The Screen

I know that monitor is not just a device,
I know what it means to you,
It’s your social safe space,
The real world was always too bitter,
You met these souls without seeing their faces,
Side by side exploring myriad galaxies,
Across battlefields rendered in digital space,
Amicable rivalries upon podiums that never were,
They were and are real,
They are not mere pixels and handles,
They are friends,
Past and present,
And perhaps future also,
People not profiles,
Place a hand upon the screen,
You can feel their palms against yours.

Virtual Man

In an increasingly chemical world,
I’m a virtual man,
A game boy,
Pixelated in a high-definition cosmos,
Perchance uploaded by accident,

Eccentric in my mannerisms,
I seem to not quite fit in,
Some kind of a glitch,
Malware in the extreme,
Not really apposite to a concrete world,

I am a program nobody initialised,
A pagan amongst priests,
Lesser,
Corrupted binary,
Not de rigueur to a civilised sitemap,

Swirling through cyberspace,
I pass through crowds as if a string of data,
Not seen,
Nor heeded,
Blocked by societal firewalls.

Some writing music: Part 112

Hello there inmates!

How are we all doing this week? And by ‘we’ I obviously mean all of you lovely people out there. I hope you’ve all been creating to your hearts content. I really need to get into the habit of looking through more peoples blogs and websites. Not to mention interacting more with other bloggers. I seem to be lax with this recently and it’s not great. That’s something for me to work on I suppose. Also, it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas now. Or so all the adverts keep telling me. I’m not a great fan as I’ve mentioned before.

Enough about the holidays for now though. It’s time for music isn’t it? The Harlequins writing music that is! Did anybody see the clue for todays musical theme earlier on? I know I ask that every week but I am genuinely curious how many people see them.

Todays musical theme is that abhorrent thing we all call love. Or romance. Or affection. What ever nomenclature you prefer. It’s a pretty integral part of the human experience isn’t it? It can be love of a partner, love of family and I suppose even love for oneself. I think it would be reasonable to say that everyone feels love at some point or other. An assumption perhaps. But a safe one I feel. When it comes to music, there is no shortage of musical artists who play music themed around romance or love. I’d say that some of the most well known songs ever definitely romantic ballads. Lionel Richie anybody? Incidentally not on todays list, but you get the idea. Speaking of, who wants to see todays musical choices? “Hurry up you stupid clown!” I hear you shout. Ok, ok, I’m getting on with it!

Join me as we delve into the musical minds of amorous artists the world over!

Steam Powered Giraffe – I Don’t Have A Name For It
https://steampoweredgiraffe.com/

George Michael – Careless Whisper
https://www.georgemichael.com/

Poets Of The Fall – The Sweet Escape
https://poetsofthefall.com/

HIM – Killing Loneliness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIM_(Finnish_band)

Emma Hiddleston/Marcin Przybylowicz – The Wolven Storm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcin_Przyby%C5%82owicz

And there we have it once again! Have these choices made your heart ache? Beat faster? Well good, they’re all excellent songs and artists. Haha! I hope that you all give them some love as they all deserve it. Maybe play one of them to someone who is important to you. Dance with a loved one. Profess your feelings to somebody through music.

Enough about all that soppy stuff eh? Let’s have some social media nonsense. The asylum has a page over on Facebook, an account on Instagram and a page over on Twitter as well. Please consider following me over on those sites too! Also, if you enjoy what I do here at the asylum, please also consider supporting me over on the Ko-Fi page. Thanks for everything!

Until next week, have a very crazy day inmates!

Some writing music: Part 92

Good day inmates!

How are you all doing this week? It’s been another scorcher here in England. I may or may not have gotten myself a little bit burned again. I really have to learn to use sun-tan lotion more correctly. It’s a bit of a family thing when it comes to forgetting though I’m afraid. I’m taking it easy now though, don’t worry. As for writing, I’m actually feeling like my work this week has been a little less good. A couple pieces felt almost rushed or incomplete when I read them back. I’m not sure why this would have been, but it is something I’ve felt all week. I’m not always positive about my work you know! Hehe!

So, it’s that day of the week again! The time for the Harlequins writing music once again. It’s actually taken me all week to settle on what I was going to make the theme this time. It’s one that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Did anybody get the clue earlier on today? If you’re not a nerd like me, it may have been a bit unclear.

The theme for todays writing music is the video game series Final Fantasy! Oh yes indeed! For those less familiar, Final fantasy is a fantasy role-playing series from Japan that has existed in pop culture for a very long time. The music of this series has inspired me for around two decades at this point. I don’t just mean when playing video games either, I often listen to this music when I’m just chilling as well. The sheer scope and variety of the melodies and tunes present means there’s songs for any occasion, whether it be upbeat, relaxed or meditative. Most of the earlier soundtracks were written and created by a personal hero of mine as well. The venerable Nobuo Uematsu. I truly admire this man and the dedication he has to his work. He has been followed by some great artists of course (Soken is of particular note), but he will always be my favourite. And not just cause of red-tinted glasses either. So, does anybody want to hear some of my favourite tunes from the various entries in the series?

Well, join me as we delve into the musical minds of fantastical artists of the world over! Umm… I mean, from Japan in this case…

Final Fantasy XIV – Dragonsong

Final Fantasy VIII – Force Your Way

Final Fantasy IX – You’re Not Alone

Final Fantasy XI – Ronfaure

Final Fantasy VII – Cosmo Canyon

And there we have it! What do you think of my choices eh? I would hope that, even if you don’t enjoy video games, you can all appreciate the musical talent put into these songs. It was very hard to choose just five songs from the entire series and I could have picked at least a dozen more. Please let me know what you guys think eh? Oh, and while I think about, all of these songs are the property of Square Enix and obviously not my own. I just feel like it is prudent to point that out.

