Lunch on the day of workplace satisfaction survey felt particularly delicious: flat iron steak laced with just the right amount of fat and smashed potatos baked to perfection. Yum! Even the box of fruit had the half-translucent-almost-jello-like kind of sweet melon - the kind you would see Suneo enjoying in a hot Summer afternoon, fresh out of the fridge.
Interpreting the ultra in ultramarathon as that in Ultraman immediately renders the sport and related events much more futuristic and appealing.
Tried out the Kensington SlimBlade trackball over the weekends and I liked it a lot.
My index finger got sore from excessive scroll-wheeling and mouse-clicking recently and I shopped around for more ergonomic alternatives. It's a shame that pointing devices as futuristic as trackballs didn't gain more traction: I blame the prevalence of flat design. To be fair, not all of the trackball designs seem that confortable to use. I didn't like any of the recent Logitech offerings (all thumb-operated/wireless trackballs). While it's nice to have open source offering in this space, Ploopy's scroll-wheel implementation seemed no better than an ordinary mouse. The SlimBlade seems to be one of the few trackballs has integrated scroll-wheel functionality as opposed to actually adding a scroll wheel. The CST/X-keys L-Trac was the only other contender with very well received free-spinning scroll wheel, but I preferred the size, design, and lower profile of the SlimBlade.
Back to SlimBlade: I did need to apply some Vaseline to get the ball to spin freely in its socket at the beginning, as the one I received does show some age. Instead of storing settings on-board, SlimBlade relies on it's OS-side driver software, which means on Linux we need to go through X-org/libinput for customization: not that it needed much at all though. The scroll-wheel function utilizes the vertical axis of the trackball and produces a very satisfying click when activated. The official demonstration features the scroll-wheel function with a holding-a-knob gesture; some user reviews I read indicated another common way is to hold trackball in place with one finger and pivot it using another; my preferred way is to rest one finger on the metallic ring outside the trackball and scroll away. Despite the SlimBlade's low profile, I find an old ErgoDox wrist rest to be just the perfect fit for an even more comfortable hold. I'm really happy with the experience so far - looking to replicate this at work if I feel tangible long term improvement in comfort.
Watching Kenji's Cooking Show today and I noticed that he had a tiny trash can on the kitchen table: that seems like a great idea! After each day/meal, just tie up the entire bag and throw it into the larger trash can in the house - no fuss!