Ownership

I have never had anything against dandelions, and I suppose I still don't but this summer when I looked out on the lawn and saw them blooming everywhere it kind of annoyed me and I thought “I can do something about that.” So I did. For the last two weeks I have spent between 15 and 25 minutes pulling dandelions out of the lawn. I'm surprised at how well it actually worked. When I started I stayed within a ten foot radius crawling around on my knees, last time I did it I spent quite a bit of the time walking around looking for them. Which brings me to two main points. First, small and simple things are effective, even just for a few minutes a day. Second: Ownership. Feeling ownership over something makes a big difference and that ownership can come from chance, or choice. Before when my Mom asked me to pick dandelions I did, but it was more just a chore than me actually caring how things would work out, and whether I got rid of them all or not. This time because I choose to care, I did. I find that to be the case in a lot of situations, it's kind of amazing what a difference it can make. When I feel ownership I tend to be more diligent, I care more, and I'm more responsible. So here are two other examples:

Toy Bank: My brother picked it out for me and gave it to me for Christmas when I was about seven. It makes me sad when my nieces and nephews make the door fall off or clog the coin chute, and other toys that we have around some equally old and equally remembered but never “mine” I don't care about quite as much.

Driving Across the Country with my Sister: I've driven (or perhaps more appropriately ridden) across the country numerous times but this time with my sister I did a little less than half the driving, I got one of the two hotel keys every night, and when I wasn't driving I was appeasing children or navigating. I felt more invested and more proud of it as an accomplishment than I have on other trips.

VAK

My brother let me borrow a book called Pushing Up the Sky by Lee Donaldson and Jonathan Rand. Usually I am wary of such books, but as I read it I realized it wasn't so much a self-help book as a self-awareness one. I would place it in a similar category as the well known Love Languages books (although I haven't read those). 
After reading it all, discussing it, and thinking about it, I decided that these type of books shouldn't necessarily be taken as complete truth, or a solve all for all your questions but more like one more set of tools for my human analysis repertoire. 
So, a little about the theory: Everyone has a Personal Operating System that is how we process information. First we acquire it, than organize, and finally value it. There are three main ways of doing all this: Visual(seeing), Auditory(hearing), Kinesthetic (feeling/doing). The authors put forward the idea that each person has a dominant way of doing all three steps. Such as acquiring information visually(1V), organizing it through talking and hearing(2A), and place value on the information depending on how we feel about it(3K). I decided this is my personal operating system (VAK). But you could also be KAV, AVK, KVA or any other combination. 
The part I found most fascinating is how some things about myself that I have noticed actually fit into these principles. Instead of it being just a weird quirk it means something deeper about myself. Such as how I need to talk ideas through before I act on them or understand myself what I was thinking. This is a common characteristic in 2As. I process information by listening/talking about it. Or perhaps even odder, the thing I always hated most about gym class was not playing the sports (which I usually enjoyed) but the idea that when you play sports people focus on watching your body (not your face) and that made me extremely uncomfortable (hand over the baggy clothes please). This actually makes sense in the context of my being a 3K. Motion and emotion is powerful to me, and sharing it easily makes me uncomfortable.
The other thing I found interesting was how no one completely fits into one category for each section (at least that seems highly unlikely) but we are often more dominant in one over another. But in all actuality that makes us more adaptable.
Anyway. I found it all pretty fascinating and can't do it justice in two paragraphs, but oh well. The problem is I'm not sure I am particularly effective about actually applying the things I learn, to make me a better communicator. . .

Children's names for Adults

The last month or so I have spent quite a bit of time with my nieces and nephews, and I've come up with a list of some alternate names I think kids often have for their parents (or adult guardians). So in honor of Mother's Day here are some other names:
Coat Rack
Door Opener
Holder of Things
Hand Hold
Pillow
Step Ladder
Refrigerator
Storyteller
Audio Book
Stroller Engine
Entertainer
Fan
Trash Can
Chair
and that is not to mention the other ones like, Torturer.
To all those who take care of children. Thanks.

My Mind on GPS

Two weeks ago I drove across the country in four days. Our GPS died on the third day but we had a good map and a mother who kindly looked places up for us on the Internet and called us back with the directions. Overall it went pretty well. Honestly we got slightly lost four times, thrice while we had access to the GPS. The only other time I worked with a GPS was on my mission and I didn't use one much then.
I find that when I work with a GPS three things happen to my brain.
1. The GPS works great, showing the roads nicely and leading us directly to where we need to go through unknown roads and I pay attention on the way. Meaning it's teaching me.
2. The GPS tells me where to go and I follow it blindly and I get wherever I was going and say "I have no idea how I got here. There's no way I could retrace my steps." Another words I wasn't paying attention and have now lost myself. . . especially unhelpful if I will be driving there later and need to learn the area.
3. I follow the GPS knowing it is heading me in the wrong direction (whether the address was incomplete or it is just not working correctly), but not trusting myself enough to not follow it. After all it's technology. It has to be right. Right? And then I end up where I don't want to be, and turn it off, and get out a map and figure it out based on the map and my own intuition, leaving me really frustrated with the GPS.
The problem is most of the time either options 2 or 3 happens to me. At first I thought I hated GPSs but after it being so helpful (some of the time) on our trip I realized that it isn't the GPS that I hate, it is the way I either go stupid or doubt myself when I use one. I find it really frustrating.
Neither of those ever happen when I just use a map :) (but sometimes maps are inaccurate, incomplete, or not detailed enough, and they can't just tell you where you are).