Jim P.

Parent, spouse, geek, serial hobbyist, pfSense Developer and Documentation Writer, Author.

#Memes #Movies #TV #Television #Books #SciFi #FountainPens #TableTopGames #BoardGames #Flashlights #Anduril #Lego #Puzzles #3DPrinting #OctoPrint #Sewing #VinylCutting #Woodworking #Photography #FreeBSD #OpenSource #FOSS #Networking #Firewalls #pfSense #TechWriting #Documentation #Sphinx #RestructuredText #Plex #ProxmoxVE #Proxmox #STEM #STEAM #Gaming #Nintendo #NintendoSwitch #SteamDeck #SteamPowered

Website / Blog: https://www.pingle.org/
Fountain Pen/Ink Blog: https://jimp.ink
Github :github:: https://github.com/jim-p
Keyoxide: https://keyoxide.org/hkp/EC92C373916131373253A6906483248195BB2ABD

Public Key

npub1hmur9dkqez4et4vv2vf73e7qamc2k535hm7hwvh5jmvwvxzdnupsuhk6rx

NIP-05 Address

jimp_at_masto.ai@momostr.pink

Profile Code

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Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1hmur9dkqez4et4vv2vf73e7qamc2k535hm7hwvh5jmvwvxzdnupsuhk6rx

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Published at

2026-06-01T15:22:26Z

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Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-06-05 02:20:37 UTC

Just got back from an early showing of Masters of the Universe. It was better than I expected. Pretty fun "summer popcorn flick" kinda movie. And for us aging folks who watched the cartoon growing up, lots of references and nostalgia, and great music choices.

2026-05-15 02:42:18 UTC

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The only real annoyance with this Boox reader is that everyone recommends you set it to auto power off after 15 minutes to preserve battery and it takes ~20-30 seconds boot up from it being powered off. Not terrible, but not good for picking up and reading in short bursts.
I disabled the auto-shutoff and it lost maybe 4% battery over 18 hours.
I'll just let it stay in sleep mode.
Otherwise it's been very good to me and my aging, tired eyes. I'm already over 20% through The Martian.

2026-05-11 12:09:23 UTC

Finished reading Wyrd Sisters last night. Didn't take me long (for me) to finish the last 3/4 of the book once I stopped reading on my tablet and switched to a physical copy.
I haven't tried reading more than a couple test pages on my new ePaper reader yet, so that's up next. I'm not sure if I'll read the next Discworld book or something else entirely. I haven't read The Martian or Project Hail Mary yet (nor have I seen the PHM movie), so I'm leaning that way.

2026-04-21 11:59:37 UTC

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It's been a huge source of confusion that the name and form factor is so similar yet they're incompatible both ways. Didn't help that for months after launch you couldn't even find the proper cards anywhere except maybe the lowest capacity ones.

2026-04-14 14:19:51 UTC

TWSBI Root Beer?
Quark: Take a sip of this
Garak: What is it?
Q: A human drink. It's called root beer
G: Uh, I don't know
Q: Come on, aren't you just a little bit curious?
[G sighs, sips, & gags]
Q: What do you think?
G: It's *vile*!
Q: I know. It's so bubbly, and cloying, and *happy*
G: Just like the Federation
Q: But you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to *like* it
G: It's insidious!
Q: *Just* like the Federation
Count me in.
#FountainPens #DS9 #StarTrek
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/403/461/070/203/656/original/4d306f35aa64f5ef.webp

2026-04-11 01:04:33 UTC

Been trying to work on this since Sunday, managed the first parts then and finished it up last night. Might not be everyone's cup of tea on this one, but I like it.
Not exactly thematic with the Ghost/PII and some random minifigs around, but lack of storage and display space makes for strange shelf fellows.
#Lego #Zelda
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/383/301/293/557/526/original/3edf691d55a07c8f.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/383/301/559/233/404/original/f88a588d087d1472.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/383/301/868/727/791/original/d42f98fca706dbc0.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/383/302/094/993/617/original/227c932c210204fb.jpg

2026-03-31 20:20:59 UTC

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Try some with cards in card sleeves maybe? There are some shuffles I can only do with sleeved cards (like Faro). Otherwise my clumsy hands will only mash and bend things.

