Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1517: What I Tell Myself

Posted on July 19, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

What a few weeks it has been. What a time, and in time what a time.

Time.

I’m trying to get up and I’m staying down, and I’m needing to force myself to write. I need to force myself a lot at the moment, and I think it is in part due to fatigue, but the desire has left me. The desire to do much of anything is gone, but I need to keep on going. Time won’t wait, and neither should I in this instance.

That’s what I tell myself, anyway. I’m trying to find where everything is and what has happened, but I just don’t know anymore. I don’t know what will come tomorrow and I don’t know what I’ll do today. There are things that I will be doing, but those are necessary. This isn’t. That’s okay though. It’s okay to have unnecessary things in one’s life. Helps keep things going,

So I’m tired and currently I’m ill, and I feel trapped in a way. I have goals and ideas and I want to see them realised. I want to see a good few of them realsied before I wrap things up here, but maybe it’s not going to happen. Maybe things are going to drag on out, and I really don’t want that.

Maybe I’m just feeling sorry for myself at the moment. That I feel my life is getting further away from where I want to be even though I’ve more ability to get to where I want to go. The other possibility is that, in having some sense of relief in my life, other things are leaving me as perhaps they were coping mechanisms. I don’t know.

So I’m sitting here and I’m whinging about stuff that will probably come back, but I;m tired and I’m wondering, and I’m wondering if maybe I need to find new outlets and endeavours. I’m wondering about where my life is actually going. Is my life going anywhere?

Ah, I’m too tired for all of this. I should go outside, go for a walk. Stretch my legs a bit, take in some sun. This room is a cage and not great for light, and it’s not great. I survive and I’ll keep surviving, and I need to work my way back to doing what I want to do. I need to find my way again. Spent too much time flailing in the bushes. Not enough time dusting myself off and continuing on.

I wonder what would have happened had the last few months been different. I’m doing well, I’m doing great, but there are things that cast this feeling over everything, and that’s what I don’t like. I don’t like this feeling that things aren’t as good as they were, because they are better. Things are great. I’m the healthiest I’ve been in years. I’m getting fitter, and my injuries are hurting less. But without my ex in my life, it’s not as good as it could be.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:42:46

I feel as though I had to write this. Maybe I didn’t, but I had to get something down and this happened to be what I put onto screen.

Written at home.

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Hitomi Sato: Bicycle

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

I am having to force myself to write at the moment, otherwise nothing is happening. This is hopefully the first step toward getting back into the swing of things. It’s not a good bit of writing, but it works.

Hitomi Sato’s (佐藤仁美) “Bicycle” (“じてんしゃ”) is from Nintendo DS Pokémon Black・White Super Music Collection, the soundtrack for Pokémon Black and White.

I hope you enjoy.

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Percussion seems to bounce and soon a twinkle leads to other sounds coming in, also seeming to bounce. They seem to bounce and step quickly, and they’re looking for something and gaining momentum before they all fill out the space and glide toward wherever.

The sounds glide and flow and speed along. They move smooth and carry joy within then, They push hard and ease up, and follow contours of the terrain, and they keep on going. All is fun and upbeat; all is full of the joy of the ride.

The sounds continue on, moving through phases whilst maintaining their speed until they fade out at the song’s end.

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Heading Somewhere in the Sky

Posted on July 17, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

I took this photo within the last few weeks whilst at work. Great sunset, had to get a snap. Got a few, including this one. Not the best, but I like the contrast. I like how it servers as a reminder of how present human activity seems to be everywhere. Sometimes you just want to enjoy a good sunset and not think about that stuff, of course, but sometimes you want that reminder. I guess I did here.

I hope you enjoy.

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Stairs to Structure

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Just a bit of a cold photo. Or maybe a warm photo. Or no temperature association at all.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. The next one is hosted by Margaret of From Pyrenees to Penines, and she has chosen “Colour Monochrome” as the theme.

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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Foggy Goal

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Gone from being tired to being sick, and this is one of the most annoying colds I’ve ever had, I think. As such, no writing again, and instead have another photo.

This one was in consideration for the recent Lens-Artists photo challenge, but something about it didn’t feel right. Something felt off and I couldn’t work it out, and I still can’t, but I do like how empty it feels.

I hope you enjoy.

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Rail Frame Invades the Space

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

For my recent challenge hosting, I had a particular idea for a photo which didn’t work, which is what you can see below. I didn’t take the photo quite the way I wanted to, or at least had considered and so the space in this doesn’t feel that appealing, I think.

I took another photo in this space and used that one instead and figured I wouldn’t use this at all, but I think this is worth sharing in terms of what not to do. I’m sure some people will like this, but it’s something to learn from and I appreciate it existing strictly for learning.

I hope you enjoy.

