A Quarter-Century of Blogging

2025-02-26 18:34:45

Greetings, programs! This is the obligatory first post

A Quarter-Century of Blogging

2025-02-26 18:34:45

Greetings, programs! This is the obligatory first post

A Quarter-Century of Blogging

2025-02-26 18:34:45

Greetings, programs! This is the obligatory first post

Testing testing

2025-02-01 13:08:17

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Website Updates

2025-02-01 15:18:09

I am working on several initiatives to bring everything under one domain, including the photography and the archives. This website is done, save for a few minor tweaks in the background.

The Archives page is done and can be found here or by clicking on the link on the top mast of the website.

I am retaining the photodenbow.com domain but it will no longer be in use. It's mine and no one else's. Sounds selfish, but there is a great family photographer out there with the same surname and I had this first. I learned my lesson after dropping chrisdenbow.com and photomojo.com domains, only for them to be premium and go for $1000 each. Ouch.

Anyway, I am working on a solution for the photography page on this website. You can find it here, but it is a work in progress. You were warned.

The Podcast page is back, only for posterity for now. Who knows, I may desire to fire off another episode here or there. I even added an Apple Podcasts web player into the page. Proud of that one if I say so myself.

The Micro page has made a comeback in that these are short blurbs that don't need to be on the main page, but are worthy of mention.

The Return of the Groundhog

2025-02-02 07:00:00

This will be the 17th year at attempting creating life-long habits for myself. I’ve realized a long time ago that at the end-of-the-year holidays, I am not mentally or physically capable of sticking with resolutions for the upcoming new year. I need a break so I take the whole month of January off to reflect and plan. Hence, the start of a new Groundhog Day Resolutions.

Today 2/2, Groundhog Day, is the day for a fresh start and a new year. (Chinese Lunar New Year started as well)

The first goal is to check-in here and review my progress. Every month until December 12th 2025.

The first check-in is on March 3 (3/3). After that will be 4/4, 5/5 and so on.

Here we go:

Nutrition

• I like the idea of going back on to the Keto diet for quick weight loss, but have you seen the price of meat and eggs lately? The Mediterranean diet was clean and helpful too. Plus, I read that it reduces inflammation. Perhaps a hybrid of both plans could be advantageous. I am back working in the field and the convenience of fast food options on the go is strong. I need to be stronger.
• Quit smoking. Yeah, I grabbed a cigarillo every now and then before the holidays.
• No alcohol. I need to be encouraging and supportive for those around me that have an issue with alcohol so no need to bring it out. This will be easy.

Fitness

The previously mentioned job has me walking and lifting outdoors every work day so this is a start. Time to supplement this with extracurricular physical activities such as:

• Yoga and stretching, because I can feel my body tense and become less flexible.
• Meditation will help with calm my mind, increase oxygen levels and lower blood pressure.
• Cycling is something I enjoy but haven’t done in a month. Time to get back on the saddle.
• Strength Training at home. The Apple Fitness app has improved while I wasn’t looking and I’d like to make use of that subscription again. Kickboxing anyone?
• Strength Training at the gym. We have a membership but haven’t used it due to a lot of changes around here. Eager to get back into it again.
• Geocaching. Let’s take this outside and explore more while getting some walking in.

Create

• Photography- The endgame is in site for a completely organized workflow and asset management. It’s seen decades of neglect and it’s only been a few years trying to reign it all in. This is difficult because of my other photography goals: adding more, better images that I am taking lately.
• Writing- The same can be said for decades of writing and that is almost organized as well. As long as I am on the topic of writing, the book(s) have taken a backseat like everything else in the past two months. Progress needs to be made so I can get it all out of my head and free up space for other projects that I get myself into.

Consume

I am on pace with my 25 books read in 2025 goal. I am still trying to sort a workflow into DenbowOS to capture all of my notes and highlights from other sources besides books.

Technology

No new tech in 2025. I almost broke this one right off the bat but I returned the new Kindle in favor of the existing one.