2026-03-31 19:50:22 UTC

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Hopefully the new meds help! 🤞

2026-03-31 19:39:07 UTC

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Being unable to articulate that sort of thing is frustrating. Going through that now with my NP. I tried to be as accurate and specific as I could and still ended up with vague subjective things that couldn't be measured.
Hope you & your doctors can solve your mystery because that sounds extremely unpleasant to deal with on an ongoing basis.

2026-03-30 17:05:11 UTC

The tulips are putting on a show, a couple weeks earlier than last year.
There were two freezes over the weekend, so I'm a little surprised they made it through so well, but they are close to the house and get sun most of the day.
#Flowers #BloomScrolling #Florespondence #Tulips #Spring
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/319/186/115/794/488/original/89dfd14773682fbd.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/319/186/127/359/032/original/536527a3f16864b2.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/319/186/135/856/968/original/5d9fe651b544a87f.jpg

2026-03-30 01:43:10 UTC

Can I get an extra weekend to recover from my weekend?
Nothing bad, just busy and tiring.

2026-03-29 17:25:58 UTC

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I have tried a couple 3D printed ones and they've been OK, they're what I'm using now, but I liked the idea of the silicone bit that grabs and stabilizes them.

2026-03-29 15:39:46 UTC

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Ah, a little too wide for where I'd need them. I'll poke around and see if they have anything like it that's slightly narrower.

2026-03-29 15:05:49 UTC

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That does look nice! What are the actual dimensions on that? Not seeing it on the listing. I wonder if it would fit in the cubbies on my ink shelf.
The racks I printed are OK but they don't hold them in tightly. They wiggle around significantly.
I have stickers that fit the top of the vials already.

2026-03-29 14:33:13 UTC

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I don't know what some movies/TV shows have against audible dialog (especially Nolan).
Sometimes I get lucky and can boost the center channel audio on my sound system and it makes the dialog louder, but it still depends on the audio mix a bit.
I know I always watch with subtitles on anyhow, but I still like to be able to hear it.

2026-03-28 22:54:44 UTC

I feel like people here would appreciate this door I encountered today. I can't fully alt text it right this moment as I'm at a concert venue with limited time, but I'll try to fill more in later. Do yourself a favor and zoom in and read some of the writing and stickers.
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/309/261/267/596/018/original/1055b76a1ff2dfff.jpg

2026-03-28 19:47:43 UTC

Spotted a blimp around Indy while on the road today. Looks like a basketball player holding a ball on the side but can't make out anything else. Been a while since I've seen a non-RC blimp.
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/308/525/867/268/038/original/854f26efafde60ee.jpg

2026-03-27 20:47:36 UTC

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The Decimo/A2/20 style is really pleasant to use. I go back and forth between my VP style and Decimo style and like them both.
I've had much, much better luck with the 20s sealing decently as well. Of the 5 I have, 3 seal very well so far (1 perfect, 2 I haven't really pushed) and two are OK, but not great. They hard start after a couple days idle, but still write after a couple scribbles.

2026-03-27 18:59:27 UTC

RE: https://masto.ai/@jimp/116262112791608872
A little reminder in case people have a domain in one of the affected TLDs. If you want to add years at the current prices before they get hiked up next week, now's the time.
#note1t7t…58vd

2026-03-27 15:46:36 UTC

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I don't recall having to do any of that to play Switch games on Steam Deck but I haven't done it in over a year so maybe the emulators out there now work differently. I seem to remember having to find a couple files but at the time they were not too hard to track down and I didn't have to touch the hardware.
It was an interesting novelty just to see if I could do it, but I own all the games I wanted to play and didn't feel like modding games then, so I didn't keep pursuing it.

2026-03-26 17:07:34 UTC

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He was my doctor for the last 15+ years. He's not even that old. Probably got tired of dealing with the way this country is handling health care and related funding these days.
A Nurse Practitioner from the office that closed is moving to this other place. I've seen her a few times before and she's been good, so I'm moving over to that practice as well, along with the rest of the family.
But it's much harder to get appointments there, like a month wait minimum.

