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Have a Laugh at My Mistake(s)

Casio AQ230 AnaDigi Watch. Photo by Unattributed. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Introduction There are things watch collectors are warned about when they start getting into watches. I made several mistakes. Some of them are common, there are plenty of listicle style videos on YouTube that cover this topic. But, sometimes you can find yourself making a mistake so large that when you finally learn your…

The One I Miss: Technics SL-J33 Turntable

Introduction There’s one piece of audio gear I miss, it is my Technics SL-J33 turntable. I guess technically now it is considered vintage audio gear since it was produced in the 1980s. And, I would hazard a guess, that if you are used to seeing typical turntables, the above photograph 1 is not what you would think of as a turntable. The SL-J33 was most definitely not your typical phonograph.…

A Tale of Two Citizens

Image: A Citizen Eco-Drive Zenshin (AW0130-85L), and Citizen Classic Eco-Drive (AW0082-01A), Photo by Unattributed, License: Copyright Unattributed. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 . Up until now I’ve only owned one Citizen watch. It is an Eco-Drive Pilot style watch, and I didn’t like it. Why? Several of reasons: It was way over-sized for even my beefy wrist. The size…

Time to Play What's in the Box?

Image of a blue and cream-colored box with a handle and buttons at the side of the handle. Photo by Unattributed. License: Copyright Unattributed. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 . Okay, this is just a silly little game for the fun of it. Why? Because this is one of those impulse things that I bought. Well, not completely an impulse purchase. It’s something I’ve written…

Mightier than the Keyboard

Image: “Mightier Than the Keyboard?” handwritten on a piece of paper with a fountain pen. Photo by: Unattributed, License: Copyright Unattributed. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 . When I started using Fountain Pens last year, I noted that there was something different about the quality of my writing. It seemed to have a different quality to it. At first, I couldn’t figure out…

Missing Connection: Fountain Pens and Watches

A retro-styled wristwatch, a Timex T-80 Digital watch, Pelikan, Waterman and Conklin Fountain Pens. I’ve posited elsewhere that I have become something of a “techno curmudgeon” — that is someone who has serious reservations about technology, and therefore has adopted older technology. And yes, that is one possible connection between Fountain Pens and Wristwatches, but there is something else…

Why I Got into Watches: Rejecting Smartwatches

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Introduction A few years back I became interested in the idea of getting a smartwatch. However, what I found when I started doing research into them was nothing short of horrifying. Take the journey with me as I talk about why I thought a smartwatch would be a good fit in my life, to the realization that there was no chance I would ever buy one of them. The level…

Typewriter Window Shopping 101

Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash I’ve started a quest for the “perfect” typewriter. I don’t know what that means: I don’t know what perfect is in the case of typewriters. When I find it, I will know it. There will be mistakes made along the way, but so be it. There is something that has fascinated me already, however, in my search for a typewriter. Originally I was thinking…

Birth Year Collecting

Photo: IBM Selectric I Typewriter, By Steve Iodefink , License: CC BY 2.0 The concept of birth year collecting has fascinated me in the last year or two. The idea of seeking out objects that were produced in the year you were born has an appeal. And yet, I cannot, for the life of me quite wrap my head around the concept. So, think of it this way… You are looking at objects that you very likely had…

Three Parker 51 Demonstrator Clones

Three Parker 51 Clones: Wingsung 601 Demonstrators. Photo by Unattributed, licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 . For those who have seen my posts on c/Fountain Pens , PixelFed , or elsewhere on the FediVerse will know that I have been nearly obsessed with finding a good set of Parker 51 clones. I’ve had several (from Jinhao and Junlai) that have been disappointing. While they had…

Beating AI Using Public Domain Photos

I’ve recently rediscovered something I had done a long time ago: modifying pictures from weather and traffic cameras. Note: I am cautious about the cameras that I choose to use. They have to be cameras that are putting their photographs online, and specifically be in the public domain. Obviously, not all weather camera images are in the public domain. Privately owned cameras, especially the…

My Watches Twin

Casio Lineage LCW-M100TSE, Photo by Unattributed, License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 Introduction: The Casio Lineage LCW-M100TSE The Casio Lineage watch line is in my top five daily wear watches. They represented one of the best values in watches imaginable at the price I paid: $180 USD. Today, unfortunately, due to changes in our import policies, they sell for around $250-$300 USD.…

