Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1584: The Search for Inspiration

I was going to write about how stressed I am right now. It has been an incredibly intense morning, full of unnecessary pressure, and none of it is related to work. It’s more heaviness for little reason, and I’m feeling more and more like an emotional punching bag, and I don’t know for much much longer I can do it. I don’t want to write about that, however.

What I do want to write about is the lack of knowing what to write about. I want to explore that and see where it goes. See where it leads. Sure, I’ve done that before. I’ve done that way too many times and that, too is unnecessary at this stage, but that’s what I want to write about. I want to write about that and write about being some sort of adventurous explorer who goes on adventures and explores in order to work out what to write. You know, the well of inspiration has been tapped, and so they feel that, in order to awake their restless spirit and write with the great poignancy they believe they are entitled to, they must explore and all of that stuff.

And so off exploring I’d go, and I’d look under and above water. I’d cross great oceans, visit cultures I am ignorant in the ways of, find myself lost and feeling lonely and isolated, and I’d wonder about all of this. I’d wonder about what it all means and how I am a part of it, but I’m not, and perhaps, eventually, I’d figure out that all I’m doing is running away. It wouldn’t quite be obvious at first, but gradually it keep creeping in.

How this would be happening is my lack of inspiration from what’s around me. It’d be what I’m seeing that is out there, and all this wonder which would carry with it a profound sense of overwhelming age and experience, and my increasing feelings of insignificance and appreciation, and none of it, whilst absolutely fantastic, would actually inspire me. None of it would fill my well. None would quell my dissatisfaction.

So eventually I’d realise, and I’d realise that on the way home, after giving up on all this work and effort that I’d put into trying to find a new source of inspiration, that it was all at home and I was looking for something that hadn’t run out, but rather I had not worked out how to keep making the most of it, and it took all of this journeying to work all of that out, and all this time and experience. It was all appreciated and it opened my eyes, but it did not cause me to stir and rise, and it didn’t lead to new frontiers in writing, and so I am left wondering what to write about, and how I keep digging into what was already there for me, waiting to be dug into.

Hard life and all that, this looking for inspiration stuff.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:06:86

Speed’s okay. Slowed down a bit, had to think about what I was writing and where it was going. Don’t think the result is great, but I do like the silliness.

Written at work.

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Hitoshi Sakimoto: EndSector Borough

One listen. Threw myself into it, knocked this out. Brief moment where I stumbled early on, but kept going.

The song made me think more about Dragon Quarter‘s themes than I have in a long time, and I think that’s a good thing. I do want to write about it eventually. Did a long time ago in a way that, whilst the intent was good, revealed a lot of the writing experience I lacked at the time. I’d like to make another attempt and dig further into what the game explores.

Hitoshi Sakimoto’s (崎元 仁) “EndSector Borough” (“最下層区街”) is from Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter‘s soundtrack, Breath Of Fire V – Dragon Quarter: Original Soundtrack. The soundtrack was also released as part of Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box a soundtrack collection of the soundtracks for Breath of Fire I through to V.

I hope you enjoy.

It’s a set of sad sounds wafting in. There’s a sort of acceptance for the lower lot in life, and it feels as though each day is an increasing struggle. Something shines above, and maybe it’s just a glimmer of hope. A longing for a tomorrow that will never be theirs. And so they eke out a meagre existence, and one that is slowly disappearing.

The days blend and what is desired is denied, and so living among the wreck, in the darkness, is the best that can be obtained. And the sounds weigh heavy, and little changes. It’s a low point and it’s one that is chosen on behalf of, and so surviving is the best that can be done as desire disappears when the sounds stop flowing, and the song ends.

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Hitoshi Sakimoto: Origin

One listen.

A lot of this came from where I remember the song being used. I have a slight suspicion that my memory is not accurate regarding this, but I’m not fussed. Anyway, the writing was heavily affected by my memory of where the song is used, and I’m not sure if I represented the song well, but I do like the result.

Hitoshi Sakimoto’s (崎元 仁) “Origin” (“オリジン”) is from Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter‘s soundtrack, Breath Of Fire V – Dragon Quarter: Original Soundtrack. The soundtrack was also released as part of Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box a soundtrack collection of the soundtracks for Breath of Fire I through to V.

I hope you enjoy.

