A cheap but surprisingly good mechanical keyboard. Heavy as hell

My coworkers used to dabble in mechanical keyboards. Some of them claimed they could stop anytime they wanted. My friend C made no such claims. I don't think I ever saw the same keyboard twice. It's possible some of them were just alternate keycap combinations.

I, of course, grew up on mechanical keyboards, but I've put it behind me. I love my Macbook, the low travel keys are fast and the lack of CLACK is perfectly CLACK-ceptable, honestly.

So when I randomly spotted this cheap knockoff mechanical keyboard with one missing key for $5 at Goodwill, I thought: what the hell. A CLACK or two just for a laugh. First one's practically free...

CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK

Oh dear. I think I really like the CLACK.

This is going to be a problem, isn't it.

Gee, this thing weights a ton.

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Heh. Nerd.



Can ummm... I try?



😜
Hee! It's an Easterntimes Tech I-500... newer nicer versions are like $40 on Amazon. This one would be $15 on eBay, with the missing key included! It's a cheap habit at first...
STOP making me look up mechanical keyboards that are so kawaii it hurts.
 

With the help of my daughter, My Favorite Team was victorious.

What girl's name is the title of a 2016 song by The Lumineers and part of the title of a 2025 song by Taylor Swift?

What board game genre, characterized by the in-game purchase of components to be cyclically accessed later, was popularized by Dominion ?

What Shakespeare play begins with"Now is the winter of our discontent" spoken by the Duke of Gloucester, who is "determined to prove a villain" ?

What famous lawyer gave an eight-hour speech at the sentencing hearing of the murderers Leopold and Loeb, and later defended John Scopes in the "Monkey Trial" ?

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Yikes. I know the third question but not the others.
Ophelia; deck builder; Richard III; William Jennings Bryan
WJB was on the Anti-Monkey side of the Scopes trial...
ah i was afraid of that
aha, i remembered! Lawrence Darrow
Clarence Darrow?
Clawrence? stupid brain
 
A black and white line art drawing of a group of creatures and characters related to the winter holidays.

For those who haven't seen it elsewhere:

I want to make a winter holiday themed coloring book, and I could really use your help!

Specifically, what are some of your favorite (fantasy) winter holiday creatures and/or characters? Let me know below, and they might just be in the coloring book (which will be free / PWYW)!

  • I'm not looking for any religious themes / characters.
  • Fantasy / High Fantasy for bonus points.

ETA (unrelated):

Still working on #Gobtober because I'm determined to finish, despite having not done so 'in time'. Today I did Day24 - dragon - and had a lot of fun with it, so I thought I would share the YouTube Short for it:

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From the “Festive Traditions” collection:

Gävle Goat, Badalisc, Mari Lwyd, Kallikantzaros, Nalujuit, Lutzelfrau, Olentzero, Wangkarnal Crow
Thank you for this! *rushes off to do some 'Google Homework'*
Mari Lwyd or Llwyd is my favorite. I want to make a cardboard version.
I've had it recommended elsewhere, too. I'm definitely going to need to learn more.
Early Welsh Mummer.
This is a stretch but could be fun for a coloring book: Panquetzaliztli is the Aztec festival of Huitzilopochtl. It’s the lead-up to the Winter Solstice and Huitzilopichtl is the Aztec sun god.

And yes, there’s a lot of sacrifice involved so maybe not?



Lemme check it out. I LOVE that it's not 'the usual suspects' and from a different culture.
Belsnickel! (Though I have him much creepier and enchanting and wizardy in my head than he is normally depicted)
Nice! I'll have to talk to you about a description... :)
Squeeeeee!
I had no fantasy creatures to suggest, and I was sad. Then I met a man who had no fantasy life at all.
Awww. Don't be sad. You do so much creative work with your storytelling!

I do kinda feel bad for that man, though.
He's not still alive, is he?

Uh, it's just a mis-quote of a mis-quote, "I was sad because I had no cheese grater. Then I met a man who had no cheese." I have no idea what the original quote is or who said it.
I mean, _I_ would be very sad if I didn't have any cheese.
AUTHOR:

Sadi (1184–1291)

QUOTATION:

I never complained of the vicissitudes of fortune, nor suffered my face to be overcast at the revolution of the heavens, except once, when my feet were bare, and I had not the means of obtaining shoes. I came to the chief of Kfah in a state of much dejection, and saw there a man who had no feet. I returned thanks to God and acknowledged his mercies, and endured my want of shoes with patience, and exclaimed,

“Roast fowl to him that’s sated will seem less

Upon the board than leaves of garden cress.

While, in the sight of helpless poverty,

Boiled turnip will a roasted pullet be.”



ATTRIBUTION:

SADI, The Gulistn, or Rose Garden, trans. Edward B. Eastwick, chapter 3, story 19, p. 129 (1880).



A modern version, often cited as an old Arabian proverb, is: “I thought I was abused because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”—J. M. Braude, Speaker’s Encyclopedia of Stories, Quotations and Anecdotes, p. 338, no. 2320 (1955).
At least that's one attribution. When I subtracted 1184 from 1291 to get 107, I double-checked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_Shirazi and found 1209/10 - 1291/92. Variations of the quote are attributed to several other people.
 

