1:  Thursday, January 31, 2012, 12:17 pm, 714 Alliance Hall

2:  Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you.

There’s the distant, tinny beep of a truck backing up somewhere in the sprawl of adjacent parking lots.  There’s also the hissing sound of the wind rioting at upwards of 35 miles an hour, lashing the side of the building and making faint screaming sounds against the seams of my windows.

3:  Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you.

The boys two doors down have rigged their deadbolt to not lock automatically, so that they don’t have to pay for their misplaced keys.  But they must have left a window open, because their door keeps opening and closing with the tide of air pressure, the now impotent locking mechanism making fluid, metallic clicks as it slides out of its place before the door swishes open and then shut with a heavy thud.  The Resident Assistant on next door in the other direction asks someone on the phone about his “reservation.”

4: Identify and list the sounds closest to you (You can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant).

My fingers tap percussively on my keyboard; the keys are shallow and make clicks as soft as the exoskeletons of wayward insects, throwing their bodies against a light in a dark room.  My heating unit pushes out air with a constant, fuzzy hum.  I can also hear air hitting the inside of my nose as I inhale sporadically.

5: Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity.

There is a lot of varied sound outside my room, but none so loud or close that the most minute of sounds cannot be heard in my own room.

6: Assign a one-word description to the “sound environment”.