Tools

I spend a lot of time reflecting on how I live and work. Here's a non-exhaustive list of tools that I'm excited about and recommend. Expand any of these to learn more about why I like it. There are no affiliate links here - I'm just hoping these recommendations might help others who have similar goals and interests.

Tech

• Operating System: Linux Mint XFCE

  I do all of my school and teaching work on a 10+ year old Lenovo Yoga. I'd given up on this computer because it was too slow running Windows. A colleague suggested and Mint, and it just works =)

• Home Media Server

  I wrote a lot about this here. We're using Jellyfin for video streaming (not Plex, because Jellyfin is FOSS), and Navidrome for music.

• This Website

  Built with 11ty, colors inspired by Catppuccin

Making

• Sewing: Vintage 1957 Singer "Slant-o-Matic" 401A

  I bought this second-hand and refurbished it myself. Since then, I've used it to sew lots of clothing, backpacking gear, halloween costumes, curtains, etc. I love that this thing will outlast me, and is strong enough to go through multiple layers of upholstery fabric.

• 3D Design: CADQuery

  I've never learned a proper CAD tool, but I love that I can use Python to generate STL files.

• 3D Printing: Bambu A1

  This is my first 3D Printer, and I've been very happy with it

Bikes

• XC Mountain Bike: Santa Cruz Tallboy

  I bought this bike second-hand a few years back after a lot of years on a hardtail. I love this bike and couldn't ask for any more!

• Kid Transportation: Urban Arrow Family

  I've been a reader of DC Rainmaker's Blog for a long time, and he's done a ton of writing about this bike. We picked up our own when our child was about 18 months old, and it has served us fantastically. We use it for our ~2 mile commute to daycare, and lots of weekend adventures. We love that it has room for a friend and all the toys/scooters/snacks we'd ever want to bring. We've even put an adult in the box for the occasional family dinner out.

• Everything Else: Soma Wolverine

  I blogged about building this bike here and I've put thousands of miles on it since. It's great for daily commuting, long rides on the C&O Canal, bikepacking, and everything in between.

Food

• Overnight Oats ("oatboys")

  I recently estimated that I ate more than 85 pounds of oats in the past year. I eat overnight oats (with chia seeds) and peanut butter powder) for breakfast almost every morning. I make them in big batches in individual mason jars. I'd be excited to share my recipe with anyone who is interested.

  For a while, I was also making these for my toddler. One morning we were eating our oats together and I said something about "look at us, we're oat boys" and since then, he refers to my breakfast as "oatboys".

• Home made soy milk

  Our family goes through a lot of soy milk. For a while, we were buying three or four cartons of soy milk from the grocery store every week. This was getting expensive and generating a ton of waste. We picked up a Chef Wave Milk Maker, which was an expensive investment but payed for itself very quickly. We get dried soybeans for cheap from our local bulk grocery store and this machine makes the process easy.

• Huel

  This is my go-to lunch on workdays. It's not especially tasty, but you can't beat the convenience, price, or nutrition!

• Sourdough

  I started my own starter (which I've nicknamed "Dough-lores") in 2016, and I've maintained it ever since. I even won second-place in the Arlington County Fair!

Other

• Shaving: Vintage 1960 Gillette Fatboy Safety Razor

  I got frustrated overpaying for modern razor cartidges and decided to give old-style safety razors a try. This razor works great, and I love how cheap and convenient double-edged razor blades are. Best of all, I've found tons of uses for them, from scoring bread to scraping my toddler's stickers off the window.

I need recommendations

Here's a few things I'm still trying to figure out. I'd appreciate recommendations!

• Shoes with a wide toe box

  I've always had weird feet. I basically stopped wearing shoes during the pandemic lockdowns and I've had tons of trouble with shoes since then. I've specifically struggled with cycling shoes, which tend to be very narrow in the toe box.

  I wear my Bedrock Sandals pretty much year round.

  i do have snowboard boots I'm happy with - I spent years struggling and trying on tons of boots, until I found these Salomon boots, which solved all my issues.

• A good, smartphone-free process for planning and tracking lifting workouts

  Right now I'm using a google sheet, printing it, and making notes during my workouts. This works okay, but updating the sheet is tedious.

• A minimal pannier for bike commuting

  I basically just carry my laptop back and forth. I'm using a backpack now, but I end up too sweaty. I've used Ortleib panniers in the past, but they were too bulky.