Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1247: Adapting and Growing

Posted on May 8, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

The day stretches long and the colour in the sky is weird right now, but I can’t see much of it, so who knows really.

Sitting here and very cold. Was going to write after some exercise as was warm. Decided to let myself cool down first. That wasn’t a good idea. Now I’m trying to push through being cold and I could just put more clothes on but apparently the idea of doing that is one that I don’t want to entertain.

Sitting here, waiting to stop sweating but I think I already did stop and I think I’m just sitting here for no reason whatsoever. I could be up and warming up and doing things but I’m not. I’m just sitting here, typing away, trying to get my hands to work properly and not be defeated by the cold. It makes typing feel so much slower than it should, but that’s life right now.

In this particular moment I am cold but I am sure that my state will soon change and I’ll be a bit warmer soon. It depends on what I do from here, because I could be doing a lot of things from here. I could be trying to escape the house due to a sudden onset of growth which would be so exceptional that I would need to get out of the house before I burst through it due to lacking the space to grow and all that.

Maybe I just need to get out of the house.

Maybe instead I should stay inside the house as there is a good chance that, for how cold I am right now it could be colder out there and why would I want to be colder than I am now? Unless there is some way to be able to grow resistant to the cold by being cold. In that case if I could adapt through exposure then perhaps it is better that I spend more time out in the cold.

Maybe I need to find a way to adapt and mutate and develop so that when I do grow too big for the house I’m prepared to enter the outside world and conquer it in a way that no one has ever seen before. In that happening then I would be free to pursue whatever destiny I desire and I’ll finally be free of all that constrains me. The cold won’t stop me and nor will the heat. My stride will be in leaps in bounds and my smoothness will be so mighty it will be beyond all reason. Logic will fall as it is reborn into something new and I’ll be there sipping my tea as I express motion in a way that far outstrips all and then I’ll be the one in charge.

I think I should go warm up now. I think I’ve had enough fanciness for one day. Then again, there are no limits and so it’s just fanciness until I sleep.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:08:56

A bit more fun. Really sloppy, but fun.

Written at home.

Posted in Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Sausage Took me out

Posted on May 8, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

The last two days (and today) have been wildly dull and it’s all due to a sausage.

On Saturday my partner and I were attending house inspections due to our need to move. Between the first and the second we stopped off at a cafe for breakfast. Decided it would be easier than eating at home due to the time between the first and second inspection.

Anyway, we ate, I got a side of sausage even though I’m working on minimising the amount of meat I eat for various reasons. Ate the sausage, it tasted not quite like a sausage I’d had before but it was fine.

We left and headed to the second place which, like the first, wasn’t something we could go for but not for the same reason. I then dropped my partner off near the last place as I had to start work when its inspection was on.

I came home, got ready for work and started feeling dizzy. Went to the bathroom, came back to my desk and sat there for a bit. Felt like I had to go to the toilet again, got up, walked a couple of metres and then had to lie on the floor as the dizziness was at its weakest lying down.

I slowly made my way to the bathroom. When my partner came home she saw me whilst I was trying to crawl and asked if I needed help whilst rushing over. Of course I said yes, but there was little that could be done. I continued my journey onward to the toilet and it took about two hours, possibly a little less.

Whilst this was going on I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to call in sick but I eventually had to as I wasn’t at my desk. I then had to call someone who asked me to do some photo work and tell them I couldn’t do the job due to being unable to get off the floor. Thankfully they were happy to get me onto something else, but losing both the day of work and the photo job cost me around six hundred dollars, money that is quite badly needed right now.

So I got to the bathroom and lay on the floor there until I was able to get up and use the toilet, did that, went back to lying down. Gradually I felt as though I needed to throw up and so I got back to the toilet and did that too and a bit of sausage came out. After that the dizziness started to ease up a bit and eventually I went to bed to try and sleep, which I wasn’t quite able to do but the rest was needed. I may have dozed off for five minutes, maybe a bit longer, but I remember being awake for a while.

Anyway, things got a bit easier over time but I spent the rest of the day and evening resting. A lot of burping throughout with the aftertaste of the sausage which wasn’t fun.