Voices express a mystery and reverence. A sudden shock of seeing what is unknown, hidden away in a darkened murk. They tell of something spoken of in legend, only found to be real. Fable being history, and history found in the present.

The voices call and seek, and look to connect. What is new and not understood, perhaps difficult to fully comprehend, is now here, and seeks to change the order of things. It changes the trajectory of a life, and it raises questions that perhaps weren’t thought of before.

An unshakeable conviction begins to form in this reverent space, and purpose is given to follow. And in moving forward, the voices fade and the song ends.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 262: Boredom Rambling

Cold and warm at the same time. Almost no temperature. Room temperature. Feeling out the day in room temperature.

Feeling out where the writing will go in room temperature.

I’m about to have a rather heavy and intense week. A lot of writing. A lot more than usual. A lot of staring out windows. A lot of finding my way and waying my find, and right now it’s just about getting to the bottom of the writing and finding where the text lies. Confronting text and getting to the end of it all. Finding what lies ahead. A heading lies, what finds. And so on and so forth.

There’s a certain vapidity and subsequent emptiness I’m finding in the cycle of working and getting work done, and maybe I’m just feeling my age, or something. Maybe I’m yearning to break out of a cycle. It’s coming soon though, so I don’t know what I could be yearning for. I do know, however, that I will keep going after all is said and done. It’s all I have; the power to keep going, and it’s all I can embrace at the end of the day. Well, there are other things that I can embrace, but you know. Moody and pensive and reflective and all that.

The weather has not turned out as predicted, and that may be a good thing. Need it to hold for a few days, but right now I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying seeing the clouds drift on over from the top of a building and pass through blinds that aren’t solid. These blinds make things slightly fuzzy, and that I find interesting. It’s still the same world out there, but some of the detail is lost. Some of it muffled and so it gains this slightly vague quality. Like watching old film footage that, whilst preserved as well as it can be, has undeniably aged. Is less sharp than it could be. It’s like that, but also, not quite. I don’t know how to put it into words, what it’s like exactly, but that’s a pretty decent approximation for a lazy attempt, I feel.

I’ve been asked if I’m fine for quiet periods, and I said I was, and I am. I have a lot of things I can do right now, and I’ll still have a lot of things I can do later. At least, if there is an expectation for me to entertain myself, I know that this is something that I can do. I know that I can take solace in my needing to entertain myself, and that’s a good thing. Maybe a bad thing, too, but it’s a good thing. Plenty of writing, not enough time, but there never is enough time.

And so the day continues on and the afternoon draws long. I’m just sitting here, trying to fill a quiet time. Trying to fill a silence and finding where the meaning lies. This silence is not one to embrace. It’s not a way of doing things. It’s time that’s quiet, and it draws itself out. It spreads and fills, and it increases my yearning to break out of a cycle. Or rather, it increases me wondering if this is what I want to be doing. If this is where I want to be.

I do want to be where I am. I do want to be doing what I want to be doing. I don’t know if I want to be here, specifically, though. I miss the brief work I’ve done in the arts, and it was certainly brief. Sure, I still do gig photography, but that’s a different form of work. That’s a different exploration, and if I could get paid to do that I’d be over the moon, but it’s not happening and so I just keep going. I keep powering on and ploughing on through, and I work at a place I want to work and I feel I am contributing. It’s just not fulfilling work, I guess. On one hand I’m fine with that; if I’m doing the things I want to do, I don’t mind. On the other, I’m feeling myself wanting to look elsewhere. Wanting to go elsewhere.

I guess I’m just dissatisfied with everything. Or not.

The days tick away, I’ve got some work but maybe not enough, and it keeps on going. But if I had more I’d probably be far to stressed to do much of anything. Then I’d be even more annoyed. Realistically, I think I might just be restless. Tired of sitting in one spot for long, you know, those sorts of things. The work is fine, but it’s not nourishing and little changes. It keeps going, I keep pushing forward, I feel myself desiring productivity and there’s not enough to be productive with, but that’s okay.

It is good that I can do just about what I want whilst it’s quiet. It is good that I can capitalise on this. I’m trying to take advantage of this as best I can. I just don’t know how long I can stick it out. But I try. There are people who have it far worse than I do, and I try to keep that in mind. This is not a bad spot to be in. In a way it feels like a reward for sticking out call centre work for as long as I did. As though the universe has said I’ve suffered enough. That’s okay. That’s fine. Brilliant, even. Great.

