I’ve been thinking a bunch about my fountain pen collection lately. I’m up to around 25 pens (I should probably count or something) most of which are relatively cheap ones that I got with the idea of trying a specific thing: a different nib, brand, filling mechanism, body material, size, etc. At this point I … Continue reading
For some reason, eink screens work significantly better for me when I have even the mildest of headaches, so my ereader has been an important accessibility device for me since it now means I can read something while I’m waiting for my painkillers to kick in. I currently use a Kobo Clara BW and aside … Continue reading
Yup, I bought the Pelikan Pura to replace my Pelikan Twist and I have zero regrets. Continue reading
It’s time to bid farewell to last year’s calendar, and set up a fresh one! I’m moving from the Traveler’s Notebook free monthly calendar to the KOKUYO Campus one, mostly because the latter is a bit bigger. (Spoiler: the squares are about 18% bigger.) Continue reading
I tried a Pelikan Twist for shimmer ink and it was noticeably better than any other pen I own. Continue reading
In my previous post about fiber goals I’d claimed not to have done anything new in July, but I forgot I made a book nook! It’s not apparent from the photo but it’s sized to fit on a bookshelf. This was a kit I bought online a year or two ago. I did decided some … Continue reading
This year’s goals were as follows: We’re a bit more than halfway through the year so let’s see where we’re at! Revisit Old Goals Started strong in January by finishing up a rainbow shawl that had been on the needles for quite some time: I’d intended to release the pattern since I had an old … Continue reading
We’ve reached August! House hunting is going ok but we’re back in the US while we push offers through our real estate agents. It was a good trip but I’m very happy to have air conditioning again: I had a few days without headache for the first time in two weeks once I got home. … Continue reading
I’m on a trip! I don’t travel as much as I used to, so I think this is the first time I’ve brought a vacuum filling pen on a plane. I picked up a Nahvalur Original Plus last year when I was collecting a bunch of different fountain pens mostly to see what would stick. … Continue reading
I decided to be a bit lazy with July’s stationary choices, so we’re continuing 2 pens from last month and just adding in the pen that I had been using for todo lists, and repeating the bunny sticker sheet that I hadn’t finished. I did get some new puppy stickers for my calendar (I’m currently … Continue reading
Catching up on some missed weeks now! My books Full Speed to a Crash Landing – I read the second one first so I had some idea of how this ended but wow it was fun to see how they got there. Kind of… space heist crossed with enemies to lovers vibes, but no resolution … Continue reading
Library materials returned June 15, 2025. Lots of games & graphic novels this week! Board Games Gravity Maze – a puzzle game where you drop a marble from a start point to an end point. Cards of different difficulties give you different setups. My kid really enjoyed the easy levels then got bored, which is … Continue reading
For anyone who hasn’t already heard: I got hit in the latest round of layoffs at work. I’m super excited about this since it gives me the ability to take the rest of the summer off to spend with my kid, something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Continue reading
Trying two new inks this month, and a new book cover for my journal! Also, if you’ve got tips for using shimmer inks better, one of my pens is already acting a bit clogged and we’re not even two weeks into the month, so I’d be happy to hear any advice! Continue reading
Trying something new: I haven’t been reviewing books because it takes a long time to write reviews on my phone, and I’d been working on reducing my phone screen time. But I’ve been using my computer more to write fanfic so I’m going to see if weekly book posts are more likely to happen now … Continue reading
Honestly, I was planning to phone this one in and just use some pens that had ink in them already because I was feeling so burned out partway through a week of solo parenting, but then I pulled out the stickers and the dopamine hit was good enough that I had a nice time putting … Continue reading
I had this idea to do some socks tracking how much time I was spending staring at my phone. A lot of knitters track things like temperatures, but that’s never really interested me, so I set about thinking about data that I’d like to track and could do with relatively minimal effort. (Some people may … 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
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
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