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Lens-Artists Challenge #356 – Quiet Hours

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

What are quiet hours? Among many things, this can mean an empty space. It can be a sense of stillness; a lack of action; an absence of presence within a frame. Quiet hours are often associated with the time before people are waking up and getting about, but it doesn’t have to be an area framed by darkness. They can be shown in many ways.

Waiting for Interaction

Here there’s a sense of quiet hours through a lack of presence. An area we’d normally associate with action through movement or human presence lacks it. It feels empty and there is no sound.

Quieting Fog

Weather phenomena can create a sense of quiet through isolation. Whilst the effect isn’t strong in this photo, the fog separates the area from some of its surrounds. It creates context for why this area might be quiet; along with the lack of people in the frame, the area is seemingly separated from surrounding space, and so it gains a stillness that suggests silence.

The Morning Drive

Quiet can be implied by what is leaving an area, such as a vehicle driving away from a camera. It’s not quiet now, but it soon will be. This can be a good way to create narrative. There is action, but it’s the action of moving through and away. The area is disturbed, but through suggestion we can accept an implication of quiet following not far behind.

Transmission Under a Darkening Sky

And of course, minimalism works quite well to represent quiet hours. Especially minimalism with open spaces with just the right kind of weather. Without the surrounding area providing context, there’s little to suggest how full of action this space will be. It could see very little human activity at any given time.

There are plenty of ways of showing quiet hours. It doesn’t have to be the absence of action, but it depends on the action. A scene does not need to be devoid of objects or subjects. As such, for the three hundred-and-fifty-sixth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, I invite you to think about what makes for “Quiet Hours” to you. How do you see it in an image? How do you navigate the idea?

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 me. Next week will be hosted by Egídio.

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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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1516: First Gig in a While

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Tomorrow I’ll be playing my first gig in almost six-and-a-half years. It has been far too long for my liking. Tomorrow it happens and I’ll go in, do my thing and then head off. Well, not head off, but leave the stage. We’ll see how it all goes. We’ll see what happens. How it happens. And all that.

Have I practised enough? No. Has Fe practised enough? No. There has been a lot of stuff going on, and so it goes, and so on and so forth. How it all happens. But we went in and we’re rusty and we’ll be rusty tomorrow, but we’ll get through it. We’ve been through worse.

I’m listening to one of the songs we’ll be playing tomorrow right now. I’m listening to it, trying to work out if I’ve got it all correct. Not sure if I do, but I might. Might do. Do might. I know we can play it and we’re both pretty familiar with it. It’s something we’ve played for years, though I do wish we were more rehearsed.

I don’t know if this is going to be one time or if it’ll lead to more. I hope it leads to more, but I don’t know. I never know. You never know with these things. I’m getting up in years and I’m not a young person anymore. But I’m sure that with enough rehearsing and practise, I could smoke anyone under the table. I could show them all how it’s done, and I know I could do that with Fe, and we’d be unstoppable. We wouldn’t go far, but we’d be legendary.

Probably not.

I just want to put on a good show, and I’m gonna try my best. No idea if I can, no idea if I will, but definitely going to try. Going to do my best. I want to feel music flowing, and I want to be in that moment. That moment where nothing matters and everything matters, and I am truly free. I am released and moving everywhere, and all is still and unmoving, and I am so firmly in the moment, but I am everywhere and nowhere all at once. I want to feel that sense of being alive again, and I want to flow freely. I want to feel music as it passes from my hands into the instrument, and from there though to the head, the cab and out as sound. Out as something tangible with a physical presence that is not seen, but felt.

I want to touch people again, and I don’t necessarily seek their adulation, but I seek to bring something to them, and I seek to have them feel something, to experience even a little bit of what I feel when I play.

But I also just want to put on a good show, and I hope that tomorrow I do. I hope that tomorrow I give the audience that good show, and I hope it’s one of many more.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:56:26

I wanted to get my thoughts about tomorrow down, and I did, and I wandered a little but it all feels relevant.

Written at home.

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Open Field at Night

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

This sharing is partly a test, and the test worked if you see this opening sentence.

This photo I took on the way home a few weeks ago. Was delayed, did some night cycling. That’s fine. Had the opportunity to get this. Wasn’t fast enough to get more of the fog, but it happens.

This is a big space that feels empty, and I guess it kind of feels wasted because of that. Spaces like these are considered necessary for urban living, but sometimes I wonder if they can’t be restored to something more ecologically natural whilst also being able to serve an interactive purpose that doesn’t threaten the ecology.

I hope you enjoy.

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Empty Booths and Silent Seats

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Here’s something I was going to use for something but it didn’t work. Instead, it’s here now. It could be better, but I like it and its simplicity.

I hope you enjoy.

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