Gurk

My life didn't change very much since the "incident" has slowly progressed engulfed most of the world, however it is lonely at work from time to time. One great way to combat that is to exercise my nerdy hobbies, and one reoccurring is keyboarding. I never quite liked my Let's Split, I like things simple and small, and it was larger than I thought plus I don't really like split keyboards I suppose.

So after that weakly dramatic intro, let's continue where the previous post left off:


Specs, again:

• Standard green Gherkin kit.
• No LEDs.
• Kailh Box Pink.
• MDA Pineapple PBT.

As always I was in great pain for several weeks trying to decide what and which and why. I was thinking that non-green PCBs would be neat, but decided finally it has to be green since it's a Gherkin. No LEDs because that's just annoying; I want a functional small great keyboard that's nice to look at, not a disco machine. Kailh Box Pink because I wanted something modern and light that's fun to type on with my weak nerd hands. And a very colourful keycap set to cheer me up every time I look at it. Shiny black SA with white print would have been great too, but I'm perfectly happy with my choice. I accidentally put both pin headers for the Pro Micro on the wrong side of the PCB, that lost me quite a bit of time. In the end, I got a keyboard better than I had imagined.

My thoughts, which might even be considered a review:
I don't see the point with going with 40% keyboards, just go straight for 30% and experience utopia. It's much nicer than my enormous Let's Split. Both need layers anyhow, even my 60% HHKB Pro 2 has an Fn key. One day I'll file down the pins on the Pro Micro, find shorter M2 brass stand-offs, possibly sunk-head screws and thinner rubber feet, but that's my only complaint. It's also perfect for introducing my thumbs in my typing for moar.
The Kailh Box Pink switches are glorious compared to the Cherry switches I've tried. Personally I could do with slightly lighter springs, but they cannot sell a strength for every taste, that's just silly. Very solid and smooth, and the crisp clicking is wonderful.
The keycaps are lovely, and a perfect match with the green PCBs. They look like candies and I want to eat them. That's good.

Now honestly, the initial reason for green PCBs, Kailh Box Pink rather than Jade, and the Pineapple keycaps, was that they were pretty much the only options available at the time in Europe... Turned out to be the perfect combination, I'm so fortunate :D

Still working on the layout and layers, another few weeks of headache and trial and error... Couldn't be better.

Rational panic

Well, what can one say...

Be considerate to others (i.e. make sacrifices to not go out and don't hoard like a retard), don't put yourself above others (anybody can get ill, everybody can spread), and just try to understand how anything spreads (forget cool catch phrases like "exponential growth", just think about the mechanics of how things spread). Shouldn't this be considered reasonable advice, or common sense? Is this what the news tell us, or do they keep rattling on about empty store shelves and how slow western governments are? Fakking keck.

I never noticed the toilet paper apocalypse, since I don't use much. Later pasta, rice, flour, and eventually even lentils (when we get desperate...) were gone in the supermarkets. The corner shop in the village I live in has everything still, seems like people there are more reasonable.

I started cancelling my private travel plans to safe locations in the world already back in early February, meanwhile others went to and returned from hot zones for adventure vacations and fell ill. *sigh* Of course, in crazy international hubs like airports nothing can be considered safe, which is why I didn't go. Business trips, that's where things get a bit more complicated...

So sick of hearing about it from people who know little, so I should stop writing myself :p Very quiet at work, that's the last I'll say.

Gherkin keyboard kit! But what key switches... It's tearing me apart, all the modern ones are so cheap and supposedly rather bad compared to the good old Japanese Alps.

It's almost summer here some days, I even go outside from time to time when the sun is out.

EDIT 2020-03-21: Online streaming must be seeing a surge these days... Green Book was really nice. Got a bit too buttery at parts and gave in to some common dramatic film tropes ("stop the car!" followed by meaningful insight in the rain, meh), so it's not a masterpiece but was a lovely watch. Reminded me of how keeping an open mind, listening, and exposure can really make a difference. There's quite a bit more in there than just social injustice. I was working on something while it started, decided after a bit to leave that and just focus on the film. Oh I forgot, the compositing when he played the piano was pretty horrible, all my years of graphics programming ruined it for me...

Finally ordered stuff for the Gherkin, went for Kailh Box Pink switches and MDA Pineapple PBT keycaps. It hurts to pay, but I keep hearing "money is worth nothing when you're dead" and "0 deepz when you're dead". Was leaning heavily into Cherry browns for a long time, but after some deep delving on yt I changed my mind on some MX clones. Cherry has ended up being too comfortable, and they can afford it. After all, I considered browns first simply from prejudice to be honest. Kailh seems to be have been doing some pretty good stuff in the last few years, at least after some very motivated people got in touch with them. Let's see, there will for sure be photos soon!