Yesterday I was okay to work but I was quite sensitive to motion. Come today and the dizziness is worse, though not as bad as it was on Saturday. That said, feeling pretty unable to do things, but such is life really.

It’s annoying as right now I need to not rest. I need to be getting things done and of course this is a bit of an inhibitor. Not the worst thing in the world; not the best. Still alive and resting and so I’m doing okay. Just need to keep moving rather than being stationary.

I don’t quite know why I’ve written about this. I think it’s due to it being the biggest thing that’s happened in my life over the past few days. It’s not that interesting. It’s just life happening.

Oh well.

Posted in Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gecko&Tokage Parade: Journey

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

This was done over one listen, but I had to pause a few times which wasn’t great. Hand stuff and slowing down a bit too much. Something just letting the song repeat would’ve solved. Oh well.

I feel what I wrote is a bit too wordy. I got a lot out but I feel I could’ve said the same thing with much less.

Gecko&Tokage Parade’s “Journey” is from Heart of Tokage.

I hope you enjoy.

—

There’s only a brief percussive opening before guitar roars and rages. Keys strike and ride whilst the bass flows on. The percussion remains steady and perhaps pushing and soon the sounds shift in their dynamic. There’s more a sense of urgency as space comes in and guitar rings out at points and the sounds keep a certain sense of pressure to justify that urgency.

It’s a low mood, though maybe it’s being read incorrectly and really there is no pressure or urgency; rather this is a space of melancholy and wonder. Whatever it is, it carries through as the guitar becomes more angular and focused for a few moments before it returns to a sense of quick scattering as it rings out.

Soon that guitar rises up whilst it rings and it seems to howl and crackle like a thunderstorm whilst the other instruments keep on driving forward underneath. It soon stops and all is back to alignment as the sense of journey spreads throughout.

A return to the start with just the bass retaining its original form. The guitar disappears and the percussion is low; the keys are minimal. Suddenly a shift to something escalating and it continues to rise up and once more the guitar roars and rages. A mass of energy is unleashed and something heavy spreads out, but within that heaviness is a light. All is lively and this is a turning point, and maybe it is this turning point where things come into focus. Maybe all that raging and roaring was actually a sense of calm and composure as the journey draws to an end.

The sounds keep on flowing forward unabated. They keep on driving with great vigour and suddenly it explodes, and little is left for a moment as the guitar keeps storming. Percussion strikes out one last time, as does bass and somewhere in there are the keys curling up with the guitar as it fades away as the song ends.

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Red Moment in Sound

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Another photo of Taka during the recent MONO concert.
This one has some interesting colouring to it, or at least it appears to, and specifically due to how the guitar’s body reacts to the red light. Other than that I just think it’s a good gig photo, or rather good for what I usually end up getting.

I also think this makes a good comparative to the previous photo of Taka I shared. Less a sense of motion, more stillness.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-forty-eighth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Mood“.

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

Sofia is curating this one. John curates the next one.

The challenges are fun to engage with. The themes are specific enough to keep some focus whilst loose enough to allow room for interpretation. I recommend participating as it’s a fun community to be engaged with and it’s a good way to focus on subject. If you don’t participate, you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1246: Dragons in Reality

Posted on May 6, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Cold morning, don’t care. Gotta go look at places. Gotta go see new faces.

What am I writing here?

So anyway, I think that it’s time to be real: Dragons could totally exist within a contained space of reality so long as the rules and regulations on how things are changed in some manner. Then again, maybe they couldn’t need to and all that dragons would need to do is be small enough so as to be able to fit within the functions of how we perceive reality.

They don’t even need to breathe fire or some kind of tomfoolery.

So they could exist and then we’d have them around but there’s a good chance that there would be a division between us and them as we clear stuff away and they likely wouldn’t want to live in a cold and uncaring concrete jungle of sorts. There’s a good chance that they’d much rather be nowhere near us… until they discover all the food and waste that we leave behind and then start scavenging all that stuff.

