Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Do you travel through time if you impersonate an impersonator who's impersonating?

I have a question.  If one were to impersonate an impersonator who is impersonating something, do you go through a wormhole or otherwise cause a paradox/tear the fabric of the space-time continuum?  There is broken glass everywhere and I can feel the synapses firing in my brain.  Being limited by my body is frustrating, when my mind is warping through time and space, but my hands and computer will only work so fast.

I agreed to an assignment.  When challenged, my default position is yes I can.  So, upon being challenged to write a term paper, I agreed.  Pfft.  Ten pages?  I can crank out ten pages while brushing my teeth.  Well, I'm not a writer.  Nor am I a nurse.  So, to write this paper, I have to impersonate, first and foremost, a writer.  On top of that, I have to impersonate a writer who knows of such things as nursing.  To sweeten the deal, I was given a short deadline.  But for the final three packets of pink stuff, I not only held off on getting going, but faced a few technical issues along the way; ie-computer crash and expiration of Word program trial.  Now we're talking!  I told the patron of my impersonating of an impersonator skills that I needed some stakes to get going.  A self proclaimed clutch performer, I need the spotlight and some butts in the seats.  She told me, "I fail if I don't get a good grade on it."  The ante has been raised, and the opening bet called.  High stakes?  Check.

So what do I do?  I prime the pump with a little blogging.  I was kinda stressing out earlier, when the due date was over a half day away.  I didn't really know what to do.  Now that the deadline is mere hours away and I only have a couple pages written, I feel alive and am ready to dominate this measly paper.

A word about impersonating.  As an athlete, there are two ways to go when pursuing excellence.  One is to practice in a results oriented manner until some synthesis of proficiency is attained.  In this way, through trial and error, one develops a technique through which success hopefully results.  The other is to act like a successful athlete in the field excellence is sought.  If you want to run faster, watch an olympic sprinter and copy their technique.  In order to hit a ball better, you watch Barry Bonds and duplicate the swing.  When using the second technique, one learns to evaluate based on the feeling of the person being mimicked.  You visualize their swing, or sprint, and feel the way it feels.  You learn the body movements by putting your mind in their body.  After doing this, and becoming familiar with your own body, you learn to mentally occupy other's bodies.

The same can be done in the mental arena.  Actors call it the method.  By scrutinizing the language of experts in a field, you can become them.  With language, there is always inherent ambiguity.  Meaning is only conveyed through a conventional understanding of what a speaker is trying to say.  And with a sufficient overlap of common terms, meaning is then conveyed to the hearer.  It would seem that the ambiguity would be harmful in joining minds.  It actually helps.  Because of this, one can discern the shortcuts employed to gain an understanding of basic meaning.  If the neurosis of projection can be managed, then it becomes tenable to perform, on a basic level, as one expert in a field.

The stakes are sufficiently high, and with the reprieve of my computer working I'm ready to tackle this.  The pump is primed and I can smell the scorched synapses of my brain.  There's broken glass everywhere and it makes me laugh.  Maniacally.  So here's to another eleventh hour performance.

Who on Earth would let me write their final?  Muhuhahahahahahahaha!  And beware the ides of March.

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