Normally the water level is a bit lower at this spot.
A photo with a lot of space and not many ducks. Maybe it could us a little less sky too, but I like the space in this one.
This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week.
I suggest checking out Leanne’s photography, as well as checking out what other people submit.
A lot of what people are submitting will likely end up here.
I hope you enjoy.
Here’s a photo I took a few weeks ago.
I feel I may have gone too hard on either contrast or saturation; I’m not sure.
Still, I like the way the buildings in the lower right contrast against the dreariness of the nearby buildings.
This is my submission into the one hundred-and-ninety-fifth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
The theme for this one is “Colourful Expressions“.
The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:
Week 1 – Patti
Week 2 – Ann-Christine aka Leya
Week 3 – Amy
Week 4 – Tina
This year three people are joining the Lens-Artists team:
John Steiner of Journeys with Johnbo
Sofia Alves of Photographias
Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed
As such the above hosting order is likely to change.
This one is curated by Anne. The next one is guest-curated by John of John’s Space.
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.
This probably is a rather silly thing to do right now, but I’m going to do it. Then I’m going to rest.
Right now I’m rather ill and despairing, woe is me and so on and so forth. However, I’m doing my best to keep on going. That’s what I want to do and of course I hope to get better, but then again, that’s not really different from the norm so I don’t know as to why I’m mentioning it, if I am to be honest.
Being sick sucks and… well, I don’t know what else to say. It could be better; it could be worse. I’m doing my best to persevere.
What is anyone meant to say in these situations? What do I say about being sick that hasn’t been said before? Is there even any need to say anything further? I imagine that there isn’t. Really, this could end here and that’s where I draw it as what I need to focus on is persevering and getting better, and not on updating this place, but I will keep on doing so for now as that’s what I do and it (among other things) gives me something to do. Need to have something to do so I don’t get bored.
There are, of course, other things that I need to do but I won’t get into that right now. I won’t get into that as I don’t want to get into that. I do know, however, that I want to rest.
I think my stubbornness is not paying off in the right way as I’m still writing this even though I should stop. I’m still writing despite a need for rest. I need to rest but I desire to write and get across whatever it is that I need to get across.
Really there’s nothing to get across here, but so long as I pretend that there is, then maybe there is some comfort in writing this all out. Of course there are no guarantees, but I hope that there is some comfort in writing all of this. I know that maybe, somehow it will make me feel better in some manner. I’ll have felt like I accomplished something, even if it is something that’s not worth the time and effort spent in getting it all down.
Needing to rest sucks sometimes, but sometimes you’ve got to do it. Sometimes you’ve got to sit down and take it easy and let the body do its thing. You need to try and stay healthy, or as healthy as you can at the given time and sometimes that is easier said than done. Right now I feel it’s easier said than done, but I hope that’s not the case.
In any event, I’m sick and so on and so forth and I’ll just keep on doing my best to rest and get better. Hopefully getting better comes sooner rather than later, but really I just hope this doesn’t get worse.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:44:17
Not sure what I was trying to say here.
Probably not much.
Written at home.
Sometimes the day drifts away and you’re left there, dreaming in the day whilst moving through the… day…
I don;t know as to where I was going with that, so I will relent, but only for now, for later there will be no relenting. But anyway.
So the day has drifted away and the work is yet to get itself done so I am here to take over. I am here to commandeer whatever it is and I will spend that time making things up in particular orders so as to make sure they all come together in a way that brings everything together in a way that creates sentences and paragraphs and all of those other things that they will create.
I need some rest.
It’s a day of being ill and sometimes that happens. Sometimes you cannot defeat being ill, but you do your best and you persevere and you get on with the things that you need to get on with so as to be able to get on with the day and whatever it is that the day will bring. However, the day has drifted away and I’m here, hoping for the best. I’m trying to salvage what remains of the afternoon as I don’t want to be writing in the dark. Sure, I could switch the lights on, but that requires effort and I’m lazy, so… no.
I mean, I will, but I am going to pretend that I won’t.
Anyway, there are places that I could go from here to, but I’m not sure I will. I’m not sure where all of this will lead, but I know it will lead somewhere. So long as I keep on digging I am sure that I will discover what it is that I will write something that will lead to something else and the chain shall continue onward until there is no chain left in the chain.
Perhaps sooner rather than later.
So anyway, I sit here and the day drifted on by and I stayed here instead of drifting with the day, and maybe that isn’t the best of things, but it is a thing and so I’ll just keep on doing the thing that I do which is write the thing. Then I will get on with whatever it is that I’m trying to get on with and all things will be vague and not worth reading. That is how it all goes here and that is the way that it will stay for a long time, I think.
Maybe one day there will be something worth reading. Maybe one day I will finally get to the point and all will be revealed. However, that day will likely not arrive and so I’ll just stay here. The days will drift away and I will stay where I am, firmly stuck in a position and unable to get on with it all, but perhaps that is fine. Maybe not later, but right now at least.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:30:63
Right now I’m tired which is not really that different from usual.
As such, this turned out about as well as could be expected, so… yeah.
Written at home.
For a while I wanted to write about “Advertise I” and so it was sitting in my queue. I thought this song was the following one until a few days ago when I listened to the Shadow Hearts II soundtrack again and remembered that “Advertise II” existed. Decided I’d write about those two and this one.
I think here I was looking more to capture a sense of imagery and it kind of came through, but I stumbled. I thought too much about what I was doing and as such, this is shorter than I’d hoped. Still, it was only one listen, so… yeah.
Yoshitaka Hirota’s (弘田佳孝) “Deep Meditation ~ Title” (“タイトル“) is from Shadow Hearts II Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Shadow Hearts II aka Shadow Hearts: Covenant.
