One Thousand Word Challenge 16: An Attempt at Writing Something a Little Less Absurd and Fantastic When Overpowering Tea is Involved

Alright, so I was planning to write a little bit earlier, but seeing as that idea went right out the window, along with my dreams, hopes and desires to write at an earlier time than what could be referred to as the prescribed present, I am writing now, thus creating some sort of bit of text that will only be viewed once it has been completed and shared.

I had one of my colleagues prepare me a cup of tea a bit earlier. It was a loose chai tea, as I’ve been getting into chai tea recently due to the deliciously spicy content and I usually have a preference for loose teas over tea bags.

I say usually as I still don’t mind using a tea bag from time to time.

Anyway, they prepared the tea for me and filled the majority of the tea net.
The tea net that I have is like a smaller cup.

I was quite appreciative of their preparing a tea for me, but I was a slight bit amused by how intense the tea was going to be.

I went to the work kitchen to balance it out a bit with more water and milk, had to pour some out, then add more milk.

I had a few sips and found it to be a bit too strong for my tastes, so I stopped.

It was a good thing I did because I went on a bit of a journey after that.

I took off and left the atmosphere quite quickly, leaving only my body behind to try and hope with how fast my mind seemed to be racing away from me, doing everything in its power to try and keep up, despite the realisation that it was never going to be enough, for my mind was too far gone before my body even had a moment to realise what was going on.

Suffice to say, I was feeling somewhat manic and not keeping up with myself. It was an interesting experience, for I was not only resolving issues that the customers I was peaking to whilst on this tea-related caffeine high, but I was slaying the very issues that plagued the nightmares of their soul, working my skills and gusto into something that was tangibly anathema to their very being. They would howl and shriek, trying to work their dirty magic to take hold of the very hearts they desired to posses, but I stood firm and resolute, looked upon their being with focus, thought “no”, and began my heinous assault upon their fortresses of desolation and suffrage. I dismantled their protection with my cunning and acknowledgement and they could only cry out, claiming foul play, when there was none, for I had only myself and no protection whilst they has everything they could and more in order to give them the greatest advantages that could be seen as being unfair in a battle that could be viewed as being fair if seen from the correct longitudinal angle whilst possessing an axolotl-drawn horse cart in the great abyss of darkness that we can only dream to sleep in for a solid eight hours or more before we all head to work do do the jobs of which we are employed, assuming that all of us are employed, for some of us aren’t and do other things, or do nothing.

I don’t know. Whatever floats your boat, really.

The fact of the matter is that I’ve had an incredibly overpowering tea and despite the fact that it should have worn off now, it kind of hasn’t and has at the same time. I still feel somewhat manic, but I’m also beginning to feel a bit drowsy, which is good and bad as I still have a little while to go before I finish work and am cycling home tonight and don’t want to be in a position where I’m falling asleep whilst cycling. I’ve been in that position before and it didn’t feel safe.

When it happened, I hopped off my bike and walked the rest of the way home. Thankfully I wasn’t far from home so it wasn’t too much of an issue that I had to consider.
Tonight I don’t want to be thinking about that, but I should be fine anyway because my cycle tonight is not a long one, assuming I don’t dawdle and power away.

So whilst I am conducting my reign of protection against those horrible evils that would plague the customers that are my duty and honour to protect, they would eventually realise that there would be no way to prevent me from dismantling their places of hiding and pseudo-invincibility and begin to try and conduct some sort of counteroffensive.
The main issue here is that it would not amount to much, for I choose not to give up and would continue to strike blow upon blow until my path has been walked and the customers are safe and have the answers that they require to allow them to feel a little more at ease than before they had been before they were speaking to me, for customer service is what I do and customer service is what I provide.

Those foul beasts shall now be able to continue their reign of error for as long as my mind continues to rocket off, leaving my body to try and feebly attempt to have some sort of composure whilst it tries to work out what is going on and cope with the amount of caffeine that flows through my body.

It will find a way and eventually my mind will decide that continuing this soaring off to the outer confines of an eternity is somewhat passé and return with an instantaneous travel instead of a gradual path, therefore leaving me to return to normal, assuming that I don’t fall asleep before it happens.

If I do, then I hope I remember to bring my pants to work tomorrow.

