{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Cliff538 ", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2026/38/1700855.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://cliff538.com/", "feed_url": "https://cliff538.com/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/10/06/testing-webmentions-on-the-new.html", "content_html": "

Testing webmentions on the new blog. Just posted “Death” cliff538pixels.com/2026-10-0…

\n", "date_published": "2026-10-06T14:14:41-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/10/06/testing-webmentions-on-the-new.html" }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/10/01/the-good-stuff-september.html", "title": "The Good Stuff - September 2026 ", "content_html": "

A smattering of useful things I’ve come across this month

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September 2026

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General

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Photography

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Books Added to the Queue

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Books General

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Stray Thoughts

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Are you the person right now, at your current age, that you thought you’d be? How different are you? What are you surprised at?

\n", "summary": "A smattering of useful things I’ve come across this month", "date_published": "2026-10-01T15:53:06-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/10/01/the-good-stuff-september.html", "tags": ["stray-thoughts","the-good-stuff"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/28/finished-reading-the-boys-in.html", "title": "Finished reading: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown 📚", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: The Boys in the Boat Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown 📚

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Another outstanding book by Daniel James Brown; the man can write. I know I’m late to the party on this one, but after reading The Indifferent Stars Above, I knew I had to read more by Mr. Brown.

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You probably know the story from either the PBS documentary or the movie, but if you haven’t read the book, you need to.

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The detail and backstory of the main characters are a story unto themselves. These kids grew up in a very different time, during very difficult times. The author goes deep into the backstory of several of the rowers, coaches, and shell makers, and it’s worth your time. The backstory of these rowers matters and goes a long way toward understanding why they worked so hard and who they were. Your heart will break, and your eyes will tear up as you hear Joe’s story. It’s just amazing what he went through growing up and just to stay in college.

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It was the fourth year of the Great Depression. One in four working Americans—ten million people—had no job and no prospects of finding one, and only a quarter of them were receiving any kind of relief.

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Somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 million tons of American topsoil had become airborne in that single storm. The New York Times proclaimed it “the greatest dust storm in United States history.” But in fact the greater storms, and the greater suffering, were still months ahead.

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You will learn about rowing, shell building, and what it was like to survive during the Depression and the Dust Bowl.

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Western red cedar (Thuja plicata) is a kind of wonder wood. Its low density makes it easy to shape, whether with a chisel, a plane, or a handsaw. Its open cell structure makes it light and buoyant, and in rowing lightness means speed. Its tight, even grain makes it strong but flexible, easy to bend yet disinclined to twist, warp, or cup. It is free of pitch or sap, but its fibers contain chemicals called thujaplicins that act as natural preservatives, making it highly resistant to rot while at the same time lending it its lovely scent. It is beautiful to look at, it takes a finish well, and it can be polished to a high degree of luster, essential for providing the smooth, friction-free racing bottom a good shell requires.

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You will learn about how popular rowing was during this time and the rivalry between West Coast and East Coast.

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In the 1920s and 1930s, collegiate crew was wildly popular, often ranking right up there with baseball and collegiate football in the amount of press it received and the crowds it drew.

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For days, department stores, electrical appliance stores, the Sherman Clay piano store, even the jewelry store Weisfield & Goldberg had been doing a land-office business selling new Philco 61F Olympic Special cabinet radios. Despite the $49.95 price tag, Seattleites had been snatching them up. Each came with a shortwave tuner and a special “high-efficiency aerial” kit to ensure clear reception of both the standard radio broadcast on NBC and shortwave broadcasts in a variety of languages direct from Berlin.

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My highest recommendation for this book; it was a pleasure to read. I looked forward to my next chance to read it every day, and I found myself not wanting to read it as I neared the end so it wouldn’t end.

\n", "summary": "Another outstanding book by Daniel Brown; the man can write. I know I’m late to the party on this one, but after reading The Indifferent Stars Above, I knew I had to read more by Mr. Brown.", "date_published": "2026-09-28T17:54:54-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/28/finished-reading-the-boys-in.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/27/silent-sunday.html", "title": "Silent Sunday", "content_html": "\"Auto-generated\n", "date_published": "2026-09-27T10:43:36-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/27/silent-sunday.html", "tags": ["photo","photography"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/23/coming-out-the-other-side.html", "title": "Coming Out the Other Side ", "content_html": "

We come out the other side on many things, don’t we? Troubles. Problems.

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People quit when they don’t quite make it to the other side. They give up, saying, “The effort isn’t worth it.” “The payoff isn’t worth the work.”

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Sometimes that’s true, sometimes it’s not. I think knowing the difference comes with age and experience. I’m no expert, but I’ve come out the other side of many a problem. Sometimes I haven’t. Do I think back on some of those and wish I’d fought harder to make it to the other side. Yes. Yes, I do.

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Some of those decisions haunt me to this day. That’s all about the difference between shame and forgiving oneself, but that’s another blog post.

