Ranting About Drivers

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: a lot of people shouldn’t be allowed to drive.

The other day, when coming home from yoga, I got stuck behind this driver who just wasn’t really driving so much as they were dawdling in their car. There’s cars behind them, they’re going well under the speed limit until honked, then going well under again, and again… and again. And this is causing issues, because traffic is being held up for no reason. And eventually it gets to a point where, because of their dawdling, they end up getting through a green and everyone else behind them doesn’t. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, this makes for only a few extra minutes of travel, but it adds up. It adds up when you just want to get home and can’t because people decide that not going at a reasonable speed is acceptable, especially when they have the space to go at a reasonable speed.

Had someone else speed up and slow down of their own accord repeatedly, and that was pretty annoying Had a cabbie decide to dawdle, too, until honked at. Could see that they weren’t looking at where they were going, and based on how they took off after being honked, weren’t near where they were going anyway.

But those are annoyances. Those aren’t the worst accident risks.

Earlier this week I was heading to USYD late. Had to spend time looking for a space to park, started going around a roundabout. Some smart individual in what I’m fairly certain was a Porsche, based on the logo on the front decided to enter the roundabout whilst I was in it. I was to the right of their entryway.

They stopped suddenly, as did I, and they gave me this filthy look as I passed around them (there was, thankfully, space to do so). I got a good look at them and probably gave them back the same kind of stare, but I got a good look and could see it was either some teenager, or person in their early twenties.

Now I think there is a difference between someone who looks young and someone who is young, and this was – as far as I’m aware – someone who was young. Someone who looks young generally doesn’t have that kind of face that’s yet to be shaped by experience. Happy to be wrong. But anyway.

I’ve seen plenty of people who don’t know how to drive and be shitty at others despite their being in the wrong. I’ve seen plenty of people who don’t know how to drive in cars that make me wonder how they can afford them. This was, ultimately, another person who is insignificant in my life, but it really shits me when I see someone do the wrong thing and visibly not own it.

I remember a few years ago when someone took a turn in front of me when I was going straight, and they shrugged as they passed me by. I respect that person more, because they owned it… sort of. Their expression was very much a “Hey, it happens”, which I got, and whilst I was annoyed, I couldn’t hold onto the annoyance. They didn’t decide to give me a filthy look.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1544: Last Week on Friday

Last week on… Friday?

Friday.

Last week on Friday I was heading off to yoga. Things have been okay. Things have been going well. Getting better, in a way. Decided to spin “The Scientist” though. Don’t know why, but it seemed appropriate, somehow.

So I’m walking through Newtown and it’s Halloween, and people are out and enjoying themselves. People are having a good time, or at least heading to somewhere they plan on having a good time at, and I’m walking at a brisk pace as I want to get to class on time, and I’m starting to feel a bit sad. I’m starting to feel a bit lonely, and I’m letting myself feel this way. I’m still grieving, I guess. Even though I gain distance from my ex and realise how unhealthy the relationship was for me, and even though I am seeing someone new and my heart’s aflutter with the joy and romance of it all, I still felt it digging into me.

I’m walking and I’m feeling not great. I’m feeling it, but I’m also feeling neutral, but the heart is being tugged and I am not feeling able to resist, and I’m dipping my toes into that world. Not going for a full dive, mind you; just a little testing and deciding it’s not for me. But I’m getting the grieving buzz, and it’s a thin layer of fur I can’t shake.

Get to yoga, do it, good session. Tough session due to lack of sleep. But good. And I head on back to where I parked, and I think it had started raining at this point. It had rained whilst I was in the class, and it was still raining a little at this point. But I’m walking back to where I’ve parked and it’s a little rain, but not enough to have the umbrella out the whole time, and more people are out and merry and having a good time and I’m still getting that buzz, but it’s faded a little, and once again I’m thinking “Fuck you, Chris Martin” as I’m walking on back to head on home.

Eventually I’m back at USYD, heading into The Business School so I can head to the car park. As I’m entering the building I pass three students having a smoke, and I feel like asking them for one, just to get some slight satisfaction from the moment, even if I’ll regret it later. I could’ve told them to smoke a little further away from the entryway, just so there’s less risk of them getting into shit for it, but I don’t. I just walk on by.

I’m in the building and I’m still listening to “The Scientist”, and I’ve listened to it too much, but it’s still hitting. But it doesn’t matter anymore, and so I head to my car. I unlock it and start it, and I think a little about the route I’m going to take to get home. Then I drive off.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:54:00

Could’ve been better. This didn’t need to be as long as it is.

Written at work.

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Llamas

There’s a place I know of that has llamas. I won’t say where because, in taking this photo, it became apparent that the owners are quite protective of them, but they are cute llamas.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. This one one is hosted by Elke of Pictures Imperfect Blog, and she has chosen the theme “Farm Animals”.

