The number of my house.
This is taken for The Daily Post‘s photo challenge theme of “Numbers” this week.
I decided to try and take an “arty” shot because… I don’t know.
I’m not sure if it worked, but the image looks cool… I think.
I did some minor processing on this one. Mostly sharpening and noise reduction. There was some light, contrast and saturation adjustment as well, but it’s not too different to how it looked when I took it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Here’s a picture I took of Mount Solitary whilst Ewe and I were at the Blue Mountains at the end of January.
I submitted it into Head On.
It wasn’t accepted.
Anyway, I like how this picture captures the fog and makes Mount Solitary look almost as though it is an ocean.
I also like how only some of the colour and light from the sunrise can be seen.
I like how there’s a clear distinction of where shadows appear in the photo.
I like how Mount Solitary, despite being somewhat small in the shot, still feels quite large.
I hope you enjoy.
Looking out the window of the train continuing on its journey, watching fields of green darkened under skies of heaving grey, awaiting a storm to hit, and yet the train will continue on, refusing to derail or even slightly destabilise under any condition, continuing onward to its destination, dropping off all the passengers that use it to get from where they begin to where they want to end their journey in a gradual, progressive manner, as is is the duty of this particular train; one shared by many that have come before and many more to come.
Animals can be seen from the windows. Some are grazing and some are just there. Some choose to frolic, getting excited for the impending rain to reach them, which they will then end up fervently dancing in. Well, at least being perceived as dancing in. They may just be doing something that they choose to do when there is water falling around them.
The views are beautiful. Rolling hills going beyond what can be seen under a hard, intense sky as the track slowly bends around and through the area.
The passengers look out and see everything they can, taking in the sights. Some choose to read, but that’s their prerogative. Others think about the fleeting imagery they see, reaching so close to them and yet being unreachable at this time as it passes through their lives quickly, not allowing them enough time to appreciate as much as they can from their carriage. But then again, there never is when they only view from the inside.
Some passengers think about the oncoming storm and whether they’ll be disembarking from the train whilst it is around them. Some have umbrellas. Some have raincoats. Some are unprepared. They will still all have to brave it for at least a brief moment of time.
Some people look out at the sky and watch the clouds gradually move and whilst their shapes and lines change, no hint of blue can be seen from beyond them and all it does is make them hope it doesn’t rain too hard.
The train continues along the tracks, quickly makings its way along, always going forwards as there are no obstacles to worry about at this time of day.
Through this route is linearity and its linearity that the people need. Any detour wouldn’t be appreciated, for it is a work day and anything that could lead to a great delay could only lead to issues being caused. Some people are asleep as their distance is one that is great to travel, so they get up earlier than they would like to and get the rest of their sleep on the commute, regardless of how broken it would be.
It’s still extra sleep and it means they’ll be able to cope with the work day much better if they decided to stay up during a trip that they’ve taken far too many times to not be accustomed to at this point.
Eventually the hills give way to some houses. It starts off slowly but gradually builds up and soon the train begins to enter suburbia, but only to pass through it as the city is the destination that it seeks to enter and release most of its passengers on its onward journey before a brief rest it takes before heading back, or possibly along another route, always picking up and dropping off passengers that need to get somewhere.
Some people get off in the early suburbs for they are lucky enough to work closer to home than others. Many people get on. Soon the quiet that was in the train gives way to some people waking up and others greeting each other and talking about the day ahead, as well as plans for the weekend.
Some people discuss music and politics whilst others talk about studies and exams.
Some people talk about what’s happening at home and others talk about camping.
It’s not the most alive conversing, but it does add more life to the carriage.
Some people prefer to remain quiet and continue reading whilst others choose to listen to music.
Some people get on and choose to look out the windows and see all the houses and the highways, looking at the cars rolling along and wondering as to why some people choose to drive whilst others choose to take the train instead.
It’s not thinking about big things, but it is still thinking and it helps get them ready for the day ahead, warming up their minds for whatever they’ll need to do later on.
Soon the train is packed, but it doesn’t stop or delay. It has slowed down as the distance between stations has shortened, but it is still making quick progress.
The rain has begun and it’s coming down quite hard. People are talking less as it is so deafening that the only way to continue is to yell, so people choose to remain silent and listen to the rhythmic pounding that all the rain provides, being somewhat comforted and annoyed by it as, regardless of the amount of protection they have, they are all aware that they will have to walk through it at some point on this day and are not looking forward to it, regardless of how far they have to go through it.
Eventually the train reaches the city and more people get on at the first stop than people get off. The train is packed but most people will get off at the next few stops.
The train slowly passes underground, taking people to their destinations and they make their way through their stations to the buildings at which they work, some damper than others.
Eventually the train comes out to the other side of the city, crossing a bridge and continuing on its journey. It picks up less people, but some stay for the trip longer as they work away from the city.
