Adam's Apple - protrusion of thyroid cartilage

By now, I'm assuming some unsuspecting person has come across my blog and wondered why I am doing all of these postings on a late Friday night.

It's because I'm an INTJ and I've been around people all day and evening and can now actually think. But, because of this all the words are coming out quickly and I can't type fast enough to get it all down and out of my head.

Believe me, you are not getting the half of it. The other is written in other hidden blogs.

Anyway, my prior blog post about neck wrinkles, got me to thinking about Adam's Apples.

My family knows that I find these neck protrusions completely disgusting. Necks are not attractive in the first place and adding anything that draws attention to them is all the more undesirable. Some have the Adam's Apple (men), others the Eve's pear (woman - and, a family joke), neck wrinkles (me), or tree trunk roots (thin people that when they clinch their teeth can see this effect in the mirror).

Long ago when I was in college and taking on all possible jobs available, especially during the summer months, I worked weekend evenings at a drug store. This was when the riff raff came through and got all the sin tax products (alcohol, cigarettes, etc.) in abundance. For my viewing pleasure, a guy with a hole in his throat would always come in to order cigarettes. He would have to hold down the flap of skin on his throat when he talked at which point I started talking to myself saying "Look at the eyes, look at the eyes, look at the eyes" and try to refrain from putting my hand over my own throat as if some vicarious hole had formed on my own.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have a lot of empathy for those that have throat health issues due to nothing beyond their control. I talked a special ed class with the cutest little girl that had a trach in her neck and it was hard to watch her at times, but she tried really hard to function like a normal kid.

However, this is different. These people had a choice to stop doing what caused it and didn't. You know, kind of like how I have a choice to stop eating cookies, but don't. Yep, so I realize I'm not perfect at this either.

Anyway, back to Adam's apples. I have a really hard time watching people who have these protrusions. It looks like something is going to rip their throat open any minute and well, I will admit that it would be a little creepy seeing a throat get cut open. Yuck!

The funniest part of Adam's apples is looking up the definition. I found it on MedicineNet.com and thought I'd share just in case you wanted to know what it was and where the name came from:

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.asp

Adam's apple: A familiar anatomic feature in the front of the neck that is due to the forward protrusion of the thyroid cartilage, the largest and most prominent cartilage of the larynx.
The thyroid cartilage tends to enlarge at adolescence, particularly in males. Enlargement of the Adam's apple is considered one of the secondary sexual characteristics.

Origin of the term: It is usually said that Adam's apple takes its name from the biblical story about Adam, Eve. the serpent and the apple. A piece of the forbidden fruit stuck in Adam's throat and created the anatomic Adam's apple. So the story goes. However, it may be wrong.
Adam's apple in Latin is "pomum Adami." This may have been a mistranslation of the Hebrew "tappuach ha adam" which also means male bump. Between Latin and English there's many a slip.
Alternate term: The medical term (which is rarely used) for the Adam's apple is "prominentia laryngea" (prominence of the larynx).

Meeting Mania

I have literally been in 6-7 hours of meetings every day this week. If they were all one big meeting that would be exhausting. But, no, they are a series of one hour meetings all in different buildings with different combinations of people and with me in charge of leading about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. This is when exhaustion becomes exhaustion and craziness!

This is partly why I wrote the blog entry below about my personality type - INTJ. I need a lot of alone time to catch up from these things and when I don't get that time I lose the ability to think straight. So, I have to look up some of my default behaviors and remind myself what NOT to do when I get tired and stressed from too much people interaction.

Let me tell you though - when I get more alone time - I might just write about all of these meetings because some could put The Office episodes to shame. There is a reason why these shows and Dilbert exist! I experience it every single day, except that sometimes those comedies look tame.

Ok, I've now exhausted my ability to even converse with a computer.

Signing off physically and mentally.

INTJs - dealing with them

Ok, my energy has been sucked from me this week. Too many meetings. I've had my evenings to myself and that is a good thing because I have to realize all of my thoughts somewhere and it's not out through my mouth and so it's coming out on the blog.

Anyway, every few months I re-read my personality profile. It reminds me of my strengths and of my weaknesses and what I need to work on in some areas.

(Advertisement from me - take your Meyers-Briggs for free at http://mypersonality.info)

I did this re-read last night and found a page that talks about how to deal with INTJs. Fuh-ney, or not. My type is rare and it sounds like I have to constantly make sure I'm not rude.

The list is at http://fuzzy.snakeden.org/intj/ , but thought I'd copy/paste it below because it is kind of funny .... or sad depending on how you look at it. It is strangely accurate in some ways and a little off in other.

Here they are and if you go to the link you can find out your own things to know.
1 - Be willing to back up your statements with facts - or at least some pretty sound reasoning.
Don't expect them to respect you or your viewpoints just because you say so. INTJ respect must be earned.
2 - Be willing to concede when you are wrong. The average INTJ respects the truth over being "right". Withdraw your erroneous comment and admit your mistake and they will see you as a very reasonable person. Stick to erroneous comments and they will think you are an irrational idiot and treat everything you say as being questionable.
3 - Try not to be repetitive. It annoys them.
4 - Do not feed them a line of bull.
5 - Expect debate. INTJs like to tear ideas apart and prove their worthiness. They will even argue a point they don't actually support for the sake of argument.
6 - Do not mistake the strength of your conviction with the strength of your argument. INTJs do not need to believe in a position to argue it or argue it well. Therefore, it will take more than fervor to sway them.
7 - Do not be surprised at sarcasm.
8 - Remember that INTJs believe in workable solutions. They are extremely open-minded to possibilities, but they will quickly discard any idea that is unfeasible. INTJ open-mindedness means that they are willing to have a go at an idea by trying to pull it apart. This horrifies people who expect oohs and ahhs and reverence. The ultimate INTJ insult to an idea is to ignore it, because that means it's not even interesting enough to deconstruct. This also means that they will not just accept any viewpoint that is presented to them. The bottom line is "Does it work?" - end discussion.
9 - Do not expect INTJs to actually care about how you view them. They already know that they are arrogant with a morbid sense of humor. Telling them the obvious accomplishes nothing.

Personality Test - compatibility

I had talked about a personality test a few weeks ago (blog - http://rebeckeronline.blogspot.com/2008/03/personality-test.html ) and started thinking about how my personality impacts my relationships with boyfriend, family, friends, co-workers and random people on the street.

There are a few resources out there, but I must admit that some looked like those websites that are trying to sell something that helps you lose weight, get tan, buy real estate, or get rich quick. Perhaps these psychology folks just don't have a good web and graphic designer on hand.

Regardless, I did find a few interesting paragraphs here and there that I thought were useful.

Here are a few links:

http://www.xtremexa.org/resources/Notes/beingwhogodmadeyou.htm

http://www.personality-power-for-everyday-living.com/Compatibility-test-intj.html

http://www.socionics.com/rel/relcht.htm