Monday, October 21, 2013

10/21/2013: The Real Positive Qualities Chart / Guitar [Bright Ideas / Discovery]

10/21/2013: The Real Positive Qualities Chart / Guitar

S: 9:47pm
E: 10:53pm


Note: To see the small-print, drag the picture to the top to make a new tab.

So, as promised in my last blog, here is the Positive Qualities Chart developed by Jim Downs.  Let me retype some of the instructions they gave me:

[From handout]

Purpose & Philosophy: Whatever you focus on, you personify.  Whatever you experience becomes a part of your being.  You can become better than you are by choosing and acting on your positive ideas and ideals.

History of the Chart: Love, truth, beauty, and goodness are the foundation upon which all qualities are build and the culmination of all reality.  If these are the central values, what others are important and what would be the relationship among them?  The Chart and book are my answers to these questions.

Facts:  There are 1,000 qualities on the Chart which were taken from a list of over 2,300.  The Chart took six years to catalog, organize, and design.  Each quality has a wedge of qualities situated in front or behind appropriate related qualities.  These relationships flow out from and into the center – a sort of visual thesaurus.

[From brochure]

Positive Qualities are the basic and universal building blocks of life.  Being positive enhances your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.  We each embody a wide range of qualities and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many of these gifts you already possess.  Growth is assured with your conscious, sincere, intelligent and playful effort.  Keep up the good work.

Acquiring qualities creates a feeling of real accomplishment and gives a genuine boost to your self-esteem.  Share the powerful and tender force of Love by your willingness to understand and sympathize with others.

As you look at the chart, identify with a quality and see yourself experiencing it in your life.  For example, if you need humor, open yourself to the lighter side in your daily events.  Or, picture a situation and imagine what the ideal collection of qualities should be as you live out the scene.


Ahh, too much typing.  Ok, so there is the gist of it.  I can type fast, around 80-90 wpm average, but right now I’m running out of time.  Tomorrow may be another long day like today.

Before I get to my happenings today, I want to talk about the chart.  I do find this chart useful to keep track of my personal growth.  As you can see from the big picture, I have it taped to the wall.  The ones with a black dot are the ones I feel I have.  I am not done evaluating myself yet.  Best of all, having this chart serves as a visual reminder to improve myself.  I recommend everyone good to download the picture and to look at the values that you share. 

Ok, about today.  Whew.  I was supposed to get my blue autistic guitar two days go but when the USPS came, twice, there was no one to sign-in or track the package.  I was so pissed.  I was in my room at that time!  The thing is, I live in the back of the house, with separate rooms.  Therefore, I couldn’t hear whether the post-person knocked on the front door or not.  The only way for me to receive the package is to physically be at the front porch and wait for the delivery-person to arrive, which is just what I did.  I set my alarm to 8:30am because that was about the time when the person came the first time.  I waited outside from 8:45 to around 9:45 and no one showed up.  I had my fold-up ACU Army chair with books and my mp3 player.  However, I spent most of that time praying, singing, and walking around.  Waiting outside for people to come reminds me of a few memories from the Army.  In the Army, we too have to wait outside a lot.  I miss those times.  I remember once when I was in Kuwait, I was one of the three soldiers selected to go to another U.S. base to “watch” the equipment until the forward unit who is supposed to relieve us arrived.  So here I was, in a sea of military trucks and Humvees just standing there waiting for my shift to close so the next soldier can relieve me.  I would have my cellphone ready in case something happens.  And I would also have the same field chair with my ACU backpack next to it.  I would walk around and sing, pray, read the Bible, and eat.  The lot where I patrol is pretty big so I have to walk a bit to make sure everything is covered.  I also enjoy the feeling of being by myself.  I imagine once the stillness ends and the forward unit arrives, there will be a locust of activity where I stand.  I actually have a picture of myself.



Here I am, in a special mission.  This is a picture taken of me during night-time in my quarters typing, you guessed it, a blog.  We also spend a lot of time transporting materials around the site.  

Anyways, back to my story.  So the mail-person didn’t come.  I figured he or she will come again around noontime, because that was when that person came the second time.  I texted S (inital) that I wouldn’t be able to attend the prayer meeting because I have to “watch” for the mail-person.  So I waited outside again from 11:30am to around 12:30pm and still the cavalry didn’t come.  Using the journey-approach, I took measures and biked to the UPS store in downtown El Paso.  The staff told me, because of a special arrangement, my mail is with the USPS.  So, I biked back and drove to the post office where my zip code is at, which is pretty far away.  I got there and the staff there told me they moved my area to another post office.  So I drove there and the staff then told me because the sender designated it as a business address (which it’s not), the package is still en route with the mail-person.  Therefore, they don’t have it.  Oh my goodness.  Luckily, and I forgot to mention it, I made a note to the UPS deliverer (forgot to change to USPS) to call me to verify the package.  I’m so glad I made that note because while I was buying groceries at Wal-Mart near-by, the delivery-person texted me and told me the package is at the front of the house.  I’m so glad when I heard that.  All this work, all this effort, for nothing.  Well, not really nothing, I still learn some values and gained some experience. 

I ordered the acoustic guitar in part because I wanted to help play for Intervarsity.  The members there encouraged me to join them.  However, I might have trouble because their practice session conflicts with my volunteering time and I may be too busy to help.  I still want to remain optimistic so I brought the guitar.  I also already have an electric guitar, unfortunately, I realized its downfalls.  I thought the electric guitar would be the jack-of-all trades because with the amp, I can adjust the volume to however I want.  I developed a portable system where I put the amp in my backpack and connect the wires to my guitar.  There, I can walk and play and sing.  The downfall to my system is that it’s not portable enough.  I have classes all day (on Thursdays) and I bicycle to school.  By the time I’m done with my classes, I’m already tired.  I don’t want to lug a heavy electric guitar with a loaded backpack to school.  With my acoustic guitar, I can just use that as a backpack and bike my way to school.  Maybe I made a mistake.  Maybe I’m just being lazy.  I just wasted $35 on that guitar.  Oh, did I tell you I only spent $35 on it?  I was comparison shopping and I found this guitar on Amazon.  It is both cheap and of good quality, based on numerous customer reviews.  I got the guitar today and it is beautiful.  It also comes with a flimsy bag, a pitch-pipe, and a spare set of strings.  I could take a picture of myself with it and post it on Facebook sometime.


Ok, so there is my daily double.  I want to close this entry so I have a bit of time for myself, God, and to prepare to sleep.  

No comments:

Post a Comment