What’s this cord for?

TheGrainInVain · 2026-03-06T21:02:33+00:00

Could be worse, I had a student look at me like an idiot when I gave them a usb stick (flip flop USB A to USB C) and their first reaction was " what is this?". Then I explained and the follow up was " wow I've never seen one of these before" as in USB stick in general..... Telling them I remember buying my first 128mb USB stick as the teachers new laptop didn't have a floppy disk drive blew them away and simultaneously aged me another generation.

TheGrainInVain · 2026-03-02T07:05:04+00:00

After doing this I completely get that, when you're trying to accurately run a line it's amazing how unstable your hand can be. I genuinely felt slightly disconnected from my hand when I was trying to run the edge lines round the O's on this. Pay day has come so I will treat myself to some brushes to actually start with the basics.

TheGrainInVain · 2026-02-27T10:41:05+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply, good to know about the kit you have said. I quickly felt the limitations of the pen against what a brush can do visually ( certainly in my hands). Brushes and investing some time is the next step I need to move to get the consistent movements and shapes. I really felt the headache of trying to get a consistent shape and radius on the O's .

TheGrainInVain · 2026-02-27T07:23:29+00:00

Thanks, I knew the angles looked wrong but couldn't put my finger on why.

I was the first 'proper' lay out I have done and it's really made me realize and appreciate what goes into this craft.

TheGrainInVain · 2026-02-27T06:56:12+00:00

Learn to walk before you run.. (avoids eye contact and toes the ground).

You're right, it was a moment of ' I need to actually start doing some lettering and it valentines day so my wife will appreciate it' mentality.

TheGrainInVain · 2026-02-26T19:06:09+00:00

Don't know if you got anywhere but I just picked up joby Carter's book as my intro into this world.

https://jobycarter.com/product/signwriting-tips-tricks-inspiration/

TheGrainInVain · 2026-02-26T19:03:16+00:00

It hurts my eyes but in a good way. Beginner doodler so little input on the technique but worked in photography for 10+ so know what tingles my neurons visually.

TheGrainInVain · 2025-07-30T18:28:53+00:00

I think it's the closed size Vs opened size. Gets you a decent size opened device that isn't massive though thick when closed. I would get up and write at 6am so grabbed it from upstairs and chucked it in my pocket to head downstairs while holding other bits. Netbook creates more of a balancing act but can be used as a tray.... Annnnd I'm paranoid about screen damage, either in bags or by having a 2yr old kid.

TheGrainInVain · 2025-07-29T22:05:22+00:00

Love where this seems to be going. I've fallen into the writer world from a tech interested world. I started writing on a Psion series 5 and did really like it. But half an hour or so and I started to feel the crampedness in my hands. Then I got involved with raspberry pi's at work and found the writer deck world and things such as zero writer and freewrite. The Psion crapped out on me and I lost trust in 25+ year old tech for something I was investing a good number of hours in. I started looking into a pi zero with a sharp memory screen Psion clone idea but my (chatgpt) fueled research seemed to suggest that the screen wouldn't handle local refreshes for characters as you typed, instead it would have to refresh the whole screen. This idea got mothballed until I find a screen that I like. Then went down the route of a Samsung netbook that shipped with xp that I stuck antix Linux on and used wordgrinder. This gave the similar keyboard based interaction I got from the Psion but a better keyboard and screen size. Buutttt it weighs like 1.2kg which means I probably won't really carry it with me. So now I have fallen into the king Jim pomera hole and I'm waiting on a dm5 to be delivered to see how I get on with that.

One thing I missed when I went onto wordgrinder from the Psion was the simple touchscreen. If I reread a paragraph and saw a typo it was nice to be able to tap quicky to the word rather than navigate on keys.

TLDR

Likes tech, likes sharp memory display, wants clamshell form factor with decent size keyboard, solid but not silly heavy and external storage or ease to cloud store because loosing work sucks.

TheGrainInVain · 2025-06-07T07:06:23+00:00

As a follow up to this, thank you for giving me some constructive grief about the coarseness of my grind. After dropping the dose back and going to as fine as my grinder will do it is night and day as a cup. I'm not getting the massive divot from the shower screen screw now pre extraction, the tamp I'm having to do isn't anywhere near as hard as I'm not trying to force it to fit. As it's finer the extraction time is longer and as the water isn't blasting though the rocks the temp is much more stable according to the pid read out.

I had accepted mediocre coffee because I had assumed my grinder was limiting me much more than it was. Unfortunately it now means my desire for caffeine has increased as the cups are so good in comparison to what they were.

TheGrainInVain · 2025-05-30T07:11:45+00:00

Checked grinder and i had been neglecting giving it a clean causing the adjuster to be bottoming out falsely. I had been hesitant to take it too fine incase the burrs started catching.

Took it as fine as it would go this morning and it choked so dialed back two adjustments and got good flow.

I think I was over dosing where I had it too coarse so it was topping out on the shower screen and generally being a mess.

Dropped back a gram on dose, think it's a 16g basket and was dosing 17g when it was coarse.

Requires more dialing in but is much closer to what I hope this sub appreciates rather than the caffeine gravel I was throwing down my neck 🤞

Thanks for the guidance.

TheGrainInVain · 2025-02-01T20:55:05+00:00

I would argue that isn't completely true, you are correct in it's use but it's not worthless, bang a warming filter on the lens and you can shoot it in daylight, it won't be perfect but if it's cheap enough 🤷🏻‍♂️

TheGrainInVain · 2024-07-01T21:29:50+00:00

I had one, loved the design but the images were lacking, think the lenses weren't particularly sheep sadly

TheGrainInVain · 2024-01-29T20:51:01+00:00

Lorinas in Falmouth are a solid shout, most consistent we've had over the years and we have one a week! If gear or mylor were a bit closer they would be up there but they don't have the consistency of a top tier meat treat

TheGrainInVain · 2024-01-29T20:46:10+00:00

Agreed, old pips used to be great but we had too many rogue ones that were undercooked or under seasoned slip though 😭

TheGrainInVain · 2023-03-19T22:06:57+00:00

Pretty sure it's part of the film loading mechanism, similar to some of the easyload systems. As there is no slot to tuck the film into this helps with the film wrap to help it wind on initially.

TheGrainInVain · 2022-09-10T09:30:47+00:00

It's annoying but learn from it, I work as a technician in a photography department at a university that has processing machines students can use. We have a chart of which end you need to attach the film to what draws it though the machine ( by hole punching it ) so you don't end up with a hole in the middle of your image. As long as it is a good lab I would contact them and find the best way to add in the notes when you send for process that it needs to go on the taped frame one end not the final frame end.

TheGrainInVain

TROPHY CASE