The train continues forwards; never backwards.
The time it took to write one thousand words: 19:12:36
I don’t know where I was going with this. It’s fairly plain and I’m certain that I repeated myself a few times.
I think.
I don’t know.
It would be easy to go back and read it. It would.
However, no.
Anyway, what is this? Real life? Fiction? Real life fiction?
Written at UNSW library.
This image is my fifty-eighth submission into Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness.
This one was a themed one, with the theme being “closed”.
I decided to try and take a picture that I wanted to use to say something.
When I went bushwalking, I wanted to get a shot of a person curled up in an area that had some sort of natural openness.
I kind of got it, but I wiped my memory card before It transferred the photos to my computer, thus ensuring that I took the photos I wanted to again at Bondi (as I could also do my food shopping there).
Anyway…
In this image I wanted to try and say that if you remain closed off, then you’re probably not going to be able to see and appreciate the beauty of the world.
I think that my being small in this shot contrasting with the space works well as it shows that there is so much out there that could be missed.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Here’s another shot I took at Bondi on Sunday morning.
I decided to play around with the light levels on this one to see how it would turn out.
I like how the part of the water that can be seen is really striking due to the light level, as well as the level of detail it has.
I also like how the image has some vagueness to it.
What I really like here though is the contrast between it and the original.
The original is really light and feels a bit more relaxed than the processed version.
Whereas the processed version has detail for one specific segment, the original has detail throughout.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
It’s time for an upgrade, and by that, I mean an increase of pressure to see if I can churn out more words in a short amount of time based on things that aren’t really considered, such as how fast I run when I’m in a trance, or how often a bird lays an egg when an orange bears no flowers under a grey moon of decadent taxation!
No, that does not make sense, but maybe it does if you care to try and decipher the secret code in there, assuming there is one (hint: there isn’t).
Well, now that I’ve got that out of the way, I can now proclaim”oh no”.
Oh no.
Yes, I’ve decided to increase the word limit and start a new set of challenges to see if I can do the same with more.
Or, perhaps it’s more with less.
No. It’s definitely the same with more. However, I find that, in my ongoing quest to create the ultimate impenetrable mass of text (that is to say, I’m trying to imply that my writing is grandly profound, despite it not being so), the word count needs to be increased so I can continue to keep on going to see if I can do the same with a greater word count.
I think I’ve repeated myself there. Right now, I do not care.
So, the reason as to why I’m doing this is that I’ve been considering doing it for a while. I keep finding myself going over the five-hundred word limit that I set myself. Usually it’s only by a few words but sometimes it’s by more than a few.
Another reason is that, whilst I do like the limit of five-hundred words and how it forces me to try and be creative (usually to mediocre results), I should start seeing if I can write interesting stuff over a greater word count.
I still am going to try and further my stream-of-conscious writing because I do think that working on writing on the fly, trying to come up with things without thinking too much about them is something that is greatly important.
I do believe that it will help me become a better writer.
Essentially, this will sit alongside the already existing challenge and perhaps they will work together to make me the greatest of ever that ever was, in some sort of amazing revolutionary… revolution… that will revolutionise writing for all people as they continue to look upon with amaze and wonder and continually praise my presence with cheese and lamingtons.
Oh, how I miss lamingtons.
I have not had one for a while now and I love how they taste.
Anyway… yeah.
So I am trying to become a better writer and forcing something upon myself that I’m probably going to have a bit of difficulty with for a while, but then again, part of the fun is the challenge that I’m choosing to undertake and if it leads to greater things, then that’s a plus for me at the end of the day.
Now, I’ve go to think about how long I’ll set for myself.
Seeing as I’m doubling the word count, I should also probably double the time limit.
At the same time, It probably should be a bit less, as I’m pretty sure that currently most of the five-hundred word challenges (well, at least more than twenty) are under ten minutes.
With that being said, I’ll probably set it to twenty minutes and see how well I work with that for a while.
So long as I’m putting myself in this position… I’ve got nothing to finish that sentence with.
So, one thousand words in twenty minutes should suffice.
If I’m good and fast enough, then I’ll lower the time limit, but for now, twenty it shall be as it will at least give me a good gauge of how well I can handle this, assuming I can handle it at all.
If I can’t handle it, then, well, I only have myself to blame and therefore I should try and find out how to work best with the (admittedly fairly loose) constraints I’m setting myself to try and get one thousand words typed up.
Sometimes one should back out of a challenge, but this is definitely not one I’m going to back out of as I think I can do it well with enough working and working and typing and typing and slowly driving myself over the edge in some sort of text orgy of decadence and arrogant tomfoolery.
If you couldn’t tell, I’m already struggling, but that’s part of the fun!
Yes, fun. A thing I used to know once before I decided that… nope… still have nothing.