\n", "summary": "We come out the other side on many things, don’t we? Troubles. Problems.", "date_published": "2026-09-23T13:34:30-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/23/coming-out-the-other-side.html", "tags": ["stray-thoughts"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/22/custom-book-pages-in-microblog.html", "title": "Custom Book Pages in Micro.blog", "content_html": "

Spent the afternoon sorting out the custom book pages and how I want to use it. Still mulling things over, but for now, you can check out the Library of Book Reviews Page. This page includes only books I’ve reviewed. Clicking each book cover brings you to the custom book page with all my posts and/or reviews.

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Then the Reading Page has all the books I’ve read, but it still links book covers to the custom book page for any book I’ve reviewed or talked about. If I haven’t reviewed a book, it defaults to the traditional MB book page.

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I’m happy with it so far; it’s a great feature MB has let us use and customize.

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If you have any suggestions or feedback, please let me know.

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Cheers.

\n", "summary": "Spent the afternoon sorting out the custom book pages and how I want to use it.", "date_published": "2026-09-22T16:31:27-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/22/custom-book-pages-in-microblog.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/22/finished-reading-train-dreams-by.html", "title": "Finished reading: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson 📚", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson 📚

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It’s slow-paced, sad, and atmospheric. Every page has a sentence that stops you, makes you reread it, highlight it, or look away from the page to ponder and let your mind build the scene and absorb the meaning. A really gifted writer. Time is compressed in this Novella that covers the protagonist’s full life. Yet you don’t feel shortchanged; you don’t want more. You have walked alongside Robert Grainier; you understand him in a way a friend would. When this short story ends, you are left to dwell on the meaning, if there is one, and wish Robert all the peace in the world.

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It feels like every word counts. Nothing extra, just beautiful minimal prose that tells a story of a man’s life. I really enjoyed this book and give it 5 stars, but I can also see how it’s not for everyone. I looked at the average rating on StoryGraph, and it’s 3.8 compared to my solid 5.

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This was my first book by Denis Johnson, and I will be reading more of him. I have already added books to the queue: Seek, Jesus’ Son, and Tree of Smoke.

\n", "summary": "It’s slow-paced, sad, and atmospheric. Every page has a sentence that stops you, makes you reread it, highlight it, or look away from the page to ponder and let your mind build the scene and absorb the meaning. A really gifted writer. Time is compressed in this Novella that covers the protagonist’s full life.", "date_published": "2026-09-22T08:47:22-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/22/finished-reading-train-dreams-by.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/21/thoughts-from-my-recent-roll.html", "title": "Thoughts From My Recent 3 Roll Develop and Scan", "content_html": "

I posted some of my Pacific Northwest photos over on 365Pixels. I thought I’d write out some tips and tricks for this latest three-roll develop and scan.

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Developing

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I had my first fairly major leak using the AGO processor. It’s just a press fit, and it can come loose when you’re dumping out chemicals. You have to press it back in place after each dump just to be safe. I poured in my bleach, looked away for a while to prep for the next stage, and looked down to a bright yellow towel! I lost about half of my bleach and thought, well, this is going to be my first developing failure. I stopped the leak and let it process with the reduced amount of bleach, hoping for the best. I was doing 3 rolls of 35mm and just cringed at the possible loss. Thankfully, I don’t see any damage done to the photos. The process is more forgiving than most people think online.

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Scanning

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Scanning photos is going well. I use my Nikon Z8 and a macro lens with the Valoi system. The big upgrade this time was using an one-time $9.99 app called Orion, along with a $19 HDMI to USB capture card dongle, you can use an iPad as a HDMI monitor. This works for many things like game consoles, etc., but you can plug it into your camera via HDMI so you have a big, beautiful screen to align your negative and check focus. Highly recommended.

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I’m learning to be more efficient and use batch processing better with NLP (Negative Lab Pro). This just becomes mandatory when processing several rolls at once. The time required to do each picture individually is just unrealistic. NLP has a very good help section. Take the time to read all the tips and tricks, especially on batch processing. NLP only works with Lightroom Classic, so if you are not a keyboard shortcut kind of person, you soon will be. The time savings are considerable. Consistent scans are very important when it comes to, say, cropping. You can crop one photo, then copy and paste, or use sync to crop all the rest of that roll. It’s beautiful and a massive time-saver, but only if your scans are consistent. If each scan is wonky in placement, you won’t have this sync option, and you’ll have to crop each photo manually.

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The next new thing is dealing with 120 film. I haven’t spooled or done any 120 yet. The processing is the same, but I haven’t tackled spooling it in the dark bag yet.

\n", "summary": "I had my first fairly major leak using the AGO processor.", "date_published": "2026-09-21T11:16:07-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/21/thoughts-from-my-recent-roll.html", "tags": ["photography","photo-gear","analog-film"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/18/finished-reading-the-indifferent-stars.html", "title": "Finished reading: The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown 📚", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown 📚

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This was an outstanding book, well written with lots of history and side stories. I don’t give out five-star reviews very easily, but this earns its place.

