I thought this would a nice way of sharing our keyboard-related resolutions and, possibly, checking-in with updates throughout the year. Daunting, I know!
I pick a theme for myself every year (this year it’s a quote, which I’ll post below). In keeping with that theme, my keyboard resolutions for 2021 are:
One of my favorite posts about keyboards is jshufelt’s build logs. Starting with my Gingham project board, I’d like to keep a build log for all my projects this year.
I’d like to be more skeptical about my preferences and more curious about others’ preferences, so I can better appreciate the range of builds, aesthetics, and ideas in this community.
Be patient (which is a perennial keyboard resolution, I guess :))
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The quote is from a literary blog called Brainpickings:
Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind. Ours is a culture where one of the most embarrassing things is not to have an opinion, so we form our opinions hastily, based on quick impressions and borrowed convictions. It’s so disorienting to simply say, “I don’t know,” but it’s infinitely more rewarding to understand than to be right — even if that means changing your mind.
Finally build a decent TKL (this is actually already in motion, just pulled the trigger on a black KBD8X MKII with a PC plate!)
Build more keyboards, possibly offer a free building service
Improve my storage & inventory for sure, that is something I have definitely neglected. Bubble wrap & leftover boxes from shipping only get you so far LOL!
Put more emphasis on my vintage MKB collection
Branch out beyond MX, SKCM/L ALPS, & Topre in my collections
At least those are the easily attainable resolutions I will for sure focus on. I have a ton of other ideals I’d love to do, but time & money are my limiting factors there & I’d rather not say I’m gonna do something to have it fall by the wayside shortly after.
I really want to get better at soldering. My work is good enough in that it works, but I would never share photos! I generally opt for hotswap pcbs when the option is given, but I would like to dial in on my soldering skills in 2021.
Actually practice lubing switches until I can do it consistently
Work on some planned projects that are more involved than “buy these things and solder them together”
Learn how to really make use of the laser cutter and CNC I’ve been paying for access to and haven’t used at all
Write some QMK macros to control my lights and other smart home stuff from macro pads (finally put my BDN9 to use)
Overall, this year I finally got into the “custom” side of things and as much as I love the high end stuff I want to go back to tinkering. I’ll have a couple more customs arriving next year that I’ll build up, but I want to go through with some of the more unusual things I’ve been planning on.
Haha yeah, I joined my city’s makerspace late last year and had so many ideas. And then suddenly in 2020 going into an enclosed space with a bunch of people I don’t know to use shared tools stopped being appealing.