2026-03-26 16:42:10 UTC

Had a migraine last night before bed. Took my meds, drank a bunch of water, and went to sleep. Woke up every 2 hours to, uh, get rid of that water, but no pain, so yay?
I've felt off and my BP's been a bit high this week. Not sky high, just higher than usual for me. Hopefully just a bug and not a larger concern.
Already had an appointment coming with a new-to-me local medical practice since my last doc retired and closed their office a few months ago with very little warning.

2026-03-26 16:34:11 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/116296392095869320
"You can now crop images, and add alt text to profile and cover photos."
It's about time!
#note17qt…56qg

2026-03-26 16:29:31 UTC

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Those look much more practical, shelf-wise!
Hopefully they start showing up here at Vanness at least. I'm more likely to grab a couple more of those since I can fit them places more easily.

2026-03-25 21:41:57 UTC

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I have a bunch of their pens in various colors, mostly Diamond 580ALR and ECOs. They are really nice and seal excellently. Some people seem to have problems with them cracking, but none of mine have had any problems.

2026-03-25 21:08:30 UTC

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Seems a bit more orange-y based brown than yellow-brown to me.
They have had quite a few lately that I didn't care for. But I like it when they make colors that don't appeal to me because it's less I'm tempted to buy! Thankfully I only liked one of the marbled mixes.
Still waiting on an actual Red one to come around again. Plum was good, but not quite close enough.
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/291/821/809/800/267/original/15e1908b8753773e.png

2026-03-25 20:47:04 UTC

JetPens posted more photos of the TWSBI ECO "Bahama Yellow" and as I suspected, it's tan (first photo). A smidge lighter tint than their Caffè Bronze (second photo), and the silver trim makes it appear lighter still.
It's not a bad color, just badly named. Has to be for yellow sand beaches, not sure what else makes sense.
If I were going to go for one of these, I'd opt for the Caffè Bronze, but neither one really grabs me the way the 580ALR Affogato/Onyx did.
#FountainPens
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/291/749/830/748/705/original/b122a912bc0238fd.png
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/291/750/240/291/153/original/ef0f4e71f0c6f56e.png

2026-03-24 22:05:21 UTC

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It's not that far off, but I usually think "terracotta" is a lighter and more gray-ish tone than this. That may come out in wider nibs or larger swatches, maybe I'm getting all shading with this nib. The swatches of I see it online are definitely more terracotta.
I like how it looks here, though.

2026-03-24 21:35:29 UTC

Had Fuyu-gaki in this Jinhao 20, but I used it all, so decided to swap over to a new ink: Dominant Industry Maple. It's kind of a burnt orange which seems darker than the other swatches I've seen. Others described it as "terracotta". Probably the nib, but we'll see how it is in larger swatches when I get around to it.
#FountainPens #FountainPenInk
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/286/262/375/113/003/original/5d760fb0feb4b81f.jpg

2026-03-24 17:44:18 UTC

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The purple ones are especially nice :chefkiss:

2026-03-24 14:23:01 UTC

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That's a new one to me. Might be drivers. There is a way to inject drivers into the ISO but I didn't need it, so I didn't look into it deeply.
IIRC it had an option to collect the drivers from the current running system which made it interesting for a clean reinstall on the same hardware.

2026-03-24 14:20:58 UTC

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Fair point. I have a VM I keep as a mostly "out of the box" Win11 experience for that sort of thing, mostly for work since I have to test various things on Windows occasionally, like VPN clients.
The Windows 11 laptop I still have is mostly a backstop for the few things I use on rare occasions that require Windows software, so my primary concern there is streamlining it and ripping out anything I don't need.

2026-03-24 13:29:58 UTC

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Both are utilities that debloat the Windows ISO so the crud never gets installed in the first place, rather than trying to pick it out after.
MicroWin is easier to use but they recently killed it and brought it back. It's part of WinUtil from ChrisTitusTech
https://github.com/christitustech/winutil

2026-03-24 13:25:17 UTC

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Run the Windows 11 ISO through MicroWin or Tiny11 to remove bloat/copilot/etc, write the install media with Rufus to strip out the CPU, TPU, and other dumb unecessary gatekeeping. Then it'll work on a lot of even older hardware, and in some cases better than a "stock" install on faster hardware.
Linux is still much more efficient on the older hardware, but if someone needs Windows, at least it makes the experience less terrible.

2026-03-23 21:31:36 UTC

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And my fiber is back up. Could have been much worse.

