resources
Beam Paints - M’Chigeeng First Nation Company on Manitoulin Island
My wife is a watercolor artist in her free time and just found a wonderful resource for hematite pigment.
Denoise: LightRoom vs DxO PureRAW 5
A quick down-and-dirty comparison between LR and DxO denoise. There is a very clear winner here.
The Good Stuff - January 2026
A smattering of useful things I’ve come across this month of January 2026.
Excellent information about Safe Mode for Mac users, including what it is and when to use it.
Howard’s website is a wealth of information and apps for understanding and diagnosing your Mac. Plus some great Art History lessons as well.
Cliff Notes: Q4 Photography Update
I’m going to try to update my photography goings-on every few months or so, so I have a good look back on all things photography-related.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Space Travel Posters
NASA offers an impressive collection of space travel posters and wallpapers.
Notes from the series "The Eightfold Path".
My personal notes from listening to the first episode of the Waking Up app series “The Eightfold Path” with Dan Harris, Joseph Goldstein, and Sam Harris.
I learned about this website from Ed Young’s Newsletter. I think everyone in the U.S. needs to see it.
About The Website Unbreaking:
The United States is experiencing institutional collapse at a speed and scale that are difficult to understand, especially through feeds and updates that atomize our attention. We believe that mapping the damage done and its human costs—and the pushback and resilience work already underway—is necessary groundwork for building and retaining political agency.
Koofr and pCloud
Well, I’m uploading 2TB of photos to Koofr, so far, so good.
I’m new to them, and setting everything up has been straightforward so far.
I also signed up with pCloud and set it up, but I haven’t used it much yet. I can say I prefer pCloud’s interface, which looks and feels better to me.
After using both, I’ll let you know the pros and cons.
#koofr
#pcloud
Through a newspaper article, I learned about Hiroshi Yoshimura and his Ambient (Sound Design) music. It’s really nice background music to have playing. I’ve listened to three albums now, and “Surround” is my favorite.
I have Tailscale up and running on the Synology NAS. There is very good step-by-step instruction here. It’s pretty cool to be able to use the Sharesheet and send whatever you need to it from any device.
PSA: Tomorrow is the cutoff to download your Amazon books. How To Do Stuff walks you through step by step how to do it with automation. Easy Peazy.
I did 1,157 books the old fashioned way, with lots and lots and lots of clicking. Don’t be like me, be smart. Follow this 👇
‘How to bulk download Kindle files, while you can’ 🔗 Jason Snell / sixcolors.com
Bringing a Little Joy Into My Day and Weekly Planning
There are endless blog posts about the latest to-do apps and systems. My goal is not to proclaim from the rooftops that I’ve found the secret to daily planning success but to share some thoughts on a few options that I have found very rewarding.
I have a constant struggle with Analog vs Digital; it perturbs me how much I think about this. I’ve given up worrying about which type of system it is, and I do what feels right and what keeps me on track. And, if that system brings a little joy to the process, even better.
KIWIX - A User Report
I’ve seen this posted about Mastodon a lot, and then @amerpie posted about it yesterday, and I thought, why the heck not? Let’s check it out; I’ve got some time to kill.
So, yeah, this KIWIX is really cool. I’m not a Super Bowl kind of guy, so I downloaded Kiwix and then proceeded to download the entire Wikipedia, then iFixit, then Gutenberg. Sheesh, why not? I have a Synology with ample space, so why not lock some of this stuff in and have it on local storage?