Project 365 New Things: Day 29

Today I was very busy with homework, attending to a sick family member, and trying to register myself for the PSAT, so I sort of left off doing today's challenge until, like, an hour ago (read: 10 pm. I don't know why, but the timestamp on my posts is always off). I was out of ideas, too. But luckily for me, Drew came to my rescue with the idea of writing a letter to someone by hand. I have, of course, done this before, but it's been a while. To make it even more challenging and new, I decided to write him a letter backwards, so that it could be read in a mirror.

Now, I've read that some synesthetes are able to write backwards very easily. Let me assure you that I am not one of these people. At the end of three and a half paragraphs, my brain was like a very colorful alphabet soup. It was actually pretty fun, though. I enjoy word puzzles and things like that immensely, and the combination of writing in a way I'm not used to while actually trying to record something interesting in a message to someone was rather entertaining, in a head-breaking sort of way. Tomorrow, I shall place this letter in the mailbox and send it on its way to Drew's residence. I think I'll write the address on the envelope in the normal direction, however.

And now, sweet and gentle readers, I bid you goodnight.

~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 26

Is it October already? Jeepers.

So, I'm absolutely mentally and physically exhausted, and I'm still fighting this cold. Thus, I shall try to keep this report brief.

For today's challenge, I ate a cupcake with a spoon. I would not recommend this to others, on the grounds that it is a very unwieldy way to consume one's dessert, and I ended up having to fish chunks of cake out of a pool of ketchup. So, technically, I suppose I did two new things today, because in an attempt to salvage the chunks of cake, I tried to eat them. Do not eat chocolate cupcake chunks with ketchup. It only leads to despair and heartfelt sighs. Mark my words.

In other news, I came back to rehearsals today. I was still feeling a little too sick to do this, but I am incredibly stubborn when it comes to my passions, and so I may or may not have let on that I was feeling a little healthier than I actually was. However, I did not pay too dearly for this, as for the first half of the workshop, we all lay on the floor in a dimly-lit area and closed our eyes as we did various voice exercises. It was actually quite lovely and very relaxing. And I enjoyed it from a synesthetic point of view, too, because one of the exercises involved letting out vibrating 'puffs' of sound with each breath. As I lay there with my eyes shut, I got to watch the different colors of everyone's vocalizations in this rainbow of colored dots. It was absolutely beautiful.

In other news, I am out of a dog walking job until congress can act like adults, because my employer is forcibly home from work (she works for the government). I don't know how this will effect my ability to pay for Metro fare to Young Company, and it's actually concerning me a bit. I've got some money saved up, of course, but I don't know how long this madness will last. And that's all I'm going to say about it here, because I'm honestly just sick of arguing, politics, whining, whining about politics, arguing about politics... well, you get the idea. Congress, you had *one* job...

May sunny fields be involved in your future activities.

~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 25

The bad news is that I'm still sick enough that I had to miss rehearsal. But the good news is that I turned in all my world history homework, I'm feeling a bit better, and my right ear is no longer ringing in a way that I can only describe as a wall of gray with burgundy specks trying to block out all sensation on the right side of my head.

Because I am still sick, I didn't have a lot of options for today's challenge. After I finished the veritable mountain of work I had to do (whoot!), I was still without ideas. I was going to go on YouTube to find a 'how-to' video for something, but I had the attention span of a fruit fly, and soon I found myself watching Hank Green make mistakes on Crash Course outtakes and I wasn't learning anything (other than how hard it can be to pronounce the names of certain molecules). So, in a fit of brilliance, I decided to go to Wikipedia, click 'random article,' and write a poem inspired by the material of whatever article I got. Desperately hoping not to get an article about anything dirty and/or hopelessly boring, I embarked upon this adventure.

I got this very short article about an R&B song called "Lock and Key:"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_and_Key_(Klymaxx_song)

I then listened to this abominable cacophony of noise on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9B1IMVKGY8

As my ears (and eyes) were assaulted by this very poorly rendered collage of uncomplimentary colors and sounds, I penned this modern classic:

As I gaze upon the voluminous mass that is this woman's hair,
I cannot help but wonder what she could hide in there.
A teapot, a thesaurus, a pair of yellow sneakers,
A colony of starfish or old computer speakers.
This song is both musically and intellectually lacking;
If I were her producer, I'd simply send her packing.
But she'd be just fine; with a cumulonimbus of hair like that
She'd have everything she needed to bring the '80s back.

As always, lemme know what you did for today, if you're following along! If not, and if you have an idea for something new I could try, I'd love to hear from ya!

Peace and prosperity,
~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 17

Today's new thing: I did about three and a half day's worth of Spanish homework in roughly five hours. Yeee-haw. I'm not saying that this is particularly exciting. I'm saying that it's new. I don't think I'll be doing it again if I can help it, though.

I suppose the main thing I'm learning as I do this project is that finding interesting new things to try is challenging when one has a busy life, but worth it. Sometimes, you just need to appreciate what you're able to do and not fret over what you're not able to do. Occasionally, that means accepting a somewhat boring 'new things' challenge and moving on. Drew and I were just talking about how lucky North Americans are to have access to such wonderful educations, and so I'm doing my best to appreciate what I have in that regard, even when the going gets tough.

Also, in a break from the crazy studying that happened today, I wrote an article about synesthesia, which, in addition to being a condition that I have, is a scientific interest of mine. The article was linked on The Young Synesthetes Association's page, and, as you can probably see, right beneath the header of this blog.

Looking forward to getting a reprieve from my weekend break so that I can go back to Young Company workshops tomorrow. My parting words for all of you are: Take life head-on in a confrontational stance, brandishing an umbrella threateningly if needed.

And now: To whatever adventures await! In my case, this adventure is getting a good night's sleep. Adieu!

~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 15

Today, I climbed a tree and put my ear next to the trunk so I could listen to a woodpecker rhythmically searching for food above me. I was surprised at how well the sound carried through the wood, as the bird was easily 20+ feet above me and I could hear the pecking sound descend down the trunk to my ear, as if through a naturally grown tin-can telephone. The sun shining through the leaves was beautiful, and almost exactly the color that I hear G Major in. And that's really all there is to tell. It was just a lovely, spontaneous thing to do in the midst of a day filled with studying and work.

Good night, lovelies!

~Maddie