The watch arrived yesterday. It’s very white :). There was no setup to speak of other than downloading the app so I can pick from thousands of faces. That should keep me busy for a while. I love e-paper screens.

I haven’t spent much time playing with everything, but I feel like we’ll get along fine. My only complaint is that there’s no way to rotate the display so that (as a lefty) I can comfortably use the watch on my right wrist.

The only thing I’ve done is to add a Timer app and assigned it to a long press of the middle button. Time, weather, notifications, and timers are my primary uses for a smartwatch, so I’m covered.

After a few days, the answer to “can I use Linux for real?” was “Yes!”, so I started side-eyeing my M4 MacBook Air, thinking I could replace it with a Linux laptop. So I did. I ordered a new Framework 13 laptop. The Framework arrives this week, and I couldn’t be more excited. In fact, this whole escapade may have been a not-so-well disguised plan to trick myself into buying one of those cool laptops.

It’s possible that I’ve gotten ahead of myself here, but what a fun ride so far.

The keyboard-driven nature of Omarchy has, er, forced my hand again.

Keyboards are a rabbit hole I didn’t want to go down again, so I grabbed something that I’ve seen recommended by a few people and ordered one. Also, although DHH is not someone I’d deliberately try to emulate, it’s what he uses with Omarchy, so I figured the odds of it working well were pretty good.

I went with a Lofree Flow84

I’ll miss the Topre switches on the HHKB, but the Flow’s switches feel pretty good. Different, but good. Oddly, I like that it’s not very customizable. With any luck, I’ll just type on it rather than futzing with custom caps or layouts.

What I don’t like is the printing on the keys. Rather than putting the shifted character above the default character, they’re laid out side by side. It’s weird and I’m not a fan. Also, a few keys have parts printed in a different color. I keep thinking I’ve dropped crumbs on the keys.

The worst thing is that when rebooting, I can’t type in my password when using Bluetooth. I’m using it wired, so it’s not a problem for me, but still not ideal.

Otherwise, I’m happily thwocking away over here on my new keyboard. Function and arrow keys are handy, btw. :)

I picked this weird-ass 3-head Denon DRS-810 with a drawer for the cassette. It’s technically a better deck, and the drawer mechanism is solid and cool, but it might be a little modern for me (90s). Plus, I like when I can see the music, and with this one, the cassette is hidden while playing. I decided that I don’t mind that so much, since in day to day use, the deck is on the other side of the room, anyway.

I’ll tinker with this one for a while and see how it feels. I was told I can bring it back for a different one any time if it doesn’t work out.

I’ve only listened to a few tapes in it, but it sounds great to me. Cassettes are fun! And they sound much better than I remember.

Playing with the old cassette deck got me charged up about vintage audio. I was suddenly bored by the Rega Brio3 (2007), which I bought new. It paled next to some of the cool vintage stuff on display at the new vintage audio store near me, Bring Back Analog. Plus, the Brio didn’t have a headphone jack, which always bothered me. Besides, something from 2007 isn’t “vintage”, it’s just old. So I started shopping.

I traded the Rega and some cash for a shiny new (to me) Sansui AU-6900 from 1976. It’s been playing non-stop since I brought it home. I’m no audiophile, but I love it. It sounds great, and looks gorgeous. I’m a sucker for big, shiny knobs and the Sansui has big, shiny knobs.

Something cool about it is that the rear jacks are situated horizontally. This makes them easier to reach and presumably has other positive effects. I wonder why we don’t see more of that.

There’s something about listening to beautiful devices made half a century ago. They may not objectively sound better, but they definitely feel like they sound better.

I’ve been using an Apple Magic Keyboard and Logitech MX Master 3, and, while I love the mouse, the keyboard was boring, but fine, except the spacebar would intermittently fail to register. That’s annoying.

On a bit of a whim I made the decision to go all in with Apple’s keyboard, so I picked up a new Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, and a Logitech “MX Master 3S for Mac” to go with it. My old mouse works, but is so worn and gross that I thought it was time for a new one. You know, while I was shopping anyway.

I love having Touch ID on the keyboard, especially since I’ve not been wearing my Apple Watch as often.

I thought about going with some new fancy-keyboard route, but this is practical, simple, and done. It’s fine, and now I can stop thinking about my keyboard so much.

My old Nakamichi cassette deck stopped working a few years ago, and I never bothered to replace it. I’ve been into vinyl and still have a good CD transport, so I didn’t see a need for cassettes.

Occasionally, though, I’ll spot a cassette somewhere and think I might like to bring mine out and play them. I didn’t want some ancient “vintage” cassette deck, and I didn’t want to spend much.

Enter the FiiO CP13.

I impulse ordered one after watching someone review theirs on YouTube or somewhere. “I NEED THAT!” I said :).

It arrived, so I quickly went to grab my 1980s cassette case with all my cassettes. Except I couldn’t find it. I looked everywhere. Nothing. All I found was a tote back with a dozen or so “rejects”. Tapes I’d recorded myself, broken tapes, or just things I stopped liking.

