something unusual / something strange / comes from nothing at all

I find that as I drift through blog-land, frequenting pages of my friends, occasionally coming across an interesting stranger -- well, I'm finding that people generally lose my interest when they post entries that read like an agenda of their day. There has to be something more to someone than what they did, or who they met with.

I have learned, over time, that people's thoughts, values and perceptions are infinitely more interesting and universal than their daily lives and routines. This leads me to two interesting points (one that requires another segue in order to get to, so hold tight for it): firstly, and importantly, I'm beginning to understand something about human nature. We are, to a certain extent, defined by our routine, right? My mom is on the west coast and I'm in Ontario. I'm a student and she's a professional girlfriend to Richard - or whatever. This is what we do; it's how we live our lives.

The point is, however, that after you strip away all of these mundane things that make people 'different' - we become so amazingly relatable. When you talk about what you feel and think and wonder, instead of what you *do* every day, you're beginning to talk in what Coelho would call "the language of the world"; you are then starting to express what it means to be human. I am fascinated with blogs who disregard the everyday in favor of these thoughts and feelings that I can understand and consider.

*****Segue******

I was in Drama 100 today (ha - there I go with the day-to-day. I'm a true hypocrite, but please, bear with me) taking notes for John's playwriting lecture. And I found it interesting: as we began to read student's scenes, a lot of the work had things in common. For example, most of the scenes were about students (not surprisingly - the first lesson that John takes the opportunity to impart is that we write about what we know). More interestingly is that most, if not all, of the scenes were about something spectacular, something infused with drama. Scene one was about abortion. Scene two was about gay marriage. Scene three was about domestic abuse. The most interesting scene, however, was about two friends sitting under a tree, discussing the clouds.

Phew. That was long winded. What did I learn from this, you ask? That the most beautiful and fascinating things about others are also the most simple. That a mundane moment can become memorable just through it's own canonization. I became aware that grand gestures are not always meaningful, and that impressive does not always = memorable.

Because sometimes I want to sit down and write about the smallest nuances - these are the things that I can tackle. I used to feel like this was somehow inconsequential, but I'm discovering how amazing the smallest observance can be.

Okay - one more thing. I really like this cut of lyrics from Damien Rice's Amie
Nothing unusual, nothing strange
Close to nothing at all
The same old scenario, the same old rain
And there's no explosions here
Then something unusual, something strange
Comes from nothing at all
I saw a spaceship fly by your window
Did you see it disappear?

Remind me tomorrow to talk about my theory on deja-vu ... I've got a lot of ideas right now, and just need a place to keep them safe for a while.

By the way, tonight's temperature? a balmy -36 degrees with the wind chill. And it's not looking any more pleasant for my 8:00 walk to Jeffery for my Art History tutorial.