For today’s images, I tried three ideas. First, I created a holly filter with my new filter design that goes over the lens guard. Then I tried grouping my red and green lights on the multi-color strand with twist-ties. Then I put some plastic santas and snowmen on my white lights and made some Holly Jolly lighting as well.

Stream of Consciousness

It’s stream of consciousness Saturday, and with my cold going into my lungs and not letting up, any activity in this mucous-filled brain at all is a feat of pure determination. The prompt for today is “rev.” To use the word rev or a word with rev in it. My first thought was rev your engines, then reverend and reverse. Then, of course, revise: what this blog was supposed to be all about this year, revision. I made a pretty good go of it until I landed back on creation in October. But I’m really enjoying these daily photos and prompts. For so long, writing these posts felt like time taken away from my work, when now, they feel like pure inspiration, part of my work. I would much rather enjoy what I’m doing than stick to the plan. So I’ve revised that plan of a year focused on revision, to push myself to try new things every day in my bokeh filtered photography and share my daily poetry practice. My main goal of completely revising and completing my novels is ongoing in its stuttering way. The experience of completely rewriting a novel is going well. The previous draft only had a few good scenes, and really was a barely fleshed out idea. So the year of revision continues, it just isn’t as fun to put on this blog. Also, I am beginning the revision process of the thirty poems I wrote for the challenge last month, so I guess this is still the year of revision. There’s no getting away from it. And each time I crop, or rotate, and resize these photographs to share with you, that is revision. There you have it. I have not strayed from my intention. It looks like next year will be another year focused on revision until I master, conquer, and find the joy in it.

New Poem

For today’s new poem prompt I browsed my WordPress Reader and found:

Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC). Today’s word is taciturn.

Misky posted a lovely poem about blackberries on Plumb-Lines in response to Quickly’s prompt Now / Then / When. The prompt asks to list words and phrases that evoke pleasant thoughts about the past then write their opposites next to them, and use your list to “play with ideas of pleasure and contradiction.” I love this theme and it should work well with taciturn.

And Judy Dykstra-Brown’s poem Balm on lifelessons led me to Paeansunplugged’s Ragtag Daily Prompt Saturday. Today’s prompt is The Extraordinary in the Ordinary. A great companion to pleasure in contradiction.

That was a fun bit of discovery. Let’s see what that all inspires.

Calf Muscle Exercises

If you’ve enjoy the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun.

The Changing Focus Blogging Challenge

December’s theme is Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation.

Motivation and Reward: I put my second star on my calendar. It’s amazing how motivating a simple sticker can be, but it’s working.

Tools: Last night was even tougher than the first. My cold has progressed to include a cough, so I had to sleep somewhat upright, but after doing a lot of easy sudokus on an old daily calendar, I fell asleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I read The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story _{(associate link)} by Douglas Preston for a little while and fell back to sleep.

I started recording calming sounds today. So far I’ve captured: kitty purring, rain, and the kettle boiling (mine is a clear glass kettle that doesn’t whistle).

Happy Reading and Writing!