We humans have (at least) three intellects

We human beings have (at least) three intellects. The brain, the heart and the gut feeling. They are all individuals - they may argue. They may fight. They might make you feel like a war zone.

Men and sometimes even women may have a forth intellect. You may figure out where that one is placed for yourself *smiling*. I think we all sometimes have experienced the side effects of that intellect.

The sum of heart and brain you may think is the gut feeling. It isn’t. The gut can tell something completely different than the two others. Sometimes I find that really strange…..

With age I have started to trust my gut feeling more and more. I find it as the most trustworthy while the other two still are fighting. It gives me some kind of backbone while the other two change their minds all the time. Gut feeling is more persistent and have more stamina than the other two.

While writing this I recalled a personality quiz I once took. I looked the results up and saw I am driven 28% by intellect, 39% by heart and 33% by instinct. Almost even parts (just as I thought). No doubt I have problems while they do not agree. I once has a discussion with a former boss. We agreed in that regarding the current issue I would probably gain by having a partial lobotomy - just to stop that quarrel in my brain *LOL*. 

Nevertheless when brain, heart, gut and possibly that fourth obscure intellect agrees we all feel very content and strong in our decisions. We are whole persons.

 

The Rioja Wine Theory

At the very first day of  2012 I am trying to summarize all new experiences and acquaintances I have learnt to know last year. I have met lots of awesome people both IRL and virtually. People giving me lots energy and knowledge both in business and private.

Some of these acquaintances have been just like sparking wine – to be consume quite quickly. A sparkling wine cannot manage to be stored for a long time. Other acquaintances has been just like a heurige – you meet and have fun or work together and drink that fresh wine instantly. You´ll probably never meet again. 

But there are relations that are just like quality wine – they manage to be put down into my wine cellar for maturing for shorter or longer time. This is of course a risky project while wine is perishable and capable of deteriorating quickly. But on the other hand - if that wine cannot survive down there for a few years it probably was no good friend, no great business contact or no passion worth giving in to.

Sometimes I get a reason to tap down to my wine cellar and fetch one of these bottles. Perhaps I get an unexpected dinner guest or perhaps I just stumble into one of these persons...at the train, at a conference or perhaps as once sharing desk at Volvo Personvagnar. Then I open the bottle...scrutinise the colour...pour up some of that wine...smell carefully ...aahhhhh ....then I take a sip.

Sometimes the wine has improved a lot and is ready to be consumed.

Sometimes it is corked once again since the timing still isn´t right or the wine might need to improve even more.

Sometimes the wine has deteriorated - it has simply not survived the traces of time. And in that case I always think: ”A true passion or a true friend manage time - they improve in aroma, flavour, and complexity as they mature as the years go by....this was not such a relation. No waste."

So now is the question - do you want to be consumed instantly as a fresh wine - a "heuriger" or are you a sparkling white wine with a predicted limited time in my fridge?  Or do you prefer to join my really nice collection deep down in the wine cave?

(I think I heard a yes to last question....)

So now down in the bottle now! Hurry up!
Does it hurt? Well it is not my fault.
This is the procedure needed.
Keep your arms together.
There will be more air left for you if you stop struggling.
No do not kick back, down with you now!
Down I said!!!!

Paw, the bottle is corked now!
And now tapping down the stairs
to the basement.
.
.
.
.

You see - you are not alone down there. You have good company and plenty of time to become a great wine or in worst case a really nice vinegar ;-)



Thanks all friends and business contacts for a great year!
May 2012 be a great wine year!
for new heuriger, sparkling white wines and quality wines like a promising Rioja




The glass art is from Kjell Engman´s Contradictory, exhibition summer 2009, in the rock shelter at Vattenfall's powerplant, Stenungsund

My favourite barista won my heart today

My favourite coffe shop is right outside my home office. The coffe is great but not better than at other places. The best thing about this coffeshop is the barista....or whatever he deserves to be called.

Once upon a time I asked for a heart decoration on top of my cup but the barista failed utterly. Last week he did this attempt.

To me it is a really beautiful garlic. On top of my coffee.

Today he came with this cup to my table.

This time I could trace the shape of a heart.

I heard him grumble in the kitchen and a few mnutes later he arrived with this one.

But the best part was his lovely smile.

I presume he never got any education as barista. But he surely has the happiest smile and the friendliest approach among all coffee shops I ever seen. I wonder what happens if I wish a leaf next time....hmmmm...let me try that next week....