Surprising I know.
As always, I do hope that you find these entertaining and enjoyable to some extent, regardless of how well (or poorly) they’re written, as I’d rather people enjoy what I put out than not.
So, with that all being said, I should probably get back to work as I have a fair bit to take care of before the day is over.
However, I still have a fair number of words to go, so now I’ve got to try and work out what else I can say.
Oh.
I also think this will help me with writing assignments for university due to more thinking on my feet (or not thinking at all), because if I can knock out a number of words, then most of my drafts for written assignments could start out with bare information and a lot of fluff so then I have a base to work off and slowly trim them down and expand certain points until I’ve the best assignments to hand in that have ever been seen.
Of course, that’s what I’d like to believe, so that is most definitely what I’m going to believe.
Better than something that is incredibly negative.
So, without further ado, you’re at the end of this.
The time it took to write one thousand words: 17:32:64
I’m fairly happy with that time.
Not so happy with the text, but it’s now written and it stand where it lies.
So… yeah. Now I’ve an extra challenge. Huzzah. I think.
Written at work.
Here’s a shot I took on Sunday.
I lost a whole bunch of photos I took on Saturday (I’ll get into that another time), so I had to retake some of them.
Well, technically, I didn’t, but I retook them anyway.
However, I didn’t feel like going into the bush again (which is where I was on Saturday) as I had to do my food shopping and a lot of study, so I went to Bondi Rocks to take photos there (I was going to anyway, but now I felt I didn’t have a choice).
The tide was higher than a report I checked out indicated it would be, but that wasn’t a deterrent for me.
I retook the shots I “had” to, then took some shots of the waves after they hit the rocks.
The sprays were very large. It was quite impressive to see them.
Luckily enough I was able to stand a semi-safe distance away whilst taking pictures.
I like how this one feels really powerful, intense and chaotic.
I also like how it has an elegance to it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
It was just another day at the office for Herman MacGuyman.
Nothing was out of the ordinary, as was the case. Every day transitioned into the next without so much of a blink or a whisper of excitement.
He would always walk in, organise papers in an orderly fashion, slowly sift through emails about business and watch the shade in his space slowly change as the sun passed by the building of which he chose to dedicate his working hours in.
It was just another day… or so he thought.
His usual routine was followed.
There was a bit less work than usual on this particular day, so to fill the time, he thought he’d get himself a coffee from the kitchen. He needed to find a way to remain productive in the early hours, lest he become slothful later.
He made his way to the kitchen, saying his hellos to the people he passed, then made his coffee once he reached his destination.
Double shot. Black. He didn’t want to play around with the politics of milk and sugar.
Once he had his brew, Herman began to make his way back to his desk, when, out of nowhere, a yak of considerable size burst through the lift doors.
It seemed enraged and bewildered by the fact that it somehow was in an office and not on its usual place of location.
It began charging around, taking down dividing walls and desks with great chaos and gusto.
Herman decided that this was not something that would be tolerated in his space. Well, not in the place where his work space happens to be located.
Herman walked up to the enraged yak and tried to address it in a polite manner.
“Excuse me yak, but please stop this nonsense. This is a place of work and your reckless disregard for all that we are doing here is something that we do not want to tolerate. Please leave now”, he said.
“My apologies good sir, but you see, I am enraged and bewildered and it has left me in a state of action and desecration of this sacred office space. You see, it was not of my doing that I ended up here. Well, perhaps it was, buy that is not for me to say right now. I shall only stop when there is a solution”, replied the yak.
“Regardless of your situation, I must insist that you leave, for it is your reaction that is misplaced and simply destroying things here will not solve any of your issues”, Herman said in response.
“Then I must politely decline, for that would be far too logical for me. Besides which, I am a yak that is somehow talking in a language you can understand. Therefore, I shall continue”, came the final response from the yak.
Having enough of this exchange, Herman grabbed the yak and escorted it forcefully to the lifts, sending it back down.
He then grabbed his coffee and resumed work.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 10:16:02
Slower than expected. Too much thinking for something that is not pithy.
Well, this one I like. It’s absurd.
I think.
Written at work.
It can be useful to have a few “Spare” if you take a lot of photos or make a lot of music or various other reasons.
There’s five hard drives here. See if you can find them all!
Or not.
Here’s two different versions of the original image.
Not too sure which one I prefer.
I like the smoothness of the first and the colour of the second.
This is probably not a good way to store hard drives.
Probably.
This is my entry into The Daily Post‘s photo challenge this week.
I hope you enjoy.
Here’s two photos I took on Thursday whilst I was at uni.
I like the flamboyance, vibrancy and general beauty of these flowers.
I think they’re fairly wonderful to look upon.
For these two photos, I tried to get how the flowers looked showing without making them look more vibrant than they already are.
I think I succeeded.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Stupidity Hole 