Secured, Mostly

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Similar to the light on the vans, the light on this sign was definitely special. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-08-14 18:57:20, Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2, 1/22000sec, f/2.8, ISO-800, in-camera Kodachrome film simulation.

I did a lot of work on my websites this weekend. For a long time (years?) I knew that both my weblog and professional landing page needed the security of a SSL certificate. My browser has had a red flag for both forever. When that change was generally implemented across websites a few years ago, I was on notice that I needed to upgrade mine.

I made an attempt two or three years ago. I installed a free certificate, given neither website generates direct income. I did not want to pay for that security.

In addition, renewal on my business email service was fast approaching (expired today). I use a couple of specialty email services as of the beginning of this year in an attempt to reduce my exposure to data scraping by Big Tech. It is not that I think email will be secure; it in inherently insecure for most applications. I know that most of my correspondents will not use PGP or GPG to encrypt/decrypt email traffic. Nor am I convinced that is absolutely necessary with some exceptions. There are alternative private/secure means to pass that traffic anyway. But, part of my objective is to reduce exposure.

That meant moving away from Apple and GMail services to the extent reasonable. And I wanted my business email away from my hosting provider, which is not particularly interested in privacy.

Yesterday, with the help of an AI robot I was able to edit the DNS records for my work website/email such that it could be routed through one of my specialty email services. This particular service does not store my traffic. That is private. (Neither does the VPN from that provider store data passed through their servers.) So, the expiration of my hosting service email today is of no consequence. My business email traffic is being properly handled.

That left dealing with the SSL certificates for this site, my weblog, and my business landing page. The latter was also in need of an update and a cleanup to eliminate reference to my address, phone, and email. After taking care of The Girl this morning, I started a new chat with an AI robot and work began there.

It turned out there was a configuration problem with my hosting provider that prevented application of AutoSSL to both of my domains. I attempted to contact GoDaddy support through a chat window, but that service was not available. The alternatives were to use a different mode of contact or use a third party to provide/implement the certificate. I elected to use text messaging, which was quite unsavory to me since I really do not care to type on my phone. Yet, I did it and support was able to validate my identity and then fix the problem. After an hour or two, both sites had working SSL certs and the “Not Secure” flag was no longer displayed by my browser (Brave).

I had some lunch (leftovers) and then asked the robot to review my website. It informed me that my site “was solidly in mid-90’s style and content”. It took my data and redeveloped content in my voice and style that convey my expertise and experience. I had it write the code in my style with the new content. I also asked it to create a contact form that would allow potential clients to send me an email without revealing my email address. It included a captcha trap to reduce the ability of bots to spam me.

In addition, I asked the robot to review my CV for exposure of my data and it flagged only a couple of places where redaction was needed. I edited my resume and then uploaded everything to my landing page. With some testing and debugging, it is now working and is much better looking.

There is only one more thing to do but I think I am done working on my websites for now. The issue is minor and noncritical, so it can wait for another session.

That was a lot of work done this weekend. It cleaned up a couple of items that were on my list for a long, long time.

Now I think I have a couple more things to look at today, although I should not do any real work. The week starts again tomorrow and I need a productive week.

I am satisfied, though, with what accomplished this weekend. These were good, necessary tasks that are important. I am so grateful, even for the AI robot. They can be useful. But I think they are also dangerous. Nonetheless, Life is good.

Remainders: 05 September 2026

ruminator
On walkies a few evenings ago, I noticed that the light on these vans was almost perfect. So I made the capture. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-08-14 18:55:39, Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2, 1/2000sec, f/8, ISO-800, in-camera Kodachrome film simulation.

Last week I was out in the field overseeing construction of some stream restoration work. I was not much in the mood for Internet searching beyond tracking the news and keeping up with incoming email. The work was interesting and I was required to apply my engineering knowledge and experience to field fit the proposed amendments.

On return I was busy recovering from the travel (and long days). Of course, there were lots of chores and work-related tasks to catch up on. So, I did not spend much time surfing the WWW and reading.

  • My C.Crane Skywave SSB 2 arrived and is tested before I headed out for field work. The receiver works pretty well and the included wire is helpful for AM broadcast and shortwave stations. I pair mine with a small Anker amplified speaker through its auxiliary input port and it delivers a much more pleasant sound. This speaker also serves and an external speaker for my portable transceivers.
  • One of the radios in my inventory, and the only rig that is weatherproof, is the TX-500. That rig needs some love and might be the best candidate for an emergency communications radio that I have. It is small, makes about ten watts on its own, and I have a 50-watt amplifier to boost the output when needed. Although I have a Digirig configured for it, access to the Robust Packet Radio is not included the best I can tell. Oliver, DL4DK developed a device that implements the RPR protocol, the Link500. Packet is one of the digital modes used for digital communications via radio.
  • DL1GKK provides a lot of content on digital ham radio modes. If that is of interest, his site is worth a view.
  • I was reminded this week, again, of the need to remember the Serenity Prayer. It is, indeed, worth remembering and meditating on.

