Michiko Naruke: Sand Clouds, Surging Away

Two listens for this one.

I tried to focus more on describing the song and I feel that was not a good idea. I started thinking about the quality of the sounds used a little too much and it threw me off. Still, I managed to describe the song and so this is technically a success.

Michiko Naruke’s (なるけみちこ) “Sand Clouds, Surging Away” (“砂塵、逆巻いて”) is from the seemingly western influenced Wild Arms Advanced 3rd Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Wild Arms Advanced 3rd.

I hope you enjoy.

Percussion briefly rolls before other instruments come in and commence a rhythmic stomp. Sounds akin to brass rise on up and draw out in a specific way, as do other sounds that come to follow. The brass-like sounds return and there’s a sense of driving forward into an open expanse. Some uncertainty finds itself among the sounds as the brass-like push on ahead.

Soon the sounds rise on up and seem to herald a climax. Everything becomes livelier but without necessarily becoming massive. The sounds lift up, almost moving ahead as they prepare for release. At the climax it all becomes expansive and grandiose, and victorious, if only for a moment as soon the sounds loop back to where they began and cycle through once more before the song ends.

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Michiko Naruke: Distant Days of Rest

I’m really not sure as to what I was going for with this. I think Michiko Naruke (なるけみちこ) is a really solid composer in many ways. She quite effectively gets across atmosphere and emotive content where necessary and more often than not creates something that fits a scene really well. That said, I ended up meandering on this one as I don’t think I’ve enough skill to properly get across what was happening in the song.

Michiko Naruke’s “Distant Days of Rest” (“遠い日の安息“) is from the seemingly western influenced Wild Arms Advanced 3rd Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Wild Arms Advanced 3rd.

I hope you enjoy.

Light percussion and strings play a low tune. Soon something akin to brass and bass come in and carry a weight and rest. All remains low, soft, and perhaps sombre, even as woodwind-like sounds come in and play high.

There seems to be a slight sombreness that creeps in, though all remains moving toward a new dawn. All seems small and humble, even as moments reach higher. Strings play and patter whilst percussion gently pushes forward and space comes and goes as required to keep the flow flowing. Sounds keep easy and smooth, and despite that sombreness being there, it remains easy to look upon the horizon with hope and determination.

A journey continues among sounds carried upon a gentle breeze and after a moment of heightened sounds, they all pull back and fade away as the song ends.

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Some Rocky Coastline

Three photos taken around La Perouse.

I like coastal areas and I tried to frame these in specific ways for specific reasons related to an idea I had. I think there’s a nice balance of colour and space in these photos, as well as a mix of different things that make up coastal areas.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-tenth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
The theme for this one is “Three Favourite Images”.

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

This one is guest-hosted by Sarah Wilkie of Travel with Me. The next is hosted by Anne Sandler and the theme has been announced in advanced: What’s Your Groove.

I recommend participating in the challenges. They’re enjoyable and allow room for interpretation of the theme without straying too far. If you don’t participate, then I recommend that you at least check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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East Gippsland Radio Station Dream

I was in East Gippsland in a radio station. It was really big and I was on one of the upper floors which felt like an office space. I’m not sure as to why I was there but I was there visiting and there was, to my surprise, two people I used to work with working there.

There first one was a younger looking version of themselves and I said that the were looking younger and they said something along the lines of “Yeah so?” so I left it at that. The other one I saw but didn’t say anything to, but someone else who was there spoke to me about how they couldn’t stand them and were going to snap if they had to hear them say anything else. I asked what the last thing they said was and the person said that it was “Want water”.

There was a screen that was both window and a digital display screen and we could see a kid punching on with a kangaroo. I’m pretty sure that the kid started the fight and I felt that was a bad idea.

Eventually the kangaroo whips its tail around and launches the kid upward and the kid spun in the air. Then I woke up.

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Yuko Komiya: Everlasting Words

This is another song I’ve had queued up for a while.
It was fairly straightforward to write about and I think that has to do with me being familiar enough to have an idea of how the song goes, but not so familiar that I’m stumped for words.

I got across more of what I feel was the emotional content of the song rather than anything else and I feel that works. That said, I think I overstated a bit.

