Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1480: Miniature Crunch

Kind of doing a miniature crunch this morning. Trying to compact things into this space so I can get on with the getting on and work on other things later today. Really, I could just choose to not write anything and not try and do as much as possible in as little amount of time as possible, but I don’;t operate that way and am refusing to operate in a healthier manner. Funny how that seems to always pan out.

So it’s a bit of a crunch. I’m crunching; I’m getting on the crunch. Tomorrow I’ll be getting on the bus, reading on the bus, and subsequently reading on the train. However, right now I’m just doing me a bit of a crunch.

You know, doing this isn’t actually that fun. But I’ll get through it. It’s not exciting but it’s what it’s, and that’s what I’ll be going through for now. For now.

For now…

So… yeah. Just hit the wall. Trying to avoid the spiral, but it begs me. It tries to entice me back in. Stay away! Stay away from me, you series of thoughts that lead to more sadness. I need not that right now; I need to write! I need to express myself in the way that I see most fit and most valuable. I need to put text to space and throw it over the precipice and into the grand abyss, never to be seen again… unless the abyss decides to throw it back at me, and there have been times when that has happened.

I’m wondering and I’m feeling things out. Not much time left until homelessness. Cutting it close. Waiting to see what happens, if anything does indeed happen. Maybe nothing will happen. Maybe everything will happen.

Maybe I’m just rambling.

See? Those thoughts are now coming in. They’re finding their way through the cracks of my defending posture, and I don’t know if I can allow this to continue, but there is no choice. It’s too late, and they’re here. What do I do now? How do I cope? Oh, woe is me!

But seriously, I do need money and if you’re able and willing to, I request your financial assistance, especially if you’ve been willing to keep following. Survival should not be dependent on income, but I live in Sydney and Sydney is incredibly expensive.

Well, with that little bit out of the way, I go back to resisting. Looking at these plants in this room, wondering how they’re surviving. One doesn’t look like it’s doing well, but it might just be the way the leaves sit. I don’t know. Will probably never know. Not much time left to know and learn, really. Have other things that I need to take care of, so those other things will be taken care of as they come to me. Not going to them… though I am.

Well, the crunch continues and goes on, and soon it’ll be work time. Before then, crunch.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:36:21

Good speed. Bit of a mess, but it was satisfying to write. Just had to force myself a bit.

Written at work.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1479: Sometimes Things do Change

I was writing this thing about how  sad and stressed I was, and now I’ve scrapped it. I feel like shit right now, but I don’t want to write about that. I don’t want to write about the absolute drain I’ve felt over the last few years. I don’t want to write about the lack of support I’ve felt, as well as my own neglect. I don’t want to.

What I want to write about is the future and where my life is going, and I want to reach out and express something meaningful. Little changes around here, yet I keep on trying. I keep on persevering.

Sometimes things do come along and sometimes things do change, but you need to work on it and so on and so forth, and once more I’m in an empty room and I’m listening to what I’m listening to and all should be good, but in my heart lies hurt, and it’s going to take a long time before it goes. It’s going to take a long time before I’m comfortable again.

Having to be prepared to refurnish a whole house is… not fun, to say the least. I’m not wanting to go through this, but I might have to. If so, so be it. That’s the way it goes and I’ll keep going with that if I have to. Rather not, but might just.

But I don’t want to be writing about this. I can see outside and it looks like it’s raining, but it’s not. I want to write about that. I want to write about the low noise that I can hear. I want to write tales and stories, and I want to explore a vast world that lies ahead.

Actually, I think it is raining outside.

So I want to write and explore, and I used to have dreams and desires, and I still do, but so much of it has been pushed away for survival. It’s all changed, and not in ways that I’d have hoped. How am I successful? In what aspects am I successful? Does it even matter? I don’t know. Do I care? I don’t know.

This is all changing for the cynical, and I don’t want it. I don’t want this kind of despairing about shit in my life. I want to go drive a long, long distance, and see where everything lies. I want to be able to keep on going and push onward, and come back and feel okay and safe, and all of those things. I just want to dream and see it become a reality.

