Some of the tools I use. Things change so this is somewhat frequently updated.
(Updated December 29, 2025)
Pens, Pencils, Notebooks
• Field Notes Notebooks – I use a notebook every day. These rock and are small enough to take pretty much anywhere. I always have one (or three) handy, just in case.
• Baronfig Confidant – I haven’t given up on Rhodia, but these notebooks from Baronfig are my new favorites. They’re the right size with great paper and not super expensive.
• Maruman Spiral Note Basic – I love these simple notebooks from Maruman. Great design. Great paper and they lay completely flat, which I prefer. I get them with the Dot Grid pattern. Or, just blank.
• Maruman Mnemosyne – My other favorite notebook from Maruman. It’s similar in design to the above but with a bit more heft. I typically get it in B5 size with Dot Grid. But really, I love both of the Maruman notebooks and use them on the regular.
• Grids + Lines Idea Journal – These notebooks from Doane Paper are also a favorite. I use them for planning projects, sketching and more. They’re great.
• Palomino Blackwing 602. Sure, these pencils may look kinda different, but they write nice. A classic for a reason.
• General’s Test Scoring 580 – I love this pencil. I use it every day. Goes very well with the Baronfig Confidant, the Field Notes or pretty much anything else.
• Musgrave Tennessee Red Pencil – Even though I’ll always have a soft spot for the Blacking 602 and the Test Scoring 580 and will keep using them as long as I can, the Tennessee Red is fast becoming one of my favorite pencils too. I use one quite often. They’re great.
• Uni-ball 207
• TWSBI Eco Clear and TWSBI Diamond 580AL – Love both of these fountain pens. Great pens at a reasonable price. You can spend way more for fountain pens, believe me. But with these, it’s not necessary. Just get one. Or both. And enjoy.
• Lamy Safari – Relatively inexpensive and a great fountain pen to write with. A longtime favorite. I have a few in various colors.
• PILOT Iroshizuku Ink, Shin-Kai, Deep Sea (Blue Black) – If you have fountain pens, you need ink. This one from Pilot is my all-time favorite. It’s beautiful and works perfectly with any of my pens. I highly recommend this line of inks from Pilot in as many colors as they have. You can’t go weong.
• Platinum Carbon Ink (Black) – Another favorite. I use it to write with and it also fills the pens I use for drawing and sketching. Yes, you can draw with a fountain pen. Why not?
Hardware
• Apple 2025 MacMini M4 Pro – I really enjoy using the MacBook Pro (below) but I also found I needed a desktop computer after being laptop-only for several years. Mostly I wanted the power and the storage options and, well, the power. Also, Thunderbolt 5. The M4 Pro MacMini doesn’t disappoint. It’s a great machine and should serve me well for a few years (at least).
• Apple 2023 14″ MacBook Pro – My first Mac with Apple Silicon. It’s a MacBook Pro, 14″ with M3 Pro, 18GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Man, does that thing speed. It’s quite a machine and great for Logic, Final Cut X and, well, pretty much everything. Love it.
• Asus ProArt Monitor – Not sure how I used a 13″ laptop screen (or a 14″) for so long. Turns out, it’s much easier when you attach a monitor to it. Now working great with the M4 Pro Mini.
• Keychron V3 TKL Keyboard – I had been using an old Apple wireless keyboard, but since the holidays (2023), I’ve been banging away at the Keychron mechanical keyboard. Gotta say, I do enjoy it. It’s a great keyboard. Sturdy. Should last a long time.
• Apple iPhone 15 Pro – Upgraded from an iPhone 14 Pro, mostly because of the new camera and Apple Pro Res Log. That’s pretty much why I upgrade phones these days. The cameras.
• Apple iPad – I gave my older iPad to the kid (which now has a cracked screen) and got myself a 10th Gen iPad. I mostly use it for the usual stuff: YouTube, Reading, Chess apps, etc. Still don’t need an iPad Pro. Will probably never get one, actually.
Software
• Logic Pro X – I’m podcasting and recording audio so I need a way to record, edit, enhance and output the final audio files. So, Logic Pro X is my DAW of choice.
• Final Cut Pro – I’m trying to make videos again (and help H with her vids) so I’ve returned to my favorite NLE. I was there when it came out and we tested it at the LA Final Cut Pro Users Group (LAFCPUG) and I’m still a fan to this day. Plus, I can just buy it once and own it instead of having to pay monthly to rent it. Suck on that Adobe.
• Discord – This software and service provides text, voice and video chat for communities and does a darn fine job considering it’s basically free. I use it for playing D&D, for working with my podcast team and for pretty much anything else that requires communication with a group of people. It’s great.
• D&D Beyond – I’ve been playing a lot of Dungeons & Dragons (mostly online) and this site is invaluable and so well done it’s ridiculous. How did I ever play without it before?
• Roll20 – This VTT or “Virtual Tabletop” is also a great tool for playing D&D online, which we all have to do these days. It has a few bugs, but it still works pretty well and makes the sessions far more enjoyable. Although, I’ve pretty much stopped using it these days in favor of the one below.
• Apple Mail – It has some issues, but I still use it for most of my email accounts. I also use Apple’s Calendar and Contacts apps because I’m used to them and they’re adequate for my needs.
• Final Draft – One of the best screenplay writing software apps available for OS X and the iPad. Yeah, I know. It works okay for me.
