My new favorite kitchen knife. They’re fairly affordable and I love the form factor of the Nakiri, and given I eat mostly vegetables, it’s the most useful knife in my collection.
So I started the year by buying a whole bunch of ceramic keycaps from Cerakey for my Ultimate Hacking Keyboard. I liked them, but then I found YUZU, which offers an Ultimate Hacking Keyboard layout. The hardest part of owning a UHK is the fact that so many of its keys are non-standard sizes and customization takes way too much effort. YUZU’s layout made it so easy to get a full keyset in one go, rather than ordering a bunch of one-off custom keys. Perfect, and now I have my full “clickiness” back.
If you’re reading my blog, I probably don’t have to tell you a lot about MacBooks. But this M4 chip is awesome. My last MBP was the last of the Intel processors and kind of sluggish at this point (and the battery was shot). I still need it for development, but this is amazing in comparison.
Recent health changes have made it harder to get down to my office, where I have my M1 Mac Studio (which I love but will gladly update if and when a newer processor is available). So I’m mostly working upstairs, and this M4 MBP is my daily driver most days. I have zero complaints, other than missing my Ultimate Hacking Keyboard.
I finally filled up my Synology, between backing up 5 computers, storing movies and TV shows, and general archiving. So I bought the expansion and loaded it up with another 40TB of storage. I think I can work with that.
NAS-approved hard drives get expensive, and I keep a couple extra around in case I’m ever unemployed and drives start failing, with me unable to shell out a few hundred for a replacement. Thanks to the expansion I now have two hot-swap drives and two brand new, uninstalled drives, so I should be good for a while. I’ve only had one drive fail since I got the Synology, but I know there’s a life expectancy.
I have different-sized ear canals. My right ear just won’t hold an earbud no matter what size cup I put on it. Thus, no earbuds work for me. I wish I could use AirPods, but no. I love my Sonos Ace over-ear headphones (like, a lot), but for watching TV quietly or listening to music when I’m walking the dog, they’re not ideal. I need to hear what’s going on around me, and they’re bulky. So I got into bone conduction headphones. They never make my ears sore, the sound quality is pretty astounding, they leave your ears completely open, and they don’t bleed sound for others to hear. They’re awesome for me. In addition to the CHENSIVE ones, I also use a pair of SHOKZ OpenRun Pro, which are waterproof and sound amazing.
When I’m listening to music at home, I love bass (sometimes). I know audiophiles frown on messing with the engineer’s EQ, but a decent portion of the music I enjoy is just more fun with throbbing bass. So I got a subwoofer. To make it work with my setup, I also needed a PreSonus MicroStation BT 2.1 Monitor Controller, which adds a sub out and Bluetooth connection.
I used to think I just wanted all of my lights as bright as they could be. But it turned out that what I was actually missing was color. Govee lights were the most affordable way to add remote-controllable lights all over my office, from hexagonal artwork on the wall behind me to standing lamps on the sides, to light bars behind my monitor… I love the options I get. I can press a button on a remote (or using Alexa, limited functionality with Siri) and turn my whole office warm or cool, and I have settings like “fireplace” that adds red and yellow lighting with a slow, comforting “flicker,” or one I call “womb” that lights up my office in a soothing pink glow. I love that one when I’m doing IFS work with my therapist over Zoom…
Given the amount of work I’m doing from the couch these days, I bought a new one. It’s really nice, but the arms of it do not hold a laptop safely. I found this arm table on Etsy and I love it. The maker worked with me to get the exact right size, and now the sofa arm is perfect for holding my laptop, my dinner, my movie-watching snacks, remote controls, etc. I do have a side table, but this is way more convenient and within reach.
Anyone who knows me well knows I love raccoons. My partner knitted me one that I admittedly sleep with. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 makes me sob (and I’ve watched it five times now). So I buy a lot of raccoon-themed stuff. This painting hangs in my living room and I adore it. I also found a new favorite coffee mug.
One of my dearest friends from college married an amazing artist. She mostly does pen/ink/watercolor paintings of mushrooms, minerals, and insects, and they’re amazing. I have several of her pieces, and this one is my latest acquisition. It’s so cool. I got the sticker version for my new laptop, too.
In the process of building my ceramic keycap set out, I had to fill in some of the UHK’s non-standard sizes. I found these Manta Ray keycaps and used them for the whole mod-key row. At the 1u size they glow nicely with backlighting. (At wider sizes they’re opaque. Still pretty, but they don’t glow.) I have a few extra laying around now that I have the YUZU set, so if you’d like some, contact me.
Sure, I was into keycaps this year, but I also wanted to try some new keyboards. I built a Sophie but didn’t love it. After the time dump that was, I wasn’t anxious to build another one unless I was sure I was going to like it. I found this pre-assembled Lily58 on Etsy for a decent price, and picked it up. I’m still programming it, and I have no intention of ditching my UHK, but it was a nice way to try out other options.
Well, that was kind of a weird collection. I know you didn’t ask what I spent money on this year, but I told you anyway. You’re welcome.
BrettTerpstra.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees when linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
