Moving to the Fence

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

This was taken during a walk near where I live.
I haven’t taken photos of birds in a while, had the opportunity and so I did.

There’s a sense of stillness to this, as well as a sense of wetness, which, seeing as it is clear that it was raining, makes sense.

I think monochrome works well here as it helps bring out that sense of rain and works well with the light levels in this particular spot.

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.

Posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Among Kings Tableland

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Of course that stretch becomes northern if looking at it from a position south of it, but I digress.

This is just a photo of a lot of space in The Blue Mountains, but it’s nice space. I took it on Christmas day when I was alone and driving about and it was nice to see.

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

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 – Guest host

Donna of Wind Kisses joined the Lens-artists team this year. It will be good to see how we can interpret her challenges.

Leya is curating this one. Tina curates the next one and the theme has been announced in advance. The theme will be “Finding Peace”.

I recommend participating in the challenges. They’re open enough to allow for a fair bit of thinking about approach and closed enough to keep focus on meeting the theme of each one. 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 , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1233: Some Thinking About Thinking

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Last night I started reading Convenience Store Woman and I finished reading it this morning. I’d come across the book being suggested to someone in a forum a few months ago and decided to add it to my growing list of books to read. Then brought it forward as I saw it was short and I wanted to read a few short books and so… yeah.

I’m not sure as to how engaged I was with the story Convenience Store Woman presents. I got through it pretty quickly and… actually, I guess I was pretty engaged with the story. I didn’t feel it dragged and I thought the way that it was able to get a fair bit across without necessarily saying a lot was appreciable. That aside, the book made me start thinking about thinking a fair bit and so that is what I want to touch on here.

When we talk we don’t always say what we think and sometimes we don’t think at all when we talk, but sometimes we say exactly what we think, though that is often used as an excuse to be assholes as a lot of people who “speak their mind” generally are pretty diplomatic with what they say and see no need to justify it as they’re not saying things in the shittiest way possible, but I digress.

I wonder about how much people’s thoughts translate into a form of communication, and if anything is lost in translation. How many people out there communicate in the same way that they think? Do people who are unable to do so feel some sort of entrapment or frustration due to an inability to articulate their thoughts, or do they not worry about that at all and go on?

Do we think lesser of people who have no internal monologue? I don’t know, but I don’t think that their way of thinking is any less valid than anyone else’s.

For that matter, how often do we treat people differently as we feel that they are not deep or complex thinkers? Do we do so at all, whether consciously or not?

Does someone’s appearance of intent reflect what they want to do, or does it not? Does it reflect what they think, and if so, how often does it reflect what they think?

There are a lot of things to think about thinking, but I think it’s interesting that Convenience Store Woman is making me think more about thinking than I normally would. It makes me wonder about the perception of what people are and are not, and perhaps it means I should think more about that too. Mind you, little of this has to do with the book itself, though maybe it does and maybe that was part of the intention. I don’t know, but I like that this is something that has me thinking more about how other people may or may not think. I think it is a good thing to think about.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 14:30:00

Slower than I thought it would be, but the extra time was worth it, though of course this would be better without worrying about time at all.

Written at home.

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

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1232: Wednesday Heaviness

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Another day where the sound of cicadas stretches through space and I happen to be the recipient, or at least one of the recipients of this gift.

In writing that I find myself now inspired to do a bit of writing outside of this writing and so I need to add this to a list of things that I have so as to be able to remember to write about it, or something.

Anyway, the cicadas are out there, I am here and I am going to be doing quite a lot today… I hope. There is the possibility of me not doing much but I cannot afford that kind of being lazy. The morning isn’t quite young, but the day may be seen as depending on one’s relative view of how time proceeds and so I am here and I will take advantage of what I have been afforded.

Maybe I will not, but I will try.

It is, however, one of those days where “another day, another dollar” applies, but I’d hope to have a bit more than one single dollar left after taxation is applied. One dollar is not enough to survive on in this current climate, though I wish it was. I do wish we didn’t have to worry about earning money to have enough to survive off of basic requirements. I do wish that we could work without worrying about survival. I think that would be great. I think that would lead to a lot of people being in a better position to excel and do things and help further the improvement of the various forms of society.

More inspiration right there, but really this is something that I feel is an issue. It is an issue that a universal basic income is not available to everyone. It is an issue that, in the process of trying to survive, some of us overconsume. Perhaps if we didn’t have to worry about survival we wouldn’t be put into a position where the basic necessities are a constant worry for far too many people. I know I’ve said that already, albeit in a different way, but sometimes it is worth repeating.

It’d probably be a good idea to try and offer more information as to why I think these are good things as stating what I feel is blatantly obvious doesn’t make for much of an argument. However, sometimes that also is the best way to get things across.

