Pretty Much the Coolest Thing Ever: A Digital Quilt Project Update

You know that kid in college that always screwed up the curve with their smarts and whatnot? Well, in the land of Whitfield Awesome, that kid is Veronika. Check out the quilt she made using illustrations from my Digital Quilt Project. It's pretty much the coolest thing ever.

Confession: I'm behind on illustrations. I just completed the one below and I plan to knock out quite a few this weekend. If you haven't submitted a word or phrase yet...go to here! Or read more info here! Or see all the illustrations here!

Nontraditional traditionalist. Or whatever.

Clora here is obviously a type 3 - must be impressive and attractive to survive.

Hello. My name is Jen. And I love personality tests. My coworkers and I all took this Enneagram test and will be discussing the results/how to work effectively as a team of humans later this week in a personality workshop.

The Enneagram divides human personality into nine behavioral tendencies. Ideally the results of the test reveal a main personality type that is quite dominant. I took the test three times, on three different days (which tells you a little something about my personality) and got the same results each time...two different types within two (2!) points of one another. Type 4 (individualism) just edges out type 1 (perfectionism).

Type 4 (The Eccentric) - must be unique to survive, romanticize differentness, edgy, creative/artistic, intuitive, authentic, nontraditional,  revolutionary, non-conformist, peculiar, abstract, alternative, experimental, complex, random, attracted to the mysterious,  prone to excess, intense, mystical 

Type 1 (The Dutiful Worker) - must be perfect to survive, obsessive compulsive, attention to detail, focused on the narrow, ethical, hard-working, orderly, traditional, prefers structure, disciplined, practical, cautious, logical, goal-oriented, success-driven, achiever, prefers routine

So basically, I don't make sense. Tell you something you don't already know, right?

Have you taken the test? If not, go to there. What's your type?

P.S. I'm also an INFJ.

Touché Tuesday Advice Column

Need some Whitfield Awesome advice (about anything)? Fill out this form.   

This is the space where some really terrible advice for you could be.

The concentration camp formerly known as my stomach.

On this week's episode of Jen Does Dumb Things So You Don't Have To - The 3-Day Military Diet.

Have you heard about the 3-Day Military Diet? Apparently it's been going in and out of style since the eighties. Lately I have gotten way off track on my low carb diet. I was hoping 3DMD would help jump-start me. I followed the diet exactly. I even ate the grapefruit, which I find to be one of God's most vile creations. I can't not make faces while I eat it. And I feel like I'm going to cry the entire time. It took me a full hour to eat half of a stupid grapefruit. On the plus side, the rest of the diet sounded really easy after that. 

While we're talking gross, let's talk cottage cheese. Almost EVERY time I am eating cottage cheese and get about half way through, I sort of panic. I think "this cottage cheese is old. It's old and I'm probably going to die after eating it." But I usually don't die (never say never). The only way I enjoy cottage cheese is with tomatoes. There are no tomatoes on the military diet. 0 tomatoes + 0.5 grapefruit = not right.

Also, there aren't many feelings lower than counting out five saltines to go with your boiled egg and cup of cottage cheese for lunch. But don't worry, I redeemed myself Saturday at a church lady progressive dinner. Bean dip, creamy grape salad, shrimp and cheese grits and fudge. And cheesecake. And whipped cream that was supposed to go on something but I just put it on my tongue.

Guess how much weight I lost!!! 0.00 pounds. The diet was really easy to follow. I didn't feel hungry much between meals and I might just start eating meals like those SOME of the time. But I obviously won't be doing the diet again given it's lack of results.

What dumb things have you done lately? Make me feel better about my poor decisions. Please.

Discipline. The only thing grapefruit is good for:

Obsession Confession Sunday: Mad About Mad Men

Five Mad Men-esque things I'm currently obsessed with:

Coulda been my career.

1. Advertising/business. I have a degree in advertising. I fell into making the internet by accident and made a career of it. I once thought I would work in an ad agency, preferably making billboards. 
2. The clothes. Oh my. The clothes. I need Joan's wardrobe.
3. The furniture. I'd like to refurnish my house with Mad Men set pieces.
4. Peggy. Sometimes she's awful. Sometimes she's inspiring. But aren't we all that way.
5. The cigarettes. I'm pretty sure I have contracted lung cancer through the television now. 

What are you watching?

Touché Tuesday Advice Column: That Thing You Do

Need some Whitfield Awesome advice (about anything)? Fill out this form.  

Chadwick likes to collect hot sauces and pretend to be Joy Behar.

Dear Jen,
Someone I met for the first time today asked me the question, "What do you like to do?". I froze. It's not that I don't like to do things, I do, it's just...how do you answer that question. I'm a stay at home wife (and happy about it), jobless (and happy about it), and childless (and happy about it). It's not that I sit around doing nothing either (okay, sometimes I do...). But I'm new to the area, and have been occupying my days cleaning, unpacking, organizing our apartment, and occasionally checking out the town.

My go-to answer is "I love to cook", which I do, but then people have these expectations of me being the modern Julia Childs (Happy Belated B-day Jules!). That's cool and all, but I don't hold a wonky whisk to Julia.

Maybe it's me being self conscious and worried that my single answer to this question will define me and lead to peoples disappointment in me down the road.What do you think? And how would you answer this question if a new acquaintance asked?
Frustrated, Likable Lisa

Dear L.L.,
Well...my answer just changed to "I like to daydream about being Likeable Lisa". When asked this question, I usually just say whatever comes to mind first. It's often pretty lame. Like "watch TV" or "count opossums" or "think about how much more fun it is to say opossum when you pronounce the o." Lately my go to answer has been "I like to blog/write and make dumb illustrations". 

I understand the nagging feeling of letting folks down - it's likely the reason I don't always give a serious answer. I think sometimes we just need to stop and remind ourselves that liking to do something doesn't mean that we must be experts. That expectation is self-imposed and probably not racing through the minds of passing conversationalists. So do your thang, girl. And be proud of it. I'm certain you're better at it than you give yourself credit for.
♥Jen

I'm not dead.

Hey kids, guess who is still alive...me. Barely.
   

 
As you may know, I started a new job last week. I am now a web geek for the marketing department in a hospital. It involves coding classic ASP, a normal work environment and giving a crap - three things I haven't dealt with in quite a while. And I pretty much love it. But. I'm so insanely tired. My commute is a bit longer and I actually have to show up on time and NOT skip lunch to leave early (my last job was pretty really, really flexible with time). I've been sort of zombie-fied every night. This was convenient while I was boarded up for Hurricane Isaac. Not so convenient for the ole blog. (Yes, I fully understand how lame this sounds.)

I did, however, find the time and energy to...

• dream about Neal Patrick Harris. I made him feel me up. Shamu was watching. They both cried. I'm having trouble finding this in the dream dictionary. 
• start watching Mad Men. How have I not been watching this show?
• discover that when I ignore my Google Reader account for a week, it stacks up with 1000+ posts.
• eat more peanut butter m&ms than I will ever admit to.

I should be back to my regularly scheduled features and random oddities next week. Anything new and tiring going on with yous guys?