🖋New pen day! This is the Gravitas Pocket Pen in copper, with a 1.1 stub nib (my first stub). Just gorgeous. Lovely birthday present from my brother and sister-in-law.
New post: Rest
In which I get a bit philosophical about mistle thrushes and the past two years.
Finished reading: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman 📚. In another author’s hands, a detective series set in a retirement village could be patronising, but his cast of characters are brilliantly complex and surprising.
Finished reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear 📚 I don’t often read what you might call ‘self-help’ books, but this was superb. It made me rethink how I think about time.
New post: Back to BEAKL
In which I explain some recent changes to my keyboard layout, including switching (again!) from QWERTY to BEAKL.
Idly perusing ‘Coming Soon’ on Apple TV+, I was really excited that they are doing an adaptation of ‘Slow Horses’, Mick Herron’s series of darkly comedic thrillers about the MI5 rejects in Slough House. The trailer looks good, so I’m hopeful it will do the books justice 🤞
Sometimes I underestimate how stupid I can be when tired and stressed. Yesterday (when in both those states), I tried to replace the plastic cable cover on my monitor arm, and couldn’t get it to stay on at all. Today I tried again and realised I had it upside down yesterday 🤦♀️
Finished reading: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 📚
This is my second reading of this book. I loved it even more the second time around, as I found that I could focus more on the journey of the main character, knowing where he would end up. I also felt very tender and protective of him. This one of those books with an ‘aftertaste’ - a good one! The world that Piranesi inhabits sticks with you a long time after you finish the book.
It’s quite some time since I last used the BEAKL 15 layout, so I’m surprised to find that I still have some muscle memory remaining for it. This is probably a really bad idea, but sometimes it’s fun to play around with your brain a bit!
Ferris Sweep number 2 finished yesterday. Now I’m fooling around with the BEAKL 15 keyboard layout. Again. 🙄
Perfectly amusing and entertaining at the time, but also instantly forgettable.
On the plus side, I felt that Week 1 was easier this time than the first time around, so I must be getting stronger…
I recently skipped my Sweat HIIT workout programme for nearly 3 weeks because I was exhausted and busy. I resumed the programme today and felt like Superwoman. Then I realised that I had been bumped back down to Week 1. 😭
New post: Ferris Sweep keyboard and layout
In which I talk about my latest keyboard build (which is tiiinyyy), and the layout I chose.
Finished reading: Record Of A Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers 📚I absolutely love the ‘Wafarers’ series. Becky Chambers writes such hopeful, humane, immersive sci-fi. It’s not utopian, but it does give me hope that we sentient species might be kind of ok if you get to know us.
The keyboards I can’t seem to stop making are getting smaller! This is a Ferris Sweep.
New post: Weekend sounds on BBC Radio 3.
In which I talk about the weekend breakfast shows’ Found Sounds and Sounds of the Earth segments.
I was so in the mood for this. Awkwafina and Morris were the icing on the cake for me, though Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh were pretty good too.
New post: Hi Ho Hi Ho, it’s back to Doom I go
I probably need a sign like one of those ‘X days without a Health and Safety Incident’ to record the number of days without switching Emacs configs :-P
You know that idea that people had biphasic sleep periods in Medieval times? I reckon that — like me — they just had cats that got a bad case of the zoomies at 2am.
Wild rose hips from a walk this morning. Great walk but my boots may take some time to dry out!
I’ve learned a lot since starting to sew, but I think the most important thing is this: it is impossible to predict how much of a magnet for cat hair a fabric will be, even if you can feel the fabric. ‘Field testing’ (or should that be ‘felid testing’?) is the only way.
New post: Building a hand-wired Corne keyboard
My latest keyboard building adventure, which has been quite the marathon. But now I have pretty lights!
I’ve finished my hand wired Corne keyboard finally! Too tired to blog in long form about it now, but I’m planning to do that soon.
I may be the tiniest bit obsessed with building Corne keyboards. I was determined not to be defeated by LEDs, so I’m building a semi-hand wired one. Only one half done so far, but it works 👌
