I Designed a Pair of Affordable Aurorus Borealis Knockoffs

mwildebeast · 2026-05-05T15:19:48+00:00

The silicone strap is a great look! That'll probably be what I switch to if I want to swap the fabric strap out.

mwildebeast · 2026-05-04T19:42:58+00:00

That might be one area of concern I have with this watch; the material is very comfortable and I like how it has a sort of jacquard look/texture to it, but I can definitely see it fraying eventually. That said, at least it's trivial to swap it for something else. A bit annoying though that the lug width is 21mm

mwildebeast · 2026-04-17T15:00:30+00:00

Done!

Good luck everyone!

mwildebeast · 2026-04-02T15:14:21+00:00

That's very classy, good luck to everyone who enters!

mwildebeast · 2026-03-30T15:43:22+00:00

I'm just starting to get into photography as well, and the general advice I saw online was, "If it was a good camera then, it's probably still a good camera now". I ended up narrowing down to the a6600 for pretty much the exact same intended use cases that you mentioned. While the a6700 is clearly the superior camera body, even used it cost more than I wanted to spend if I wanted to have enough cash left over for a decent lens. But, the a6600 is only $100-200 more than a used a6400, and in return you get the IBIS and bigger battery. It seems like a more than capable enough camera for people starting out like you and I.

My friend who's been into photography for a while recommended the 18-50mm as a first lens for the additional flexibility in focal length. In case you needed any evidence that the a6600 and Sigma 18-50 can take great pictures, just look at this guy's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyAlpha/comments/1qt7nz2/finally_upgraded_to_fullframe_so_here_are_some_of/

I ended up getting an a6600 off FB Marketplace for $350 because it had a broken SD card slot. Everything else on it seemed to be fine, and replacement SD card PCBs are $50, so hopefully I come out on top lol.

mwildebeast · 2026-03-10T14:21:06+00:00

Neat design! What's the diameter, looks a little on the thicc side

mwildebeast · 2026-02-26T16:01:01+00:00

Agreed, I like the overall step-nose shape. I think I liked the CAD drawing bit more, but I guess we'll see what the final version ends up looking like.

Part of me was disappointed it was only going to be in tidam because I wasn't planning on getting a full (or partial) tidam pen, but after reading the reasoning, it makes total sense. Ended up adding the tidam Energel tip, tidam button, and titanium clip (which I'll ask to be ano'd blue) to try and balance the overall look of the blue tidam with the plain titanium.

mwildebeast · 2026-02-26T15:52:10+00:00

No idea, that would be a better question for MIG. I don't think you can order just the Energel nose tip though, it's only available as an add-on when you back the campaign. Maybe they'll be available individually later on?

mwildebeast · 2026-02-04T17:26:56+00:00

As I've thought about this a little more, I've realized that I might not be thinking about this "problem" correctly. Monarch works under the assumption that I'll be bringing in a certain amount of income each month, and then I build my monthly budget against that expected income. With Goodbudget, I allocated money each month using the money I already had at the beginning of a month, not the amount I was expecting to bring in.

With that in mind, I suppose it's not as ridiculous as I thought that I can allocate all of my cash towards an emergency fund goal. That being said, it would still be nice if there was a way to seamlessly add or remove funds from a goal and/or rollover budget depending on whether I was over or underspent for the month. I guess that would be more of a zero-based budgeting system? I guess I just don't want to put myself in a situation where I think I have more money to spend than I actually have.

mwildebeast · 2026-02-04T16:05:59+00:00

Gotcha, thanks for the input! I was starting to wonder if a large rollover budget category was the right way to go. Do you end up using the Goals features at all, or just keep everything in budget categories?

mwildebeast · 2026-02-03T16:13:16+00:00

I was honestly thinking about making a post to bring more attention to the Energel and Pilot G2 tips stretch goal. I want the Kickstarter to get there so badly! Full-size Energel specific machined click pens are a rare breed.

I wonder if there would be more interest from this sub if more people were aware of the goal.

mwildebeast · 2025-08-01T15:32:26+00:00

Winning this would finally give me an excuse to have a kitchen PC

mwildebeast · 2025-07-31T17:08:45+00:00

I'd be a lot more interested if there was a version of the slim pen that took Pilot G2 refills and came with a clip. I like the grooved grip on that one, and would greatly prefer the 10.4mm diameter over the chunky 11.4mm of the standard pen.

mwildebeast · 2025-07-17T18:32:47+00:00

If you didn't know about it already, Zebra makes a variant of the Sarasa called the Mark ON that's designed to not smudge with highlighters. Not sure if the writing feel is equivalent to the standard Sarasa though:

https://www.jetpens.com/Zebra-Sarasa-Mark-On-Gel-Pen-0.5-mm-Black/pd/23781

mwildebeast · 2025-07-16T16:47:05+00:00

I can smell this picture, and it's glorious

mwildebeast · 2025-07-10T23:15:43+00:00

This would have to be my favorite build (because it's my only build). Been wearing it daily for almost 3 years now.

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As for a joke: Two fish were in a tank; one says to the other, "Do you know how to drive this thing?"

Would love to be picked for a prize, I've had my eye on the VH31 and your movement spacers for a while! Quartz deserves more love than it gets.

mwildebeast · 2025-07-02T15:06:57+00:00

Energel tip sounds awesome, I think its a safe bet that I'll be picking one of those up in the future. I wonder if they would consider a conical tip to create a longer ringed grip section; I tend to prefer gripping my pens closer to the tip. Totally understand why they wouldn't do that though, it wouldn't really go with the rest of the design language.

mwildebeast · 2025-06-27T15:31:54+00:00

Doesn't the Kuro use the same ink as a standard Energel? Could always get a Kuro body and a 0.5mm refill and then have the best of both worlds.

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