Homemade French onion soup (by me) complete with homemade cheese toasts (baked by the Snook). 🧅🥖🧀
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Shared today on Twitter
@minxdragon I doubt the Altstadt has changed much, except for the fancy shops on Getriedgasse!
Was just about to show off progress on the Minecraft sock when DISASTER STRUCK! 😱 #bustedcable #icansaveit https://t.co/4yJhlFkA8M
@200ok A couple. We’ve parked our Aussie numbers with a service that emails voicemails to us, and we’ve gotten some lately that are either foreign languages or just blank.
Sewing with Kris – time to switch it up! I’m starting a project to sew the Darlow pants from In The Folds. Today will be pattern assembly and cutting… https://t.co/YTHlokdD6L https://t.co/O0nxEp0WA5
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Shared today on Facebook
Was just about to show off progress on the Minecraft sock when DISASTER STRUCK! 😱 #bustedcable #icansaveit
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Photo Post
Was just about to show off progress on the Minecraft sock when DISASTER STRUCK! 😱 #bustedcable #icansaveit
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Wolfie! A Trip to Salzburg
It’s summer in Deutschland, and now that we’ve had our first vaccine shot, we feel a bit more comfortable travelling again. It was finally time to head out of Munich for the first time since the Zugspitze last year. And where did we go? Salzburg, Austria.
We actually started the day with a Covid Schnelltest at our local shopping center. Austria has lifted a lot of its restrictions, but we knew that it was important to have a negative test result. By the time we got to the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) 20min later, the results were in our email inboxes. Protip: Bavaria offers a special discount ticket called the Bayern Ticket, which lets you ride regional trains and most public transport through Bavaria. It also gets you to Salzburg, which is about two hours from Munich. The weather forecast was for clouds, but it was a beautiful sunny day as we headed southeast towards the mountains, whizzing through idyllic German villages and rolling green fields…
We crossed the Salzach River and got our first glimpse of the Festung Hohensalzburg (“High Salzburg Fortress”) atop the Festungsberg as we pulled into our destination. I had planned some activities based on this blog post, including booking tickets up to the castle. We had a few hours to kill though, so we started by walking to the Altstadt along the river. We crossed over at the Marko-Feingold-Steg, a pedestrian bridge decorated by visitors with thousands of padlocks.
We headed to Getreidegasse (“Grain Lane”), a busy shopping street in the heart of the old town. It’s narrow and historic and super charming, even despite the fact that many of the shops were the same as you’d see in any major city. It was also surprisingly busy, and I found myself feeling a little wary of all the unmasked folks! (It’s been a long lockdown. 🙁)
It was lunchtime and we were hungry, so we headed to the Zipfer Bierhaus. We got a table out the back in University Square and enjoyed a couple plates of sausages along with some local Austrian brew…
Our next stop was back on Getreidegasse – Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart’s birthplace). It was fairly empty at the time, and we enjoyed wandering the rooms and learning a bit more about his life and his family. Did you know that Mozart’s sister Maria Anna (nicknamed “Nannerl” by the family) was also a musical child prodigy, but because she was a girl, she eventually had to stop touring and performing? (I found myself feeling so angry on her behalf.) I was also surprised to see that pianos in Mozart’s day had the black and white keys reversed!
We ended the tour in the gift shop, of course, where I bought a cool lenticular magnet to add to our collection. They had a TV set up showing scenes from Amadeus, and I confessed to the Snook that I’d never seen it. That was going to have to be rectified, I decided…
And then it was time to head up to the fortress! We caught the Festungsbahn (funicular) up to the top and were greeted with stunning views across the city to the mountains beyond.
The day was turning out pretty hot, so we headed into the Zeughaus (Armory) Museum to cool off and learn about medieval weaponry. They had a lot of interactive exhibits, including a kiosk where you could picture yourself as a knight. The Snook also enjoyed creating virtual gunpowder and seeing how far he could fire a cannon.
The real highlight of the Festung is the view over the city. How stunning is this? This is why we came to Europe. ❤️
It really was quite hot though. 😅 We were also getting tired from all the walking so we caught a quick rest in the shade.
Our tickets also included access to the Prince’s Chambers, the richly appointed staterooms installed by Prince-Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach. My favourite part was the Golden Hall, with its 17m-long beam, carved columns, and decorated ceiling.
And from every window, an amazing view…
We were really flagging by this point, so we caught the funicular back down to the Altstadt. In need of refreshment, we headed to the nearby Stiegl-Keller where I was delighted to sample their Grapefruit Radler in the rooftop biergarten. What a way to end the day!
We walked back to the Hauptbahnhof and caught the return train to Munich, exhausted and happy. What a perfect day! Can’t wait to do more exploring over the next few months…
OH! And the first thing we did back in Munich? Watch Amadeus, of course. I loved it. ❤️
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Shared today on Twitter
Brückentag! Ich habe einen negativ Schnelltest und ich sitze im Zug. Salzburg oder Chiemsee? Was denkt ihr?
RT @jenshealthde: The German word “eben” can mean
– even, flat
– exactly
– just, a moment ago
– That’s what I’m saying!So,
“Eben! Eben…
@abertrotzdem A nice guy on the train just convinced us to go to Salzburg (“sehr schön!”) and then stop off in Prien for dinner on the way home.
Day trip to Salzburg! Austria has loosened most restrictions. This is the most people I’ve seen in nearly a year! ☀️🍺 (2021 Biergarten count: 6) https://t.co/JLuOP5sMEM
@MichelePlayfair Finally left Germany after NINE MONTHS!