The Luxury Investor

Photo by Millenary Watches on Unsplash In Rejecting the Luxury of Hobbies I talked about the “investor” types of people. The people that seem to feel that participating in a hobby based around collecting should not affect their bottom line. Well, here we are, just a couple of days later, and one of these “collectors” just showed up in my YouTube with his latest video: Affordable Watches Lose You…

Re-Learning Photography

Photo by: Ailbhe Flynn via Unsplash I was into photography many years ago (like over 40 years ago), and in all this time there have been several significant changes. The single biggest is the change from analog film based photography to digital photography. This one change has completely changed aspects of photography that cannot be understated. For example, photographers today will never know the…

Rejecting the Luxury of Hobbies

Chimeri standard dress watch (Photo by Unattributed, License CC BY-NC-SA) “What are hobbies about?” is a question I started asking myself when I was watching YouTube videos about watches and fountain pens. The answer to that question showed that I have a fundamentally different view of hobbies than others. Worse, the things that I think of as hobbies aren’t hobbies to a lot of people. There…

Webrings & Elsewhere

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My Current Keyboard(s)

The amazing GAMENOTE keyboard, in all its gamery goriness. Introduction So, if you were to ask me why I got into mechanical keyboards, the picture above would be the explanation. This is the Havit “GAMENOTE” keyboard (aka the KB512L). This keyboard is responsible for me spending a little over a year in a mechanical keyboard rabbit hole. Now, let’s be clear: this was not a good keyboard. It…

Why Fountain Pens?

Recreation of a Conklin Crescent Filler fountain pen. (Photo by Unattributed, Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Introduction I don’t recall any point in time where I had any interest in fountain pens. I was born well after the time of the fountain pen, and there weren’t any relatives in my family that had any special attachments to fountain pens. Then, there are some questions to answer: What…

About Ennui Vagaries

Welcome to Ennui Vagaries, a website dedicated to all the hobbies and pass-times I indulge in on a regular basis. This is a short history of how I came to start this site. Origins During the pandemic I became interested in two things: (1) single board computers / mini-PC’s, and (2) mechanical keyboards. I quickly found that my interest in these technologies could use an outlet. At the time,…

Hot Take: North Oriented LEDs Aren't The Issue

Originally Published: 2022-06-01 Introduction There are a lot of “influencers” in the keyboard community that complain any chance they get about keyboards that have the LEDs installed in the north side of the switch socket (see the little white squares in the cover photo). One literally titled his review of one keyboard “This board is almost perfect, EXCEPT” with the text…

Let's Talk About Clickiez

Originally published on No Thoccs Aloud Let’s Talk About Clickiez Introduction So, there has been a lot of buzz about these switches in the keyboard community. So much buzz that I found myself pre-ordering them months before they were released. Now that I actually have them, and have had them in my daily driver keyboard for over a week it’s time to talk about them. Are they good? Are they…

71-Keys Review: Havit KB512L

Originally published on No Thoccs Aloud Havit KB512L “Gamenote” keyboard displaying rainbow LED lighting. Introduction Company Havit Model KB512L Weight 624g Dimensions 331x102x36.3mm Switches Jixian Blue Wireless N/A OS Support Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, Mac, Linux Price $30 USD RGB Yes Key caps Double shot PBT, shine through Body ABS & Aluminum This is the keyboard that made…

Review Series: The 71-Keys Rabbit Hole

Originally published on No Thoccs Aloud Introduction We’re about to embark on a journey to explore some keyboards that are, at best, outliers in the mechanical keyboard world. I’ve gathered nearly a dozen of them (which, itself, is a feat) that I will be reviewing over the next several weeks. Why am I going to review them? Well, there are several reasons: These keyboards are…

Starting from the Beginning

Originally published on No Thoccs Aloud Introduction Welcome to No Thoccs Aloud a journal documenting my latest hobby / interest: mechanical keyboards. Mechanical keyboards have been around for over a century. Don’t believe me? Well consider this was my first mechanical keyboard: While you might consider this to be something of a joke, it is quite literally true that manual typewriters,…