From: Joel Chrono
To: Kev Quirk
Subject: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 01 February 2024

Hey Kev, how's it going? It is I, Joel, very happy to take part in this little PenPal experiment, I took a glance at some previous conversations and I was quite nervous about even starting. In some cases you sent the first email, in others, the other person did! For some reason I thought it would be hilarious if we both sent a starting email and talked about totally different things. But that has a very slim chance of actually happening—still not zero though!

As you may know, I'm doing #100DaysToOffload again this year, and my approach will be to publish 8-10 posts per month, the challenge won't be reaching the goal, but doing it without grinding posts at the beginning or end like last year, oof.

During February, I decided to limit myself with a bit of a challenge. I don't have a coffee problem, or any addictions that harm my physical health, but YouTube is quite a problem for me.

Last month I watched 56 hours of it on my phone alone, plus whatever I did on my laptop! This is something I track on my monthly summaries (1), but haven't had the push to actually try and limit that. But someone I know will do a social media detox, and I decided to join too! Only YouTube though, since the rest of social media is pretty much just Mastodon.

You mentioned in some of your previous PenPal emails that you had to reconsider your challenges because they may make things difficult for your family too. But what if instead of avoiding something, you try learning something new!?

I saw a blogpost by Austin Kelon (2) the other day and thought I may try to practice something these 29 days of February. Right now I may try drawing faces/people, it's been a while since I last drew at all, I am not bad I think, but I lack consistency! And drawing people is not something I do often.

Lastly, I have a job! You may have to update my description on my PenPals description since I am no longer a student of Mechatronics, always learning nonetheless! It's been a few months and I am quite lucky to be where I am. I still have a bunch of paperwork to do, and a final project that isn't that big of a deal, but my graduation will be soon and I am kind of excited!

This is already quite long, I am sorry for that, I'll be awaiting for your response, feel free to ask around and such,

Kind regards,

Joel.

From: Kev Quirk
To: Joel Chrono
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 03 February 2024

Hey Joel,

Thanks for agreeing to take part in this experiment. I agree, it was a bit confusing at first; some people I've emailed first, others they have emailed me. I've decided that I'll let people email me first going forward, so that they can set the tone for the conversation throughout their month. This way, I think there will be more variety to the conversations as we'll likely go down rabbit holes that are important to that individual.

Even though I started #100DaysToOffload, I've never actually completed it. I think I might this year though, as since switching to Kirby, I've been really enjoying producing content. Plus it's so easy now that I can customise the CMS to work exactly how I want it to.

I don't think I have the time to learn something new to be honest. Between the family, animals, smallholding and work, I don't have much free time. What little free time I do have, I'd much rather spend it on my established hobbies that I know I enjoy, like watch collecting, my motorbikes and writing.

Talking of watch collecting, I know you're a fellow Casio nerd. Have you bought any new ones recently, or are there any you have your eye on? I noticed G-SHOCK recently released some new colours to their GA-2100 (Casioak) line up. Some of them look cool and I'm thinking about picking one or two up. I'm also thinking about thinning the heard a little and selling some of my watches. It's all down to time again though - taking photos, putting them on eBay etc. etc. it's all time I don't have.

Congrats on the new job! What is it? Also, please send me an updated bio and I'll edit the description for you.

On the YouTube/social thing, it's something I've battled with a lot too. Not as easy for me to take a break from Fosstodon, with me being one of the admins, but I do try to have time away from the timelines where possible. YouTube is a different thing though - I really enjoy YouTube, so would find it very difficult to give up. Having said that (back to the lack of time thing again) I don't get time to watch it as much as I'd like, so that keeps my addiction to it in check, I suppose.

Thanks,

Kev

From: Joel Chrono
To: Kev Quirk
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 09 February 2024

Hey! That decision to wait for the first email makes sense. I hope the direction keeps going nicely over the span of this month!

I actually had no idea you never completed 100 Days To Offload, that's quite a revelation! My dissapointment is unmeasurable, and my day is ruined, now you'll have to complete it to fix that!—Mostly kidding though ;)

Nice to read that you're getting enjoyment out of blogging lately, I've also enjoyed a bunch of them, for years now at this point! so it's nice to know the production is not in any danger of stopping for now.

