Bluelighter: At the End of the Road (Ruins of Lemuria)

One listen.

I’d been meaning to ramble about this song for a week or more now. Didn’t get around to doing so until now. Probably should’ve done it sooner as I think a bit of what it could’ve been has been lost. That said, I do think this gets across an idea of the song, albeit a bit of a loose one.

Bluelighter’s “At the End of the Road (Ruins of Lemuria)” is from Golden Sun: A World Reignited. The album is a tribute to Motoi Sakuraba’s (桜庭 統) soundtracks for Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and this song in particular is based on the theme for an area called Lemuria.

I hope you enjoy.

A quick click of keys and a gentle rock, and it loops, then descend, and the keys press carefully. They put forward something akin to relief, perhaps, or that moment before relief.

The space fills with more keys, and here everything is presented. It is relief, and it is gentle, and full, but soon the pattern changes and it shifts toward the dramatic and the revelatory.

Keys are pressed with force, and the notes alternate before fading away in a rise. Once more gentle and now less overtly emotive. Now fragile, perhaps fading. The moment holds in the space.

The keys play low again and flow, and move toward another sense of revealing, and they pause for a moment. Once more back into a flight of the dramatic and overtly emotive, and they move and speed up, and find that strike that seems to indicate another lightness.

The keys retain the drama, and they curl and flicker up, and pause before rolling in full. They flow, and pause yet again, and shift back to fragility. They float in stillness, and drift along, and lower, and drift out their final notes as the song ends.

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Sunlight Duck

Just a duck surrounded by reflected sunlight.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1407: Life Rambling

Lunch: the greatest of fortitude. Or something that sounds vaguely interesting, yet offers nothing when you think about it enough.

Well, nothing new, that is.

Anyway, plants are planting, the day is buzzing and the sounds are cutting through whatever it is that I wish would prevent me from hearing them, and life goes on and rolls forward, and then you see how everything unfolds.

Behold! It’s too late. You’re a skeleton now.

So anyway, perhaps the small things are the most meaningful, and these things that are insignificant help to alleviate mood and lift us all into a better space. WE never seem to remember those things, but they often fill parts of days and travel with us through time. They chip away at bitterness and anger, and sadness, destitution, hopelessness, but we don’t remember them. Their effects linger, but the big things we carry forward, and we continue through time and witness what we witness, and hopefully we reach the end a little better than how we were at the beginning.

Things travel and change, and we see ourselves get older. We grow and wither, and we become part of the planet in some way, carried through things that don’t have the same cares as we do… unless other arrangements are made, of course. But it’s interesting how much things change and remain unchanging. It’s interesting how we just travel through things, and we get there, and we wonder what was worth it, or if it was all worth it, and then nothing.

What lies beyond? We don’t know, and is it really important to know anyway? Sometimes I wonder. Sometimes I hope that there’s something else beyond this existence, because the cessation of thought and consciousness scares me, if I am to be honest. But rather than that fear being a motivator to do something great, or strive for greatness, it just pushes me often into some sort of paralysis of indecision. What does it all matter if nothing matters?

But it does matter, and life goes on. It might not matter once I pass from memory, but for a short while in the grand scheme it all matters a lot. Everything matters, and it hurts because there’s little that can be done at the best of times. We try to do things and often find ourselves stopped by circumstance, and that’s a real downer.

But you still try, because even if you can’t do something, you keep on trying to put a little bit of good in the world, and you try to lighten things, and you look to see those you care about, who will be at the same table as yours at the end of it all, and if it wasn’t all worth it, it was all life lived, and you all tried, and maybe, just maybe those small things will have touched people enough so you know that you really did put in a bit more good, and it was all worth it.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:57:00

Stuff that was on my mind and needed to come out, I guess.
Probably could’ve been much more succinct.

Written at work.

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Morning Suburban Traffic

This was taken a while ago. I was going for a walk early in the morning, took some photos.
Not sure what I was thinking when it came to processing this one, but it’s nice enough.

This is my submission into the three hundred-and-seventeenth Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Walking the Neighborhood“.

Gigs often are fun. Not always, but often, and so was this one.

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

Tina is curating this one. The next one is curated by Patti.

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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Walnut Brownie

Back in 2015 I made a list of ideas for things I wanted to do in MS Paint. After a while I forgot where I saved it, and a while after that I made a new one.

