Submission for Weekly Note Composing Jam #12 hosted by emscottish April 2025.

A streaming link is provided below:

https://soundcloud.com/doug-stoothoff/dissatisfaction-expands-to-the-available-s...

Okay this one goes way back because the original instrumental track is only the -sixth- in the line up (VI) released in March 2023. I assert that fact that the original is so tiny, it doesn't really violate the originality restrictions of the game jam. Which might be a stretch but here goes.

There are easter eggs in it from Dissatisfaction 4 (XLIX) for those wondering at some odd shifts like Myxolidian scales up and down.

Itch main profile page:

https://exedexes1.itch.io/

Main website outside of Itch:

https://exedexes1.com/

Lyrics:

Imagine a boot so big somehow That we have to start licking it now In case it might exist some day A fear that just won't go away

I started life on a diet Of solitude and quiet But rosiness did not prepare For the jungle out there

And once I had thoroughly got their gist I saw through the plot of my nemesis To churn out carceral urbanists

Your agency is proportional to the number of people You can handle being mad at you at the same time But a contrarian mindset sometimes Cannot exactly turn on a dime

My supposed social betters Took on the workforce fetters Because they gamed Goodhart's law to the letter While I’m left to dream of something better

I was wanting to have my cake and eat it But the cost made me feel so conceited I’m trapped, still living under their thumb While my heart keeps beating to my own drum

The consequences gradually got meaner I suspected the grass is greener seeing the glass ceiling's pretence drove the lure of the other side of the fence

One thing that I have found Comfort is the devil's playground But colocated with silent grief Escapism gave me some relief

But Rose-colored lenses Still don't conceal systemic defenses

In time regret ebbs and flows A cycle of longing that grows Energy flows where one’s attention goes

It’s not necessarily a race Rose-colored glasses can’t erase The truth that I have learned to face Dissatisfaction expands to the available space

I muse on vales, zephyr pure Far from mire, no rancor’s lure Ascendance blooms, I endure