Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1353: Pretty Neat

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Being sick is the pits. It’s especially the pits when you get sick about five or six weeks after recovering from Covid. This isn’t fun and I don’t like it. Everything is a struggle. And so on and so forth and you get the idea.

Losing a day of work for it. That sucks because less money and all that. What sucks more, however, is that I am struggling to apply for jobs because I’m so buggered. But I’ll survive. I’ll get well again. I’ll shake this off. Don’t have much of a choice, really.

This came on suddenly. I had a bit of throat congestion which started ramping up shortly before trying to get to sleep. Slept well enough. Woke up this morning; taken out. Something has marched into my body and set up home and, whilst I was still relatively mobile this morning, now I am not. I am drained. I am tired, but I am persisting.

I make this sound quite dramatic; far more dramatic than it has any need to be, but I am flawed and I am destroyed and I am all of those other things, and I’m not coping as well as I’d like. I need to get things done and being unable to do them is… not helpful to getting them done really. Typing right now is a struggle.

Of course I’m going to keep typing rather than rest, but you know.

So everything is a struggle and I’m persisting and all that crap. Got to get to the end of the day and it is nearly here, and hopefully I get there sooner rather than later. I guess I’ll get there when I’m meant to and there’s little I can do in the way of speeding it up or slowing it down. I can alter my perception of how fast the time is going, but I can’t make it go faster, so I guess I just have to wait it all out and all that other stuff. Fun times.

So being ill sucks and there’s nothing new there, and I’m getting worse and there’s nothing new there, but maybe I’m stable and in recovery right now, and if so, well, there’s nothing new there either. It all keeps on going and I keep on going and I hope that things get better and maybe they will, but maybe they won’t. I don’t know.

Maybe I’ll undergo metamorphosis and metamorphose into something better. That would be interesting. Of course I cannot make that guarantee that that’s what would happen, but maybe it is what would happen. Maybe I’m not ill at all, but rather, I’m at the start of my moving toward something far greater than I now am, and if so, then…

So I don’t know where I’m going with this now, but I think rest is near and rest is needed and once I have my rest I will have the rest of the rest, and that would be pretty neat.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:40:32

I feel this could’ve been faster if I were healthier right now. Don’t know. What I do know is that I think I was able to get what I wanted to get across across, though perhaps with too many words.

Written at home.

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Sandstone Cliffs Meet the Ocean

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Right now I’m pretty chuffed with how this photo turned out.
I think there’s a good balance of colour and light, and the scene feels quite expansive and large.

Maybe how I feel about it will change over time, but right now I feel like this is a strong photo.

I hope you enjoy.

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Mitsuto Suzuki: Ouroboros Festival

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

One listen for this one.

There’s something about this song that feels like a prior era of club music, and it’s something that clicked for me, but I didn’t do a good job of getting across that it has that particular club music feel. Outside of that, I think I did quite alright with this one, though I think it is a little flat.

Mitsuto Suzuki’s (鈴木光人) “Ouroboros Festival” (“ウロボロスフィエスタ”) is from the soundtrack for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack. The soundtrack is comprised of compositions from Masashi Hamauzu (浜渦 正志), Naoshi Mizuta (水田 直志) and Mitsuto Suzuki.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Rolling percussion rattles and changes form quite quickly into something a little more tight in feel. It builds upon itself and steadies, and from somewhere behind a bright dullness rises forward, droning along, then disappears, falling away for an idea of voices to take the lead. Something lower murmurs, and that bright dullness seems to lurk here and there.

A brief pause before more beat comes in, and slowly the energy builds. The new beat has more thrust and drive behind it, and it strikes out, and part of it seems to rise and then shatter. Keys that weren’t there come in and play in a staccato-like fashion, and all keeps on driving forward.

Another shift and a lot pulls away, but the beat keeps going. It keeps pounding away in this lower moment, and it seems as though the energy has dipped but it’s still there. Then once more a rise and shatter before returning to what was before.

Eventually a new section comes in, and it sees much of the sound disappearing, and synth bubbles away before growing distant and muffled under gentle layer of something smooth and perhaps soft. Percussion returns and it switches its motion multiple times, seemingly always knowing itself but always trying to find something new, before disappearing.

The bubbling returns and the gentle layer rises, and they hold on a moment. The moment stretches on, and percussion returns once more, but when it stops, so does what is left and the song ends.

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Looking Out, Looking Over

Posted on March 24, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Today my partner and I went for a drive into The Blue Mountains to buy some bread. We were at a gig last night and were tired, but we decided to go anyway.

After buying bread we decided to drive around for a bit and visit some places, including Lincoln’s Rock.

This photo is quite similar to one of this place that I’ve previously shared, and my views haven’t much changed. I think people should have access to this space; more chance of people appreciating nature and all that. However, it runs the risk of cutting into the stillness of the space.

I don’t want to get into some issues that I saw today; if I do this will go for far longer than I’d like. It was also quite saddening. For now I’d rather just appreciate the view, and the massive clouds that were drifting across the sky.

This is my submission into the two hundred-and-ninety-second Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “People Here, There & Everywhere“.

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

Donna

Egídio

Ritva

Tina is curating this one. Next week Sofia is curating.

