I am happy to announce that I am father to an absolutely wonderful, adorable little girl! Do not expect me to share too many details. All anyone needs to know is that my wife and I have a daughter, and as frustrating as the first few weeks of fatherhood have been, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

As would appear to be quite fashionable in these times, I was let go from my job as part of a "reduction in force", back mid-February. There were so many people let go that it definitely didn’t feel personal, nor did it feel punitive (like I was being fired for being a substandard employee).

While I am currently looking around for new work, I am taking it really easy and not rushing anything. I received a decent severance which my family can happily float on for a few months.

I am someone who very much enjoys work, and practically require it for my sense of self-being. I enjoy the sense of duty that comes from doing work and providing for those who depend on me. Beyond the whole "it’s nice to have money" thing, I know I will start to get squirrelly if I don’t find work soon-ish. If I find anything before then, it will be very unlikely that I start work until May or June of this year. I am greatly enjoying the time I get to spend with my wife and our daughter, and I know I am going to look back on this time with a deep fondness.

A colleague from my most-recent job was also caught up in the "reduction in force", and built a few extra keyboards to kill some time. As a result, he sent me a snazzy Corne!

My daily driver keyboard has been the Keychron Q3. It is a fantastically heavy keyboard, and I outfitted it with some Wuque Studio WS Yellow key switches. I love typing on that thing, with those switches; it sounds like rain gently hitting a window.

This Corne is definitely taking a bit of time to get used to. It is my first split keyboard, and it is the first keyboard I have used that makes liberal use of layers. In fact, it is the first keyboard I have ever actually used layers on, and oh boy, do you ever need to use them!

In my usual typing style, my hands fly all over the keyboard; my wrists do not stay locked in position, and I contantly lift them to always position my hands into a comfortable pose to press the keys, or combination of keys, for the task at hand. The Corne is slowly breaking me of this habit. The more I type on the Corne, the more I find I want to keep my hands in a more-fixed position, otherwise I completely lose track of which keys I am hitting. Oddly enough, the one key I have a really hard time adapting my typing style to, is the C key; I always want to press it with my left index finger, but on the Corne, it is much easier to press it with your ring finger.

Ergonomically, the nice thing about the Corne is that I can space the two halves out. As a broader individual, it feels much easier on my shoulders to have my arms go straight ahead, instead of having them converge in front.

Until I get comfortable typing on the Corne, the WS Yellow switches are going to stay on the Keychron Q3. On the Corne, I currently have some Kailh Pro Purples which are fine, but after typing away on the WS Yellows for a few months, feel tight and none too fluid. I also have some truly cheap-feeling XDA profile kecaps I am using, only because the MT3 keycaps I have laying around are a bit too tall for my liking (on the Corne). I have some KAT profile switches in the mail, though.