Perhaps if there was less stress on trying to survive there’d be more time to appreciate an understand the environment and work toward getting out of, or at least mitigating the disaster that we’ve decided to enter and stay within for some reason. More people working on it means we reduce impact sooner rather than later.

Of course asking for relief from thinking about survival is probably too much for some and so we just keep on doing less than the bare minimum, but that’s life I suppose.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:15:42

It’s probably better to have focus when talking about these things.
This is a bit messy. It gest some stuff across but not in a way that’s effective, I feel.

Written at home.

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

Hitoshi Sakimoto: The Middle Layer Area

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

One listen for this one.
I decided to write about this song a while ago and then put it to the side.
I think I did that as I’m really familiar with the song. Really I shouldn’t have as familiarity can provide its own challenge.

I don’t think I did the best job in capturing the song here. I captured something but overall the song isn’t represented well. Perhaps more where it plays in what it’s featured.

I also think that I need to work on expanding my writing as this feels limited in a way that’s detrimental.

Hitoshi Sakimoto’s (崎元 仁) “The Middle Layer Area” (“中層区街”) 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.

—

Keys move delicately along a cold and ruined surface. They pause, something rains down, almost like light. There’s a shimmering, like a shattering when they do and it carries through the air. After the second pause the ruined surface expands and seems to slope into a sense of hopelessness. Forms of sound move above it, broken, dusty, desolate and all draws out, looking through the murk.

Eventually some of that hopelessness lifts and something a little lighter and more overtly sad appears. Keys flicker and strings move with more motion, and there’s a stillness in this moment; there’s motion and liveliness, but there is emptiness. There’s a reaching for something beyond but it comes to an end and a return to the start comes in.

Space is apparent at first which is then consumed once more by the murkiness as sounds move in turn and align in places, trying to find their way through and eke out their existence.

Once more a lifting comes in and once more the sounds connect and rise with each other. They reach out and this space sees keys dance delicately whilst the strings looks for answers in the stillness.

Once more a space for keys to flicker and the strings come in again soon after, pushing down, and once more that pause before looping. Once more all is back in place, but it fades out before continuing on too long and the song ends.

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

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1231: Wondering About what I’m Listening to

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

Sometimes I find myself wondering about what I’m listening to, but actually I find myself wondering about what I’m listening to a lot as I spend a lot of time thinking about and listening to music and, I guess it goes without saying, but I’m trying to use as many words as possible so as to be able to make sure that I can reach my target with little issue, though of course in trying to do that I need to use as many words as possible and create some sort of lengthy sentence so as to be able to get there and it is a bit of a difficult task to get there today as I’m still pretty tired but I’m less tired than the other day so that makes things a little easier but not as easy as I’d like but to get to that I’d need to make sure I get enough sleep over many successive nights which may take some time and a bit more discipline as I’m very good at not going to sleep at a reasonable hour and it’s a habit that I need to shake and once I do I know I’ll probably get more sleep and thus be in a better position to write about stuff as my mind won’t be so preoccupied with how tired I am which often is a great barrier that erects itself in my way, if only because I allow myself to be confronted with said barrier when I should just grab onto the top of it as it is rising upward so as to be able to get a free ride upward and then get off somewhere pretty neat and cool and see what the wonders of sleep-deprived writing can really be, though of course I wonder if this really is a good idea to try and do as maybe instead of that I should just make a bed and sleep in it and so conserve some energy, then keep on going once I’ve had enough good sleep as that would mean that I won’t have to use as many words to try and get something across and so my writing should improve as more sleep means better functioning and better functioning means better results and all that stuff, or at least that is what it suggests and so that’s what I’m going to go with as I don’t want to face the possibility that it won’t make much of a difference at all as if I have to face that I may have to face up to the fact that I’m pretty tapped out at this point and that is why I seem unable to escape this swirling mass of constant repetition that I am never able to leave as it follows me wherever I go, but even so there is a subject I must face, but listening to and thinking about music at the same time often seems to work better than both separately.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:36:75

Early on into starting this I decided to try and see if I could make this one long sentence for no purpose other than to have it mostly be a pointless extension for what should be a short sentence. With prior ones I’ve done the focus wasn’t to have a massive digression between the start and the end of the sentence; that was the focus here.

I think what I did worked but it’s really rough. The sentence is also probably really unpleasant to read.

Written at home.

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

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1230: Series of Short Moments

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

And once more the passage of time is marked by a series of short moments wrapped together so they congeal into a continuous form shared between a select few who happen to be within the same pocket of space of a certain defined size, and so once more there’s a bit of joy and sadness and all that other stuff that comes with the celebrating of the passing of time.

So we’re now in a new period of time that constitutes a year but the year already started, so this is a year that crosses over two years but that’s not something that needs to have attention paid to it as there are far less interesting things to pay attention to, but that’s okay anyway. The celebration features things and viewing and talk. It features a lot of talk, thought it would be more accurate to say that it featured a lot of talk as that was yesterday and now is today which is when yesterday is viewed as a time no longer seen as present but rather past.

