Raised in Celebration

Posted on May 7, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

This is one of the members of Shonen Knife. Here’s a photo of all three members, but this one is just one.

Not sure why I wrote that.

Anyway, this is just a nice moment, I think. A fun band to see perform. I strongly recommend doing so if you can.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. This theme for this one comes from Mrs. Claire Gutknecht, and it is “Emotions“.

Participating is pretty straightforward and something I recommend. If you do, then include the tag “monochrome-madness” in your post. If not participating, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography as well as what other people submit.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1359: What a Week

Posted on May 7, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

What a week. What an improvement in environment.

Right now I don’t have the time to type out everything that has happened, but all I’ll say is that what is expected – a movement into a more positive and healthy environment – does wonders. Unsurprising, really.

There was a lot of darkness in my previous job. A lot of heaviness, and a lot of lack of accountability from management, and in a new environment things are already better. I feel healthier, both mentally and physically. I feel as though a heavy weight has lifted ever-so-slightly. I want to do the work that I have, and I think that that’s an awesome thing. Don’t know if it is, but I think its awesome.

So it has been a busy week and I’ve taken it easy. Broke my posting streak, though perhaps that’s a good thing. It’s good to relax and not worry about those things sometimes, I think. Better things out there to worry about and all that stuff. Now I’m here, at home, relaxing. Taking it easy. Trying to scramble to get a bunch of things done before I hit the hay and move into the land of sleep, resting my eyes and getting into a state of nice and heavy rest. It will be where I spend the time resting, and resting is what I want to do. I need it, for it has been a busy and productive time, and rest is good and all that stuff.

So, beyond that, what else can I say? I’m sitting here and relaxing despite being busy, and I look forward to switching off for the night, I look forward to finding more rest and getting into a state of great rest, and I’m looking forward to waking up in the morning, hopefully rested, and hopefully rested well. Yet to see, of course, but you never know, except for when you do, but I don’t know what I am saying at this point.

I like this new space and I like the people I work with, not that I didn’t like the people I worked with before. Just, there’s less pressure and toxicity interspersed among the people I am now around, and I don’t have managers not accepting accountability and breaching out employment codes. Of course it is early days, but I have a good feeling about it all, and I think that’s nice. It’s nice to feel good about something. It’s nice to feel a sense of ease and feel like you’ve more energy to do the thing you’re employed to do.

It’s nice to be in an environment where management doesn’t imply in writing that you’re a liar when you have irrefutable evidence that you didn’t lie about something.

Anyway, it’s nice to breathe. It’s nice to be walking more and it’s nice to not be working from home at the moment. Sure, I have less time to do things, but I’m getting much more done, and I like that I am.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:47:22

Slow, but I’m not fussed. Could be slower.
More concerned about how little I said. I’m fairly certain I could’ve said more.
Alas.

Written at home.

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Trail of Moonlight

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

I went for a drive a few nights ago. I wanted to go to a spot and get some night photos, so… yeah. Drove there.

I wasn’t expecting the moon to be as visible and as bright as it was, but it was a nice thing to have, so I tried to work with it. Got the below long exposure and I think it turned out well enough.

Ultimately I want to redo this as I know it can be much better. There are some issues with the photo that I could probably resolve with better framing, and I think I may have exposed for too long, though I’m not sure on that one.

I do like how the land obscures the moonlight trail. It feels kind of firm and blunt, and I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but I like that hard cut. Makes the trail seem less unlimited.

I hope you enjoy.

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Cleaning Motion

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Another photo of this ibis.
Different motion, and perhaps this one making the ibis look less like an ibis, or something.
Still, it feels dramatic in a way, and yet not dramatic at all.

I hope you enjoy.

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In Morning’s Shadow

Posted on April 28, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

It has been a while since I processed a photo in this manner. I decided to try this processing out on this particular photo as I already had processed a a few Sydney CBD ones from around the time taking this one, and I thought it would work here. Personally I think it did, though perhaps I could’ve been less aggressive with the shadows.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-ninety-seventh Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Music to my Eyes“.

A good deal of the time when I’m taking photos I’m not thinking about or listening to music. Gig photography is the main exception to this, but even then I’m not always thinking about what I’m hearing, which might not be a good thing. I don’t know.

Anyway, I’d say that perhaps Midnight Oil’s “Outside World” fits this to an extent. final’s “Dead Air” also fits, as does Infusion’s “Continental Drift”, but again, only to an extent, and for final and Infusion, more in mood and atmosphere than anything lyrically specific.

The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:

Tina

Patti

Ann-Christine aka Leya

John Steiner

Sofia Alves

Anne Sandler

Donna

Egídio

Ritva

Egídio is curating this one. Next week Tina is curating.

I recommend participating in the challenges as they provide a fun way to interpret theme. If not participating, then at least you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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Centrepoint at the Bridge

Posted on April 27, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

More experimenting; more scene layering with one photo.
Like this one, I want to see if I can do this better.

I like the faded appearance. There’s probably an argument for it evoking how memory can layer upon itself and mix things up.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1358: About Eight Minutes

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

I’ve only about eight minutes to write this and I’m gonna write this in under seven minutes. Maybe under five. We’ll see.

