Ramblings of a fangirl

A major storage change necessitated an update to my Home Computing Environment Diagram:

Home Computing Environment • March 2026 Click above picture for larger image

A minor change is that I removed the CalDigit TS3 Plus hub that had hosted memory card readers. I found that the memory card readers got warm while they were always plugged in, so I decided I’d just plug them in as needed. And the USB-C ports on Belldandy’s front panel made it convenient for plugging in all USB-C cables. The hub was no longer needed.

Because I removed the CalDigit hub from Belldandy, that opened up a Thunderbolt 5 port, and I direct-connected Homura II to the newly opened port instead of going through the TB5 hub. This explains why I had to relocate the Pegasus M4 closer to the Mac Studio, as the RAID unit's short Thunderbolt cable easily reached the hub but wasn't long enough to reach the back of the Mac Studio.

For a tech person, I’m pretty old school when it comes to certain things. For example, I don’t subscribe to any of the streaming music services (although I do have YouTube Music as part of my YouTube Premium subscription). Apple Music is especially problematic as Apple actually removes your own copies of music from the Apple Music app and replaces those songs with its own master copies – whether you like it or not. It’s possible to lose unique or special versions of songs in your library.

So I’ll never subscribe to Apple Music – and I manage my music library the way I always have since the days of ripping CDs and filling my iPod. I have too much music to download it all to my iPhone, so I sync only selected playlists and albums.

Years ago my playlists started getting corrupted. The songs were correct and played properly – but some (maybe half?) of the song/album cover artwork got randomly replaced by cover art from a different song in my library. It was super annoying – it’s been super annoying for years. But the music played fine, and I largely ignored it.

I had made a couple attempts to research a fix, but what I was told to do seemed like a horrid and dangerous pain – so I didn’t even make the attempt.

Today, though, I decided to research the situation again. I was a little more confident now that I’m armed with Kagi. I did a search for iphone music showing wrong album cover, and the top three results were immediately informative and useful.

So on my iPhone I went into Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Music > Edit > All Songs and deleted all the songs. Then I connected the iPhone to my Mac and resync’d all of my playlists – twice. (I’ve learned that I need to activate the SYNC action two times, and it’s the second time the app Syncs that the music gets transferred.) The Music app informed me that it was downloading 2000 songs to my iPhone.

When that was done, I checked my phone – and all album covers are correct! I’m very happy about this!

A Playlist on My iPhone 13 mini

I’m pretty happy with Kagi, too.

Risk of Change Director Park • Portland, Oregon February 14, 2026 Nikon Z8 • NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S f/2.8 @ 70mm • 1/250s • ISO 6400

Good weather meant I could leave the D810s at home and go with my mirrorless cameras. I packed the same kit I used on Wednesday: the Nikon Z8 with NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S lens for close-quarters work and the little Nikon Z6 with the NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8S lens for portrait work.

( PDXWLF Second Saturday Below This Cut )

Previously
PDXWLF 2026, Day 1 – Friday
PDXWLF 2026, Day 2 – Saturday
PDXWLF 2026, Day 5 – Tuesday
PDXWLF 2026, Day 6 – Wednesday
PDXWLF 2026, Day 8 – Friday

JaJa Winter Light Jam JaJa PDX • Portland, Oregon February 11, 2026 Nikon Z6 • NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S f/2 @ 85mm • 1/180s • ISO 3200

Wednesday night’s mission was also simple – a single event – the JaJa Winter Light Jam at JaJa PDX. While the event ran from 7 pm to 11 pm, my experience was that I wouldn’t need more than an hour to get enough photos to document the event.

( PDXWLF Wednesday Below This Cut )

Previously
PDXWLF 2026, Day 1 – Friday
PDXWLF 2026, Day 2 – Saturday
PDXWLF 2026, Day 5 – Tuesday

Illuminated Bike Ride SE 2nd Ave. • Portland, Oregon February 7, 2026 Nikon D810 • AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G f/4 @ 66mm • 1/90s • ISO 6400

On PDXWLF Day 2, I always am at the Electric Blocks – mainly to photograph the Illuminated Bike Ride – but also to get some pictures of the art.

( PDXWLF Saturday Below This Cut )

Previously
PDXWLF 2026, Day 1 – Friday

Complimentary Birthday Spumoni at Nonna Emilia’s February 26, 2026

On my birthday I was still decompressing from the work I had been doing for the Portland Winter Light Festival. I kept plans for the day very simple – a morning self-portrait session, a bargain lunch, and the traditional birthday dinner with my best friend, Jenni.

After a series of rainy days, Thursday was sunny. I thought it was perfect weather for an outdoor portrait – but I need to plan those well in advance, and I just filed the idea as a possibility for next year. Sunny days aren’t unusual here in the last week of February – but you can’t count on them. The sunshine streaming into my library was cheery and much appreciated.

I did have a tech issue I was trying to resolve – and best be done before I did my brief portrait session. Unfortunately, the tech work took all morning, so I had to postpone the portrait until after lunch. I wanted a quick, light lunch, and I took advantage of an offer from McDonald’s for free fries with a Filet o’ Fish sandwich. Simple enough.

After lunch, I did the short self-portrait session, which had been kept simple because I was using the new bookwall for the background. One side of the bookwall wasn’t well-lit, so I added a studio light to brighten it a bit. I also had set up my Dracast studio light to provide lighting for myself.

I had run a few tests the day before, and I had set up my Nikon Z8 with autofocus and face detect – which would choose one of my eyes as a focus point. I’ve never before used that type of autofocus for a self-portrait – and it seemed to work well. The Z8 takes a standard Nikon 10-pin remote connector, so I connected one of my Phottix wireless remotes.

The photo session and post-processing went quickly. Afterwards, I went for my daily walk – and enjoyed the sun.

At 3:50 pm I left home and met up with Jenni at Nonna Emilia’s for our traditional birthday celebration. I ordered my standard meal – spaghetti with meat sauce and meatballs, while Jenni tried a combination pizza – something different for her. I stopped ordering Nonna’s pizza back in the 90s, I think. I did accept a slice to sample, and we both agreed that the pizza was just OK. The spaghetti was delicious, as always.

The important part of the meetup was chat – and we are grateful that Nonna’s allowed us to occupy a table. (The restaurant wasn’t completely full – but it was getting close by the time we left.) Nonna’s also gave me a free ice cream for my birthday. I was given a choice of vanilla or spumoni. Vanilla is my go-to flavor, but spumoni isn’t offered at most places, so I went with the less common flavor. The spumoni was very good.

Towards the end of our chat, I opened the big birthday basket that Jenni gave me. It shouldn’t be surprising that she totally spoiled me with a wealth of gifts – including treats and gift cards (Kinokuniya, Burgerville, Abby’s Pizza, Saint Cupcake, Nike). Cute plushie gift card holders added to the festiveness. A wonderful birthday card and fancy birthday cake from Saint Cupcake rounded out the presents. Yes, I’m very, very spoiled – and grateful.

Birthday Gifts from Jenni

Our dinner ran from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Best evening of the year! I love my BFF and cherish these special and rare get togethers. I had a very special birthday and went to bed with a big smile on my face.