This challenge is open to all, and I recommend joining in. If want to, check out more information about it here, and include the tag “monochrome-madness” when you share your photo. If you’d prefer not to join in, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography, and what other people submit.

I hope you enjoy.

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The Street

This street is important to a few people I know, and also hold little significance.
A lot of fond memories came to be here. A lot of pain, too.

I hope you enjoy.

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Wet and Dry

This photo was taken for this challenge, but it was not planned. I’d figured I’d see something interesting, thought about how I could take a photo, got a rough idea, saw this, captured it. Easy. There were things that I saw that I could have pulled the camera out for and didn’t for some reason. I think not doing so paid off.

What I like about this is how it shows, quite clearly I feel, the effect wetness can have on a surface. It changes the appearance and the “feel” of the surface in a way that’s rather insignificant, yet interesting.

This is my submission into the three hundred-and-seventy-first Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Street Details“.

The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:

Tina

Patti

Ann-Christine aka Leya

John Steiner

Sofia Alves

Anne Sandler

Egídio

Ritva

Beth

This one is curated by Ritva. The next one is curated by Tina.

I recommend joining the community and participating in the challenges. They’re pretty straightforward, allow room for interpretation, and provide a good way to think about photography in general. If not, however, then at the very least you should check out what others submit to the challenges.

I hope you enjoy.

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Music Out of View

This photo.. I don’t know why I processed it, but evidently I did and it looks not great, to be honest. I do like how vague it is. There’s something there, but it could almost be anything. Almost.

I hope you enjoy.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 228: Wondering if I can

I’ve about eleven minutes before I need to get back to work and I’ve remembered what it was that I wanted to say earlier, but forgot about saying so I’m gonna see if I can say it now.

I’m thinking about how this year has gone, and how fucked it has been, and how fantastic it has been in some ways. But I’m also thinking about how there are things that I’ve wanted to achieve in this final year of the blog and how those things have gone by the wayside. It’s rough, because I had a number of goals and I was ready to hit them, but it didn’t happen. But sometimes that’s just the way things go. Sometimes you start something off and you have to give it up, and that’s okay. I think I’ll survive, somehow. In some way. Don’t know why, but I suspect.

That’s really all I had to say, but I think I can expand upon that. I think I can expand upon that without saying much of anything because I don’t want to reveal anything, just in case. But you know. Anyway.

I had particular writing goals that I wanted to achieve, and I still can if I am willing to cram hard. That’s not something I’m willing to do, but I think I can get some of it done. But I don’t know if it is worth it. It’s been a rough year and it has led to a lot of gazing at the old navel, and that’s okay, but that’s not how I want to be writing at the moment. I want to be crafting things and things are not what I’m crafting. But I can get back on track still. I can, at least, try to finish strong. If I can do that, then maybe things will be okay as I wrap everything up here. There’s still six-ish months to go, so that’s plenty of time.

I’m thinking about everything I’ve written on this blog. I’m thinking about how much of this was initially driven just by the desire to write and it took off after getting dumped way back, and now I’m here, and things are similar, but I’m sort of getting past the despair. Sort of. It’s tough. It’s hard, but I’m seeing someone else now, and that’s okay. That’s nice, but it’s also something I don’t want to write about. I didn’t write about my recent partner for many years, and only dropped in some bits and pieces here and there, and I was okay with that. Then suddenly this all became about her and how I felt, and I don’t like that.

Ages ago I said that I’d be writing some pretty uncomfortable stuff and that never happened, but a lot of this has been uncomfortable for me, and not because it’s a frank examination (which it isn’t much of), but because so much of this lacks the tact and grace required to get things across in a way that might mean something to someone else. It has gotten in the way of my goals, and that’s fine. Just sometimes I do wish I had a stronger ability to ignore some things, but matters of the heart will take precedence in my life whether I want them to or not, and so I just need to go with where they go, whether I want them too or not.

I’m trying to be grateful for the good times and the bad times, because they’ve helped me become a better person, albeit perhaps too late, but at this point I’m fine with that relationship ending because it’s led to so many positives in my life, even if it can be difficult to accept some of them. At the very least I am doing okay and I am writing again, and soon I’ll be pushing out a lot of words; far more words than necessary, and I’ll probably burn out hard by the end of it all, but then I’ll have my rest. I’ll have my break.

To be honest, I could probably end the blog right now and be fine with it, but I want to complete one thing, and that’s fifteen years of this verbal spewing. It wasn’t always as busy as this and there has been a lot of stuff written that I don’t like, but it has been a time. A mixed time full of questions and crap, and sometimes some good. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. You don’t get to win them all if you are as stubborn as I am and, like me, lack the skill to warrant that stubbornness. But that’s okay.

So I’m wondering if I can achieve my goals. I’m wondering if I can get there. I don’t know and maybe I also don’t care. I’m going to try, but I’m okay with not succeeding, so long as I make it to the fifteen year anniversary. If I make it to that, then I’ll be fine. But if I don’t, I’ll also be fine.

