Lately, I’ve been finding that the more time I spend staring at a terminal or debugging a kernel panic, the more I crave things that are purely mechanical. There’s something about a tool that works because of physics and tight tolerances rather than lines of code that just hits differently. To be honest, it’s also been a bit of a sanity saver. Work has been a relentless slog lately, and the financial side of things isn't exactly where I’d like it to be. Being 30+ and navigating that specific kind of quiet loneliness that creeps in after hours... it gets heavy. I’ve found that when the world inside me gets unbearable, these small, predictable machines are the only things that actually calm me down... I’ve recently fallen down the fountain pen rabbit hole. They’re basically the sh scripts of the writing world. There’s a strange parallel between running FreeBSD and using a well-made fountain pen or a simple carb-fed engine. Carburettor tuning is a dying art recently due to emission norms. But still... it’s that feeling of actually owning your tools and understanding how the "gears" mesh together. So far, I’ve been sticking to Indian-made stuff partly to support local businesses and avoid those eye-watering import duties, but also because the quality-to-price ratio is insane. I’m currently rocking a Click Aristocrat demonstrator eyedropper fitted with Kanwrite nibs (the feedback on those is incredible). Also have a few Parker Betas (Indian manufacturing, not UK ones) lying around as daily drivers. Motorcycle side, basically Honda Shine (a 125cc commuter), Honda CB190R, bicycle side Giant Escape 2 and Montra Backbeat (Indian brand).
When you're not tweaking your rc.conf or recompiling world, what are you tinkering with? Do you have an analog escape, or are you tech-all-the-way even when you’re off the clock?
Similarly moved over to a Fujifilm xPro 1 with a nice bunch of film sims to scratch the itch when I can't justify the film costs - which nowadays is most of the time!
