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Passing thoughts and sharper blades

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Breaking out the magnifying glass so I can see what I was doing, not sure if this proves that I am in-fact a pain-in-the-ass, or just evidence the guide on my sharpener isn’t suitable for pocket knives. Perhaps those aren’t mutually exclusive πŸ˜†.

On the flip side, my most heavily used pocket knife is now the sharpest it’s been in years. So, at least that’s progress. Given my plan to regularly rotate blades between my EDC and my household utility knife, I’ll probably have to relearn by the time it next needs more than a little honing. But I’m still going to call this progress.

Writing Instruments (future)

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Recently, I’ve made a few additions which are tied to my previous entry on writing instruments. New pens and pencils for the first time in years.

On the pen side, two additions from Fisher: the shuttle style Space Pen and the Bullet. The former, mainly because it’s a little piece of American history. Thus, I was sorely tempted by the AG7, but had to settle on the SH4 since it’s meant for household use not collecting dust. There’s also the fact that I come from the age of the Space Shuttle program rather than the Apollo program. I’d also like to think it should lead to no more “Dang it, why are you out of ink!? It’s only been 15-20 years!” Which is what has left the Zebra F-301s as the last functional pens I had. The latter, because I was looking for a compact pen that’s suitable for pocket carry: for those of us who don’t want to carry a damn pen.

There are times I’m left wanting, like buying coffee at Sprouts Farmer’s Market and typically end up using my phone’s camera as a substitute for a pencil. Because Good Freaking Luck spotting where their pencil ended up! My idea anyway, is the bullet is small enough to toss in a pocket with my comb and AirPods, and forget about until actually needed. The cap creates a decent writing size when stuck on the back, and covered or sans cap, it’s about the size of the little pencils we used to use with a compass and household chores when I was a kid. Except you won’t stab yourself in the leg 😜.

For me, it’s kind of an amusing twist of sorts. The Zebras aren’t expensive, they were probably $3.50 to $4 for the pair when I bought them in the grocery store some years back. At the most! I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them for nearly half that in my lifetime. Presently, the same model is around $6 – $7 on Amazon for a pair. More if you want a 4-pack. The Bullet on the other hand was $30 and it’s for a role where realistically, it can get lost or stolen. When I was a kid, asking my mom for a pair of F-301s was in that category “You better not lose or break the damn thing.” Needless to say, we had a lot of disposable pens and very few refillable ones when I was a child. Suffice it to say, the Fishers are beyond what I’d ever imagined paying for a pen without taking up drawing comics or calligraphy as a hobby.

Yes, I am fundamentally a cheapskate at heart. But, I also learned that if you are going to solve a problem: then solve it so it doesn’t come back again. Realistically, I expect the refillable pens to outlive me, provided that I don’t use them as an emergency crowbar and that cartridges remain available.

Now, enter the one that gives me glee: Uni’s Kuru Toga Elite. This is the first good mechanical pencil I’ve ever bought myself, and the second mechanical pencil I’ve ever had that has any concept of quality. I was able to get one with replacement leads and erasers on sale for the price of the pencil. I’m pretty sure that my younger self would’ve had a stiffy at that. Compared to the SharpWriters I’ve had to make do with, it’s a joy to use. Hell, it even rotates the lead to wear level the tip!

Mechanical pencils are hardly a new thing. They’ve existed for at least two or three hundred years, and the old Eversharps became a thing around the time my grandparents were born. By the time I was a teenager, they weren’t quite the same scale as free pens but still quite common everyday items. As an adult, I generally found mechanical pencils to be ubiquitous. Although the good quality professional grade sort, tend to be far rarer outside of engineering fields. I’d classify the Kuru Toga in that scope.

I’ve always found mechanical pencils a tad fascinating. Partly, because I’ve rarely had the opportunity to use or enjoy writing with them. Since they’re fidget-able like clicking a ballpoint, I was promptly barred from using our scant few mechanicals when I was like 4 years old or something like that. Thus, by the time I was responsible enough to be trusted with such a writing instrument, and you know, could actually write, the only real resource was ye’ ol’ pencil.

If someone had given me one of these Kuru Toga during the peak of my handwriting, i.e., my teens, I would probably have leapt for joy and hoarded the pencil leads.

