It has been an intense day thus far, so not much here right now.
Until then, here’s a photo of a silver gull walking.
I was trying to do something with the shadow here, but it doesn’t quite work with the particular angle.
I hope you enjoy.
Going to try and power through some writing AND do more than one thing today. Exciting, I know. Totally exciting and worth stating.
Being back on the bike is great. I’m wrecked, as they say, but it’s wrecked in a good way, as opposed to a bad way, which is not something I want to feel at the moment.
I’ve lost a lot of my speed, but I can get back there. I can get back on it. Just need to keep on cycling. I need to keep on pedaling and keep on going. Need to keep on moving.
Need to make sure I leave on time in order to get to wherever it is that I am heading.
Need to work on carrying less things and seeing how that helps with the whole act of cycling. Need to take the weight off the bike, or at least have it better distributed. I will get there. Going to take some time, but I will get there. It will happen, and then I’ll be set, and hooray and all those things. But it takes time.
It’ll take… well, I’m hoping to be back to being “match fit” in two weeks. It’ll probably take longer than that, but that’s what I’m hoping. There is a lot of work that I need to put in, and I can put in that work, but I don’t think I’ll pull off some sort of amazing power shift within such a short period of time. However, if it does happen, then I’ll be chuffed. If it doesn’t, then at least I’ll still be working toward being healthier and all that stuff.
Right now, however, I’m feeling it. I’m feeling tired and sweaty, and I’m sure that I’ll soon want to go to sleep. This is on me for being as slack about cycling as I have been over the past few years. A few rides here and there, and then nothing. Right now it’s tough, but I’ll keep on working on it. I’ll keep working on improving and pushing forward, and then soon I will be gliding like the best of some.
My act of moving as motion through space will become more graceful, and I will be able to do it faster and faster, and then I’ll get to where I want to be and I’ll do some reading. I’ll then get off the train and move some more, and I’ll keep on going. I’ll keep going and, with a bit of work, reach my destination.
Maybe I’ll sweat a little less the more I do this. Actually, I’m pretty sure I will. Need to keep my fluids up. Need to keep drinking water.
Need to also work toward having a restful sleep, but one thing at a time. I’ll be a great bike rider before I have a good sleep. Or something.
A goose caught during walking, and if I remember correctly it was walking in this particular manner for some reason that I don’t know.
This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness.
Participating is pretty straightforward and something I recommend. If you do, then include the tag “monochrome-madness” in your post. If not participating, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography as well as what other people submit.
I hope you enjoy.
Another cold day, and soon I will be out there, among it, putting my foot to the pedal and the pedal to the power.
I will be… back on the bike… again.
Like clockwork, or something, but I’ve missed cycling. Perhaps not terribly, but I have missed it, and I have missed cycling, and I am looking forward to being back on the bike. I am looking forward to being out there and making use of my body to move through space and move through time to travel some length of distance.
Though maybe not today. Tomorrow instead… maybe. We’ll see.
No, definitely tomorrow.
I’ve been planning to get back on the bike for a few months now. It has taken some time, but I’m now getting on with it. Started fixing it up last weekend. Need a few more parts before I can cycle to work, but I’m getting there. The bike is coming together and soon I’ll be sorted, or something.
But yeah. I miss cycling, and I miss doing it, and I enjoy it more than I do driving, so it’ll be good to be back on the iron steed on a more regular capacity, but I need to stick to it. I need to keep going and push onward, and then push onward some more. I need to keep on pedaling and keep going with it, and reconnect with that sense of movement. I need to be within that sense of motion and keep on moving with it.
Cycling is a great thing. I know I’ve said this before, but I find it difficult to overstate sometimes. It’s also great to know how to maintain a bike. Naturally it’s not necessarily the easiest thing to do at times. It can take a lot of work, but you get the hang of it and you keep going, and then you go some more. You start saving money, and you spend less time sitting in traffic.
There’s something about a sense of the wind against one’s face without the sound of it whipping around your ears that’s hard to beat, I feel. There’s also something hard to beat about how awesome it is to power around under one’s own muscles.
Not everyone can cycle, and I get that, but for those who can, should. The more people who do, the freer the roads are and the less stressed everyone can get to where they need to. Also cuts down on pollution.
So… yeah. Was back on yesterday, back on today. Need to realign the new brake pads I put on, but the bike works. Need to do some more work on it and need to replace a few parts, but it’s doing what it needs to do right now, and I’ll keep on putting my feet to the pedals and complaining, and I’ll keep on sweating and pedaling. I’ll keep working toward being able to cycle wherever I can within a reasonable distance.
I’ve missed cycling a lot.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 08:54:63
A bit slower than usual, and not that great. Gets what I wanted to get across across, however.
Written at home.
One listen.
This is a short bit of music, and it passes far more quickly than I anticipated.
I threw myself in but I wrote “slowly”, and what came forward is something that captures a sense of the song well, but in a bit of a flat way, I feel.