Now, I know I wouldn’t throw away my tapes, so I’m sure it’ll turn up. In the meantime, I’m entertaining myself with the rejects. This meant fixing the ones I have. All of my cassettes are at least 40 years old. The problem I see most is missing pressure pads. I ordered a fix-it kit from Amazon and set to repairing what I could.

I’m listening to a bunch of Aerosmith tracks I recorded off something in 1980.

I can’t tell you how the player sounds, because my tapes are in such poor shape that it’s impossible to know if it’s the player or the tape. What I will say that I’m having a blast with it.

Here’s the useful part of that thread:

Install Logitech Options+ (sigh) and set:

Logi Options+ (Plus): Customization App for Logitech Devices

What a gross bit of software, but it’s necessary here. I’ve read that once this process is done, I can delete the app completely, but I haven’t tried that yet.

• Scrolling speed: 0% (as the OP says, this is the most important option to set).
• Scroll direction: Standard (I would set it on Mos, but you have to pick one here anyway).
• Smooth scrolling: Off (also good to turn off, Mos will take care of it instead).
• SmartShift: On (If you want it).
• Sensitivity value: 95% (we’ll see, maybe I’ll take it down to 90%).

Install Mos:

Mos | Smooth your mouse

brew install mos

(Note that launching Mos required xattr -d com.apple.quarantine Mos.app)

• General > Smooth scrolling: On.
• Advanced > Step: 75.00 (at least in my resolution, anything lower than this is just not enough of a scroll per ratchet movement).
• Advanced > Speed: 3.50 (didn’t try too many others, but it seems to work in conjunction with the rest).
• Advanced > Duration: 3.90 (default value, haven’t played around with it yet).
• Now the ratchet action works as expected from a normal mouse, but when I give it a little nudge it goes into a free-spin and scrolls fast. I don’t know how much accuracy I’m getting with the free-spin yet, but to get to the bottom of a document, it’s great. I’ll update if I keep playing with these settings.

Once I’d done this, scrolling in the MX Master has been like butter.

Here’s the useful part of that thread:

Install Logitech Options+ (sigh) and set:

Logi Options+ (Plus): Customization App for Logitech Devices

What a gross bit of software, but it’s necessary here. I’ve read that once this process is done, I can delete the app completely, but I haven’t tried that yet.

• Scrolling speed: 0% (as the OP says, this is the most important option to set).
• Scroll direction: Standard (I would set it on Mos, but you have to pick one here anyway).
• Smooth scrolling: Off (also good to turn off, Mos will take care of it instead).
• SmartShift: On (If you want it).
• Sensitivity value: 95% (we’ll see, maybe I’ll take it down to 90%).

Install Mos:

Mos | Smooth your mouse

brew install mos

(Note that launching Mos required xattr -d com.apple.quarantine Mos.app)

• General > Smooth scrolling: On.
• Advanced > Step: 75.00 (at least in my resolution, anything lower than this is just not enough of a scroll per ratchet movement).
• Advanced > Speed: 3.50 (didn’t try too many others, but it seems to work in conjunction with the rest).
• Advanced > Duration: 3.90 (default value, haven’t played around with it yet).
• Now the ratchet action works as expected from a normal mouse, but when I give it a little nudge it goes into a free-spin and scrolls fast. I don’t know how much accuracy I’m getting with the free-spin yet, but to get to the bottom of a document, it’s great. I’ll update if I keep playing with these settings.

Once I’d done this, scrolling in the MX Master has been like butter.

I started free writing again a couple weeks ago, but this time I’m doing it digitally, using the AlphaSmart Neo 2.

I dove hard into “Morning Pages” after reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, but it didn’t last long. I mean, c’mon, there’s no way I can consistently write 3 lined pages, longhand, every morning.

The intended benefits of doing hard-core morning pages are lost on me, but I can get behind the practice of doing a little free writing each day. For me, it’s more like forced journaling.

My version of morning pages is more like “Morning Pages Lite”. I set a timer for ten minutes, press the On button, and start typing. Ten minutes is plenty long enough for me to uplug the tubes in my head. I’m not an artist, so that’s all I need.

I haven’t written morning pages longhand in quite a while. As much as I love journaling with fountain pens and paper, writing quickly for long periods as an exercise turns into a chore, and I don’t enjoy it.

For some reason, I didn’t post about it when I bought my first Neo, so I don’t remember when I got it. Around 2012, I think. I remember paying $25.

For digital journaling, using the Neo is fun and quirky and about as far as one can get from writing on a computer. It shows only four lines of text at a time. The keyboard isn’t fancy, but it’s fine. If I want to transfer my writing to a computer, I plug in a USB cable, open my text editor, and press “Send”, like this.

The last set of batteries I put in the Neo lasted nearly 3 years. That’s 3 years!

Free writing for a few minutes in the morning is something I find useful. Changing the way I do it once it a while keeps it interesting.