Hardware #
- M2 Max Macbook Pro: It’s a solid performer, and I don’t have many complaints outside of wishing this thing were upgradable in any form. I’m forever pining for a laptop that I can upgrade and repair if I want.
- Ultimate Hacking Keyboard: It’s a split keyboard that sounds delightful and feels better to type on. I opted for the hand rests and the mouse extension. I’ll never ever go back to a regular keyboard again.
- Magic Trackpad: I had wrist trouble, and it was less motion for me to use than a heavy mouse. I’m big on gestures, so this is nice.
Apps #
- Sublime Text: It has some nice integrations. I don’t have to go too deep with this app for what I do, but I like its find and replace functionality. Especially the regex features.
- Terminal: I’m not a full-time engineer by any measure. So this does just fine for me. I did up the font size, find a nice monospaced font, and made it black and green. You know, for vibes.
- Proton VPN: I like to browse with this on. I’ve noticed some places will lock you out if you’re on a VPN, which is silly to me.
- 1blocker: Uses Safari’s built-in content blockers that fire before the page even loads. It made things move so much faster and smoother for me. Like the VPN, some places get fussy when you have blocking on.
- Ivory for Mastodon: ever since leaving Twitter I’ve looked for a good community. I found it on Mastodon. And while the built-in web app is nice, Tapbots (who made the excellent Tweetbot) created an app that’s fun, has good integrations, and great filtering. They also support regex filtering, so you can have a lot of fun filtering out noise.
- iA Writer: I feel very focused when writing here.
- Notion: it’s how I organize my life.
- Co-star: I’m a fan of insight systems, and this app has thrown out some incredibly uncomfortable specific information about my life.
- The Pattern: Similar to Co-star, this app has a nice mapping to your astrological chart. It’s got helpful explainers about upcoming transits. Kind of like a personal astrologer.
Cloud Software #
- Vultr: cloud hosting provider.
- Nextcloud: I’m using this as a replacement for iCloud, because I switch between devices a lot.
- Fastmail: I didn’t want to run my own mail server, and I didn’t want it to be with a place that mines my data, so I moved to Fastmail.
Coffee & Tea #
I don’t drink coffee anymore because it made me an anxious mess, so I switched to matcha. I love making drinks for people, so coffee is still a part of my life.
I was lucky enough to have someone from Kyoto teach me the ceremonial method of making matcha, and it’s a ritual I do every day. Matcha also has a nicer, smoother release than coffee so there’s no icky angsty feeling in me anymore.
- Breville Bambino Plus: I like this because it has a milk steamer and it’s easy enough to clean. Don’t lose all the instructions on cleaning, I had a hard time sorting out the cleaning cycles later.
- Fellow Grinder: Being able to dial in the grind is important. It’ll vary if I’m doing a pour-over, moka pot, or a shot of espresso. It’s neat looking, quiet. My only wish is that the rubber gasket didn’t stain with coffee bean oil so easily.
- Fellow Storage: I need a place to store those beautiful beans, and this has a nice airtight seal.
- Fellow gooseneck kettle: I have tried a lot of kettles in my life. The way the spout on this is constructed is something else, let me tell you. It has virtually no splatter when you pour, even from some distance away from the vessel you’re pouring into. I also like that I can dial in the temperature and it holds, and it lets me use it for so many things in the kitchen.
- Ceremonial matcha: Naoki Matcha and thought this had the perfect blend of flavors, so it’s my go-to.
Sparkling Water Kegerator #
I drink a ton of sparkling mineral water. For years, Topo Chico has been my favorite. But I modified a kegerator to make my own mineral water. I’ll document all the kit I bought if someone wants me to. I plan to look into making my own nitro cold brews next.
Art #
I have a small but curated set of tools for making art. I’ve recently fell in love with Glowforge and working in resin. More to come on this.