2026-03-23 20:06:21 UTC

In today's round of fun*, a contractor was working on some new fiber runs down the alleyway from my house and cut some things they shouldn't have. ISP came out immediately and checked on it, realized what happened, and is getting the contractor back to fix what they broke yet today.
Thanks to multiple internet connections and automatic failover, it took me a while to even notice it was down.
* Where fun <= 0

2026-03-23 00:21:24 UTC

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The gray part on the body works as both a zoom and focus control that you twist by hand. It tends to focus in two places, one much higher magnification than the other. The exact place it focuses depends a lot on how far the scope is away from the target.
For my use case most of the time the scope is standing up directly on a surface (paper) and I have it focused at the higher magnification.

2026-03-22 23:09:26 UTC

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The buttons do nothing on Linux (or Windows) they just zoom on its self-hosted Wi-Fi interface which I never use, personally.
All you do is plug it in, turn it on, fire up VLC, connect to the device, and then use the controls in VLC to capture.

2026-03-22 22:08:56 UTC

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I completely understand!
Surprisingly, this brand has its own site and listing on its web page:
https://ninyoon.com/pages/ninyoon-4k-wifi-microscope
There are identical ones on Aliexpress as well:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256809769039361.html

2026-03-22 21:37:43 UTC

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This is the one I have now:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SNSPHXX
I suspect the same thing can be found on Aliexpress from a variety of vendors using the keywords from that listing.
It appears as a standard UVC camera device so anything that can talk to those should work.
On Android I use nExt Camera which works well. Same app I use for my endoscope and boroscope.
At least on KDE Neon, guvcview from Discover via Snap is broken, but directly from apt it works fine.

2026-03-22 21:33:44 UTC

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Yes! I'm running Linux and VLC is the best thing I've used with it so far. I open the device in VLC and can take snapshots at will (I added a button to my toolbar for it).
I've tried a bunch of other camera apps and not found any that were functional, stable, or fast. Cheese was OK but had about 1 FPS on previews. guvcview is OK but not user-friendly.
The manual has Linux instructions but they reocmmend camorama which was abandoned years ago.

2026-03-22 19:48:42 UTC

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New USB microscope arrived and as I suspected, the same thing in a different package. No branding on the scope itself, all the markings are even identical. The main difference is the base and the packaging. This one also has a neat little scale/calibration card. Not especially fond of either base.
Works just as well as the first one did. Better, actually. The first one had a little bit of dust on the sensor when I first got it but it cleared away with some air. Should have returned it then.

2026-03-21 22:06:25 UTC

Bonus Caturday pic. At least I'm fairly certain they are cat prints. Was out with my wife going to a couple book stores for Indy Indie Book Crawl and noticed these paw prints in the dirt on the windshield. Not exactly easy to photograph, but they came out OK.
#Cats #CatsOfMastodon #Caturday
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/269/349/537/047/546/original/3b8067590a6f4d6e.jpg

2026-03-21 19:21:39 UTC

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If I had left it alone, it would have been fine, really. Just a couple specks at the edges. Given how it was made I'm not even sure how they got in there.

2026-03-21 15:24:36 UTC

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I did at least use it to get pictures of all the Parker ink swatches I did last week before I messed it up, so that's something.

2026-03-21 15:17:44 UTC

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I was fiddling with it for hours last night and when I could get the smearing off, there were still some random specs that wouldn't move. When I could get those to move, it would smear again. I could probably keep trying and get it eventually, but at the moment it's more frustrating than an interesting puzzle to solve.
I ordered a new one from a different "brand" that looks suspiciously similar, probably both just rebadged. I will keep this one and try cleaning it again eventually.

2026-03-21 15:13:49 UTC

RIP to my USB Microscope. I noticed a couple specks around the edges of pictures so I tried cleaning the sensor and just made it worse. I tried several different methods to clean it (air, lens paper, lint-free swabs, gentle stuff) but it's only getting worse, smearing and moving debris around.
Looks like whatever grease is lubricating the focus/zoom mechanism is getting onto the sensor and I can't get it completely clean.
All the sensor swabs I can find are way too large for this sensor.