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And they had nailed the boards above her face,
\nThe peasants of that land,
\nWondering to lay her in that solitude,
\nAnd raised above her mound
\nA cross they had made out of two bits of wood,
\nAnd planted cypress round;
\nAnd left her to the indifferent stars above.
\n~W. B. YEATS, “A Dream of Death”

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The author closely follows Sarah Graves and her family on their trek to California. You’ll find lots of history and detail you may not get in other books on the Donner Party. The story really comes alive as you follow the Graves and their companions into the misery to come.

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The book includes enough detail and deep dives into how people in the 1846 - 1847 timeframe thought and what they believed to make you feel like you were trekking with them.

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This was the first book I read at night, and because we were traveling and my wife wanted to hear the story, we listened to the audiobook version during our drive. I really enjoyed reading and then listening to what I read the next day. I would always miss something in my reading, and listening to the audio version made it clearer or brought it out in a new light as we discussed the story together.

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You become very aware that people today and people in 1846 were very different in knowledge, but mostly in toughness and tenacity. I would bet that people today, put in their situation, would fare far worse.

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One by one, feathery flakes landed on cold blankets and buffalo robes, on sweat-slicked hair, on shoulders turned to the sky, on soft cheeks—each flake delicate and slight, but each lending its almost imperceptible weight to the horror of what was about to happen.

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If there is one thing I could nitpick, it would be that the stories of how they dealt with the local tribes are always one-sided. The Indians' perspective is never discussed.

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I learned a lot from this book and will be diving deeper into this time period of history. Even days after I’ve finished the book, it stays on my mind. Thinking about the mistakes made, the horrors, the loss, the recovery.\nI think everyone should read this book or any book on the Donner Party. It brings perspective. It shows how far we have come in our society, science, and technology. And it ultimately brings hope that even after horrific accidents, you can still live and love.

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THE MEAGER BY THE MEAGER WERE DEVOURED
\nAll earth was but one thought—and that was death
\nImmediate and inglorious; and the pang
\nOf famine fed upon all entrails—men
\nDied, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
\nThe meager by the meager were devoured.
\n—Lord Byron, “DARKNESS”

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\n", "summary": "This was an outstanding book, well written with lots of history and side stories. I don’t give out five-star reviews very easily, but this earns its place.", "date_published": "2026-09-18T19:08:54-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/18/finished-reading-the-indifferent-stars.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/14/finished-reading-pirate-hunters-by.html", "title": "Finished reading: Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson 📚", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson 📚

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A quick read with a good story and lots of pirate history. Not as good as Shadow Divers, but worth reading if you have any interest in pirates and the process of treasure hunting.

\n", "date_published": "2026-09-14T18:38:43-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/14/finished-reading-pirate-hunters-by.html" }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/12/chess-club.html", "title": "Chess Club ", "content_html": "

I stutter. I have my whole life, and will until I die, I guess.

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Like Mel Tillis, the only time I don’t stutter is when I’m singing. I’m not sure science even knows why, but we stutters know why.

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I did biofeedback therapy all through grade school for stuttering. It was all about relaxing, keeping the lights in the green while you talked. It didn’t work.

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I was in the 5th or 6th grade, I can’t remember, and I found myself in Chess club. Chess club, everyone knew, was for smart kids; I wasn’t a smart kid. For an hour a day, while we normal kids learned whatever it was we were learning, the smart kids went down to Chess club and, among other mysterious things, played Chess.

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I found myself in Chess club one day. I don’t remember what I thought about it, other than I knew it wasn’t because I was smart. It turns out, it was because I stuttered. I’m not sure what the teachers thought; more exposure to smart kids could help my stuttering, or maybe just a little taste of some higher plane of existence would make me work harder in school. Was stuttering making me dumb or not work hard enough?

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One thing a stuttering 5th grader doesn’t want is to be highlighted. When you stutter, you learn to keep your mouth shut. You learn every skill there is to not get picked by the teacher to answer something out loud to the class. You NEVER raise your hand to ask a question. You sit in the back and melt into the wallpaper. You become a chameleon. Shape-shifting, blending, crouching, staying low, so you are never called on to speak, especially in a group.

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I cannot explain to you the fear that you feel about public speaking as someone who stutters. Speaking to your friends was hard enough, because even they would mock and laugh from time to time.

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I’m digressing from Chess club. I don’t remember what I did in Chess club. I think it was exposure to things beyond what a normal 5th grader would be exposed to. Literature, advanced math, poems, and yes, even some Chess.

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I don’t think I lasted long in Chess club. I don’t remember how I was told that I wouldn’t be going to Chess club anymore. Just one day, when the smart kids left, I wasn’t with them. Was it because they saw no improvement in my stuttering, social skills, or study ethic? I will never know.