Then they’d be pests and because we’d treat them as pests rather than the creatures that are trying to survive that they are, it’d be fine to kill them off or try to control and heavily regulate them. They could be treated as an inconvenience in this particular scenario and we really would.

Of course the dragons would lurk at the fringe where human civilisation and the idea of wilderness meet, though some would live in the cracks, nooks and crannies of the urban space and they’d go through dumpsters and whatnot in the search for food as it would be an easy source as a lot of food is found in rubbish.

Of course we’d not be happy with that as food that isn’t used must be thrown out and so we’d set up traps and deterrents and work toward forcibly removing the dragons. We’d also continue to expand outward and they’d keep moving away, or at least some of them would.

Some people would accept dragons as something they have to deal with and be okay with that due to not having much of a say in the matter and some would keep them as pets. However, a lot of people would treat them as the pests they are, and why wouldn’t they? After all, it’s our space that the dragons are encroaching upon; they need to go back to the forests and wherever else they live. Hanging around the cities and the suburbs, getting food and spreading across in an uncontrollable way is totally unacceptable!

So of course there would be a reaction to this as dragons are seen as cute by some and just trying to live their lives so therefore because we see value in their aesthetic appeal they might get some protection in some places. Maybe.

You never know with these things. Sometimes they go in ways that are completely unexpected, but no one wants pest dragons.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:19:72

Clunky in places but I really like this bit of writing.
It came out really easily. I think I stopped at some points but overall it was just a really smooth writing process.

Written at home.

Posted in Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1245: Clunky Writing

Posted on May 5, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Another day passes with little event within this room. Just a lot of being busy but not achieving much, but there was little procrastination.

A lot of being tired, but that also is not different from the norm. Excellent. All remains as is and all that was shall forever be. Routine sets in like the sun sets off and I just sit here and do those things and… yeah.

I was hoping to get more done today but perhaps it is rest that was truly needed.
However, there was not much rest.

There was a lot of being cold for little to no reason. Oh well.

Soon the evening will arrive and with its arrival shall come the advent of night and with that a dark veil shall drape itself across the land. I’m soon going to be moving through this darkness so as to obtain a light of temporary use. It is going to be a time of times and it will be exciting for there is work that needs doing and the light shall guide me through that work, and I have no idea as to why I am talking about this.

Maybe I’m trying to unfurl a little and blossom into a true purveyor of language and all of its wonders, but I don’t want to believe that. I prefer to clumsily smash words together and force them into sentences that show my low stature in civilisation. I prefer to be a peasant, uncouth in their use of expression and I prefer to roll around in the mud. People look down at the pigs but the pigs enjoy their lives and so I’d much prefer to be with those who enjoy each other and others.

I cast aside my pen and choose instead to write with the dirt that I can find, or at least a cheaper pen. Maybe I can not even do that and instead just start talking with people and then engage in dialogue and crush my words together in awkward, uncouth and uncivilised ways so as to be able to get points across that make little sense to those in the towers made of ivory. I shall choose to not be enlightened and communicate with the masses and I shall not wonder why they don’t understand me, and that’s probably because I will be aware that I’m talking a lot of shit that makes little sense due to my choice of making language angry by refusing to use it in an elegant or clear way.

So anyway the day has been a bit long and I didn’t get much done, but at least the period known as “work time” is over so I can now go get a light to guide me through the darkness, or something.

I think that between now and the point at which I get the light, however, I should do some more writing, but I won’t as I need to actually leave here if I want the light.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:23:67

I was quite tired when I wrote this.
On the plus side I’ve got that light.

Written at home.

Posted in Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Farther, Foggier

Posted on May 4, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

I’m sharing this photo more as a comparative to this one rather than for any other reason.
I think the landscape is nice enough, though perhaps a little flat. There is a kind of layered feel to it as well which I like, but what I really like is how it shows the same area as the prior-shared photo, and whilst it’s not exactly the same bit there’s still a clear example of how different something can look under differing conditions.

I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

One Thousand Word Challenge 203: Some Rambling About Cycling

Posted on May 4, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Yesterday I went for a cycle for the first time in a good few months and when I got back I felt like writing but I didn’t because other things needed doing. Now I’m sort of writing about it, or something.