So what to say from here? I’m staring out a window, looking at a sanded back, smoothed outside area. I can see shadows and I can see clouds, and everything moves slowly and quickly, and little changes. It all keeps going. This is fine. This is okay. I just need to keep getting through the days the best that I can. Soon it’ll be time to head on home, and the days will continue onward. Everything will keep on going.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 15:07:25

A decent enough speed, but a really boring bit of writing. I’m glad it touches on boredom and dissatisfaction with work, though I probably could’ve said the same with fewer words.

Written at work.

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Underworld: A Moth at the Door

One listen, and I’m surprised I got this much out of the song. I was a bit looser with this one than I was with the other writings today, and that’s good. It all just came forward. There was a little active thinking, but that stopped early on.

I’m not sure how well this represents the song. I think it does in a way, but there are probably other things I could have said that would’ve covered it better.

Underworld’s “A Moth at the Door” is from DriftDrift is a series of experimental releases. The first set is comprised of songs and videos Underworld put out between 2018 and 2019. They were also compiled both as a series of EPs and a full release known as Drift Series 1 – Complete. “A Moth at the Door” was on the EP EP 5: Game and also included on the Complete release.

I hope you enjoy.

A gentle calm, almost as though a breath taken after a stressful situation. Tension releases as voice repeats. A recovery commencing, and bits and pieces of other sounds here and there. Gentle, gentle, gently, and it’s almost heavenly. It’s drifting sound, moving toward wherever next, drifting around itself, and the vocals disappear.

These are tender sounds. Fragile, almost. They play light and easy, and then all grows quiet.

From the silence a chorus grows, and the melody returns with it. It grows and grows, and keeps that tenderness. Keeps that fragility, and there seems something dark within all of this. Something perhaps more violent and intense, but that peace is still there. Perhaps as a thin veneer, easily penetrated. Maybe that violence is an emotional release; a vetting among tears and howls as emotion overwhelms, and the words are trying to comfort, to bring someone back down to earth.

It could also just be a wondering about the nature of our world, and watching things recover and move away, and grow and spread, and it all changes and fades out and away, fading into nothingness as the song ends.

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Go Ichinose: Pokè Mart

One listen.

I pretty much wrote everything in the first two sentences. From there it was stretching. I feel I could’ve gone deeper into what was going on, or about where this piece is used, but I didn’t. Oh well.

Go Ichinose’s (一之瀬剛) “Pokè Mart” (“フレンドリィショップ”) is from GBA Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire Music Super Complete and Nintendo 3DS Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Super Music Complete. These soundtracks cover RubySapphire and Emerald, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The version I wrote about is the original version.

I hope you enjoy.

Energetic percussion with a bit of a skip in its step before keys slide down and everything moves into a bop. There’s energy and life in this, and it sounds inviting and joyous. It’s a place to be.

The sounds move neither quickly nor slowly. They keep a space and flow, and the rhythm stays steady and upbeat. The melody changes and there’s a little pause in there. Perhaps as a way of asking which way to go, how to move forward, what is needed, and it’s all kept brief enough. Brief, brisk and pushing onward as the sounds fade and the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1583: Eventually Someone Will Arrive

Right now I have to play the waiting game. I’m desperate to use the bathroom, but I’m the only one here. Being the only one here, I have to wait for someone to show up before I can use the bathroom. It’s a terrible spot to be in.

I’m waiting. I’m listening to the rain and I’m waiting. Yes, it’s raining again. I find this annoying as I need the grass around my place to dry so I can mow it and keep it short so it doesn’t overgrow and all that stuff. What a life. What a tough life for me.

I’m waiting and I need to use the bathroom, and part of my thoughts are going “Hey, you should try and come up with something that says something interesting. something that says something about the condition of society as it currently stands”. Part of my thoughts are going “Why are you writing when you need to use the bathroom? Isn’t it interesting that you need to use the bathroom? Have you considered that, as you need to use the bathroom, you need to use the bathroom?”, and other continuing forms of importance through in forms of nonsense.

At least I have some quiet, but I’m itching and scratching and I need to get moving. Oh please, won’t someone appear? Won’t someone show up and allow me to get moving, with the potential of grooving thrown in for good measure? How do I deal with this? How do I get through these horrible minutes if I am forced to tolerate a state of discomfort, and it is taking away everything from me? I cannot think, I cannot walk, I cannot move away, and I have obligations to attend to.

