trisected

Tag: mechanical keyboards

  • September Updates

    Life has been busy with parenting and prep for art book fair. There are so many things in my head – I’m thinking about what to prepare, what to do, and I also have things like speaking engagements that I’ve been volunteered for etc,.

    But one key thing that I’ve come to realise is my reliance on art book fair as the moment to produce something for. I know that I have so many other opportunities within a year to make something that sells, and to create just for the fun of it. But I forget, and I think that art book fairs are the only way I can have a zine audience.

    Relying on that institutionalised form of creativity, actually has sucked some creativity away.

    I’ve also gotten heavy back into keyboards again. With all the different keyboard companies dying, it’s really not easy to make sense of what’s worth keeping or selling anymore. I knew when I was getting into this mechanical keyboard hobby, it was something I was really ready to dive deep into, and to stay in the deep end for a long time.

    It’s sad to see big names drop away, and that they’re not able to keep up especially with the range of china brands that can charge cheap and manage manufacturing well.

    I’ve bought stuff from Monokei, because I think it’s the dude’s personal set of things. That’s how dire things have gotten for them. I’ve also bought the last set of Techno Violet swiches from Bolsa. I know they’re the last set because I added a few more, and it showed sold out. So I maxed it to the limit, and it was the last 3 packs. They’re on my Rama board.

    Sigh, Rama, the first of the gang to die. I can’t believe how much they had ahead of everyone, and they still lost it. It was so shit. I shared with my keyboard friends, I still have dreams where I imagine the kate keycaps coming in, but they’re never going to. Ever.

    And because of how shit things were at the end, I have no means of actually replacing parts. It’s really crazy. Some threads have become places where people are sharing the files for printing your own PCB or cases even. But it’s just really hard to see things end this way.

    I think having my baby is really something to focus me down for the future. I am looking forward to life with her growing up, because there’s really so much that she can learn and experience.

    I know it will also be missing the parts that I am currently missing. But I will hold some of these memories down for her, so that she’ll know what came before, and what she can imagine to come after. One day at a time.

  • Still typing

    I reconnected with an old friend over keyboards this weekend, and it is still quite fun to introduce keyboards to people. I think it’s something I’ve gotten so deep in, and it’s easy to bring it up to conversation at any time.

    It’s also sad to see so many keyboard manufacturers close down. Over the past few years, I’ve made last minute purchases from shops closing down. Keyboard cases, switches, keycaps, everything and anything I could do for a last ditch effort.

    But if all the keyboard items we bought really worked well, then you’d just buy one of that item, and that would be it. It’s a bad business model, because then your returning customers would either need to buy something completely new/irrelevant. But if you sold bad items with limited lifespan, then you’d have returning customers to support the long term running of your business.

    Sadly, that’s where we are now, where some things are just so mass produced and cheap, and the good quality shops are dying slowly.

    I’m still happy to be typing away, with the keyboards I do have. I’m happy to tinker and rebuild the old ones, and I figure that’s where I could just get something to help the older shops survive. But I’m running out of space and hands to keep typing. There’s really only so many keyboards one person should have, and mine already border on artefacts rather than keyboards.

    What a weird place in the world I am, to get to see this happen. Tough.

  • An Old Routine: A Keyboard A Day

    Today I woke up and remembered something that I had forgotten quite some time back. There was a time where I would put a new keyboard together before I started work. At that time, I think I was going through many things mentally, and this past week, I felt some of that old anxiety creeping back in. Building a keyboard everyday for myself was a real way for me to deal with that anxiety, by having something I could control, and it would distract me for at least half an hour before I would start my work.

    Assembling a keyboard daily isn’t a task that everyone could do, or afford to do. In hindsight, I know that what I was doing was something almost completely unnecessary, and there were probably a million other ways for me to destress and get ready for the day. It was just that at that time, keyboard building was the sweet spot for me. I was also filming so much of my keyboard builds, and I think I really enjoyed the processes of making all that happen. It provided this means of escape, if just a little.

    The deeper question to ask is about the anxiety I face. A lot of it had to do with the lack of control, despite being tasked to do something. I think I’ve transferred that action sometimes to my wife, by asking her to do something, but then completely limiting her on how to do it. It has to be done how I want it to be done. While sounding completely stupid, it makes sense sometimes. Not all the time, but sometimes. Like how to fry and egg. Or how to wipe a table down. It’s pretty dumb then, but I can get really picky and annoying about things like that.

