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Uses

Updated June 2, 2025

Inspired by Robb Knight and following the suggestions of Wes Bos, these are the things I use regularly, and for the most part, daily.

Most Uses pages are very hardware focused and involve a desk. My desk is in storage on the other side of the country, while I’m taking care of Mom. For now, I’m using portable tech that doesn’t require a desk.

I also use a lot of analog technology.

Digital

MacBook Air

I moved from a 2018 13'' inch Retina MacBook Air with a failing-again butterfly keyboard in December of 2024, to a MacBook Air M3 with 24 GB RAM, a 1 terrabyte drive, and the current release version of Sequoia.

2 Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB External Portable HDD USB 3.0 drives (Amazon affiliate link).


One drive for TimeMachine, one drive for miscellaneous long-term file archiving. I’m planning on replacing both drives with portable SSDs, eventually.

CanoScan LIDE 300
Mostly I use this to scan paperwork for my Mom.

Brother HL-L2300D Monochrome Laser Printer
Efficient and inexpensive, but awkward to use because it can only print PDF files or images, and only with the Brother iPrint&Scan software, but it does support duplex.

MacOS Software

iPad 10.2'' 8th Generation iPad

I purchased the 10.2'' iPad for writing, but without a desk, the iPad is too awkward for long term use, and as my sight decays, difficult to get close enough to see the screen for long term use. I stopped being able to use a lap desk some time ago. My iPad is not used very often these days. It’s still where I read/use digital manuscript and early printed book facsimiles, which I need to list here.

iPad Mini 6th Generation 64 GB & Apple Pencil 2

I bought my iPad Mini primarily for reading ebooks and watching video. Since buying an Apple TV, I have increasingly been using the Mini for writing with the Apple Pencil 2, rather than video, and neglecting my 10.2 iPad 8th generation.

iPadOS Software

iPhone SE 2nd Gen 2022 Red 128 GB

Mostly I use my iPhone for photos, messaging, podcasts, phone calls, audio books, ebooks, and music.

iPhone Software

Home

Services

E-readers

I can no longer reliably read printed books, so I pay close attention to e-readers.

Analog

Most of what I write involves analog tools at one or more stages of my writing process. I tend to buy scholarly books in printed codex form (for purposes of citation & annotation), as well as novels in hard cover that are important to me or in particularly well-designed editions.

Paper

I’m dismayed by the recent closure of Write Notepads, as they leave retail notebook production and sales and pivot to exclivelywholesale custom production. I loved their notepads, lined and Cornell-note ruled, their hard-cover A5 notebooks in a variety of ruling, and most of all, their portrait-spiral bound undated planner. Good paper, affordably priced and lovely people.

I use Composition books for general research notes and draft. I usually have a couple of Composition books in use at any time. I watch for back-to-school sales at chain stores and Renys when these American school standards with lined pages, a sewn and taped binding and marbled covers are on sale for $0.50 to $1.00. Those that are made with rice or sugar cane fibers will even stand up to F or M nib fountain pens.

I bought an EMSHOI A4 Spiral Notebook College Ruled, 11.2" X 8.27", 150 Sheets/300 Pages, 100gsm Lined Journal on a whim. This is a thick notebook with decent paper, great for drafts and notes, good with pens, fountain pens, or pencil, and surprisingly affordable.

Fieldnotes When I was out and about I used pocket notebooks a lot, for grocery lists, short notes to myself about things to do or remember, bird sightings—all sorts of things. I am using a Spring 2025 Field Notes The Chicago Look graph-ruled notebook to take notes for one online class, and the recent Summer 2025 graph-ruled Is A River Alive? notebook for another online class.

I use index cards, record cards, note cards, 3 x 5 cards or whatever they are called in your dialect, daily. They are useful short for notes to remind me of daily tasks and objectives, reading notes, bibliographic citations, writing prompts, portable shopping lists, all kinds of uses..

Pencils

I love a good woodcased pencil, and have a number of favorites. Everyone raves about Blackwing Pencils, and I’m very fond of them, but $32.00 for twelve pencils is a bit pricey. There are lots of really good, enjoyable, more reasonably priced pencils.

Pens

These are the pens in current use.

Links may be affiliate or referral links.

June 2, 2025


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