This is where my life has led. This is where I now sit and this is the torment that I must now endure. That I must now suffer. I go through it all and I hope for the best, but hoping won’t resolve anything. I cannot take action. I must become as though I am stone. I must become hardened and one with the earth. With nature. I must watch time and shadow draw long, and I must remain in one position, and I must do my best to overcome this grave transgression placed upon my being. Etched upon my soul. How do I? How can I? Is there any point in hoping, or is everything a lost cause held upon silence as it screams, screams loudly, erasing all other things and scraping the space clean?

Eventually someone will arrive. I know that much. I will be able to leave this chair. I will be able to leave this desk. I must hold out until then. I must not lose myself to discomfort. I need to keep on going and I will become some sort of enlightened being, or something. It takes time, but the path to understanding is never an easy one, and I am one to walk it.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:00:33

A fun bit of writing that came from discomfort. Stretching a bit in it, but I like how it turned out.

Written at work.

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Kimitaka Matsumae: The Act of Gehena ~ The Imprisonment

One listen and got through it, and I was thinking that this would be more about some wondrous cosmic exploration or something similar. Instead what came to mind as I was writing was a fathomless being weaving intricacies that could only be understood superficially, or rather an effect of them, or something similar. Somewhat like seeing just the tip of something significantly greater, if that makes sense.

Kimitaka Matsumae’s (松前公高) “The Act of Gehena ~ The Imprisonment” (“ゲヘナの業〜封印”) is from Tamamayu Monogatari Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu.

I hope you  enjoy.

A deepness spreads and above it, some sort of otherworldly, perhaps cosmic, sound scatters and spreads thinly. Something drips in rhythm, and seemingly there are long, considered breaths taken. This is almost a swirling upon an eternal plain of existence, and something seems dire here, as it does a process. A step.

And the sounds spread and continue their movement, and that scattering flickers in and out rapidly, in instances, and disappears, and the deepness fades away, and sounds continue breathing. Breathing and lingering, until they come to their stop and the song ends.

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Kimitaka Matsumae: The Divine Tree

One listen, and this one felt really easy to just knock out. Probably feels a bit small and simple, and it is. Admittedly, going into this I was hoping to really build a scene of great spiritual appreciation, or at least natural appreciation and that didn’t come through, partly because that’s not where the writing went and partly because I’m not good enough a writer to be as articulate as I want. Still, I think this turned out well.

Kimitaka Matsumae’s (松前公高) “The Divine Tree” (“御神木”) is from Tamamayu Monogatari Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu.

I hope you  enjoy.

Refreshing sounds create a reverence, and perhaps a breathlessness. Also a peace. A calm. A space seemingly protected, or rather a space respected. Thought deeply upon, explored. A space considered.

Slow moves the air, and lush the space appears. It holds frozen outside of time as though protected by great care and desire, and all in it seems deliberate. All seems massive, overwhelming and brings a peace. A calm. And continues to do so as the sounds fade and the song ends.

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Kimitaka Matsumae: The Blue Cocoon Master ~ Koris

One listen.

I thought I was done with this soundtrack. Put it on for my bus ride this morning, heard some stuff that caught my ear in a way it hadn’t before, decided to churn out a few more scribbles.

I don’t know what was going on here. I went more for imagery, or rather a sense of expression and it kind of works. Kind of doesn’t. Oh well.

Kimitaka Matsumae’s (松前公高) “The Blue Cocoon Master ~ Koris” (“青の繭使い〜コリス”) is from Tamamayu Monogatari Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu.

I hope you  enjoy.

A heavy and important tune starts playing, and the sounds keep it going. Percussion, strings and a whistle or woodwind continue on, pressing, urging and showing some reverence. Among it a sense of adventure; a sense of the dramatic flows forward as the sounds lower and lower, deferring to wisdom and experience.

They continue on, as though carrying upon a breeze. As though following a wind to wherever it directs, and that sense of adventure remains, and perhaps a little ridiculousness, too. But it is difficult to linger on that, for the music urges. It urges to press on and look forward, and it keeps going steady, continuing on to follow words.

Eventually everything pulls away, leaving one sound to fade out at the song’s end.

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