Kirby keeps tempting me, seriously, but unlike you I am still loyal to Jekyll, everything just works exactly how I want it to work, it has its annoying moments but there's nothing that bad for me to actually change it anytime soon.

When it comes to learning new things... Well, let's just say I'm glad I still have a few more years of freedom. I'm honestly looking forward to the future where I have kids and I get to teach them everything I know. I hope to have the energy and patience for them when the right time comes! If they can solve a rubik's cube in 20 seconds—and they actually enjoy the process—I'll be happy enough.

Also getting them their first Casio watch and such things, I don't know but I'll be happy about those little things!

And speaking of Casio watches, I am actually quite comfy with my current collection, I haven't bought anything in like 3 months, but due to my graduation coming up next, I am looking forward to getting a GA-2100 as a gift for myself! Should be AWESOME!

There is this other G-Shock, the GA-B001 that I quite love, but I am afraid that it will be too big for my wrist, but maybe one day...

As of selling them, well, I would say go for it! I don't have enough for that to be crossing my mind in my case lol.

My job is weird and consists of a lot of things. Basically I provide system support for an automotive supplier company. My job involves tasks like fixing database errors for production, efficiency or inventory records, collaborating with the automation team to integrate sensors and PLCs into the internal production control systems, or sometimes just printing a bunch of labels for logistics. It is quite an interesting job with a bunch of programs that I'm still learning, many specific tools and situations. I have to take a bunch of notes and sometimes I'm totally lost on things. Thankfully I have a partner helping me out with all of it.

The position is actually called "Key User", which only now do I realize why it makes sense, since I am involved in a lot of finnicky stuff in many areas. For example, I also enable user permissions for the production operators to log into the computers in the shop floor, which is needed to keep track of their production and efficiency.

Not quite IT department though. I don't set up IP addresses or install printers or new systems, for example. I guess I'm somewhat of a bridge between the IT, Logistics and Production departments.

As for a bio, I am not sure, you can just swap "he's currently studying Mechatronics Engineering" with "he studied Mechatronics Engineering and works in the automotive industry".

I have managed to do quite good with the YouTube challenge so far, however I would be lying if that time wasn't taken by Mastodon and Facebook a little more. It is still a lot lower overall than before. The month is still not over though, so we'll see how it all ends up. I hope I do more productive things in the future.

I actually had a work trip these past couple of days, just to a different plant in my country a couple of hours away, I visited some workmates and took a tour of the whole thing. Honestly I was just happy to travel and get free money to buy food and be comfy in a hotel room at the end of the day!

Anyway, sorry for the late reply, but I hope it's good enough!

I'll be awaiting for your response.

~joelchrono | https://joelchrono.xyz | Sent from K-9 Mail

From: Kev Quirk
To: Joel Chrono
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 09 February 2024

Hey Joel,

Friday is usually the day that I spend some time catching up on email, so you're getting a quick reply today. Don't feel like you have to wait a week to reply, by the way, I'm happy for this conversation to progress in whatever cadence you see fit. Similarly, don't worry if you're too busy and need to wait longer than a week to reply - it's all good on my side.

I know, me not completing 100 Days is disappointing to me too. However, I'm pretty sure I'll complete it this year as I'm putting out way more content than I have in the past, mainly due to Kirby being so damned good. If you include the PenPal emails Iv'e published on my site, I've definitely completed it, but I don't class them as blog posts, so don't include them in the count.

I'm still loyal to Jekyll. I thinks it's a great platform and I use it on a few sites. I'm actually in the process of building a new site with it too. If Jekyll works for you, then I say stick with it. :)

When I became a parent, I had all those really good intentions too. Now I have a few years experience under my belt, I'm just happy to get to the end of some days without the kids getting seriously hurt haha. It's bloody hard being a parent, and it definitely tries your patients. I have the opmost respect for single parents - I have no idea how they do it.

