Five-Hundred Word Challenge 269: On Blocking Someone’s Gate with a Car due to Bad Parking

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Yesterday morning, before heading off to university, I headed to the café near my place to grab something to take home to drink.

There was a car partially parked on the kerb in front of my place.
This was nothing out of the ordinary.
What was out  of the ordinary was just how close they were to my gate.

There was little space to move around, leaving a slight risk of scraping their car through little fault of my own.

When I was leaving my place, a lady and a kid were getting in the car.
The kid took a quick look at me. The lady looked at me in a way that could have passed for a dirty look.

I’m sorry that you don’t know how to park a car and that my leaving my house seems to be offensive to you. Next time I’ll make sure to respect the fact that you’re an asshole.

As said before, a car partially parked on the kerb in front of my place is nothing out of the ordinary.
I live on a narrow street and as just about everyone on my street thinks that they need to drive (with it likely being that very few of them need to drive) instead of catching public transport , the ones that don’t have a driveway or a garage have collectively decided to park their cars partially on the kerb.

I don’t have a problem with this and, as far as I am aware, no one else on the street has a problem.

Usually people leave enough space for someone to get out of their house.

Usually.

This is the second time that this has happened.

The other time it was a van and it was parked so close to the gate of my house that I had to work really hard to make sure that my bike didn’t end up scraping the van.

I was trying to get inside my house and I had to work hard to not damage another vehicle because they didn’t know how to park.

The thing is that people don’t seem to understand how to park. Sure, it’s a skill that you have to learn and make sure you know how to do all the time, but it’s not that hard when you’re dealing with a very gentle slope with no traffic and enough space to get your car parked into a decent spot.

Here’s a good piece of advice for someone who is parking their car. It’s really important that people understand this, as it’s not that hard to follow and will do you a world of good when all is said and done:

When you park your shitty car, make sure that you are not blocking someone’s entrance to the property in which they reside.

If you can follow this advice, then congratulations! You’re not an asshole.

If you can’t follow this, then please hand in your license. You don’t deserve the privilege of driving your car.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 11:37:22

Another slow one.

Oh well.

Written at home.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 22: No One Wants to be in an Accident with Your Pet

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

When cycling, there’s many things that I enjoy.

Wait.

There are many things that I enjoy about cycling, as well as what I get to experience when I am indeed cycling.

I like the feeling of motion, I like the wind, I like the ease of access to things, I like almost getting into a collision with someone’s pet…

Wait.

I really don’t like almost getting into a collision with someone’s pet.

People walk their animals. That’s absolutely fine. I would never suggest that it was a bad thing to walk one’s pet as pets need exercise and you’re not going to stick them on a treadmill unless you’re too lazy to walk your pet, in which case you probably shouldn’t have one as you don’t just have a pet; you have a family member that needs to be looked after and taken care of, so if you think that it is perfectly acceptable to have your dog run on a treadmill to get its exercise instead of actually taking it out to walk it which would mean you need to get off your ass on a regular basis, then you’re a jerk.

Too often I get to see someone walking their animal (or animals in some instances) without a lead in an area that directly says not to have your pet off a lead and too often does it lead to some close calls.

A few months ago, whilst I was heading home at night I was heading onto a shared path. Two people were walking their dog which just so happened to be fairly big. It was not on its lead, running about wherever it felt like.

I couldn’t tell as to which was it was going to head and for a moment I could not see the dog. It came out from behind a tree right near me. My bike almost hit the dog. I was not going as fast as I could have been going, but I was still going at a fast pace.

Thankfully there was no accident, but it would not have been good if there was and I doubt that the dog would have survived without at least some issues down the track.

One of the owners expressed some sort of panic just before the accident didn’t happen. As I was going past I just said “lead” to them because I didn’t feel like getting off my bike and telling them as to why they failed as people with a pet.

That might seem a bit aggressive, but I think it’s perfectly acceptable to have someone have a really harsh go at you if you’re going to let a pet wander around without a lead in an area that requires you to have pets on a lead as it’s a shared zone with vehicles.

If you think that it is perfectly okay to have your animal companion run around freely in an area where it is at risk if not on a lead, then you deserve to be called an idiot in as many words as whatever arbitrary requirement of words used needs to be met at the time.

A few years ago I was living in Forest Lodge. I was cycling home when I saw a cat on the ground behind car stopped on the side of the road. I went past slightly, then turned around. The cat ran onto the road whilst the car was coming along and the driver did not have enough time to stop.

