Jackie's Fridge

I use a Kaweco Sport as my daily driver.

Bonus: Nobody ever “borrows” it at work because it confuses and terrifies them.

I am so ready. I can’t believe it’s been almost two years, but I am gonna enjoy a rewatch between now & October

Oh good I was hoping M would make an appearance.

I’m a member of a Discord that is the primary source of discussion and information about a piece of hardware, including technical & usage tips, firmware announcements, etc. It’s a terrible way to track this stuff.

That said, the only other forums that have decent communities around it are Reddit, Facebook, and Elektronauts - none of which are even close to as active, but in which many of us will post important info & tips to get the news out. Over 3 years into the project (which is not open source) it would be ridiculous to try shifting the whole community to a new platform. We’re kinda stuck.

Luckily the community as a whole seems to realise this, so we happily answer noob questions over and over and provide links to the appropriate resources, discussions, and pinned posts without snark or judgement. We’ve all been there. It’s the nature of the beast, it’s not efficient, and it’s not the end of the world.

Finally, with the state of search engines in decline due to monetisation, encroachment of AI bloat, and general enshittification, it’s a matter of time before very little real information will be easily searchable. Insular communities who decide to withdraw and do everything their own, better way will likely become the norm. The internet needs a reset anyway.

I hate platitudes, but I did hear the saying something like grief is love with nowhere to go. The amount of suffering you feel is proportional to the amount of love you gave your cat, so it sounds like your cat was exceptionally lucky overall.

We lost our cat a few years ago. She was quirky and weird and sick her entire short life. She had lymphoma - the vet never even tested for it because she was too young. The day we were supposed to bring her home from an overnight stay was the day we had to put her down, and it scarred us deeply. My work sent me home, I was so useless. I cried for hours when I realised our other cat had stopped eating from half of the bowl they shared.

It sucks. It always sucks. It feels like it will never get better, and it won’t, but it’ll get dimmer. You’ll be able to remember the good stuff more often without the final moments crashing in. It just takes time.

For now if you have to wallow in despair, do it. You lost a loved one. It’s your right. Remember though, you’re going through all this because your pet didn’t have to. You held up your end of the deal, and your pet got a great life because you took the pain of loss away from them.

Our bidet doesn’t have an air dryer, so we did have to upgrade our paper from the cheap 1-ply stuff that turned to pulp on contact with any moisture. That said, we go through way less paper post-bidet.

As far as “daily driver” tech, Motorcycle is 43 years old. My razor is 103 years old. Luckily I’m closer in age to the motorcycle.

I was miffed when, in the early 90s, grunge swooped in and wrecked powerpop’s resurgence. MTV had Jellyfish in every corner, and seemingly overnight Nirvana took over.

In the search for harmonies, major key power chords, and jangly, summery guitars (not to mention hummable hooks galore) I had to dig.

The Well Wishers Dressy Bessy The Lolas The Beths The Dahlmanns The Riffbackers

And I know I’m missing so many more feel-good bands…

As a member of Gen X I’m over here watching Gen Z say “Oh that’s the game? Then we’re not playing” and cheering them on

Leatherman Juice Pro here. I use it almost every day, mostly the knife & pliers, but the tweezers, screwdrivers, and scissors get used about once a week.

I see the people saying why carry one - if they need tools they’ll just go to their toolbox. I do that too, but having this saves me the trip, and on more than one occasion, lots of time. I’ve done roadside car repairs with just the Leatherman, and around the house it’s nice to have immediate access to a capable set of tools without searching. I’ve even grabbed the wrong tool, got to the top of the ladder, and then just used the Leatherman because it was there.

You might not realise how often you really would use these, and they barely take up any room.

I got hooked when I first laid hands on a friend’s Monotribe some years ago. Now I’ve been over a year & a half with the Dirtywave M8 handheld tracker and it’s my favourite workstation bar none. Instant on, multiple synth engines, sampler, amazing sequencer, and lovely effects, all in a Game Boy sized package with a lightning-fast 8-button workflow. Insane that technology has come this far.

One of my tasks at work is creating content - blogs, social media posts, internal communication emails, etc. We are instructed to write everything at a 5th-grade level because that’s where the average American reads. Not the lowest-level American, the average.

I also get to do customer support for people who would not have to contact me if they had actually read the information I wrote for them.