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But I do remember the relief of not having to go. I didn’t want to be singled out. Everyone knew I didn’t belong there. The smart kids knew I wasn’t smart and wasn’t part of their group. The normal kids knew I wasn’t smart and surely were wondering why I was going. It made me stand out. Standing out is not good when you stutter.

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Fast forward many years, my stuttering improved, but I still do. You learn ways to limit it. You learn when you are starting to stammer on a word to switch the word (one’s vocabulary increases greatly) or speak quickly, almost like a song, because when you blend words together like in a song, you don’t stutter. There are many tricks. Most people don’t notice them. I can tell someone stutters right away by how they talk. We know each other’s tactics.

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I still get made fun of or mocked from time to time. Most people don’t mean it. They will laugh and pretend to stutter back. I’ve learned to just laugh along and say something like, “Sheesh, I can’t talk today, I must need more coffee.” Every once in a while you get locked in a very public stammer and can’t get a word out. It hurts bad. It’s extremely embarrassing. Again, you just don’t talk in public unless you absolutely have to. The risk is too high.

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One good thing came out of it anyway. I love Chess. I’m a member of Chess.com and play or solve puzzles every day. It doesn’t cure stuttering, but It’s a great game.

\n", "summary": "I stutter. I have my whole life, and will until I die, I guess.", "date_published": "2026-09-12T19:13:50-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/12/chess-club.html", "tags": ["cliff-notes","stray-thoughts"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/12/finished-reading-tambora-by-gillen.html", "title": "Finished reading: Tambora by Gillen D'Arcy Wood 📚", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Tambora by Gillen D’Arcy Wood 📚

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I can’t recommend this book to the casual reader, but if you read Krakatoa and enjoyed it, and you are a history buff who wants to understand the effects of the Tambora volcanic eruption which was far worse than the better-known 1883 explosion of Krakatoa you will enjoy this book.

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The worldwide effects of Tambora are hard to believe. The worldwide hunger and disease this eruption caused are mind-numbing to read about. Along with climate change, nuclear war, and fascism, you can add to your fears a major volcanic eruption that can slowly end life as we know it.

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Book Quotes

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For three years following Tambora’s explosion, to be alive, almost anywhere in the world, meant to be hungry.

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This giant volcanic sinkhole is among the largest to have formed on Earth since the retreat of the last glacial period around twelve thousand years ago and is comparable in size to the volcanic Crater Lake in Oregon, formed seven thousand years ago.

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It is important to remember that the misery of the Tambora period in Europe—years of famine, disease, and homelessness—was borne overwhelmingly by the poor, who left scant record of their sufferings.

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In terms of sheer numbers of victims, louse-borne typhus has not only been decisive in the outcome of major military conflicts during the last five hundred years, it has in that time “killed more people than all conflicts combined.”

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Despite the impression of Olympian serenity he presented to visitors, Jefferson experienced the Tambora-driven economic crisis of those post-1816 years in a sickening spiral of indebtedness that culminated in the great personal humiliation of his old age: the mortgaging of his beloved Monticello.

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The eruption of Tambora was thus responsible for far more than a single summerless year in New England. By precipitating violent short-term fluctuations in the price of grain in the transatlantic region, the Tamboran weather of 1815–18 was a primary cause of the United States’ first major economic depression.

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Tambora’s history, then, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, ultimately tells a cautionary tale. Both warn against the technological hubris of our modernity through figures of intense and widespread suffering. “All men hate the wretched,” laments the Creature, Shelley’s literary projection of the homeless, starving poor of Europe in Tambora’s aftermath. Two centuries on, the global ranks of the wretched are set to increase exponentially in coming decades at the hands of our own climate “Frankenstein,” a monster who feeds on carbon waste and grows more violent by the year. Failure to draw down the carbon emissions and rampant deforestation that drive climate change brings us ever closer to the traumatized world of 1815–18 writ large.

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\n", "summary": "I can’t recommend this book to the casual reader, but if you read Krakatoa and enjoyed it, and you are a history buff who wants to understand the effects of the Tambora volcanic eruption which was far worse than the better-known 1883 explosion of Krakatoa you will enjoy this book.", "date_published": "2026-09-12T18:49:02-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/12/finished-reading-tambora-by-gillen.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/08/finished-reading-the-new-york.html", "title": "Finished reading: The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster 📚 ", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster 📚

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Dark, strange, mysterious, interconnected, very unsatisfying endings. Three interconnected stories, excellent writing. Some of it doesn’t make sense or cohere. A lot is left to the imagination.

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After a break, I’ll come back to Paul Auster and try another book. Auster’s writing and storytelling are excellent, but I don’t think I can recommend The New York Trilogy. Although I slogged through, always wanting to find out what happened, the ending was very unsatisfying.

