Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1515: A Long Way to Go About Thinking About Things

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Thinking about my life once more. Thinking about how things are and were, and will be, and all those things. Thinking about what was, what might be, and where I am now. Always somewhere between the past and the future, feeling like I’m trying to stay within the present.

I’m actually feeling good, but I’m tired. I’m pushing on and I’m pushing through. I’m getting through it all. I’m getting through everything the best that I can, and sometimes it is a struggle. Sometimes things take time. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you just get through things and that’s it. That’s it and you’re free, and you keep on going. You feel the breeze in your hair as you drive onward and away from it all. As you drive toward wherever tomorrow lies, following a disappearing sun as it goes into night, and then away from it as it rises behind you.

A road is a long way to go about thinking about things, and sometimes it’s the best way to go about things. But sometimes it is too long. A good hard think doesn’t always need to be met with a bitter emotionlessness, or a bitter intensity. It doesn’t always need to be gripping either, but it’s the road and the drive, and that scar tissue that pushes one to go inward and associate (among other reasons, of course as there are plenty of reasons as to why this stuff happens).

The road follows curves and topography, but it’s always straight and it’s an arid area, even when flush with life. It doesn’t matter because you’re present and there in the moment, but you’re elsewhere.

I think I feel like I’m currently elsewhere. I don’t know. I’m tired and happy. Happiest I’ve been in years, but things keep going. Nothing changes and everything changes. A constant state of still flux. It keeps on going and whatever lies around the corner is not here, but I keep on going. I want to see what is around the corner.

I was wondering to myself the other day about my ex, and how just maybe, even though I’m happy and I’m enjoying what’s going on in my life, things still would be better with her around. But I don’t know. I’ve got my problems and she has hers, and I don’t know if things would actually be better because I remember all the stuff that was hurtful and the things I tolerated, and I remember how she seemed resentful about my own discomforts and desire to try and beat my sugar addiction, and what those required from her. I don’t know for sure, of course, but it’s how it felt.

So, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m living it and I’m feeling it, but I don’t know. I keep on going and I’m happy, but maybe I’m not enjoying life. Maybe I feel like too much is missing. But I won’t know until I get further ahead from where I am now.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:22:08

Didn’t get heavy, but it got pretty serious. I don’t know if that is a good thing and I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. It’s just a thing.

Written at work.

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Masked Musician

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

I’ve been looking for a good reason to share this photo. A good reason to share it is the desire to share it, but I wanted something more than that, for some reason.

This is the same musician as in this photo. Bit more detail here, which is nice. Doesn’t feel like a repeat. The reason why I’ve been wanting to share this photo isn’t due to comparison, however; it’s  due to how a lot of this encapsulates what I try to capture at a gig when I’m not necessarily trying to be “experimental”.

I think that I could’ve done better in terms of getting the musician to appear completely still, but that stillness is still there. I could’ve done a better job in tweaking light and contrast, too. It’s not the best I could’ve done. However, there’s a sense of space and isolation that I like. I don’t always try for those, but here I think they work as they lead to the removal of context which helps draw more attention to this person’s form. From there, the expressiveness comes through their form and shape, I think.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. This one is hosted by Sarah of Travel with Me, and she has chosen “The Letter H” as the theme. I’ve gone with human as my H representation. The musician is behind a mask, and the mask channels imagery that might be seen as representing something not human, or beyond human. Maybe it represents worship of something or someone that is just human. Maybe it represents a tacky display that might be seen as sophistication. It seems detached from being human, but neither the figure nor the concept is.

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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Principles of Geometry: Enoma

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen. Went right into this and wrote something I feel is a bit messy and linear. The linearity works as the song is small. It’s minimal in a way.

Principles of Geometry’s “Enoma” is from Burn the Land & Boil the Oceans.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Gentle hums seem to look inward as they descend further. They seem like they’ll keep going but they find their floor and once they do, percussion and other sounds come in. These other sounds play sad, and one in particular reaches out, wavers above the others.

