heron

And still more artified old photos and “Q” stories voting reminder

The Alphabet Challenge “Q” Stories voting round is . . . well, I don’t know what it’s doing. Let’s assume it’s doing well and I’m here to thank you. Thank you.

Readers might wonder why I’m posting posts ahead of time. Well, I’m not posting them ahead of time; I’m writing them ahead of time and scheduling them. Other readers don’t care about the how or why; they just want a reminder and some photos.

Regardless of which reader and voter you are, thank you in advance for eventually reading our stories and for eventually casting a vote for your favorite of the three. Links to the stories and the poll for voting for “Alphabet Challenge Q-Stories” are HERE.<<<Link Votes will be accepted until noon on October 5th.

These posts will be very short because of stuff, but still at least two photos, and in these posts, they are photos from past posts, reworked using Topaz Impression 2.0 and Topaz Studio 1.0 . . .


Yes, another photo from THIS<<link post. One of my favorites from that post.

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Alphabet Challenge “B” Stories poll could use a few votes

A quick reminder — if you’ve not already done so — to vote for one of the stories in the “B” Alphabet Challenge Submissions. You can vote HERE and for them who have yet to read them, there are links to each of the stories in that post.

By the way, you can still vote for the “A” Alphabet Challenge Submissions HERE and for them who have yet to read them, there are links to each of those stories in that post.

To be clear, you can read the stories and not vote (as some people have done). It’s also perfectly OK to not like any of them (it’s one of the voting options).

Any reader involvement is appreciated and we welcome comments and questions. They will be answered anonymously, but answers you’ll get (if you have questions, of course).

Click for a larger view. Full-size can be seen HERE.

That’s a Topaz Impression 2.0 conversion of the previously shared flower photo.

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Reminder to vote on Alphabet Challenge “B” Stories poll

A quick reminder to vote for one of the stories in the “B” Alphabet Challenge Submissions. You can vote HERE and for them who have yet to read them, there are links to each of the stories in that post.

By the way, you can still vote for the “A” Alphabet Challenge Submissions HERE and for them who have yet to read them, there are links to each of those stories in that post.

To be clear, you can read the stories and not vote (as some people have done). It’s also perfectly OK to not like any of them (it’s one of the voting options).

Any reader involvement is appreciated and we welcome comments and questions. They will be answered anonymously, but answers you’ll get (if you have questions, of course).

Click for a larger view. Full-size can be seen HERE.

Obviously, it’s not a recent photo. September flowers, they are.

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Reminder to pick your favorite Alphabet Challenge “B” Stories

A quick reminder to vote for one of the stories in the “B” Alphabet Challenge Submissions. You can vote HERE and for them who have yet to read them, there are links to each of the stories in that post.

By the way, you can still vote for the “A” Alphabet Challenge Submissions HERE and for them who have yet to read them, there are links to each of those stories in that post.

Few people bother to vote so your vote — unlike voting in the national elections — both counts and can have a significant impact. If the responsibility weighs heavy on your shoulders, then get a lot of people to read the stories and to vote, thus lessening the impact of your single vote.

The writers (I’m one of the writers) appreciate readers’ involvement and welcome comments and questions. They will be answered anonymously, but answers you’ll get (if you have questions, of course).

Click for a larger version.

That’s from early last month. This and the following are all high ISO photos (5,000 to 12,500) because the day was cloudy and the bird was deep in a cove of Crab Orchard Lake.

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What’s your favorite Alphabet Challenge “A” Story?

Yes, more shameless abasing as I ask for more readers to vote for their favorite story out of the three Alphabet Challenge “A” Submissions. If you haven’t read them, the links to the stories and the poll for voting are HERE.

We had a big drop in votes from the Christmas story poll. The x-mas challenge generated 21 votes in one week whereas this appears to be topping out at 12. We have a while longer for voting but I’m not optimistic.

But even 12 is better than the number of readers who normally vote on any of the polls. Still, I feel bad for the other two writers since they probably thought that — given my 1,700+ subscribers — we’d have more readers and votes.

Little do they realize that my circle of friends is limited and that most of the blog’s subscribers are just trying to sell stuff and don’t ever come back once they subscribe.  The funny part is that I thought they had multitudes of friends who would stop by and vote.

By the way, I added a few other options for the voting. I realized that only three choices left out people who don’t like any of the stories or that just don’t want to vote.

Tomorrow the “B” stories should go up for people to read, enjoy, and hopefully vote on.

But the main thing is the heron.

Click to see a larger version.

The heron was playing stop-and-move with me on a recent cloudy and drizzly day at Crab Orchard Lake. Meaning, whenever I would stop the car and get out to snap photos, it would move farther along the shore.

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Illinoisianinianites

I mentioned we moved to Illinois and one of the things I have fun with is what one calls themselves when residing in a particular state. 

“Illinoisian“ be the official answer . . . pretty boring, you’d have to agree.  

Illinoisninian or Illinoisinian are more interesting names but they might have me mistaken for being an Illinois Indian. 

Illinoisionite could fit the bill but it just doesn’t have a ring to it . . . but Illinoisianinianite carries the mystique I’m looking for as well as integrating all the other possibilities.

It’s settled; Illinoisianinianites we be.

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