Yuko Komiya’s (小見山 優子) “Everlasting Words” (“悠久の言葉”) is from Monster Hunter Tri‘s soundtrack, Monster Hunter Tri Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

A group of voices call out as though in celebration. The heralding of a victory, impassioned and powerful. Shortly strings and percussion join in. A slight pause  and the percussion becomes stronger and more beat-driven. Slow brass among other sounds draw out with the vocals, almost carrying a sense of calm in the sense of celebration.

Relief and joy come through as the sounds and the voices ride over a landscape bound by ocean. Soon they reach higher and higher and a heavy weight lifts. A catharsis is reached and it spreads out as sounds mix and pull back after the voices do so themselves. In a small amount of space strings and a lighter percussion play out, closing things with a slight conclusive trail of emotion and narrative as the song ends.

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Another Poem About Procrastion

This was written over maybe two or three minutes.
This all came easy which I’m happy about, but it is really rough.
I think the next time I do one of these I’ll spend a good deal of time on what it is I’m writing and getting across. Maybe the result will be better.

I think part of the issue is that I do enjoy doing things off the cuff and so I never revisit stuff that I could in order to see if I can make it better, which is something I really should do more often.

I hope you enjoy.

On a mostly fine day
After a good rest
It was time to relax
As it always was

Spare time was little
So relaxing was needed
For only a few minutes
As it always was

Time compressed
And work piled up
Only a few more minutes
As it always was

The evening arrived
With no time for anything
So tomorrow would be busy
As it always was

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1131: Been Sluggish

I have so much catching up to do at the moment. The last few months have been much more sluggish to do and I am determined to catch up on everything.

The next few months are going to be really rough and that’s what I need to deal with. Procrastination really paid off and now I’m going to be incredibly busy and that falls on me and to be honest, I’m happy to own it. Well, maybe not happy but I’m aware of my need to own my lack of action and try and get stuff done and all that other stuff. Sometimes it happens but I should’ve been more careful.

I think what with the gradual winding down of this blog I let everything slip, here included, and it wasn’t a good idea. There have been other things going on too of course, but again, my stuff and I need to own it and so I am owning it and picking back up.

I’m kind of wondering as to how the next few months will look. Maybe I’ll come out really disciplined and be on the ball with everything. I doubt it; I imagine what will really happen is I’ll get to the end and be really stressed but also relieved, then get a bit lazy again. There is the possibility that I won’t get lazy again and I’m hoping I don’t, so maybe I won’t as I’ve the drive and all that other stuff that makes me sound good.

I think that there will be a lot of hard work at the very least. Not a lot of easy work, though I imagine there will be some easy work.

I’m not sure as to why I’m going on about this. There are far more important things to be crapping on about right now but this is what is coming to mind. Maybe it’s due to needing to head out soon. This is the first thing that comes to mind and maybe I’m just doing some expressing of my thoughts which is what I usually do anyway, so… yeah.

Anyway, there is going to be a bit more here and probably a lot more elsewhere. I can work through it all and I can get to the end. Still need to be in a more financially stable position in order to enable consistency elsewhere, but we’ll see what happens. I’m sure I’ll get to the end of it all and look back at it and go “I didn’t do nearly as much as I needed to” and so everything will be prolonged and it will become some sort of dragging myself across a lengthy space of time in order to play an eternal catching up on things, but maybe I’ll get there. Maybe I’ll get there sooner rather than later, but it’s all up in the air at the moment.

I think for now I’ll do one more thing and then start getting ready to do some other things.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:56:63

I was doing alright for time. Got to the last few words and hit a wall.
This didn’t need to be a word challenge but it is and for that it dragged on for far longer than necessary.

Written at home.

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Corvus coronoides in flight

Behold! an Australian raven flying to some place.
To a sign I believe.

This one was seen around La Perouse and I found it odd to be so close to the ocean, but seeing as I don’t know much about ravens I can’t confirm if it being close to the ocean was odd.

Not a great photo but I like how still the raven appears. I also like how it almost seems like a silhouette.

I hope you enjoy.

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Mars Kumari: Arcade Dimension

I was going to do this one tomorrow but decided it would be better to do tonight for some reason. Anyway, I’m surprised that I got as much as I did out of one play of this song as it’s short. Be that as it may, I think I covered the song accurately enough.