    But when it’s something a bit more vague and ambiguous, like to achieve a goal, or to perform in a certain way, there’s a lot of ways to get something done. When there are many ways to get something done, the buy in from everyone else needs to be there. And sometimes, in getting the buy in, compromises have to be made. But what gave me the most anxiety is when my work of hitting a specific goal, was tasked to me almost to the dot, and that gave me a lot of pressure, because I simply wasn’t being me.

    Thankfully, my current work now embraces me as a person, and incorporates who I am into the workflow. It allows for the company to grow, and for me to also learn more comfortably about other people. But the anxiety that I felt was triggered a lot from the past, and I am glad to be reminded that I don’t have to work that way anymore.

    In all this learning, I think the key point is to really let my wife do her own thing. 🙂

  • Questions about keyboards that I still have today – Mar 2023

    There are some things that I’ve been thinking really hard about, especially in the past few months of work, and with keyboards:

    When people were in the keyboard hobby in the 90’s, how did they stick around interested for so long?

    I am really learning so much about perseverance through this hobby, and learning how to be content with what I have. I also have learnt what I like and don’t like to do. But I can’t imagine being one of the OG’s in the custom scene, and how they would meet up to talk about the few switches, and they did this for years. Props to them for really keeping up the hobby over all this time.

    How often should one change a board?

    One of the buddies on the YouTube channel asked me to do a trisected thought about rebuilds, and I think it’s a worthy topic to explore. I still ask myself, should i change it after using the keyboard hardcore for a week alone? Or after a few months of use? I’m not sure of the exact amount of time. Also because I have so many boards, it takes some effort to remember which I’ve done where.

    Currently I actually track what I’ve set up before based on my YouTube channel, because I honestly can’t remember.

    How intense should my mobile setup be?

    I don’t really agree with carrying too many things around whenever I go to work. This means that during a busy period when I’m not going to be in office a lot, I actually take home my keyboards and just work with my MacBook keyboard directly. But I recall a time where I would bring a 40 along to a cafe, especially if I need to hammer out an article or a letter.

    But now, I’m just thinking of the additional weight I carry, and if it’s worth that little bump of typing experience. I’m still undecided. I tried bringing my hhkb around for some time, but it just fits into a weird space in my backpack. Maybe I should try again some time soon, and find out what I’m happy with.

    Ortholinear keyboards.

    I can deal with my reviung, the lilypro and the corne. but my planck… I don’t know man. The knob added a fun dimension to it, but coming down to quick practicality, it’s not the easiest to get used to. Some people really still swear by it, but I don’t know if that’s me.

    Maybe I should try again just to see… I can’t even remember how I managed to do a plateless set up for it, and I did that one time amazingly. I shall attempt another go or two at it.

    What are some questions and thoughts you still have about your keyboards?

  • Keyboard Update:

    I always wonder how much of my blog here should be keyboard related. Namely because I think that my life is a lot more complex than keyboards. But I do know that most traffic here would be from my keyboard side of things. At the same time, I wonder how much my art and drawing should be mixed into my YouTube, Instagram and all that.

    In any case, here’s a general update about keyboard life from me:

    1. I have become super lazy about soldering and desoldering things. I really think that I’m just lazy, and its not because I don’t enjoy it. I like the process of troubleshooting, and getting the whole board set up real nice, but it’s just so tiring to keep on changing my switches and all that. Just so lazy. Really happy to keep on typing with my HHKB, or with switches that have lived in boards for months now. Last year at this time, I was changing the switches every single week.

    2. I have totally enjoyed my long pole switches, to the point where now I’m not sure how I feel about regular switches at regular length. It’s almost like what’s the point of getting a typing experience that feels like this, if that’s all I have. In any case, I’m just apprehensive about installing them because I don’t know if I would like them anymore.

    3. I enjoy using thinner keycaps. Never thought I’d say that. Also because I think I’m very used to the thick keycaps from all the MT3 and SA profiles. So it feels like a thinner keycap is more enjoyable at this point.

    4. I’m actually really late on rebuilding a specific board. I received a full sized Filco Majestouch board from a friend, and I honestly want to rebuild it. I have a full set of keycaps that are gonna go really sick with it, and I had gotten some extra switches just so that I will fill the whole set. But man. I really am so lazy and its taking forever to rebuild.

    5. I actually feel like I should go on stream again some time soon. This is super long overdue, especially because it’s really been ages since. And I think doing some of these on stream would be a great way to restart my twitch channel, and motivate me for my YouTube as well.

    Ok! That’s about all I have for today. Done.

  • Missing the Thrill

    When I started looking at keyboard videos, I was really keen on watching this guy:

    I mean Japanese, with really aesthetic videos, and that sweet keyboard sound? What’s not to like? And every time I watched his videos, I imagined that would be me some day, getting to type on a really nice keyboard, and having a really nice video to prove for it.

