A smattering of stray thoughts I’ve had this month

May 2026

💬 Where to spend your time. Time is precious. There is only so much. Sometimes The greatest gift you can give someone or something is your time.

💬 17 years ago, we shopped for a big table that could seat at least 10 people. If you could find one, the prices were eye-popping. So, I built one. Redwood planks, pocket screwed and glued together, epoxy to fill the gaps, then about 30 coats of marine grade top of the line varnish. 17 years later, here we still are, using this table. It’s aged now, a little tired, the base is wobbly, we have cracks in the wood, but it’s still beautiful in my eyes. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll fix the cracks and refinish it. Or, let it age gracefully and enjoy the process of life…

💬 Pagebound and StoryGraph: I’ve been testing both for a while. Pagebound is not for me. StoryGraph has potential, but I’m just not sure certain things need to be tracked. The reviews are helpful, and I do like seeing how many days it took me to read a book and a few stats, but I’m just not sure I need it. I like tracking things; data is good. I’ve increased my sleep by over an hour by tracking and monitoring. I’m not sure I need deep tracking of my reading. Posting what I read with a review, I think, is enough. Update: Kobo just announced a deal with StoryGraph, so now your reading in Kobo will automatically update StoryGraph. I’ll stick around and see how it works.

💬 I still don’t know if I like my sidebar on my Cliff538 blog. I have thoughts/dreams about hiring a professional web designer to make a custom blog for me. If you know of a good one, drop me an email (just in case 😄).

💬 My friend Richard passed away. I wrote a small post about him, with pictures I took the day he died. Life is precious; the friends you meet along the way are precious.

Death around you makes you contemplate your own. If you found out you had a terminal disease tomorrow, would you be happy with what you’ve done up until that point? Could you just watch the world go in peace until you die? Would you fight it? Could you be peaceful? You can answer right now, but I don’t think we know the true answer unless you are faced with it. I’ve had such an amazing life, filled with so much love, adventure, and good friends. I like to think I’d be peaceful about it.

Honestly, there isn’t too much left on my bucket list. Maybe it’s because I’m boring now. I’ve traveled the world, been to many, many different countries. I’ve been a scuba diver, skydiver, rescue diver, firefighter, medic, Boy Scout, security guard, airplane pilot, helicopter pilot, aircraft mechanic, sim instructor, fisherman, dishwasher, cook, student, and so much more. I’ve been completely broke, I’ve been rich, I’ve been homeless and slept at my job, and I’ve had amazing friends and experiences. I hope to have many more, but if it were to end soon, I’d be at peace.

I don’t really know anything; it just makes you think.

💬 One of the many things reading a book should do is make you think. Make you write down your thoughts. Explore.

Photography

💬 For you Nikon shooters, the Z series line can accept all the old batteries, which is very nice that Nikon does this. You just won’t have USB charging with the two oldest ones. Right now, the EN-EL15c’s are hard to find and can be crazy pricey. Use your old ones.

  • EN-EL15c: 2280 mAh, USB charging.
  • EN-EL15b: 1900 mAh, USB charging.
  • EN-EL15a: 1900 mAh, No USB charging.
  • EN-EL15: 1900 mAh, No USB charging.

💬 Shooting in RAW, you don’t have to worry about certain settings in-camera: These are important if you are shooting JPEG or HEIF.

  • White Balance
  • Picture Control/Styles/Mode
  • Sharpening
  • Noise Reduction, except for Long Exposure NR.
  • Saturation, Contrast, Creative Filters, etc.
  • Color Space for the most part. Your setting of sRGB or Adobe RGB hardly matters, if at all. You can set this later when and if you export the picture. I know, big debate between Adobe RGB and ProPhoto RGB. Just remember, your monitor is lucky to display the full Adobe RGB Gamut. If you’re not sure what your monitor can display, you can’t even see it all. To see all of Adobe RGB, you have gone out of your way to find a monitor that supports it. Although using ProPhoto RGB may be future-proofing, who knows?

Side note: you can go here and check your monitor’s gamut.