I was going to go for a cycle today but I’ve been asked to do some photographing on Saturday night which will come straight after working. I’ve agreed to do it but it means that, due to my lack of cycling I won’t be cycling today. Body needs rest and all.

Well that and being tired and procrastinating and it’s around the middle of the afternoon, so… yeah.

But now I sit here and I’m wondering if I should have written about cycling yesterday. Would anything have changed? The answer is that it is unlikely that anything would have changed, but maybe I would be sitting elsewhere right now. Perhaps I’d be sitting on my bike’s saddle, pedaling around and appreciating all the sights and sounds and a bunch of other things, but really I’d be cycling and feeling sad as I’d be listening to sad music to help carry me to wherever I would be heading, which like would be to some location before deciding to turn around and head on back home.

It’s the way it goes some of the time. It doesn’t happen all of the time, but it certainly happens some of the time.

Feeling tired and all is not fun; especially when it’s from doing something you haven’t done from a while, but it’s something I’ll overcome. I want to cycle more. I miss cycling on a regular basis. I miss being able to get around on a bike to some places. I don’t miss regularly cycling over The Sydney Harbour Bridge to get to work, though also part of me does. At the same time I’m glad I’m not doing that anymore as if I was, it would mean I’d still be at a place I would much rather not bet at, despite how much it felt like a place where I belonged with a group of people, though I probably didn’t.

In thinking about this I also miss cycling down to Greenwich wharf, catching a ferry across to Birchgrove and then cycling home to Glebe via Iron Cove. I don’t miss the kind of sadness that I was going through at the time. I don’t miss that kind of pain; just more the cycling itself. It was a good trek.

There was one time when I went that way to work. Maybe more than once. Cycling uphill after getting off the ferry wasn’t fun though. Well, cycling up that hill in particular. Could’ve been worse of course, but getting up earlier than usual just to be able to do that trek wasn’t justifiable to me.

Possibly wasn’t fit enough at the time either.

I think about a lot of the rides I did around that time, which was between 2013 and 2015. To be more specific it was more 2014 to 2015, but the time varies depending on what is considered. 2014 to 2015 is definitely more the time when I was in a lot of emotional pain and so it is possible that I was pushing myself cycling-wise a lot more than I usually would because of that. Not entirely sure.

Anyway, I digress kind of.

I remember doing a lot of longer cycles then and listening to a lot of more emotionally intense music. I still listen to a lot of that stuff, but not in the same way. It’s probably a good thing.

I remember also being much fitter then than I am now, as well as less bound by injury. That said, I can overcome my injuries but I need to work on that more. I can also be more fit just by doing more cycling and walking and all that stuff, and so I’m slowly working on that and I’m slowly getting there.

Don’t think I could cycle to the photo job on Saturday night though. That would be a bit overkill right now.

Probably would be a bit overkill at any time.

I want to go bike touring at some point, which I’d need to be really fit for. Still, it’s something I want to do. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and it’s something I’ve put off for too long. I don’t necessarily think I’ve made the wrong decision to prioritise some other stuff over doing that, but it is something I feel would’ve been better to do a few years ago. Still, I don’t want to let that stop me.

I want to head on off and go experience things for a few weeks. Maybe even a few months. All pedaling. I could drive but that kind of journeying is different to the journeying I want to do on a bike.

I’d cycle on down somewhere and just think about things under a massive sky. I’d not necessarily feel free, but I’d enjoy the way the air would hit my face and I’d just keep on cycling until I’d need to stop. Take my camera gear with me, take photos. Do all that kind of stuff.

Have another good, long think about who I am and what I’ve experienced. Too much noise in the city to do that, sometimes.

Whenever I think about cycling I find myself missing it dearly, but I generally only think about it when I haven’t done it enough. I start again, I hurt and I remember that I need to do it more, but then I put it aside and procrastinate. Maybe this time will be different. I need to make some fixes to my bike but otherwise it’s pretty safe to cycle.

Maybe I will get to where I want in terms of cycling. It’ll take time, but maybe I will get there and once more I’ll be gliding in a way that walking and driving does not allow.

