Matthew Lang

I’m almost entirely sure that I won’t be buying a Techo for next year.

This year’s Techo is mainly blank. Despite many attempts at using it daily, it’s mostly just been gathering dust on my desk, with only a dozen pages filled in at best. Last year’s Techo was also the same, largely blank. In fact, I remember binning last year’s Techo around November time after believing there was no point in holding onto a largely blank planner for the year.

This is just one of a few things I used to do but don’t anymore. Reading and sketching were two things I did almost daily a couple of years ago. I haven’t finished a book in a long time or sketched for nearly a year.

I would like to say it’s frustrating, and I would love to kickstart doing these things again. However, I look back at how long it’s been not doing them and decide it’s probably not worth starting if I’m just going to stop again.

I switched out the default keycaps on my Nuphy Air75 for the Maya Imprint keycaps I ordered with the keyboard. Love this keyboard!

Happy birthday, Drew! I hope you had a good day and enjoyed all your birthday goodies.

Starting the day with a stack of presents, then a round of golf with your brother, dinner at the golf club and finally some cake. Definitely a good day.

It feels like I have unlocked my iPhone from 10 years ago. I installed both iA Writer and Unread after seeing them in my RSS feeds this morning.

Great night of golf with the wee guy.

New keyboard today. The Nuphy Air75 v2. First impressions are good.

That’s it done. Micro.blog is now fully powering my little corner of the internet.

I’m tempted to go all in with Micro.blog again. It has enough features for me to consider ditching my own website, as well as a few new themes that are both nice to look at and customisable.

My Lego wishlist is just over £1800. Managed to get it down from £2000.

I love Robert Downey Jr.’s casting as Doctor Doom and Marvel’s return of the Russo brothers. After months of speculation about the MCU’s direction, I’m glad to see new Avengers and Marvel movies scheduled for the next few years.

Went to the Beyond Van Gogh show at the SEC in Glasgow tonight.

A truly immersive experience with Van Gogh’s art displayed on all four walls.

We must have sat there for about an hour watching a few iterations of the show.

After hovering over the checkout button for months, I finally purchased a second mechanical keyboard. The Nuphy Air75 v2. Unlike my first KeyChron K6, the Nuphy is low-profile but still compact. It also allows for key remapping using VIA as well.

My KeyChron K6 was a good initial step into mechanical keyboards, but I feel I needed something more low-profile and more resistant switches. While typos are a thing for everyone, I made more typos on the K6 due to the switches I picked. While typing, I would frequently mis-hit keys, and it would register the keystroke as the switches didn’t require much force to travel and register the keystroke.

Also, I bought the K6 without trying other switches, so I knew I might eventually change my mind and buy something else. I’ll still keep the K6 and switch between it and the Nuphy. I’ll probably look into getting different switches and keycaps for it before the end of the year.

I made the switch over to @Mtt’s Sumo theme and already made a few wee tweaks. I’d like to see more themes like this available on Micro.blog.

Rounded off our week at St Andrews with a last minute round at the Fairmont Torrance course for the boys. Both had great scores going round.

Took the wee guy down to the Balgove course in St Andrews.

He had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed getting to hit his irons and wedges off the tee for a wee change.

Thanks to St Andrews local, Ben, for the lift back as well!

Start of a week long holiday for us up at St Andrews while Ethan plays a competition up the road at Tayport. Got a nice Airbnb in St Andrews. A couple of days exploring planned.

Like all of their friends, they’ve been walking to and from school alone since they first attended at the age of six. They were given their own set of house keys soon after. This is the parenting way in Norway – it’s decidedly free-range, with an emphasis on independence, self-determination and responsibility, with a dash of outdoor fun thrown in for good measure.

How to be a Norwegian parent: let your kids roam free, stay home alone, have fun – and fail

I read this and wished I could have been more of a free-range parent when the boys were growing up. Yes, we are a bit more risk-averse in the UK, but as a country, we’re definitely not in the same ballpark as Norway.

Loving my new Endor desk mat. That’s no coffee stain by the way, it’s a space station!

The new laptop cover is sorted.

Heading over to Scotscraig Golf Club in a couple of hours. The big yin is going for a practice round ahead of the Scottish Boys' Amateur Match Play in a few weeks.

Waking up to significant changes in the political landscape in the UK. Not just a new majority party but also substantial changes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I sincerely hope that all elected politicians try to work on gaining the trust of the UK public once again.

Hats off to 37signals for making their latest Once product, Writebook, 100% free—well, at least for the initial version of the product. Sadly, there are no other export formats, such as PDF or ePub, but having the ability to publish books on the web is a good start.

MacRumors has an in-depth guide to the new home and lock screen changes coming to iOS 18. Placing icons anywhere on the home screen is probably the one change I’m looking forward to seeing. I can’t say I’ll use the hidden app feature that much, but I can see a use for the ability to lock an app.

Watching the big yin play golf is tiring work. Getting a coffee in me before he starts his round.

I put my Apple Watch on upside down this morning. Send more coffee.