Things to Try & Our Picks

This category is dedicated to things we recommend you try.

It will cover anything from good music to good food to cool activities.

We hope you try some out. Let us know what you think in the comments section!

The Back Alley Graffiti Wall Is Now Open

We'll be posting Rants and Vents here about work, society and anything else that might make us feel better in the moment.

Please add your own rants in the comments section!

Please do not post anything racist, sexist, prejudiced, or any specific names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. Use discretion... if it seems too controversial or wrong, then it probably is, and will be deleted, and further action may be taken (ie. contacting Blogger.com to report your account).

What is the BIG day?

The BIG day is our wedding day! October 6, 2007!

And I'll (Smartbottom) be using this category to update everyone on the planning and preparation of our wedding!

About Smartbottom

I am a practical and linear thinker. I prefer to take my time and analyze my thoughts before saying anything, which tends to frustrate Bookly because he's always moving at 100 mph with his own thoughts. It's funny how Bookly and I work - he'd ask "what do you want to do?" and I'd say, "I'm not sure" because I haven't thought about what I'd like to do yet, which prompts Bookly to list a dozen possible things to do, the pros and cons of each, and the likely "cost : enjoyment ratio". But, he leaves the top 2 or 3 possible things to do for me to pick from, once he's narrowed down the options based on our feelings at the moment.

On the Myers-Briggs personality matrix, I’m an ISTJ (Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging - taken in March 2006), and what's interesting about this is that it fits in with what I do in my job at the bank, very systematic and analytical work, and how Bookly and I make most of our collaborative decisions.

Finally, although all of this describes me as exactly opposite to Bookly (even in the Myers-Briggs chart), we find that we compliment each other. Individually, we'd be either too Introverted or Extroverted for our own good. Together, we've learned from each other on how to adapt ourselves for improvement. And voilà! We make a great team! Lucky bastard!

About Bookly

I am an out-of-the-box, always thinking about possibilities kind of guy. The odd thing is, my perceptions are not "glass is half full". So, my possibilities-thinking is driven by planning and preparing to avoid problems. I often wonder what nurtured such a character trait, but for as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed thinking this way, the "hope for the best, plan for the worst" sort of way. And it has been a benefit to me as a strategic planner in many different ways.

On the Myers-Briggs personality matrix, I’m an ENTP (Extroverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving - taken in December 2006). One thing that's interesting about this though is as much of an Extrovert as I am, I need downtime (Introvertedness) in order to recharge. This has been a guilty addiction for me because as a very busy guy (I work: full-time as a strategic planner in the government, part-time for myself as a strategic marketing consultant, and hold a chair on an advisory board for community services in my city) my downtime is valuable. So I spend it with Smartbottom (an Introvert) doing some reading and watching educational and reality shows on TV. But this means I, and we, tend to neglect our friends. The biggest problem is one week is easy to lose track of but with being so busy, three weeks fly by. I know this bothers them, and I hope they understand where I'm coming from and that I am trying to make an effort to change it, but sometimes it just hits me "Damn, it's been 3 weeks already."

Finally, I am also dedicated to smooth communication, spoken or written. For example, when I ask someone a question, I start to listen to their answer and try to think of where they are going in their thoughts. If something seems a little vague or out of place, I will stop the train right there and endeavor to get it fixed instead of hearing it out and giving my best guess to its meaning after the fact. This usually pisses Smartbottom right off, but in the end it makes for clear and logical conversation - smoothness, from which a multitude of ideas and responses sprout forth.

The Bookly-Smartbottom Team

A lot of our posts are going to be about the kinds of things a soon-to-be married or married couple are going to face during the adventure that is their lives.

In order to make sense of them all and understand where we're coming from in order to be able to provide advice or comments, we decided to provide a more detailed introduction of ourselves.

As a Team
We are strong believers in self-reliance. It sounds like a sugar-coated way of saying we’re too stubborn and proud to accept help or support, and maybe it is sometimes, but we prefer to operate as a self-reliant, self-sufficient team. Don’t get us wrong! If we inherited a trust fund, or won a lottery we wouldn’t turn it down. But we’re proud we’ve done everything together on our own.

We operate in a "calculated-risk taking" fashion. We like to gather as much information as possible on things before making a decision. The bigger the decision, the more information and convincing, and therefore time, we need. Makes sense, right?

But this sometimes causes frustration in the person or people we are dealing with at that moment. In fact, it sometimes comes across as us “trying to manipulate the situation to cause a fight” or “trying to be a polite jerk”. We can sometimes see why we’re perceived this way, what with all the “Why is that”, “What about…” and "How come..." questions, but that’s how we work. We’re aware of this perception and try to avoid it, but it’s all too easy to get frustrated with someone in return when they fail or refuse to hear us in the first place.