I have 2 computers with KDE which I’ve been using for the past 6 months or so. I recently read about how to switch to Wayland (log out, find the option, log back in). Both of my computers were using X11, not sure why. Maybe I chose that during installation.

I switched both to Wayland and I’m going to do my best to stick to it. One of my computers has an older Nvidia card but luckily I don’t seem to have any problems.

Purely anecdotal, but maybe a large part of the 27% using X11 don’t even know the difference.

June 21st, 2025: Single Note

• Brush: Maggard Razors - Tuxedo 24mm Synthetic
• Razor: Union Razor Cutlery 5/8 Full Hollow (5)
• Lather: Proraso - Sandalwood - Soap
• Post Shave: Aqua Velva - Musk - Aftershave
• Post Shave: Dove - Men+Care Ultra-Hydra - Cream
• Fragrance: Jōvan - Musk - EdT

Theme justification: https://proraso-usa.com/products/shaving-soap-in-a-jar-moisturizing-nourishing-formula The only marketed scent note is Sandalwood.

Daily challenge: I lathered in 1m03.9s. I started with a dry brush and started the timer at the same time that I turned on the tap water. I was lucky to be using a soap which is likely designed with speed in mind. It doesn’t need much water, and it’s pretty much ready to go straight after you load your brush. I stopped the timer after I put the brush down on the counter before starting my first pass.

Great shave from this razor! It felt really good today. I think I stropped it 20 times on linen and 70+ times on leather after using it last time, and I think the extra stropping helps. Only time will tell.

June 20th, 2025: Non-Complimentary

• Brush: Stirling Soap Co. 24mm Synthetic
• Blade: Personna Twin Pivot Plus (Atra) Cart (2)
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Roam Two - Soap
• Post Shave: Old Spice - Original - Aftershave

Theme justification: Roam Two has a sharp grass/hay theme to it. According to this review, grass, thyme, sage, and blackcurrant are the main players. This makes it less mellow and more kablamlow. Roam Two is a new, hip, reimagined take on the original Roam. Old Spice, conversely, is warm, mellow, and overall pleasant. A crowd pleaser. So they’re very different, but do they clash? I’ll leave that for the judges to decide.

Ha, great rant there.

I like the OnlyOffice software. It’s almost too good, like I feel like I should be wary of it. It has connections to Russia, but apparently it’s open source and all that jazz so from what I I understand it’s just good software.

Please correct me if I’m wrong.

June 19th, 2025: History

• Brush: AP Shave Co. - Synbad 24mm Synthetic
• Razor: Koraat 15/16 Full Hollow - Sub Exclusive ‘Moarteen’ (14)
• Lather: Summer Break Soaps - History 101 - Soap
• Post Shave: Spearhead Shaving Company - Seaforth! Leather - Aftershave
• Fragrance: Spearhead Shaving Company - Seaforth! Leather - EdP

Theme justification: The history of the United States is short and full of tragedy. The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation and made some allowances for slavery, initially allowing the slave trade to continue for 20 years. It ended up continuing for six decades, but overall the authors of the constitution knew what was right, and what was wrong. History is doomed to repeat itself, and we’re witnessing that right now in the USA. The Constitution is being broken every day and it’s a terrible thing. History 101 is what I imagine the original copy of the Constitution smelling like. Leather bound books, tobacco from pipes, sawdust from the rough sawn floors of Independance Hall where it was written. Despite the current administration taking steps in the wrong direction, overall I know we’ll come out of this with an opportunity to rebuild, and that’s why this soap is on theme for me.

Great shave from the Moarteen. I think this is an older soap base, or maybe I just loaded it too wet, but it was pretty high volume. Still, good slickness and protection!

June 18th, 2025: Barbasol

• Brush: L’Occitane Plisson Synthetic
• Razor: Captured Ring Woodwork 34C Clone - Mahogany Handle
• Blade: Personna P74 (88)
• Lather: Barbasol - Foam
• Post Shave: Barbasol - Brisk - Aftershave

An evening luxury shave now that I’m home and have access to my precious can of Barbasol. I thought I had the purple kind, but all I could find was a normal can.

Did it work? Sure. Was it good? I added water which does help this stuff, but it was lacking in pretty much every department.

Are you referring to the “Google Fused Location Service” setting? I didn’t think that’d improve location update frequency but I’ll give it a try!

June 18th, 2025

• Brush: Stirling Soap Co. 24mm Synthetic
• Blade: Personna Twin Pivot Plus (Atra) Cart (1)
• Lather: Chiseled Face - Guy Noir - Soap
• Post Shave: Old Spice - Original - Aftershave

I forgot to pack a soap for this work trip, but that’s why I keep some samples in my Dopp kit. Guy Noir isn’t my favorite, but I do enjoy a good CFG lather.

June 17th, 2025: Vegan

• Brush: L’Occitane Plisson Synthetic
• Razor: Captured Ring Woodwork 34C Clone - Mahogany Handle
• Blade: Personna P74 (87)
• Lather: Barrister and Mann - Roam Two - Soap
• Post Shave: Summer Break Soaps - Wood Shop - Aftershave
• Fragrance: Summer Break Soaps - Wood Shop - EdP

Theme justification: Roam Two is in the Vegan Omnibus base. Ingredients are Aqua, Potassium Stearate, Glycerin, Potassium Palmate, Potassium Kokum Butterate, Sodium Stearate, Polyacrylamidomethylpropane Sulfonic Acid, Cocos nucifera Fruit Juice (Coconut Milk), Potassium Ricinoleate, Sodium Palmate, Sodium Lactate, Butyrospermum parkii (Shea) Butter, Tetrasodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Xanthan Gum, Theobroma grandiflorum (Cupuacu) Butter, Sodium Kokum Butterate, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Potassium Cocoate, Saccharide Isomerate, Sodium Ricinoleate, Persea gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Sodium Cocoate, Althaea officinalis (Marshmallow Root) Extract, Ulmus rubra (Slippery Elm) Extract.