What I want write now, or at least something I really want right now, is just to see another day. See tomorrow and wake up and know that I’ll be okay. Know that I won’t have to worry about being homeless. I have to wonder how many people out there feel the same way. I wonder how many just want to have some comfort again.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:34:80

It’s all waves. Might feel better this afternoon. Don’t know. Don’t care much.

Written at work.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 213: To Persevere

Sometimes I do wonder if I still have it in me to keep going. To persevere through all of this life stuff. I mean, I’m sure I do, but sometimes I really wonder.

How have I gone on for as long as I have? How have I been able to survive and keep on going? How have I been able to tolerate struggling for so much of my life and keep pursuing comfort and success?

I don’t like being alone, but I am fine with it. I don’t mind it, even if I don;t like it. It doesn’t bother me too much. I think that;s part of why I’m handling being dumped better than I did last time. But I can deal with being alone. I’ve spent a lot of time in the relationship alone. But to want to be with someone that I love and being unable to, despite all the problems there are; that’s what hurts.

Somehow I’m still going, though I say that as though it’s some dramatic revelation. The fact is, right now I don’t have much of a choice. I still have to get another job and not be homeless. My writing doesn’t make me money and neither does my photography, so what choice do I have other than to keep on going? To survive? To keep on struggling, and not really being able to deal with stuff that I really need to deal with at the moment?

Too many questions and not enough life right now, but it is something I’m going to have to keep on doing. I have to.

So I sit here in this empty room and I enjoy the quiet. I’m listening to Mariah Carey’s Butterfly, and it’s a great album, and it’s definitely of its era, too. But it’s beautiful and painful, and it’s not hitting me the way that I hoped it might. Not that I was looking to feel hurt – already am feeling that enough – but I’d heard about it being a sad album, and it is, but it’s also quite uplifting in a way. It’s very romantic in parts, I find. It’s nice enough.

So I’m in this empty room and it’s quiet and I’m listening to this music, and I’m trying to work out how I keep on going with things. I’m trying to work out how it is that I seem to be coping better with getting dumped than the person who dumped me. I don’t get it. I don’t understand. I’m not the fastest person in the world, anyway.

I’m having to rebuild my life once again, and I’m doing it in my thirties, and sure, that’s still young. There’s still many years left in me, but I feel tired, and I don’;t want to keep on doing this romance rodeo thing. I don’t know if I have the energy to give myself to someone else, and I know I know; early days. I get that. But I really don’t feel it, because I gave so much of myself, and felt I had to be emotionally and mentally strong enough nearly constantly for two people; for years, and I know that I don’t want to do that again. But of course you never know what will happen in the future, and it’d be wrong for me to swear off it completely, but I really don’t want to.

I do want to work on myself, and I want to think about things. I want to write more fictional stuff, and not this “dear diary” thing I’ve got going on right now. Most of my writing is more of the personal in some manner, of course, but this is getting a bit too much for me. I need space from it, but I have to keep writing as I’m preparing myself for something bit and I want to make sure that I cover it as best as I can. A lot of work and a lot of exercise it will require, and maybe at the end of it I’ll have written something worthwhile.

Most writing is worthwhile, really, but this is a certain kind of worthwhile that I’m trying to find and lock down. If I can do that, then I can do anything.

Or at least say I wrote something I can stand behind that’s not necessarily related to music or gaming or film. But we’ll see.

So I’m sitting here in this room and my lunch is nearly over, but I’m getting there. I’m taking small steps and working my way on up to something bigger. Well, maybe not bigger, but something that at least puts me in a better place. A lot of hope and a lot of trying. A lot of failing and a lot of getting back up, but I still wonder how I’ve managed to keep on going. How I’ve managed to keep on surviving. Dogged perseverance, really.

Some days I feel like I’ll get somewhere; like my writing will be successful and read by many. Some days I feel as though nothing will stop me. Others I struggle to press a few keys. I keep on going though. I keep on writing, and that’s something that seems to have never left me, and for that I am grateful.

I’m grateful that it stays around stronger than my music and my drawing, and my photography. It’s something that I can always return to, though I wish I were better at crystalising thoughts and making them clear and coherent. It’s all part of why I continue though, I guess.

