The master of input...and the namesake for this blog

When you take the StrengthsFinder test and come out with a top strength of "input", and you grew up in the 80's, there is only one thing that can come in to your mind: Short Circuit. The movie was filmed in my native state of Oregon in the town of Astoria. In case you're wondering, yes, "The Goonies" was filmed there, too. Just one year earlier in fact. I'm not sure there is another town that has had more movies filmed there per capita. Here is a list, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Astoria was the setting of the 1985 movie The Goonies, which was filmed on location. Other movies filmed in Astoria include Overboard, Short Circuit, The Black Stallion, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Benji the Hunted, The Ring,^[11] The Ring Two, Into the Wild, The Guardian and Cthulhu.

But back to Short Circuit. Featuring such Hollywood luminaries as Steve Guttenburg and Ally Sheedy, the real star of this movie was a robot named No. 5. A government experiment gone wrong (that always happens!), No. 5 goes rogue and disappears to a coastal town where he is on the lam, trying to avoid being caught and destroyed by an overzealous military (that always happens, too!). The plot line was plenty enjoyable for a 10 year old, but the part I really remember is "Johnny 5", as he came to be called, reading/scanning everything he could get his hands on, book after book. (Kind of sounds like Google's latest project, huh?). After polishing off a stack of books, he would say "Need...more...INPUT!"

Well, that has been a felt need I've had for almost my whole life. Unconsciously, there is something inside of me that is always demanding more input: books, magazines, blogs, websites, newspapers, videos, conversations, random information from wherever...so much of it is interesting. And like No. 5, it all makes me feel kind of alive. So here's my tribute to you, Johnny 5, the poster-robot for the "input" strength.

Footnote: I didn't realize until reading the wikipedia summary that No. 5 was a "SAINT". It stands for Strategic...blah, blah. You can read the rest on the link above. But two notable things: 1) The input and strategic theme are tied together in the character of No. 5, and 2) there is a connection between input and SAINT-hood. I like it.