I have a desire to finish making the Mini machine into a proper photo and file server. Not just for me, but to grant anyone else I want to have remote access to it too.

These all sound familiar, right? Like I said in the first sentence way up there, these are attempts. Many attempts in the past seventeen years I have been doing this. Maybe I should consider them as constant maintenance and I need frequent accountability. Hence, this initiative!

See you back here on 3/3 for the first review.

Follow The Rabbits

2025-02-02 11:58:56

Allow yourself to go down rabbit holes. A rabbit hole is not a distraction. A rabbit hole is your brain trying to tell you to pay attention to something you’re curious about. Ignore algorithmic rabbit holes. - Are.na

A Parade of Planets

2025-02-02 19:16:50

2024 was a bumper crop full of celestial events and now 2025 is starting out very well. Tonight I observed, in order from east to west: Mars, Jupiter, (insert Earth here), (insert moon here), Venus, Saturn, and Mercury. Six planets are currently in alignment. Bonus: I also observed the Hubble space telescope.

The alignment of Mars, Earth, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus, and Saturn occurred on January 21, 2025.

Coming soon, Saturn, Mercury, Earth, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars in a planetary alignment on February 25, 2025. Hopefully we can talk someone we know into setting up his telescope for optimal viewing.

Micro Denbow

2025-02-04 21:24:39

I’ve been working out a solution for short form posts to complement the long form posts here on the website. Yet I did not want them cluttering the feed either.

Then I had it, build out a separate Micro page with its own feed for those quick thoughts. Think Twitter but no social aspect.

You can access it in the header menu on this website, or via RSS feed (recommended)

Nikon D90

2025-02-05 22:04:12

Oh Nakita¹. Darling Nikki:² It will be fantastic to get you in my hands again.

What am I talking about? The return of the Nikon D90 DSLR is imminent because I have decided to trade in my Ricoh GR.

MBP made me a generous offer on it allowing me to trade that for the Nikon and a very nice 80-400mm Nikkor telephoto lens. This will be ideal to capture the local wildlife without disturbing them.

The Ricoh is a great little camera but has no option to swap lenses and is great for up close and personal. I can do that with other cameras. No, I need something more robust and versatile.

Long-time readers will remember I first acquired this camera way back in 2008.

The Library Of Unwritten Books

2025-02-16 10:17:01

The book writing has been stagnant lately, possibly because the elusive muse has been on holiday.

There are thirty five novels and short-stories I want to tell, as well as a few non-fiction titles.

Half-forgotten worlds, unfinished thoughts, stories waiting for their ending. Printing them and physically shelving them would make the weight of all those ideas tangible. A hierarchy of incompletion—from the one-page sparks of genius, to the near-finished epics that just wouldn’t cooperate. The thickest ones sitting there, mocking you, while the thinnest whisper, “You barely even tried.”

Marginalia would turn it into a meta-library—a collection not just of unfinished works but of the very thought processes, doubts, and moments of inspiration that led to their incompletion. Notes like:

• “Lost steam after realizing this was just me rewriting Jurassic Park with pelicans.”

• “Had a brilliant ending in mind… and then forgot it. Still bitter.”

• “Started strong. Got distracted by a different book idea. The cycle continues.”

It could even be a living document—a place where ideas might resurface, evolve, or finally find their way to completion years later. Or...they could be relegated into a literary morgue file—a final resting place for the stories that almost were. There’s something hauntingly beautiful about that. They don’t get finished, but they exist, preserved in their unfinished state like fossils of creativity.

So what is a possible resolution to this self-induced problem? How about two possible solutions?

I could print them up and perhaps put them in a labeled binder. Also PDF's uploaded to this website and generate digital library cards if there was any interest from the followers here.

A fantastic mix of a physical archive and a digital curiosity cabinet. The binders give them a tangible presence, while the PDFs turn them into an interactive experience. The digital library card idea is genius—makes it feel like a proper literary vault people can “check out” from. In turn, they could offer comments and suggestions. The access point is signing up to this website and add a comment to the written document. Hopefully there will be inspiration found from this.