So, how about some social media nonsense? The asylum here has a Facebook page, an account over on Instagram and a page over on Twitter. Please come and follow me over on those, I post random stuff and clues for my poems ahead of time. If you enjoy what I do here at the asylum, please consider supporting me over at the Ko-Fi page! Cheers!

Until next week, have a very crazy day inmates!

Huntress

You hear her humming,
Bayu bayushki bayu,
She is hunting you in these trees,
Wood axe thirsty for gore,
Driven on by some unseen deity,

She is coming,
And the hum continues,

Cower in the dark,
Or within some closet,
Head in hands,
Quaking in your boots,
Watching horror movies in your palms,

She is coming,
And the hum continues,

Run quick my friend,
Lest you trip and fall to her axe,
Or receive a hatchet to the spine thrown,
And her lullaby shall continue,
Bayu bayushki bayu,

She is here.

Battletech

In a space system far off,
Centuries ahead of Sol,
Blood money is the ultimate income,
Wars are raged daily,
By mechwarriors,
Warlords of steel and uranium,
In their knightly engines,
Man made gods of war,
Piloted by saints and killers alike,
Statures of raw scale,
Towering over the enemy,

Metallic bodies collide,
Showering the land with ore and limbs,
Component guts are beaten and torn,
Lazers sear,
Armour plates and artillery,
Autocannons shatter,
Gore and gears,
Missiles swarm,
Carnage and circuit-boards,
The ground groans under the havoc,
The warlords squabble as the planet cracks,

Within this stout bunker,
With the other bystanders,
The ground quakes,
As do I,
I hear the iron feet coming.

The Entity

The entity hungers,
Its realm shall be your eternal hell,
And it brought you here,
Into the fog,
Your agony is its lullaby,

The hooks call,
Dripping with thirst,
You will hang,
Left to die,
Over and over,

Its slaves will find you,
And take you screaming,
Through blade and chainsaw,
Club and disease,
You’ll feel the red glow,

You shall be grist,
For its tendrils,
Hook-like and quivering,
The fog god whispers,
And its servants obey,

Your suffering shall be its nourishment,
Even death is not an escape,
The entity hungers,

Stress Gaming

The world often becomes too much,
Its weight burdening me relentlessly,
The trials wear me down,
Shark-toothed as they are,
And when those jaws close in,

I escape into video games,
Those safe places where anything is possible,
Make-believe worlds that never existed,
Their denizens fanciful and vivid,
Worlds that are perhaps better,

I can become a valiant hero,
A grizzled soldier,
A wizard,
Even a tyrant or villain,
Anything but myself,

The stress dissipates,
Like undressing,
Like dropping a veil,
A colossal weight departs,
The strain is naught but memory,

Perhaps it’s a drug,
While others have nicotine or the bottle,
The needle or the pill,
I have the gamepad,
But we all sin right?

We all have stresses don’t we?

Suddenly a wild Superloot haul appears!

Hello there inmates!

Hope your Friday the 13th has been suitably mad. I hope you haven’t been agitating any poor innocent masked men. Haha!

It’s not really a secret that I’m a geek. I always have been and I always will be. I like watching superhero movies. I adore video games of many and varied genres. My collection of games is a bit absurd actually. I like quite a few anime though I feel slightly sheltered on that front. I occasionally buy figures and posters just because I can. I endlessly imagine characters from certain animes clashing and I constantly envision conversations between video game characters. Iron Man, Cloud Strife, Sonic, Zidane Tribal and Hellboy, these are my chums! Among others, of course. Nerdiness runs in these veins, I promise you. I actually intend to make a blog post about the random trinkets and loot that I currently own. I’ll get on that eventually.

This particular post, however, is about a specific geeky item. Sort of. You see, I recently subscribed to a website that sends crates of geeky goodies once a month. Along the same lines as Loot Crate. This website is called Super Loot (link enclosed for anyone who is interested). They’re a UK-based company that has a few different options for crates. From a general “mystery box” to a comic box. I opted for the mystery geek box, just because it intrigued me really. My box arrived this week and I fancied the idea of sharing the few things that I got in it. Partly showing off my new stuff, partly spreading the word about these guys I suppose.

So, here goes…

First off, we have a humble Daredevil Pen.

Followed by an Incredible Hulk Plush.

Then a Vision bobblehead!

Penultimately, a Black Panther Pop! figure.

And last but not least, a Westworld t-shirt.

So, there you have it! Some pretty neat stuff eh? Worked out cheaper than if I had bought them individually too! It pays to be frugal, does it not? Thanks very much to the guys over at Super Loot for the awesome stuff. I hope that some of you fellow inmates go and have a look at their site. I think they’re doing a good job. Can’t wait until next month now, it can’t come soon enough! Thank you if you’ve managed to get through this post of sheer self-indulgence, but it helps to break up the monotony, no?

Hope you all have a very crazy day inmates!

Tenno

While you dream softly,
They watch over your home,
Across the stars,

Gods of combat,
Gods of bullet and blade,
Frames of war,

The Tenno,
A name feared by evil,
Sent forth by a cosmic mother,

Knights of the system,
Stalwart against imperial tyranny,
And ancient horrors,

Her will be done.