Youth.

All calculations set to one side;
The inevitable Descent from Heaven,
A visitation of memories and a seance of rhythms
Invades the house, my head,
And the world of the mind.

A horse leaps forward on suburban turf,
Past planted fields and stretches of woods
Misty with carbonic plague.
A wretched theatrical woman, somewhere in the world,
Sighs after an improbable indulgence.
Desperados lie dreaming of storm, and of wounds and debauch.
Along small streams the little children sit,
Stifling their curses.

Let us turn once more to our studies,
To the noise of insatiable movement
That forms and ferments in the masses.

photographs - denis darzacq
lyrics - brendan perry for dead can dance; adapted from arthur rimbaud

Severance.

Severance,
The birds of leaving call to us.
Yet here we stand
Endowed with the fear of flight.

Overland,
The winds of change consume the land.
While we remain
In the shadow of summers now past.

When all the leaves
Have fallen and turned to dust,
Will we remain
Entrenched within our ways?

Indifference,
The plague that moves throughout this land.
Omen signs
In the shapes of things to come.

(Brendan Perry)

The Carnival Is Over
(Brendan Perry)

Outside,
The storm clouds gathering
Move silently along the dusty boulevard
Where flowers, turning, crane
Their fragile necks
So they can in turn reach up
And kiss the sky
They're driven by a strange desire
Unseen by the human eye
Someone is calling
I remember when you held my hand
In the park we would play
When the circus came to town
"Over here...!"

Outside,
The circus gathering
Moves silently along the rainswept boulevard
The procession moves on, the shouting is over
The fabulous freaks are leaving town
They're driven by a strange desire
Unseen by the human eye
The carinval is over.

We sat and watched
As the moon rose again
For the very first time.

My results from tickle.com...

Visual Mathematician

You have a strong ability to process visual-spatial and mathematical information. These skills combined with your strengths in logic are what make you a Visual Mathematician.

You're able to understand patterns visually and in numbers. That means your mind can create a mental picture for any problem. In addition to that skill, you possess an intelligence that allows you to apply math to that picture, too. That helps you manipulate multiple parts of the picture (or problem) to come up with a solution. You have many skills that are critical to success and problem-solving. Your talents help you understand the "big picture," which is partly why people may turn to you for direction — especially in the workplace. You flourish in environments where tasks are clearly defined, and you are a whiz at improving processes and making things more efficient. Your ability to detect patterns and your skills in math and logic, make it natural for you to come up with ideas and theories that simplify processes for everyone.

Outside of work, Visual Mathematicians tend to do well at strategic activities like chess. It must be that ability to recognize patterns — both as they are and how they develop. Regardless of how you put your mind to use, you've got a great set of talents. You will be able to envision a clear path and calculate the risks, and more importantly, the rewards, of anything you take on.

---

Hmm, interesting. Seems true enough, as far as it goes. 

It also gave me an IQ score which is obviously unscientific and probably meaningless, which is why I omitted it from this post. There were 40 questions total and I got all 40 right. How can it possibly assign a specific score in that case? Where is my infinity sign?? Lol.

Anyways, that part doesn't interest me. But it got me thinking, if I got them all right, how can it pick just one of the personality types (out of the many I assume they have) to assign to me? Shouldn't I be equal in all of them?

I don't understand how their algorithms work, obviously. It's probably a load of BS anyway; it wasn't even timed like the old Stanford-Binet test. I did my best to answer quickly, mostly because the questions all seemed simple, but I could have taken all the time I wanted... unless it secretly keeps time and factors that into your score? It said nothing about that in the instructions, though. At best, that's deceptive and not good testing methodology.

Well, it all means nothing; as we know intuitively, each of us is unique and while you can loosely group people into types, the more detailed you try to categorize them, the more static there is - like trying to calculate the position of an electron in the cloud around the nucleus of an iron atom or something. At deeper levels, people show their truly unique features and distinguish themselves from all others, and it only increases in terms of diversity the 'deeper' you go.

It may be helpful to know one's general strengths and weaknesses on a very coarse scale; say, for those who want to get a job they'll be good at or choose an academic major they'll enjoy. But then if you're in one of those situations, you probably already know what your strengths are, because they will also be your interests! And you probably know what you suck at because you won't like it or have any interest in pursuing it.

And the more you try to refine it, the less accurate these sorts of tests become. I think of it as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle applied to sociology and psychology (personality). One day the science will back me up, trust me!

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I will try to do so more often starting... right... NOW.