Playing with light and shutterspeed

In all these pictures I am experimenting with long exposure time and a short flashlight. It may look like double exposure but isn´t. It is fun and I find it very creative but it is hard since very often the motive moves out of the frame during the exposure time. When I succeed I find it catch the dance much better than ordinary flashlight pictures.

Bachata - a very close dance

Salsa is more extrovert

More bachata

A salsa dip I presume, The couple actually moved out of the frame but the dip in right position made a great picture

Some look almost normal despite my little games. Bachata.

Oh where did he go? Stupid man, I can never trust my partners

Girl bachata

The black panther is dipping his lady (one of my fav dance partners)

I like this picture because of the blue dress to the red background.

There are many spooky pictures a night like this one. I really like this one despite missing lower parts. The laughters are there and contact between leader and follower (one of my other favs by the way)

If you care to follow my creative work join my fan page at Facebook Bettina Braesch-Andersen´s creations. I will show pictures, videos and perhaps even some watercolour. Sometimes I add friends work there too.

Remember to say hi at the wall when you join. And please comment as much as you want too :)

Transition management - to get through the transit hall

My bus was late to the railway station so I had to wait 25 minutes for the next one. I went to Espresso house to get a few quality minutes with myself this very depressing morning. I saw the train for Öresund leaving and I recalled one stupid memory - a hope of a meeting and a nice cup of coffee.

I need dreams to manage life right now. Dreams as escapism. Dreams as drivers & motivators. Without dreams I am like a fish stranded on the beach. I struggle to get new dreams. I really engage myself in 'here & now' things to make me feel good. I do enjoy current life - I have heaps of fun. I meet people who makes me feel really good. I improve at the gym. I am finally "defeating gravity" thanks to gym results. Dance is improving as well.

But still I am in a transit hall. I have been there for over two years. Dreams became my way of managing the pain and breathing in the vacuum.

I need dreams and I want to know when to give up the old ones because then I need to create a new one. Impatiences is one of my characteristics and probably charm as well. And I truly am a person who prefer to say good bye before starting up new projects & dreams.

To start up something new something else has to end
I was at a great lecture in transition management last week. These theories is about the human side of organizational changes but they are all easily applied to private life as well.

Quotes from Strategies for managing change, Professor William  Bridges and Transition Management theory

"William Bridges' theory involves a three-phase process of:

1. Ending, Losing, Letting Go - helping people deal with their tangible and intangible losses and mentally prepare to move on
2. The Neutral Zone - critical psychological realignments and repatterning takes place. This is all about helping get people through it, and capitalising on all the confusion by encouraging them to be innovators
3. The New Beginning - helping people develop the new identity, experience the new energy, and discover the new sense of purpose that make the change begin to work."

One a-ha moment was when we spoke about reasons not to change and not saying goodbye to the past. If you not say good-bye you never reach the Neutral zone and will be late for next phase.

Some reasons may be:

1. People tend to dislike changes
2. People have other targets for the moment - busy in life with other agendas
3. People do not understand the idea/message and its consequence
4. People do not trust the one who is delivering the message
5. People are afraid losing something (socially, power, friends etc)

That day gave me a lot to think about (thoughtful as I am very often now a days).

I am not sure if I should give up that old dream of that special cup of coffee. Not yet. But I will try to replace it by a new one.

Preferably involving travels far away.
Preferably on firmer grounds than previous stupid ones.
Together with a friend or alone - I do not know yet.
New York, Montreal.or Cuba - I do not know yet.

Time will tell me. I know.
I am a fatalist whenever it suits me

 

Are you sapiosexual?

Are you easily turned on by other peoples intelligence? Do you get sexually attracted by smart men or women? You might be sapiosexual. Put your spectacles on and read now...

I learnt that word at Facebook this week and I saw that many more had the same intuitive interpretation as me  - but was it the right one? Today I looked that word up at Google and found a blog - Sapiosexual

"I want an incisive, inquisitive, insightful, irreverent mind. I want someone for whom philosophical discussion is foreplay. I want someone who sometimes makes me goouch due to their wit and evil sense of humor. I want someone that I can reach out and touch randomly. I want someone I can cuddle with.

So now I wonder - aren´t we all sapisoexual? Who will not print her/his name under that quote?

Then I found the translation at Urban dictionary - a treasure regarding none-academical English, slang and of course sexual words (almost every thing you look up at Urban dictionary also have a sexual meaning.....strange)

It said:

The attraction to the same or opposite sex based on the attraction of wisdom.

Liking any person, with out being sexually discriminative, because of their wisdom, smarts, and your shared learnings.