• Highland 2 – I used to be a die hard Final Draft user, but this software from writer and podcaster John August has really grown on me. In fact, I kinda love it. Great for screenplays, novels or whatever you want to write. I’m writing my latest novel with it. Only a few thousand-ish words to go. Only.
• VS Code – I’m doing more coding and learning some Python. It’s fun and this is a great app to do it. Plus, it’s free.
• Transmit – The best FTP software available for OS X.
Photo Gear
Analog
• Leica M6 – Still shooting film. I prefer the process and find the results more pleasing. This camera is wonderful, especially when combined with a great lens like the Summicron 50mm 2.0 or the Zeiss 35mm 2.8. Many of my favorite photos were taken with this camera.
• Contax T2 – I love the little titanium powerhouse and the photos I get from it are pretty good (for me). So compact. So fun. And so far, it hasn’t broken. Win.
• Nikon FM2n – Another favorite film camera. This one’s a tank. Works great with the Nikon 35mm f2.8, which is what I have mounted on it 90% of the time.
• Kodak Tri-X – A classic for as long as I’ve been alive. Although, I rarely shoot it these days in favor of HP5.
• Ilford HP5 – My black and white film of choice for years now. I love pushing it to 1600. Give me that grain (and contrast), baby!
• Polaroid OneStep 2 – A cool Polaroid camera from the gang at Polaroid Originals. Even though they’ve come out with new ones, I really like this early model. Read my review for more about this camera.
Digital
• I picked up a Sony a6700 for photography and video. I wanted the best hybrid camera I could get and also 10 bit video. The a6700 fits the bill. It’s also smaller and lighter than a full frame camera, which I like. Plus, the Sony AF is as amazing as they say. I’m sold. Although, there’s always more cameras, so I won’t completely rule out something else down the road. In fact, I think I sill want a Fuji X100vi, but now that I can find one (probably) I’m holding off.
Maybe I’ve reached the point of having too many cameras? Probably not.
• Lightroom – Lightroom is pretty much all I use, even with the bullshit rental model and Adobe trying to cram AI into everything. I also have Photoshop . . . just in case.
Audio
I record audio for podcasts and such (see my favorite DAW above) and I also listen to a lot of music and other audio content.
• Shure SM7B – This microphone has been around for quite a few years and has become an industry standard. It works very well and sounds great with my voice. Plus, it’s built like a tank and should last a lifetime. Expensive, but worth it.
• Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 – My current and favorite DA converter that provides phantom power to the SM7B and enables me to record into Logic Pro X on the Mac.
• Cloudlifter CL1 – The SM7B is a great mic but it’s quite gain hungry. So, I dropped in this device to provide a bit of extra “clean” gain to help the mic be its best. Not required to use the SM7B, but it doesn’t hurt to have it.
• Rode PSA1 – A great boom arm to attach the SM7B and get it up to my face and off the desk. You’ve seen these in lots of videos and streams because, like the SM7B, it just works.
• Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro X Headphones – I like things with cables and I like good headphones. These are both. They sound great and with a simple adaptor I can use them with my iPhone too.
• Apple Airpods Max – As much as I love cables and analog things, sometimes you gotta get on a plane or just need wireless, noise cancelling headphones that also sound terrific. So yeah, I’ve got these too.
• Apple Music – It’s got almost all the music I want to stream plus the stuff I, um, converted from other formats. Also, fuck Spotify.
Support & Motivation
• Hario V60 – If it’s just me and I want to make a few cups, I tend to make them using this pour over system. It takes a minute to get it right, but when you do, it really tastes great. This isn’t the exact one I use because I’ve mixed and matched mine, but this is a great place to start.
• Baratza Virtuoso+ – This is the coffee grinder I’ve been using for several months after my older Virtuoso finally died beyond repair. If you make coffee at home, you need a good coffee grinder. This one does the job very well for almost everything.
Sadly, it’s not great for espresso as it doesn’t really grind fine enough. So far, it hasn’t been that much of an issue, mostly because I’m just learning the whole process and the grinder is just one of the ways I can screw up. But as I get better at the rest of it and learn what tastes good and what doesn’t, I can see an espresso-specific grinder in my future.
• Breville Bambino Plus – I love coffee, so naturally I want to make espresso at home. I waited awhile before I took the plunge but now I’m trying this machine first to see how I like it. Gotta say, it makes pulling shots and steaming milk pretty easy. And tasty.
I know I’m not getting the most out of the machine or my shots, but it’s a good place to start and I’m enjoying the process. Besides, I can always upgrade later. Plenty of super cool and expensive machines out there for me. Like this one or this one.
• Apple HomePod – I used to be a big Sonos fan but have moved away from them in favor of this offering from Apple. I’m already an Apple Music subscriber so it couldn’t be easier to use this device to play my favorite tunes.
Plus, you can have Siri schedule appointments, turn on lights (after getting other components like smart bulbs, which I’ve dived into too) or whatever else you might want her to do. It’s pretty cool.
Other
• Victorinox Swiss Army Cadet in Black Alox
Server
This site runs on WordPress and is hosted on my server at DreamHost
One More Thing
The above are all things I personally use and paid for with my own money. No company or individual has provided consideration in any form to influence my opinion. If they had, I would disclose it.
Also, some of the links above are affiliate links. If you click on them I may receive a small commission.
Just so you know.