The celebrating is gone and now it all goes back to business as usual, and it’s almost as though the whole thing didn’t happen, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s better as some sort of odd blip rather than a continual stretch that goes beyond anything reasonable. It keeps things more noticeable in the memory as it moves farther and farther away, in part due to our going forward beyond what was something that provided a small bit of scenery that was appreciable nonetheless. Over time memory will transform it, but the sentiment and the emotion should remain the same.

It’s in these moments where we may or may not learn something that we carry on as we keep on going, though they may not help shape us at all. Still, now is the time for reflection, to see if there really is anything to learn and then we go from there. We grow as people and we reflect on what these events mean, if they do indeed mean anything at all outside of a signifier of the passage of time, and we try to work out if what we have done is worth it or not and then we forget and go back to doing the dishes as the dishes need to be done and soon I’ll need to head on out to pick up my partner and then come back home so we can eat and relax and hopefully have a quiet night.

You hope the night is quiet as you just want to rest, sometimes.

Still, there will be plenty of ruminating, trying to work out where we’re going and if there’s any point in trying to know what that holds beyond the short term, though of course some things are more predictable over long periods, but in the end we just keep on going hope for the best, and pepper in a few other things.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:49:80

This didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped, but I think it turned out better than perhaps it could have.

Written at home.

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

The Vehicle Misses the View

Posted on February 26, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

This was taken around the same time as these two, and I like how it contrasts with the first. There’s still a view, but it’s much more obscured here and feels less open.

I also like how the car appears to be really small.

I hope you enjoy.

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

Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1229: Staying Awake

Posted on February 25, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

I’m so spent right now and want to have an early night but this is something I cannot do for there is a great deal of work ahead. A lot of writing and another interview, the second of today. I’m not complaining much as this is something I’ve brought upon myself. It also means there should be a good deal of things on Culture Eater next week, assuming I get things published. Just I need sleep and put myself into a position where I am going to be denied it, but sometimes that’s the way things go. It could be worse.

Maybe I can sneak in a few five minute naps every fifteen minutes. Work for fifteen, nap for five and and go with that. Go on a cycle and somehow be awake enough to be coherent for tonight. I could try and do that.

I don’t think it will work, somehow.

Maybe I should just try and stay awake and sand the fatigue back and in doing that I can then become some sort of spherical ball of energy that sustains itself through some thing that generates more energy than it consumes, thus solving many issues involving the loss of energy in this grand universe that is ours and bringing a great peace and restfulness to all. Maybe if I could do that I’d be set.

There is no avoiding this; I have much to do and need to just push on through and hope for the best. if I can do that then I can do anything. If I can do anything then I’ll do everything. If I do everything then there will be nothing left and I’ll be the hero for all time and if I can be that, then I really am set and that will be that and I don’t know where to go from there.

If I do everything then there’s nothing and so I guess I could sit for a while and have a bit of a nap and maybe a full sleep until something new comes along. Maybe I’d just have to create something new. That too is a possibility.

Maybe I just need to consider that I’m trying to avoid talking about needing to sleep, but I so desperately want to talk about it right now as I want to whinge and complain and stretch things out to a length far longer than necessary, but I cannot as I need to deal with what I’ve done here and so deal with it is what I am currently doing, but I don’t want to. I just want my sleep and I want to do nothing and I don’t want to think about anything for a good few hours.

Still, the interview will be fun. I know that much, but of course it could go badly and I could ask a bunch of silly questions. It’s happened before; it happened earlier today, so I could very well do it again.

Maybe I will.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:28:37

This was fun. There are some things in here that could probably go somewhere if I expanded upon them, but I won’t.

Written at home.

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

Gecko&Tokage Parade: Perfect Spring

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Stupidity Hole

One listen for this one that got broken up a bit by a motorbike.
I think I was trying to just write about the song and describe it without imagery, but something seeped in and I feel it helped. There’s kind of a sense of change in the writing which captures the sense of change on the song, or at least that’s what I believe.

Gecko&Tokage Parade’s “Perfect Spring” is from Next Border.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A beat plays out steady and with space. Has a pause before it resumes and keys and bass come in. They are gentle and they pause before the next motion.

On the next motion bass moves a little more but all stays gentle. Come the next one and guitar echoes on a steady repetition above the other instrumentation. Soon bass takes on more notes and gets a little livelier, though remains gentle.

Eventually this stops and in the space sounds rest and let the gentleness expand before implying a build and continuing once more.

In this new state the sounds draw out and compress in a similar way to before, and all is slow, but they seem to drift more. They seem to watch something above and daydream, and feel some sort of joy and sadness, and it’s tender and sweet, and easy. It all floats on and heads off to where it must, and soon it suddenly stops and leaves the percussion on its own to close things off at the song’s end.

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