And everyone should be able to express themselves in a way that’s healthy, too. It can be hard to do so at times, but we should be allowed. It is our right to create and do so in a way that helps us feel better. Sometimes it doesn’t, but regardless, we should still be allowed. We should be allowed to keep on growing and, hopefully, find some success along the way.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 12:48:84

Don’t know what to make of this. Good speed, but it’s a bit all over the place. Also focused, however.

Written at work.

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Lines of Decay

I’ve been saving this photo for something, but that something might not happen now and so I’m sharing it here.

This is part of a boat. I’ve shared photos of it before, but not this part of it… I think. I find it interesting, and I find its decay interesting, hence the sharing.

I hope you enjoy.

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Fumie Kumatani: Jungle -A Lush Load-

One listen.

Not sure where I was going with this one. Sort of just describing the song, sort of trying not to.

Fumie Kumatani’s (“熊谷文恵”) “Jungle -A Lush Load-” is from Phantasy Star Online Songs of RAGOL Odyssey -Soundtrack EPISODE 1&2- and Phantasy Star Music Collection 2000-2007. The song is used in Phantasy Star Online Episode 1.

I hope you enjoy.

As steady beat plays out soft and hard, and seemingly relaxed, various sounds drift in here and there. They play background, soft, gentle, quiet, relaxed. Among them, keys touch their moments, and something seems to rise underneath. Rise or warp.

Another sound, perhaps akin to strings marks its moments and flows onward. It carries the grandness of it all, but as a low sort of drama. Soon that warp comes back, seemingly threatening to take over.

More sound comes in, draws long and short at the same time, and there’s an unease coming through. This is all sorts of refreshing, but something is off. Something is lurking there, and pressing on, but it doesn’t quite come to prominence, though it almost does.

A return to how it was, and those keys drift on. More percussion is apparent this time, keeping flow, keeping things busy as everything moves at a very intentional pace. The sounds remain cool and peaceful, and perhaps instill a sense of wonder, and an urging comes forward. An urging to move, to keep moving. To stay focused on it all, whatever it is that lies ahead.

Sounds ring out, and that unease returns. It lurks and looks to press in, but once more it doesn’t quite come to prominence, and everything fades out as the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1478: Don’t Care so Much

Got stuff to do and… well, I’m not sure I care right now. It has already been a morning and I just want to get to the end of the day. It’s too bright outside. It’s too dark inside. Where is the bed in which I want to lie? I want to lie in bed and relax a bit, but I cannot. Have too much going on and not enough time to get it all done.

Before all of that, however, it’s time to not care. It’s time to  hurt and work it all out and get on with the getting on, and I wonder if there is actually much going on at the moment or if there is nothing. I still want to wake up and have all of this be a bad dream, but that’s not going to happen and I need to keep persevering. I need to keep on going on.

But right now I’m sitting in a room, banging away on the keyboard. I’m trying to work some stuff out and then get on with the day, and I think I can do that. Noticing some stuff here and there that will go into the pile of things I need to take care of, and I’ll get through it and I’ll get to the end of the day at some point, but to be honest it doesn’t feel that I will. However, I always do. I’m lucky in some ways, and I think this is definitely one of them.

Now if only that luck would mean I somehow win a lot of money so I don’t have to worry about  asking people to help me out.

But even beyond all of saying that, I sit here, I can type. I’m getting a bit better. It’s slow, and it’s rather sudden, but I have to say, it’s nice.

I can type, I can write, and it’s all coming back, but the ache remains. It’ll take a long time, but I’ll get there. I’ll be okay. Always am when it comes to matters of the heart. Just need to keep on going.

The other day I met up with a friend of mine. After the interview, and we went for drinks. I was venting a lot, but I had more fun and was happier than I had been in a long time. I’ve been feeling less drained, too, and to be honest I feel bad about that. I feel bad about being happy and I feel bad about not feeling drained, and I don’t know why. Well, I do know why; it’s pretty obvious, but I keep on going. I keep on trying to get done what I can get done, and I need to keep working on myself, and I will. But I’m trying to not be as I was about it last time. That’s my hope. I want to avoid that, and I think I can, but we’ll see.

