Moderately Useless? WTF??

I volunteered for five extra shifts at work. That means that from this Friday I will be working every day for nine days. Oooops. But I really really need the money and if Im working Ill be earning, whilst not going out, so the money should actually be kept in my bank account as well. I am starting to wonder now about how tired Ill be though, and how little time Ill have to do useful things like send out my CV and move flats etc. Ach well it’ll all end up fine in the end I suppose.

I have to admit Im feeling really quite positive right now. Money is still a nagging worry but thats it, so I am pretty upbeat. I went home to my Mum and Dads on Friday afternoon and got a lift back into Edinburgh for my shift on Sunday. It was nice to hang out, drink lots of red wine, eat rubbish, eat Mum’s home cooking, drink more red wine…

I went for a two and a half day conference about self-confidence, personality traits, "knowing yourself" etc. The people I worked for at Easter on the telephone fundraising thing for the uni remembered me and asked me to. Whats more, they paid me to go and give my opinions and constructive criticism. They want to run the whole thing across the undergrad 4-year degree programmes, and they want post-grads to run it for them after a decent amount of training. So they paid me to go and learn about personalities, confidence, assertiveness etc, then give feedback on it all, and I got £125 tax free, with lunch and coffees thrown in too.

I got a free book, "Authentic Happiness" and it’s all Californian naval-gazing guff dressed up as science. Im trying to read it objectively, filling in all those multiple choice quizzes you normally get in girly magazines just to see if im extroverted/thinker/judger etc. Its really frustrating me though, because Im so used to actual facts and clear causative/reactive links to phenomena. If some of the "scientific research" the author bands about was presented at a conference or seminar I was in I would tear it apart. Its so woolly-minded and unproven at best, misleading and selective at worst.

It reminds me why I chose science, and why I like facts, order and EVIDENCE. How do social scientists cope with all this supposition and extrapolation from such shaky research? Gah!

P.S. Apparently Im "moderately useless" amongst other personality traits. Whatever! Weirdo yank shrink man…