The time it took to write one thousand words: 18:35:72

Happy with the speed.
Some of this was based in reality.
Some.

That’s all I care to say right now.

Written at work.

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Chimney in the Moving Sky

Another photo that I took whilst I was watching the sunset during the “super” moon event.
This was taken with the assistance of a friend of mine.
I really like the effect that the slight blurring and colour gave.

The last picture here is pretty close to how the photo originally looked. The colour might have been a slight bit more orange.
It was slightly difficult to take, but I managed to get it and I’m quite happy with the result.

The pictures before the last were me having a bit of fun with the processing. I liked the results, so I decided to include them.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them Review

Before you read on, just so you know, there’s spoilers in this review.

Eddie Redmayne comes to America to start a plot about something happening, whilst something is happening. Coincidences become incredibly apparent and, of course, it’s up to the unlikely hero to save the day, despite having to come to America to save the day for someone else.

Fantastic Beasts moves at a good pace. It feels lean and the plot is almost always being driven. Humorous moments are scattered throughout and never at inappropriate parts of the film.

The dialogue is serviceable. It doesn’t really stand out and gives enough to allow the characters to have some personality.

The actors do a fairly decent job of playing their characters. No one seems to be phoning in their performance, although at times it does feel a bit flat.

I can’t say anything about the soundtrack because I can’t remember what it was like.

The creatures in the film look interesting and somewhat believable. Most importantly, they suit the world that the film inhabits.

I’d recommend seeing Fantastic Beasts. It has some flaws, but it is a fun little adventure film.

My biggest problem with the film is M.A.C.U.S.A.

Throughout the film they show to be willing to do whatever they can to protect themselves, which is fair. There’s somewhat frequent mentions about protecting and hiding their secret society, which is also fair. However, holding judgemental attitudes toward a populace that can’t use magic due to something that happened over three-hundred years prior instead of working toward some sort of reconciliation and unity is stupid. By continually remaining hidden, when an event occurs where something might not remain as such (as witnessed in the film), it’s going to cause problems. Making things worse is setting up a barrier to protect the general populace from a magic battle and then not saying a thing about it at all.

It’s somewhat bizarre as M.A.C.U.S.A. seem like a multicultural group, but it would seem that, despite probably copping a load of crap that had gone on for far longer than the persecution of witches and wizards and probably needing the protection of magic users, anyone who would need the kind of protection that a magic user could provide would be turned away, regardless of what they’ve been through because they’d be lumped into the same group as the non-magic users (No-Maj in the film).
M.A.C.U.S.A. seem to want to portray themselves as as being fair and equal, but they’re just a bunch of self-interested assholes who don’t want to move on and work toward bridging the gap between the magic and non-magic world.

Right near the end of the film, there’s a bit of destruction that has occurred and it seems that the magic world has been revealed which will lead to problems. However, with the assistance of Eddie Redmayne and his bird-dog friend, M.A.C.U.S.A. create a rain that mind-wipes all No-Majs. Whilst this is happening, they then then rebuild New York using magic, returning everything to how it was, thus completing their most important role in the film: rendering the majority of the plot and  pointless.

Now, does the rain eliminate the photos of the witches and wizards that were taken? Does it damage the camera?
How does the rain affect the people who were inside during the time of the magic battle? Surely not all of them were not paying attention to what was happening.
The film seems to imply that they too are mind-wiped.

But if that’s the case, why does Daniel Fogler’s character have to stand in the rain to be mind-wiped? Is he actually a magic user without realising it and not actually affected by the rain, but decided to play along because he? Did the plot decide to give him more time because dramatic?

Because of their attitude, M.A.C.U.S.A. punished Katherine Watterson for trying to stop someone from being abused, therefore allowing a serious threat to be created.

I can’t help but think that they were written this way so they could function as some sort of critique. Whilst I have my suspicions, I’m not sure as to what the critique (if any) is meant to be on, as it falls flat and seems quite one-dimensional.

Instead of getting a film that could have great potential for the exploration of the ramifications of the actions taken in the sequels, we end up with a film that erases itself, unless the next one decides that the mind-wipe was only temporary, possibly due to Eddie Redmayne making some sneaky alterations.

Still, as said before, Fantastic Beasts is a fun film.

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Crashing Wave

It’s Not This Time of Year Without…” waves. Lots of waves.

