One of the first places I stop when I visit someone's website is, if they have it, a /uses page. It's one of those things that satisfies my curiosity and maybe, just maybe, I will get an idea or two!
As the result of a few things, like the spike in hardware prices, hardware compatibility, and colour management, I recently decided to retire my Linux desktop and return to the Mac.
I am running macOS Tahoe.
Yes, with all of that glassiness. The return of lickability.
I am using an M4 Mac mini, which I customized a little, to come with 32GB of memory and 512GB of internal storage. It replaced a late-2019 Dell Precision 3630 Tower with an Intel Core i5-8500 and 32GB of DDR4 running Debian 13.
I use one monitor: a 32" 4K Samsung.
Finally, I recently retired my long-serving IBM Model M from 1993 and replaced it with a WOBKEY Crush 80 Reboot Pro (in purple, of course). What a heavy and wonderful-sounding dream of a keyboard to be typing on!
Since I have always been more-or-less pleased with Apple's bundled software (such as Safari, Mail, Messages, Photos, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Music, etc.), I mostly rely on on them for my needs.
There are a few others, however!
Markdown Editor - uFocus. It's really unfussy and reminds me of Apostrophe, which I was using on Linux until recently. I am not a heavy or advanced user of markdown, but I really like the way I have this website set up, using markdown files in 11ty and pushing to GitHub, which publishes to Neocities.
Radio - Triode. While I do have a nice little music collection (Bandcamp, iTunes Store, physical CDs) on my computer, I do listen to web radio a whole lot, mostly KEXP.
RSS - Current. Thanks an online mutual, I was made aware of Current, a very thoughtful and well-designed RSS reader whose design was motivated by a desire to fight back on creeping phantom obligations.
As the result of planned surgery (and necessary downtime) to come later this year, I also decided that it was time to take my mid-2014 13" MacBook Pro out of the drawer, have the battery replaced, and get it working again!
For this, I am running the latest supported version of macOS, which is version 11, Big Sur. While it's well out of support now, Apple has, from time-to-time released minor updates including one recently, in February 2026.
Mostly, I just want to be able to blog my post-surgical delirium here in the way that I am now familiar with and love: using a markdown editor, 11ty, and GitHub to push updates to Neocities.
As a sometimes anxious and indecisive lady, I spent nearly two years going back-and-forth as to whether I just wanted to go back to a flip phone for my mobile needs. In the end, I decided that it would be better to stick with a smart phone due to the features that I use.
As of November 2025, I use an iPhone 16. In Ultramarine, of course.
I returned to using film for all of my photo-making in 2020 and it turns out that, contrary to the sorts of advice generations were raised with, I'm rather omnivorous in what I use, and have not specialized in one camera/lens, one film, and one developer.
Like many people who returned to using film, I have a few many more cameras than I realistically need. Among them, I do have some favourites: in 35mm, a Nikkormat EL (with Nikon's pre-Ai lenses, c. 1960s-1977), a Minolta XG-1 (with Minolta's MC Rokkor lenses, c. 1960s-1970s), and a Pentax K2 (with early K-Mount lenses, c. 1975-80).
In 120, I mostly like to use a Mamiya C220 (with an 8cm f/2.8 lens, c. 1960s), a Fuji G690BL with a 100mm f/3.5 Fujinon-S, and a Konica Pearl III-MX, with its Konishiroku Hexar 75mm f/3.5 from the mid-1950s.
I have more modern 35mm cameras that I use (like a Nikon F80, Canon EOS Elan II, but they're not normally my first choices.
Oh gosh, I like almost all film, but have special places in my heart for the following currently-made films:
Of course, I use (and like) many other films that are still made and there are many no longer made that I really wish would come back (like Fuji's colour negatives - especially Reala; Kodak's Panatomic-X and Plus-X, Fuji's original Acros, Kodachrome, etc.)
I also continue to have quite a little stash in the freezer of Fuji Velvia 50, Velvia 100, and Provia 100F, so at least they're available to me!
I started developing my own film in 2024, which meant entire new worlds of fiddly fun! A bit like films, there are developers that I quite like and gravitate toward and those I like, but don't always reach for them.
It's often enough that I like the results in matching a developer to a film.
There are still others I've used, like Rodinal, Black, White, and Green, and ID-11, which I like, but don't really reach for often. I now have some FX-37, which I look forward to trying on my t-grain favourites!
I've continued to be very basic in this regard. I use a two-reel Paterson tank for all of my development. It works very well for me and has seen me through hundreds of rolls of film developed without difficulties, leaks, or complaints.
I have two scanners for my film: a Plustek 8200i that I use for 35mm film, and an Epson V600 that I use for 120 scans.
I use both of these scanners with macOS on my recently-resuscitated mid-2014 13" MacBook Pro. Just two rolls in, it has proven to be quicker and less fiddly than my previous set up of Windows 11 through VirtualBox.