This razor was a Father’s Day gift from my lovely wife, who somehow doesn’t realize that I don’t need any more razors… Still! It’s a nice one! I was a little apprehensive at first due to the “Etsy” nature of it, but it’s made in the town we live in, and shaves great. The threads are somehow really super smooth and nice, but I’m certain it’s a zamak razor. It must be. Anyway, the handle is made of Mahogany (or something in the same family) which is very resistant to water damage. People even make decks out of it.

Roam Two is incredible, and so is Wood Shop. Everything clicked for this shave and I’m lovin’ it.

Either way, my Pixel 7 has a weird thing, both with OsmAnd and CoMaps, where the location updating is janky during navigation and the speed readout is stuck on 5mph. In OsmAnd I can fix this with a setting which lets me use ‘Android API’ instead of ‘Google Play Services’ for location data. Maybe I can open an issue with CoMaps to add that option.

Although it pains me to install from Google as opposed to F-Droid, it’s the only way to have Android Auto.

Mine is on a smart plug, too. It helps a ton except for those times where I go “an espresso would be nice right now”.

I’m in a hard spot with a heat exchanger machine. On one hand I love it because the build quality is top notch, parts availability is excellent, and on and on, but on the other hand it takes about 15-20 minutes minimum for the E61 group head to warm up.

Measuring beans, grinding, and puck prep is pretty quick. 2 or 3 minutes.

June 16th, 2025: Bear Tallow

• Brush: L’Occitane Plisson Synthetic
• Razor: Wolfman Guerilla - Gen 1
• Blade: Personna P74 (86)
• Lather: Red House Farms - No Scrub - Soap
• Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. - Varen - Aftershave
• Post Shave: Nivea - Sensitive Beard & Face - Balm
• Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. - Varen - EdP

Theme justification: ingredients are Soy Wax, North American Black Bear Tallow, NAOH, KOH, Castor Oil, Coconut Oil, Glycerine, Aloe Vera, Fragrance, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Lanolin, Sodium Lactate, EDTA, Titanium Dioxide.

https://sub.wetshaving.social/pictrs/image/8bade305-fc07-46d4-a04c-c4313df7e750.webp

Not only is there no Beef Tallow, but it also excludes the most common ingredient of all – stearic acid.

I’ve had questionable lathers with this soap in the past, so today I was determined to get a good one. It’s a small container, so I figured that probably inhibits proper loading. I loaded loaded loaded loaded to make sure I got enough soap in my brush, and it helped a ton. Very decent lather. I think this soap is worthy of a container transplant, but first I have to make sure I can safely remove/move the label. It just wouldn’t be the same without that handsome bear on the front.

Relevant post shave: Varen is a scent from Stirling Soap Co., and in soap form it’s only available in the Mutton base which uses sheep tallow. So in a roundabout kind of way, it has something in common with No Scrub.

June 15th, 2025: Old and stanky

• Brush: Maggard Razors - 2 Band 24mm Badger
• Razor: Joseph Rogers & Sons Near Wedge (8)
• Lather: Mäurer & Wirtz - Tabac - Soap
• Post Shave: Old Spice - Hawkridge - Aftershave
• Post Shave: Declaration Grooming, House of Mammoth - Cerberus - Liniment
• Fragrance: Barrister and Mann - Lavender, Interrupted - EdP

Theme justification: According to Wikipedia, Mäurer & Wirtz was founded in 1845. I was born in the 1900’s, making this brand older than I am.

The Tabac scent was created in 1959, which is also older than I am.

I think this razor needs a quick refresh on the 10k. Recent shaves have been lacking. I polished it a little bit with Flitz yesterday and I imagine the paper towel hitting the edge didn’t help, but even yesterday’s shave wasn’t that great. If anyone has a quick tutorial on how to polish a straight razor, I’m willing to buy a benchtop buffer. I’ve just never done it before and wonder what kind of polishing compounds and stuff might work well on this type of steel.

Happy father’s day! I have a child, which makes me a father. I’ll be joining some friends at a local pond beach to grill, have a fire pit, maybe play frisbee and corn hole, that sort of thing. Looking forward to it. Oh yeah, and probably beer.

I’m not an expert, but I think we need more information.

We went through this about 6 months ago. It was a pretty rapid decline for our dog and it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made, but I had to pull over on the way home because the tears were making my vision blurry.

June 14th, 2025: Ring of death

• Brush: Semogue - 1800 Boar
• Razor: Joseph Rogers & Sons Near Wedge (7)
• Lather: Abbate y La Mantia - Garibaldi - Soap
• Post Shave: Barrister and Mann - Petrichor - Aftershave
• Post Shave: Dove - Men+Care Ultra-Hydra - Cream

Theme justification: This tub has a giant ring of death. None of my other tubs are this close to being finished.

Before this shave I smushed it all around to make a flat loading surface. This may have been the best lather I’ve ever gotten with this soap – but it still isn’t my style. It’s sort of a thick wet drippy hair-conditioner type lather. A little bit of slickness, but it seems to put post-shave ahead of all else. I prefer soaps where slickness is the top goal.

Ha, fun story. Is “most autistic set” supposed to be a compliment?