The Olive Garden Gaggle

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As I headed in to buy some supper, I noticed the light and the gaggle gathered outside. I stopped and made the capture. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-07-08 19:02:32, Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2, 1/3200sec, f/8, ISO-1600, in-camera Tri-X film simulation.

A few evenings ago I drove over to Olive Garden for some supper. This time of year I sometimes do that to get into the cool. Plus, I eat well and have enough to make another meal.

On this evening, I noticed the light and the crowd gathered outside the door. That made me pause on my way in to make the capture. This is pretty close to street photography.

It was a good meal that fed me twice. I am grateful. Life is good.

Remainders: 22 August 2026

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This mess of disintegrating granite and other flotsam caught my eye. I paused and made the capture. Yeah, I am playing shadow peek-a-boo on the right. Captured with X100VI, 2026-08-07 09:45:27, 23mm, 1/120sec, f/8, ISO-250, in-camera Kodachrome 64 film simulation, light editing with PhotoLab 7.

I began this entry on Sunday morning, 16 August 2026, while enjoying my first coffee and reading a little. I started lightly following Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings at least a decade ago, but never every day. Now and again something she posted would catch my eye (hat tip to Wife) and I would read. She is a combination of cerebral and emotional, an interesting combination. And her post for Sunday caught my eye and so I begin with that as my first remainder for the week.

  • How to Read the Signal of Your Life is an excellent reflection on life and the writing of George Kubler. I think I need to get a copy of the book and read it.
  • I finished my first pass through Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method this week. I use the approach to unload stuff from my brain (hat tip to David Allen) and to organize as well as a I can. It is definitely worth a look and a read. Note that the link is to Carroll’s website and not to Amazon. While there is nothing inherently wrong with Amazon and links thereto, I prefer to link directly to the author’s website when possible. They deserve the traffic for all the hard work that they do.
  • The physics of tsunamis is fascinating. Here is a link to a wave tank demonstration of the energy buildup and release that causes them.
  • I know I have posted this before, but Phillip Reeves’ site has an excellent summary of the Olympus Zuiko film era lenses. To date, it is the best site found and one that I hope is maintained for a while. We lost the Tamron Adaptall site to the Wayback Machine sometime over the last couple of years, which is a shame because it was excellent. I hope someone will resurrect that one. I might but do not have time invest.
  • Another source for Olympus film camera information is Olypedia. It is in German, but browser technology is sufficiently advanced that on-the-fly translation works well.
  • And the GAS-afflicted photographer in me loves reading about vintage glass. Aperturepedia is an excellent and previously unknown to me resource.
  • Why have a posted this mess of links associated with ancient Olympus film cameras? Well, a decade ago an old motorcycle friend offered to sell me his vintage kit for a reasonable price. So I found myself with a small collection of Olympus film gear. I have taken up with the tiny bodies and small lenses because I really do not care to carry big glass. I am learning my way around the Olympus system well enough to have a small, carefully curated collection of bodies and glass that do much of what I want to do.
  • It is now Saturday and this will post this evening. As I looked through my archive (on this day), I came across an entry where I reposted an image of Wife in an entry entitled More than a Decade. As I look back on that entry, I recall how I felt three-years ago about the life and loss of both girls. They look so young and vital. That would be true, because both of them are now frozen in time and no longer grow older. So they will forever be the age at which I made the images.
  • That entry pointed back to Seven Years, which was a reflection on Wife and Ki. Now it is six-years later and not much has changed. I still miss them both and few days pass without one or both coming to mind for a few minutes.

I will close this week’s remainders with those last thoughts. Tomorrow (maybe) I will start another remainders entry where I keep a running journal of what captured my attention (either because I was looking for something specific or just wandering the Interwebs). Who knows where I wander.

I remain grateful. Life is good. God is good.

Years ago I made an avatar selfie using my D300 and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 lens. With the addition of my Noct-Nikkor, I decided a fresh avatar was in order. Captured with NIKON D750, 2026-08-17 15:46:13, Noct-Nikkor 58mm, 1/40sec, f/4, ISO-800, post with DXO PhotoLab 7, Tri-X film simulation.

Resilience

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This beat-up old pine tree has seen some trauma, for sure. Yet, here it stands, maybe not tall, but resilient. Captured with X100VI, 2026-08-07 10:00:50, 23mm, 1/52sec, f/8, ISO-250, in-camera Kodachrome 64 film simulation, SOOC.

