Recently I was wondering whether I should move on from Doom Emacs/Evil Mode and try a less opinionated setup based on more traditional key mappings. I was looking around for some sort of “starter kit” that provides some basic features that I have grown accustomed to using Doom Emacs. Some of the options I looked at were:

• Xah Lee’s Sample Init File from his online tutorial. This is a name I have come across a number of times as I research Emacs, and I believe he also has a large collection of YouTube videos on the topic. The config is very basic, and doesn’t include any packages. It would take some time for me to work out how to implement features such as syntax highlighting, completion, etc. which, while very educational, is a bigger time commitment than I can currently afford.

I have been so impressed with my ZSA Voyager keyboard that I decided to buy a second one that I could leave set up at work. That meant I needed to think about what configuration to order.

Switches

On my previous Voyager, I ordered it with the Choc Red 50g linear switches, which felt very smooth, but possibly a little on the heavy side for me. So, I decided to try swapping them out with some Ambient Twilight 35g silent linear switches. I love those switches with their light touch and soft padding at the bottom of their travel.

Last time I talked about a science-related electronic dictionary that I bought in Japan. When I was there, I did a bit more research and discovered that I had rushed in too quickly and that there were other models that include more business and literature-related content that could be useful when studying Japanese. So, I purchased a second dictionary, the Casio XD-Z20000. So, how much of an upgrade was this compared to the scientific model XD-G9850? To answer this question, I listed out all the dictionaries, glossaries and encyclopedias from both models and put them in a table for comparison, which you can find below. It shows under which category each dictionary is found on the two devices. I didn ’t bother looking at the English Training Gym sections, as English is already my native tongue, and hence I think it would be of little benefit to analyse it.

When I was working in Japan, I took the opportunity to buy a Japanese Electronic dictionary (電子辞書, or denshi jisho). I went to the BIC Camera store in Akihabara, and bought a Casio EX-word dataplus 10 model XD-G9850 denshi jisho, which includes specialised dictionaries for Maths and Science.

Why Use a Dedicated Dictionary?

Why use a dedicated japanese dictionary instead of an app on a smart phone?

Pros

• Has a long battery life (>120 hours), whereas a smart phone app will quickly drain your phone’s battery

When I was in primary school, I learned the recorder. The teacher librarian taught us, even though she did not have any musical training herself. We were then told that we would be performing at the Sydney Opera House together with a number of other schools. It was very exciting, and our little group worked hard to try and play together as an ensemble. As we got closer to the time, a specialist music teacher was brought in to try and get us in better shape. I learned so much from those couple of lessons, and we got to perform in the Opera House.

With my interest in languages, one YouTuber I like to follow is the “Rob Words” channel. He has posted a number of videos treating alternative ways of writing the English language. He talked about how runes might be better suited for writing modern English than the Latin alphabet we use today, and cited examples where J.R.R. Tolkein used the runic alphabet in his books to represent languages like Dwarvish from his Middle Earth fantasy world. One video that particularly stood out for me was his description of the George Bernard Shaw “Shavian” alphabet: