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Zinzy's website

Hey, I'm Zinzy, a diarist and designer from Amsterdam working in healthcare technology. This website is a home for soft stances, lived experiences, and critical notes on the things I hold dear. I've been yelling at Internet clouds since 1997.

Uses

I truly hope that you don’t care what kind of MacBook Pro I use, what version of iPhone I’m on, and what generation my Apple Pencil is. Here are some products and services I deeply enjoy.

Stationery

  • Filofax Lockwood Cognac Zipped A5 Organizer: After lusting after them for years, I finally found myself with the financial privilege to buy my first Filofax at 19. I’ve been a fan ever since. This A5 journal, fully zipped with lots of pockets, usually goes where I do. It is my trusted companion for any type of writing I do.
  • Palomino Blackwing 602: Knowing I’m writing and sketching only with a mere approximation of the original Blackwing, I love these pencils for their softness and the fact that they introduced me to the wonderful world of long point sharpening.
  • DécoTime twin markers: What I suspect to be a hilariously local product sold at the Dutch version of the Dollar Store, Action, these markers are lovely for highlighting and simple drawing.

Kitchenware

  • Le Creuset spatulas: the most-used and most-liked tools in our kitchen are a variety of spatulas that we use for everything.
  • Safe Bambino espresso maker: As an avid coffee drinker asshole Millennial, well-brewed coffee and impeccably steamed milk is the fuel that starts my engine. In Covid times, I, along with all the other gentrifiers in the neighborhood, developed a habit of getting takeout coffee from Coffee Company. There were months that I spent in excess of 250 Euros at that establishment. This machine is helping me make better choices.
  • Fake Stanley Cup: Like so many other people on the planet, I’ve been totally influenced to get one of those ridiculous Stanley Cups. What’s worse, I even wanted one in the rosé color omnipresent in my Pinterest ads. A longtime fan of Stanley products, mostly because of its leak-proof and thermal technology, I refused to pay 70+ Euros for a product with a plastic lid that didn’t do anything temperature-wise. The knock-off I got for 24 Euros has been serving me very well ever since.

Books

  • NRSV red-letter Cokesbury in red gift edition: Ever since I met our pastor Kyle, I’ve been enthralled by the beauty, typography, and layout of his Bible, which he got as a child. To my great pleasure, I was able to find the a beautifull broken into copy on the Internet. It can usually be found wherever I am.
  • Book of Common Prayer in black bonded leather: I love the rhythm of daily prayer, and this beautiful edition of the Book of Common prayer is a great companion for it.

Software

  • Athlytic: When I’m not recovering from a broken ankle, I love my 6 AM workout routine. This app is quite good at helping me compare how tired / energized / recovered I feel compared to what my body actually says.
  • Bearable: My central app for quantified self adventures, Bearable is incredibly useful for two things. Primarily, it seeks to help me uncover trends in my wellbeing. In addition, its tracking features help me pause during the day and check in with how I’m doing. Truly, truly useful for general use, and particularly if you’re seeking to monitor physical or mental health condtions. ( referral link)
  • BetterSleep: My hearing is somewhere on the spectrum between absolute hearing and misophonia, which means access to calming sounds is important for my state of mind. There’s not a single better app that I’ve found more helpful than BetterSleep.
  • Dwell: There’s something nice about audio Bibles, and Dwell is a great app for listening to various translations in various voices. I love their reading plan feature, which helps me keep track of the daily Episcopal readings, and lets me explore texts through various lenses. ( 30-day guest pass)
  • Logos Bible: I love engaging in Bible study, and digging into the text a bit when I do. Logos (free version) helps me compare translations, zoom in on the history, translation or transliteration of a word, and get a deeper sense of what a text is about.
  • Speechify: I love text-to-speech software because it allows me to treat reading as a multitask activity (combined with, for example, folding laundry or cycling). I find Speechify unmatched in its originality, quality, and customer support. ( referral link)
  • Obsidian: I love a note-taking app that doesn’t hold my files hostage. Tool agnosticism is important in my workflow, and I love what Obsidian can do to a simple folder of Markdown files.
  • You Need a Budget (YNAB): Going back all the way to 2013, when life was very different, my YNAB budgetting history is revealing, enlightening, and sobering. I love using the app to keep track of our household purchases and budgets as well as my personal.

Methodology

  • Johnny Decimal: My central strategy for organizing the numerous files that live in my filing cabinet, this adaptation of the Dewey Decimal Classification is helpful in leaving things where they belong, and retrieving them easily.
  • Interstitial bullet journalling: I love the simplicity, authenticity, and neurodivergent brilliance of the original Bullet Journal method (without the decorative fanfare). In a running list, without the sections common to the Filofax ring binder, I employ a technique called interstitial bullet journalling to keep me on track, let me offload, and help me slow down.

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