I spent most of today fiddling with my QMK settings to make the OLED displays on my keyboard useful and pretty (mostly pretty). I now have an animated doggy, layer and modifier indicators, and WPM counter. Time well spent!
Sometimes you’re just in the mood for a big dumb film. This was that film, and it hit the spot.
New post: Learning stenography with Plover.
In which I justify, I mean explain, why I’m spending a lot of my free time learning a whole new way of typing words on a computer.
Finished reading: The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes 📚. This didn’t grip me in quite the same way as Circe by Madeline Miller, but it was a good to read the Oedipus story from a female perspective.
Finished reading: Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott 📚. It took me a few chapters to get into the genre-bending style, but then I was all in, and raced through the rest. Can’t wait to read the next two books!
New post: Building a Corne low profile keyboard
Some details (plus backstory) about my recent foray into keyboard building.
I can’t quite believe it, but I have made myself a keyboard. And it works! Full post to come at some later point, when I’ve recovered from the shock of it working first time…
I wanted a cheap project to practice through the hole soldering on so this Conway’s Game of Life kit from The PiHut was perfect. The plan is to make a keyboard kit next.
Guess who taught herself to solder from YouTube and has soldered her very first project? Quite proud 😊
Bella is keeping my trackpad warm. She kindly left me a small corner to work with.
I should really take my keycaps off more often: good lord there was a lot of cat hair lurking under there. I know some people fit o-rings to damp the sound of keys, but the sumptuous bed of cat hair under each cap was doing a similar job for free!
On a whim, I bought some Gateron Clear key switches (linear, 35 g) and installed them on the main alphanumeric keys of my Ergodox EZ yesterday. I love them already: very smooth and light, and they make typing feel much more serene.
It took me so long to write that last post stenographically (and I dropped back to qwerty for the links). I’m at about 3 WPM in normal usage, with a lot of looking up, but it’s mesmerising when whole words pop out when you mash several keys together!
I’m having fun trying stenography, using Plover and a layer on the Ergodox EZ. It is a bit brain bending, but great fun!
New post: Ginger jeans 4.
In which I make my fourth pair of Gingers on my new Pfaff sewing machine, and manage to pull the slider off the zip (again).
Finished reading: Underland by Robert Macfarlane 📚. So lyrical and curiously moving in places. I don’t read much non-fiction, but this was a page-turner.
Getting there. The complicated bits are done. 🧵
Ah, Sunday morning. Chopin nocturnes on the speakers and a new pair of Ginger jeans under the needle of my new (to me) Pfaff. Bliss. 🧵
New post: Apparently I collect sewing machines now.
I’ve added another machine to my accidental collection, and it’s a Pfaff. But I can stop any time!
New post: Exporting references from Zotero to Tiddlywiki.
In which I expand on the rabbit hole that @jack opened up!
I blame @jack for pointing me to Soren Bjornstad and his Grok TiddlyWiki book. I’ve been messing around with TW to see if I like it better than org-roam. This weekend I wrote a Go/Keyboard Maestro workflow to export references and import with metadata as Tiddlers. Geeky fun!
Finished reading: London Rules by Mick Herron 📚
This is the 5th book in the Jackson Lamb series, which I have devoured. Jackson Lamb is my favourite anti-hero of all time. Herron is a fantastic thriller writer and these books tread a perfect line between action and comedy.
New post: Singing with nightingales.
We finally got to attend a Singing With Nightingales event, and it was an incredible and magical experience.
While in an interminable tailback on a motorway today, I spotted a sticker on a white van that made me laugh: “No pasties left in this vehicle overnight”.
New article: Creativity.
In which I reflect on the effect of deadlines on me in an attempt to better equip future me to cope with them.