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Writing Instruments (past)

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When I moved, most if not all of my remaining pencils went bye, bye. The majority of them likely the previous time before that, since I’ve largely been paperless my adult life. In so much as I can without going unduly out of my way, I’ve mostly avoided paper when possible.

Part of this of course owes to computers becoming more prevalent, and part of it towards my teenage self having to compete with my mother’s business for available paper, lol.

Yet, there is always the eventually need to write something, sooner or later.

I’ll also admit that since eliminating cursive script from much of my writing, I actually don’t hate writing. I never hated writing itself. Rather, I hate being forced to deal with papers and forms, which take up lots of space and are a far bigger pain in the arse to search than digital files. The majority of my handwriting in the 21st century is defined by a stylus to a tablet screen. But sometimes one does need instruments to write on actual paper.

Some years ago, I picked up a cheap pair of Zebra F-301s and some Paper Mate SharpWriters. That was enough to ensure that I don’t have to go out and buy a damn pen or pencil for the few occasions a year I actually have to use paper.

What Zebra calls a cheap pen was always that cool space aged pen as far as my childhood self was concerned, and they are actually older than me πŸ˜…. They’re not great pens per-se, but the F-301s are plenty sufficient while the ink cartridge lasts. Pardoning my favorite pen from high school, (model unknown) they’ve fit the category of “You’ll do.” There’s also the advantage, that unlike a bushel of Bic/Biro Pens, they might not outlive me for the amount of use I require.

I’d also refill said favorite pen if I ever could figure out how to dismantle it and dig up a refill, but that’s a different problem. It’s just some silvery clad pen that you twist to open and retract that I was gifted around the time I started high school. Sadly though, the only obvious way to open it is the tip’s cowl, and short of squeezing it off with a pryers, it doesn’t twist, so I’ve never been able to open it. The matching mechanical that it came with also opened that way for refilling, although its cowl went missing eons ago.

Given that sharpening pencils was more a necessary evil than a preference growing up, I had figured the cheap-o mechanicals would be sufficient. If nothing else, they’re easier to store than a traditional pencil, since the lead retracts. That’s about the only good thing about them. Side confession: I’ve ordered a box of pencils, partly because I’d like to try sharpening them artist style and partly because I really hate those damned SharpWriters.

I’d say that the SharpWriters are to mechanical pencils what Bic pens are to the disposable pen. Except that feels like it would be insulting Marcel Bich. Say what you will about cheap pens, but I’d say LΓ‘szlΓ³ BΓ­rΓ³ and Marcel Bich at least made a positive impact on the problem. In my live, I’ve used plenty of Paper Mates that I don’t hate, even some that I’ve liked, but the SharpWriters are trash in my experience. Literally, I’d rather use a traditional pencil.

But that brings me to the subject of what’s replacing these. For that, I’ll make a separate post, now that I’m done with the rambling πŸ˜†

Cardboard, meet your doom!

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The first field test against a non-soft target: destroying some old furniture boxes that have been piling up, waiting for me to grumble-grumble break these down into smaller pieces that will actually fit in my recycling bin.

Now, none of these are particularly challenging targets for a sharp knife. Even a decent dull knife could do the job given enough size/weight, if you don’t care about safety, in which case please go sharpen your shit and learn better. One can also do it with scissors, if you’re truly a glutton for finger and wrist punishment or just want to take an hour for a 5-10 minute job.

Test candidates: the Squid XM, the Praxis, and the Paraframe I.

Results? I’d score them in that order.

The Squid is “Holy crap, are you sure this is a knife?” level affective. I don’t know if its thanks more to whoever designed the blade, or who designed the factory machines sharpening and going them in production. But it’s a clear success. This is what I imagine a katana would be like if you shrunk it down to the size of a finger length. Whether slicing or stabbing, it murders harder grade cardboard like a champion. Perhaps the most expensive (~$60) but worth it.

The Praxis while not quite as impressive, is exactly what I would expect out of a sharp knife. What it doesn’t cut as smoothly as the Squid, the Praxis’s larger, more spade like blade helps work through. It greatly solves the equation where I need more heft or leverage not just cutting efficiency, something that the smaller knives in my collection just can’t offer whether or not they’re good at slicing stuff. That’s especially a negative of my weatherman, where it’s a surprisingly good blade but not a good form factor. The Praxis is also a very comfortable deep carry and decently priced ($50, and I got it for $42).

