Identifying My Strengths

Listening to: John Mayer - Gravity

I recently took a class on being a self-leader in the workplace. The class wasn't all that exciting but I received a few good points from it so I guess it was a good class. I learned more about identifying my strengths which really leads to identifying my natural talents. The presenters only summarized the issue and made me curious, I had to take the next step. Recently, I talked about leadership and responsibility with my manager who recommended a book to me entitled Now, Discover Your Strengths. I felt inspired from the class and from the talk with my manager so I spent $15 and bought the book which came with a great tool for identifying my talents. The survey consisted of 168 questions that asked me to rank my point of view on a certain situation. Afterwards, it listed my five main strengths. At this point I felt like I was taking a self-help test in a therapists office so I really didn't have any faith that it would be accurate. I read through the descriptions and felt some of them fit me but that they were off a bit. As I continued to read the book, it mentioned that the five themes resulting from the survey shouldn't be looked at as separate entities but instead built off one another. It was then that I compiled a few sentences summarizing each strength into one paragraph:

I am a problem solver who takes ownership of my commitments. I am honest and loyal and don't enjoy conflict. Alternately, I seek areas of agreement as well as treating everyone equally. Also, I work hard and take great satisfaction from being busy and productive. Lastly, I have a craving to know more and enjoy collecting and archiving all kinds of information.

Oddly enough, that does really sound like me...kind of crazy that a survey could summarize my strengths like that. Also, it's peculiar that the last point in the paragraph wasn't included as one of my five themes but I felt very strongly that it should. What do you think? Does that sum me up?



To try something fun and new, I'll recap my weekend in a stream of thoughts:

Fun, relaxing, sleep, Michelle, The Great Burrito, incredible Mexican food, entourage, entertainment, humor, closeness, Texas BBQ, pulled pork sandwich, central park, walking, playing, double Jamba juice, exploring, midtown, Moma, art, creativity, Picasso, Monet and snow!

Now for some more snow pictures! :) Be sure to check out the rest on my flickr page, there are lots!

Snow Snow Snow - Wintery Goodness

Listening to: Howie Day - Be There

I'll be eating a homemade chocolate covered banana while writing the first part of this entry. They have become a tasty treat of mine that are very simple to make. However, after this past weekend I shouldn't have anymore sweets for the rest of the year. I think getting Michelle a giant heart shaped cookie-cake from Mrs. Fields was a very bad idea... It was sooo good at the time though and I've been enjoying it the entire weekend. Michelle ate a few pieces but I admit that I did the most damage. Every time I went into the kitchen I would slice off a piece of the pie and little by little I made my mark. I'm guilty as charged. Another sinful treat was the chocolate covered strawberries I made for Michelle. I bought some ghiradelli dark chocolate and pulled a recipe from foodnetwork.com and went to town. They turned out really well!! What made them even tastier was some champagne I picked up that turned out to be very good for the price.



A very fun experience Michelle and I had was going to the play Avenue Q. We tried a few weeks ago to get lottery tickets but didn't get any. This time we lucked out and Michelle's name was chosen first from the big bucket of names. We were both really excited about getting front row seats for only $20 each. It was my first Broadway show too and what a show it was...SO FUNNY!!!! We both had a great time and are going to try to get tickets for Wicked next weekend. :) Overall, Michelle and I had a great weekend in the city together. Although we didn't do a ton of stuff it was still fun to hang around the apartment and stay out of the cold. We made some yummy food too and I just had an all around good time. --Thanks for making the trek down here sweetie!--



So on the the title...there's been snow on the ground for the past week and it's been very exciting. It's cool to see white covered cars, trees, patches of street (although most of it is an ugly brown by now) and it's stayed cold enough so the snow hasn't melted. Warmer temps are predicted for the coming week so I set out today to get some pictures of central park before the white blanket disappeared. When I first arrived it was such a breathtaking sight...the entire park was as white as could be except for a few paths carved out. It was amazing and gorgeous and great for pictures. I loved walking through the cold, snowy fields and just feeling winter all around me! This is what I was waiting for the whole year and it was hard to take it all in. I tried to capture some of what I witnessed but I messed up the settings on my camera so a lot of the pictures came out grainy or too light. For the techies, my ISO was set too high and the exposure was too long so the pictures were blurring and grainy. I snapped a couple of good ones though as long as you don't zoom it all the way.