Maybe.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 18:00:91

I feel this is a bit lacking in cohesion in parts. If it were more cohesive then the length would be better justified. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t as the writing would be more concise.

Written at home.

 

Posted in Cycling | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1244: Getting Stuff Done for Once

Posted on May 3, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

I feel like I’m on a really good run today. I got out of bed and started doing stuff pretty quickly and whilst there has been a good bit of procrastination, I’m actually getting stuff done. I was hoping to have a bit more writing done before midday but I’m still getting stuff done and I’m happy with that.

Not happy per se; just happy with that.

So now I’m sitting here and I’m wondering as to what I’m going to do with the rest of my day. I think it’s too early on in the afternoon to be bored but I’m worried that I soon will be bored. I’m worried that I will now have little to do and I’m worried that I’ll spend more of the day staring at the ceiling than I will getting things done. I just need to keep going though.

I’m struggling against the urge to get distracted and procrastinate but I am working to overcome. Need to stay focused. Need to stay on target and keep on writing and doing some other things that I need to get done before the day’s end.

There is a lot and there also is not much. Probably however much I allow myself to believe there is.

There is a fair bit though.

So now I’m sitting here and I can’t work out what to do next. I think I may have run out of things. I haven’t spread myself out thinly enough today. This means I have to be productive as I’m not going to allow myself to get distracted much more, but… yeah…

So now I’m entering into a place that has grown unfamiliar to me and I feel confused. I feel uncertain and scared as this is some whole new world where I exist in a space where I am doing more rather than less. It doesn’t make sense and all I’m doing is sitting here, being bored. I could read but I don’t want to read. I could keep on writing but I don’t want to keep on writing.

I could work on reviews, but how can I work on them if it means that the pile of stuff I should be getting through diminishes?

I don’t like this new world. It offers possibility and that is not something I can stand for and so therefore I need to get back to procrastinating. That is where things are best because they’re constantly worst.

But on a more serious note, it’s nice to be getting things done for a change. It always is, but it is right now. I still have a fair bit to do but I can keep going at this rate and if I do I’ll get somewhere. I’ll get stuff done and getting stuff done is great. It’s a relief as it moves out of the way and I keep walking forward into a space that eventually frees up.

Still, getting distracted is nice. It’s calling and it calls loudly.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:12:36

Not the best, not the worst, but overall okay.
I think I started slipping toward the end as I struggled to complete this and it shows a bit.

Written at home.

Posted in Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sonic Coaster Pop: Spiral Neo Wave

Posted on May 3, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Three listens for this one.

The song is quite short and pleasant; at least, I think it’s pleasant.
It has this nice kind of 2000’s future feel that I admit I find appealing. Not sure why I find that future feel appealing, but I think it has to do with the sense of sleekness that comes through songs with that feel. It also sort of feels optimistic, but it’s kind of also cold in a way, depending on how much you want to read into it or how far you’d be willing to take ideas of that kind of sound, but I digress.

The song also reminds me of some of the music featured in Mega Man Battle Network. Similar kind of feel, I think.

Anyway, I felt compelled to stick to describing what was going on and I think that paid off. Not the best bit of writing I’ve done – it feels a bit dot point – but I covered song well.

Sonic Coaster Pop’s “Spiral Neo Wave” is from Super Miracle Circuit.

I hope you enjoy.

—

An awakening and something rises up in beeps and steps. Something else high seems to call out, then that rising descends. Some keys come in, a bit of space and then a beat establishes itself in beeps and flicks.

The keys repeatedly rise as though a set and a vast sense of the future spreads out. It’s shiny and smooth and sleek and cool. A low sound hums in the background of this new space. That earlier high sound returns a little lower and hums its own sound; another beeping appears. Vocals appear repeating a phrase but it’s difficult to make out.

The percussion stops and something descends, covering what was and moving it away. A keypad is pressed as the vocals continue their repetition. What sounds like a train station notice sound comes in as the covering seems to have things launch off it and a new voice is heard, but only very briefly as the song suddenly ends.

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment