Wordle, you foxy foe

4 June 2022

It's an overcast Saturday morning, and after the longest four-day week ever I feel only motivated enough to crawl back into bed and let Caroline Lee's modulated tones draw me in to 1960s London or park myself on the lounge under a quilt and watch the last episode of season two of The Witcher. Aside from the first thought that these are both lazy options and I could be doing something more productive (heaven knows, I have a to-do list!) I hesitate because I don't really want to come to the end of either the audiobook or the television series.

Avoidance is a habit I have discovered. I've read that it takes approximately three weeks to establish a daily habit. If that's the case I have a new one, and it's not of the procrastinating kind.

Wordle is for first thing in the morning. I find that focusing on that mental task wakes me up. As of this morning I have played it for 90 days straight (not first thing in the morning - that developed after I'd been playing a while). I am yet to guess the word on the first attempt, and have made peace with that since I have a small collection of starting words which are highly unlikely to he the actual Wordle word of the day. I'm working on a decent streak. For the first 41 days I solved it. Since then I have ended my streak three times in 90 days. Once it completely stumped me, and the other two left me with a gamble as to which letters to play out of two options and I guessed wrong (such is my poor judgement). My current streak being only 12 I have a lot of work to do to better the first one.

My son tends to have strong opinions about things. He believes that writing down letter combinations or using Bananagram tiles is cheating.

Is it though?

You're still using brain power, just taking the pressure off your working memory a little bit by using a metaphorical bookmark to hold the place while you shuffle letters. I have only just thought of the analogy, but I will be sure to tell him if he mentions it again... it's like counting on your fingers. I will say that since our robust discussion

(mainly consisting of...

"It's not."

"It is!"

"No, it's not"

"It's cheating!"

"It's not!"... etc along the same vein as the Monty Python Argument Clinic skit - look it up)

...I have resorted to the tiles only if staring at the screen and mentally rearranging the letters proves too much for the current brain capacity. Wordle first thing in the morning helps with that. For the record I do think that knowing the word before attempting the day's puzzle is the only way to really cheat. Everything else is strategy.

Cody told me that you can create Wordle puzzles for friends, and he excitedly set me a few the other day. His goal was to discombobulate me. (Linda, I used that word just for you.) Fortunately for me the app only allows correct spelling, so I was able to solve the puzzles. He got more out of trying to trick me than trying to solve what I set for him, but it was a fun way to spend some time.

I've always enjoyed logic puzzles. There's something soothing about solving. I think I've mentioned before that I like to feel 'smart' and finding the answer does that for me. I used to have a book of logic puzzles that I took with me on shooting trips. It gave me something to focus on between rounds and while travelling. Almost everyone who commented on it (and my frown of concentration) asked me if I was studying ("Doing uni work?" or in the case of the South African shooter, "Are you doing Varsity work?"). When I responded that it was just for fun they would inevitably look at me as though the wheel was spinning but the hamster had died.

Wordle being once a day cannot contribute much to my habit of procrastination.

I shouldn't have too much difficulty getting started on my jobs list this weekend (gloomy weather notwithstanding) because a chunk of them are creativity based. I might save them for after the boring housework jobs to keep myself on task.

Last week's 52Frames topic was "Inspired by a Photographer", and it got me thinking about my own style. When I was just starting out I was working towards establishing a style that was uniquely and easily identifiable as my own. That's difficult to achieve I found. During this challenge I have asked myself if what I am producing is true to myself and my style, and I honestly don't know. While researching photographers last week I was pleased to discover that many of them had varying styles for different subject matter. I guess it's a constantly evolving thing, and as long as you maintain the level of quality and always strive to improve it doesn't really matter.

I looked for botanical photographers and was inspired by the clean, crisp images of Harold Feinstein, and the way he controlled light to show the viewer everyday things from nature in showstopping ways.

I showcased a canna from the garden. In all honesty this flower is not high on my list of garden favourites (they are only there because they fill a space, grow tall, thrive on neglect, and the leaves can be useful for floral designs), so I generally don't pay much attention to them. Perhaps I have underestimated them.

This week is "Everything in Focus", and I thought it was about time I did a landscape shot... if I can find an interesting vista. Failing that I have a back-up flat lay story board idea.

It's been quite a party, ain't it

Purple Fairy