Footwork

Here is another photo of Anderson .Paak doing his thing.

This one I like mostly due to how it displays human form. There’s nothing appearing complex about the shot, or Anderson .Paak’s movement for that matter, though there’s probably a bit more going on than my sentence suggests. That being said, what I think comes through is passion, motion, flow and technique.

I do like how the colour and shade make it easier to focus on form rather than person. You’re drawn to what is happening rather than who is doing it, I think.

Here are some other photos of Anderson .Paak I’ve previously shared.

This photo was taken for Culture Eater. You can find a review of Anderson Paak’s performance here and the corresponding gallery here. Please go check them out, as well as the other stuff that our contributors are contributing.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 859: Stewing in my Thoughts

Already the morning has been long whilst also being short which is how the morning usually is anyway and that’s fine. It’s just been one of those days.

The earlier part of the morning started off well and now I’m sitting here, stewing in my thoughts and thinking about how roughly two years ago I essentially cut a good friend out of my life.

I think that I’m thinking about this at the moment more due to it being roughly two years more than anything else, but it still kind of hurts. Having to break away from a friend you’ve known for a while sucks, but if it has to be done then it has to be done. Health and all that.

Part of me feels as though I shouldn’t be writing about this as this is ground that I’ve covered more than enough, but at the same time the desire to write about this is there and so I’m going to entertain that desire and maybe look back at this one day and feel embarrassed about what I wrote, but who knows really?

I think that at the time I didn’t see it as a form of pruning the tree (so to speak). I more wanted my friend to acknowledge their general behaviour, which they did but defended which is at least taking a position, though not one that I agreed with.

Anyway, that’s about… yeah. It sucked then and it still sucks and I don’t know what else there is to say. At this stage I’m not sure if it is someone that I’d want to let back into my life. The metaphorical door is still open, though maybe not by much. I suppose that I leave it open by a slither as a just in case, but at the same time if my friend were to turn around and be open to talking again, I just don’t know. I think the length of time adds to that and not the whole “leaving people in the past” thing, though that certainly plays a part, but if it took this long for someone to start talking and instead of defending their being dishonest in a friendship, admitting that it was a shitty way to treat someone, whilst part of me would be glad to hear it, I just don’t know if I could go back. I don’t know if I could trust that person again.

At the same time it is good to try, but yeah. Ultimately it depends on how much of the past I’m fine with letting back into my life.

I miss my friend. Despite everything I do miss them. We had some fun times and great adventures. For a long time they were someone really close and as such there were a lot of fond memories, but they are just memories. Aside from the lying, they were increasingly less there when I needed them and I couldn’t keep giving if they wouldn’t do the same.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 12:55:00

Bit of a sad writing.

Took a bit longer than I’d hoped, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

I feel as though this reads like a sympathy plea. Just want to clarify that it isn’t and it’s more my poor use of words that makes it read as such.

Written at home.

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Lighthouse Beach

This is a location that I very much would like to return to sooner rather than later; not so much for swimming, but for exploring, or at least what I’d consider to be exploring.

Whilst perhaps a bit bright in places, I think this photo has a nice balance of light and colour. I also think it has a great sense of distance. This is not a small beach and it does not look like a small beach either.

Not sure as to how strong the breeze was on the day this was taken, but being able to see it pick up what could be either salt water or sand (or both) off in the distance helps make it feel more present.

I’m pretty sure a series of rips are also visible in the shot.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 858: To a Mountaintop

Th day stretches itself out and lies down, ready to rest but unable to do so, but sometimes that is the way things go and sometimes you just have to keep on going up the mountain.

Don’t know as to what is at the top, but the path keeps on leading forward and so does the walking. Better than leading backward. Rather not go backward if I am to be honest. Harder to see where I am going.

Maybe there will be some sort of magic battle on the way. There need to be a series of trials and tribulations. There needs to be a set of realisations and catharsis from reaching the end of the inner turmoil and thus realising what it is that needs to be reconciled in order to become a better person, or something. Maybe there will be demonic elves and monstrous bovines.

There will, of course, be plenty of chickens. Plenty of deadly chickens that fight dangerously and are tough to slay as that is how chickens are most of the time, but these ones might be a little more agitated, or perhaps a little more ready, or something. Don’t know yet. It will be a glorious dance of wits against weapons and all that other jazz.

