INTJ & "sensitivity"

[ExPatMatt]

Is this going to turn into a 'films that make grown men weep' thread?

As an INTJ I think I'm pretty sensitive to the point of being overly defensive sometimes (working on that) but I do have a bundle of empathy for seemingly random things (I'm empathizing with you here, Stewart!)

Watching the fate of the human race (fat, boneless automatons) in Wall-E got to me

The final third of Spirited Away

My pet bird dying

Finishing the Dark Tower cycle


On the other hand, I felt almost nothing when;

Leaving my family to become an ex-pat

Attending my great nan's funeral

Hearing about some natural disaster (George Carlin must have read my mind)


Strange indeed.

So Froggie, what was the film?

[StewartP]

I remember once flinging a Steinbeck novel across the room, annoyed at how mere words could have played so with my emotions. (Mice & men or Cannery Row I can't remember)

[BeamStalk]

Well I am ENTJ but not a whole lot different. I had almost the same response, Stew, when I first read 1984. I was disgusted with the ending and how easily the main character was toyed with by the ruling government.

[Quasar]

Quasar, you sound like you might get something out of the book I mentioned. Check it out if you don't mind self-help psychology; even if you do, this one may be interesting enough to you to make it worth the effort.

I'll see if I can track it down.

My pet bird dying

I'm exactly the same. I get extremely attached to my birds, and had a horribly painful experience when one of them was attacked by a hawk. The predator must have walked right up to the cage and grabbed her wing through the cage. When I got home, I found her on the bottom of the cage, still alive, with her wing almost entirely torn off and blood everywhere.

We knew it was going to be fatal, but the bird was still alive. Thankfully, she seemed to go into a state of peace and stop feeling the pain after an hour or two. She ended up hanging on the rest of the afternoon and dying sometime during the night.

That was one of the worst afternoons of my life.

Oh man, now you're all going to think I actually have emotions. My reputation is ruined!

[ExPatMatt]

Quasar,

It really, really sucks, eh?

I fortunately had an experience with my other bird (Green-Cheeked Conure called Tilby) that kind of balanced things out.
The little bugger escaped out of an open window and flew off into the woods (we clip his wings but hadn't bothered to do it in a while). I was at work when it happened and came home when the missus called and told me about it. I spent 2 hours walking around in the woods until I heard him chirping away in the canopy about 5km from the house, turkey vultures circling overhead.

I finally got the little guy to fly down to me and got him back inside. Every time I think back to that day it makes me smile for so many reasons.... needless to say, we clipped the little bastards wings right away!


Beams,

I can't believe I forgot 1984! That's why I hate doing these lists; you always leave something out!

[StewartP]

Man, you're going to hate me. I'm killing about a dozen of my pigeons tomorrow. I raise them for food so they're not pets.

quasar, why didn't you kill the bird that had lost it's wing? Many hours less of suffering, no?

I'm not having a go, I'm just asking. I'm not you and it wasn't my bird so I'm in no position to. Just asking.

[Quasar]

quasar, why didn't you kill the bird that had lost it's wing? Many hours less of suffering, no?

There's four of us in the family, and none of us had the heart to do that. This particular bird (a scruffy yellow cockatiel) was... unusual. She had at least two mental disorders, one which was probably a result of its upbringing with another family who didn't really look after her (she craved attention from absolutely everyone, and seemed to be completely unable to interact with other birds: she'd just walk over them). The other was probably a result of flying headfirst into a glass window: she was very clumsy and terrible at flying, although that never stopped her from trying to get to the nearest person in the room.

I think we (or I, at least) also held out a tiny bit of hope that she might pull through: the wing was torn and stripped of feathers, but it wasn't detatched. But mainly, we just couldn't bring ourselves to kill her.

We didn't learn our lesson, though: we've obtained three new cockatiels since then (one from the street, two from a friend). That makes a total of five, of which two are "house birds" like she was.

[Photosynthesis]

These cockatiels are those that look something like little parrots? They are quite smart thingies. Five! Wow. These do not learn to talk, right?

G.E.

[Quasar]

Cockatiels.
[

Hey, I just learned something: apparently they're a part of the Dark Cockatoo family! (dark cockatoo's are quite rare compared to the common sulpher-crested cockatoo)

The males can be taught to speak, although they're not as easy to teach as budgerigars. They communicate more through body language, esp via their head crest. And they're quite smart: comes from being a very social creature.

If humans die out, my money's on some sort of parrot or cockatoo being the next sentient species.

[Photosynthesis]

If humans die out, my money's on some sort of parrot or cockatoo being the next sentient species.

I have to agree. But just because I have a parakeet myself, which makes our opinion quite biased

I detested pet birds until my wife and daughter decided on a pet, it was this parakeet who insisted on calling us at the pet store. I enjoyed interacting with an african grey there, but still did not think that high about a pet bird. But now the little guy we got loves me (a quaker), and got me to like it. It does talk, it has lots of body language, it whistles. It lets me bother as much as I want, yet bites others who try and do the same. Darn, it probably bought me. Now I love reading and knowing about other parrots or cockatoos or related. Amazing animals for sure. I am still amazed how such enormous intelligence can be packed into such a small brain.

G.E.

EDIT: conclusion, I am quite the sentimental myself.