1) Apple Watch. I have been moving a lot more since I got my watch. I also check my phone less often now. 2) Vari standing desk. Replacing my old IKEA desk with a sturdy standing-desk has been great.
2) iPad + Apple Pencil. I can access the ever-elusive flow state by drawing/sketching/coloring with the drawing program ProCreate.
It’s a great trade-off; because it pays people’s salaries, keeps animals out of kill-shelters, and benefits tertiary programs who may train or otherwise aide these unwanted animals.
A price I’m happy to pay.
What I did was search for a few simple Procreate youtube tutorials and mimic them. I found these ones good--even if the end product isn't something you are aiming for, you get the basics down in creating them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqRhbjUQ7Qg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJQpezkDuCQ&t=876s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZI-qM7PdDM
I've tried Adobe Sketch and a couple other smaller names, and Procreate is the best to me so far. It has a HUGE community behind it, so similar to a popular programming library like React, you'll be able to find a ton of online resources to help you.
Loved the thing so far. I just hope they come out with a 16" ipad eventually.
I've also downloaded all my kindle books and my spotify library, so between drawing, reading, and music/podcasts, it has everything I need to keep me entertained.
It just makes things so much easier such as taking handwritten notes and sharing it
Digital notes are totally different than writing on paper.
Beautiful as a notebook. Lackluster if you want it as an artist and you plan on using the drawings you make as anything other than a png.
I happy with mine :D.
I chose to purchase a Rakuten Kobo Libra H2O, which is pretty good for my uses. I imagine the equivalent (but higher priced) Kindle Oasis to be as good or better. I went with the Kobo with the idea that I'd rather competition in this space not shrink further (though I doubt my actions matter much).
Absolutely fantastic, though I have a few bright spots because I am very blasé about just throwing it in my bag, so I'd probably think about getting a flip cover for my next one.
The only annoyance is the mobi format restriction, but it's quite easy to convert epub in calibre and then you can just email it to your kindle. Having the app on my phone too means I can continue a book in a queue/taxi/bus if I've not the kindle with me.
It's not worth getting the one with internet connection if they still have that, the rare cases I want to buy a book on the go, I just make a hotspot with my phone.
Basically my favourite bit of tech.
I have the kindle and pocket apps. It has its own reader for ePub pdf etc.
I also bought this one because of a sale. I think the same company makes both because of how similar they are. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08DKYBTPH/
It's definitely big enough to cook an entire chicken. If a single person were asking, I'd probably recommend a 6qt or even 4 just for space saving reasons.
Buy the kind with a basket, not the kind with doors and pull out trays. I had this one also, https://m.ninjakitchen.com/exclusive-offer/SP101WBKT/ninja-f..., and I hate everything about it and sold it finally. Cooks worse, impossible to clean, hard to shake. With a style similar to the first two links, just pull the basket handle, shake, reinsert. Easy.
The main issue I have had is the cooking tray gets gross fast and it seems very difficult to properly clean.
Coffee: Kalita 185 pour over coffee maker. Inexpensive, high quality coffee. Also the porlex mini burr grinder.
Software: IntelliJ Ultimate/Clion for rust dev. Historically a VS Code guy but jetbrains products are great when you have enough horse power to run them.
Speakers: UE mega boom 3. Waterproof & great sound.
Book: Victor Frankls man’s search for meaning.
Food: Eggplant for this parm https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bas-best-eggplant-parmesan
Charity: Donating to Wikipedia. We need them.
Remarkable 2 - maybe it's first because I just got it 4 weeks ago, but it's amazeballs. I'm a paper notebook monster and I've replaced them all.
Udemy Course: Artificial Intelligence Reinforcement Learning in Python (by Lazy Programmer)
Elixir accoustic guitar strings 0.13
I made many other purchases, but as you state, but for better or worse, the charity makes me truly feel the best, so my wife and I donated to.
Wikipedia Humane Society local college radio station A small zoo Movable Feast My alma mater
2. Garmin Edge 830 bike computer. Also wonderful piece of engineering, again feels like a thing and doesn't add any overhead to rides as a phone with Komoot or some other app does. Now I'm thinking that a non-sensor-screen 820 would be a better choice.
3. Mountain bike, Ghost Kato 7.9 2019. I'd go for full suspension next time for sure, but it still opened a whole new world of unpaved roads around the city for me.
Now I don't have any problems! I thought given it was relatively cheap (last time I looked half a decade or more ago they were closer to €100), it would not be very good and wobble, but it's rock solid. 10/10 would buy again.
[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Single-Monitor-Mount-Articulating-Adj...
Life-changing event -- as my chronic nagging RLS has finally gone, and I can finally sleep like a baby again, after many years.
I'm taking now ~1000 mg/day, for time being, self-medicated.
I should have measured blood levels before and after.
I found the idea of spending so much on something so indulgent difficult at the time but it brings me immeasurable joy, so ultimately no regrets.