This could turn the  Library of Unwritten Books into a collaborative storytelling experiment—where readers don’t just consume the work but actively speculate, suggest, and even contribute. Some might leave wild theories, others might fill in the blanks, and a few might even inspire to return to an abandoned story with fresh eyes.

The digital library card could have a simple yet classic aesthetic, tying into the raw, archival feel of the project. Think of it like a virtual passport to the library of unfinished stories. Here’s how it might look:

Front of the Card:

• Library Name: “Library of Unwritten Books” (in elegant, typewriter-style font for that vintage touch).

• Cardholder Name: Reader’s name

• Unique Card Number: A random, system-generated number to make it feel official (e.g., #MOM12345).

• Card Issue Date: The date they accessed the library or “checked out” a work.

Back of the Card:

• Quote or Motto: A philosophical nod to unfinished work, like:

• “Not all who wander are lost. Some just never finish.”

• “Creativity never stops—some stories just pause for a while.”

• Borrower’s Log Link: A link or QR code that takes them to the comments section of this website.

• Library Rules: Something playful like “No overdue fines” or “This book may never be completed, but its story is far from over.”

Physical Archive

There’s something deeply satisfying about preserving your ideas, no matter how unfinished. It’s like building your own literary museum, a space where unfinished thoughts don’t get lost but instead are archived and given a place in history.

Plus, the idea of printing, binding, and shelving them gives a real physicality to your creative process.

Whether it stays small or expands over time, it can become a personal artifact that might even spark inspiration years down the road. These unfinished works will outlive me, sparking something in others to finish, reinterpret, or continue. It’s like planting seeds that may grow long after I’ve moved on, and in some way, I'd still be creating, even if a single one is never complete. I might not get to see the story finish, but I’ll leave behind a trail of possibilities for others to follow. A literary treasure map—unfinished, mysterious, and full of potential.

test

2025-02-22 12:10:00

Hypertext Labyrinth

2025-02-22 14:52:57

The experimental website framework I want to build will exist in the space between what is known and what refuses to be known. A static HTML-only archive that resists explanation. It presents itself as something incomplete, something forgotten, or something deliberately obscured, leaving behind only classified remnants, misplaced coordinates, glitched anomalies, and misfiled receipts that hint at a larger, unseen structure. The layers go deep with hidden pages, cryptic labels peeling at the edges, references that lead nowhere, and timestamps that don’t quite add up.

404: You Are Here.

The map is incomplete, but the numbers remain:

37.9015° N, 23.7261° E

Look deeper. It was never lost.

Some things were removed. Some things never existed. Some things moved while you weren’t looking. It is an experiment in next-level mischief, a system designed to pull at the edges of curiosity while leaving just enough behind to make you wonder what’s missing.

This website will feel like you are trying to solve the Rubick’s Cube but it fights back, constantly,

Why create something deliberately obscure? Why build a digital labyrinth with no clear purpose? Why make a repository of fragments, half-truths, and lost thoughts instead of a structured, polished archive?

This new site will be a map of ideas except it’s unfinished, glitching, and missing pieces. I’m creating a mental terrain where the act of getting lost is the goal.

Oubliette

2025-02-23 17:25:17

I’ve built a mysterious, hidden archive layered with enigmatic fuckery—a place where secrets unfold, reality bends, and curiosity is both rewarded and punished. The site plays with perception, hidden triggers, and misdirection, leading users through glitchy deception, cryptic documents, eerie sounds, and an exclusive repository accessible only to those who know the proper phrase. It’s a digital worm hole designed to intrigue, unsettle, and make the curious feel like they’ve stumbled into something they were never meant to find.

All of it was done in HTML only and thankfully only took a couple of hours! It is not live yet, only resides locally, but the code exists and renders beautifully inside the browser.

I am contemplating adding a domain name to it, but masking it with a .onion TDL, making it only accessible via a Tor browser, then, placing it somewhere on the dark web.

Unsettling mischief awaits.

None

2025-02-26 18:28:08