    And I’ve gotten there! Thankfully. I’m happy with all the different switches that I have, and the kinds of keyboards I’ve gotten to play with. And of course, I’ve got almost the same kinds of keyboards Wabi Sabi has. Or at least that one that I was really excited about .

    But now that I’m here, and looking back, I miss that feeling. I was waiting for keyboards, I was eager and learning. Now I feel stuffed. I feel over satiated. Full of information, full of knowledge and experience. I miss being hungry and waiting for the keyboards. It was an eagerness, and every day I felt I was one day closer to getting something really special; I was really looking forward to it.

    I guess that’s something that I will always remember about that time. The days going to sleep, hearing typing noises, wondering if I ordered the best switches or not. That’s a huge part of the appeal for keyboards, a self perpetuating hype train that will never come back to the train station. Now my keyboard dreams are in another realm of excitement, or maybe it is just level to my other interests. Whatever it is, I’m really glad I had that time to be excited about, to grow through. I wouldn’t have been half the keyboard nerd I am without those videos.

    Thank you to Wabi Sabi, for your Vids.

  • Keyboard Thoughts: Why Type?

    I think that there’s a lot to say about this. But maybe I’ll put it forward in a way that I think makes sense to me.

    I’ve been on this whole keyboard tirade for the past few months. It’s slowing down now purely because I’m really maxing out my budget. I also only have one pair of hands, and that limits how much typing I can do in a day. This doesn’t mean that I’m not interested, but I’m just really slowing down to appreciate it a lot more.

    So why type? What’s the deal with typing and this whole approach to it that I would pour in so much cash, and time, and effort, just to make letters appear on screen? Is there a point to it, other than just plain aesthetics?

    For starters, being trained in design, I do not necessarily agree with the design choices that are presented by the majority of keyboard creators. Many use really standardized typefaces, and they sit blandly on the keycaps. Some do experiment, and they make you smile when you see the type face. One of these is Biip, and his keycap designs are always striking. They hold character.

    Also that RGB, yes yes no? Or maybe no no yes? That bright bar of rainbow colored light just shooting into my eyes. I must admit it has definitely grown on me, rather than me abstaining from it. I used to turn it off immediately when the underglow would start. The stark brightness that just doesn’t make sense. What’s the design problem that they were trying to solve? That dark tables needed lighting? The Apple keyboards had shine through and that works for us great, I think? But there it is, just sitting there, glowing now on the very keyboard I am typing on.

    So what’s the point? Hitting the keys on this chunky bulk, instead of the wireless light taps that we make on the modern keyboard attached to our laptops, or the bluetooth keyboards that are stuck magnetically to our tablet screens. What is the draw?

    I would say preference is the draw. Preference is this word referring to the hot mess of “I’ll do me, you’ll do you”. Preference dictates that gaudy colors shooting out as you type is okay, because that’s what you like. That’s you doing you. Preference means that I don’t have to stick with the shine-through of the Apple Keyboards. Preference is what makes it work.

    Preference pops up quite often in our lives. We have preferences in the way phones that we use. We have preferences in the colors and looks of the clothing that we put on. Preferences also lie between the choices of what kind of utensils, even though fine dining has its set rules. Preferences mean that for some of my meals, I would just like to have a cheese burger please. It means that for others, they would have a salad instead. This means to say that, in the way I am choosing to type, I am choosing to type based on the preference I have at the moment.

    This choice is arbitrary. I would like to say it is not logical. There is no logic to why someone would choose one keyboard preference over another, the same way why we have no “logic” to what clothes we choose to wear. We might have programmed a routine, but to assign a general color to the public sounds completely ridiculous. I am choosing to type with a NovelKey Cream switch, because I can, and I choose to. I like the sound it makes today. I might not feel this way tomorrow, but we can work it out then. I like the options that I can have with mechanical keyboards, and the world just feels better a little bit.

    Just like the expensive running shoes that I had bought to get me started on running, I feel the need to type a lot more when I have a nice keyboard beneath my fingertips. I feel the need to also be accurate, and to type really fast so that the noise of the clacks just ring into my ears. It just snaps so well.

    I have other sounds to liken it to, like the sound of skateboarding on tiled floors. The sound of rain when it hits a piece of cloth. The sound of coffee beans grinding in a hand grinder. The sound of a hi hat in a drum beat. The sound of rhythm, the sound of a beat. But this beat just taps its way around and on your fingers. There’s no need for fidgeting; you’re already letting your fingers dance on an exciting dance floor.

    Because of all that, my happy fingers would like to tell you, that this is why I type, and why I type on a mechanical keyboard.