Five-Hundred Word Challenge 345: An Itch that Needs Attention

Posted on November 22, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

There is something that I need to scratch.
I’m not sure as to what it is, but it certainly is an itch that needs attention.

Perhaps if I do scratch it, it will persist and leave me sitting here, continuing to scratch it until I reveal the secrets underneath.
Perhaps if I don’t scratch it, nothing will happen.

It may go away.
It may not.

This is a mystery that needs to be unraveled, like a sweater with a loose thread that is begging to be pulled, unraveling the entire sweater and leaving you with a small pile of fabric that can be reshaped to how ever you see fit, if you indeed decide that the unraveled pile of fabric does indeed need reshaping and also assuming that the fabric has not become tangled within itself, leading to some sort of knotted mess that would take a very long time to fix. It may just be better not to unravel the sweater and instead fix the broken bit so that it does not unravel of its own accord, unless you do want a knotted mess, in which case go ahead and do whatever it is that you think would be best given the situation that has created some really tense tension that you thought you could avoid for the rest of your life but cannot for there are problems everywhere and some of them you really do need to deal with from time to time. After all, that is a part of being alive and what would be living without the problems and the desire to overcome them?

After all, there are problems every single day of our living lives, whether we think that they are or not.

You need to go to the bathroom which is a problem, but you deal with it by going to the bathroom.

You are hungry and so you eat something to give yourself sustenance and stave off the hunger that you are feeling.

You walk into a store to buy something that will help you achieve something else.

There are many things. Sometimes a problem is that you are not doing enough recreational activities so you hop on your bike and go for a cycle, feeling the wind flow through your hair as you look like a wild stallion. Well, you think you look like a wild stallion. Instead you look like some sort of awkward horse that is pushing away and panting heavily whilst attempting to appreciate the views that you may be given whilst at the same time trying to avoid pedestrians and drivers, for there are many of them on the road and the footpath and sometimes you need to be on a shared path and sometimes you need to be on the road.

There’s many options here and the one that you choose will help you define the path of your journey toward a better recreational thing.

But really, there are always alternatives for most of the choices we make.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:07:03

I… yeah… uhhh…

Well, this is fairly stream-of-conscious (I think).
It was one of the easiest things that I’ve written in that there were very few pauses, so I think that that may be some sort of indication that I’m improving.

Written at home.

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Pathways Under Structures

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

I walked most of the way to work yesterday as I haven’t been doing much walking in recent times and I wanted to take a few photos.

I like how the structures in this photo are layered with each other as well as how they are designed.

I think that they form an interesting pattern, but at the same time I think that they’re fairly hideous and should be removed.

There’s a lot of dull gray in this photo, but I think it works as most of the area is shades of gray.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun Review

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

With every release it seems that Chelsea Wolfe’s music gets heavier in some way.
Inevitably that would mean that at the moment Hiss Spun is her heaviest album, assuming the trend is one that has no breaks.

The album opens with “Spun”: a slow, grinding and monolithic song that feels quite menacing and doomy. The vocals move through and above the sound, drawing out words as necessary to build on the already well-layered and dense music as the song remains consistent in pace, save for a few well-timed and brief, frantic bursts of speed.

Whilst the music is quite heavy, it doesn’t feel as though it is as blunt and assaulting as heavy music usually can be, instead feeling more as though they are embracing the listener.
Part of that may also be due to the hazy, ambiguous quality of the songs. A lot of what is heard is quite direct, but the way that the songs build and crash combined the way that Chelsea Wolfe uses her voice and the effects applied to her voice giving a feeling of distance make the songs feel as though there’s a bit of detail that’s not quite coming through.

Despite the heaviness of the music, there’s a lot of melody co-opted into most of the songs. It also allows for the brief acoustic moments, as well as the airy “Offering” to sit well with everything else despite how at odds they initially seems with the rest of the album. The melody also works well in how it affects the mood of Hiss Spun in that it balances the heaviness quite well and allows the album at times to feel as though it is soaring.

Chelsea Wolfe’s vocal performance is strong. She knows when to emphasize and pull back as well as how to draw out the most of her lyrics to suit each song as well as how her voice works as a sound and what it adds and takes from each song. This is good as due to the effects on her voice, her performance becomes more about its sound rather than the lyrics which at times lose a little bit of their clarity. This isn’t a bad thing as it seems as though Chelsea Wolfe desires to be ahead or over the music. She does rise over the songs at times but it’s never in a dominating way. Instead it is always in service of the songs.