Ryota Kozuka’s (小塚良太)”Underground Passage” is from the soundtrack for Shin Megami Tensei IV, Shin Megami Tensei IV ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Waves of noise lap and pulse, and repeat. Emptiness blows and breezes in the background, and all seems still, cold and quiet. All is tense, and those waves of noise seem to be reaching out, trying to grab and snatch, and it all stops and fades out as the song ends.
This song is about four minutes long and I’ve about seven minutes before I start work. I think I can do this. I think I can get this done within the time it takes to write this. That’s an easy thing.
What isn’t easy is flying by the seat of one’s garment, and there isn’t enough high water for me to be able to ensure that the thing happens the way it doesn’t happen. If there are other, methods, however, then I think that if there is enough sky to fly in I should be at my desk by the time it takes to get from the door to the gullet, and in a way that expresses what it is that expresses the thing.
What is shoegaze? I know what it is, but what is it? How often is it used as a term to determine some sort of musical purity, and not actually as a descriptor? I’d like to think it is quite often, but I don’t know. To be fair, I do buy into the hard line ideas of gentrification on the odd occasion, but I do think there is a fair bit of flexibility allowed. We are allowed to be unorthodox in our definition sometimes. Maybe all then time, but that’s not for here.
As such, the artist that I’m listening to right now, I would like to claim is a shoegaze artist. Most people would disagree, but they hit the marks. They have that “dreamy” guitar and some elements of the psychedelic bleeding in, but they also have articulation (which is something not always favourable in the genre of shoegaze genre), so therefore I thusly proclaim that this band that has existed for a long time is furthering the genre by taking it into unexplored territory whilst remaining unequivocally within the genre.
But then there are other things to consider as well. This sounds like a band with a specific kind of production, and maybe that’s at odds with the whole ethos of shoegaze music. When I say “specific”, what I mean is particularly clear and crisp… up to a point, of course. It’s not all that; some of their stuff gets downright dirty, but… you know.
So I don’t know what else I can say about that. I think that sums it up in a nicely messy way, and… yeah. What else is there to say, really? I don’t know if there is anything else… right now. Trying to get this written as quickly as possible is not conducive to following and exploring this tangent, but that’s the way it is sometimes and I would not proclaim myself to be a deep individual… but perhaps I am!
Or not.
So when I think of genre, sometimes I do wonder. It’s not always good to be hard line when it comes to some things, but it is good to have a base to build off. Just need to find a good balance and go from there.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:47:28
I wrote this yesterday and didn’t touch it until now. Lack of sleep.
It’s not a good bit of writing, but I do think some of the idea within it is worth expanding upon.
Written at work.
It has been a long evening, so here’s a photo of a swamphen running.
I hope you enjoy.
One listen for this one.
Not sure what I was going for, exactly. I think I was trying to capture the despair that comes through based on where this plays. Don’t think I quite did it, but I did get across some sort of vague imagery.
Ryota Kozuka’s (小塚良太) “Ginza Underground District” is from the soundtrack for Shin Megami Tensei IV, Shin Megami Tensei IV ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Keys play against a rippling percussion. Another sound haunts at the edges before more percussion comes in and rings a pattern. Sounds alternate and tension increases.
Voice drones through the space and the keys keep a fragility through the space. Fragments of moments, seemingly trying to connect together and being unable to do so. The voice returns and distorts, and disappears.
A return to the beginning and the atmosphere remains thick and oppressive. Twisted melody rings through in lingering shadow of tragedy and disaster, and remains in its disintegrated state as the sounds fade and the song ends.
Two listens.
Just tried to describe the song. I think I did okay, but I overthought and tried to get forward specific things rather than let the words flow.
Ryota Kozuka’s (小塚良太)”Kagome Tower” is from the soundtrack for Shin Megami Tensei IV, Shin Megami Tensei IV ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Percussion forms a pattern, something slides through in the distance and then a bass sound comes in and wraps around the percussion. More percussion comes in and there’s a fullness, but there’s also a suggestion of space.
That slide in once more and the original percussion disappears, and all the sounds here drive forward. They press down and create a foundation, and the structure on top of that seems to rise and strengthen. Another, sharper sound seems to descend and float on along, and guide.
The original percussion returns, joining the flow before a lot of it disappears and leaves space. Other sound drifts in, not looking to meet with the urgency of everything else. It fades once the sounds return to their beginning.
Urgency keeps coming forward, and it keeps pressing down. The space is there, but it is with a smothering of sorts. But there is, perhaps, a brief sense of calm, or rather there’s a focus there. A driving focus.
Eventually the sounds fade out and the song ends.
I’ve been looking forward to this for a few weeks now. Always like it when this tree flowers.
It’s a pleasant display to me, and always not long enough. After enough weeks, the flowers will give way to leaves, and eventually the leaves will drop off whilst buds form to bloom once more.
This is my submission into the three hundred-and-eleventh Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “What’s in a Garden?“.
The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:
Leya is curating this one. The next one is hosted by Sofia.
I recommend participating in the challenges as they provide a fun way to interpret theme. If not participating, then at least you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.
I hope you enjoy.
Stupidity Hole 