Uses
In addition to being a developer, I am also an artist and a writer who dabbles in nature photography. My goal is to have a minimalist office environment with as low a carbon footprint as possible, finding things on the side of the road instead of buying new (for example).
I also value open-source software where I can manage it. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2022, so I’ve been weighting functionality a bit more heavily lately to aid in keeping my brain on track.
Below is a list of how I’ve managed this balance so far.
“Everydays”
- Used ThinkPad T470 running Pop!_OS
- Google Pixel 7 - unfortunately not with CalyxOS this time.
- Movement seating - wobble stool
- 3/4-sized dot notebooks - for jotting down things as they come to me, to get it out of my head.
- Moleskin Weekly Academic Planner - has a blank, lined page for each week to hold todo items/notes.
- Writing utensils - Pilot G-2 07 pens, Sharpie pens, or any thin ink/felt pen available on sale. Use colored pens to highlight important items.
Productivity
Desktop/Development
- Notion - using this for recipes, tracking what I’ve read, and kanboards for large personal projects. Currently searching for a less beefy alternative.
- Terminal - I used to use “alternative” terminal interfaces, but someone gave me a hot tip. The system terminal on Pop!_OS is great paired with tmux.
- neoVim/VSCodium - I use neoVim for most things (see dotfiles link below), but VSCodium has also been pretty solid when needed. Admittedly I have the Vim plugin for that, though. I’m so slow with a mouse. 🙃
- Vivaldi - browser replacement for Chrome. It’s Chromium based, though, with great privacy additions. I use this for testing applications.
- **Mozilla Firefox Developer Edition ** - I also use this for testing applications, when needed. This is my preferred browser, but sometimes it gets slow.
iPad
- PDF Expert - free version; I read my textbooks on here and highlight them. It’s been nice not to have these chonky bois on my lap and taking up space in my room.
- **Procreate ** - absolute must if you’re doing digital art. This is an amazing app.
- Concepts - free version; I used this to design blueprints for a large-scale gingerbread house that I made with my former roommate. It was super useful - all I had to do was draw it on graph paper in this app and send it over via AirDrop to my roommate’s laptop so he could put it into his CAD program. I’ve also used this for other “technical” sketches.
Art
- Micron pens - I’ve been lucky that my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother all do art. My grandmother gifted me some of these pens in middle school and I’ve kept a handful ever since.
- Staedtler Fineliners - these work extremely well with the micron pens, but you have to let them dry (or they smudge everywhere).
Other art stuff I use I don’t necessarily condone yet. I am still testing alcohol markers, gouache, and acrylics. I usually just buy whatever sketch books are on sale. To outline things for the pens/fineliners, I use a mechanical pencil of whatever kind I can find.
Want art? Check out my my art page for more details. I also take commissions: art@cupofsquid.com
Want the nitty gritty? Check out my dotfiles!