Whilst it wasn’t what one would call a mess, it was pretty upsetting to see.

The people who were driving  spoke to the owner and took the cat to the vet.

This was a car accident. A bike is far less likely to cause as much damage, but an impact from a bike can still be quite severe and not just for the owner of a pet.

When people are letting their animal companion run around a lead-required area free of a lead, they are essentially trusting cyclists to be able to react as fast as they expect cyclists (and other vehicle-users as well as other pedestrians) to be able to react.

The thing is that it is highly unlikely that anyone will be able to react as quickly as you think that they should be able to, especially when it is dark when a moving object could appear very suddenly in front of you. People can only react as quickly as they are able to in any given situation.

The thing is that people don’t seem to consider that it’s not just the life of their pet that they’re risking. They seem to think that because it is only their pet, a creature that you’d hope they love dearly that they are risking, that it won’t affect anyone else. They know their pet and they know that no trouble will come from letting it roam free in an area where it is at risk when roaming free. Besides which, it’s a bit cruel to not let the animal stretch its legs every now and then and have a bit of a roam.

A real shame that there’s dedicated areas just for free-roaming activity for animals that can be found in many places that are easy to access.

It is not just your animal that you are risking. You are putting other people at risk.
It doesn’t matter if your animal has never done that before.

This kind of attitude is almost as idiotic as, when someone who was caught speeding and put on probation is getting chewed out about their shitty behaviour, tell the person chewing them out that because they haven’t been driving for twenty years they don’t understand, then try to defend the speeding by saying that they haven’t hit anyone.

I understand that not everyone thinks like this, but they are not excused from increasing the risk of an accident.

No one wants to see that situation become a reality.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 20:00:73

Just over.

This was another one that ended up spilling over five-hundred words.

I think I got my point across.

Written at work.

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Soaring

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

An Ibis flies high to reach a branch on which to land.

I think that this photo shows the form of an ibis in part of its flight quite well.
I think that it was getting close to landing at this point.

I like the amount of negative space around the Ibis as it makes the attention go completely to the ibis.

To me, the part of the shot that the ibis is in seems to suggest that it still has a fair way to go before it reaches its destination and the angle suggests that it is quite high up in the air, moving gracefully and quickly.

I hope you enjoy.

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Wedding Cake Rock

Posted on August 7, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Wedding Cake Rock is an interesting rock in the Royal National Park that seems to attract people who think it is okay to jump a fence in order to stand on it, despite signs requesting to not jump the fence.

Wedding Cake Rock is expected to collapse at any point within the next nine years (at this point).

Whilst I was with Si at this rock, we saw a couple jump the fence. I warned them about it and one of them responded by saying that they were daredevils.

Normally I don’t have an issue with people wanting to go a bit further. I’ve wanted to jump the fence at Wedding Cake Rock myself, but considering that a number of people have been injured by it collapsing, with at least one of those people dying from the result of a collapse, I changed my mind.

There’s other risks I’d rather take.

After one of the two said that they were daredevils, I pointed out the risk and that if it did fall, there may not be enough time to get them to hospital alive.

Whilst on the walk a bit later, Si and I were discussing what happened. He told me that I should have left them be, pointing out that I’ve done dangerous stuff before.

I pointed out that the dangerous stuff I’ve done has had some form of safety and that had the rock collapsed, we wouldn’t still be on our bush walk as I would have had to do what I could as a first aid officer in order to keep them alive.

Fun stuff.

Wedding Cake Rock is a rather interesting rock due to its lack of colour, which has to do with weathering processes.

I like that in this photo you can make out the shape of Wedding Cake Rock despite the angle.

I also like that there’s a few different layers and textures.

To me the shot has the rock appearing as simple and understated.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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One Thousand Word Challenge 21: An Interesting Event

Posted on August 7, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Yesterday morning something rather interesting happened to me.
Well, I think it was interesting. It probably isn’t that interesting at all and it’s a bit of a waste of time to type out, but as I think it was interesting, I’m going to type it out for all of you to read if you so desire.

I was on my bike and I was aiming to do a few laps around Iron Cove as, after a bit of a break from cycling, I was back on my bike once more and am trying to get back to being able to go a fair distance without getting tired.

As I was going around Iron Cove I saw that at a point there were a bunch of stalls set up for people to visit. I thought that there may have been some sort 0of festival occurring and it might have been interesting to check out at some other point in time.