Using the Paraframe is also what I would expect out of a sharp knife, but its smaller size betrays while I chose the Praxis over a Praxis Mini for my first flipper. Whichever holds its edge better over time, the Paraframe’s smaller size is a handicap. For murdering breaking down things like a coffee table box where the unfolded box is practically a bed size, I would worry about a dull blade that size becoming a liability. But being brand knew, that’s not a problem and it was quite effective. My main complaint is that it’s still very compact to the point that it’s almost a two-hand open, but it’s quite effective. Considering it’s a $35 blade I got for $22, I can’t really complain.

Me thinks the remaining backlog of boxes will disappear quite nicely πŸ˜†

Knives old, recent, and new

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Given two new additions, I’m not sure if I’ve inadvertently started a collection or I’m just now well stocked.

The knives on the left are ones I’ve had a long time. The little Wenger used to ride my keychain as a spare, something that I purchased as a replacement for one of my dad’s that unfortunately made a trip to an airport in the 2010s. The smaller Gerber STL became my “Kitchen knife, utility” and letter opener about ten years ago. You can safely say, I’m not a scissors kind of guy. I received the Ozark Trail as a gift from someone at my old job, it rode my belt for quite a few years until becoming my goto for household use. I used to carry a Leatherman Juice S2 multitool as my EDC, but after it disappeared about 3 years back, I went with the green Leatherman T4 as a replacement.

In the middle are two knifes that I bought for Christmas. A larger Gerber STL to replace its little brother, because I always wished that dainty little knife was bigger and it’s held up superbly. The Gerber Paraframe was selected because of how well the little STL 2.0 held up despite being disposable cheap. It was mainly intended to either replace the Ozark as my “Knife, Household Utility” or the Leatherman as my daily pocket knife. Since Christmas, it’s done the latter. Doesn’t really do it for me, but nothing wrong with it either.

The new additions are the two knives on the right side: a Civivi Praxis and a CKRT Squid XM. The Praxis was selected for two reasons: that I really like the larger size of the Ozark Trail, and that I personally find the Paraframe hard to open one handed. Another reason is that I’ve never had a “Flipper.” Having grown up in an age where thumb-nicks, pocket knives like my dad’s Schrade slip-joints, and ye-ol’ Swiss Army Knife were still popular designs, I was always rather content with the newer frame/liner locks, which have probably been around as long as I have. The Squid, I bought because the original model interested me, but like the Gerber’s would just be a bit too small for my hands. The newer assisted model is larger, solving all of those concerns. I’m still tempted to pick up one of the originals, since those are cheap.

Based on initial impressions, these are looking like good additions. They fit the metric where I rather prefer the larger size and solve the qualms that I have about the paraframe. I’m pretty sure the full sized Praxis has the perfect hand grip of the lot, and the Squid is probably the perfect size for me. Neither is as cheap as the others, but still in the realm of buy a new one instead of crying over it. I’ve never believed in crazy-expensive blades, especially ones that may get lost or sacrificed in an emergency.

Ironically of all the existing ones, my favorite all these years has been the Ozark Trail with the tan handle. It’s the one I would be saddened if it were destroyed or damaged. I think they were like $14 a pop when Clay bought them at Wally World, but they were like the best cheap ass find ever. Most went to his folks in the production department, those working more closely with hardware and shipping. I was lucky enough to be included despite being a software engineer, it was a great gift. On one hand, there’s sentimental value. Basically the highest aside from my dad’s, most of which are purely keepsakes now. On the other…it’s just been so damned useful!

When it’s come to needing a knife for odds and ends at home, it’s usually been the first reach for anything outside of cooking. In my apartment, it took up a position on the counter outside my kitchen for quick access. In my current home, I’ve kept it in the hallway near the kitchen, so that it’s always handy when I’ve needed a blade. My only complaint is it’s been so handy for household use since I moved, that I ended up not carrying it anymore. The Leatherman T4 has a much better blade than my old Juice S2 had, but is a jack of all trades and master of none when you really need to cut things.

At this point however, I think I now have enough knives that any of them can be rotated for regular carry. The larger ones, should be suitable for home use as well. When shopping for Christmas, my thinking was either of the new Gerber knives might replace the Ozard for household needs, or at least make a passable one for regular carry since I’ve never really liked the T4. Guess we’ll see how that plays out :).

