Good morning! January is a dreary month — not necessarily for the crummy weather, but the fall-off from the high of Christmas and New Year's celebrations is fast and sudden. Our family had events booked 3 or 4 times a week in December, and now we’re on the radar looking for things to do in the evening to get out of the house. I’m sure this is why half of Canada ends up on vacation in Mexico between now and the middle of February.

I hope your 2025 has kicked off with a bang. Here are a few fun things I found this week on the web.

GMK’s MTNU Granite Keycaps

It could seem like insanity to spend more money on keycaps than for an entire — perfectly functional — keyboard like the Apple Magic Keyboard or Microsoft’s Surface Keyboard. GMK is expensive.

But I’m calling it a “hobby” these days, so I can spend money willy-nilly without any judgement. And every keyboard hobbyist has to have a set of GMK keycaps in their arsenal.

Last week I received my first set of GMK keycaps — a base set of GMK’s new Granite MTNU profile keycaps. The base set comes with a full slate of number keys for a numeric keypad, the entire row of function keys, and a few additional fun keys for macro-keys you’ve created on a custom keyboard.

My quick review: There’s a reason GMK is known as a top-end keycap maker.

The 1.5 mm thick double-shot PBT plastic feels almost soft to the touch. The MTNU profile is unique, with rounded-square landing pads for your fingers and a really uniquely shaped home row. The profile is unique like Keychron’s profile, but not so unique that you might find it off-putting. And I really dig the centered legends.

I don’t have too many downsides to these keycaps. However:

  • A few of the keys are a little wobbly — the 1.75u shift key could pop right off the key switch at any moment, and the stepped caps lock key was effectively dead on arrival because of its wobbliness.
  • The base set does not include any macOS modifiers.
  • The “F” and “J” keys don’t come with a bar option; as far as I can tell, there are only scooped-key indicators. (Scooped are fun, but I don’t find them as good for feeling your way around a keyboard.)

In the same way I’ve grown to appreciate the understated qualities of Mode Design’s keycaps, I’ve quickly grown to love the louder design of GMK’s MTNU keycaps. There’s a reason these keycaps are so expensive — they are wonderful to type on. If these ever come back for sale, I’m going to have to jump on them in a heartbeat.

Joe Rogan Experience #2252 — Wesley Huff

I’m really not a podcast guy. I listen to maybe one or two a year and never the full episode. I’ve certainly never been able to listen to a Joe Rogan episode from start to finish — three hours is lengthy. But when I saw a few clips of Wes Huff’s episode with Rogan and the manner in which Huff discussed the earliest Biblical manuscripts and documents, I knew I couldn’t miss it.

Wesley Huff is a Christian apologist from here in Canada. Based on the podcast episode, Huff is 32 years old, a PhD candidate in New Testament at the University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College, and apparently a sound speaker. His depth of knowledge of old Biblical languages, documents, and methodologies is little short of jaw-dropping.

I was especially interested in his discussion around how the Law is a mirror — it shows you how you’re dirty, but you can’t become clean by washing yourself with a mirror. Fascinating way of building an analogy around one of the harder Epistle lessons to learn.

If you don’t have three hours, check out the last few minutes of the episode. For a little while there, Huff actually interviews Rogan, and you can see Rogan’s mind extend into the universe. It’s a beautiful sight.

Marcus Lloyd on Instagram

I’ve shared Marcus Lloyd’s work a few times on this website. Lloyd is bar-none my favourite photographer on the planet. He shoots Leica, yes, (and film, yes), but there’s little doubt the camera is the least impactful element in Lloyd’s shooting style. Lloyd has a way of capturing a scene unlike anyone else. Just when I feel Lloyd’s best shots are clearly shot in the beautiful sunrise, he pulls out a few midday photos that are as stunning as the last.

The link above takes you to a photo set from Miami, but I really enjoyed Lloyd’s own picks for his best work from 2024, these from the Caribbean with a Leica M8, and his interior work.

The Second Cup

Here are a few more links to get you through that second cup of coffee this Sunday morning.

  • Olivier Konan’s workspace — (Workspaces.xyz)
    – Konan is an exceptionally good product photographer as well.
  • Your Consciousness Can Connect With the Whole Universe, Groundbreaking New Research Suggests — (Popular Mechanics)
    – Most of this is beyond me, until you hit the part where you're thinking about something can change the properties of something completely disconnected from your current environment.
  • The Espresso 15 Pro Portable Display — (9to5Mac)
    – What a wonderfully handy display to have kicking around for short jaunts away from the office.
  • Benefits of a Daily Diary and Topic Journals — (Derek Sivers)
    – The idea of a topic journal is fascinating. One notebook per subject. Imagine reading the first and last lines next to each other.

Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.