February 4th
Salutations, my name is Allen. I do struggle with introductions, so we shall skip that part and move forward.

I thought a diary would be a superb place to organize my thoughts and thinkings. Some of the most renowned scientists religiously practiced journaling, and historians discuss journals as "entryways into the minds of our best." I would not call myself one of the best, but I do quietly dream of romantic, posthumous acclaim.

As I said, my name is Allen, and this is my diary.

February 6th
Today, in an effort to advance my knowledge of the world around me, I explored the other side of the fishbowl. You know, it really does not differ much from the first side. In fact, I believe the two to be identical. Tomorrow I plan on furthering my observations.

February 7th
Yes, after serious examination, I believe my findings from yesterday are correct: the two sides of the fishbowl are, in reality, not so different as I had thought. By volume, shape, color, and mass they are congruent. It's funny I had never imagined such similarity.

Tonight, to spawn some much needed variance in my life, I shall sleep on the other side of the fishbowl.

February 8th
Last night, as you know, I slept on the other side of the fishbowl. I had hypothesized an entirely different sleeping experience, and yet I was disappointed: nothing was changed.

A possible summation: while in a technically different location, being under the same sleeping conditions will usher an identical sleeping experience. It is something to ponder on, at the very least.

February 9th
What are "sides"? Here I am, with the two sectors of the fishbowl placed into the restricting idea of "sides", and yet I cannot imagine why I differentiated the two sectors in the first place. Frankly, where is the divide? The two sides of the fishbowl are tantamount, and they lie perfectly parallel to each other, so why can they not be one entity?

In fact, how can I know that I haven't already confused them? My goodness, I can't even tell which is which.

February 11th
The world around me is shrinking before my very eyes. Just three days ago I had perfect clarity of mind. Now, I do not know which ways are up, down, and around. I must continue research if I am to maintain any sort of grip on my life.

February 14th
I can only hope that these last few days were not spent in vain. The following theoretical experiments and their projected results are the fruits of my research:

Experiment 1:

Arrest your body and take a point. Move in the direction that is considered to be forward without any variation in headway direction. You should find that this motion could continue forever without ever returning to the point of origination.

Experiment 2:

Arrest your body and take a point. Move in the direction that is considered to be forward, but now choose a degree of directional variation. Move forward, but continue along the bearing of your chosen degree of directional variation. Hopefully you will find that this brings you back to the very point you chose at the beginning of this experiment - like you had traveled the shape of a ring.

If my findings from Experiments 1 and 2 are indeed correct, than the perimeter of world around me - the fishbowl - could be related to Experiment 2.

February 16th
There is not a doubt in my mind: the world around me, this place that I call home has a perimeter that does not allow for forward movement. My travel is restricted to the shape of a ring, a shape that I shall call a circle. And within this circle, there is no variance. I have destroyed the wall of divide, the "sides" with which I used to differentiate parts of this place. The fishbowl is one entity, and within this one entity there is no forward progress.

What a terrible thought, knowing that forward progress is impossible. I suppose I could apply this cruel knowledge perfectly to my own life: more than a week ago, I had a divine thirst for knowledge; I wanted so badly to expand my horizons of thought and perception that I delved into research that has put me into the dead-end of my life. Now, there is no more research to crave. I have found all that there is to find.