This is my 10th year setting “fiber goals” as a fun way to direct my crafting for the year. I’ve come to feel like setting goals around creativity and joy and focusing on accomplishing things I want to do is important. Especially in contrast to a lot of traditional new year’s goals that are kind … Continue reading
Let’s try getting this posted before the end of the month this time! Here’s what I’m using for journal/calendar stuff this month, with some mini reviews of the supplies I’ve used already. Notebook As I mentioned last month, I’m starting a new notebook for April even though my iroful one isn’t quite full, because I … Continue reading
I took these pictures back at the beginning of March and never posted them, so you get them on the last day instead! Stickers March’s Fountain Pen/Ink Combos: Since this is the end of the month, I’ll say that all of these worked out pretty well, but I did have a bunch of hard starts … Continue reading
People actually responded to my January ink palette so I’m encouraged enough to post one for February! I’m starting with just 4 inks this month. My current plan is to also rotate in some of the other pens I have inked if I want a few more colours (I have a few on my desk … Continue reading
Happy new year! I haven’t decided if I’m going to record my ink selections on the blog all year, since they’re already recorded in my journal itself, but I like seeing other people’s choices so here’s January’s inks! Continue reading
My 2024 fiber goals were as follows: I already did a mid-year 2024 writeup so I’m just going to talk about the second half of the year here. Gift yarn I finished the lighthouse shawl: And I started in on a pair of socks with a funny colourway called “Introverts Unite” that apparently I haven’t … Continue reading
This year is the 10th year I’ll be doing fiber goals, and I wanted to revisit some previous year’s goals, so I’m starting by making myself a mega post with all of them to contemplate. Continue reading
I still spend more time knitting than using fountain pens but you wouldn’t know it from the blog posts I write! So let’s do a bit of an update. In September / October a group of fediverse folk do “Finish or Frog Along” (formerly Fall Finish Along, but now with a better name for people … Continue reading
I’m already 2/3 of the way through my current journal! I blame fountain pens and have some thoughts about what’s working and what needs adjustment. Continue reading
It’s a fountain pen shaped like a shark! It’s made by Jinhao, who are known for making cheap but often decent fountain pens. It sounds like not all of their pens are winners because quality control isn’t great but if you’re willing to roll the dice and don’t mind that the design may be a … Continue reading
I had a little bit of solo time on my way home from BSidesPDX in October, so I stopped by Oblation Papers. I couldn’t remember if I’d ever visited before — maybe once when I was visiting before we moved to the area? Anyhow, it’s very pretty: I mostly went to look around, but I … Continue reading
If you just want the answer to “where do I find a reliable global mirror of NVD vulnerability data?” the answer is https://cveb.in/ . It is being mirrored on the same servers used for major open source projects so you’re probably already trusting them. If you want to hear the story of how we got there, read on… Continue reading
Continuing in my “best practices in practice series” : an API for finding the list of available software versions and an API for finding out if those versions are still actively supported (and for how long). Continue reading
Continuing in my “best practices in practice series” : today’s tool is `pre-commit`. Using pre-commit takes a bunch of failure points out of our code quality and security process, and I highly recommend it. Continue reading
It was likely inevitable that I’d start thinking seriously about having some travel-specific fountain pens. I’m no longer the world traveller I was in my 20s when writing papers and going to conferences to present them was a key part of my job, but I have a certain amount of travel-specific stuff in my life. … Continue reading
I bought a glowing pen to replace my finicky first pen. Plus some musing on how the glowing definitely makes the pen work better for me; science agrees! Continue reading
As expected, I finished my bullet journal, just barely managing to fit an entry for Sept 30th, 2024 on the last page. It was started on January 1, 2023, so it lasted just under 2 years. The corgi design is from Kela Designs, and I bought it for myself on the condition that I actually … Continue reading
I picked this pen up at the same time as my TWSBI pens (Making this pen 5 in my collection), with a similar vision in mind: trying the big stub nibs. This one sports a CM / Italic / 1.0mm stub. My first impression upon getting the pen was overwhelmingly positive: this is a solidly … Continue reading
I’m starting a little mini-series about some of the “best practices” I’ve tried out in my real-life open source software development. These can be specific tools, checklists, workflows, whatever. Some of these have been great, some of them have been not so great, but I’ve learned a lot. I wanted to talk a bit about … Continue reading
After a few months of using my mystery wood pen and the Pilot Varsity that I picked up when I bought ink for the first pen, I decided I was clearly having enough fun that I should add a few more pens to my collection. So pen number 3 and 4 were a pair of … Continue reading
One of the ideas from the “bullet journal” method that never really worked for me is the “future log” one. The idea seems solid: you need a space for writing stuff that’s coming up but maybe not in the current month or week or however you divide your journal. It’s a solid idea and it … Continue reading
I’ve been getting back into fountain pens for the first time since I was a teenager, and it’s a lot more fun this time. I’ve enjoyed reading other people’s musings, so I’m going to try to record some personal notes on the pens I have in my collection thus far. I picked up the Pilot … Continue reading
A few months ago, I found a fountain pen in a drawer. It was a gift from someone who knew me as a teenager, when I had tendinitis and used a fountain pen as a way to reduce strain during writing. I didn’t have ink when I got it and I likely forgot all about … Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I wrote a review of the Flo Mask and mentioned that I wasn’t sure how well it would work for singing. Well, Wednesday Sept 11 was my first choir rehearsal for the fall season and I brought it and… it actually worked out pretty well! I had brought a spare disposable … Continue reading
As I mentioned in my post about my cane, I use a Synik 22 Guide’s Edition for travel because of the cane mount point. But it’s far from the only thing from Tom Bihn that I use, so here’s a ridiculously long and photo-filled exploration of what I carry in my various pouches and bags. Continue reading
It feels late in the pandemic to be buying a really fancy mask, but with the prospect of sitting for hours on planes while the US had increasingly significant waves of infection, I decided it was worth trying out a different style of mask to see if I liked it. And I did! What is … Continue reading
I picked up this ruler to go with my travel notebook. I didn’t use it the way I thought I would, but it found a niche that made it fit perfectly into my travel stationery setup. What is it? A metal ruler that also acts as a clip bookmark and a stencil. Link: https://www.jetpens.com/Midori-Clip-Ruler-Copper-Daily-Life/pd/29899 What … Continue reading
I’m loosely auditioning new notebooks to replace my bullet journal. So I pulled out my fountain pens and inked up a few contenders that I hadn’t tried yet and here they are with the ones I’d already sampled: My current bullet journal (the one in the upper right) is a lovely book from Kela Designs. … Continue reading
I’ve been using a cane consistently for about a decade now and I love this particular telescoping model. It takes some weight off my injury and greatly improves my travel and conference experiences, but also having a cane that I feel is a delight to use rather than a chore has really changed the way … Continue reading
It’s occasionally useful to know how long a knitting project will take me: When do I need to start a gift for it to be ready in time? How much yarn should I bring on a trip? So I decided to make a personal estimate I could refer to when I wanted to make a … Continue reading
My kid is in that awkward age where he’s too big for a stroller but walking across some of the larger airports can be a lot. I’d originally wanted to get scooter luggage, but after some research I decided we’d get a lot more use out of a folding scooter that would be useful for … Continue reading