Meeting P’ung Ryong

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Breath of Fire IV is a game that has what I feel is a downright inspired setting.
It’s one where it feels like the team behind it had a fascination with the idea of the world, and so you get these really strong designs throughout.

Breath of Fire IV is also a game that I quite like, and I wanted to draw when Ryu and Nina meet P’ung Ryong, the game’s wind dragon. The image here is a trace and it turned out alright. Partly it was done as practise; partly due to this moment being one of my favourites.

I started this nine days ago, and did most of the work today.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1415: A Brief Breather

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

So I’ve been working on things that I’m not meant to be working on today, and that’s alright. Sometimes that’s the way things go. Right now I’m having a brief breather from those things and writing this before I go back into the thick of things, as I’m about to enter the part where I deal with the nitty-gritty, and that’s going to take a while. Hope to have the last of this particular thing done in twenty minutes. We’ll see.

After that, I get stuck into the things I am meant to be doing, which shouldn’t take too long anyway. I hope. A lot of powering through and getting on, and going forward, but let me tell you, this brief break from it all feels too good. Maybe it’s time to take the rest of the day off… I wish.

There are too many things to get out of the way, but I’m getting there. I’m getting them done, and that’s a good thing… I think. Perhaps there are other, more important things to get done, but this isn’t so bad. It could always be worse, of course. What I’m doing is still learning and refining, and it helps in some ways, and so long as it helps, I’m happy.

What does it help with? Why, learning, of course!

So I think I need to keep going shortly, but I’m hoping to have this bit of rambling done so as to relax the muscles and keep the wrists flexible, and then I’ll get back into it and so on and so forth, and you get the idea.

It has been a productive day though, and I’m happy about that. I’m happy that I’ve gotten some things done, even if they’re not the things I’m meant to be doing. Too much of my time has been spent not doing much of anything and letting fatigue rule over me, so this is nice. This is good. Learning and developing, and hopefully getting somewhere with stuff. Just need to keep on working on it and need to keep going.

Once this is done and the thing I’m working on at the moment is done, it’ll be the dance of the thousands of words. Prep for tomorrow and the week ahead. Going forward and marching onward toward destiny, and getting things published. Needs to be done today before tomorrow. If it can be done, I can rest. If not, I cannot rest. A day of work takes precedence over a day of not working, and that’s not the worst thing in the world, really. I like my job, but it means I need to be less wasteful.

I needed to be less wasteful last year too, and the year before that, and the year before that… and you get the idea.

For now, I just keep on going and my break is nearly over. Time to get back into the thick of it and keep going, and keep on learning as I work.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:26:93

This is one of those things where I had to take a break, but keep going and so it shouldn’t be treated as much more than a sort of “steam release” bit of writing, if that makes sense. Not quite for cooling down; just to breathe.

Written at home.

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Shunsuke Tsuchiya: Earth and the Wind

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

Heard this song for the first time a few days ago, wanted to write about it, procrastinated, threw myself in just now. Bit of a productive morning, and far more so than usual but I’m just trying to keep on going as there’s a lot I need to get through before tomorrow, and it’s happening and it’s nice. But anyway.

Threw myself in, wrote the below. Not great, but it feels pretty flowy to me. The song has a good sense of space to it and I don’t think I got that quite across, but I got some aspects of it down pretty firmly.

Shunsuke Tsuchiya’s (土屋 俊輔) “Earth and the Wind” (“風薫る大地“) is from the first Another Eden soundtrack, Another Eden Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

—

The light notes and tones float on in, and soon something akin to woodwind plays over this airy rhythm. It seems at odds with the sounds, and yet it seems to fit quite snugly.

Soon the sounds start lifting upon a breeze, and they seem to keep going, or at least the woodwind does, and it disappears as everything else returns and anchors to the ground. The sounds stay earthy in this moment, and bass gets busy, but it seems to fit in nicely still.

Sounds return to the beginning, and that airiness is there, and once more the sounds elevate, and there seems to be some sort of melancholy, or known sadness there, even if only by a little.

That woodwind sound disappears once more, and a return to the ground to run along it in adventure happens once more, before finding its brief sense of pause before resuming once more, then the sounds fade and the song ends.

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Late Winter Harvest

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

This was taken toward the end of winter this year.
The flowers had bloomed a little earlier than I thought they would, and that’s a bit concerning to me. So were the bees being out.

Still, it made for what I think is a decent enough photo.

I didn’t do much with the prunus bloom photos I took this year, and it hasn’t been much time since this one was taken, but it feels like it was a long time ago, and sometimes a couple of months is a long time.

This is my submission into the three hundred-and-twentieth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Looking Back“.

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

Egídio

Ritva

Sofia is curating this one. The next one is curated by Anne.

I hope you enjoy.

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Pelican Angle

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Another photo of a pelican at an angle.
Strange, geometric creatures, or something.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1414: Terrible Fate of Waiting

Posted on October 11, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

Doing that wait thing where I wait for something to be released. Oh, terrible fate and so on and so forth, though in this instance it is that the album that I’m waiting to be released has been announced as having been released, and it hasn’t.

