The Observer

One trait that I really pride myself on, and I don't have that many, is the ability to observe.

Now, anyone can see. Anyone can hear. Anyone can perceive. The trick is first to do it, and secondly what you do with it.

I mean, how often do you observe your surroundings? What's the shape of the lights in your room? What was the last three people you were talking with wearing? How many windows are in the room where you work (if you live in a cubicle, it would be the number on of windows in the room where the cubicles are). Honestly, I usually don't know the answers to these question either, but that just goes to show how little we observe and log in our memory.

What I usually observe is myself. Constantly re-thinking what I said, what I did, the decision I made. I also enjoy observing interpersonal dynamics. Sounds weird, but observing the little quirks that show the situation between two persons is very interesting.

Now, what to do with it. With info on myself, I try to better myself. Maybe I'll log away that one liner for later. Perhaps I should start that homework earlier. I really should've handled that differently. Stuff like that. Self improvement is really important, in my opinion. Also, when I observe other situations, I can ask myself, what would I do in that situation? What can I gain from this experience?

Now, the weird part is when I do this for random things. For example, when I watch movies with fight scenes, I usually like to pick apart the fighting styles and try them out later. Except of course I can't to some things like Matrix-style jumps and stuff, but more times than not you can pick up a thing or two from the fight. When I watch Anime, I sometimes like to pick up Japanese phrases or perhaps think about the character development. Also, you can always ask yourself, what's the purpose of this? What was the maker trying to convey? What am I taking away from this? Do I actually even emphasize with these people, or is it just raw enjoyment? Also, that was a cool shot, I should remember that next time I film and edit movies. Stuff like that.

Now, for something even weirder. I also like to observe motion of people as they commute. Dynamics of people getting out of the way for bikes, pedestrians, etc. I mean, it's a fun physics problem if you wanna look at it that way, but I also use it so I can get to class extra fast.

See? Useful. I swear I'm not weird.