Soon I’ll be writing more in other spaces and I’ll keep going in those spaces. I’ll drive on and and get them working, and who knows where they lead?

I’m writing like I am ending this space now, but I promise I’m not! This is just what’s on my mind right now. I’ve a moment of clarity and I’m stretching it beyond any form of reasonable amount of writing, and I’m fine with that, too. I’m fine with a lot of things, and I feel hopeful and despairing, and optimistic. I’ll be glad once this is all done, and once this is all done I’ll have far more time on my hands.

So… I said what I wanted to say and now that I’ve said it, I guess I need to move toward whatever else is floating about. I’m sure I’ll work it out soon enough, and churn out more crap once I do.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 12:37:44

From a few days ago, and it’s okay. I’ve written better stuff, but once again this feels like something that’s right for right now.

Written at work.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1543: Cycles and Circles

Once again I find myself at Duoly Rob, drawn like a magnet. I could’ve made food to take for breakfast, but apparently I decided not to, for no good reason. But that’s what happens sometimes, most of the time.

Sitting here, blah blah blah. But I am sitting here and I’m writing, and I’ve just finished a rough draft of the thing I was meant to start editing (which I did). But now it’s ready for trimming and cutting down and rearranging, because I hadn’t written much about the work I was writing about, but now I have. And now I need to start working it into something readable. Something far less messy and sloppy. I don’t want it to be the most concise bit of writing out there, but I do want it to be readable without hurting the reader.

I’ve done this and this morning I was taking photos. It’s a bit of a grim day, but it’s also a pleasant day. The day is running in cycles and circles, and that’s nice. Or rather, it will be. There might be rain and there will be wind, and I’m sitting here, writing this out and I feel good. I feel good and today is gonna be just another day. It’ll be just another day in a series of days, but I’m gonna take it for what it is and I’m gonna do my best to enjoy and learn.

And now I don’t know what there is to say. I’ve been really tired over the past few weeks, but I’ve been having a good time. Things feel like they are getting better. I am optimistic, but I’m cautious, and specifically in that order. I’m anxious about where things go and how I should and should not feel, but I’m happy. For the first time in a really long time, I feel happy without any hangups. I think the last time I felt this way was last year, early on. I’m not sure. But it doesn’t matter.

But I’m working on my writing again and I’m doing photography again and not feeling like I need to force it. I’m practising bass and doing it without having to force myself, and I’m getting that itch to sit down and write more music. I want to draw more. I want to do the things that I’ve enjoyed so many times in my life, and I want to do them more. It feels like many years of lack of desire, or at least waning, and I think the timing of my seeing someone and these coming back to me is not coincidental. I’m hoping I’m not relying on someone else to drive my desire to create, and if I am I need to work out how to let myself drive my own desire.

I don’t want to write the way I’m writing this, but this is what is coming forward. But it’s a good time, and I’m looking forward to what comes next.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:46:31

Bit of crap writing, but it was worth writing to me.

Written at Dirty Red.

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Smearing into Form

Sometimes when I do these, they turn out really well. Not sure if this one turned out well, but I like how strongly motion is stated in this photo.

I hope you enjoy.

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Jon Batiste, Chad Smith & Bill Laswell: Drop Away

One listen.

A lot of this came easy, but I feel like I was writing against the song in parts. It’s difficult for me to quantify, but I feel like that’s how I wrote.

Jon Batiste, Chad Smith & Bill Laswell’s “Drop Away” is from The Process.

I hope you enjoy.

Percussion rolls, flows, seems to pause and move. Bass is there, calmly moving along, being busy and being low. And some vocals come in, repeat a phrase, “Drop Away”, and something like an organ is there, too. It probably is an organ, but it seems like an organ.

The vocals say other things, too. They sing words and phrases in short, clear phrases, looking for imagery and finding it, and seeing where it all sits.

Those keys are no longer sounding like an organ and they play these strikes and flickers, and suddenly it feels like a massive amount of noise. Some of it dissolves in bubbles and the moment is quiet, and then it picks up again. All that calm energy.

The vocals seem more spaced here, and they keep going, and then they pick up again, too. Everything flows and is wide and pushing against the sides, and all remains calm and driven. It’s dancing music, and suggestive and symbolic, and so much seems like imagery.

Intensity increases and those keys play harder. They play between strikes and stabs, rumbling quickly and slowly, and without a business, and then everything goes back to rolling.

“Drop away” the vocals repeat, and they seem to have some sort of stress in them. But maybe it’s not there. Maybe they’re just really about sound and imagery, and nothing else, because they are distinct, but they meld into the sounds around them. Everything melds together, and everything moves forward, loops and progresses, and comes to another moment of keys playing between strikes and stabs, but playing through them too. Then everything settles and fades away as the song ends.

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