Bit of a strange one, this. To be clear, it has actually been released… on streaming platforms, and not anywhere else that I can see, and this is a bit of an annoyance as I’ve bought the album, but I don’t have it.

To be more fair, I also have enough things to listen to as it is, and so I can wait, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to have to wait for a thing that I unfairly believe is my right to have access to now. That’s the way it all goes, of course, and in this case it’s also the way that it goes, and so I’ll just have to, but it was announced way too early, and whilst I’ve had plenty of things to occupy myself with (and at times have forgotten about the album), I have to keep on waiting and I can never accept that as a fair thing, or something.

Spend a lot of time waiting and I spend a lot of time finding things to do in the time that is spent waiting, and then I also spend time waiting for others and then spend more time doing other things when plans don’t come through.

I imagine that if I keep on waiting on people and things, I’ll start conversing with the stones.

But I keep on waiting and I keep trying to fill the time, and I keep waiting for this album to come out, but by the time it does I’ll have moved on. I do have to do work., after all, and I need to get on with the day and see it through and all that stuff.

I need to see if there is a way to speed up waiting, and influence the release and I need to find a way to get through everything in one piece. Of course I will, but I’m trying to be dramatic here and it’s not quite working as I know that what I’m complaining about isn’t an issue. There are far worse things out there. However, I do want to have my complaining out in the open and then get on with the getting on and all that stuff.

I do want people to stop wasting my fucking time, however. That I definitely want to stop. I don’t want to have to tell people to step up and start actually pulling their weight, as I’m tired of being the constant idea driver for a few things, but I don’t think that will change and I don’t think that will stop, and there’s little I can do, and so I just have to keep going and let things slide away, for my own sake.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:05:20

I went hard into the deeply serious toward the end, and that is in part due to being pretty frustrated and ready to pack in a few things outside of this space. Was it worth venting about here though? Probably not.

Written at work.

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Bloom Under the sky

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

I took a good few photos of my prunus blooming this year, but haven’t shared many, so here’s one of them. Not the best of photos, but I do quite like how the light falls on the plant.

I hope you enjoy.

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Yasunori Nishiki: Among Stately Peaks

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

This mostly came easy, and I’m happy about that, but I feel I also sort of didn’t let myself breathe enough. I think I could’ve pulled more from the song.

Yasunori Nishiki’s (西木 康智) “Among Stately Peaks” (“悠然たる山腹の街”) is from Octopath Traveler‘s soundtrack, Octopath Traveler Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Strings pulse whilst a lone steps careful in the background. The main ones stop pulsing and draw out, expanding and growing as brass calls out on top.

The sounds grow more sweeping, and start to congeal into each other, though it almost seems as some are subsumed.

A brief pause before the strings completely take over and express this sort of wide sensation. It seems small and personal, but also something that carries an incredible breadth. Light percussion becomes apparent, and soon after the sounds expand more. Woodwind is found as the drama of the space is carried out, and it’s large, but it still remains small.

A return to the start and it’s almost as though the sounds represent some sort of climb upwards. It seems like a calm climb, or at least one that isn’t too full of danger. There’s certainty, and there’s a push, but there’s also tension. However, it does not hold weight in the face of the grand magnificence of the space.

Shape and scene is revealed in equal measure, and the smallness of the self finds a comfort in its insignificance, and then once more the sounds become sweeping and beautiful, and it’s almost as though it’s breathtaking, but the moment does not linger, and the sounds fade as the song ends.

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Yasunori Nishiki: River of Life

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

One listen, though I did restart early on, and there was a point where I had to pause as I wasn’t sure if I’d heard something correctly. This did have an overall impact on the writing, though I’m not sure if it was negative or positive.

I feel as though this would’ve worked better if I just focused on imagery, however. That said, I did alright in getting the song across.

Yasunori Nishiki’s (西木 康智) “River of Life” (“街は川と共に生きる”) is from Octopath Traveler‘s soundtrack, Octopath Traveler Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A guitar plays out a gentle roll and flow of notes, and soon keys and percussion join in step. Bass plays light and guides the melody, and it all feels quite airy overall. A little sad, but also quite relieving and relaxing. Perhaps dispelling and assuaging.

Something akin to either harmonica or accordion (or another instrument I’m just not picking up upon) comes in as the percussion picks up a little, and this new sound plays upon the gentle flow, and floats along. It seems to waft and drift on some sentimentality. The melody swings to a low and this new sound remains high, though not as before.

Strings start flowing in from underneath, and lift and push the emotion up and outward as they take space; there’s added theatre, but it doesn’t go full bore.

A return to the start, almost, and everything flows along, and all remains gentle; unflinchingly so. More of the emotive qualities start coming through, and the song seems to slow down a bit more. It’s the same as it was prior, but it seems to slow, and hold the moment more nakedly, especially as the strings come in once more.

Eventually the sounds fade and the song ends.

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Centre of the Ripples

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Stupidity Hole

A duck cleaning itself, creating ripples as it does.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness for this week.

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.

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