Atlanta

The Weekly Bump: Episode 3

April 23, 2018 By Robert Occhialini

What a great weekend, we didn’t do much out of the ordinary, but it was a really relaxing and constructive couple of days, with some high quality NBA Playoff games, and an Atlanta United victory mixed in. I’m continuing to take it easy, and my energy has returned, albeit slowly. I mostly played Hearthstone and Vainglory over the weekend, I want to play more PC games, but didn’t feel like shutting myself off from the family to play this weekend.

We finished our Lego Ship in a Bottle this weekend. Lots of little pieces.

A post shared by Robert Occhialini (@bump) on Apr 22, 2018 at 12:05pm PDT

I did also take my sons to the Pop’s Pancakes pop up at the Spindle on Sunday. If you have the chance to try these pancakes from my buddy Jeff, you definitely should check them out. I had the breakfast sandwich with Delia’s Chicken Sausage, and I am hooked.

A couple of Kickstarters of note that I wanted to mention. Both are fully funded.

Time is starting to wind down on the Mark One Pen from the Studio Neat guys. This pen checks all the boxes, and my friends over at the Pen Addict podcast had nothing but nice things to say about it, which is good enough for me.

The second one is the Kira Mechanical Keyboard from the Input Club. These guys really know how to put together a nice board, and I currently have and use a White Fox at home. This board is unique in that it’s the smallest footprint you can squeeze a full sized keyboard into. It’s a bit pricey, but compared to similar keyboards, it’s a good price for the high quality they produce.

Some things I am enjoying.

Picked up a Schon DSGN Limited Edition “Punk Rock Pink” pen a couple of weeks ago, and it’s become my EDC pocket pen. I’ve always like the Fischer Space Pen refill, and this colorway is striking. This color is sold out, but they have a lot of other combinations that are equally as nice.

Upgraded my computer audio monitors to these Mackie Monitors. (Amazon affiliate link) I had been using the same Bose setup for maybe ten years before this. These speakers also support Bluetooth, so I can pipe other audio to them when I am not using my gaming PC. They sound great, and are small enough that I didn’t really have to make any huge changes. I am running out of plugs to power things in my home office.

Finally, I ran my Twitter account through Watson after reading this Kottke post about Watson Personality Insights.

Here’s what came back for me:

You are skeptical.

You are authority-challenging: you prefer to challenge authority and traditional values to help bring about positive changes. You are dutiful: you take rules and obligations seriously, even when they’re inconvenient. And you are hedonistic: you feel your desires strongly and are easily tempted by them.

You are motivated to seek out experiences that provide a strong feeling of organization.

You don’t find either tradition or taking pleasure in life to be particularly motivating for you. You care more about making your own path than following what others have done. And you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment.

Still processing that.

Nock Co. Sinclair Thoughts

November 30, 2015 By Robert Occhialini

Since reading Matthew’s review, I decided to jot down a few thoughts on this item as well. I’m not sure when Nock will make it available to regular people via their site, but well, home field advantage. Update: These are going live at Noon today, November 30th, 2015.

I picked up one of these cases in waxed canvas a few weeks ago when Nock Co. had a booth at a pop up shop for American made goods at Ponce City Market here in Atlanta. Like Matthew says in his review, this thing is boss. I like mine so much that it’s become a permanent part of my backpack load out, and I think I want to pick up a second one.

I have been using Field Notes for my Bullet Journal pursuits for the last few weeks, and so this is a good match, I keep a couple of recently filled notebooks, and the next one I am going to use. I have been carrying three pens, each with a different load out.

I also keep a few Frictionless Capture Cards tucked in. Sadly, they went out of business, and once my current supply of these cards is gone, I will probably move on to these Nock Co. DotDash Cards.

I’d read or heard, I think on the Pen Addict podcast, that the case doesn’t quite hold an iPhone 6 Plus, but mine actually does hold one and zip up. That’s actually why I think I might pick up a second Sinclair case, as I have a work 6 plus that I keep in my daily carry backpack monstrosity. Here’s a shot of my 6 plus tucked into the Sinclair.

I’m totally sold on this case, and highly recommend it. Nock Co. makes really high quality product right here in Atlanta, and I’ve never had any issues or been disappointed with anything I have bought from them. I think I might grab a couple of zipper pulls from them after seeing Matthews configuration, but otherwise, this is the perfect carry for my Field Notes, Word Notebooks, and three pens, which is the most I really would use anyway.

I’d also love to see one of these in a larger size that was designed to hold a Hobonichi Techo. There’s such a lack of good cases that are meant to hold the Techo, and it’s gotten more popular. Seems like a real market opportunity to me.

No Cable

November 23, 2000 By Robert Occhialini

Hell’s Half Acre has a great e-card section where you can send e-postcards to people with sentiments like “i hate you”, “shut up”, and the ever popular “burn in hell.”

There’s a great assortment of things being posted to Monkey Fist .

In a brief perusal, I found Running Tally to be very very good. It led me to usr/bin/girl which I also enjoyed. Finally, I ended up at Hit or Miss , which rounded out my surfing session perfectly.

We are still without Cable, and have been since last night due to a rare ice storm here in the ATL. Normally, I could care less, but I wanted and planned to watch football today while redoing my Mac from scratch with a new SCSI hard drive I picked up a couple of weeks ago and a new LCD monitor that was too good a deal to resist.

Of course, with the cable out, I resorted to leaving the premises and found myself at the brand new Atlanta ESPN Zone . It was very crowded and impossible to get a seat or food. I imagine it will be like that for the next few weeks. It doesn’t officially open until next weekend. I did get to see the Sportscenter anchors in person.

RIP Willie B

February 2, 2000 By Robert Occhialini

I started using ICQ again today. You can now tell if I’m online by looking at the flower at the bottom of the page.

Somehow I missed the fact that today is Groundhog’s Day . I’ve made the pilgramage to Punxsutawney, PA twice to see Phil on his big day. There’s nothing better than spending all night in below freezing weather in a clearing. I had a great time on both trips. There was alcohol comsumption involved(how else would I have been able to stay outside in the freezing cold all night.) Thanks to Mirasol for reminding me.

Willie B. dies . I was just at the zoo four weeks ago and saw him. He sat, ignoring the obnoxious humans, proud and regal. He’s been an Atlanta landmark for years. There’s a picture gallery of him up on the Web too.

Jim’s active again and it’s making me happy.

Cameron Barrett interviewed by MasterDevelopers.com .

Oh yeah, there’s a Weblog for this year’s SXSW.(I’m going.)

Quite a lot of buzz today over the new home page design that Amazon.com is testing.(According to this News.com article ) You might or might not get the new design when you log onto their site. Personally, I like the previous, tab based(and oft-copied) design better. IMHO it was warmer and more innovative.

Speaking of redesigns, Version Tracker , the best place to stay up to date on Macintosh software releases, has redesigned and added an email notification service. Not surprisingly, I don’t really like the new identity or navigation.

Super Bowl Coming

January 22, 2000 By Robert Occhialini

As if no one learned the horrible lesson of DIVX, here’s someone trying to do the same thing.(via Looka)

The Super Bowl is coming to town this week. I work about 300 yards from the Georgia Dome, so I’m sure I’m going to see some interesting things in our neighborhood this week. The first signs were giant ABC trucks getting off the highway en masse this week.