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Upside of testing surround sound with Godzilla Minus One: it’s got everything from dialogue to roars and explosions.

Downside: β€œI must not turn an entire wall into a projector screen just to enjoy TV…”

πŸ˜‚

Random irony

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A couple days ago, the top sheet I’ve used as a light blanket tore, after probably 15 years of being used. I used to keep it apart, so when the dogs stole my blankets I’d still have something and it kind of evolved into being what I wrap myself with at my desk, etc.

In shopping for a possible replacement, I came across a blanket that I decided to order in the hopes of replacing it, since the woobie is a bit too warm for the same use cases.

The part that makes me snortle about the irony of it all? It’s expected to arrive the same day as a winter storm and several inches of snow!

Thoughts on Home Audio

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In general, I haven’t cared too much about whole home audio, but have had that available long enough to not really care.

The first setup I had for that, was based around Chromecast almost a decade ago. The 5.1 Vizio surround sound system I had in my apartment had Chromecast support, and the Chromecast Audio was very cheap and very effective when paired with the AUX/Line-In on the analog based Logitech 2.1 that was hooked up to my desktop. No real complaints about the multi-room audio support, although the sound system was enough to fill my apartment.

Sadly, those both audio devices went the way of the trash heap over the years. And I haven’t really used the Chromecast audio since the move to Desktop=Games, Laptop=Desktop. The move from Android to iPad tablet made that less of a concern, since the iPad Pro was only secondary to the surround sound system in terms of speaker quality at home, and could fill my entire apartment with music almost as easily.

The second setup, which is still in use, is an Alexa based one. Over a lustrum, things expanded from a simple puck based Dot, to an orb with a clock. Enough to easily have the audio controls over my shit in the bedroom and kitchen/living room space of my apartment. These days, one of those is still on my headboard and the other is in my kitchen/dining area; and I bought a Pop to gain Alexa control in the study.

Because of how good Nerine’s speakers were, I never really cared too much about the whole home audio was, even after losing the surround-sound setup. Doing multi-room audio with Alexa worked well enough in my experience. But in practice, I only tend to need current room audio and at most, briefly next room audio. The kicker however, is that what audio device I’m playing from can vary. It’s usually going to be my tablet, but it might be my laptop, or my phone, or one of the experiment earlier this year, etc, and sometimes my devices change.

That’s kind of what lead to the Roam 2 solution. I was never really impressed with the Echo Dots for music playback, but they were good enough for anything not an iPad Pro. Since Nerine’s retirement, that’s now basically the case for anything, because the Mini can’t beat the Pro on listening to music, lol.

For me, the dots have always been more about whole-home Alexa control than whole-home audio. But really, both have been a pain in the ass in recent years. Generally, I liked Alexa control. As a voice assistant, it worked better than Siri which has always been rather meh for me and unlike Google’s, doesn’t tend to make me rage-monkey. Let’s just say, Google’s voice assistant wasn’t a concern when I left the Android eco-system.

Since Amazon’s cutting up of their Alexa division, I’ve generally found myself going more “Why do I even bother” at how well my Alexa control works, both in terms of voice recognition and third party things. Enough so, that I mostly consider its days numbered at this point. Since discovering that my watch can handle “Hey Siri, turn on the book lights,” I’m even more considering the end of Alexa control. As meh as my relationship with Siri is, when it works, it does actually work.

E.g., if my typical use case is like, “Alexa, turn on the book lights,” as I’m changing my clothes after work–there’s two ways this exchange can end. Either the lights turn on by the time my belt’s off, or I may as well go out of my way to do it by hand. Let’s just say that I’ve become grateful over the last couple years that the controllers for my Nanoleaf lights are easily accessible, and that they use a capacitive button that doesn’t make me worry about straining the adhesives.

That’s how much my relationship with Alexa control has soured in the last two years compared to how well it worked (let’s Alexa all the rooms) ~five years ago.

In terms of a Bluetooth speaker for the current room though, I’m basically calling the Alexa setup a dead stick. Much more than saying “Pair phone” and hoping the current Dot connects to my tablet, and it’s more bother than it’s worth. Pairing new devices typically ended with grumbles like the Dot connecting to my actual phone not the device I’m using, issues in getting it to connect to the device I’ve named, and the joyous fun that is connecting a new device–even if using the Alexa app.