Checked in with our mate Mozart, then took the funicular up to the fortress Hohensalzburg, one of the biggest castles in Europe. 🎼🎹🎻🏰🏔 https://t.co/ju2wBApOpl
Finished the day in Salzburg with a Grapefruit Radler (shut up – it was *delicious*!) on the roof of the Stiegl-Keller. Amazing day. ☀️🍺 (2021 Biergarten count: 7) @ Stiegl-Keller https://t.co/xEFr1sdN0T
@michejaw Well done! They look beautiful.
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Shared today on Facebook
Day trip to Salzburg! Austria has loosened most restrictions. This is the most people I’ve seen in nearly a year! ☀️🍺 (2021 Biergarten count: 6)
Checked in with our mate Mozart, then took the funicular up to the fortress Hohensalzburg, one of the biggest castles in Europe. 🎼🎹🎻🏰🏔
Finished the day in Salzburg with a Grapefruit Radler (shut up – it was *delicious*!) on the roof of the Stiegl-Keller. Amazing day. ☀️🍺 (2021 Biergarten count: 7)
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Shared today on Twitter
It’s a public holiday in Bavaria and the sun is shining, so I’m on the terrace dialling in to my Sydney knitting group. ❤️🧶☀️ @ Munich, Germany https://t.co/iav5HhPwQy
Blog post: My experience so far with duckyPad, the DIY mechanical macropad. (Who needs a Stream Deck?!) https://t.co/aF3cZWethN https://t.co/A9udYZEVvo
@bodil They’re pretty fun, and I really love the clickiness. I think I’ll probably finally take the plunge on a really nice mechanical keyboard this year…
OMG. Only if I can dress up as a shepherdess for the full Marie Antoinette experience… https://t.co/CWe5tR64I1
@bodil I loved the original! Though it did my head in to recognise Jane Bennet as the ill-fated reporter. 😳
Knitting with Kris – Back at the cabled vest, trying to get to the arm holes dividing point! https://t.co/YTHlokdD6L https://t.co/RAmEciApdF
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Shared today on Facebook
It’s a public holiday in Bavaria and the sun is shining, so I’m on the terrace dialling in to my Sydney knitting group. ❤️🧶☀️
Blog post: My experience so far with duckyPad, the DIY mechanical macropad. (Who needs a Stream Deck?!)
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duckyPad
I’ve been a Twitch streamer for six months now. Isn’t that weird? I’ve noticed that a lot of the really fancy streamers use an elgato Stream Deck as part of their setup. This is essentially a “macropad” – a little programmable keyboard that you can set up so that clicking a button kicks off a series of actions. People use them for adding sounds and graphics to their streams, replying to comments, even controlling lighting and cameras. They’re not cheap though, and as much as I coveted one, I didn’t think I’d use it enough to justify the expense.
Then somehow I found out about the duckyPad. This is an Open Source “do-it-yourself” mechanical macropad, and all up the components come to about half the cost of the Stream Deck. It has a very simple little scripting language you use to program each key, and it has a little screen that shows what each one does. You can have 32 different “profiles” (set of 15 keys), which means up to 480 different key actions. And it also lights up! I decided to order one and explore what I could do with it.
Here’s what it looks like straight from the box if you order the standard components:
Putting it together was actually very simple following the instructions in the Assembly Guide. Man, those tiny 2mm standoffs are awfully small though, even for my hands! The only difficulty I had was getting the keyboard switches inserted. They required a little more pressure than I expected, and I was really paranoid that I’d break one or bend one of the pins. As it turns out, when I had the thing together and turned it on, one of the keys was indeed dead. I pulled it off and saw that, yep, I’d bent one of the pins flat. Luckily the Snook whipped out a pair of pliers and managed to straighten it out, and once reinserted it worked fine. So yeah, the instructions say over and over to be careful for bent pins, and now I understand why!
The duckyPad comes pre-programmed with a couple different profiles, but most of them were Windows-specific. I installed the Configurator app and used the provided USB card reader to plug in the SD card. Then I was able to start creating new profiles and scripts.
The duckyPad is literally just sending off key presses, just like you’re typing on your normal keyboard. So anything you can do via keyboard shortcut, you can trigger with the duckyPad. The critical thing for Mac users is invoking Spotlight with “COMMAND SPACE”. That’s what you use to open apps and change focus. I also found that often the duckyPad is too fast and I needed to insert a DELAY before subsequent key presses (like between opening the browser and typing in a URL).
One annoyance is that some apps’ keyboard shortcuts only work while the app is in focus. If you’re using Windows, there’s an “Auto-switcher app” that will automatically switch profiles based on which app is foregrounded. There’s currently no Mac version (someone is working on it), so I’ve found it helpful to have a dedicated key that switches focus back to the desired app (especially when presenting or streaming).
I’ve spent a few weeks now tweaking and refining my setup, and I keep finding new things to automate. With some of these, I just cannot remember the keyboard shortcut so having a button helps. With others, I’m finding that I already have the muscle memory for the keyboard shortcut so I may not need the macro. The ones that get the most use by far are volume control (much better than the stupid Touchbar on my Mac) and the “mute” shortcut (used to invoke Mutify and turn on/off my microphone), so I’ve reproduced those as the bottom row of keys across multiple profiles. But read on to see what I’ve got so far…
And if you have any suggestions for things to add, please let me know!
Woot, my knee-jerk don’t-overthink-it pub-quiz answer was Iran which seems to be [✓]. I ‘knew’ it was more populous than…