I'm going to forge out a fire poker for a friend. If I have the time, I'd like to make log tongs as well, but I will probably get 12-ish hours at the forge all month so I don't want to push too hard.

I'm going to write a short story. Length unspecified, topic unspecified. It's a very low threshold but that's probably all I can manage :|

I'm going to build a calculator!

You see, the modern calculator is essentially a solved problem. If you're a scientist, specifically a mathematician, an engineer, a physicist or anyone who fights numbers for a living, you'll have a favourite calculator - not because it's any good, but because it's what you've always used. Your TI-84. Your Casio Classpad. Your HP 35. These work, and they can be pretty damn good, but very few people "choose" a calculator. They get told which to use by their school, because their teacher used it, and this is how we got to the biggest improvement in graphical calculating being the fact that you can now sometimes have graphs with multiple colours, but no anti-aliasing.

For accountants, the matter isn't much better. Most use Excel or their specific brand of CPA armour to crunch their numbers, and if you do need (or prefer) a physical device, the HP 12C exists, and that's the end of that.

If you're anyone else, use your phone, or pop to the Poundland (or Five Below in 120V countries) and grab a plastic calculator with a seven-segment display and a sometimes fraudulent solar cell that you'll use exactly once and then forget in the junk drawer. And those things suck, let me tell you.

It's strange because by all accounts it should be very easy to build a good calculator. Everything already has the things you need built in. Thermostats should have these - there are no dependencies. Still, nobody (except Numworks, I guess, but they only cater to the education market) has made a good, pleasant, and high quality calculator. I aim to fix this.

And as a side note: The offerings from SwissMicros don't count to me since they're not very original designs. They cater to the people that did use the HP 32 or the 12C forever but now want something that's not flimsy. It's a reinterpretation, and while they're very good calculators, it's not what I'm looking for. They're also really expensive.

My requirements for the calculator are as follows:

• Needs to look nice. This one's non-negotiable, if I see one more piece of injection moulded landfill with poorly printed on buttons where some labels are sideways, I will forget myself.
• Needs to feel nice. I want tactile, pleasant keys with travel and the sensation that you did something today.
• Needs to be genuinely useful to me personally. I'm a designer, and I do a lot of print work. That means calculating bleed, cut points, element sizes and so on.
• Needs to use RPN. Reverse Polish notation just is how I calculate (you enter the numbers first, then what you do with them) because that's just how I think and it eliminates the need for parentheses and PEMDAS.
• Needs to be a self-contained unit with a rechargeable battery and ideally readily available components.

I've never designed an embedded device like this, but I'm looking forward to figuring this out! I'll see y'all at the monthly checkins and the presentation round at the end.

With NaNoWriMo officially dead as of a few months ago, I'll throw my hat in the ring and do a novella for Timasomo.

Not sure about the exact length of the story though. A full 50,000 word novel would have been much for me to handle, espeically with me having started a temp job two days ago.

I'm not gonna revive a project I had failed to complete for NaNo, but rather write something I had considered doing in the last few years. A story revolving around a vigilante/serial killer who murders their victims with golf clubs, known by the police as "The Caddie."

Count me in for art with cosmetics! Specifically teaching myself the basics of nail polish application with my own polishes. I ordered the second half of my collection yesterday to complete my "color wheel," and I'm hoping it'll get here in a reasonable amount of time for me to try like maybe one thing before I need to put my wedding color back on (which was graciously provided by a coworker). Wedding color is Ghosts of Hecate by mooncat, unless I do another polish trial between now and then that steals the show and partner approves.

I'm going to try to avoid scope creep and aim for a "one-page" TTRPG system. I have an idea for what I think is a unique albeit very silly character creation / skill system that I'm looking forward to exploring.

I'd like to join and finally publish a game on Steam! My goal is to just publish there even with zero prep and zero marketing. I'm not sure I'm following the rules exactly though because I've already started working on the game. But my goal this month is just to learn the process of publishing a game on Steam.

I'm planning on hand embroidering a patch of this classic comic. It's only my second project like this - here's a in-progress picture of a Bill Cipher patch that I've been working on for my oldest kid.

My project for this year will be creating a discord bot that automatically notifies the user whether a sunrise/sunset is predicted to reach above a user-set threshold according to this Sunset quality prediction website

Months ago, I bought an HF radio kit from QRP Labs. And then work and life got in the way and I never built it. This Timasomo, I plan to fix that!