Well, to be fair, it’s not any time of year without waves, but as they are usually synonymous with late spring and summer, it’s probably appropriate to use these two photos for The Daily Post‘s photo challenge for this week.

I’m pretty happy with this shots, mostly because I was able to capture the sea spray of the wave in a way that I’m pretty sure I haven’t before.

I think that in this form, it looks pretty interesting.
It helps make the wave feel as though it’s moving quite fast.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Hiding Bridge

It’s another shot that I took on the weekend!

I took this one as I liked how everything lined up with each other.
The sun was working in my favour in this shot as (I think) the lighting is balanced very well.
I think the buildings and the bridge have a good depth to them.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Doctor Strange Review

I saw Doctor Strange a few weeks ago and was unsure as to whether I should write a review about it or not as I was mostly unsure as to how I’d write the review without spoiling it as there was one particular part of the film that I wanted to talk about as I thought it was an excellent part that at least did something different than most, if not all M.C.U. films and did it quite well, but considering that I’ve two other films I want to write about, I’ve decided to write a lazy review.

In Doctor Strange, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a brilliant asshole who ends up losing his main skill, becoming mostly asshole, then finds a way to be good at something else whilst losing his ability to be an asshole.

Along the way, he discovers the plot, as well as other things.

The actors act and they usually act well.
The film is shot well.
There’s special effects.
The plot is apparent.

The film is alright. It’s nothing amazing. It does some great things. Despite the requirement of them, considering the character, the use of special effects felt a bit ho-hum too often to me. Perhaps it was because they were way too excessive in parts. I didn’t think they were amazing or mind-blowing. They looked good, but the use was average at best.

Too much of the film is wasted on the origin story and it only serves to undermine what could have been a greater film. The first few minutes could have been spent giving the character an introduction, then the rest spent with the plot.
Because it was an origin story, everyone’s time is wasted as a result.
It’s not that origin stories are a bad idea. It’s that they’re mostly handled in the exact same way.

The music was alright.

I recommend seeing it, but don’t leave your brain at the entry.

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Another View of Sydney Harbour Bridge

Here’s some shots that I took of Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday.
Whilst I still don’t care too much about the bridge, I do like seeing it in bits.
I think it makes the steel arch look only vaguely familiar.

I also like that I was able to get these shots whilst far from the bridge.

The third photo is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness for this week.
I strongly recommend checking out not only her photography, but also the photography of others that submit into M.M., as well as consider submitting into it yourself.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Central Park Building

Here’s a shot that I took last week.
I really like the angle and the shape of what is shown of the building.
I also like how the windows seem reflective.

I hope you enjoy.img_3136a

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Shark Attacks

Shark attacks. They happen. Sharks are going to get curious about some of the things they see. It’s a risk that you take when you go into water at certain locations.

I think it’s interesting that, sometimes, when a shark attack is reported, a person will express some form of disbelief over the fact that they were attacked by a shark.

Experiencing shock of the event aside, it’s kind of an odd thing to express disbelief toward.
You were in a body of water that has sharks as a feature. Why are you surprised that something like that happened?

Where else are they going to be?
Were you in the ocean to hide from the sharks swimming on the streets of the city?
The sharks are now in the streets!
They’re coming to the mountains.
They’re hiding in trees.
Now they are the bees.

Not that would be surprising!

What I really find interesting is that, in some places, some people think that the best way to go about dealing with a shark “attack” is to retaliate by “culling” shark numbers, because supposedly the best way to deal with an issue is to kill as much as something as possible until you feel that a threat is no longer something to worry about.

It doesn’t make sens and all it does is show just how stupid some people tend to be.
Oh well.

Sharks aren’t going to stop being sharks. People need to be more careful and understand that, whilst the chances of being attacked by one are slim, it’s still a possibility.

You’re allowed to be shocked by an event as severe as that.

You shouldn’t turn around and decide that reducing a population’s numbers by a large amount is a good way to make sure that you’re “safe”.

All it makes sure of is showing how much you don’t want to think.

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Glowing Buildings

Whilst on the way home yesterday, I saw this, so I took a photo.
I’m not happy with the amount of noise that came through, so I might reattempt it in a few days.

Still, I am happy with capturing the sunlight being reflected.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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