So, a portable speaker is looking to be a good plan. Off sale, the Roam 2 costs a bit less than my surround sound system did, and on sale closer to what replacement for my JBLs were looking like on a purely Bluetooth front.

I think Sonos is too damn expensive for building my next surround sound system, and may be too expensive for my taste in terms of equipping a speaker per major room, even if I exclude the smart home control as a factor. Really, for downstairs it would make more sense to just migrate from Fire TV to Apple TV for being able to use an AirPlay target–when I eventually go surround-sound. Since the Vizio’s demise, I’ve just made due with the TV’s integrated speakers and been glad that they don’t sound like ass.

For the short to medium term plans though, both audio and smart home control are on the agenda. For right now though, AirPlay -> Roam 2 -> take it with me, is looking to be a good plan. Plus in the study, my laptop is usually docked with the Pebbles on, making it a dandy AirPlay target.

Server Recovery

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There are rare occasions when I am glad to be both smarter than the average computer user, and a touch paranoid. Today has proven to be one of those times.

Earlier today, my file server’s RAID enclosure managed to take a ThinkPad to the face, and this lead to a great circle of profanity upon the discovery that said server was no longer seeing a disk label. Turns out that managed to nudge the mode switch (which of course some arsehole put on the front) and depress the power button sufficiently to switch modes to combined disks. Of course, switching back wiped out the metadata and so on.

But because I’m a right pain in the ass myself and the first reaction to going from a Master / Backup drive pair to a RAID 1 redundancy was roughly, “Ahh shit, now I need a third drive for the backups,” I only lost data since yesterday at about 0102 UTC when I backed up the array to my NVMe drive. Which largely amounts to having to re-upload some recent files to the server’s Music share, rather than 100 GB of family photos that aren’t offsite so frequently.

Being the anal retentive pain in the ass that I am, the restore process is even relatively simple for the file shares since it’s roughly reformat drive, run script for each share, copy files for each share, verify permissions / access control lists / ownership / contexts / yada, yada. I’m too paranoid not to already know that the backup procedure will work, because how the fuck would I have migrated the data the first time? 😁

The catch? Well, the virtual machines weren’t backed up but were being stored on the array. It’s been on my todo list to study the best way to handle backing them up automatically. Only one virtual machine actually had any local data of consequence, and was the authoritative name server for my LAN’s domain. Except I kind of don’t need to worry about that for three reasons:

  • Name servers two and three are configured so that either can be converted to take over the job with a minimal fuss.
  • Their topology was chosen so only resolving local domains would fail if name server one fails longer than the pair serving my LAN caches.
  • Name servers one, two, and three are each automatically backed up every night to, you guessed it, the file server!

Which means name server one’s sudden demise fits into the “important but not urgent” quadrant of my Eisenhower matrix, and affords cause to revisit the issue of how the VM’s should be managed on Zeta.

Also while I’m at it, I’ve repositioned Zeta’s RAID enclosure to make it much harder for anything to hit that fucking button and switch. I might build a proper safety cover just to be extra paranoid, lol.

Off to a Good Start

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Despite having very little desire to leave the warm comforts of bed, I managed to open my eyes, get cleaned up, put the laundry on, and head downstairs and begin making breakfast. Next experiment was definitely a success: bacon, egg, cheese, spring onion, and steamed sweet potatoes wrapped up in a burrito. As an experiment, I opted to try a friend’s method of wrapping around the strip of bacon and skip crumbling it into the scramble; and enjoyed the extra slices on the side.

Of course, I wasn’t smart enough to put the coffee on between the bacon and eggs, but alas it means more coffee for right now! Plus as I sit down to coffee, the dryer is now loaded and it will certainly be time for another cup by the time I have to fold laundry.

For me, it’s kind of a rare morning. I almost never buy bacon, so it’s not something that I consume a lot of, but at 105mg a slice the lower sodium stuff was too tempting to pass up. Between the blood pressure of late, and the age old problem of using it all before it goes to waste, I don’t think I’ve actually bought bacon in several years, but it was worth it πŸ˜‹ even if I shouldn’t make a habit of it.