Very close to these stalls I saw what looked like a digital timer set up which I surmised might have to do with some sort of race.

The cycle was mostly uneventful. I realised that I was far less fit than I thought I was; something that was revealed to me very shortly into the first lap of Iron Cove.

Still, I was doing well for speed and it wasn’t the hardest I’ve had to pedal.

So I was cycling along and doing well despite only being back on the bike a few days prior when, on my route I came across a big area that had a lot of people.

I kept on moving forward when I realised that a race was about to commence.

I could hear someone counting down, so I tried to get as far forward as I could before I was engulfed by runners. I could see a point where I thought they were going to start, but I could not see where they were coming from at the time.

Unfortunately I was not fast enough, but I was fortunate enough to see a swarm of joggers in front of me flow forward as though they were a river that was able to push past a barrier for the first time in a while.

I went onto a different path to see if I could get around the joggers but I was not able to and had to go with them for a short distance before I could break away.

On grass I pushed on the pedals as hard as I could, hoping to get in front of the crowd so I would not have to deal with them, but, despite my gaining a fair bit of distance, I was still not near the front of the crowd and had to stick with the people for a little longer.

I stopped at one point as I decided that the best course of action would be to head home instead of continuing with my original plan of doing a few laps, so I stopped when there was a road and waited for a break in the jogging traffic so I could being to make my way home.

It took a while.

There was a point where I felt like telling everyone who was jogging to stop so I’d be able to walk to the other side, but before this could happen there was enough of a gap for me to get to the road, hop on my bike and begin cycling.

I made my way home with little difficulty.

It was interesting to see a large number of people competing in what seemed to be a fun race, but it was something that I really did not want to deal with as, had I gotten ahead of the crowd, on my second lap I would inevitably have to deal with the crowd again.

I got to go home still feeling as though I had done a decent amount of cycling and I still got to see some good views.

I also had the joy of dealing with a bunch of people who seem to think that a cycle track is for pedestrians to walk along and lead to some close calls.

There was at least one point where, due to people not walking on the footpath and instead walking on the cycle track, I could have hit another cyclist.

These situations area always really fun.

It was a bit of a cold morning, but I wasn’t feeling the cold as far as I was aware.

Overall, it was an enjoyable cycle and I’m fine with not getting past the joggers before they started their race, although when I think about it, I doubt I would have been able to get past them at all.

I probably should have looked for a different route, but if I had done that then I probably wouldn’t have had an experience that I found to be interesting.

I think that I found it interesting as I have never found myself surrounded by a swarm of foot racers before.

I’ve certainly been surrounded by pedestrians plenty of times, but never any that were moving at a pace that could be considered being faster than walking.

I don’t imagine that something like this will happen to me for a while at the least.
I don’t imagine that I’ll find myself in this kind of situation ever again.

If I do, at least I know that I should probably turn away and go elsewhere.
I could let whatever direction I take lead me to somewhere that I may have never been before, which would be its own kind of adventure.

That’s part of the fun of cycling; if I decide that I want to see where somewhere takes me, it’s pretty easy for me to go there without having to worry as much about the time if I don’t have all day to spare.

Well, that is all I have to say about yesterday.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 17:55:49

So I was aiming to have this finished within five-hundred words, but when I saw that I went over that amount I decided to keep on going.

I think that this is a little better than most of the things that I write.
It’s not amazing, but it’s a pretty easy, straightforward read with repetition being a bit lower than usual.

Written at home.

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Suburban Sunrise

Posted on August 6, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Two photos that I took whilst walking in Balmain one morning.

I like the colours and the cloud pattern, as well as the way that the base of the photo is framed by the silhouette of urban features.

I also like that a bird was unintentionally captured in the first shot.

I think that the first one is better as it has a more balanced lighting than the second, but I do think the second works  quite well as it gives an idea of how strong a sunset can be on an overcast morning.

I hope you enjoy.

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Grün – Manyana Review

Posted on August 6, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

When they began as Greenland, Grün released a nifty E.P. called The Prisons of Language. About six years later, they had changed their name and then released their first album, Greenland, which continued on from the sound of The Prisons of Language whilst also showcasing a progression into something else. Close to seven years after that, they’ve now released their second album, Manyana.

The sounds found on Manyana are much more lush and developed than on previous releases. There are many more layers to the sound with the focus seeming to be on textures of the layers, as well as the atmosphere that they create.