A couple of weeks ago The Girl and I were on our morning hike up near Spooner Summit. We were there maybe a little earlier than we are many times and I liked the light in the forest. I carried the Fujifilm X100vi that day, not wanting to deal with choosing a lens to affix to either the X-Pro3 or the X-T5. Sometimes not having a choice is the better way.

After recovering from the first climb up the old fire road, I felt pretty good and was looking around for a daily capture of some kind. I noticed this gnarled old tree that looked as though it was lightning struck sometime long ago. It certainly was subject to some trauma, given how two limbs had taken over the remainder of its growth.

Perhaps there is a life lesson in this… that sometimes life throws a bolt that is a terrible, but not fatal hit. A part that was the main line of growth is ended, but there are other branches remaining to take over. It might be a tough hit, but not life-ending. So, life moves forward, albeit in a different direction than before.

There are certainly elements of my own life that reflect this. Life still goes on, but not in the same direction as before.

It is good. I am grateful.

Noct-Nikkor Test Portrait

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My buddy graciously posed for my test shot using a new-to-me Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 vintage lens. I like it (and my buddy, too)! Captured with NIKON D750, 2026-08-08 17:04:31, 58mm, 1/15sec, f/4, ISO-800, and converted to a Tri-X simulation in PhotoLab 7.

Last weekend, a new-to-me Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 manual focus lens was delivered. This is a grail legacy lens for Nikkor collectors/shooters. It is relatively rare and expensive because of a hand-ground aspherical element in the design that eliminates (mostly) a spherical aberration called coma. Coma occurs at the edges of the image of lenses without correction and expresses small/point light sources as elongated blobs instead of points. The Noct-Nikkor was expressly design to minimize this distortion when shot wide open, such as in night/low-light shots or astrophotography.

I finally found a user-grade lens at a reasonable price. Mine will be used on my Nikon bodies.

I took it with me to supper with my buddy mounted on a Nikon D750. He patiently permitted me a test photo. He also was quite taken with the lens. It was the first of this model he ever handled.

I like the rendering of the portrait.

I am grateful. Life is good.

Remainders: 15 August 2026

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I came across this deadfall while hiking The Girl up near Spooner Summit. I like the play of light and shadow. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-07-02 11:11:15, 35mm, 1/420sec, f/8, ISO-400, in-camera ACROS simulation, SOOC.

Well, I will have a few things to post this week, I think.

  • A couple of years ago, I posted this link to a YouTube video that does a pretty good job of explaining the differences between analog film and digital photography. I know that a lot of bandwidth is consumed by one side or the other trying to justify their position that one is better than the other. Personally, I think they are just different. Better should depend on what the objective of the photographic exercise would be. Some projects might be better served by use of digital equipment. Others might be better for analog film. Although it might be an intellectually interesting question, I find the arguments shallow and mostly useless.
  • I then went down a YouTube rabbit hole and watched a video about different products for detailing an engine. I learned a couple things and this actually makes sense to routinely wash the engine compartment, particularly in this dusty place where I live.
  • I did not realize that Taylor Guitars was sold a few years ago. This video explains what the content creator learned on a visit to the Taylor factory. It is definitely worth a watch.
  • There are groups of young people assembling around college campuses who are asking questions about the role of technology in their lives, particularly regarding social media. They are calling themselves Luddites. This is described by Jared Henderson in this YouTube video. I think this is smart. Also see Newsome’s Digital Minimalism.
  • Over the last few weeks I have been working on my Olympus lens collection. The focus is on refining my collection to a focused, carefully curated selection of lenses for my 35mm cameras. I found this Camera Wiki entry useful, along with Phillip Reeves’ site.
  • My C.Crane Skywave SSB 2 failed. I retrieved it from the radio bag last weekend, thinking I would listen to some AM broadcast band while working on cleaning up and rearranging the bed of the truck. I could not receive any signals on either the AM or FM broadcast bands. The weather band worked well enough. I tried listening to the 40m ham band, but also got nothing. I sent a support request to C.Crane and heard back a day later. I reset the radio according to the instructions provided by technical support. But, as I suspected, the radio failed. C.Crane was kind enough to offer a small discount on a replacement and I will probably take them on up it. The radio has an excellent form factor and provides a solid listening experience. It is not high fidelity, but is not intended to be nor is that what I want from it.

Note on images: I made this capture while hiking with The Girl at one of our favorite summer sites, Spooner Summit. It is generally cooler there, although not so much during the latest heat wave. (I noticed there was a temperature inversion and early it is actually warmer at 7,200 feet than in the valley.) I could not make up my mind which image I prefer.

