More stuff involving lights and nighttime.
With this one I really like how the lights on the visible part of Sydney Harbour Bridge appear. They feel like they’re detached, but they also imply the bridge’s structure (or at least part of it) quite well, I think.
I hope you enjoy.
This was a pretty quick photo from what I remember.
I was trying to get a sense of space and quite and I think I got that. This feels later in the night than it was. It feels like the area has gone to sleep.
I hope you enjoy.
Probably could’ve made this look more menacing.
This was taken whilst going on a photo walk with a friend a few weeks ago.
I was just mainly trying to capture the building and wondering if I could show its structure using mostly the lights. I think I was partially successful.
I hope you enjoy.
Just a moody photo of frogs that are part of a sculpture in Circular Quay.
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.
A lot of what people are submitting will likely end up here.
I hope you enjoy.
So I had too much coffee this morning and I’ve been on edge ever since. A good few hours now and today is not a good day for it. Somehow I’ve made it this far but now I need to extract all the caffeine from my system, but I need to work out how to do that with as little effort as possible.
Sure, I could wait for it to pass through and then that’s it. Done. But that takes time and that does not account for the fact that I have to go through the experience of it passing through me.
I could go outside and find someone to do some sort of transfusion tog et it all out of my system but that means going outside and I don’t want to do that. I don’t like to go outside, I don’t want to interact.
Maybe I can will the caffeine out of my system. Of course in doing that I need to work out how much willing I need to do. I need to make sure I don’t strain myself either as that could do some serious damage by amplifying the caffeine and turning me into a caffiend. I don’t feel much like doing that either.
I want to be able to relax and be lazy and not feel so on edge but I have done this to myself. Maybe if I drink the opposite of something caffeinated the caffeine will be attacked by whatever it is that I consume at that point and then there will be some sort of immortal battle going on in me until at last the caffeine is gone and I am back to some idea of normal, and that would be nice. That would be pleasant.
Now I need to work out what is the opposite of caffeine, but maybe what I actually need to work out is what the antithesis of caffeine is. I guess in this situation it also functions as the opposite but I need to be clear about what I am doing.
What if I never work it out and the caffeine never clears and this is just my life for the rest of my life? What if I then transcend my fleshy prison and become a being of pure caffeine? I don’t want to do that as that would mean stuff that I don’t know and I don’t want to explore that beyond something as a though experiment and so… yeah.
So now I’m stuck here, waiting, hoping to be out of the woods and being stuck with the beans and it’s taking it’s toll. I have to wait but I need to take action. I’m stuck firmly in the present when I need to enter the future whilst somehow keeping sight of the past. I’m flying in a way that is an eternal careening and I’m just waiting for the caffeine to clear my system, but it’s taking it’s time and I want to be free.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:11:02
I wrote this a good few hours ago and shortly after I did I came off my lunch break and everything was really busy. So yeah.
A fun bit of writing. Not anything particularly strong; just fun.
Written at home.
Trying to get this bit of writing done before the song that I’m listening to finishes as I want to do something else before I need to start getting ready for another day in paradise, as they say. I should probably turn the song up so I can hear it properly, and I just might, or I might not. It all depends on how things turn out and things are turning, and out, I might add.
So today is one of those days where it is going to be hot and it is an unusual heat, though perhaps not unexpected at this point in time, considering how things have been going in the name of progress and reliance and all that. It’s unfortunate and it’s concerning, and it is it.
No one wants to read about concerns and worries, however, and so perhaps it is better for me to just pretend that everything is fine. After all, how does one look at worries in the space of one day and think that matters over the course of a long period of time? But it does. It matters more than my lack of articulation and coherence, but that’s not for here as what here is for is for the nonsense and the rambling and the not discussing issues that are faced by the individual and the collective.
So now I shall tip my hat and try to work out how to take this into lighter territory. The room I’m in is shaded due to being in the shadow of some other structure known as another house, but the light is outside. Therefore, the way to make this writing happier is to go outside and stand in the sun where it will be quite hot and unusually for this time of year so I’ll need to pretend that this isn’t unusual and this has always happened.
I’ll do this and as I do this I’ll get on with the getting on and I’ll look through eras and rewrite my own memory of everything and then I’ll go from there to somewhere else and you get the idea.
As much as I’d like to pretend that things are okay, I can’t. I can’t pretend to be hopeful anymore. There still is hope and I still believe that we can turn things around but I’m no longer hopeful. I have difficulty holding onto that belief and I have trouble trying to show people we can change for the better because the problem is bigger than them, which it is, but it also isn’t.
Something I like to say is that everyone is fine with science until it becomes inconvenient for them to do so, and I think that’s happening much more these days. It’s a bit like abuse; many talk big but if they have to act, often they back down and deny, and at times choose to remain friends with the abuser and refuse to discuss. Not always, but sometimes.
That said, there is change and to ignore that is not good. However, change is not happening as quickly as perhaps it should and that is where the problem lies.
Quite often we can live below our means and still live incredibly comfortable lives and we don’t, and perhaps that’s our own fault and perhaps that’s the fault of large corporations. WE should hold large corporations to task for their impact, as well as individuals who are quite happy to be intensive with resources for no justifiable reason, but we should also look at what we do and do not do. It’s quite easy to be complicit in a wide range of issues just because we personally benefit. It can be difficult to cut a bunch of things out, but it is not impossible.
Change for the better takes time but it’s worthwhile. It’s worth going through all that that entails and it’s worth going through the process of education and empathy. There are a lot of people who don’t need to drive and choose to do so regardless, just as there are a lot of corporations who choose to greenwash to make themselves more attractive rather than take actual steps.