It’s slow and dreary, and downbeat, and soon more synth comes in and emphasises more melody, and there’s seemingly something happy in here, but it’s faint. It’s fragmented dramatic.

The percussion shifts to something else. Something more driving and strident, and beating, or maybe pulsating is a better way to put it. That wavering synth returns, seemingly mournful, and it continues to call out until much of everything disappears. Bass and a little bit of synth play along still. They are fragile it seems and this is their moment.

Percussion returns with no build, and soon the sounds shift again. A different shape to the beat, sounds calling out, sounds mourning maybe. Sounds possibly dreaming of something else, looking out a window and upon a rain-soaked sky, gradually fading out as they are called away and the song ends.

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Zuntata: B.T. Dutch

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

Maybe last week or the week before, I can’t remember. Whilst I was listening to the soundtrack I wasn’t feeling much like writing about this one. Changed my mind for some reason. Not sure if I captured it well, but there was a strong feel and strong sense of imagery I was getting from it, so that’s something.

Zuntata’s “B.T. Dutch” is from G-Darius‘ soundtrack, G-Darius Original Arcade Score.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A crowd. People going about their business. Walking, not hearing the mechanical thud. The crowd disappears, and something vaguely percussive loops. Sounds build. Mechanical, harsh, cold, sharp. Aggressive. There’s a voice here and there, and it’s all sorts of heavy.

It seems like machinery preparing for catastrophe, or perhaps it is the act of catastrophe commencing and having to retaliate on the back foot.

Something akin to strings scales up, stressed, panicked. Soon something akin to the idea of a groove settles and the sounds keep moving forward, pushing things out of the way, consuming, crushing. It’s heavy and it’s despairing, in this force. A push into a few strikes, and a little quiet. A moment of pause, perhaps, before things start picking back up.

Facing a menace here; a seemingly unstoppable force, and the sounds push back where they can, but it seems like it is not enough. That idea of a groove returns, and everything rains on down violence, and those strikes are pushed into once more.

Everything stops, leaving the sound of panting as the song ends.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1514: Quick Blast

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Trying to get a quick blast of words done before I get back to work. There’s a tiny bit of quiet right now and there’s a lot of work coming in, so I figured I’d take advantage of the situation and try to crap out as much crap as I can now rather than have it build up later when I have to be a producti0ve and functional adult in order to do that old adulting thing that people refer to as being necessary for my survival.

So I’m sitting here and I’m listening to music and I’m waiting. I’m twiddling my thumbs (not really). I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what I can say. I don’t know if there’s anything worth saying. Is anything worth saying? I don’t know. I can see, however, that my spelling is all over the place. Of course you won’t see that, but I can see that now. But I’ll fix that once I’m done.

Well… I’m out of things to say. It happens. I’ll get used to it. I will always get used to it. You have to get used to it, otherwise you lose it and if you lose it because you weren’t used to it, then that’s it, really.

But now I’ve really said everything and creativity is gone. Creativity is overrated, of course, but it is also underrated. We’re now going to go to flat planes of nothingness and we’ll embrace that because of course we will. And I mean “I”, and not “we”, so therefore I am saying things that are making little sense, or maybe they make complete sense,. but sometimes the mind throws things together in ways that are disconnected, finding links where there are none, and maybe they will make sense some day down the track.

Maybe I’m just full of it.

It’s a nice day and it’s a good day, and a tiny bit of slow is pretty good. Things come in waves and you need to take them as they come. Don’t go under and don’t go over; ride with the flow and catch the wave as it comes to shore. Maybe it will carry you a long way, and if it carries you into a jumbled slew of words with no real cohesiveness, then that’s what you need to deal with. That’s what I need to deal with.