Given that the house renovation left us cash-poor, Kim looked into options for stretching our money and found out that a local food pantry will give weekly food items to anyone over 60, no questions asked. Some weeks are better than others; a month or two ago, we got some frozen 7-11 breakfast sandwiches, which we were not brave enough to try, and another time we got a sealed bag of Beyond sausage bits that, upon later inspection, was over a month past its expiration date.  Today's haul was three pounds of pinto beans (we're in the Rancho Gordo Bean Club and already have more amazing beans than we can handle), one pound of white rice, and six pounds of brown rice (plus a half-gallon of cow milk, some fruit, and some bread).

Unpacking proceeds apace. We'd like to host Thanksgiving so we probably need to hustle over the next three weeks.

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I started a monthly cash donation to my local food bank. Maybe I’d better increase it a bit.
 

Elevators are great art. They work on so many levels.

Did you hear about the Gen Z BDSM shop? It's called executive function.

I was going to buy a parcel of land, but it was kind of a lot.

How do you make fuckin' s'mores? With damn crackers.

Today I called my son by my cat's name. That's right - I failed a CATCHA.

I'm pitching a reboot of Pinocchio set in Brooklyn. It's called "the only living toy in New York."

People who think Mandela died in the 80's aren't from an alternate universe. They just have terrible death perception.

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Adding these to my collection!
The audience for jokes about track 55 from “Peppy Songs About Death, Volume 2” may be small, but it’s not zero.
 

Here are links to the podcast episodes we made in a way that you can listen to them wherever you prefer. 
The Old Woman All Skin and Bones Ted's masterpiece. 
Like and Subscribe is my script of the year. 

More in a bit. 


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Nice - congrats!
I just listened to "The Old Woman All Skin and Bones".

That was definitely the best 4 minutes of my day.

My brain needs to hear Ted's sincerity.



Also, I don't know anything about sound recording, but whatever you're doing works. It sounds wondrous, really rich and full.
Thank you. Ted’s getting better at working with different kinds of sound, like muffled vs. crisp as opposed to volume alone.
... and I just listened to "Like and Subscribe".

I really enjoyed that experience. Thank you so much for making that.

It sounded like hundreds and hundreds of hours of work, all at a high level.

The voices fit the characters perfectly. I love your writing. Love it.

Bluejean is my favorite.



My next listen is going to be: "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Automatics".

Thank you! I wish I had better words to describe succinctly what that means for me.
Both were great! The sound was great in both. I really enjoyed that in Like and Subscribe you could tell when the characters were speaking inside the van, that was a really nice touch.
I need to give major props to Matt Boudreau. Not only did he make working on this project smooth as silk, he thanked me for making a script that, as he said, was easy and fun to work on.

He’s worked as a professional sound designer for an audio version of The X-Files and some other projects I can’t remember. He truly knows his craft.
Whence 6630?
Our old house number was 6630 and we liked how the numbers looked and sounded.
 

The Griswolds pulled ahead in music trivia and My Favorite Team couldn't catch them at the end.  

What TV anthology, first aired in 1991, features a teenage group called the Midnight Society that tells stories around a campfire?

What is the real name of the Colorado hotel that inspired The Shining  by Stephen King?

What does the Spanish word "brujas" mean in the Halloween expression "Día de las Brujas" ?

What real-life fungus that zombifies insects is the scientific basis for the plague in The Last of Us​​​​​​​ ?

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only know the last two, witches and Cordyceps (which i've seen in some health supplements)
I’m going to guess Are You Afraid of the Dark?

I’ve stayed at The Stanley.
Cool! I never watched the show, but somehow eventually got that entire title. “I think it’s… a question?”
My brother loves that show.
 

We borrowed this movie from the library and I remarked that Nicole Kidman was still married to Executive Producer Tom Cruise when it was being made.

B:  "What?  This movie isn't that old!"

Me:  "Yep, it was released in 2001."

B:  "What?!?"

Me:  [spooky finger waving] "Wooooooooo!"

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I remember when that movie came out, and how Entertainment Tonight interviewed Tom Cruise on the red carpet about how talented Kidman is. I think they’d just gotten divorced, but it was to his benefit for the movie to make money, so the conversation was a masterclass in text and subtext.
Oh man. Just based on that comment, I may have to see if I can dig that up on YouTube...
I hope I remember it correctly!
Seems about right. Tom Cruise could say “monkey cold banana copter, over aloe ingeborg humperdink,” and make it compelling, though.
 

Honestly, it's not the prettiest tree posted on OnePo this week. But our block has a real humdinger of its own.

Lovely tree in autumn, leaves caught by the sun on the top bit, sunset reflecting off the clouds
The same tree from another angle, very busy and filling much of the frame, almost crowding out three houses

This second photo does a good job of capturing how much this tree dominates the frame in person as well.

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Love it. Reminds me of the conversation when my father came out to find me in the pine forest behind my grandfather's place:

Dad: "Feel better?"

Me: "Infinitely."
I like big trees and I cannot lie.
That's a great tree. Looks like the shape has been slightly modified thanks to PECO but it still manages to be magnificent.
 

My Favorite Team led at halftime, but cratered late. 

When the Seattle Mariners reached the American League Championship Series in 2025, what AL Central team then had the longest current ALCS appearance drought?

Giuseppe Zangara, Samuel Byck, and Francisco Duran are A) attempted presidential assassins, B) champion F1 drivers, or C) Nobel-winning physicists?

What software company, publisher of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero, was purchased by Microsoft in 2023?

Of the 11 elements whose symbols do not feature letters from their common English names, which one has the lowest atomic number?

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Minnesota?; A; Bethesda?; sodium
Bethesda got bought by Microsoft in 2021. Hm. I remember these guys publishing for the Atari 2600 back in the 80's.