It’s always good to bear in mind that carbon offsets are good, but giving an organisation money to do so serves no real purpose unless you see tangible results. Oftentimes that’s just a band-aid anyway as it’s reduction that needs to happen; not offsetting. That said, it’s also good to bear in mind that offsetting is a step toward something better, but that better has to come. Otherwise nothing ends up changing.
I think at this point I’m nearing the end of a third song but that’s okay. This has gone on longer than I suspected it would and I’m writing about something I’m highly concerned about. Perhaps it’s in a pretty scattered manner, but I’m still writing this and maybe it’ll get someone to think more about what we can do to enact more positive change in the struggle against our impact on the climate, because at this point it’s a pretty heavy struggle.
Habitat restoration is a massive factor in preventing further damage and so that’s always something to consider, as is our reduction in consumption. It’s always good to get involved where you can. Join in community work, help out where you can. It’s not just about the environment; it’s also about community and so we should be doing what we can where we can.
The problem is bigger than the individual, that is true, but we can do so much more and we don’t. We’re happy to let things slide in the name of our own desires and… yeah. I think I’ve said enough.
Anyway, I’m on the fourth song now and I think I’ll go and do some things before I do some more rambling this morning. Might try to not think about the unusual heat as no one wants to read about that, as it’s saddening.
The time it took to write one thousand words: 19:48:28
I was hoping to do five-hundred words but when I got near that amount I couldn’t succinctly close and I still had more so I kept going. Then a few hundred more words after I began struggling. I think the stuff I’ve said is important but I think it can be said much better.
Written at home.
One listen for this one.
I think that some of this is alright and some of it not. I got caught up on trying to describe a part which led to me falling behind a fair bit and then struggling to catch up. I think I could’ve written more had I allowed myself a second listen but I didn’t and so… yeah.
Massive Attack’s “Heat Miser” is from Protection.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Keys seem to rain on down and bounce whilst something sounding like air being moved repeats. Soon a beat appears and strikes steady, and it’s not long after that when the keys stop and change into something else more “low” and relaxed and soft. Perhaps here a space is implied in the slinky coolness, but it’s hard to tell.
Soon a bassy pulse plays out as a melody for keys to move along and flicker off. Eventually that pulse rises and sound changes, and that coolness remains. In it there’s an edge, though not a sharpness. Perhaps it is menace, or some sort of getting the upper hand.
The sound loops back to that move and flicker, but there is added context, and it continues on, and that menace remains lurking, creeping, reaching in and succeeding but not quite taking over.
The song returns to when it was raining keys, air and a beat and soon the beat drops away, and the keys slow down and stop and the song ends.
Here’s another photo of my Prunus x blireana in bloom in this year, and like the other two shared thus far it also features a bee.
I like working on growing my plants and I like seeing them thrive. Sometimes it’s hard work, but sometimes it’s relaxing as, like many things, it provides a little bit of space, so to speak.
This is my submission into the two hundred-and-sixty-seventh Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Recharge“.
The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:
Week 1 – Tina
Week 2 – Patti
Week 3 – Ann-Christine aka Leya
Week 4 – Amy
Week 5 – John Steiner
Week 6 – Sofia Alves
Week 7 – Anne Sandler
Week 8 – Donna
Week 9 – Guest host
Egidio of Through Brazilian Eyes is guest-curating this one. The next is curated by Tina.
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.
I did it again. I was writing and I reset the timer and so now I’m just hammering away once more, hoping to get this done in a timely manner. I hadn’t written too much but it is frustrating but there’s little I can do about it now.
I guess I could’ve just kept writing without a timer abut that wouldn’t nearly be as “fun” for me and so that is not what I am going to do at this particular juncture in time. Instead I’ll continue on this new path and see where it takes me. Perhaps across deserts or into mountains or through snow and all those other things that make everything sound like a journey of the massive.
I don’t know why I do this to myself. I don’t know why I accidentally reset a timer. I don’t know and so on and so forth and I don’t know how the cosmos is the way it is at this particular point in time, and I also don’t know what it will be in the future. I’m sure I could guess for the next seventeen minutes, but for now I cannot work it out and so I’m not going to try and work it out.
Also because I’d rather focus on my field of study and some other things, so… yeah.
So anyway, I’m sitting here and I’m bemoaning my fate, and I’m also hearing some nice music. There were some birds that were audible that were outside before and now they’re not. They must’ve gone somewhere where they cannot be seen. Or heard from where I currently am. They were gone before I accidentally reset the timer and that’s a thing. That’s a shame. Or maybe it is not; I am yet to work it out and I don’t know if I can work it out, or even if I care to work it out. There are other things that I want to deal with, such as the need to get ready for work as soon that will be upon me and then I’ll need to get through that.
I wonder if the day will carry me forward in a way that I can truly appreciate, or if it will all collapse by the wayside as it folds in on itself and then I’m stuck here with this neat little package that I then need to deliver to tomorrow so tomorrow can open it and it then becomes another day. I wonder if I am merely a courier of moments and they are all inconsequential from some angles and highly important from other angles.
Perhaps all we ever do is carry moments forward and deliver them to others and then they’re no longer ours and that’s it and that’s all we ever do, and there’s nothing else to it. That’s fine as we still get to live our lives and sometimes that is enough. Sometimes it is not, but sometimes it is and that’s not the worst.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:52:14
Was pretty fast on this one.
I feel like I was quite close to touching on something worth exploring and then I kind of veered away.
Written at home.
For a few months I’ve wanted to do some more MS Paint images based on reference photos of my hands I took earlier this year. These two are based on this photo which I thought would work well.
Originally I was only going to do only the monochrome version. When cleaning up the image I used some colours to help better see what I was doing which led to the first result. I quite like both; they have differing feels, though I like the colour one a little more.
This was started yesterday and finished today.
I hope you enjoy.
Stupidity Hole 