I have known about your company since its near inception. I had to reject you at first because I was afraid of starting with a company from the ground up. Then several years later, you opened your arms up to me but kept me on the fringes. I’ve been continually rejected from being a full-fledged employee in your company. I am just the proofreader.
I attend your company parties and watch as you dole out thoughtful gifts to your employees. I help your proofreading department and make your materials error free. But you don’t know anything about me, so I do not receive anything. I am just the proofreader.
No one talks to me. No one cares about me beyond a simple “hello.” Everyone is too busy with their tasks or more concerned about their friends already at work. Because, you see, I am just the proofreader.
I polish and proof. I redact and edit. I am the phantom behind the writers. I am just the proofreader.
I am called randomly for work. I get a change in routine. I am paid well for my services. With this, I don’t mind just being the proofreader.
In September, I was required to attend a course for determining my personality style. I’ve previously blogged on this topic before and determined that, of the four temperaments, I was melancholy sanguine. Well, the DiSC assessment is a bit different (although not by much). DiSC stands for: Dominance, influence, Conscientious, Steadiness. Responses can vary based on the environment. For example, I am an I at work (29) but not too far off from an S (28). This would probably change for my personal/home life. I found myself identifying with the steadiness category much more than the influence category, but I was borderline for each. Here’s an overview of the different DiSC styles. Click on the image to enlarge it or click here to download the PDF.
PersonalityStyle.com has a free DiSC assessment, but I’m sure it’s one of those assessments that won’t give you the results unless you give the site your email. I hope you will instead try to find your personality according to the overview above and tell me who you think you are.
Ponyo is about a 5-year-old boy who falls in love and promises to forever love a fish that turns into a 5-year-old girl. Not cute.
I am discovering 10,000 Maniacs for the first time and think they are fantastic. (MTV Unplugged was a brilliant endeavor.) I’m on a Natalie Merchant kick as a result.
Guess who’s got the biggest ego of these 4 coaches?
I’ve been a dedicated viewer of the new NBC series “The Voice” this season, and I’m thrilled to know that it’s doing so well that it’s been picked up for a second season. (I tend to kill brand-new shows simply by becoming a dedicated viewer as exemplified by the death of Martha Stewart’s “The Apprentice” and “Vanished.”) I was drawn to the show because of the star-studded coaches—one in particular really—and ended up loving the contestants.
I’m a huge Christina Aguilera fan. Haven’t always been that way (didn’t care for her “Genie in a Bottle” days), but after listening to the Stripped album (from her so-called skanky days), I became a dedicated fan. I don’t love all of her songs and it’s not that the girl can do no wrong in my eyes, but I’ve always seen her as a smart, strong female apart from her smart, strong vocals. Compared to Jessica Simpson and some of her other contemporaries, I know she’s not a dumb bottle blonde.
So when I heard Xtina was going to be one of the coaches on the new show, I was thrilled. After the debacle with bungling The Star-Spangled Banner lyrics, I couldn’t wait to see Xtina brush the dirt off her skirt, get back up, and woo us back to her by guiding other talented artists. For me, Xtina was the biggest draw into watching “The Voice” and I could have cared less about the other coaches, Cee Lo, Adam Levine (frontman for Maroon 5), and country singer Blake Shelton.
I’ve watched every single episode of “The Voice” this season, and while I can go into in-depth detail about why I love the show (maybe in another blog post), this post is really about how disappointed I am to see Christina living up to her diva/prima donna status (and I mean that in the bad sense of the word).
I know she’s been pretty self-absorbed and narcissistic all season long (her boobs always play a prominent role in each episode), but her height of conceit really came to a head for me at the show finale when all of my respect for her as a person came crashing down.
Xtina’s loyal friends
During the 2-hour long finale in which the remaining four contestants performed, Xtina looked dour and her comments for others were curt as if she seemed upset that one of the other contestants would beat her shining star, rocker Beverly McClellan.
Each of the coaches sung a duet with their final artist and Christina chose one of her favorite songs—“Beautiful,” her very own chart-topper! Of course, Beverly was simply honored to share such a fantastic song with the original singer and songwriter (Linda Perry), but Christina would expect nothing less because the song is so amazing. (Which it is but it’s totally another thing to shamelessly promote yourself like that.)
Then upon the conclusion of Beverly’s energetic performance of “Love Sick,” an original song written exclusively for the finale, Xtina had perked up significantly and gave her artist an enthusiastic standing ovation when she barely deigned to acknowledge the other singers (who, quite frankly, had much better original songs — iTunes sales back me up on this). (Disclaimer: Bev was one of my favorites this season so don’t think I’m slamming her.) A Twitterer I follow said it best about Xtina last night:
She’s been that way the entire season. EVERYTHING she says about everyone somehow comes back to her & her career.
And upon evaluating several performances over the course of the season, he couldn’t be more correct. Watch Beverly’s performance of “Love Sick” below or skip ahead to 6:45 to see how Xtina brings Beverly’s performance and singing all back to herself.
That really did me in. As much as I love Xtina’s singing ability and many of her songs, I lost respect for her by the end of the show. She proved herself to be a narcissist and to only care about things that revolve around her. I’m pretty sad to feel this way about her especially since she’s the only female on the show and the reason I even got interested in the show in the first place. I’ll still buy her albums and still consider her smart and strong but she’s too self-absorbed for me to like as a person any more.
So when I tune in to watch the second season of “The Voice” next February, I’ll instead be tuning in to watch Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, coaches whom I have grown to love, are clearly more fun, and don’t sit on too much of a high horse. (Cee Lo’s more down-to-earth as well, but his performances are weird and he’s creepy the way he hits on all the female contestants over 18.) Based on the coaches’ picks earlier in the season, I quickly jumped on the #TeamAdam bandwagon, but based on last night’s songs and performances, I’ve suddenly (and unexpectedly) found myself joining #TeamBlake and #TeamDia. And that’s the fun of the show for me: the person you end up voting for by the end of the season just might surprise you.
Fast-forward to 1:40 to hear Dia Frampton’s original song, “Inventing Shadows” that hit number one on iTunes.
Analysis of Chapter 4 in Rob Bell’s Love Wins will resume tomorrow. I compose these posts daily and today had to turn my attention to other pressing matters (like completing the PowerPoint slides for a class I’m teaching at the library next week). If you’re absolutely hungry for an original post from me today (though I doubt you are), I wrote up a review on Britney Spears’s latest album Femme Fatale over on my other blog, Pop! Goes the Music. If you’re a Britney Spears fan or enjoy pop music, you may want to check it out.
On this blog, however, tomorrow we’ll look at “Does God Get What God Wants?” An interesting question to delve into considering that the Bible says “The Lord is not . . . wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (II Peter 3:9)
Also, there are some comments from the last post I hope to respond to tomorrow as well. There are some interesting points that I’d like to address.
Black woman tip: She ain’t really sleepin’ if her hair ain’t wrapped.
Image from essence.com
For the first time in a long time, my mind is blank. I am in this odd space where I have nothing to say and no insight to provide. I am not witty, clever, or thoughtful today. I’ll eventually get back to my Enjoying God series but I’m not quite there yet.
Analysis of Chapter 4 in Rob Bell’s Love Wins will resume tomorrow. I compose these posts daily and today had to turn my attention to other pressing matters (like completing the PowerPoint slides for a class I’m teaching at the library next week). If you’re absolutely hungry for an original post from me today (though I doubt you are), I 
This Journey Is My Own 