Hiss Spun works well as an album. There’s a strong ebb and flow and despite it sounding quite heavy, the songs don’t feel as though they’re abrasive or brutal; nor do they feel as though they are trying to overwhelm the listener. It’s clear that Chelsea Wolfe and her collaborators know how to craft strong songs that aren’t there just for the sake of backing her voice. On the songs are solid performances of strong songs that are worth the time spent hearing.

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Approaching Land

Posted on November 19, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Taken whilst coming back to Huskisson after whale watching was over.

The land is far and yet so close.

I can confirm that the waves were not fun to deal with for most of this trip, but sometimes that’s a little something you have to deal with.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 344: Two Adventurers

Posted on November 19, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Once upon a time in a land far away from here, there were two adventurers heading out into some sort of adventure where there would be drama, action, grandiose landscapes and a field of view so wide that not even a sphere could counteract its magnificent, pulsing effects.

There was treasure and danger to find and these two unlikely heroes were on their way to seek this out, for it was what they wanted and in their hearts desired, but at the same time they would have settled for anything so long as it was an adventure that was one that they would carry with them for the rest of their lives.

They crossed ravines and walked over many rolling hills, looking for a better tomorrow on the foothold of today.

There were times when rain would pour from he sky, threatening to engulf all that there was and all that there ever would be and the duo would seem as though all hope had been lost, for there was no way out or under or above to escape the viscous rain that would whip at the ground and stamp at their feet. However, as always they found a way out, usually through persistence and patience.

At times a horse went missing which would leave them spending days trying to locate it, only for it to have returned under its own willpower, leaving the two adventurers feeling a little miffed, yet happy that they still had more than one horse.

On this particular day, their most adventurous adventure was going to begin.

There would be danger. There would be lots of danger. There would be snakes and demonic turtles and banana-toting bovines and a singular figure that would change the fate of the journey that the two were going to embark upon.

It was one of those journeys. It could have been worse.

And so on they set, the two adventurers looking for their adventure.

They looked under rocks and between palms.

They antagonised a lion in order to see if the lion had been sitting on their treasure that they so desired int his instance of journeying.

The whales cried and the seals mourned the loss of the patience of the lion.

They climbed a mountain and tried to lift the peak to see if the treasure was there.

This was an incredibly long journey.

It went for many a year, with the two intrepid adventurers looking everywhere, sustaining themselves off of the land and doing odd jobs here and there in order to earn a bit of coin for the occasional soft bed and full meal.

Eventually they returned home. There was nothing to be found that resembled what they were looking for, yet the adventurers still felt successful.

They returned home as they realised that what they were looking for was not something that was material; nor was it necessarily something that was openly obvious, waiting to be discovered.

What they were looking for was inside themselves.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:40:23

There’s still a bunch of things that I should probably have written about instead of choosing to write this but I wanted to write a bit of fiction that was silly.

Here you go.

Written at home.

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One Flies Away

Posted on November 18, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

The last morning of the marine science field trip this was taken.

More cormorants.

I was trying to approach as stealthily as I could.

Wasn’t my stealthiest moment.

One cormorant flies away, looking for another location whilst the others stand there.

I like the way the one in flight cuts into the background, as well as the strength and grace of its form.

The rock platform also sits nicely in the water, altering the pattern and form of the area.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 343: Waffling on

Posted on November 18, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Almost back to being fully fine.

This is really good timing as now the weather outside is not so good which means I cannot wash my clothes.

Oh, the humanity!

What else was I going to go on about today?

I do know not right now.

It feels good to be alive.

Maybe I should got for a nice, lengthy walk a littler later on.

Perhaps I really should.

Well, if the weather picks up.

Exams are not over yet but I feel pumped right now.

Is pumped the right word to use?

I do know not know right now.

I do know that there are a few things that I want to rant about.

Oh. That’s right. I was meant to be ranting this morning.

There are a fair number of things that I was going to go on about, but I completely forgot.

I think this is partly due to showing up to work a little earlier than usual.

I also think that this is due to being in a bit of a better mood than usual.

I’m feeling pretty good. I’m feeling much healthier than I have over the past few days.

I could get a bit back into cycling.
That is to say that I should hop on my bike a little more instead of the little less that I have been over the past few months.

I miss cycling.

My thoughts are brief this morning.

