Month: November 2023

Dream: V Wing AirPods

In a dream that felt particularly real, a kind and good looking stranger arranged my Apple AirPods into a V Wing…

I had no idea this was even possible! I was in a diner in a busy and dark megalopolis, minding my own business, when this guy eyes me, leaves his young companion at adjacent table, sets himself in front of me and deftly handled my Apple AirPods and case. His fingers and hands were like those of Rubik’s cubes players. The next moment he set on the table what looked like a small V Wing Star Wars spaceship. He said, “there, now you have your own portable loudspeakers” and left.

I looked at the beautiful object in front of me, and thought I needed a second pair to use in-ear, because I would never be able to arrange them this way again.

I also tried to think of what to tell the stranger to hold on to him longer, but nothing came to mind and I was disappointed. That’s it.

I woke up wondering just how loud the small device would be 🙂

The good things about my Mastodon clients

For a few years I was a happy and fulfilled user of the iPhone app Metatext, a client for the federated social network Mastodon. When Metatext stopped being developed, I spent days reading comparisons, trying other clients, and settled on two which eventually matched all of my criteria:

  1. Ice Cubes for Mastodon (free), an open source, collaborative, SwiftUI Mastodon client made by @dimillian
  2. Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots (subscription), a Mastodon Client for iOS & Mac.

I donate 0,99€ per month to the developer of Ice Cubes for Mastodon, and I pay the yearly subscription for Ivory (which costs 1,50€ per month.)

There are a 8 features specific to #IceCubesApp and 7 features specific to #ivory that I am really keen about. Since neither implemented them all, I continue to use both.

Ice CubesIvory
Quote post transforms the quoted post into a card with embedded contentBoost/favorite from/as a different account
Featured hashtags surfaced on our own profile + clicking them filters only our own posts using that hashtag (Ivory’s implementation in v. 1.7)Label in the timeline to denote posts displayed as a result of following a hashtag (Ice Cubes implements it as of 2023-12-04)
Add/edit filters via our own profileApp-integrated statistics for the rolling week, with bar graphs, directly in the tray
Private messages button in the trayUngrouped notifications
Filtering notifications in the notifications paneDate format choice between relative & absolute (I’m a sucker for the latter)
Collapse long postsOption to get a missing Alt text reminder
Auto-detect language when postingCan send iPhone “stickers”
Displays all posts for a given followed hashtag (whereas Ivory apparently displays only a portion)
comparison table of features I love that are specific to each application

Art: inktober2023

I drew again in my small sketchbook Canson art book universal (14×21 cm / 4×6 in), using individually or together a black Pentel brushpen, a grey Pentel Brushpen, Sakura Pigma Micron 003 black fine liner, Kuretake light grey Brush Writer, and a Staedtler 0.3-2.0 black pigment liner.

6 drawings are tributes to Moebius, 4 were Japan-inspired. I had fun doing all of them. It was a bit tough the last week, and for the first time I think, I was counting the days until the end.

Black ink drawing of a dream catcher against a grey background
Day 1 – Dream
Black and grey ink drawing of the “Maman” sculpture by Louise Bourgeois which is a giant metallic spider. Someone is standing up under it and someone else is crouching to take a picture.
Day 2 – Spider
Black and grey ink drawing of a character seen from behind, wearing a helmet and carrying a long staff whose top is shining. The man climbs up a ridge from which a cluster of tall crystals are visible. The sky is clear, dark and starry.
Day 3 – Path
Black ink drawing of a sports car
Day 4 – Dodge
Black outline of Antarctica and a compass all showing the north
Day 5 – Map
Black ink drawing of a Japanese woman in traditional outfit and hair style. A large golden circle is around her head.
Day 6 – Golden
Black and golden ink simple outline of a drip and golden drop
Day 7 – Drip
Night scene of a toad emerging next to carnations and a black ball
Day 8 – Toad
Black and grey ink drawing of a girl bouncing a basketball
Day 9 – Bounce
Black and grey ink drawing of a cup of team and fortune cookie split in two. The fortune reads: you will make a name for yourself in the field of entertainment.
Day 10 – Fortune
Black and grey drawing of a person with long hair and a coat, seen from behind, standing in a snowy forest, looking at the foggy nothing at the end of the path.
Day 11 – Wander
Black and grey ink drawing of a handful of peppers on a wooden table
Day 12 – Spicy
Black ink drawing of a character dressed in black flying upwards as geometric elements in the background suggest explosions.
Day 13 – Rise
Grey ink drawing of a castle on a small island and its reflection in a lake on a grey cloudy day
Day 14 – Castle
Black and grey ink drawing of a hooded crouching character carrying a dagger
Day 15 – Dagger
Grey ink drawing of a two robed and crowned characters standing on clouds and looking through an opening in more clouds at a series of angels climbing down what look like long stairs
Day 16 – Angel
Grey ink drawing of a crowned muscular armored male-looking character seen from behind, standing on a cloud and carrying a sheathed sword, with the left arm raised seemingly casting a spell on two people on the cloud opposite: a standing madonna holding a child and a seated robed and crowned man.
Day 17 – Demon
Black ink drawing of a caped character wearing a helmet and riding a giant pelican that flies low on a deserted area with a spacecraft wreck.
Day 18 – Saddle
Black and grey ink drawing of a plump Japanese woman in traditional attire seen from behind as she walks out of a shrine under a giant paper lantern and is headed toward a crowd of people carrying umbrellas
Day 19 – Plump
Black ink drawing of two rows of trees and snow
Day 20 – Frost
Grey ink drawing of chain links
Day 21 – Chains
Grey ink drawing of a cat with closed eyes being scratch under the head
Day 22 – Scratchy
Black and grey ink drawing of a cosmonaut seen from behind next to a flag with a peace sign, on a small planet, waving at the dark space and a distant planet or moon.
Day 23 – Celestial
Black and grey ink drawing of a Japanese crane standing in shallow water next to a branch laden with snow
Day 24 – Shallow
Grey and black ink drawing of a tiger crawling forward
Day 25 – Dangerous
Black and grey ink drawing of the top of a marble sculpture by Bernini, of Pluto abducting Proserpina. The woman is being held at the waist and thigh and her arms are raised in protestation.
Day 26 – Remove
Grey and black ink drawing of the top of the body and head of Toothless, a silly-looking dragon, with tongue sticking out a bit.
Day 27 – Beast
Black ink drawing of a night scene of the Statue of Liberty seen from underneath. The torch is shining like a star.
Day 28 – Sparkle
Grey ink drawing of a character in military costume and helmet, with a hand in his pocket, standing in front of the fallen head of a very large statue.
Day 29 – Massive
Black and grey ink drawing of a young woman surfing. She has long black hair flowing after her and wears a white bikini.
Day 30 – Rush
Grey ink drawing of a slithering dragon
Day 31 – Fire
inktober2023 prompt list
inktober2023 prompt list

