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Clicky keyboard
October 17, 2018

A little poking

I finally got around to it. After much reading, listening to others and thinking about setups I finally did some actual programming of my Pok3r keyboard. After listening to others using US keyboard layouts for programming, after realizing repeatedly my Pok3r with Swedish keyboard layout is hopeless for coding, after looking down once again and seeing all those useful coding characters printed right there on the keys, I did the right thing: brought up system preferences and activated the US kebyoard layout.

Then

(That sounds immediate, but it really was another day or two of thinking and reading on and off.)

Then, I put the Pok3r manual on the left side of the screen, my own notes on the right and, very slowly and laboriously, activated the second layer of the keyboard and gave myself a useful way of typing those pesky Swedish characters. Now the Fn key plus a, s, or d give me å, ä, or ö respectively. Fn plus q, w, or e give me Å, Ä, and Ö. This because as far as I read I could not combine shift with Fn plus a key as a programmable unit. This could well be me misreading or misprogramming though, I did a couple of mistakes mainly centered around mixing up what the key labeled "win" actually did. Another smaller cause of mistakes was that the programming procedure had been somewhat refined since the manual I found was written. Thankfully the indicator lights showed the modes indicated by the manual so I was able to find out where I was after a couple of tries.

Having å, ä, and ö behind modifiers sounds slowing, and of course it is to an extent. The saving graces are the same as for using caps lock and i, j, k, and l for arrow keys: everything is on or much closer to the home row, and the required modifier key is on the opposite side of the keyboard.

I think I will like this. I am typing this using the setup and of course largely getting away easy because I type in English, but I have fun and enjoy re-learning where all the non-letter keys are.

October 14, 2018

Poor Groot

All right, time to get this off my chest.

This is my largest Groot.

I am Groot, on the roof I am Groot, on the roof

A true joy-sparking item, it made me happy as soon as i realized it existed, and even more so when I brought it home and took it out of the box.

However.

There was a little problem. I bought it well over a year ago (look!) and immediately started taking fun photos of it. Sharp-eyed readers might look at the above photo and identify the problem right away.

Yes, seconds after I took that photo, a gust of wind made the rather top-heavy Groot fall over backward and fall off the roof, only stopping once it hit the grassy ground five storeys below.

My chest still clenches up a little as I think about it. I ran downstairs, feeling bottomlessly stupid and was, first of all, relieved to find that nobody or nothing had got hit.

The second relief was that Groot itself had taken the fall surprisingly well.

Groot … relaxing in the grass Groot … relaxing in the grass

The arms were rather fractured, and a large-ish chip had been taken out of the back of the head, but I managed to find almost all the pieces and put Groot together again using a handy bottle of super glue.

Still, that feeling in my chest has stayed for a long time. I feel terrible about doing this stupid thing to something I care about, something which makes me happy. I can start distrusting myself, wondering what kind of reckless behavior this might foreshadow in the futuer.

But the whole reason this happened is of couse that it's a plastic toy, stupid! Toys are made to be played with!. Clearly this argument doesn't quite bite since I keep questioning if this whole thing turns me into a bald person.

In any case, time to move on. Publish this, photographic evidence and all, and move on.

I am Groot.

Oh, Groot.

October 02, 2018

Books I have read

Books and other literature I have read, in, somewhat uncertain, reverse chronological order. The list starts from the summer of 2008, and my main purpose with it is to be able to see what I have actually been reading. I do feel that I read many quite good books, but I never seem to be able to recall what I have recently read when asked for recommendations.

Apple watch
September 26, 2018

365

I have owned and worn my Apple watch for a year. A year of filling rings, of learning to live with rings and the want to fill them. Have I learned anything? Will there be another year?

My watch a year ago My watch a year ago

The watch a year ago. Darn, I miss that shirt.

My watch a year later My watch a year later

Most of what I wrote after one hundred days remains completely valid. Not least when it comes to the watch as an accessory and object I enjoy in and of itself. I still regularly swap bands, and I enjoy switching to a pleasingly minimal and stylish watch face whenever I am not looking at the activity face to keep track of my rings. I feel Watchos 5 (which was just released) has given it another boost: everything feels a little bit snappier and my gradually increasing trouble swiping sideways vanished completely.

Scars

Side scratches on the watch Side scratches on the watch

After being through a year, the watch has some dignified bruises to show for it. I am not sure how I managed to scratch it right between the crown and the button, but it clearly was easy. My prime suspects for picking up scratches and dents are a move it has been through, along with two holiday weeks where I spent some time with it in swimming pools and the ocean. I was nervous, but of course it handled the water without a problem. Even so, I still take it off before I step into the shower.

Those rings though

Yeah, I can not stop filling them. Which is, still, I think, mostly a good thing. I consider more activities "valid" exercise, and feel can feel good about filling my rings whether it is from carrying moving boxes all day, a few long bike rides, or a classic run in the forest.

But, I also very much game the system to fill the red ring reliably. The way my mind works, if I have a task to accomplish in a day, I will feel much more relaxed if I get it done by any means necessary first. Then I can relax and do it better if needed. That means I start indoor walking activities whenever possible (reasonable, semi-reasonable, or kinda-reasonable-if-you-squint) until the ring fills for the day. Then I may well do other activities which would fill the ring up by themselves, but my habit firmly remains to get the box ticked as soon as possible, whenever possible.

On the plus side, I feel no guilt about it. Gaming a system and feeling guilty about it sounds about as bad as it could get. Instead, I feel it is a poorly designed system which has made me find ways to not get as caught up in it as it wants me to be.

What I really should do is of course stop. Ignore the rings, relax and live a somewhat more relaxed life instead, letting the watch track what I do instead of letting it push me to do things. But it does work. It does motivate me, and even if I despise its stupidity I feel good about getting to set my own terms by gaming the system.

I am clearly thinking in circles here. Time to move on.

Moving on

One thing is for sure: I have not tired of the watch. I will keep wearing it, and if it broke down today I would most likely get a series 4 right away.

September 21, 2018

Friday evening

Writing regularly

and reading what you write every now and then

can be pretty good for memory and perspective.

I sat down, deeply clicky keyboard on my lap, to write this, took a look at my last post here and realized that it was three whole weeks ago. Three weeks ago I was starting to feel settled in in this apartment. Now, a blink of an eye later it feels both like we have come so much farther, and made a lot less progress at the same time.

Mostly, I land on the side of a lot having happened.

There are lights, Hue and not.

There are so many fewer boxes.

A larger amount of major furniture than I expected has been bought or at least seriously investigated.

What remains is starting to feel like regular living in a place: there are always nice to haves, things which could be improved with the right idea or the right amount of rainy days to put into it. On the whole though, those things do not get in the way of day to day life.

Well, except those boxes of kitchen stuff we can not yet unpack.

I guess some pictures and paintings should go up at some point too.

That piece of furniture will be sold some day.

Oh, and those shelves are just full of things we threw up to get started. They could be sorted through and made so much nicer.

One day.

One day, but not today. Okay, tonight.

Tonight I click the keyboard, listen to the wind outside, drink some bubbles and think about podcasting.

For example, Merlin Mann mentioned on some show how early he was on Macbreak weekly. So now, for some reason, I am listening to episode three. From August 31st, 2006.

I am unsure when I first listened to a podcast, but there is something fascinating about listening to talk about really old Apple news in a format I associate with many years later.

It is made more surreal by some of the voices being the same ones I regularly listen to nowadays. Did they travel back in time, pick up some older microphones and slower connections and just sat down to talk?

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