Let’s go into the future ok? I’ll go and get my time lazor and shoot you into 2035, it’ll be awesome!
Ok, stand there by that tree while I arm the time lazor with time bullets. Here we go!!!
BLAMO!
Ok, now I’ll shoot myself into the future with my time lazor, I use my last time bullet and Kapow! I am in the future as well.
Wow this is awesome. Everyone here has hypercolor shirts and wears slap bracelets just like when I was growing up in the 80’s. Cool, 2035 is like 1985 but radder!
Look over there! They cloned unicorns with wings and use them as transportation instead of cars.
Let’s go ride ours over that rainbow off into the universe!
The end.
This would be my movie if I were a director…
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Personality Test
Personality Test
Zachary Scott-Singley
In my time I have taken many personality tests, but none affected me as much as the one I took when trying to become a police officer in 2006. I passed of course and was asked to interview, but by that time (it took almost 4 months to respond to my test) I had already taken another job which was my first choice to begin with) where I currently work. I also took a personality test for this paper and was not surprised by my results. Through my constant writings I have become fairly aware of how I operate and so my results from the Personality Test were not incredible or surprising to me. In the test I was rated as:
Openness to Experience/Intellect- You are relatively open to new experiences. (Your percentile: 76) Conscientiousness- You are well organized, and are reliable. (Your percentile: 69) Extraversion- You are extremely outgoing, social, and energetic. (Your percentile: 96) Agreeableness- You find it easy to express irritation with others. (Your percentile: 38) Neuroticism- You probably remain calm, even in tense situations. (Your percentile: 9)
That was mostly for your sake, but for mine I would like to discuss my police personality test I took for the Portland Oregon police force. It was both an intelligence test as well as a personality test and for me the questions (which were often re-stated in different ways) were much more interesting than the hundredth intelligence test I had taken… I found it interesting (and often wondered what it said about me) when they would ask on the form what you like (colors for instance) or questions like, “Do rainy days make you feel sad? Yes or no?” These questions which probably were placed in to measure your emotional stability were very interesting to me and I found myself thinking as I took the test that I would very much like to have been able to see the police’s assessment of my personality. They called me back for an interview, so I must have been fairly stable (or perhaps just the right amount of unstable for the job) and were very disappointed when I told them that I had taken a job with someone else.
The one question which I found alarming though was the one asking if I had killed anyone. It was probably in the test to see if they could weed out potential felons from the police but I was probably the only one out of the one hundred or so of us who had to answer yes that day. I had killed someone, many someones in fact. We were not to get up for any reason during this test, but I raised my hand and when an attractive young police woman came to ask me if I needed help I asked her if I would be disqualified for answering yes to that question. I explained that my platoon and I had been responsible for over 190 confirmed kills based on our intelligence and that I had shot people as well while deployed in Iraq. She had grown pale as I told her this, but she answered that she was not quite sure; according to what she knew as long as it stated I was a combat veteran (which I did) on my test that it would simply be covered if and when they decided to interview me.
It has always been hard for me to answer that question. Many times (especially when I tell teenagers, who seem to be the only ones uncouth enough to ask) when I explain that I have been to Iraq (twice) people ask me if I had to kill anyone. They ask with the morbid fascination of one who hates the idea of it but who still wants to know every sick and twisted detail. I have gotten good at answering this question. I look them dead in the eyes and tell them, “Yes, I have killed. I killed over 190 people.” I continue to look at them almost daring them to judge my stone cold face as I state the large number. They are always the first to look away. After that the questions are focused elsewhere and life goes on…
Zachary Scott-Singley
In my time I have taken many personality tests, but none affected me as much as the one I took when trying to become a police officer in 2006. I passed of course and was asked to interview, but by that time (it took almost 4 months to respond to my test) I had already taken another job which was my first choice to begin with) where I currently work. I also took a personality test for this paper and was not surprised by my results. Through my constant writings I have become fairly aware of how I operate and so my results from the Personality Test were not incredible or surprising to me. In the test I was rated as:
Openness to Experience/Intellect- You are relatively open to new experiences. (Your percentile: 76) Conscientiousness- You are well organized, and are reliable. (Your percentile: 69) Extraversion- You are extremely outgoing, social, and energetic. (Your percentile: 96) Agreeableness- You find it easy to express irritation with others. (Your percentile: 38) Neuroticism- You probably remain calm, even in tense situations. (Your percentile: 9)
That was mostly for your sake, but for mine I would like to discuss my police personality test I took for the Portland Oregon police force. It was both an intelligence test as well as a personality test and for me the questions (which were often re-stated in different ways) were much more interesting than the hundredth intelligence test I had taken… I found it interesting (and often wondered what it said about me) when they would ask on the form what you like (colors for instance) or questions like, “Do rainy days make you feel sad? Yes or no?” These questions which probably were placed in to measure your emotional stability were very interesting to me and I found myself thinking as I took the test that I would very much like to have been able to see the police’s assessment of my personality. They called me back for an interview, so I must have been fairly stable (or perhaps just the right amount of unstable for the job) and were very disappointed when I told them that I had taken a job with someone else.