There will need to be winds of the dangerous variety and the stretching of the compressing variety. Plenty of things must be able to get in the way and therefore I need to be able to surmount the insurmountable.

Of course I will be safe in the end as its more about the destination, though of course the journey is important. So long as it appears tough I will be fine. Well, it also needs to be tough. This is where I would be tested and therefore I need to be tested, even if my success is a given.

Now that I think about it, if my success is a given, then is it really a test? Is it really a trial? It seems like it would be more of a series of events that may or may not create some sort of annoyance and really I’d just be going through the motions, therefore not really gaining anything from the experience other than some things that involve the inner turmoil. Therefore, this journey up a mountain needs to increase the danger factor. There need to be crumbling cliffs, sheer winds and dramatic rain. There needs to be screaming from some sort of unknown source until the source is discovered. There need to be lots of things in the way, but they need to be spaced out so that they arrive at all the right moments.

It will be arduous and all of that other stuff. Safety is not certain; nor is it ascertained at any point. However, I’m sure that with enough time and perseverance it will see some sort of success and the top will be reached.

Oh! Also need to add more chickens. Lots more chickens.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:50:04

This is rather silly and I think that’s fine.

Written at home.

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Gull Over River

This is an image of a silver gull flying over Cooks River.

I don’t think that there’s anything particularly special about this photo, but I do like that it carries a sense of stillness more than it does a sense of motion.

This is my submission into the one hundred-and-thirtieth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.

The theme for this one is “It’s a Small World“.

I’ve submitted this photo as, compared to us, silver gulls are small. Also, my understanding is that silver gulls are considered small when it comes to gull sizes. With that in mind, this photo shows a small gull over a (comparatively) big river.

The challenge is hosted by four people and cycles weekly:

Week 1 – Patti

Week 2 – Ann-Christine aka Leya

Week 3 – Amy

Week 4 – Tina

This week’s challenge is guest curated by Anne Sadler of Slow Shutter Speed. The next one will be (as far as I’m aware) curated by Patti.

The challenges are pretty fun and there’s a lot of room for interpretation that doesn’t get in the way of enjoyment. If you’re into photography, then I suggest participating, or at the least checking out what other people are submitting.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 857: Being Lazy Again

Really needing to pull myself out of this slovenly stupor upon which I am currently engaging within. It’s not good for being productive and I don’t like that. Being lazy is fun and all, but I’m slipping and I need to get a bit more of a grip.

Struggling on all fronts but so long as I can pout everything aside and keep on going and get back to the act of doing things, I am sure that I can get to the end of at least this, whatever this happens to be. Of course it is one of those “We will see” things, but I really need to make an effort to pull out of this odd tailspin of doing nothing that I’m firmly engaging with.

I don’t quite like to be overtly personal with these writings very much. I did that at one point and now I don’t want to do it as I don’t feel like it, but of course there is a bit of being personal in most of the things that I write anyway, so there you go. Anyway, that’s beside the point. What I’m saying here is that this is an overtly personal bit of writing in that it is overtly personal due to my expressing my being rather lazy and not expending enough effort to stop being lazy, which is something that I’m now going to work on trying to stop so that OI can get back t0 where I was before December as that is when I really slowed down on everything. I don’t think it is entirely to do with NaNoWriMo, but maybe it is, but in any event now is the time where I stop the being slow and lazy. Now is where I just sit down and write and keep on working on it and get back to being better about things.

There already is a lot that I need to do and of course not enough time to get it all done in, but so long as I keep on pushing forward and just keep on working on things, I’m sure that I will get to a point where I can consider myself as being back on top of things, or at least most of the way toward climbing that pile.

Of course this does require the actual placing of effort and realistically I don’t think I should be saying anything about it as now that I have, I can congratulate myself on an effort and reap the rewards of the endorphin release for announcing it all to the world and so on and so forth. However, something something and I’m just going to get on with it for the rest of the day and hope that somehow I get a bit more rather than a bit less done and just start working hard on everything and… well, yeah.

On a side note, it’s hot outside and I’m just going to sweat and keep being lazy, or not.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:54:88

Not great, but I have noticed I’ve not been holding myself as accountable to my not “creating”, so… yeah. You all get this bit of writing.