I have had a kind of surrealist fantasy novel (or maybe novella) slowly amalgamating in my head for the last year or so, just a half dozen incomplete ideas cohering into something enormously intimidating that I haven't dared to start in on. This month, I think I'll try to draft it.

Late add in the Announcement thread. I'm making hot pepper sauce experiments thanks to an impending abundance of ghost and habanero peppers from the garden, and a month where I'm not tied up in work travel.

As far as Timasomo is concerned, my output will be mainly informational - techniques, recipes, and photos. Possibly PM for a sauce sampler if I think it's gone well.

Count me in! Life has managed to punch a hole in my song writing, so my project will be completing one song draft by October's end. Nothing heavily produced, just some notation for basic guitar chords and some lyrics. I've had a main chorus thats been in my head for more than a decade, so I'd like to finally get a messy version of the song out of my head.

I won't be able to start really working on it until about halfway through the month, but I know if I don't set some kind of goal for myself I'll end up naturally waiting until next year to start. So here's to Timasomo!

I think my thing is going to be a rat fountain. The breeder my wife is in contact with uses an aquarium spillway with a litterbox, but I found a small submersible pump online, and I want to design and 3D print something more elegant (and smaller). It might end up being a collaborative project with my wife because she has some design ideas.

Alright, I've decided: I'm going to dedicate the month to finally building a buffer for my ongoing fanfics because I feel bad about the big gaps in chapters.

I'm also going to try to work on the clock. I have no clue of repairing it is possible (it may be a matter of a part not being made anymore...?), and if not, I'll try to think of some other use for it. Maybe I can make it into a diorama...?

I'm looking forward to following along! I won't be able to participate due to some intense time commitments early in the month. Hopefully next year!

I'm a bit of a cheater as I'm participating with something I already started making - the open PC stand/case 3D model for 3D printers.

I'm still participating as I will be finishing the model this month. I have the basic structure but I have to make a few addons (for various sizes of motherboards and various PCIe configurations).

I do 3D modelling just for the 3D printer, I'm learning new things with every model. This particular project isn't that hard for modelling it as it is for thinking far ahead and calculating a lot of things so it all comes together after printing.

I got some really cute rainbow yarn and have a pattern for the blanket I am going to crochet. Now I need to make sure to prioritize setting aside time to work on it. Very excited for the new project and hopefully some internet accountability being part of this.

As stated, I will try and get my audio player project into a fully portable status. Here are the tasks I need to complete, with an explanation of current status:

• Redesign the case to fix the issues with the current one. I have not started this task yet, but it should take less than a day to do.
• Finish knitting the pair of socks I started that are a thank you gift to my friend 3D printing the case. I am getting close to finishing the ankle of the second sock, and soon about to start the heel flap.
• Code the capability to connect to new WiFi networks, enabling it to fully portable. I have been fiddling with this for about the past week. I have started to understand how to code the various pages, so am slowly making progress on this one. I do have an issue of having to make my python script run commands as sudo, and have not figured a preferred solution for that one yet.
• Fix the bug that is leading to Openbox not launching my program 100% of the time. I have not even taken a look at this beyond preliminary Google search, but odds are that to start on this I will need to enable logging and then look at the results of those to help me figure out the culprit.
• Authenticate Raspotify, which will hopefully solve the issue of having to start playback from a second device. I started digging into this issue last night, and seems like I will need to use OAuth, but that should be easy since my frontend is also running OAuth so I should be able to just copy and paste that file.

I am going to make something in this month! This coming weekend is going to be Ludum Dare 58, if I like the game from it I’ll continue working on it, otherwise I’ll move onto another project afterwards.

I'm going to take Timasomo as an opportunity to build custom desktop D20 lamps as holiday gifts for my DND group.

Goal:

• 5" diameter D20 desk lamp with a base.
• Each of the D20's sides should be able to illuminate individually
• A custom programmed Raspberry Pi will provide a few selectable animations when the lamp is on its base
• A small battery inside the lamp will allow it to provide light for a few hours when not on the base.
• An accelerometer in the die will allow you to roll it, and the side that lands face-up will illuminate. The color of the illumination will depend on the value rolled with special animations for rolling 20 or 1.
• The battery in the main body will recharge when placed on its base (magnetic attachment? wireless charging?)
• The body of the die and base will be 3D printed. I might include TPU bumpers on the edges/corners to help protect the body and internals.