I've been playing a lot of guitar lately and it feels so good! I love jamming with my electric on Guitar Rig. It's probably one of the best pieces of software I have and it makes the guitar experience so much richer. There are hundreds of settings and thousands of combinations to choose from...it never gets boring. I've been trying to record some new stuff but Sonar has been giving me problems lately (it's the software I use to record). I recorded some long solo's just for fun but they are just too raw, there's lot of mistakes and switching...it's basically just 9 minutes of experimenting which nobody wants to listen to, haha.



Without further ado...

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Missing in Action

Listening to: Howie Day - Don't Panic

Don't worry, I'm not dead...just really lazy. :)

My Addiction to Chocolate

Listening to: The Killers - When You Were Young

I'm not going to lie, I'm in love with the chocolately goodness that resides in the most decadent of treats. I'm a fan of the dark, the creamy and the irresistibly delicious scent of cocoa wafting in the air. The most dangerous provider of my sinfully wondrous addiction is a patisserie called Financier. With three convenient locations in Manhattan all of which are dangerously located near my office, it is known as the house of sinful indulgence.



Today I succumbed to the ever dangerous white & dark chocolate layered mousse cake. I witnessed its true power as I am now incapacitated by its richness. I am sitting here breathing heavily from dark chocolate blow this dessert has dealt me. Never again...but we both know the day will come again. =)

Listening to: Fading sounds of Incubus ringing in my ears

WOOOOW!!! WHAT AN AMAZING SHOW!!!! Incubus was simply incredible. They played a ton of great songs with a spectacular light show to complement the set. The crowd was high energy which made it all the better because the band really picked up that vibe. Let's start from the beginning though...



I arrived at Hammerstein Ballroom, 34th st between 8th and 9th ave. At first it didn't look like there was a line to get in but oooohh was I wrong on that one. The line kept going and going and going...until finally I had almost made a full circle around the block...ridiculous! Now for some reference. My friend Eliot was supposed to go to the show with me but he was really sick and couldn't go...great! I emailed all my friends to see if anyone was interested but no dice. I've gone to a couple of shows alone, when I REALLY wanted to see the band and this was another one of those occurrences.



So I tried to ready myself for seeing a concert alone...the problem is it's boring when you don't have anyone to talk to. I decided to step out of my shell and be extroverted for the night. When I arrived at the back of the line I talked to this guy and girl from long island who both went to school at Stony Brook. They weren't very responsive but I didn't take it badly, I just separated from them when we through the doors to find a more lively bunch.



This venue was HUGE. The floor was massive and it was only about ¼ full at the time I came in. I made my way up to the middle of the floor and parked myself next to a group of four. I wanted to chat with them but I couldn't hear anything they were saying. After about 10 minutes they stopped talking and I asked the front guy if he'd seen Incubus before. He said he'd seen them 5 times and that started a whole conversation which led to me having people to talk to for the hour we had to wait before the show started. Two of the people were from Philadelphia and the other two went to Rutgers. It was very cool talking to them throughout the show and one of them even liked Phantom Planet!



On to the show...the opener Albert Hammond Jr. was really good. I downloaded his stuff last night and listened to it all day. I really dig his music and he's actually from NY so he plays around here a lot. I liked a lot of his riff's and the lead guitarist could rip it up although he only saved it for the end of the set.



Incubus came on and played Quicksand which transitions into Kiss to Send Me Off. I loved the way those two songs mix into each other...brilliant!! The light show was awesome and I tried to capture some of it with my camera but it just couldn't get enough light. That made me think about what I'd learned with my new camera. I turned the ISO (sensitivity to light) all the way up and turned continuous mode on. The combination of those made it easier to take a bunch of pictures very quickly and hope that one of them turns out. They come out grainier but at least they're not blurry.













Have I said the set was incredible yet? In the middle, Brandon and Mike sent the guys off and played Pardon Me and Drive acoustic...it was so amazing it's hard to fit it into words. They played some of my favorites which included Dig, Anna Molly, Wish You Were Here, Paper Shoes, Circles, Sick Sad Little World and many more off Morning View...honestly I'm drawing a blank because I'm still getting over the shock and fatigue of seeing them live. It was definitely worth it though. What an experience and adventure!