Can you do a Rubik's Cube in under 20 seconds? If you can, that's very impressive. I can do it in around 90 seconds, but I only every bothered to learn the standard beginner's algorithm. You're also into origami, right? What got you into that?

The GA-2100 looks interesting; never seen that one before - I think it must be a US market one? It does look big, like the Casioak on steroids. I suppose that's why both have the "2100" model number.

Your job sounds interesting - I think it's important to have a role that varies. I don't think I could go into work and do the same thing day in, day out. Some days I'm in meetings all day (bleh), other days I'm working in a leadership capacity where I'm planning team strategy, growth etc. other days I'm and out and out techy where I'm in the trenches with the analysts, helping them. Variety is the spice of life and all that...

I've never really enjoyed traveling for work to be honest. I prefer to be at home, in my own bed. I spent 5 years traveling round the world with the Army, these days I like to be at home.

Look forward to talking soon, have a great weekend!

Kev

From: Joel Chrono
To: Kev Quirk
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 09 February 2024

Hey that was a quick response!! I do try to reply whenever I can, but I was just kinda busy lately with the trip and some other work stuff, so that's why I took a bit to get back to you, unlike now, I'm literally replying from the office without much to do.

Keep your pacing going and you'll definitely make it, it would be a good year to do so I think. You already have double the amount of blogposts as I do in 2024! Quite a good amount of work being done. Not to mention the PenPals, you still write half of the content!

Oh right, sometimes I forget you have another dozen websites running like some sort of madman, but I have a feeling I'll end up doing the same at some point, feeling tempted by some domain names.

Honestly, I've felt a bit weird about my domain to this day, like, Joel and Chrono don't match well, I've thought about going for joelgarcia.xyz which I already own. Or dropping my first actual name altogether for something more fitting, just naming my blog after a place instead, I am really thinking about doing it! I already have a couple of ideas...

Then again dead links would be trouble, but since Mastodon has edits it would not really take me that long now... Maybe playing around with the API to just replace every link in one fell swoop!

Yeah maybe I have my hopes too high when it comes to how I want my kids to turn out and how my parenting will be. I still would like to give it a try though! But who knows, I am very much an optimist for these things, but I may end up lazing around if I'm careless. I still have work to do in that regard. Giving up is too easy sometimes. Have you managed to get your kids into any of the things you're into?

Solving a Rubik's cube in 90 seconds ain't bad at all! My personal best is under 10 seconds but I haven't peaked those heights in years, I can still do sub 15s regularly though! I just use the CFOP method which consistes of Cross, First 2 Layers, Orientation of Last Layer and Permutation of Last Later. It got a bunch of algorithms and it's focused on speed rather than understanding how it all "works", but that's how it goes when you get into speed cubing. What prompted you to learn it at all?

Origami is my main hobby, the kind of thing I don't even want to write a proper blog about just yet because it would take me a lot. The reason it interested me is quite plain though: I saw someone fold a flapping bird once and I wanted to make my own! I asked him to print me the instructions and got really into it. It's also a very inexpensive hobby compared to everything else.

Watch collecting can get pricey, also yo-yoing or speedcubing (not as much tho). Not to mention stuff like Lego or Warhammer figures. However, it's much more deep than any of them, in my opinion. Not only can you fold whatever already from the internet, but you can become a creator yourself, even with some basic folds, it's just great. Printing paper is more than enough too, and even expensive paper isn't really that expensive, and I've never needed it. It's only needed for super complex figures that take hours to fold.

I assume you meant that you've never seen the GA-B001 since the 2100 is the Casioak, but yes, it is a chonky boy indeed.

Regarding my job, yeah I quite like it so far! The only not great thing is that there can be days where nothing really happens. Since things are quite stable already! But still, when trouble shows up, I'm there to fix things up. It feels like a ton of weight gets put in my shoulders sometimes but I am pretty good at just, keeping all that at work and not really worrying outside, so it's all good, and there's not a lot of constant pressure, just short bursts that are more exciting than annoying to me.