\n", "summary": "Dark, strange, mysterious, interconnected, very unsatisfying endings. Three interconnected stories, excellent writing. Some of it doesn’t make sense or cohere. A lot is left to the imagination.", "date_published": "2026-09-08T18:55:13-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/08/finished-reading-the-new-york.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/09/01/the-good-stuff-august.html", "title": "The Good Stuff - August 2026", "content_html": "

A smattering of useful things I’ve come across this month

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August 2026

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Not very much good stuff this month. I either forgot to log it, or my surfing was reduced last month. I have been trying to reduce my scrolling time and read more; maybe it’s working. It may not be much, but there’s some really good stuff down there!

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General

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Photography

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Books Purchased and Added to the Queue

\n\n", "summary": "A smattering of useful things I’ve come across this month", "date_published": "2026-09-01T07:28:37-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/09/01/the-good-stuff-august.html", "tags": ["the-good-stuff"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/31/update-to-calibreweb-worth-it.html", "title": "Update to Calibre-Web: Worth it? ", "content_html": "

Out on the road, I’ve had time to fully investigate my Calibre-Web setup. I wrote a short post about it, but this is an update on using it and whether it’s worth the setup time.

\n

You launch it, of course, via a web browser. I use TailScale to access mine to keep it secure. It has a nice layout with several options for how you want to sort your books. At the top, I have a Random Books section, which is a nice feature that shows you four random books from your collection. I have to admit, I see books that I don’t remember getting. Which is kind of cool; it’s almost like looking at your own personal indie bookstore.

\n

You click on a book, and you can see the metadata, rating, description, and whether you’ve read it or not. All things that you download through Calibre when you import your books. There is an in-app book reader which opens a new tab and allows you very minimal options to read the book. I would never use this; it’s very bare in layout options and, critically, has no scrolling option. Most importantly you can download the books in whatever format you originally set up in Calibre; epub, PDF, etc. If you are an Apple user, that download will open up in Apple Books, which is a pretty good eReader. I don’t read many books in it, but I don’t mind it.

\n

Overall, I’m glad I set it up. I have my whole personal digital book library with me at all times; I can download and read any book or just browse the collection looking for a lost book or my next read. Nowhere as nice as looking at a bookcase of actual books, but for your digital collection this is a very nice option. I can highly recommend it if you have a large ebook collection.

\n

One thing I haven’t tested yet is emailing books to your ebook reader. I don’t use an ebook reader but would like to get one and give it a go.

\n\"Auto-generated\n\"Auto-generated\n\"Auto-generated\n", "summary": "Out on the road, I’ve had time to fully investigate my Calibre-Web setup. I wrote a short post about it, but this is an update on using it and whether it’s worth the setup time.", "date_published": "2026-08-31T19:52:01-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/31/update-to-calibreweb-worth-it.html", "tags": ["photo","learning","books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/30/finished-reading-every-day-i.html", "title": "Finished reading: Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-Reum 📚", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-Reum 📚

\n

This is a quick read: 53 short meditations on reading. If you are an avid reader, you will not find much new here, but it’s still nice to read about reading and how a fellow avid reader feels about books. This one gave me some new book ideas and made me think about going deeper with my reading.

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Hwang reads a lot. Like, as many books in a month as I do in a year. It almost gave me permission, or gave me solace, in knowing that it’s ok to read more or as much as you can. Funny that I need that, but I guess I did. I do have a to-read pile that is growing every month, and I truly want to read them all, and the only way that will happen is to read more.

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I love books, and clearly I like reading about reading books. In my life, I don’t have any friends who are avid readers, so it’s powerful for me to read about someone who is and how they approach books. I wish more power readers would post more about how and why they read, and the importance of reading in their lives. Reading books by any standard you see online is regressing, and we need to reverse that trend. At the very least, children need exposure to lots of books and the power and joy of reading.

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Here’s to reading!

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I read every day. Because I’m bored, because I crave a story, because I feel a little empty. I read to understand what my friends are going through, to breathe some hope into life. But most importantly, I read because I love it. Every day I read, and I’ll keep reading.

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Sometimes a single sentence is more powerful than a whole book.

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Jean Grenier, in La vie quotidienne, says that books are like a guide in life. Books are friends we make along life’s journey. And as the French political philosopher Charles de Montesquieu says, ‘I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.’ I want to remember the book that has healed me today.

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\n", "summary": "This is a quick read: 53 short meditations on reading. If you are an avid reader, you will not find much new here, but it’s still nice to read about reading and how a fellow avid reader feels about books. This one gave me some new book ideas and made me think about going deeper with my reading.", "date_published": "2026-08-30T08:21:19-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/30/finished-reading-every-day-i.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/28/203719.html", "title": "Finished reading: Biological War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen 📚 ", "content_html": "\n

Finished reading: Biological War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen 📚

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Sobering. Frightening. A very informative book that I think everyone should read. We all need to understand where the world is at in reference to biological warfare.

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The details of how a biological war would be handled were fascinating. The government protocols and procedures were very interesting to read about. The chaos of civilian life seemed realistic to me. Basically, the government saves a small group of people, and everyone else is left to die. There is not enough medicine to go around, and no one to administer it.