I came across this deadfall while hiking The Girl up near Spooner Summit. I like the play of light and shadow, plus the addition of just a little color. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-07-02 11:11:15, 35mm, 1/420sec, f/8, ISO-400, SOOC.

Voigtlander 35mm f/0.9 Nokton Test Frame

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My Voigtlander 35mm f/0.9 lens arrived today. I needed a test frame, so I chose my favorite model. Captured with X-T5, 2026-08-10 13:40:39, 35mm, 1/85sec, f/0.9, ISO-1600, SOOC.

My new-to-me Voigtlander 35mm f/0.9 Nokton arrived Monday. I had to make a test frame just to see.

Voigtlander makes some pretty darned good manual focus lenses. They lean toward the vintage aesthetic, that is, they are not clinically sharp and they render images that look more like vintage lenses than modern.

But they have the modern convenience of talking to the camera body and informing lens focal length, aperture setting, and distance to the subject so that the camera’s processor can provide support. In the case of my X-T5, that means that in-body stabilization works as well as populating the EXIF portion of the image file. These are good things.

I need to do more testing of this specialty lens.

Ford F-250 Super Duty Powerstroke Tremor

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Gabriel, my sale rep at Capital Ford, shot this image of me (with his phone) right after going over the introduction to my new truck. Did I say it is a tall truck?

For the first time in nearly 14 years, I own a new vehicle. I decided that I did not want to use the 4Runner as a tow vehicle any longer. I want to keep it running well for many years, yet. My camper is not over the vehicle’s limit, but there were many times I thought I was stressing the vehicle more than I wanted to.

I also think I want a slightly larger camper. These are things mentioned here a number of times, whenever they come mind.

I decided to buy a diesel truck. My friend has had good luck with Fords. So have I, although it was a long time ago that I had an F-150. I do not care for the fit and finish of the Dodge products, although the Cummins engine has quite the reputation. The GM products seem to focus on the Allison transmission and less on the Duramax. So, I bought a Ford.

I love my truck, but do not intend it to be my daily driver. It is for work and pulling the camper, either to remote locations or cross country.

My friend helped me install a VHF/UHF radio in it. I have a place for an HF rig as well (and have the rig). I am slowly adding a few things to make it work better for me. I want some MOLLE racks in the bed so I can lash equipment and keep the bed organized.

The truck has the power to pull anything I want to pull. On Field Day, the camper was barely noticeable behind the truck. In fact, I have to be careful not to muscle the camper. It is not up so some of the rough roads we travel without care. The truck has no problem.

So, my next step is to find an appropriate camper. I am thinking an Arctic Fox might do well, given I have frozen my tush off any number of times in the A-frame. I need cold weather capability. The additional storage will be good, too.

This could very well be my last new vehicle. That is not sad; just an observation.

I am quite grateful. Life is good.

It is a good looking truck, parked up at the Spooner Summit/Kings Canyon Trail staging area.

Remainders: 08 August 2026

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The Girl and I walked a different route last Saturday. I had the truck at the service center for an oil change, so we walked the big block around that area. This Chinese joint caught my eye. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-07-25 08:13:57, Voigtlander Color Skopar 18mm, 1/1600sec, f/5.6, ISO-400, processed in DXO Photolab 7.

I have not done a remainders post in a long time. My energy has been used up by other tasks of higher priority than maintaining my weblog. Yet, my weblog remains a part of my life and is important to me, for reasons I do not really understand. I see things, I read things, I make photographs, and somehow my brain amalgamates this material and the results need to go someplace. Decades ago I created this space to hold those results. So, here we are.

  • In looking through my archive this week, I came across a story: Play Misty for Me. I read it and remembered the day, clearly. The encounter was striking and as I write this I wonder what happened to Misty.
  • Another story came up on the same day as the line above about Ki. I think the writing is pretty good, for what it is. It is worth sharing.
  • I am a sucker for just about anything made from G-10. Well, this slingshot is calling to me.
  • I think I mentioned that I am keeping the 4Runner for use as a daily-driver and the occasional trail run. Well, that means there are a few things I want to do that I should have done. The dash is certainly in need of a cover. Covercraft seems to be the place to go for a dashmat.
  • I will do some small things to make the truck work better for me. The glove box organizers from Open Trail Creations will provide useful cubbyholes for keeping the generally loose s*$t from being, well, loose.
  • I also have in mind upgrading the fuel tank to a 60-gallon tank. I am still working on that.

Well, that is a restart of my remainders practice. It will be seen if I can maintain it.

Regardless, I am grateful. Life is good.