But today I don’t care so much.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:33:78

Quick write and it’s okay, but there was some serious stretching in places.

Written at work.

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Benjamin Briggs: Climb my Mountain, This High

One listen.

Heard the opening of this song this morning, decided to hold on it until I could write about it, which was just now. I wasn’t sure what would come forward which is good. No notions or expectations other than trying to get across the song in some manner, and I feel I succeeded in that regard.

Benjamin Briggs’ “Climb my Mountain, This High” is from Threshold Of A Dream: A Musical Interpretation Of The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As per the title, the album is a tribute album covering the music of Link’s Awakening, and Benjamin Briggs reinterpreted “Tal Tal Mountain Range“.

I hope you enjoy.

Steady is the beat whilst low sounds carefully breathe. A dramatic melody is established, and a leading sound comes in and starts climbing. The beat gets busy, seems to explode, but then it settles when the melody shifts. There’s adventure here, but there’s also danger. But there’s also conviction.

The leading sound has disappeared, or at least changed into something else, and through this the song starts building and building, and it becomes grandiose, almost, but then pulls back, if only a little.

Here there’s a reflection of that opening, and some sounds are more distorted, but it’s all much more present. A moment is looped and in comes through with confidence and and then pulls away. Things are minimal once more, and it’s all looking at the climb and the experience, and the sounds keep on shifting and changing as they progress and move on that steady beat.

It all seems quite reflective of something. It seems steady, and it all keeps going as it becomes muted, and the danger seems to lift. Clouds seem to clear, and there’s some success; some satisfaction in it all, as a goal is reached just before the song ends.

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Level 99: No Matter Where You go, This Will Always be Home

One listen.

I heard this song a couple of hours ago, decided to write about it. It’s pretty pleasant. Pretty straightforward, and that’s all it needs to be. I went in, did my best to capture that, and not sure that I did well, but something came forward and so that something is what I wrote about.

Level 99’s “No Matter Where You go, This Will Always be Home”, a cover? adaptation? of “Hometown”, from Mega Man Battle Network, is from For Everlasting Peace: 25 Years of Mega Man, a tribute album celebrating… 25 years… of Mega Man games…

I hope you enjoy.

Light, joyous guitar stirs and plays easy and relaxed. It moves through lowering and rising, and seems to reminisce. It moves through the space with some sort of fun, pauses, plays smooth, plays easy.

A moment that seems like a chorus fills out and it remains joyous. It remains happy, but there’s something a little sad in this. There’s some longing, even when it all fills out and becomes carefree, and gliding, almost.

That opening melody returns and guitar seems to cascade around, and it’s almost like driving. It’s like moving, and remembering it all, and it all flows. It all comes back, and brings innocence forward. Innocence and joy, laughter, annoyance, all those things we miss when we think of the past.

A solo of sorts comes in and it doesn’t break the mood. It continues on and interweaves the mood and imagery in a specific way, almost to see where all the memories come together, and almost to bring them to the present.

Still, that longing remains. That sadness is there, because these days will eventually come to an end, and they had before, but there’s still fun to be had, so the fun continues as the song ends.

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Marlborough Hotel

The Marlborough Hotel (AKA The Marly) is near my work. I think that, since I’ve been able to, I’ve been in there maybe ten times. Possibly fifteen, but I think ten at most. Most times I’ve been there, however, have been pretty important and entirely meaningless at the same time.

At this stage, I’m not sure if I’ll go in there again. I don’t have much of a desire to, really. It’s nice enough, but I prefer other places.

This is my submission into the three hundred-and-forty-third Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Seen on my Last Outing“.

This was taken shortly after this photo, when I was walking back to work. Figured I’d get a photo of the sign. It looked interesting at that particular moment. Beyond framing, not much more thought put into the photo.

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

This one is curated by Leya. The next one is curated by Anne.

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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Dry Space

There’s something unpleasant about this photo. I think it might be in how it sort of feels arid, or depressing. Saddening. Not sure.

I hope you enjoy.

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