Found another interesting personality quiz called 20 Questions to a Better Personality and below are my results:

Wackiness: 44/100
Rationality: 68/100
Constructiveness: 56/100
Leadership: 66/100

You are a SRCL--Sober Rational Constructive Leader. This makes you an Ayn Rand ideal. Taggart? Roark? Galt? You are all of these. You were born to lead. You may not be particularly exciting, but you have a strange charisma--born of intellect and personal drive--that people begin to notice when they have been around you a while. You don't like to compromise, but you recognize when you have to. You care absolutely nothing what other people think, and this somehow attracts people to you. Treat them well, use them wisely, and ascend to your rightful rank. Of the 68488 people who have taken this quiz since tracking began (8/17/2004), 5.5 % are this type.

I have to admit not being familiar with Ayn Rand.  I know she was a controversial author and that one of her books, the Fountainhead, was made into a movie with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal... but that's about it.  So, I did a Google search and found The Objectivist Center website, with the following information:

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
— Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged

Rand was a passionate individualist. She wrote in praise of "the men of unborrowed vision," who live by the judgment of their own minds, willing to stand alone against tradition and popular opinion. Her philosophy of Objectivism rejects the ethics of self-sacrifice and renunciation. She urged men to hold themselves and their lives as their highest values, and to live by the code of the free individual: self-reliance, integrity, rationality, productive effort. Objectivism celebrates the power of man's mind, defending reason and science against every form of irrationalism. It provides an intellectual foundation for objective standards of truth and value.

Hm... not sure if I like this.  Will have to learn more about this philosophy of Objectivism.  Stay tuned for more.

10:06:40 PM    comment []

Hail to California, Alma Mater Dear
Sing the joyful chorus, Sound it far and near.
Rallying 'round her banner, We will never fail.
California Alma Mater, Hail! Hail! Hail!

The British Times Higher Education Supplement has ranked UC Berkeley the No. 1 engineering and information technology university in the world! MIT (aka the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is ranked No. 2, followed by Stanford University at No. 3.

In its rankings of top 100 science universities, the THES puts Cambridge at No. 1, followed by Oxford, and then Harvard, which edges out UC Berkeley at No. 4 by less than one point (weighted scores of 159.8 and 159, respectively).

This comes just after last month's ranking of the overall top 200 universities in the world, in which the THES placed UC Berkeley at No. 2, behind Harvard.

Now… I appreciate that there are some in academia who have reservations about university rankings, but...  IT'S GOOD TO BE AT THE TOP!!!  So, this Cal Berkeley engineering alum will just bask in the glory for a bit longer…

5:48:57 PM    comment []

This is a terrific movie that I highly recommend after watching it for the first time this weekend.  An independent Canadian film made in the 80s, "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" is quietly funny and poignant.

The lead character, Polly, is someone whom most people would consider a misfit and a loser because of her social awkwardness and lack of career aspirations.  She uses photography as a form of self-expression (providing some very funny scenes in the film) and often gets lost in her daydreams (incorporated nicely into the film).  I found myself drawn to her quirkiness, honesty and innocence.  I cheered her on... especially when things seemed to falter toward the end.

The film is narrated by Polly, who through a series of flashbacks tells about working as an "organizationally impaired" secretary for an art gallery curator, whom she develops a crush on.  The curator is everything Polly isn't – a suave, beautiful and accomplished woman.  Things get complicated when Polly discovers her employer's lesbian relationship with a young artist – and when Polly takes a chance and submits her photographs (anonymously, of course) to her employer.  This all result in an emotional upheaval and crushing disappointment for Polly, but her core of honesty and loyalty still shines through.

I won't reveal more of the film, except to say that there is a somewhat happy ending – at least it's not sad.  The story and the acting are great, as is the writing, with Polly delivering some of the best observations – my favorite is "Isn't life the strangest thing you've ever seen?"  This is a great film to watch on a quiet day, when you're in the mood for something gentle and reflective... and a little offbeat.

2:00:15 AM    comment []