Written at home.

 

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One Thousand Word Challenge 104: Aiming for Under Nine Minutes Once More

Trying to get under nine minutes again as though that kind of crab is gong to fly for content of the quality variety, though of course quality is a varying thing here, usually varying from bad to terrible but that’s okay as that is what we aim for here. By “we” I mean “I”.

So anyway, here I am. I am doing this again and to be honest I don’t have high hopes, but we’ll see what happens. We’ll see if I can get this written all in under nine minutes. I don’t have high hopes as it seems as though I have slowed down a bit more than I had expected over the past few weeks, but at the same time maybe I will pull this off and then get to the end and then I’ll be here and there and everywhere and I’ll have reached the mark of which I am aiming for. Maybe I can pull it off.

Of course I need to think of something that will be worth writing. Well, I don’t need to think of something that needs to be worth writing, but I need to tap into that stream-of0-consciousness writing that I so verily want to be able to do, but for some reason struggle so much with which might mean I’m not allowing for my thoughts to be unshackled enough. That is on me, of course. However, I will blame everyone else that I can as that makes it a lot easier for me to then avoid the art of responsibility and thus perform the art of denial and deflecting.

But then, where do I go from there? It seems as though what I’m really doing is digging a hole for myself and then jumping in the hole and then sealing the hole so that the hole is whole and no longer a hole, but more of a sealed area that could be seen as a receptacle for someone to be in as it was once a hole and the person then went into the hole and it no longer is a hole until the top is removed once more, though perhaps it always is a hole and I’m deluding myself into thinking that it no longer is a hole.

Of course, I am speaking in metaphorical terms, though perhaps it would be fun to dig a little hole and then make a small network 0of lengthy tunnels that seemingly lead nowhere as there would be no place that I can think of at the current moment that I would have them lead to, though in the future that might just change and the change might just be worth it depending on how you look at it, of course.

Now, I don’t know where I’m going with this but I am racing as much as I can at the present moment. Writing stuff like this does not help matter, but I persist and persisting is why I do so I will keep on with my persistence and hope that somehow I get to the end of all of this in one piece rather than multiple pieces. Don’t know if that will indeed be the case but there is always hope and I keep on hoping, but I need to keep on trying also. No point in having the hope if that hope is going nowhere, though now that I think about it there is generally always a point in having hope, so let us just something something and then get on with the proceedings and I am sure that that will help resolve the thing at hand, though really there is no thing that needs to be resolved at the presenting moment so I will just keep on rambling on and keep on going and of course keep on hoping.

So anyway, I was nearing the end of this and I realised that a lot of what I had written thus far was not worth reading. Of course this was not something that was different from usual. I thought about it all and then I realised that there was no going back and it was all too late so instead of removing the whole thing I kept on going and hoped that somehow this would all fix itself and lead to something far greater than I could ever imagine. The conclusion revealed that that was not the case, but it was worth a shot even though nothing was done at all. Such is the way of things and such is the way that it continued on.

At one point I started writing about how I was writing whilst writing and then the whole thing went off the rails once more in some sort of vivid display of grandeur and lemonade as it danced around the moon’s half mouth when it could no longer sing the signs of the marbled panels that it too could only know when it id not know what it was not to know whilst still knowing that somehow kettles fly perpendicular to the broom that launched them from their homes of cosiness and comfort and that was just how it all was and then it was to never be, but of course the honey still kept on being collected upon the anger of the delight’s fortitude when surrounded by backs only by looking for fronts and therefore I had no idea as to how tow rap this all up and realised that I need to work on my speed a bit more if I really want to reach the target of under nine minutes.

Of course I am not aiming for under ten minutes as that seems to be somewhat-easy for me to reach at this point, but under nine is a target that I want to try and achieve. Whether I do or not at some point in the future is yet to be seen, but perhaps it will happen sooner rather than later. Perhaps it will.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 09:49:24

I wrote this yesterday and am not sure as to why I waited until today to share it. Maybe it’s due to the writing being more over the place than usual.

Written at home.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 856: Something Calm

The sound of something calm moves over everything and, much like a comforting blanket, it is comforting.