I'm afraid I don't have any good secrets to share on that front. Online purchases I've made mostly through sellers on Discogs. Some are better than others. I'm in the UK and most sellers who stock Congolese records seem to be based in France, postage can be a pain sometimes. afro7.net has some interesting 7" records from time to time.
I've been trying to get back out to Africa for a while, but plans have been put on hold. Haven't made it to Congo or DRC yet, but hoping to at least make it back to Nairobi later in the year. Melodica in Nairobi sell online but I haven't bought anything from them before.
Robot vacuum cleaner. Going for a run and starting the cleaner midrun is quite nice. From cleaning every three weeks to twice a week helps my nose.
Apple Watch, using it instead of the phone cut my phone addiction in half. You can’t be addicted by the watch and it has Spotify, calls and maps, so I never worry about leaving the phone at home. Also makes family time more social.
All these products I was skeptical about first (this is just a toy...) but I’m actually using them heavily!
2) Wobble stool for the in-between standing and sitting height at my standing desk.
Between 1 & 2 my back health is so much better it is hard to believe. My old home office furniture was horrible. Best investment I made early in the 9+ months now working from home.
3) Elektron Model:Cycles FM Synth. Making happy bleep bloops.
4) Almost to the front of the line to order a Concept 2 Model D rowing machine to lose my 'covid 19' pounds I've gained whilst isolating - set to order on Dec 30.
I can’t remember if I bought any new software this year, but I still pay every year for Evernote. Despite its warts I get lots of use from it.
(^_^)
Also received my Remarkable 2, which I'm quite enjoying.
This being said, it’s such a fun device.
and
iPhone 7
How was your buying experience? I used to be involved with Fabrica, a way to buy/sell really quickly. [0]
[0]: http://fabrica.land/
1. Muse: awesome workspace app.
2. Ulysses: best MD app hands down.
3. Gladys: good clipboard.
4. Kodex: best ipad code editor.
5. Prompt: best ipad ssh client.
6. Working copy: good git client.
7. Kaleidoscope: diffing files.
8. Jira: pretty well done.
9. Documents: good for ftp.
10. Copied: good for bookmarking.
11. Goodnotes: best notebook app.
I’m seriously thinking about selling my imac because I haven’t used it since I got my ipad pro. I think I’ll sell it and build a RaspPi machine, ha.
The books "you, I and ReactiveUI" and "rx.net in action" - yet another Bible for developers like "clean code/coder/architecture"
Also, guns. I'd never shot a gun before this year, and now I own a bunch. They're tight.
And an XSR700. Moved to Colorado this year, and the is no comparable way to taking in nature than riding a motorcycle. It wasn't my first bike, but it did reinvigorate me.
Subnautica. If you haven't played, you should.
Surface Pro 7. Such a lovely piece of engineering. Great lightweight laptop, although the tablet mode of Windows 10 needs some love and care from Microsoft.
Nvidia Shield. Great device for streaming media. There were always limitations with using the LG WebOS and the Shield made all of those go away.
All I wanted for 2020 was autonomous farm machinery..an Ag robot for small acreages. Maybe in 2021.
2) Affinity Photo and Designer. I rarely use them, not enough to throw money at Adobe and they’re good!
3) iPhone 12. The 6S was more or less broken
4) A libro.fm subscription to get away from Audible
2) Pressure cooker. Since we're cooking every day now, this makes a lot of meals faster and easier. Saves a lot of fuel when cooking on the boat as well
3) Pantry full of shelf-stable foods. We test-provisioned for longer boat trips at home last winter, which was suddenly extremely useful when Covid hit and panic buying emptied shelves in stores.
- Jabra wireless earbuds. I was skeptical at first but they're amazing.
Kudos to Apple for the fast and successful transition of their own and third-party software to M1. I'm 90% native already, mere months into the transition.
2) Røde NT microphone
3) Elgato Key Light
4) Logitech C930e webcam
5) Dell 27" U2720Q display
The Tour Populair is fantastic for getting around in the city.
Items #2 to #5 are enormously useful to me, essential even, since a large part of my business consists of consulting, mentoring, and workshops.
Valco headphones. Price-quality wise the best you can get.
Roborock S6 maxv. Damn convenient especially if you have furry pets.
1Password. Finally got my passwords under control.
- iPhone 12. The 5s was showing its age.
- Oculus Quest 2 (want to move more when gaming)
- TempurPedic pillow
- Serta iConfort 4000 plush mattress. About time I invested in sleep.
OnePlus 7TPro.
Nedis WiFi Smart LED Bulbs.
2. Jarvis Laminate Sit stand desk.
Yikes. That's more digital tracking when a simple, "dumb" watch can do the same thing, without harvesting your data.
"But...but... muh health data!"
Some watches have internal pedometers that don't constantly send your health information to a trillion-dollar company.