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The epilogue had even scarier information about where biological weapons sit today. They have engineered trap doors into them now. You start taking antibiotics to cure the first disease and that triggers another disease. It’s a death sentence. We basically have no chance.

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Why would humans make these things?

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What began in Colorado with one person naturally infected with Mother Nature’s pneumonic plague led to eighty-eight people needing antibiotics, according to the CDC. Which brings us to a true horror undergirding this story. Even if the coming pneumonic plague epidemic can be treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics, there will not be enough antibiotics in the United States to go around.

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The federal workforce is in disarray. Employees without a need to know have no idea that Devolution is happening. Those cleared for Devolution have disabled their cell phones so no one tracks their movements. So no one learns they’ve been chosen to live, while millions will be left to die.

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The United States does not have a vaccine for plague, for reasons that are complicated.

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\n", "summary": "Sobering. Frightening. A very informative book that I think everyone should read. We all need to understand where the world is at in reference to biological warfare.", "date_published": "2026-08-28T19:37:19-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/28/203719.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/23/calibreweb.html", "title": "Calibre-Web", "content_html": "\"Auto-generated\n

I’ve been a Calibre user for years now. It’s great for managing your ebook collection. It has tons of advanced functions that I don’t use, but the ability to back up your collection, add metadata, and book covers is perfect for my use. But I’ve never dabbled with Calibre-Web and finally got it installed on my Mac mini home server.

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Calibre is only on my office computer and I don’t even open it much unless I need to add new books. A few times on the road, I remember a book and want to look at it, but I don’t have access. Calibre-Web takes care of that scenario.

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I can now view, read, or download any of my 1400+ ebooks. I’m not sure I’ll use it much, but since I travel every week, it’s nice to have access to all my ebooks. Now, when I want to browse my collection, find that book I just remembered, and download it, I can.

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So far, it’s working perfectly. While on vacation this year, I’ll access it and play around with it a bit. If I find any issues, I’ll update this post.

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Here’s to good books!

\n", "summary": "I’ve been a Calibre user for years now. It’s great for managing your ebook collection.", "date_published": "2026-08-23T17:44:52-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/23/calibreweb.html", "tags": ["photo","books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/19/finished-reading-walk-the-blue.html", "title": "Finished reading: Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan 📚", "content_html": "\n

Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan 📚

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This was Claire’s second collection of short stories, following Antarctica. Seven stories in all (in this edition that I read, some say there can be eight). I liked five of them and loved two. Worth buying the book just for the two alone.

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I couldn’t read the book straight through. Some of these stories need to sit with you for a while, worthy of a good mulling. Her writing brings the people and these environments to life. They make you think. For me, she’s a powerful storyteller. Even days after I’ve finished the book, I’m still thinking about it.

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If you are new to Keegan, read Foster and Small Things Like These first. I am in awe of how she writes; you are immersed in the scene so quickly. She and Maria Popova are two of my favorite writers.

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Highly recommend.

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It’s what she once wanted but two people hardly ever want the same thing at any given point in life. It is sometimes the hardest part of being human.

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Deegan is now middle-aged. If it is a stage when some believe that much of life is over, and assume that what’s left is a downhill slope to be lived within the restraints of choices made[…]

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Always a part of her craves the solitude that will let her mind calm down and her memory surface.

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Now she sometimes imagined where she’d be, what she might be doing if she had not made her presence known. She was constantly afraid to take the smallest step in any direction. The greatest lesson the priest had taught her was the lesson of where one step can lead.

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He’s a lonely man, she thought, and he’s desperate. But that goat! She’d have no time for that goat, sitting up like a witch in the dark.

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\n", "summary": "This was Claire’s second collection of short stories, following Antarctica. Seven stories in all (in this edition that I read, some say there can be eight). I liked five of them and loved two. Worth buying the book just for the two alone.", "date_published": "2026-08-19T16:46:44-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/19/finished-reading-walk-the-blue.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/17/great-british-bake-off-of.html", "title": "📚 Great British Bake Off - Of Books", "content_html": "\n

Wry Writer wrote on her blog about the Great British Bake Off Book Challenge.

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Here is mine.

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ON YOUR MARKS – A Book You Can’t Wait To Read

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Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel. I’m a huge fan of her books and am really looking forward to this one. Comes out September 15, 2026.

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SIGNATURE BAKE – A Book From Your Favourite Genre

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I love survival stories. There are many great books out there, but the most recent one for me was 117 Days Adrift by Maurice and Maralyn Bailey. Another great one is Left for Dead by Eric Jay Dolin.

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SHOWSTOPPER – A Book With A Beautiful Cover

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I love the outdoors and hiking; I found this cover beautiful and creative. A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko.

