challenge yerself

1. Be a spy. Yes, really. Learn how to eavesdrop without looking like you're desperately trying to listen to what others have to say. Tail people! Especially the ones in college or better still, random people on the road. Just do it WITHOUT any creepy intentions, y'know? Fuck, build yourself a secret laboratory/research kind of place. Stack it up with files and laptops and a blank wall that will act like your canvas when it's time to brainstorm. Pick something/someone to investigate! Keep records. Find research databases. Give yourself a purpose! This is practice for being a CIA agent. Watch shows about detectives and private investigators and whatnot. Investigate, investigate, and then investigate some more.

2. Mindfuck yourself. Watch something that'll confuse the shit out of you. Read a novel that is guaranteed to make your head spin. Stay up all night dissecting a concept album. Creep yourself out! Have a Christopher Nolan movie marathon (that will be enough for a day, trust me. And you can spend the rest of the month reading up fan theories online). Watch American Horror Story. That's a guaranteed "wtf-that-just-fucked-so-bad-with-my-head" television show. Or buy House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I haven't read it personally but I've heard it's like the mother of all mindfucks. Also, listen to some albums and analyze each and every lyric of each and every song and then write about it.

3. Read. Since I'm a college student now, I thought I'd give A Secret History by Donna Tartt a try. And then read something pseudo-intellectual, like Freakonomics and then settle down with some escapist fiction like Dan Brown novels or Michael Crichton.

4. Discover a director whose movies you haven't really watched and settle down and watch a minimum of three movies.

5. Build a world from scratch. Characters, locations, governments, geographies, names, histories, whatnot. Use timelines, maps, diagrams. Go crazy.

6. Try to be a little more physically active. Walks, yoga, stretches. Whatever works.

7. Make more zines. Fun ideas: You Know You're In Love When..., OTPs, favourite albums.

8. Build a fort in your room. Blankets, pillows, yoga mats, the likes. Stock it up with books and your laptop and music and candy and have a party by yourself. Have a movie marathon in your fort! Or educate yourself! Read your psychology textbook. Or just text away. Have a good time.