Journal

The Calm Before The Storm

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Walking outside before an approaching hurricane can be a surreal and powerful experience. To safely immerse yourself in that moment while remaining mindful of the conditions, is something to appreciate.

As you spend some time outside, you can easily contemplate the immense power of the natural world. It will remind us of what we have ignored and should humble us.

This morning I observed several things, almost all at once. The drop in barometric pressure, the lower than normal temperature, the air blowing easterly being pulled West into the Gulf and powering the oncoming hurricane. The humidity thickens. This is a moment of anticipation and a palpable energy in the air. Nature is wild and untamable. It is hubris to think we can control it. I just wish I could control the headache and sinus pressure induced by this storm. Okay, blood pressure meds and ibuprofen consumed. Where was I?

The birdsong is gone this morning. The little lizards and the big reptiles are no longer visible. The burrowing owls and rabbits have probably stored their food underground and wait. So I observed on resilience and how we are connected to everything around us.

The canal water behind us flows faster and flows a yellowish-green murkiness. The sky’s colors shift from orange, purple then gray with a strange overcast. The palm fronds rustle in the breeze and hopefully the palm roots are getting a good grip below while they can.

The smells change too. Must be the brackish storm surge coming in from the ocean, up the river and into the canals. Then you can smell the salt air. I love that smell.

Later, when out and about, I can see the grocery, hardware and convenience stores packed full of cars and people as they try to stock up at the last moment. Cursing the stores, each other and the government, forgetting that the supplies were available, but not at the last minute. The steps taken ahead of time, have served us well.

The concerned people we visited with today over lunch, were doing just that. Panicked, frustrated, full of blame and generally scared. They did not understand why we were concerned, but not worried into a panic due to supplies. They were long-time residents here, we are not. They might have known better if they were honest with themselves.

This is my twelfth(?) named storm. That could be higher, I forget. But the calm before the storm is a chance for me to focus and calm myself in advance. There is nothing I can do to prevent a storm but I can do everything in advance to prepare for it.

A New Look, A Fresh Start

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Introduction:
After some thoughtful redesign, I’ve transformed this site into a space where my writing, thoughts, and more can live in a more organized environment. This redesign reflects my vision of creating a central hub for my work.

Why I Redesigned the Site (again):
Having a home site that feels like ‘me’ is essential. I wanted to craft a place that resonates with the tone and depth of my work—something aesthetically pleasing yet functional. This redesign allows me to streamline how I present my content, making it easier for readers to dive in and explore.

What’s New:

Theme: I chose a new theme that gives the site a clean, minimalist feel. I want the focus on words, and not distractions.

Font and Color: The new typography1 and color2 highlights evoke the tone I want to set—professional yet approachable, and a little bit whimsical. The colors are meant to be inviting and soft on the eyes, perfect for long reads.

Pages: I’ve reorganized the structure of the site. You’ll now find dedicated pages for my current projects, thoughts, and more. You’ll find these on the navigation bar at the top of this website. If you are reading this on a mobile device, then they would be listed under Menu.

The Details

  • About + Contact is the new self-introduction home page. Re-written for my evolving style and professionalism. Everything else is accessible by the menu above it.
  • Archives are the place to go for quickly accessing decades of writing. Search bar, category search, tag search and search by year is available.
  • Colophon explains how this website is designed.

The Work

I’ve re-organized and re-titled these pages for specific actions.

  • Photographing – a brief page with a blurb about my hobby and a link to the off-site portfolio
  • Reading – formerly known as “The Library.” A curated page to document my literary explorations. Eventually, I will add other reading sources I enjoy besides books.
  • Talking – formerly known as “Podcasts.” It is the home of the Radio Denbow podcast. Eventually, I’ll add quick audio thoughts. In regard to thoughts…
  • Thinking – formerly known as “Micro” or “Notebook.” This will capture my quick thoughts in short-form writing.
  • Writing– formerly known as the Home page. This is where to go for my long-form posts. The main repository for my musings.

Looking Ahead:
For now, I am done. Overall, the redesign meets my needs and refocuses on specific criteria that is more categorized and easily accessible. Any more features will be on the backend, such as site performance and streamlining code.

I appreciate you taking the time to visit this website and continue to read the web log. 
You can support me in many ways such as contributing to the conversation in the posts, adding me to your RSS feed readers, or, I can be reached via electronic mail by clicking here: @hello

Footnotes:

  1. Inter Font ↩︎
  2. #00c7ca ↩︎

S.A.D.

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I am starting to feel S.A.D., the seasonal affective disorder, but not in the way that others would feel this outside of Southwest Florida.

There is a transition from an area with four seasons compared to a season-less climate down here. I find myself in a world of constant warmth. I’ve experienced this similar sensation before while living in Birmingham and Houston between 2001 and 2017. From 2017 to 2024, for better and worse, the seasonal changes felt…natural.

I should not be complaining, because I do not do well in a cold, icy, snowy environment but there is a part of me that does appreciate those changes. There was a break in the humidity and heat, no insects or those g&^#$ mosquitoes. I never enjoyed red faces, icy crystals in my sinuses, blue fingers and toes however.

I do appreciate warm water out of the shower head during the winter and no high gas bills down here where the g&^#$ mosquitoes are year-round.

One would not be aware of the traditional, seasonal holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas unless he saw it on a calendar. The song “Walking In A Winter Wonderland” does not apply here.

A few weekends ago was the start of the college football season and Tracy, who is experiencing the ever-green, season-less climate for the first time wanted to make some traditional game day snacks or even comfort food soup that she used to prepare for these situations. It doesn’t apply here, it is not the same.