Of course there are the shrill screams of terror that emanate from somewhere, but they soon die off and a sense of relaxation befalls that particular area where those screams were coming from.

It is a pleasant day and the sound of birds rings through. No rain, calm air. Quietude reigns supreme and the joys that it provides remain subdued, but not forcefully so.

Perhaps the day is yet to wake up. Perhaps soon there will be the yawning of the mouths and the rising of energy. However, for the time being the peace is appreciated and very much not taken for granted. Hopefully it holds throughout the day, but if not, then at least this particular moment shall be one that is reveled in. There shall be the immersion and all those other things that help better appreciate the momentary period of calm.

If it does end up stretching throughout the day, then that too will be appreciated as that means that the peace shall hold and the nice calmness of the morning shall bring in the peace of the afternoon, which should hopefully see a transition to a quiet and soft evening where the gentleness rules with an ironclad fist steely stare and as such there shall be the reigning of the peace and who else can say otherwise?

Why, those dissenters shall not be allowed to have a word in edgewise and therefore there shall be combat to maintain the peace and all of that other stuff that comes with the issues of maintaining the peace throughout the day.

There shall be no lifting of the blanket and there shall be no unveiling of the veil, so therefore it shall be all within the hands of the hands that rule and force the peace upon those that live under the hands and therefore there shall be no chaos, unless there is in which case it shall be fought at every corner so as to battle it away and force it back and then there will be much rejoicing and celebration, but it will have to be done on a small, quiet and calm scale as otherwise things would get too rowdy and therefore the peace would once more have to be enforced. The calmness would need to be brought down like the heavy hammer of serenity and then it would be all alright again, as is the way that these things go.

So it would be nice for the calmness to persist as it is better appreciated that way and, personally, I don’t want to go through the rigmarole of peace and calmness being heavily enforced as that takes time and energy and both of those things are things that I need to spend elsewhere for the time being as there are other things happening and so let’s just keep a bit of peace and calmness going throughout the day.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:14:77

Early on I switched gears a little as I’m not skilled enough to carry out the original intent.

Written at home.

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Weather Change

There’s something about seeing the intensity of a storm quickly swallow the sky before its clouds unleash upon the ground and its features that I find appealing.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 855: Move Toward the Next Thing

Alright, so the wind is blowing and the rain is on and it is also off. It seems to be cycling a bit more than I had anticipated. This is of course good for plants, but not so good for clothes which need to now dry inside rather than outside. Not what I’d prefer, to be honest, but there are worse things out there so I’m not going to kick up a fuss as that would be a bit of a waste of time.

Still, maybe I should kick up a fuss. Do a bit of the old complaining. It might be worth the time and effort so long as I can make it good. How do I make it good? By making it good; that’s how. Clearly that was an easy question for me to answer and thus all future questions should be easy to answer as clearly I am good at answering easy questions.

Now that I have that out of the way, I guess I should move toward the next thing but of course I know not what that is and so I am just rambling and doing the thing so that at the end of this all I get to the end of this all and see the writing which has then been posted, but of course I will likely forget that I wrote this as that is what I do, sometimes. Sometimes I remember what it is that I wrote and then I think about other things. It is much like a thought that passes on by in the wind. Briefly for a moment you’re experiencing it, but then it leaves and you’re onto the next thing.

So anyway, I think that I need to find a way to wrap this up but of course, much like usual, I know not how I will. That is fine. There are other things out there that are worth more time worrying about and so I’m sure that this bit of writing will find its natural conclusion and then we’ll all go on our merry way. There will be little, if any perceived consequence and therefore there will be some sort of surprise and disgust, but seeing as I’m in an advantageous position, I will still be able to walk away from this conclusion and go about the rest of my life as I see fit. Maybe I’ll even brag about it somewhere. Who knows?

But of course that probably won’t happen and I’ll just move toward the next thing and then get that done and then do the thing that I’m meant to be doing at the moment, as is the way that I progress through the day. Still, perhaps there will be some sort of revelation that leads to a realising and thus the gaining of more knowledge and then I’ll be back here, rambling on some more and therefore I will have increased my output for the day, though best not to hold your breath.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:18:05

This is a bit of a mess. A bit jumbled I think.

Written at home.

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