Traveling is alright to me at least right now. I am somewhat of an introvert and don't get to be alone at home often. Going out for dinner just for myself was pretty fun for me but it can get too lonely sometimes. Regardless it was only a couple days so it wasn't that big of a change. I haven't even gone beyond Texas myself, still very close to Mexico, so I wouldn't mind going to other countries and see more things at some point! But maybe for vacation...

Kind regards,

Joel.

From: Kev Quirk
To: Joel Chrono
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 16 February 2024

Hey Joel,

Whooo what a crazy week it's been! Sorry for the delay in reply, work has been really busy. Anyway, enough about that...

On the domain front, I did that around a year ago. I switched from kevq.uk to kevquirk.com. My site was previously kevquirk.com as that was the first domain I ever owned. My advice would be only change if you're absolutely certain, and if you, redirect the old domain to the new, so no links breaks and keep the old domain for at least 5 years. I changed back because people were getting confused between .uk and .co.uk.

Also, no-one really cares about the domain apart from you. joelchrono.xyz is fine, I think. I can get to your site, it's easy to remember, so it works. But I know what you mean; these little details annoy me too. So if you're gonna change, just make sure you're certain and take steps to protect all those backlinks.

My kids are still a bit too young to be into the same things as me, I think. The oldest likes music, so that's good and my youngest likes helping me in the garage with my bikes. So we shall see. They're both getting to the age now where they're getting their own personalities; it's really cool to see them develop as proper little humans.

My son brought home a 2x2 Rubik's Cube one day and asked if I could solve it. After many hours of trying, I couldn't. So I searched for it and learned how. After that I decided to learn the 3x3 too. I have a 4x4 on my desk, but I'm yet to learn that one. I often sit solving them when I'm on calls, it's helps me to concentrate on what people are saying.

I saw you bought a mystery watch on Mastodon. Was it the GA-B001?

My wife has some friends coming round this evening, so I'm gonna get the kids to bed and curl up in our bedroom with the dogs to watch some TV, then I'll get an early night. I can't wait!

Have a great weekend pal.

Kev

From: Joel Chrono
To: Kev Quirk
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 17 February 2024

Hello once again Kev, my week was quite crazy too! I am doing more and more things on my own, and there are some things that I still find quite. Thanks to my workmate I've managed to do quite well overall, and despite everything, I am learning a bunch. I was in a trial period of 3 months, and I have to say it is great to feel capable of doing a decent job at things after that time. I felt like I wouldn't progress as well.

I ended up acquiring a couple of domains with my name+lastname, but other than that, I think the urge kind of died down. I'll stick to my current domain and call it a day. I still own my old domain too, for another year, I think that most of my old links are old enough, or at least I've managed to edit them on Mastodon. But I'll keep it around a bit longer. Thanks for the advice!

And now I finally understand why you went back to your kevquirk.com domain. Funnily enough, when I discovered you, got into blogging and the fediverse and things, you didn't use it, so it was new to me at least. But now I know better!

It looks like your sons are growing up! I don't know, I feel like my hobbies were pretty set since I was a kiddo, but that's old me looking back at fuzzy memories. I do recall being the best at doing airplanes when I was in elementary school, for example. Same for boats, mine were prettier and such. But yeah I guess the rest of my hobbies came much later in life. And origami itself didn't evolve much, until I was like 10 y.o. Dude I'm aging, I was 10, 14 years ago???? Unbelievable.

You learned how to solve the cube because your son asked you to do it is great, sounds very reasonable. I got into cubing because I saw so many videos of puzzle collectors back in the day and I wanted to get puzzles and collect them. So I have like 14 different kinds of cubes--not all of them are cube-shaped though.

Speaking of calls and work and having cubes around. One of the managers recenctly decided to implement some measures to keep order at the office and such, the 5S methodology. It is a company-wide thing, but they are enforcing it even more for some reason.

I agree with it the concept generally , but they made it so we can no longer have more than 1 personal object on our desk. And I am so sad, I had some origami figures, but I think I'll change it for a cube soon enough. Do you have some other neat things at work?