Some time between last year and the start of this one I found my old list. This is on the list, and I’m not sure what my thinking behind the idea was. Likely it was just the silliness of the imagery.

Started and finished today.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1406: Upset Stomach

My stomach is turning and churning, and I can’t deal. It’s an unpleasant experience, let me tell you. I’d rather not be dealing with this, but now I must. I have no choice but to survive and keep going, but my stomach isn’t happy and it’s letting me know as loudly as it wants.

Booooo! Booooo, I say! This is a torment most heinous, and I have no idea what brought it on. I feel as though I’m gonna be dealing with this horrifying experience for a few more hours at a minimum, and I have no choice but to deal with it. I just want my stomach to stop twisting and turning and doing all this churning that it’s doing. I want to feel better, and I don’t, and I don’;t like it, and it’s not fun and I have to be at work whilst my stomach works hard to stop me from working.

I could rest, and perhaps I should rest. There will be none, however. I need to get to the end of the day before all of that, and I need to get to the end of the day in one piece, but I don’t know if that will happen. I do know, however, that my stomach refuses to settle, and perhaps that is something to go from… or something.

Sometimes sitting is hard. I know it’s hard when one’s stomach is upset. Not fun times. Not enjoyable. There is no relaxation when the digestive tract decides to poke you with a stick. There is no calm when your stomach is in a storm. There is no peace when there is something at war within you, and you can’t do much about it beyond the usual waiting it out and all that stuff.

Soon I return to my desk to keep on with the keeping on. I’ll have to do that soon as soon my break will end, and that’ll be the end of resting for me. Tomorrow something else will come along. Tomorrow the lack of rest will take over. Today there is no lack of rest.

What am I saying?

Yeah, I’ve nothing. The topic has worn itself out. What else can I say? I’ve dragged it out far enough, which I guess the same could be said for my stomach being upset. However, unlike this, that will continue beyond the target, and there’s not much that I can do about that right now.

I could probably induce vomiting or something, but no. Don’t want to have to deal with the affects of the after variety. Unpleasant times and all that.

So I’ll just sit here and keep moaning and complaining, and maybe something will change. Maybe something won’t, but maybe something will, and then I’ll be carried away to another location; one that involves comfort and rest and all those other things, and I’ll be set.

And at the end of the day, that’s all there is to say about my upset stomach.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:53:08

Eventually my stomach did settle, and I feel alright now, and ultimately it wasn’t a big deal.

Written at work.

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Shadowed Face

Here’s the photo I used for yesterday’s image.
This was taken at the same time as these three photos.

Not sure why I didn’t share this one at the time, though I suspect that I wasn’t much a fan of it, or felt that I’d already shared enough. Something along those lines.

I hope you enjoy.

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Paint Self-Portrait

This is based off a photo I took last year, and I never shared it, but here it is…. in non-photo form.

Started and finished today.

I hope you enjoy.

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Wavering Structure

I’ve shared photos of this bridge before, and I think I shared one that involved part of its reflection. Anyway, here’s a photo of part of it reflected.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness for this week. For this one Leanne has chosen a theme, and the theme is “Bridges“.

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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Soil & “Pimp” Sessions: Tell a Vision

One listen, though there was an early restart and a pause for a moment. One of those days. Anyway.

Another where I tried to throw myself in. I started thinking a bit too much about what I was writing in places, tried to get back on course. I think this turned out okay. There are parts where I feel I’m sticking to familiar words and I don’t think that helps, but overall the song is very lightly described.

Soil & “Pimp” Sessions’ “Tell a Vision” is from Man Steals the Stars.

I hope you enjoy.

Keys rock back and forth in a steady swing. Something synth-like comes in – it could be more keys; it could be brass – and sort of drags and floats over the keys in its own pattern. Percussion and bass strike out in stabs, the synth lowers and the keys start rolling out whilst an audience applauds.

The rolling stops, only for the synth and percussion to let loose. The rolling returns and the bass marks moments here and there. There’s a wild gentleness here, and perhaps an exploration of ideas of beauty and looking to seek the profound.

Brass becomes apparent for some underscoring here and there, and sounds cycle and change whilst the keys and percussion remain steady.

All pulls back, leaving the keys to roll and rock back and forth, and the audience applauds, and they stop the rolling takes focus, shimmering in a dark. Then the beginning remains, and fades out as the song ends.

 

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