Product Recommendations

Desk

I have an old version of the Kinesis Freestyle Edge, with 10 hotkeys mapped to the different programs I use. Before the keyboard, I would frequently get distracted when I needed to find the right program or window; now I just hit a button and I’m there. Also it’s fun to paint the buttons. ♥0

Kokoyu Research Lab Pen for when I want write on glass or metal. ♥0

I use a Logitech M720 mouse that has a set of programmable buttons. I’ve set up most of the buttons to be modified by gestures, so holding a button does different things when I move my hand in different directions. The gestures I use most are for screen navigation/window management, e.g. when I hold one of my buttons and move my hand left it sends a “go back” shortcut to the current tab; right sends a “go forward”; down closes the tab; up opens a new tab. ♥0

I have a yearly calendar next to my desk. I use it for important dates (travel, deadlines, etc.) that I need to remember more than a month in advance. ♥0

I like writing with mechanical pencils, and my favorites are the Rotring 600 (looks cool, perfect weight, works effortlessly) and Sakura Sumo Grip (comfortable to hold, great eraser). ♥0

Sometimes I want to write in black, red, or blue or just don’t want to deal with eraser shavings. I still like to be able to erase though, so I then use the Pilot FriXion Ball Knock Zone. The erasing works great on all FriXion pens I’ve used, and the Zone version has thicker ink that comes out fairly smoothly. I also use Pilot FriXion Ball Knock pens for writing on my calendar (more colors available than the Zone). ♥0

Software

When I hit cmd+shift+v, Raycast opens my paste history and I can paste any item from the last 100 that I copied. I no longer need to flip back and forth between programs when I’m copying a bunch of items from one document to another. Also if I need to move something (e.g. a line of code): I can just cut the thing and don’t have to worry about accidentally overwriting it in my clipboard. ♥0

I no longer feel guilty about doomscrolling, because Opal prevents me from using apps that I hate (but also kind of need) for more than 5 minutes a day. ♥0

I use 1password as a password manager. If you don’t use a password manager, I’d recommend you stop reusing passwords asap and that you use 1password to break the habit, because it is genuinely easy to set up and will work across all your devices. If you are technical and use a different password manager, I’d recommend 1password because it has nice developer features, e.g. an ssh agent so you don’t need to remember a passphrase for your ssh keys (or store them in plaintext lol). ♥0

Python stuff: Pandas is confusing and slow so I use Polars wherever I can. uv is faster and more user friendly than Conda. I use dvc to track data that is too big to track with git. Marimo is more user friendly than jupyter notebooks but its best feature is its reactivity imo. After being defined in a cell, variables can’t be edited in other cells. Marimo builds a dependency graph between cells and whenever you update a cell it then reruns all downstream cells reactively. No more worrying that my results are based on an out-of-date dataframe! ♥0

Urban Biking

I like knowing where the cars are around me and am able to get better info from my bike mirrors than by turning my head. ♥0

I bought a set of 4 Lumos Firefly Minis and now I have both front and rear turn signals. ♥0

Dog

My dog loves to destroy things, and I use empty cardboard boxes to help her express this behavior. I throw in some treats, tape the box up, then let her rip it apart. It didn’t take her long to figure out what was going on—I think on the first box or two I helped her get started (I smooshed the box with my foot until she could get at the treats iirc). Nowadays I just toss her the box and she knows what to do. ♥0

My dog also loves scavenging. One way I help her scavenge is when I shut her in my bedroom and hide some of her day’s kibble around the apartment for her to sniff out. Another way is where I’ll take her to the park to toss handfuls of kibble on the ground. We also occasionally do hard mode where I take a small, very delectable, treat and throw it 10-20 feet away. I started doing these activities in the hope that they would fulfill her need for scavenging (and so she’d stop looking for chicken bones on our walks) but unfortunately it seems to have only improved her skill at finding trash. Still fun though! ♥0

This waste bag holder makes bags very easy to tear off from the roll. It also has a hook to hang bags from when they are full, freeing up your hands. It works with any brand of bags. ♥0

Other

I hate key rings (annoying to add/remove keys) and like wearing my keys on my belt (quick access, less bulk in pockets), but hold a grudge against carabiners (I’ve lost keys). It takes a few seconds to slide a key off the dual-chamber Nite-Ize one I now use, and its two latches mean its never lost a key in the two or three years I’ve used it. ♥0

Prompts

“What are some cheap or free physical or digital tools that might make my life easier?”

“You are my Spanish tutor. When we start a conversation, always review our most recent conversations. You should try to guess my current level of Spanish to yourself based on my statements and the errors I’ve made recently. If we haven’t spoken in Spanish before, ask me a few questions to get a better sense, then make a guess. You should speak with me at that level.

• After that, ask me what activity i would like to do. Potential activities:
• Translation: Give me English sentences, I translate them to Spanish
• Questions: You ask me questions in Spanish, I answer in Spanish.
• Roleplay: you come up with an interaction that I would be likely to have in real life, and we talk it over
• During the activity, try to give me opportunities to practice in areas I’ve struggled with before. For example:
• if I couldn’t remember a word before, try to get me to remember it in a somewhat different context
• if I struggled with conjugating a verb, try to get me to conjugate a similar verb in the same tense.
• Please correct my speaking in all places where I make mistakes. This should include problems with verb tenses, gender agreement, word choice, and grammar more broadly.”