2026-03-21 14:31:19 UTC

A sure sign of Spring here is when the Dogwood trees start to bloom. A more subtle indicator is when the Catwoods start to fruit.
#Cats #Caturday #CatsOfMastodon #FeralCats
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/267/623/757/175/049/original/ef7465ccf4f15198.jpeg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/267/612/504/021/803/original/04db9d16980f967d.jpeg

2026-03-21 01:45:59 UTC

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What is a bottle rocket, if not one possible path to earning an award worthy of the book.

2026-03-20 15:04:15 UTC

Namecheap just announced a bunch of TLDs are going up in price on April 1st. Ugh.
I just registered a .ink domain this year and the initial registration was very discounted ($2.98 discounted from $26.96), and now they're showing the renewal cost going from $33.98 per year if I renew now to $43.98 after April 1st.
So maybe I add a few years now, or maybe I decide it's not worth continuing to use that TLD. But I really like it. Hmm.
https://www.namecheap.com/blog/price-increase-for-biz-club-vip-and-more-domains/

2026-03-19 20:15:09 UTC

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Nightfall also looks nice on Tomoe River S Kanso (Sanzen). The previous post was on Midori MD.
Don't mind the flow issue in the middle, my hand was at an awkward angle at the bottom of the pad where my palm usually rests, and that Parker MI nib can be very picky about angles.
I may have to clean out a TWSBI and load this up in one of those.
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/257/653/985/100/216/original/68d5df876feda5d0.jpg

2026-03-19 19:11:40 UTC

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Yeah, though it's at least vaguely understandable, the house numbers on this street are out of order. The empty lot where they left it is about where this house number "should" be, but every GPS map I've ever looked at got my address correct.
Mine is also very clearly marked on the mailbox by the road and with a lighted sign on my house. Hard to miss.
Though maybe I need one of those reflective green E911 signs, too.

2026-03-19 18:56:47 UTC

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I managed to talk to someone at UPS and they looked up on a GPS map where the package was dropped off and it was an empty lot down the street from me. So they're going to look into why it was misdelivered, etc. They said they're going to try to retrieve the package and so on.
After the call, I walked up the road to check and it was at a house next to that lot. I knocked but nobody was home. The package had my name/address so I just brought it back with me.
Now to wait and see what UPS says.

2026-03-19 18:53:19 UTC

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No, Lego had to send another one.

2026-03-19 17:59:38 UTC

Ugh. Another UPS package was marked delivered but not delivered to me. Different vendor this time. But now I'm complaining immediately.
I haven't had any issues for years getting packages delivered, but now two were messed up within two weeks.

2026-03-18 21:46:18 UTC

Since I got a Stainless Steel Vector and moved my FI nib to it, I put a medium italic nib in the Vector I was using. As this is a fairly wide nib it seemed like a good chance to try out Van Dieman's Natura Dualis Nightfall.
Me likey! It's one of the few chromashading inks I've had actually work like it should, but that may be the nib more than the ink. It's a tad on the pale side like most of these, but still very readable.
I'll have to swatch this one soon!
#FountainPens #FountainPenInk
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/252/331/963/391/761/original/8344d670d24cbc9e.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/252/332/246/032/611/original/5de73890291614a3.jpg

2026-03-18 21:36:31 UTC

Cleaned and changed inks in this Endless Phantom. I had tried the Fude nib on it and it went through ink super fast. I had just filled it at the start of February and used it a few times per week since.
I went back to the EF nib and tried one of my new inks, Papier Plume Forget-me-not Blue. It's a very pleasant medium blue, about what I expected, but EF nibs aren't the best test.
#FountainPens
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/252/305/997/446/604/original/2524a3f08d8c3721.jpg

2026-03-18 12:22:09 UTC

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The nibs are pretty much the same, though they have an even thinner "03" nib which is even thinner than their usual EF.
I've had issues with sheening inks drying out even faster in the Jinhao 10/20, they do seem happier with wetter inks overall.
Though some of these will dry out very fast (days at most) no matter the ink.