Why do I only have that much time? Currently “Stairway to Heaven” is playing and I figured “I need to get something done now as there’s a lot to do in the next hour or so, and I also need to go buy stuff” and so… yeah. Really there’s no reason for me to be writing right now, but I am galvanised and so I want to see if I can do this, but I am writing slowly, or at least it feels slow. I could be writing a lot faster than I realise that I am, and I know that I am making a few mistakes and I’ll go and clean those up soon enough, but right now I won’t.

So now I’ve written all that and I can’t help but wonder as to where I should go from here. I wonder if buying a new album is a bit like an artist, or band, or whatever releasing a new album after a certain point in their career: Some, most, or all of the songs being played live during the supporting tour, then most of them being dropped later on in favour of more of the older material.

Of course there’s a need to find balance, especially the more releases you have, but it does make me think about that. How often do we get something new, appreciate it for a bit, then go back to our classics?

Anyway, maybe I’m thinking about this too much. Maybe not enough. Right now I just want to beat “Stairway to Heaven”. I don’t want to get diet philosophical as, quite frankly, I don’t think I have enough thought in me right now to do so. Also, it feels like a cheap grab and I don’t want to be doing those, though I certainly have done plenty of those here.

So soon the day will lie ahead but it is already passing me by. It is passing me by and I’m chasing after it into some sort of horizon that lies far, far away, and it is endless, but there is an end to this run. However, I wouldn’t stop moving, or at least I’d try to not stop moving as there’s plenty of stuff to do still, and all that fun stuff.

Well, I don’t think I’ll make it under six minutes, but I’m close to under seven, I think. But right now I need to not think about that. “Stairway to Heaven” is nearly over and I’m running out of time and I need to get on with it. Should’ve started when the song started, really, but I don’t think I’ll make it, but maybe I will. I guess I’m glad it’s the Celebration Day version and not the original, though I don’t think that counts for very much, but maybe it does. Who knows? Maybe no one.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:38:08

Finished just as the song was, and the audience started cheering.
I should say something self-aggrandising here, but I won’t as I shouldn’t.
Anyway, there’s something here that I might expand upon later on. Not sure. I think it is worth expanding upon, but I don’t know if I will.

Written at home.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1357: Tired of Course!

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Alright, so what have I done today? Other than an overwhelming amount of nothing?

Why, be tired of course!

So I’m tired and it has been a long day of nothing, but it has been the good kind of nothing. Tomorrow will be the bad kind of something and that will involve doing quite a lot. It will involve a herculean effort, and by that I mean a small amount of effort as I work toward getting some stuff done before work and hopefully after work too. It will all depend on how much I get done… or something.

Soon I will go to sleep and close my eyes, and when I do that I will drift off to the land of dreams where I shall see some dreams happen and some dreams not happen, and I wonder as to where they will lead me.

Well, I don’t, but I do. You know.

So for now I sit here and I type this out, but tomorrow will arrive sooner than expected if I’m not careful, and then what? I will have procrastinated on sleeping and that is something I definitely want to avoid. On the list of priorities, avoiding sleeping is quite high up. Therefore, I need to make sure I actually to go to bed and, subsequently, fall asleep and therefore into a deep lull in action.

I’ll be in a state of being without my guard up, and I’ll have my eyes closed and I’ll make little sleep sounds, and it will carry me to another state and that state will be one of being awake, but I don’t know if I’ll be awake or if I’ll be in a dream. I don’t know where I’ll be or where I won’t be, unless of course I am aware of where I am, in which case I will be aware. That’s how it goes, anyway.

So I think that I should probably start getting ready for bed, but I still have a few things I want to take care of, and I’m all sorts of excited and concerned about the new job approaching, but I think I can do it. I think I can get there, but I’m also really tired and so my excitement isn’t going to keep me awake… I hope. Maybe it will.

If I am kept awake by my excitement, I won’t know what to do. Maybe I’ll go for a drive or a walk somewhere. Maybe both. Maybe I’ll go explore the sea from a dry place, and then I’ll write about it all and that will then be followed by going to sleep. Maybe it won’t, but maybe it will. Right now it is too early to tell, but maybe it is too late and I’m just wondering things in a circle of words and that circle is enclosing, and soon I’ll be trapped and I don’t know what will happen from there.

Probably nothing, but sometimes you never know with these things.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:11:86

I like most of this. Could be better, but it’s the right kind of silly, I think.

Written at home.

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Microphone Moment

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

A recent gig photo.

This one mostly came through in processing. How it was originally was fine, but I decided to push it as I thought the photo would work with stronger contrasts. I think the result is much moodier, and maybe in some manner, more intense, than how it was originally.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week.

Participating is pretty straightforward and something I recommend. If you do, then include the tag “monochrome-madness” in your post. If not participating, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography as well as what other people submit.

I hope you enjoy.

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Weathering Rock

Posted on April 23, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

I really liked how the erosion affected the structure here, and I still do. That said, I ‘m wondering if I could’ve framed this better. I don’t think it leaves too much to wonder about what’s outside the frame, though maybe it leaves enough.

I hope you enjoy.

 

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