This Question and Answer interview is intended to be a fun series targeted at well-known community members whom most, if not all of you have most likely "met" here on geekhack. If you have username suggestions for further interviews, please add them in your comments. If you want to see some questions added for future interviews, please type them in your responses as well! (Can't guarantee that all requested questions will be added, as keeping the overall interview length reasonable is important for respondents.) This week I present to you an interview with romevi.Previous interviews may be found here:
Question & Answer interview with romevi:
Please let us know what motivated your geekhack.org username or else what it means to you, if it's not Top Secret information.It was the username my high school gave me. Been using it since.
How did you get into the keyboard hobby? Stories or anecdotes are welcome.Back in early 2010 I was driving home from work and listening to NPR, as I often did on my commute. There was a blurb about mechanical keyboards, and it went on to laud the Model M as the gilded standard. So later that night I Googled about it. I recall stumbling onto geekhack and other forums but found them to be too centered on MX at the time (or at least that's what my initial perusals led me to believe), and I
had to have a Model M.
Eventually, not wanting to bother with used boards as old as me, I stumbled onto Unicomp's site and bought an Ultra Classic. I've had it as my only mechanical keyboard for years.
Come early 2015 and I was browsing 4chan's /g/ board and came across the /mkg/ general. It used one of intelli78's KMAC with Dolch pictures in the OP. I fell into a passion and couldn't desire anything more. Down the White Rabbit's hole I fell.
What's your main area of interest in the keyboard hobby: the looks, the feels, the customization process (DIY or combining keycap sets with various keyboards), endless variety of keycap sets, artisans, ergonomics, anything else?The community. It's the community that keeps me from becoming disinterested. Of all the artisans, keysets, and boards I've owned, I've cycled through plenty, but my desire to stay in touch with the community remains as the glue to my stuck-on to this hobby. I love my TGR and Topre boards, and I like splashing them with fun keysets and the occasional artisans, but most of my joy comes from spending all day talking with the internet people. I've learned so much about humanity and other areas of interests from them.
Show us a picture of your favorite keyboard [that you own] with a brief description
My pride and joy.
What is your current "daily driver" keyboard(s)? Also with photographs, if it's not the same board as aboveI had my 55g Realforce as my work board for about two years. Recently I swapped in my Jane with 72g tactile grays since it previously slouched with no use at home for some time. It's a bit loud where I work (both visually and audibly), but golly jee do I love it. Glad I bit the bullet and brought it.
Wish list or dream keyboard(s) or keycap sets?Dream keyboard is the TGR Zooey with Novatouch stems. Dream keycap set is a slightly tweaked Hydro v2 with matching Hungr and Krytone dragons.
Favorite keyboard switchProbably 55g Topre because it's so good that I forget I'm using it. That's how boringly awesome it is.
Favorite keyboard layout/size:I would have to say 65%, even though I use a TKL at work. I appreciate the design and consideration that led to the HHKB layout, but I cannot part with my dedicated arrow keys nor the couple-to-few extra modifier keys on the bottom row.
Any keyboard type or size, or layout that you would never be caught using? (at least outside the secret privacy of your hidden typing shrine, like an old shiny Razer BlackWidow or a very pingy Model M)Anything smaller than 60%. I consider those smaller sizes to be humorously impractical, even if many claim they've grown accustomed to accessing alternative layers on the fly or praise their portability benefits.
I profer toting an HHKB, or else mod a 60% MX board with a smaller case. Or--if you're using a tablet or other small computer--use a case/cover with an embedded keyboard tailored specifically for the device you're using.
For my phone and tablet, I use the on-screen keyboards coupled with swipe gestures, and everything works well enough. Having to access multiple layers on boards smaller than 60% to reach oft-used keys seems counterintuitive to the engineering which led to that keyboard profile in the first place.
Favorite plate material or lack thereof and whyAluminum is very versatile for many kinds of switches, but I find I prefer plastics for tactile and brass or steel for linears. Seeing as I love MX for linears and Topre for tactiles, I s'pose I prefer brass/steel and plastic over aluminum.
And there you go.
What is your current mouse?I alternate between two Logitech mouses at work: the G502 (non-RGB) and the G203. Both are adequate for the work I do.
I currently am trying to become acclimated to a mouse-less desktop, so I'm not too big on mouses a.t.m. But I would love to try trackballs. I have this Logitech thumb-ball but it proved to be too cumbersome for my work to make it...work... I hope to invest in a CST some day.
