to come up with every possible way each trait could be displayed, I'd take like 50 years to do it, and you and I both know I'd get tired of it long before then. :D
 

Unique

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I wouldn't dream of it! ;)

I'm simply providing examples from my life of the different personality traits of SPs given in the book. I never claimed the examples would be all-encompassing. I can only write about what I know. That's why any other SP who wants to chime in with relevant stories to each topic is welcome to do so. If I tried to come up with every possible way each trait could be displayed, I'd take like 50 years to do it, and you and I both know I'd get tired of it long before then. :D

Just what I got from the title of the thread... I take things very literally.
 
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