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.

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Among Ruin

Posted on March 23, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

If I’m going with that title I should probably feature more space, but I think it works.

More stuff seen after experiencing human impact. An eerie and haunting scene, and perhaps with some beauty too.

I hope you enjoy.

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Lilyfield Road Footbridge

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

A bridge… for the feet.
Well, more than just walking, but anyway…

I took this a few weeks ago. Was waiting for my partner to finish work, went for a wander.

I think the reflection came through quite well on this one. The pylons almost look longer than they are which helps skew perspective a good deal.

I hope you enjoy.

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Sunset Cloud Shelf

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

These could be Altocumulus undulatus. I’m not sure. Been trying to work it out.

Anyway, I like how these clouds seem to almost be carrying the light. I also like how there’s a contrast between this sort of dramatic lighting and a dramatic… not quite darkness, but almost darkness.

I hope you enjoy.

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Mitsuto Suzuki: Meeting You

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

One listen which I sort of threw myself into. Perhaps not as much as I should have or would have liked, but it was far more so than in recent times.

Other than knowing this is used in a game, I have no context for this song, and I think that helped. Sometimes it doesn’t, but here it did. I was mostly able to switch off and be more honest with my writing, so to speak. What I wrote is representative; perhaps not in the most accurate way, but it is representative of the song.

Mitsuto Suzuki’s (鈴木光人) “Meeting You” (“あなたに会えて”) is from the soundtrack for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack. The soundtrack is comprised of compositions from Masashi Hamauzu (浜渦 正志), Naoshi Mizuta (水田 直志) and  Mitsuto Suzuki.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Something sentimental and, perhaps, wistful, drifts upon keys playing into the air. They seem to fill and gently flow as the melody plays out, and seemingly an anchoring of lower notes creates some sort of approaching offness. Gradually the keys seem to move closer to the ground before taking off with greater thrust.

Perhaps thrust isn’t the best way to describe it, but it certainly is a reaching outward, and the dramatic expansion continues on before another thud on the ground which seems to more things into another perspective… almost. They come to an end that seems fitting.

Strings now come in whilst something pulses behind. It pulses gently, and this seems to further look into sentimentality, but with something else behind it. Maybe a sense of violence; it is hard to tell. It is thin and singular, yet full.

Those strings disappear and that pulsing comes a little more forward. Keys return and seem to move with the background, and then strings return and it all congeals and seems to rise, or reach outward once more, and this grand richness of drama and emotion comes forward, seemingly about to explode. The strings then disappear, the keys seem to shimmer away and the pulsing which reveals itself as something less so and more smooth lingers on as some bright memory. Something rumbles for a moment, then what is left moves to silence and the song ends.

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Damaged Crown

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Over the weekend I went for a drive early in the morning, in part to photograph the sunrise at this location. I ended up driving through a storm in the dark, and it was still raining when I got here. Still took photos, such as the one below.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week, and the theme is “Travel“. “Monochrome Madness” is a weekly community challenge involving sharing monochromatic photos. It’s open to anyone to participate, and I recommend doing so. 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.

 

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1352: What?

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

What am I doing right now? What am I writing about? Where am I going? These are all questions.

These are not just questions; they are questions I just asked, and now I have to wonder: What purpose do they serve?

They serve to make one think and in thinking one might ruminate about what they mean. What do they mean? Do they mean? Maybe the median. I don’t know; I’m not a mathemagician.

So I sit here and I think. I think about what the questions might offer and I think about what a time it is to be alive. I think about what it is that I am doing and how it is that I still am. I think about not thinking at all, and if that is a thing that can happen, or if we are all doomed to think and just forget that we think sometimes.

Sometimes I wonder about writing things and, even though I try not to be superstitious, how much those things could tempt fate, if they can at all, and then I delete them. I do not publish them for I do not want to put myself into a position where I’ve put something forward that risks catching the eyes of the universe and putting me into a position that is a cruel trickery, so I try not to. Probably tempt fate far more often than I do, really, but I imagine most do and they’re not even aware, or something.

Where am I going? What am I doing right now? What am I writing about? These are things to think about and they have answers, and sure, I could just answer them, but the answers are obvious and I don’t want to be too annoying. I’d rather think about them. I’d rather think about them and perhaps move on after some time. Issue is that I’ve already answered them and are ready to move on. Perhaps now is not the time to be trying to think about these questions. Maybe later. Maybe when I’m a little better rested. I don’t know.

What I do know is that as I sit here and listen to music I’m writing this out and then I need to get up, get ready and head out so I can pick up my partner from work, but I’ll allow myself a little bit of time to walk. A slight indulgence, and maybe I’ll think about other things during that walk. Maybe I’ll think about how I’m trying to deal with issues that plague my life at the current time; maybe I’ll think about the built environment, and how much of it we can dismantle before it is too much.

I think most people would resist most restoration of an idea of the natural, but it is something that needs to be done.

Right now I’m thinking about these questions, but I don’t think I am. I think I’m just telling myself I am rather than actually thinking.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:34:37

This is some pretty surface level stuff, but it’s the fun kind of surface level to write.

Written at home.

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