I think I should get more sleep more often because it is quite apparent that I didn’t get enough last night. Such is the way of things, I guess. I suppose. But I’m still doing okay, and maybe things will be okay. Maybe life is okay right now. Maybe I have things going on and I can be thankful of my lot in life, for my ability to write may have left me, or at least the desire (it’s still there but it needs pressure), but I know it will come back at some point and I just need to keep going.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:53:07

Not my finest writing, but it’s fine enough for now.

Written at work.

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Cloud Cradles the Moon

Posted on July 6, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

A few weeks ago I took a quick photo of the moon with my phone. The colour and lighting was wonderful and so I felt I had to capture it.

The photo made it look like the clouds were cradling the moon and I decided to try and adapt that, as seen below.

I hope you enjoy.

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Butterfree

Posted on July 5, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

This took far longer than I anticipated, and it got to a point where I had to just stop.
Doing butterfree took the most time which was expected. I started on the background and I had ideas in mind. Realised I’m yet to have strong enough skill to do what I wanted well; realised it was taking far too long to do what I wanted poorly and so scrapped the idea and left the background as a featureless field area.

I hope you enjoy.

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Crosswalk Before Traffic

Posted on July 4, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

A crosswalk, soundless, framed by dark.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1513: Outside it is Raining

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Yesterday I did nothing, and it was glorious. However, really, I worked from home and that was the glorious bit. I still did stuff. As such, my saying that I did nothing is a lie, and this is the truth.

I want to talk about the weather and this is how I’m starting things off. Fantastic.

My life slips into the realm of the banal, or perhaps I’m just more firmly cognizant of it having always been in the banal, and that’s okay. I’m at Duoly Rob once more and it’s raining outside. This could be worse, and it likely will be worse later, the weather that is. This place is fine. It’s pleasant in all the right ways. Nice to sit and rest, and take it easy here.

But outside it is raining, and I’m more aware of being close to the rain. Yesterday it also rained and it was a bit vicious, and not really at the same time. Yesterday the rain fell and the wind blew, and the winds were strong. I saw branches bend in ways that perhaps they shouldn’t, or rather I saw them bend in ways that I wasn’t comfortable with, mainly due to my not knowing enough about trees, really.

No branches dropped so I was lucky. So were many others, and a good few weren’t.

We have a habit of taking bad weather for granted. A lot of loss and devastation can come with it, and we don’t do much in the way of reacting to it. We might not see it happen, so we are indifferent. And sometimes that’s a difficult thing to deal with. Sometimes it’s difficult to reckon with how uncaring we can be because something didn’t happen to us.

You try. You try to improve and get better with these things, but you also have to recognise how much is not enough and how much is too much.

It’s raining and it’s windy, and some people are worried and I’m comfortable, and people shouldn’t have to be worried. I’m not advocating for removing trees here, just to be clear. We need more of them in a lot of areas. What I’m trying to think of is how we can develop in ways that are ecologically sustainable whilst maintaining safety and comfort with shelter. I don’t have the answers. I don’t know the best ways to go about these things, but it’s something to think about. It’s something to consider. Not enough people do, I think. Or maybe enough people actually do.

I will soon be outside again and dealing with the weather, and I’ll deal with it however I can, which will be in a minimal manner, I think. I don’t know. I’m not sure yet. There’s still time before I’m out there. But for some they’ll be dealing with it all day, and I most certainly won’t be. I’m just going from one safe place to another. In a sense, I’m fortunate. Too many people are not.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:59:93

I wrote this yesterday, and it got a bit more serious than I’d hoped. I was hoping for serious, but a relaxed seriousness. This is what came forward though, and it’s fine.

Written at Dirty Red.

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Musician Within the Dark

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

I was going to go for another photo, but I realised that I need to save it for something else. Instead, here’s something minimal, moody and suggestive of form. Or maybe not suggestive at all.

A few weekends ago I photographed my first gig in five months. Was quite rusty, but some photos turned out well. This one is one of them, but it didn’t go into the Culture Eater gallery as I couldn’t justify it over others.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. The next one is hosted by Sarah of Travel with Me, and she has chosen “The Letter H” as her 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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