2026-03-17 21:38:01 UTC

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Yep, that's one of the newest ones (Jinhao 20, Celestial Jade). I noted what they all are in the alt text

2026-03-17 21:25:03 UTC

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I mentioned last week that the new Jinhao 20 pens had darkened since the first day, but they have been consistently dark since. They are also not writing nearly as wet as that first day. So it must have been some lingering water in the feed or maybe just extra ink in/around the nib.
Here's a comparison from my log. They feathered a bit on this paper at first. Don't mind the date on the second part, I was doing some catch-up today since I neglected the log book for a few days.
#FountainPens
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/246/582/997/812/928/original/70330792581594e7.jpg

2026-03-17 21:13:47 UTC

Rounded up my green pens for St Patrick's Day ☘️
Though the second one over, the Kaigelu 316A, isn't inked, it's just there because it looks nice.
And I also just noticed the cap on that Jinhao 82 is cracked around the lower rim. Ugh.
#FountainPens
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/246/543/343/163/951/original/0c9873afa220749a.jpg

2026-03-16 21:32:53 UTC

My head is not having a good time. Thankfully it's only sinus pain and not a migraine.
Yesterday: 74F/23C, extremely high winds, thunderstorms, tornado warning a few miles South of me.
Today: 26F/-3C, "feels like" temp of 12F/-11C, still quite windy, snow flurries all day. Not sticking so far, thankfully.
Tonight's low is supposed to be 17F/-8C and feel like -1F/-18C and the high tomorrow is still below freezing.
Then back to mid 70s F/20s C by the weekend.
Stupid Smarch weather.
#inwx

2026-03-16 16:35:47 UTC

I know it's snowing again today but this still seems a wee bit premature. I like the box art, though.
https://www.stiloestile.com/en/inks/sets/colorverse-2026-colorvent-calendar
Including a swatch sheet is interesting.
Preorders that won't ship for ~200 days feel like a risk these days, but it would definitely help them to get a better idea of how many to manufacture.
I need to make a better effort to use mroe of my 2024 set before pondering this one more seriously.
#FountainPens #FountainPenInk #Ink #Colorverse

2026-03-16 04:43:02 UTC

It's been 10 years since Akira Tago passed away (March 15, 2016). There has only been one Professor Layton game released since then, and his absence was noticeable. There is another one due out this year, and though I'm still looking forward to it and have some hope, I fear it will fall short again.
https://nintendoeverything.com/professor-layton-puzzle-master-akira-tago-passes-away/
#ProfessorLayton #VideoGames #Gaming #Nintendo

2026-03-15 17:49:44 UTC

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I figured an animated series would be the most likely announcement, and it was the one I thought had the best chance of being good, too. Can't wait!

2026-03-14 22:18:12 UTC

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You are exactly right about them being difficult to clean, even the Pilot ones. It takes forever to flush them out sufficiently and the ultrasonic cleaner doesn't seem to help much.
I haven't tried using pen flush with one, I probably should.
I usually keep using the same color ink or close to the same hues so it's less of an issue.

2026-03-14 20:41:43 UTC

If you must stare into the void, please do so quietly. The void is napping.
Direct all screaming to the Abyss.
#Caturday #CatsOfMastodon #Cats #FeralCats #Void #ToeBeans
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/229/454/647/787/262/original/7797045403995d35.jpg

2026-03-14 19:42:00 UTC

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The Steam Deck itself is a very impressive device. Shame the hardware market blew up before they could get the Steam Machine out.
The fact that all their effort has carried over to other random distros and hardware and still works so well is a huge achievement, too. I expected more trouble from this laptop running KDE Neon, but it all worked with very little effort.

2026-03-14 19:26:21 UTC

"I spent the afternoon playing games in Steam on Linux and everything worked perfectly" was a much more impressive statement before the Steam Deck came along, but I am still amazed and just how well things have progressed.
All but one game I tried worked without any changes, one I had to nudge to use Proton Experimental. Graphics quality was great, too, but I wasn't playing anything that drove it too hard. Just a few things like Balatro, Peglin, and Wingspan.
#Steam #Linux #KDENeon #Gaming

2026-03-14 16:52:50 UTC

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In total it took 10 days to get things resolved. Not ideal, but could be worse. In retrospect I should have opened the claim immediately when the package was marked delivered but wasn't here, I should not have waited a couple days to see if it would turn up.
Now I need to find a place to display this one. I have some ideas but I need to figure out its actual footprint first.
#Lego #AFOL
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/228/547/118/114/273/original/28c54022a63d71ef.jpg

2026-03-14 16:41:39 UTC

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I finally received the replacement Lego set yesterday. UPS closed the case a couple days ago saying they couldn't contact me (but had no problem sending me that e-mail??), however that was after Lego had shipped a replacement so I let it go.
Replacement arrived OK. I stalked the delivery truck on the live map UPS shows in tracking to make sure I was near the door when they were approaching or claimed it was delivered. No problems at all this time.