The one question which I found alarming though was the one asking if I had killed anyone. It was probably in the test to see if they could weed out potential felons from the police but I was probably the only one out of the one hundred or so of us who had to answer yes that day. I had killed someone, many someones in fact. We were not to get up for any reason during this test, but I raised my hand and when an attractive young police woman came to ask me if I needed help I asked her if I would be disqualified for answering yes to that question. I explained that my platoon and I had been responsible for over 190 confirmed kills based on our intelligence and that I had shot people as well while deployed in Iraq. She had grown pale as I told her this, but she answered that she was not quite sure; according to what she knew as long as it stated I was a combat veteran (which I did) on my test that it would simply be covered if and when they decided to interview me.
It has always been hard for me to answer that question. Many times (especially when I tell teenagers, who seem to be the only ones uncouth enough to ask) when I explain that I have been to Iraq (twice) people ask me if I had to kill anyone. They ask with the morbid fascination of one who hates the idea of it but who still wants to know every sick and twisted detail. I have gotten good at answering this question. I look them dead in the eyes and tell them, “Yes, I have killed. I killed over 190 people.” I continue to look at them almost daring them to judge my stone cold face as I state the large number. They are always the first to look away. After that the questions are focused elsewhere and life goes on…
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
PUBLISHED AGAIN
So, I am pretty pleased to let all of you know that I was recently published again (along with some other amazing military writers) in a BOOK by the people who make the Doonesbury comics.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Chevelle Experience
Snaking out of the shadows we swerved into the lane intended for the final destination. The House of Blues. We were here to see the rock concert Chevelle. It was amazing. I had not been to a rock concert since high school and I was floored. The crowd developed into a single entity as we screamed, danced, and pressed into one another along with the rhythm of the music. Behind me people were ripping off their shirts and slamming into each other in collisions which exploded with sweat. Nobody was angry however, and when I looked at those slamming into one another, they were smiling. The minute someone fell on the ground two or three people were there picking the person up so they could continue rocking out.
As the evening continued I found myself drawn into the frenzy of excitement as the band everyone had been waiting for began their first set. It was amazing just how close everyone was and how I no longer had my individually, but rather, I was a part of the entity that was the crowd. We were like the ocean, swaying and rocking against one another with huge smiles and sharing sweat as we pumped our hands in the air to the beat of the music.
It became hard to think for one’s self as the energy of the crowd intensified with the next couple of songs, and as the crowd’s crescendo of rocking continued you became one with the show. The beat of the music and the thrashing guitar became your heartbeat for a couple of hours as you began to push and touch those around you for balance with the crashing of bodies in the pit right behind you knocking off your center of gravity.
I was enamored and enthralled by the music and those around me enjoying the music. For my first true, hard rock concert I was instantly hooked. I need more of this… I was amazed to find that we as a society need this level of intimacy, even with strangers like those at the show. It created for me an experience which will be hard to duplicate and one which I long for even now at 2 am as I write this mere hours after the music ended.
As the evening continued I found myself drawn into the frenzy of excitement as the band everyone had been waiting for began their first set. It was amazing just how close everyone was and how I no longer had my individually, but rather, I was a part of the entity that was the crowd. We were like the ocean, swaying and rocking against one another with huge smiles and sharing sweat as we pumped our hands in the air to the beat of the music.
It became hard to think for one’s self as the energy of the crowd intensified with the next couple of songs, and as the crowd’s crescendo of rocking continued you became one with the show. The beat of the music and the thrashing guitar became your heartbeat for a couple of hours as you began to push and touch those around you for balance with the crashing of bodies in the pit right behind you knocking off your center of gravity.
I was enamored and enthralled by the music and those around me enjoying the music. For my first true, hard rock concert I was instantly hooked. I need more of this… I was amazed to find that we as a society need this level of intimacy, even with strangers like those at the show. It created for me an experience which will be hard to duplicate and one which I long for even now at 2 am as I write this mere hours after the music ended.
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