I think I may want to sign up, I have some thoughts in my head of a piano song I'd like to get back into and flesh out.

I'm doing something pretty simple.
I'm a sound recordist for TV and movies.
I use a cart as part of my kit to keep everything together and to rest my recorder on.
I've been working on a few documentaries lately and filming inside people's houses where there's not much room for a cart as well as all the cameras, lights, c-stands etc.
So I'm building a shelf that can attach to a c-stand which I can use as a mini cart as well as a boom holder.
I've completed the drawings and ordered a Neewer Super Clamp, shouldn't take long to make the shelf.

I'm going to focus on improving my art daily, And if I can find the time, I will build a 3d Printed Focus Companion

I don't want to commit to anything new, however I would love to actually finish one of my copious works in progress....

Still quite wanting to do the built-in bookshelves project but need to check some budget/time availability stuff. I have a couple of other ideas I could do instead. I guess y'all will find out when the first progress post comes along...

I want to work again with looping animation, I'm planning on working on at least a couple GIFs, hopefully turning them into something longer, or with sound.

That or a short comic.

I'm going to try and finish my Fadewalker gloves for winter.

Also, r/sketchdaily is running some October drawing challenges; I'm hoping to do at least one a day. Maybe something scifi-themed...

I'm going to finish & post my "how to get a 9000-piece jigsaw puzzle framed" blog post!

For a long time I've been meaning to learn the basics of the Rust-based game engine Bevy. TImasomo is the push that I've been needing to get started on that!

Alongside that, I've always loved the idea of getting a very basic industry/logistics simulation going with some sort of visualisation to go alongside it. Not so much of a game but more of a "fish tank" that evolves by itself over time.

I'll be looking to use this month to both learn the basics of getting a Bevy app running, as well as using it as a view for the simulation. Already I feel I've over-scoped this, but I guess I'll see where I get by the first update thread!

I'm taking my Brother AX-20 typewriter and reassembling it in working order. Once I've managed that I'll be taking the inputs from the keyboard and hopefully reading them using a (probably but depends on what I have in the cupboard) Teensy 2.1 and converting it into a normal USB keyboard output. I'm hoping doing both using it as a normal typewriter and pc keyboard at the same time doesn't fry it and results in a pseudo carbon copy equivalent. If I can get that working I'd like to then try the same in reverse where I can send inputs from my PC as if I've pressed the key on the typewriter. If all I get done is reassembling it though that is a win.

I will record at least one rough-and-ready song (ie. very few tracks, with a "live on the floor" feeling) and post it on my site, and probably make a section on the website specifically for songs.

I've started practice on a few songs:

• In The Garage by Weezer
• River Below by Billy Talent
• Santa Monica by Everclear
• Mad World by Tears for Fears
• Both Hands by Ani Difranco

I have to get my voice back in good singing condition. I really haven't been doing a lot of music lately.

I will be getting my workshop into a usable state so I can do real projects again.

I've been doing some basic woodworking for other house projects in the space already, so first task is to clean up the massive mess I've made there over the past couple of months. That (and the requisite yak shaving for it) is what I've been up to the past couple of nights. I might get to start on flooring this weekend?

I've got to finish a decorative Nintendo Switch dock for a friend. Well, to be specific, a dock for the switch dock, with a backlight piece of acrylic branded for Nintendo I got at an arcade I used to work at.

I'm going to write a fantasy story. It'll be a bit to much for a single month but I have some milestones in mind.

• Create an outline of the main story
• Write the first chapter
• Write at least two scenes
• Specify five world building ideas

If I can manage two of those, I'm happy. All four and I have an excuse to celebrate.

I think I am going to have to pass. I am switching to a new winery for the last month of harvest, and I’ll be working crazy hours. But please keep me on the notification list.

Bit late to the whole post but. I started learning some very basic sewing techniques. Like a back stitch and a up-and-down stitch (i don't know the real name of it).

I have also already created very very simple patches out of denim patches.
(Basically I have created more work since I now have to attach them to my clothes but that is fine.