2026-03-14 03:05:01 UTC

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I ended up just using virt-manager and KVM for the backend. Was just a few clicks and some waiting to get a Windows 11 VM going. Here's hoping I don't need it often, but it seems to be functional enough if I do.

2026-03-14 03:01:11 UTC

Just had an occasion to try out Puddletag for editing tags on audio files and it's pretty good. I am used to Mp3tag on Windows and this is very, very close to the same design and behavior. I was able to pull up Mp3tag in a VM and customize things in Puddletag to match. Setup actions like I had before to fix up tags, the pattern I want for renaming files, that sort of stuff.
Has a few key differences that will take some acclimation but nothing bad. Seems to be faster, too.

2026-03-14 01:46:57 UTC

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It's fun seeing just how far it will go. You never know how much ink is hiding in the feed when it's behind the metal section.

2026-03-13 22:33:54 UTC

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I dug back in my order history and found where I bought it:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HPJQD5H?th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W64WL4C?th=1
The tips went up in price a bit, but it's still more than I'll probably ever conceivably use, and it didn't seem possible to get less there. But that was ~2 years ago, probably better sources out there now.

2026-03-13 22:21:40 UTC

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This wasn't that fancy, I think maybe $30 or so, another $15 or so for a massive hoard of tips.
Before this, I tried several types of little pipettes and syringes and they all were frustrating in various ways (especially cleaning). I'm clumsy enough on a good day, let alone when dealing with ink, so I need to reduce the likelihood that I make a mess.
A small price to pay to help keep me sane.

2026-03-13 22:06:03 UTC

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It's a fancy way of moving liquids like in a lab, for example to/from test tubes.
Here's a picture of me making samples with mine a while back: https://masto.ai/@jimp/113574021724722225
#note14kx…vd2a

2026-03-13 21:50:58 UTC

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I use a pipettor with ejectable tips. It is very much the definition of overkill, but it's clean and easy.
(I also do all that on top of a silicone work surface with raised edges, covered in paper towels)

2026-03-13 21:37:40 UTC

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You are so much braver than I am.

2026-03-13 15:10:21 UTC

Weather report.
(And my head is not loving it)
#inwx
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/222/490/817/703/517/original/d051e20db23bacc6.png

2026-03-13 05:27:15 UTC

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Everything on my laptop has been completely stable for over 48 hours since I changed the graphics driver from Nouveau to the Nvidia drivers. And also even faster than it was before.
Still tweaking things and getting settled in, but overall I'm quite happy.
Though I feel like there's a lot more that Plasma and Krunner can do that I've barely scratched the surface of.

2026-03-12 18:20:46 UTC

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Over a week later these Jinhao 20 pens are behaving (mostly). I let them go over the weekend and the blue one had a wee bit of a hard start but didn't skip after.
The ink appears noticeably darker now out of both of them, moreso the blue one (Topaz now looks more like Kon-peki than Ama-iro). Could have been some water in the feed initially maybe? Even after several lines it's consistently the darker color.
There doesn't appear to be any loss of ink from the converter at least.
#FountainPens

2026-03-11 23:22:26 UTC

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It should, but I haven't tried it. The nib units look pretty close if not identical.
Actually I haven't used the tool to disassemble any of them yet, I just checked that it fit and seemed to grab like it would work

2026-03-11 23:16:01 UTC

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oh no!

2026-03-11 17:00:06 UTC

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I thought it was funny that they all turned blue under UV on col-o-ring, but those cards glow so brightly from UV on their own the ink may have just been drowned out.

2026-03-11 16:52:39 UTC

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I use the rounded back end of a glass dip pen, also nearly waste free. I keep looking for alternatives like muddlers but never find any in stock when I'm looking.
I do like having an actual swab somewhere since it shows a little differently, but I may skip that entirely since if I swab all of my inks that's going to waste a ton of single use swabs.

