2nd day!

         Man, it's the second day, and I have to say, things are definately looking up! I invested a surpirsingly small amount of time into learning just a liiittle bit of sign language, which helped a lot. I wrote down a few words (Seriously, all I really needed was 9-10 to get through the day) on a sheet of paper, memorized them surprisingly quickly, and set off to school! For this to work, you do kinda need to educate people in what the signs mean, otherwise people won't get it, but if you hold the card up with one hand, and do the sign with the other, people catch on pretty quick! You'll save yourself a lot of neckache from nodding and wagging your noggin like a bobblehead, trust me! It was absolutely wonderful to be able to express myself again, even to a small degree, even if it was just to say the simplest of phrases, "yes", "no", "good", "thank you", "Your mother is a classy lady", you know, the simple stuff! (No joke, I did actually learn the latter, it got people interested in what I was saying!)

        I can see how we can fall into addictions and stuff like that, when you have this need to let it all out, but lack the ability to do so, all you want is to scream and shove all the bottled up emotions out of you! I think this is going to give me a newfound appreciation for expression, it really is great, I would advise anyone reading this to give a sponsored silence, a go, even if it's just for a day. Raise money for charity (You can give it to my habitat fund, if you like :P), learn some sign language (not mandatory, but it helps!) and as they say, you don't realise how much you need something tell it's gone, so give it up for a day! You'll appreciate the next day just that much more. Just a few tips:

-Let people know about it beforehand, so that you don't have to explain what you're doing.
-Get permission from your workplace or school if you're doing it there
-Learn some basic sign language (the region doesn't really matter)
-Make some little cards that say what the few signs you've learned are
-Print out a little sheet explaining what you're doing and why, for those who don't know!
-Most importantly, (though this might differ depending on your type of silence) get a notepad and a good, solid pencil. There are some things you need to write down that can't be communicated by a short game of charades!
And other than that you can manage!

      This whole not talking thing led me to reading a short story by Harlan Ellison Entitled "I Have no mouth, and I must scream". It's a sci-fi/horror story that won several awards some years ago, It's dark as midnight and frightening as the grave, and more than a little worrying. To put it bluntly, the author wrote of hell. If you've read "Blue like jazz" than you'll understand what I mean when you read it. If you haven't read "Blue like jazz", you'll understand what I mean when you read it. It's not for the faint of heart, I assure you. Not safe for work, not safe for children, very deeply disturbing. It is Hell.