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SOGGY BOTTOM – A Book That Made You Cry

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Oof. Lots of books make me cry, but this one was so powerful, raw, and full of hope that I cried many times while reading it. When Breath Becomes air by Paul Kalanithi.

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HOLLYWOOD HANDSHAKE – Your Perfect Book

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My perfect book is hard to nail down. All books are beautiful and perfect for different reasons, but mine would include animals, the outdoors, kind humans, and some history. That about describes Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton for me. I just loved the book. So, it’s a double entry on this list for me.

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LEAVING THIS WEEK – A Book You Didn’t Finish

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Always remember the words of Doris Lessing:

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” There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag – and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty- and vice versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you. " ~ Doris Lessing

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Don’t be afraid to stop reading a book. It may not be your time.

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I’ve stopped many books, and you should too. Dive deep into new genres and try reading a book that doesn’t even look good to you. Explore. You may just be surprised by what you find.

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Three recent books I DNF.

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Dominion by Matthew Scully

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Dominion by Tom Holland.

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Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.

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STAR BAKER – A Five Star Read

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Last years 5 star read was hands down Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. Another one that everyone should read is Foster by Claire Keegan.

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AND THE WINNER IS – A Book By A Favourite Author

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A hands-down favorite author is Maria Popova. I love how she writes. Her latest book, Traversal, was outstanding.

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And you, Avid Reader, what would make it into your Great British Bake Off list?

\n", "summary": "Wry Writer wrote on her blog about the Great British Bake Off Book Challenge. Here is mine.", "date_published": "2026-08-17T12:37:49-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/17/great-british-bake-off-of.html", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/17/110547.html", "title": "📚 Twentieth-Century Color Photographs - Identification and Care", "content_html": "

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I recently stumbled upon this book by Sylvie Pénichon, and it is a wonderful deep dive into the history and care of color photographs. The appendix includes a chronology of several film types, including Kodachrome and Ektachrome films, Polaroid-Kodak-Fuji instant films, and more. It also has sheet notch codes, which are really nice. Just a great resource.

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From the book description: This abundantly illustrated volume provides an accessible overview of the history and technology of the major traditional color photographic processes and promises to become the standard reference in its field. Following an introductory chapter on color photography in the nineteenth century, seven uniformly structured chapters discuss the most commercially or historically significant processes of the twentieth century—additive color screen, pigment, dye imbibition, dye coupling, dye destruction, dye diffusion, and dye mordanting and silver toning—offering readers a user-friendly guide to materials, methods of identification, and common kinds of deterioration. A final chapter presents specific guidelines for collection management, storage, and preservation. It also includes a glossary of technical terms, along with appendixes presenting detailed chronologies for Kodachrome and Ektachrome transparencies, Cibachrome/Ilfochrome printing materials, and Instant films.

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360 pages with 375 color and 70 B&W illustrations.

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It covers the identification of:

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If you’re interested in the history and the how and why of color film, you will enjoy this book. You can read it cover to cover or use it as a reference. I’m slowly working my way through it alongside The Darkroom Cookbook.

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I’ve also updated the Film Journey & Resource page with it.

\n", "summary": "I recently stumbled upon this book by Sylvie Pénichon, and it is a wonderful deep dive into the history and care of color photographs. The appendix includes a chronology of several film types, including Kodachrome and Ektachrome films, Polaroid-Kodak-Fuji instant films, and more. It also has sheet notch codes, which are really nice. Just a great resource.", "date_published": "2026-08-17T11:05:47-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/17/110547.html", "tags": ["photo","resources","photography","analog-film"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/16/silent-sunday.html", "title": "Silent Sunday", "content_html": "\"Auto-generated\n", "date_published": "2026-08-16T17:44:50-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/16/silent-sunday.html", "tags": ["photo","photography"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/11/york-labs-only-per-super.html", "title": "York Labs - Only 1¢ per super glossy upgrade!", "content_html": "\"Auto-generated\n

Along with all my negatives were some mail-in envelopes from York Labs; must have been a favorite of mine.

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Just crazy to see the prices. Rolls of film for $2.99. Developing with prints for a roll of 36: $3.00.

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You can think back to that time, and everyone developed film: Safeway, Sears, K-mart, Fotomat, Kodak. There were little one-hour processing booths in parking lots that would take your film. Every convenience store sold film.

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The comment about “we now process Seattle FilmWorks” film brings back a memory of that film needing special processing.

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(much time goes by as Cliff looks up the history of Seattle FilmWorks…)

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I had to look it up: Seattle FilmWorks bought bulk Kodak 35mm color motion picture film (Kodak 5247 and Kodak 5294) and loaded it into 35mm still camera cartridges. So your normal one-hour photo lab wanted nothing to do with it because of the rem-jet removal.

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They had a crazy deal where they would send you a free roll of film if you sent it back to them and paid for processing; they’d send you another free roll. I think I can remember getting caught up into that for a while. At their peak, they employed 800 people and processed 20 miles of film every day.