#Inktober2023 week 4-5

inktober2023 prompt list

It’s the 8th year in a row I’m participating in Inktober. The rules are simple: A different prompt every day. Use ink. Enjoy. Learn new techniques, or not.

Some choose to not use the prompt list, or create their own, or follow a different list. I prefer to stick to those proposed by Inktober creator Jake Parker, because I find it easier, even though some prompts are less inspiring than others!

Day 22: “scratchy”

Grey ink drawing of a cat with closed eyes being scratch under the head

A tabby cat being scratched under the chin, basking in the moment. I used a light grey Kuretake BrushWriter, a Sakura micron 003 black pen and Pentel black ink and grey ink Brushpens.

Day 23: “celestial”

Black and grey ink drawing of a cosmonaut seen from behind next to a flag with a peace sign, on a small planet, waving at the dark space and a distant planet or moon.

A tribute to Tom Haugomat. This represents an astronaut on the moon next to a peace flag, waving at a planet. I used the Sakura Micron 003 black fineliner, the Kuretake light grey BrushWriter, and the Pentel black ink and grey ink Brushpens.

Day 24: “shallow”

Black and grey ink drawing of a Japanese crane standing in shallow water next to a branch laden with snow

My second least favourite in the series. This is a crane in shallow water next to a branch laden with snow and some reed. I used the Pentel black ink and grey ink Brushpens and the Kuretake light grey ink Brushwriter. And I touched up the feathers with white acrylic.

Day 25: “dangerous”

Grey and black ink drawing of a tiger crawling forward

A very graphic tiger. I used the micron 003 black fineliner, Kuretake light grey BrushWriter, and the Staedtler black ink 0.3-2.0 pigment liner.

Day 26: “remove”

Black and grey ink drawing of the top of a marble sculpture by Bernini, of Pluto abducting Proserpina. The woman is being held at the waist and thigh and her arms are raised in protestation.

This is the top of a marble sculpture by Bernini, of Pluto abducting Proserpina. I used again the same light grey Kuretake BrushWriter, a Sakura micron 003 black fineliner, and Pentel grey ink Brushpen.

Day 27: “beast”

Grey and black ink drawing of the top of the body and head of Toothless, a silly-looking dragon, with tongue sticking out a bit.

This is Toothless from the movie “How to train your dragon”. I used the Sakura Micron 003 black fineliner, and the Pentel black ink and grey ink Brushpens.

Day 28: “sparkle”

Black ink drawing of a night scene of the Statue of Liberty seen from underneath. The torch is shining like a star.

The Statue of Liberty at night seen from underneath it. I used the Pentel black ink and grey ink Brushpens and the Kuretake light grey ink Brushwriter.

Day 29: “massive”

Grey ink drawing of a character in military costume and helmet, with a hand in his pocket, standing in front of the fallen head of a very large statue.

Another tribute to Moebius. I used the Sakura Micron 003 black ink fineliner and layers of the Kuretake light grey ink Brushwriter. Contrary to the theme, the size of the character is really small (as tall as the last knuckle of my little finger.)

Day 30: “rush”

Black and grey ink drawing of a young woman surfing. She has long black hair flowing after her and wears a white bikini.

I had a lot of fun drawing this surfer girl. I used as a reference a travel poster advertising Ceylon, Sri Lanka – Ceylon ‘A Wave of Your Own, Talpe Beach 1970s. I used the Pentel black ink and grey ink Brushpens and the Kuretake light grey ink Brushwriter.

Day 31: “fire”

Grey ink drawing of a slithering dragon

A graphic dragon. I used the Pentel black ink and grey ink Brushpens and the Kuretake light grey ink Brushwriter.

(See the posts for week 1, week 2, week 3)