Year 1, Day 105: Shakespeare Institute -- Research Practice.

     It is impossible to involve yourself in study and not begin to study your own surroundings, and the people that occupy the space you live in.  Sometimes, it is those people and things that inspire you to write, to think differently, to get your second-third-fourth-twelfth wind, to dance, to love, to sit down and think, or even get annoyed.  It is for all these reasons that if you ever find yourself in a rut, start studying something... anything.  Pick up a book and read it because you are interested in the subject matter and wish to make yourself smarter.  If I'd realized that I could of avoided so many days of sitting around bored off my ass because there weren't any good movies on, I'd have started studying again sooner.  It's not like you have a deadline, there is no one pressuring you to read or research something, and you won't be graded on it.  The point of this is to get your brain working in a different fashion than it has for the past 2-3-4 or 25 years.


     A small research project based off of my afternoon run at the Gym:

• Arrive at Gym.  My knee is bothering me.
• Walk towards treadmills.  Stop off at water fountain to get a drink.
• Treadmills are almost all taken.  Tell Vicky we can't run next to one another.
• Get on treadmill and begin to strip my sweatshirt and towel.  Notice a fragrance in the air.
• Turn treadmill on.  Fragrance is patchouli mixed with body odor.
• Gentleman running next to me is emitting this fragrance.
• I turn treadmill on.  Begin to run.  Turn on music.
• Fragrance is still there.  Start to breathe through my mouth.
• I begin to taste said fragrance.  Return to nose breathing.
• Still running.  Change the song to something with a faster bpm.
• Notice Fragrant Gentleman is wearing a football jersey from Man United.
• Running faster.  Gentleman's shorts are noticed as being swimming trunks with a checked pattern.
• Slowing down the run.  Fragrance is making me cough.
• Gentleman is wearing black socks with Asics running shoes.  Gentleman waves at passing woman.
• Speeding up the run.  Mouth breathing again.  Me, not Him.
• I begin to feel my knee starting to hurt.  I run through the pain.  It stops hurting.
• Faster.  Next song.
• Patchouli is making me feel sick.  I wonder if I can call the Gentleman, "Patch."
• Slowing down again.  Everyone who was here at the beginning of my workout has left the treadmills.
• Patch is running.  Full, bouncing stride.  More body odor wafted towards me.
• Running faster, last time.  Almost twenty minutes now.
• Stop my workout.  Patch is still running.  He still emits a fragrance.
• Think better of it.  Leave.  Go over to stretch area.  Do the plank for 1 minute on, 1 minute off.  Kill me now.

These are the things I can now document without passing judgment.  I can then look back on it and discover a few things.
1. I need a playlist that I don't have to keep switching songs on.
2. Never wear black socks with white sneakers.
3. I can run while mouth breathing or nose breathing.
4. Invest in Patchouli deodorant if ever I wish to sicken someone.

     The study of Shakespeare really has nothing to do with this, however, it is the documentation of the events in my life that is important.  The more I do it, the better I become at observation.  In the long run, I will become a better researcher (the more accurate my observations), and I believe there is a reason the only two treadmills unoccupied at the gym today were because Patch was unaware that Patchouli and Body Odor was not an attractive blend, and I was the only brave enough to face the onslaught of stink.  The way he waved at the girl though suggested that he knew her, so maybe there is someone out there for him after all.

     Small little research projects (observations) is where I'm going to begin before I get to the moments in my research where I have to get it right.  I'll be reading plenty, but I have to make sure I pick up a book or two just for fun, so I don't lose the taste for it.  I'll be writing plenty, but I have to make sure I write this blog more often than I have been, so that writing is easier... cos' over the break when I wasn't doing this blog, writing was exceptionally hard.

“We will meet; and there we may rehearse most

obscenely and courageously." -- A Midsummer Night's Dream, I.ii

Year 1, Day 105: Words Written -- 7,903 (in term paper vernacular)