The mystery watch I bought actually was the GA-2100, the Casioak! Not a pretty model like yours, which is great, only the matte black classic version. Some funny things happened with that purchase which I'll write in an upcoming blog. So, wait for it!

I hope your weekend goes well!

Joel.

From: Kev Quirk
To: Joel Chrono
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 20 February 2024

Hey Joel,

Glad you managed to make a decision on your domain name. I'm always tweaking and switchign stuff on my site. I just really enjoy tinkering with it; I don't think it will ever be "finished". Exploring what I can do with the site is jsut as fun as writing content and interacting with readers for me. For example, I just added a little box at the bottom of each post that displays 3 random posts from the site. No idea if people will find it useful, but it was a fun little thing to implement.

I feel like you're very similar in this regard? I think I regularly see posts from you over on Masto saying "I just add/changed X on my site". Those are my favourite kinda posts.

While I agree with a clean desk policy, I think people should be allowed to express themselves in work and have things that are personal to them on their desk.

So how are you finding the Casioak? I've never been a huge fan of the Casioak - I don't think there's enough contrast between the hands and the face of the watch, generally. That's partly why I went with the blue one with the white face; I like lots of contrast on an analogue face.

I've been on a bit of a G-Shock spree recently and have been wearing my Shocks exclusively (I have 7). Today I'm wearing the 40th Anniversary DWE-5657RE (pic below). It's a tough one between this and my MudMan as to which is my favourite. Of all your watches, which is your favourite and why? Also, you thinking about adding a collection page to your site any time soon? :)

Your post about the fake watch was interesting. Good spot there!

Thanks,

Kev

From: Joel Chrono
To: Kev Quirk
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 20 February 2024

Greetings! I agree completely, when it comes to figuring out what additions to have on my website and tweaking every little thing! On my latest blogpost I talked about how I improved my RSS feed too! for example. That took me more than I expected but it turned out quite great, nobody would think that's an RSS XML file! It doesn't seem to work on Chromium based browsers for Android sadly, but meh.

I actually also played around with the look of the articles I share at the bottom of each post, however I only show the recent ones, not random—for now.

A thing I wanna work on is making my site more colorful. I like the colored box borders you have in many sections of your site—I should figure out a way to implement that!

While I agree with a clean desk policy, I think people should be allowed to express themselves in work and have things that are personal to them on their desk.

The desk policy is now in place but thankfully it hasn't been enforced that much, but who knows maybe a random checkup will ruin me. Since we are also supposed to fill a checklist everyday with the things we're supposed to do.

Regarding my new watch, yeah, the matte black edition I got is not the best contrast ever, I think I might end up modding it, not planning on getting any 3rd party stuff, just a coat of paint on the numerals and see if it's possible to reverse the display to positive. Should be fun trying to figure it all out...

Honestly though, I can read the watch just fine and I'll probably get even more used to it over time, maybe I'll just keep it as is—lets say I'll do some, time-keeping. Hehe, ok bad joke...

My favorite overall is definitely my AE-1200, I wasn't a fan of the silver color I got at first, worried it might wear faster. It still might, but it has hold up quite well and it is very unique on it's looks! I like that the Casioak is more muted, clearly recognizable by a watch lover but doesn't scream I AM A G-SHOCK, like that MudMan you got 🤣

Watch collection section coming soon, this year for sure at least lol. Especially that I have a couple blogposts about watches with that last one.

Take care!
~joelchrono | https://joelchrono.xyz | Sent from K-9 Mail

From: Kev Quirk
To: Joel Chrono
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 24 February 2024

Morning mate!

I've considered theming my RSS feed too, after reading a number of posts, from various people, about it. But I've decided against it. I feel like it might confuse people if they visit my feed URL and it looks like my blog. 🤷‍♂️

I assume you only ever use dark mode? That's why you mentioned the coloured borders. If you go into light mode (go on...I DARE YOU!) the site is actually far more colourful and works far better, IMO. I just can't get the colours right in dark mode, so opted to simply have little accents of colour instead. I really dislike dark mode on my site, but it's so hard for me to get right for some reason. I'd love to take it off, but dark mode weirdos (like you) prefer it. :)

I like my Royale too, especially now I have SKXMOD metal case and sapphire crystal on it. The thing is practically bulletproof now. The SKXMOD rubber strap is rubbish though - I ended up swapping it for a red after market one. Brightens the watch up a bit and makes it more interesting, I think.