So this morning I was planning to walk to work and that fell through.

Now I am wasting your time.

I need to think of something a little more interesting to write about this morning, lest I lose my flow that I have going on right now.

Perhaps I should just get this out of the way and work on writing about the things that I want to write about so that there’s a little more focus.

Perhaps I should try to find a way to ride some sort of combat octopus into battle with the empire and try and come out victorious.

It would be a tough fight, but I am sure that I would somehow come out on top, for my octopus is far more octopus than their squid.

Then again, who knows what would happen at the end of the day?

Perhaps I should stop doing this weird thought process and find a way to something a little more normal, yet interesting, for that would lead to a fair bit more productivity than writing about something that I have no interest in writing about.

Perhaps I should get ready for work and start preparing to do my job so that I am successful in what I am doing and come out on top.

I don’t know.

I do know that right now I am feeling better and that is a good thing to feel.

Well, here come some more words that will waste a little more space, assuming that I can get them to finish this sentence.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:55:03

I realised that this was rubbish about half of the way through.

Written at work.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 342: A Small Amount of Isopod Information

Posted on November 17, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

I’m still alive!

Well, I guess that that comes as no surprise.

Still enjoying this wonderful bout of food poisoning. Trying to work out if I’ll be calling in sick to my exam or going in whilst holding myself tightly in order to make sure that I do not explode all over the place as right now I am really not sure as to how safe it is for me to go anywhere other than the bathroom despite the joys of what I’ve given myself easing up considerable. I still feel dizzy. That is always fun.

However, this is not what this post is about today so I will not spend time going into the extreme detail of what is going on inside me. I’d rather spare everyone a graphic image.

Well, today this post is about things. And stuff. And life. Sometimes life is intense. Sometimes life is in tents.

I am writing right now, but not later, although there will be later moments in which I am writing.

What am I even crapping on about right now?

So I’m sitting here, very slowly studying but I’m not handling it all very well right now.

I need to go outside. I need to get some sun. I need to get some air that is fresh and relax a bit. I need to do things that are as inspiring as they are invigorating.

I need to see the world around me.

I need to water my plants. I need to do my food shopping.

Oh dear. I need to do my food shopping.

I also need to talk more about tongue biters.

Tongue biters are parasitic ispodods that bite the tongues of fish, hence their appropriate non-scientific name.

Interestingly the spell check does not recognise isopod. The spell check thinks that it is iPod. Silly spell check.

Anyway what usually happens is that the tongue biter (Cymothoa exigua) bites the tongue and feeds off of the blood from it which eventually leads to the tongue to atrophy, which in turn leads to the tongue biter becoming a tongue substitute.

I say usually as I don’t know if this is always the case.

Anyway, once this happens the tongue biter continues to feed off either the blood of the host or the mucus.

From what I’ve read, this is the only example of parasitic mutualism that involves the parasite replacing a body part.

I think that it is pretty interesting.

This is part of what I like about the natural world; it’s so weird and fascinating.

There are, of course plenty of other things that I like, but this is just one of many.

Well, I think that there are plenty. I could be wrong.

Either way, I think that at the least this is interesting.

Well, that was a bit of info for all of you out there.

What you choose to do with it is entirely in your hands.

RUN FREE! RUN FREE AND TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR DESTINY!

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:38:21

This would definitely be one of the better things that I’ve written.

Written at home.

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Beyond the Window

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Behold! A photo through a window that someone decided to try and carve into and yet only partially succeeded.

I was trying to get a shot of the outside without the scratching. Didn’t quite work.

I guess in a sense it makes this photo a little “Experimental“.

I like that the slight blur of the outside area does give a sense of motion and that the light makes the view feel as though night will soon arrive.

This is my submission into The Daily Post‘s photo challenge for this week.

I hope you enjoy.

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Waiting at Central

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

This was taken a few days ago whilst I was heading home.

I really like the simplicity of this photo.
There is a fair bit of detail, but if feels really simple and straightforward to me.

I like how there are a few buildings that seem to be looming in the distance, as well as how they contrast with the older architecture of the train station.

I also like that the tracks are curved, whilst most of everything else is straight.

This is my submission into  Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness for this week.

If you’re a fan of monochrome photography on any level, then I recommend checking out Monochrome Madness and I also recommend considering submitting if you do photography.

I also recommend checking out Leanne Cole’s work outside of Monochrome Madness.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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