2026-03-11 16:49:03 UTC

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After swatching I transferred the ink to some reusable cartridges I have with rubber stoppers. Those will fit in most of the Majohn or Jinhao pens I have handy, likely more, so they aren't limited to just the Parkers.

2026-03-11 16:46:49 UTC

Swatching these Parker inks that @npub17n7…llql sent was tricky! They were in mini cartridges, so I had to pierce the cart, transfer the ink to an inkwell, and then use dip pens on the small amount of ink, which took lots of dips. It mostly worked, but I didn't dare swab them because that would have soaked up half the ink.
Pink is rather fluorescent as suspected, and Purple is a little, too. They had a surprising amount of sheen in the large swatches.
#FountainPens #FountainPenInk #SwatchWednesday
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/211/464/492/557/395/original/1952db02935f5840.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/211/465/071/707/444/original/859ca3f72575ff27.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/211/465/435/764/837/original/e386a389a5d33b12.jpg
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/116/211/465/766/150/601/original/015796d92cd066c0.jpg

2026-03-11 13:18:09 UTC

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Personally, I'm a big fan of Joplin, but based off the look/behavior of that app, you might look at Logseq as well.
Both are OSS, Markdown-based, and you can sync with a variety of methods that copy files around (e.g. syncthing).

2026-03-11 04:16:38 UTC

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I noticed it was using the nouveau driver for the GPU instead of Nvidia, so I installed that and switched and I'll give it some time on that. Back on Wayland for now, too. Now, I wait...

2026-03-11 03:51:50 UTC

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Unfortunately, it hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows with KDE Neon on this Lenovo. At least once per day the laptop has locked up completely and I had to power it off. Firefox crashed multiple times on its own. Tried X11 instead of Wayland, but it still happened.
Audio is still iffy, though I've managed to improve it significantly with EasyEffects and some tweaking.
I may have to try Mint on here, it's been stable for me for years on other hardware.

2026-03-10 12:35:31 UTC

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Re: My missing Lego delivery
UPS never did follow, up and the package is still marked as "Investigation Opened" 5 days later.
Lego finally contacted me back (on the 7th day) and said they're shipping a replacement.

2026-03-10 12:24:57 UTC

Happy Mar10 day, to all those who celebrate.
#Mar10 #Mar10day #MarioDay #Nintendo #VideoGames

2026-03-10 11:31:09 UTC

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IIRC the environment variable way does still work, too, if that's your preference. But between the custom system default and Firefox finally changing the factory default in 149 it will hopefully be a moot point soon.

2026-03-10 04:14:54 UTC

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That color is awesome and the art is fun!

2026-03-09 23:14:50 UTC

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I looked into those but I didn't see how they'd be much of an advantage over my bulb syringe, it already fits into most sections and can push water through/draw water back with more than enough force.
Tempting to get one for the Lamy pens and their wonky sections that defy most cleaning tools, though.

2026-03-09 22:35:50 UTC

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Most of the time water and a bulb syringe is enough unless things are really dried and caked. In which case flushing what you can and then soaking for a while usually helps more than most other things. If you're in a hurry, an ultrasonic cleaner can speed things up. Sometimes for converters I'll tear a narrow bit of paper towel, twist it up and shove it down in and scrape around.
There are pen flushes that do help the tougher ones, and some recipes for homemade flushes.

2026-03-09 22:11:25 UTC

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It's frustrating sometimes because it does work properly on Mint w/Cinnamon; With the default value of 2 it uses Cinnamon's file picker.
But I've had the same issue on FreeBSD and other Linux distros using KDE.

2026-03-09 21:52:17 UTC

The GTK file picker Firefox wants to use by default is meh. I'm not sure why it doesn't use the one provided by the OS when it's just one about:config tweak away. Change widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker from 2 to 1 and you get the much, much better KDE file picker. Assuming you're using @npub1ncy…3x0q of course.
It's been a problem for ages on multiple operating systems, not a new thing. At least now you don't have to set environment variables and change startup scripts.
#Linux #KDE

2026-03-09 19:59:20 UTC

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I was looking for one the other day when I was putting in an order and it wasn't there. I didn't get one because none of the others in stock were a good fit.
Added it to my list for next time, hopefully it's still around.