Sitting and Seeing/Listening

Seeing: I went to watch C.L. Lindsay, a male speaker with a lot of knowledge and experience dealing with college students and the internet, at a campus event on Tuesday. This was about an hour long speech so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to sit and observe people in the audience. Yes, I listened to the speaker, but for part of the time I simply watched audience members watching this speaker. By doing this I noticed that most of the people make very subtle movements. People sit back in their chairs, nod their heads in agreement, and basically stare at C.L. Lindsay as if they were starring at the television. Then, when something is funny, some people laugh, some clap and laugh, and others just smile and nod their heads. Also, when listening and watching C.L. Lindsay, people tend to occasionally yawn, talk to the person next to them, and fidget around. The fidgeting that I saw included shaking one's foot, changing the way one was sitting, checking the time, and crossing and uncrossing one's leg. By only watching people in the audience I could tell what type of pictures were being shown - disturbing or funny - and I could tell if information being given was serious facts or more fun examples. It is amazing how much simply watching someone can tell you about what that person is actually watching/seeing.

Listening: I sat and listened for about ten minutes while in my dorm room. I heard various sounds throughout that time, but there is something about those sounds that are calming. They were not distracting or annoying. They were actually comforting. I was able to hear myself think and felt secure knowing that other people were around. I heard the fans blowing around cool air, my roommate writing down notes, the creaking of the fan as it rotated, and my roommate's phone go off. Occasionally, I would also hear someone walk down the hallway, a car door shut, or someone moving furniture around. I never realized how many different sounds occur at a single moment or within only a few minutes. After doing this activity I noticed that no matter where I am or what I am doing, I will always be able to hear some sort of sound - even if extremely subtle. And if I were to explain all the sounds that I heard during these ten minutes of purely listening without telling anyone I was in a dorm room, I believe that people could fairly easily depict where I was. It is amazing what our senses can pick up.

Seeing, and listening.

I have noticed that when you really sit and stare at someone you notice really little intricate things that they do that you never picked up on before. I was watching a friend play video games and he kept on doing this weird thing with his tongue, I think maybe it was what he did when he was trying to concentrate. When listening I noticed the same thing that you just pick up on more things if you try to just listen and not focus on anything else. When you slow down and try to take everything in you pick up on a lot more things that maybe you just never noticed before..

seeing and listening

On tuesday I observed my friend eating and thought of it as kind of a scene. this was kind of weird at first because it both made me feel like a creeper and feel self-conscious of what I look like when I eat. I noticed that when my friend was eating, he didn't pay much attention to anything anyone else was saying. his hands were mainly on the table and he looked up every once in a while to make eye contact with other people who were also eating with us.
When I listened to things today I was sitting and listening to my friend try to explain to the new girls how to play rugby. I heard the sound of movement of grass, the boys team practicing behind us, girls scratching (the grass is itchy) and the rustle of clothing. I also noticed the sound of our captain turning the pages of her clipboard booklet which was a very official sound that said "I know what I'm talking about". Other small things that I noticed were the snappy sound that the clovers made as i plucked them. These observations taught me how to notice small details and listen to the subtle things that I would need to think about if I were acting something out. I would have to think about the little actions and sounds that would be at a specific place and time. the end

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Fabio