Whilst the songs do seem primarily driven by the unison of the instruments as a rhythmic unit, there are times when one sound in particular will gain more focus than all the others.
In these moments the focus does not take away from the rest of the song as it seems to be done for the purpose of having another element to build the song and textures around. This works fairly well as the times when this does happen, it adds more breadth and scope to the song as the sound that gains focus never becomes more technical than required.

There’s enough movement and interplay between relaxed and slower, and direct and harder moments to keep Manyana from wearing out its welcome, all whilst keeping the overall sound expansive rather than restricted. Each moment seems to have been crated to see what it does for the sound of the album whilst also work as part of a song which shows Manyana‘s greatest strength; the songs work as well on their own as they do part of the album.

However, Manyana is not free of issues. Whilst there does feel like there’s space on the album, it doesn’t quite feel like it is breathing. There’s a good ebb and flow throughout the songs but they aren’t as dynamic as they seem to suggest, with some moments being sounding fairly flat. These aren’t enough to bring the album down as it still works well despite these flaws.

With that being said, Manyana does sound like there’s something missing that could be found and heard in Grün’s previous releases. It’s difficult to tell as to what it is, but in listening to Manyana, there’s too much of a feeling that Grün have removed something of themselves that helped them stand a little farther away from other bands of their ilk.

Manyana is not a bad album by any means. It does seem to have a bit more weight to it than most post-rock albums, the songs work well both as individual pieces and as part of the album and it does feel as though a great deal of care went into its creation. It’s an album worth hearing. However, it just feels like that something that made Grün who they are has been left behind.

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Another Rozelle Bay Sunset

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

I hadn’t taken a shot of Rozelle Bay at sunset in a while, so recently I decided to head there with my camera.

I think that these pictures work well with each other due to the contrast between the methods as well as the points during the sunset that they were taken.

Of the same scene the images feel different, contain different textures and vibrancy, as well as lighting.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 268: Writing About Music

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

A swirl of sound is rolling around in my ears, penetrating into my mind to provide imagery and forms of emotions that are as primitive as they are sophisticated, delicate yet strong and rather simple in their genius.

Sound is travelling, activating signals in my mind to tell me that it is pleasing to listen to at this given moment in time in order to ensure that it is music that I am able to enjoy.

The sparse atoms between the speakers in my ears and the bones in my ears do what they need to in order to make sure that the bones are reached and able to vibrate in order to translate the waves into something that is audible.

The music rises and falls with the tide of the song that it currently inhabits, expanding and contracting as wide and thin as it feels the need to be at any given time, opening horizons to possibilities that are usually left behind closed doors without a key that can be held with the body.

Music is travelling, still, motionless, yet expanding outward and pushing inward, faster than what could normally be achieved outside of the self, creating landscapes as it tears down old ones, taking us on a journey through as much of the known as it does into the unknown.

Space is found between each instrument, allowing each other to create the atmosphere together until it needs to overwhelm and put us into a position where it will wash not only over us, but through us, passing through and letting us become something akin to being one with the music. Never quite together, but there in a unison that suggests a combined togetherness in that given moment of time where we are able to move away from the plane of what it is that immediately surrounds us.

Music allows us the ability to traverse that which we normally couldn’t. It can hurt and harm us, as well as cradle us and help us stand tall. There is an understanding and a reaching out to something within that is difficult to express at the best of times, as well as allows us to communicate if we have difficulty with expressing our thoughts using other means that are available to us.

I’ve heard music described as being the closest we’ve ever come to expressing the inexpressible. Perhaps this is what music allows. Perhaps it allows us to better understand ourselves when we’ve run out of other methods.

Music certainly has a way of find us at the times when it may just touch us the most. There is a lot of it out there that one has to wade through, but it almost always seems as though that when something great is happening, it is there alongside us, preparing to hit the hardest that it needs to hit in order to form a resonance stronger than what one would usually feel when they listen to music on a regular day.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:34:10

Not sure what I was doing with this bit of writing.
It certainly started much stronger than it finished, but I do not think that the end was weak.

Written at work.

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Stationary

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Stupidity Hole

Here is a photo of some trains that happen to be stationary.

I wonder if the colours of this sunset were only possible because this was taken in an urban environment.

I’m going to guess that that is not the case, but I can’t help but sometimes wonder.

I don’t think that this photo is very dynamic when it comes to depth or lighting, but I do think that it has some decent geometry, as well as some interesting colour contrast.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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