I do wish there was a bit less going on with the screen though. I think the digital representation of an analogue watch face is moot and only serves to make the screen more busy. My favourite Casio (not G-SHOCK) is probably the W-217H. It's the perfect sixe and has a lovely clear screen, closely behind that would be the W-800H - both great watches.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the watch collection page!

Talk soon,

Kev

From: Joel Chrono
To: Kev Quirk
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 26 February 2024

Hello! Good morning indeed...

I mean, if I'm honest I think most people looking for an RSS feed know how subscribing to one works! And those who don't know what RSS is at all probably will actually understand its content and purpose, and get to see it in a different way than just a weird ugly file format only computers understand!

I am a dark mode user yes, but I did visit your website's light mode and it is indeed quite a colorful place! I still prefer a dark mode and I do like the accent borders quite a bit as a compromise, if I were to do something like that I would probably do the full box colored instead but that's me.

So far I'm liking my CasiOak a lot, I wonder if there are good metal cases for it (I know there are, but idk about which ones are better quality). How does that red strap looks? I don't think I've seen it! I need to get around getting a NATO strap for my F-91W and family.

Other than the Casio Royale being inspired by the one in that old James Bond movie. I can lividly recall having a watch from some "Spy Gear" brand for kids—I don't recall what was the exact brand name—and to me the AE-1200 is simply that, a watch a spy would wear, it's fun and has useless displays and things yes but it's charming—and the 9 year old within me is very happy.

If I were to go for pure functionality I think I would stick to my F-108, it is like a watered down G-Shock, bigger display, bigger numbers, but not as big as the W-217 or the W-800. It is also the first watch I ever bought, so yeah.

There's actually a bit of a blog idea I may write soon enough, which is the transition between getting things for their functionality, to getting them just to collect them.

For example, I could really go with a single watch of the ones I got, I could've stopped with the F-108 and be done. And yet I ended up buying another 5 watches. And you got so many more—I probably will too...

With safety razors I can reason about how I only need one, it is fine as is. And yet there's this temptation to buy another one just to see if it is different and of course check out some different bladesa and shaving gels and soaps and creams and storage boxes for dull blades and synthetic brush and balms and end up spending money on all that.

Same for card magic, I have like 12 decks just for practice lol. But I'll stop for now and develop the idea a bit more.

The watch collection page will come one day I promise!!!

Hope your weekend went well!

Your friend.
joelchrono

https://joelchrono.xyz
Sent from K-9 Mail

From: Kev Quirk
To: Joel Chrono
Subject: Re: echo "Hello PenPal!"
Date: 28 February 2024

Hey Joel,

I used to have full colour cards in dark mode, but the bright colours with the dark background were too much and really didn't work well. If I used darker shades, they just looked washed out and crappy. The borders was the best compromise I could come up with.

Glad you're enjoying the Casioak. I'm sure there will be a company out there that does metal cases for them, not sure if SKXMOD do, but if they do, I can personally recommend their stuff. I posted a pic of my Royale with the red strap on Mastodon the other day, but in case you missed it, I've attached a pic of it.

I still like the NATO straps on some watches, like the F91W, but generally speaking I'm starting to go off them now and so have been slowly replacing them on most my watches.

For me, safety razors are just a tool, so I don't see the fun of collecting those. I have one, it works, so I'm happy. I have thought about trying different blades, but again, the ones I have now work well and are super cheap, so I'll probably just get more of those when they run out (I'm using Derby Extra Platinum if you were wondering).

I did change my brush, but that's because I realised the original one was badger hair and I found that upsetting, so replaced it for a synthetic one. I still have the original one in the cupboard though.

Well, it's the last day of the month tomorrow, so this is probably the last email I'll publish, so thanks for taking part in this little project with me. Looking forward to seeing that watch collection page come to fruition!

Kev