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Another trick was that because they used motion picture film, they could give you negatives, prints, and slides. They could make positive transparencies from the film and give you all three.

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Later they started selling C-41 film at the same time, so if you find a roll now, you just don’t know how to process it. I’ve seen Reddit threads on this exact dilemma.

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Anyway, a fun little time capsule.

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\"Auto-generated\"Auto-generated

\n", "summary": "Along with all my negatives were some mail-in envelopes from York Labs; must have been a favorite of mine.\nJust crazy to see the prices. Rolls of film for $2.99. Developing with prints for a roll of 36: $3.00.", "date_published": "2026-08-11T16:48:48-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/11/york-labs-only-per-super.html", "tags": ["photo","photography","photo-gear"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/11/learning-the-trade-becoming-an.html", "title": "Learning the Trade - Becoming an Aircraft Mechanic", "content_html": "

This deep dive back into film has started me rooting around in old boxes looking for my old negatives and polaroids. I found a bunch. Got some of the Polaroids scanned today and uploaded. I had more than I thought. I picked the best ones, and you can see them below. I’m not using my new fancy Polaroid Frame that’s CSS-made because I wanted the worn, dirty, real look of these old Polaroids. I have a lot more negatives, and when I get time, I’ll start scanning them. I’m excited to see what’s on them. Seems daunting; I may research having someone else do it because there are so many. After I see the price, I’ll probably just decide to do it myself.

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Nothing special, and won’t mean much to anyone, but I wanted them recorded and archived online. I also forgot how bad the quality of these Polaroids is, LOL. I have to admit, I was a little shocked at how bad the quality is and still is. Just a reframing after so many years of looking at digital quality. It’s nostalgic and fun, but ouch. I did brighten them a touch in post because they were so dark. Whatever Polaroid camera I was using was about two stops too dark.

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The polaroids are circa 1987 to 1989. I started A&P school in 1987; that is the school to become an FAA-certified aircraft mechanic, with an Airframe and Powerplant license. Right away, a local shop called AeroTwin hired a few of us students to work part-time with full flexibility to go to school, which was ideal. We got to start learning the “real world” way of fixing airplanes while we learned the book way in school. It was an incredible experience and one that I’ll never forget.

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We were thrown into the deep end right away. No sweeping floors and handing a wrench to someone. It was grab that bucking bar, crawl into that aircraft, and start bucking rivets. Of course, everything, well, most everything was supervised by a certified mechanic, as we were not allowed to sign anything off.

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It was such a great group of mechanics. The friendships and camaraderie were something that I’ll never forget. I loved the work; I loved fixing things. Watching an airplane take off after we had spent weeks or months on it felt good. Plus, at that time in Alaska, it was a damn good career. Lots of work, many places hiring, and plenty of ways to move up.

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Our bread-and-butter workload was rebuilding heavily damaged Cessna Caravans that had been wrecked or damaged while flying out in Western Alaska by Mark Air, now one of many out-of-business carriers. Not sure what those pilots were doing, but we had plenty of work.

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After A&P school, I worked full-time at AeroTwin but left soon after for ERA Aviation. They needed DHC-6 Twin Otter mechanics, and supposedly they had a path to flying, which was what I ultimately wanted to do. I worked there for several years and learned so much; the guys there took me under their wing and turned me into a pretty good mechanic. After a few years, I learned the path to flying for them was really just a carrot and not real.

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Soon after being strung along, a ramper talked to me and said he had received a strange phone call from a small operator in Kotzebue, Alaska. The owner hired him on the spot and said, “Can you be here in two days?” which made the ramper nervous and he turned down the job. I looked at him and said, “What’s this guy’s number?” I called him the next day; he said, “Can you fly? Can you be here in two days?” I said, “Hell yes, to both.” I talked to my boss that night, left on good terms, packed up my meager belongings and toolbox into storage, and jumped on a MarkAir B737 jet to Kotzebue.

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The story from there will have to be another blog post. But that’s where the fun really begins. Becoming a pilot.

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** you can click on a photo to bring up a viewer and scroll.

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\"A\"Multiple\"A\"An\"A\"A\"A\"Two\"A\"A\"Two\"A\"Two\"A\"A\"A\"A\"A\"Two\"A\"A\"A\"A\"An\"A
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\n\n", "summary": "This deep dive back into film has started me rooting around in old boxes looking for my old negatives and polaroids.", "date_published": "2026-08-11T13:12:11-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/11/learning-the-trade-becoming-an.html", "tags": ["aviation","photography","analog-film"] }, { "id": "http://cliff538.micro.blog/2026/08/05/ignore-this-post-testing-purposes.html", "title": "Testing Polaroid Flip", "content_html": "
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To Do

\n\n", "summary": "Polaroid Frame Testing…", "date_published": "2026-08-05T10:40:52-07:00", "url": "https://cliff538.com/2026/08/05/ignore-this-post-testing-purposes.html", "tags": ["photo"] } ] }