The flora does not change down here. There are no hues of orange, yellow and brown in the tree leaves. They do not fall unless the tropical winds blow strong- as evidenced by the clean-up after hurricane Helene came through.

We do not need to gather wood for the fireplace, or crochet sweaters, scarves and warm socks. The winter-weather gear was left behind, donated to those who would need it more than we will. I’ll trade a winter coat for my year-round bathing suit every time.

In Florida, every day feels like a repeat of the last. The absence of seasonal markers makes it hard to feel grounded. I miss the excitement of looking forward to the first snowfall or the arrival of spring flowers.

To adjust, we may need to start creating our own seasonal celebrations, or adjust to other non-traditional festivities. Anything else feels like nostalgia or tradition that has very little meaning other than, “we’ve always done this.”

Moving changes you, it should change you. Attitudes, like latitudes, need to change with those moves.

While I miss the seasonal changes, I’m re-learning to embrace the warmth and explore new ways to connect with my surroundings, whether through walks, cycling or seeking out local art and festivities. I’m discovering that even without the changing seasons, there’s beauty and comfort to be found if you know where to look.

NoteBookLM

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Imagine looking at your body of work—decades of writing, ideas, and creative projects—with a sense of overwhelm, but suddenly, through the lens of an LLM, it all becomes neatly distilled. It’s as if the fog clears, and for the first time, you can see the common threads, the underlying themes, and the true depth of what you’ve created. It gives you a new appreciation, a way to step outside yourself and view your work with fresh eyes, almost like discovering a new perspective on something deeply personal. There’s a sense of validation, perhaps even awe, because what was once complex and scattered now feels cohesive, profound, and worth celebrating.

It’s the realization that your voice and vision are not only valuable but now laid out so clearly that you, too, can fully grasp the weight of what you’ve built. It’s like reading the story of your journey as if someone else wrote it, but with the satisfying recognition that it’s truly yours.

I read about Google’s NotebookLM software today to see how it stacks up and if it could help collect and collate some notes, documents, research, and sources to help me make sense of it some of my work here.

WTH?!

As an experiment, I uploaded the blog posts from this website from September 1 through September 18. It took seconds for Google to analyze and provide some contexts on those posts as read below:  

The provided text is a collection of blog posts from Chris Denbow’s website, covering a variety of topics related to his life and interests. He shares his experiences with self-publishing, technology, travel, photography, and reading. Denbow also discusses his thoughts on the internet, research, and creativity. The posts are organized chronologically, starting on September 1, 2024, and ending on September 18, 2024.

After that brief synapsis, Google offers prompts, or suggestions for follow-up you to ask about. See screenshot below:

Okay, cool.

Then, and here’s the kicker that caused me to literally step back and grab the bourbon. I saw a prompt that allows me to generate an audio dialogue regarding my work. It took Google all of 2 minutes to generate an audio synapsis in the form of two artificial podcast hosts discussing my work with fervor. They made me seem like a Hollywood celebrity solely based on the 20 posts, just from the past 18 days. It is both flattering and scary to me. Then again, we always fear what we don’t understand. So I will dig deeper to further understand and see how this tool can be used to my benefit. If nothing, else, it will be amazing feedback.

Listen here and let me know what you think afterwards.

Draft Day

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Spent the better part of the day sorting and organizing text for the Angkor draft, all while there was a slight draft outside thanks to Hurricane Helene.

I almost had a major catastrophe- not hurricane related- due to me sorting chapters around when they disappeared. All of it!

Whew, all the chapters were relocated into the “Author’s Notes” section of the software.

And breathe again.

Shell Hunting

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Sunrise found us on Fort Myers beach early this morning and with a good fall harvest of la concha marina.

Next weekend we’ll hop over to Sanibel Island for more and hopefully find sand dollars and shark teeth too.

Send To Print

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Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.

– Carol Burnett

The first 35 of 3,287 pages to print this website are complete, hole-punched and placed lovingly in a three-ring binder for safekeeping.

Right away, I noticed there are formatting issues such as a small blurb of an article takes up only 10% of the page. Wasted space. I had to discard of three blank pieces of paper as a result.

So re-formatting, or allowing the printer to cover both sides of the page, for example could help save space, ink and money.

As first-run test print, I am pleased to see a small portion of my written words on a black and white paper as opposed to a screen.

Self-Publishing: Angkor

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Since the early 1990’s I have had a fascination with the ancient Khmer Empire in modern day Cambodia. There is a story there waiting to be told. Over the years, I have researched and tried to keep up with the archeological news. Four years ago I offered a hypothesis regarding the Angkor Wat temple complex and another temple in the mountains to the north. I haven’t read or heard anything related to it so I still make my claim here.

In the meantime, I have decided to do a re-write on a story I started years ago regarding this area and its hidden secrets. The original ideas were too grandiose in my head and it was a challenge to sort it all out. I’ve kept some main ideas but simplified it somewhat. Also made it more relatable and relevant.

When wrapping up a chapter in my writing software (Ulysses), I noticed a feature that allows me to publish in various formats. “What the hell” I thought, so I exported my draft (NOT a final release) in the e.Pub format and figured why not, and sent it to my Kindle.

Moments later I was reading my own writing on an e-book reader!

This was a fun discovery and encourages me to keep going, press publish and read in its entirety. Someday.

Print Error

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I attempted to print a few pages from the Archives .pdf last night at the library. It would not accept the 485MB file. I didn’t want to print all of it but the printer didn’t give me a chance to tell it which pages to print. Need a better solution.