Released

I've decided to publish and back date some drafts that I've been withholding. These are posts that were written for occasions, experiences and periods in life that left me with such raw feelings, feelings that I found difficult to both capture and disclose.With time and distance I can approach some of these instances with detachment. All drafts will be released as an ongoing process, be it takes months, years, or even decades, so that the truth of the moment is not lost to time.

"A Russian officer maybe?"

"Do you know my parents?"

"Are they famous?"

Elena nodded. "My father was a Russian officer maybe, I think, and Mama comes from a famous Cossack family. They're all soldiers!"

"A Russian officer maybe?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, Mama met him when she was dressed as a man and joined the Cossack host. He was very surprised, I think," Elena shrugged. "Mama says he died of shock, leaving me as a present. But I think he probably ran away because Mama is so fierce!" She looked proud rather than distressed at this prospect.

I blinked down at the little cabin girl, rather at loss as to how I should respond. "That's... nice." I hazarded, and she nodded enthusiastically.

Photographs

The thought of photographs and cameras made me feel very melancholy. I remember buying an extremely poor quality camera and then abandoning it only to have my parents take up on it. They made use of it enthusiastically, not minding that the camera was of a Christmas-cracker joke quality. They seemed truly derived joy in using it. There is something about the effect of documenting the present, the happiness of capturing the effervescent.

Thinking of fleeting moments make me think of the future. Will there be someone to remember me? As I remember my parents now, however narrowly? I am thirty one now and yet to have a family of my own. I feel... very alone, sometimes. There is few if anything, no photographs, to document the life I am living/have lived. My mind wanders widely. But how much can we say to have lived if we pass through the world silently, observing? And letting what we read and the ideas that we understand act as ciphers of our being?

80 Days

"As well as brilliantly retelling Jules Verne’s classic through hundreds of optional and intertwined encounters, its locations and their inhabitants are a constant source of delight. It is, wonderfully, a game concerned with progress and progressive thinking. The journey itself is at the heart of that but Inkle repeatedly confound my expectations with the humane and empathetic depiction of the many cultures and people of the world."

 80 Days Impressions