Any ergonomic / desk organization preferences?Lately I've learned to keep my keyboard and mouse a bit distant from me. So far it's about a foot away from the edge and my wrists are much happier.
Otherwise, I just sit at a desk all day e'ry day.
Please share your favorite drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) or snackCoffee fuels me through my day. I bring my own to work, and then I splurge on Dunkin Donuts on weekends. (Love them summer cold brews.)
I like drinking beers but don't really have a preference; I keep my drinking to the weekends and like to diversify.
We'd love to learn about your other hobbies, if you wish to shareMy two other interests on higher rungs of my hobby ladder are books and video games, particularly "retro" games. I can't keep up with all the modern games, but I do love Nintendo's current stuff. I never grew up on Nintendo, so after college I bought a Wii and started playing a bunch of titles on the Virtual Console. One thing spurred another and my interests found a home in seeking and playing games released prior to 2000 (with some exceptions). I also dig homebrews made for older consoles and ROM hacks of older titles.
My avatar, which I've been using for almost seven years, comes from the fact that
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back was the game that got me hooked on video games. I was hanging out at a friend's house and his bro was playing a demo disc. On it was
Crash 2; I played it and had to have it. Saved my allowance money that whole summer and bought a PlayStation (when the DualShock was new) and
Crash 2. Been playing games on a routine basis ever since.
As for books, I grew up with a voracious appetite for reading (thanks to R.L. Stine, K.A. Applegate, and Bill Watterson!). I learned to read at 3 (supposedly), received two degrees in literature, and have been reading in some form or another every day.
As of this posting, I'm ingesting all the comic books I put off for decades (comic books are totes Literature, b.t.w.). I read novels more than comics as a kid, and now I'm trying to play catch-up (as with everything in my life right now).
Got any pets? If so, let's see their photo(s)!Nope! Maybe a dog down the road, but nothing for now.
My last pet I accidentally killed, so...yeah...
Any advice for people who are just starting out in the keyboard hobby? START SLOWLY...!
As with any hobby, you can start off fast and crash. Also, please keep in mind this hobby still comprises a tightly knit community, and people know each other--and know each other
well. It's easy to come in with the mindset of collecting and flipping to collect more (as is the standard in many other hobbies). But makers of things like artisans here are single people with single faces, and they've made friends here too. People will know if you're in it to "make bank," so to speak.
That goes also for those on the other side of the transaction. There are those who offer $$$ for caps, etc., and I personally feel they're almost as culpable. But on that crux I know it's difficult to say no when someone offers nearly a grand USD for a single, plastic keycap, and you've something in mind you'd rather pay off with that money...!
That notwithstanding, I've no qualms with that money going directly to the maker. But when you're in it to grab something and then use it--in some cases, nearly immediately--to flip, that's money that doesn't go toward the maker for all the work they did making the cap, and instead simply goes to the purchaser who did nothing but chance at steering Lady Luck's hand of grace toward them.
So...
Be kind, don't be upset if you didn't win anything/can't afford anything (it's easy to lust painfully over pictures online, only to find you don't enjoy something as much once you have it). Instead, devote your time to making friends here. It's also a lot of fun researching keyboards and the history and engineering behind them.
Closing words:Some may wonder why I adulate the beauty of Hydro so much. You can thank Daft Punk.
Blue and black have been my favorite colors for a great long while. Daft Punk have been my favorite musicians for a great long while. But blue and black wasn't "my colorway" until around 2010 when finally I gave
Alive 2007 a listen after putting it off for too long. To this day my biggest regret in life was skipping on tickets to see DP at 2007's Lollapalooza. I had the ticket confirmation page right in front of me but thought on it too long and X'd the page. The only way to see them was by buying a day pass at the minimum, and I didn't care to see the other artists.
Today, I gladly would pay five times that amount and more.
For years I put off listening to that album out of regret and my lack of interest in live albums, but finally I decided to give it a listen; Daft Punk is my favorite band, after all.
When I listened to it for the first time and many times after it was like listening to the choruses of cherubim. That album was the only music I listened to for
near a year, and it was that album cover that solidified black, blue, and white as "my colorway."
DSA Eve was close to center on my radar when I got into keebs, but after trying Granite I found DSA wasn't a preferential profile. But when Hydro, a set in my favorite cap profile, was announced...
Well...