Mars Kumari’s “Arcade Dimension” is from MARS KUMARI TYPE BEAT.

I hope you enjoy.

Atmospheric sounds flow whilst a beat plays a groove in the distance. It booms and echoes through the space, sounding big and small whilst the ambience continues to draw out and keep things feeling vague, yet at the same time specific. There is a form of melody coming through as sounds draw out and something else begins to appear from the distance, but before anything is announced in full the beat stops and soon after the song suddenly ends.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 187: There are Better Things for me to do

Giving it another go as my hands are warmer right now and so that might just mean that I will be able to do to it again. I think. I do not actually know as to what it means, but I can only hope and in hoping there is the chance for success, so long as I see it to the end and see to it that I make sure that I stay committed to the task at hand.

You see, there are many things and seeing that there are may things, I have chosen one of the things. I am talking about the doing of things, of course, but this is the thing that I have chosen to do. Sure, I could do some editing as that is required. I could also do some reading which is also required. I could also work on reviews that I need to work on, but I have chosen this. I have chosen to do this at this particular juncture in time and I don’t know if I will get to the end in one piece but I imagine I will. I also imagine that it does not matter too much as once more I am being dramatic about something that there is no need to be dramatic about. Such is the way of things I suppose.

So anyway, it is the evening and I am mashing the keyboard a lot harder than I need to, but that is what I am currently doing and so I continue on. I need to beat the timer this time. Well, I don’t, but I would like to. I have a strong desire to be faster than the timer and so I keep on going and I keep on typing and I keep trying to get my thoughts about the action of racing the timer down in a way that expresses some sort of coherency, but there is no telling until the whole thing is over.

There is jazz playing in the background and perhaps it is the perfect kind of jazz for what I am doing right now. It is nice and it flows well and it has a sense of energy to it, but also a sense of calm, if that make sense. Maybe I just find it highly inviting and that makes me think that it has more calm in it than it really does. I do have to admit that it certainly has a liveliness and it certainly has some sort of power in it and it is welcoming in ways that imply that it is welcoming and so on and so forth.

I think I got stuck there for a moment and so I will continue to race on. There is a goal that I am trying to reach and trying to reach it is what I will continue to do and so in continuing to try and reach that goal I will continue to try and reach that goal.

There still is a while to go.

And so I continue to race on in the hopes that I will make this in under eight minutes. There are thoughts that continue to run through my head and I keep racing to try and get them down but nothing is coming out. Such is the way of things in this bit of writing. Maybe I should slow down but right now I do not want to. I want to try and reach what it is that I am trying to reach. I might get there; I might not. Whoever, what I will do is get all of this down in a timely manner, as they say. However, what applies here is hard to tell and so I keep on going and I try to keep on going at an accelerated pace.

I think I can do it, but I need to keep on going. I need to try and get as many words down as I possibly can. Should try using shorter words and I think I mostly am, but there is no telling as to what will come next.

Sometimes writing like this is really an awful experience. It hurts the hands and it leads to very little being said. However, it is good practise and I need to keep that in mind. I need to keep the pace and I need to try and keep on going. It still is a form of exercise and it still is a form of skill development. I am still learning and developing and perhaps I am also improving in a way. However, I should be more careful. I don’t want to hurt myself and I don’t want to make it harder for me to write.

So I keep on going and I keep on trying and I try to get to the end of all of this in the hopes that I get there with a goal completed, and maybe I will. Maybe I will get there. Maybe I will not. However, I will keep on trying as that is what I want to do at the present moment.

Now is the hard part as there is a minute left and so I need to try and get as many words as I can down but I do not think that I can do it. However, I tried and trying is the main thing and so I will keep on trying. I will try to get there and I will keep on trying until I get to the end. That is the point of this and so I keep on going and I keep on trying and almost there. I have almost made it, but I will miss the mark this time, but perhaps next time I won’t.

I really do not want to read back on all of this as I know it is a mess of thoughts but I will have to. However, that is something for later and not now.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 08:32:56

This probably wasn’t the best thing for me to do. I’m glad I did it but I think I should’ve spent the time doing other things.

Written at home.

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