Urban dictionary´s translation

I decided to look for more information. I found a closed Facebookpage but I also found a collection of quotes:

Sapiosexual is a recently constructed word (neologism) that has come into common usage, particularly on social networking sites where people are self-identifying as sapiosexual. It is a concatenation of the latin root sapio- from sapiens meaning wise or intelligent (itself derived from sapere which means to taste, or rather, to discern) and the latin root -sexualis as it pertains to sexual preferences.

This is a rabbit....nothing else....

There are a few definitions to be found online, all with slight variations. Wikipedia currently redirects queries for sapiosexual to pansexual.

Sapiosexual - Turned on by Intelligence

More quotes from that collection:

"I am sapiosexual. I think geeks and nerds are sexy--I often want to rub my XXXX against their minds." -Kayar Silkenvoice

"I am a sapiosexual. I admit to being attracted to a cute face, or a sexy body, or a winning smile. But those things simply catch my eye. For someone to keep my attention requires the ability to uphold their side of a conversation." --luvnkisses

"Sapiosexuality is the idea that sapience is the single-most important determining factor in one’s sexual preferences. So one is first most attracted to someone who appears to be thoughtful, rational and grounded." --Iain

Sapiosexual - Turned on by Intelligence

A rabbit from this view....

Wikipedia defines Sapiosexual as pansexual  and here I think we comes to the "core of the poodle" as we say in Sweden.

Pansexuality (also referred to as omnisexuality or polysexuality)  refers to the potential for sexual attractions, sexual desire, romantic love, or emotional attraction, towards people of all gender identities and biological sexes. Self-identified pansexuals may refer to themselves as gender-blind—that gender and sex are insignificant or irrelevant in determining whether they will be sexually attracted to others. The Oxford English Dictionary writes that pansexuality "encompasses all kinds of sexuality; not limited or inhibited in sexual choice with regards to gender or activity."

Gender seems not relevant at all to a true sapiosexual..A kind of bisexuality?

No from his view I mean...

Anyhow  I like that word - sapiosexual - and I will use it defining my own preferences for the future. If that includes all ages and both sexes I will not tell you dear reader but I will now end with a true story. about what I then called the intellectual flirt - perhaps it was sapiosexuality.

I once was at Lofoten (Norway) painting watercolour for a week in September. The very last night we went to the local pub having some wine. It was raining and half storm. Raincoats and wellingtons was put into a big chest at the entrance just as natural as you would leave your umbrella. We girls sat down at a table. I had problem to reach my seat since the guy at the table behind me was too close. He let me in and smiled.

After a few minutes he knocked my shoulder and asked a question. I answered politely and returned to my friends. After about ten minutes he was back. I was a bit annoyed by then since we were in the middle of a conversation and he was not the kind of guy you look twice at. I answered his question and returned to my wine. And so it went on and on annoying me more and more....until I could see the beauty in the both hemispheres between his ears.

At the end of that night I was sitting at his table discussing everything on this earth and he was damn smart man. If that was sapiosexuality....I do not care. It was fun and I liked the fact that I could see this man¨s beauty and sexy soul behind the mask

 

Photos are form this summer´s exhibition at Pilane Burial grounds.
Judge Persson in the Judgemental Circle - a walk at Pilane buri al grounds 2011
Among the sheeps - a walk at Pilane Burial grounds, 2009

Distant workplace and another tragedy

08:30

This is extreme I know but I am working in my car at the motorway. Some where about 10 km away there is a truck on fire. Pew! Lots of business phone calls and some Powerpoints. Broadband modem is working once again - I'll send some mails soon.

It took me 3.5 hours to go to my office this morning. usually it takes no more than one hour. I arrived 11:30 and left for a business lunch at 12:30 - 14:30. I managed to work for about 2 of these hours on the motorway with my laptop squeezed between myself and the steering. When I just needed to roll a few meters the laptop stayed in that position - when I needed to roll a few hundred meters I put it aside.

At work I could catch up with what happened. One truck driver is dead - he died in the flames. He drove a car full with chemicals but they are not sure about what kind yet. The fires was so huge and so hot that the concrete was put on fire. The motorway will be closed at least until tomorrow. It will be a long drive home tonight for  me

http://www.gp.se/nyheter/bohuslan/1.740432-tankbilsforaren-avliden

Now I supposed to work the few remaining hours. Perhaps not the most efficient day in my life but I am pretty content any way. Today I have been in touch with all friends that are really important to me - it means more to me than a full day at work. And I had a really great lunch.

My thoughts are now about the family to the dead truck driver. God bless you all!