I hope you enjoy.
—
A calm and gentle sound hums a drone whilst keys slowly fall around it. Sometimes they rise, but not by much. A sense of melancholy drifts on through as fragility becomes prominent.
Thoughts and scenes drift on by and only glimpses are caught. Rumination finds focus and yet melancholy remains, not needing to push on through.
The hum becomes high in pitch and soon other sounds appear around it, but only for a brief moment. They seem to indicate something, but that something is out of reach. However, with persistence it may not be, but before anything can be realised and revealed the song ends.
Once more I wrote quickly. Not sure what I was trying to capture with this one, but I feel I did alright in terms of describing what happens during the song.
It sort of feels like the second part of the previous one I wrote about, which probably makes sense.
Yoshitaka Hirota’s (弘田佳孝) “~ICARO AGAIN ~ Advertise II” (“アドバタイズ II“) is from Shadow Hearts II Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Shadow Hearts II aka Shadow Hearts: Covenant.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Delicate keys curl slightly whilst strings draw out in the background. Violin rises above it all and a beat steady plays on out. Bass comes in and something is growing from something gentle.
Suddenly something lands and the sounds twist their shape. Suddenly the beat picks up in intensity and all are charging along. A voice moves in and about as the instruments play with aggression and liveliness.
Suddenly it stops and strings rise above what was. A twinkling of keys and the violin plays with a sense of hope and determination. The percussion keeps its beat steady and gentle and all finds a moment of some sort of success as the song ends.
This was written over one listen.
I wrote quickly and tried to capture a sense of the otherwordliness that the song sort of gets across, but I don’t think I did a good job.
Yoshitaka Hirota’s (弘田佳孝) “Prelude~ ~ Advertise I” (“アドバタイズ I“) is from Shadow Hearts II Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Shadow Hearts II aka Shadow Hearts: Covenant.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Vague forms and shapes appear, forming and appearing at the edges, though remaining distinct, clear and in front. Voices, or the idea of voices flicker in the air. Soon percussion comes in, steady, still, strident. Still, it too is distorted, seemingly vague even though it is distinct. Keys come forward and curl around in places.
The percussion pulls back and stops and once more those shapes resumes being vague, distant, and at odds. They are mysterious and uncertain and they too fade away, and all that is left are strings stretching out at the song’s end.
This was one of the swans I saw on my birthday.
It was keeping an eye on me, which I imagine was due to making sure I didn’t get too close to its child.
I like how still it appears as it sort of goes against what is happening around it. The rain falls and creates disturbance, but the swan just stays there. It probably was creating its own disturbance on the water surface, but among the rain it is difficult to tell.
I hope you enjoy.
One listen for this one.
I thought I was going to get a fair bit more out and interweave more imagery related to forests, but I did not and instead the result feels really brief.
Yasunori Mitsuda’s (光田 康典) “Secret of the Forest” (“樹海の神秘”) is from Chrono Trigger‘s soundtrack, Chrono Trigger Original Sound Version.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Slowly and carefully a bass moves around an arpeggio. There is a density and a coolness, and yet space all around. A low light shines through from somewhere as woodwind comes in and floats on through. Light percussion steps and soon the woodwind gives way for keys that gently shimmer on through. Strings in the background come to the forefront and lower themselves through a sense of relaxed mystery.
The keys return and meet the bass, and they go moving forward, slowly descending. Their motion is graceful and careful. They compliment each other and soon they pause.
The bass returns, as does the arpeggio and a slow movement through a dense area resumes. A sense of delicacy in an area that has seen many years starts to come through, as though the area is preserved in time, even if it gradually changes.
The gentleness continues on through the motion of the sounds and soon it fades out as the song ends.
One listen for this one.
I feel like I was a bit harsh here as the song is good enough.
However, I feel it spends a little too much time announcing and assuring that it’s getting across something rather than getting it across. Maybe I’m reading into the song incorrectly.
Anyway, I was trying to get across imagery and I think some of that came through, but perhaps not enough.
2814’s “Inside The Sphere” is from Rain Temple.
I hope you enjoy.
—
A sudden force among the sounds of rain stretches out and moves through and within and around all. Something seems to separate from it and flicker and shimmer upward, growing outward and away.
Percussive strikes come forward, scattering as they continue onward. A melody comes to form and slowly it moves forward and reveals itself to be something far more grand and mysterious than perhaps it initially implied.
A slow motion through an ornate setting seemingly unknown, yet highly familiar. A stillness fills a crowded space as all hangs where it lies. Suddenly an expansion and the weight of of pushing drama to enforce the sensation of grand coolness comes forward. The mood us set; this is all very serious and there is little in the realm of hope, but hope remains and so all emotional content is almost pushed to excess.
Steps carefully in a sound that takes lead whilst almost remaining muted and the rain seems to keep on falling, but perhaps it is not a rain of liquid, but rather information. The mood seems to settle a little as it becomes familiar, and yet a superficiality remains lingering in the air. Excess remains pushed forward with little in the way to suggest abatement, but it too blends in as it absorbs itself.
A sense of space for a moment and then once more that drama comes forward. The sounds keep reminding of the need for the epic and the desire to tell rather than suggest, but it is telling too much. It is almost as though it is trying to assure itself of its own need to be as forceful as possible.
Soon the sounds start pulling away. The percussion stops, leaving the main loop to push onward into a setting that perhaps is as known as it is meant to be futuristic in imagery, and shimmering sounds and vague voices continue onward. The drama has settled and here it is where it becomes most effective, for there is less telling. There is the permeation; perhaps not gradual, but still less forceful.
Soon it all compresses into a single point and the song ends.
Stupidity Hole 