Finished reading: All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison 📚 A vivid picture of rural Suffolk life in the 1930s. It isn’t at all rose-tinted though, and deals with the darkness as well as the beauty. Edie is a wonderful protagonist.
Finally got around to fitting the 3D printed case for the second Corne keyboard I built.
Well, that didn’t go as planned: I was trying to make a cup of tea and - tired after work - knocked a small glass out of the fridge which smashed to pieces. Have spent the last 15 mins trying to keep hungry cats out of the kitchen while sweeping up the many, many tiny shards.
New post: Emacs from scratch again
In which I admit that I’m going around the ‘from scratch’ merry-go-round again, for no other reason than I felt like it. I’m tempted to add ‘Emacs configuration’ to my list of hobbies…
We’ve been stating the radio alarm clock to BBC Radio 3 for a gentler start than the news doom of R4’s Today Programme. This morning I woke to the 3rd movement of Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 (aka the funeral march). You know the one. That was a weird vibe to wake up to.
One of my favourite neighbourhood oaks looked lovely in the light this morning.
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!