Oliver Granlund flinging burning steel wool, photographed with long shutter speed

Get to know me

Most of my free time goes to family and friends, but there’s usually a bike ride, a keyboard project or something that needs fixing waiting for its turn.

Personal life

Living in the Helsinki region means there are plenty of things to do, but honestly, I mostly spend my time with my family and friends. Being a relatively new dad takes up a lot of time, and it's definitely a challenge trying to fit my hobbies into life with kids. 🚲

Outdoors cycling with my firstborn on a shotgun child seat

Work life

During the week, I build software at Into-Digital and work on projects through my own company. You can find more about that side of my life on the Skills & Experience page.

Skills & Experience

Hobbies

A few things that keep me busy when I have a moment to myself.

Keyboards

I'm the founder and a moderator for FMKC (Finnish Mechanical Keyboard Community). I also designed the Neito keyboard, which I sold worldwide. I always have a keyboard project going, though it’s not always my main focus.

Fmkc.fi Neito Group Buy

Cycling

I currently have three bikes, which feels like a reasonable number until I see another one I’d like. I love riding forest trails, especially EKP 4.2, but I also love road cycling. Gravel is a good option when the trails aren’t in good condition. I once rode from Espoo to Hanko and back, which was long enough to deserve its own blog post.

My longest bike ride - 250km

A road bike leaning towards a statue in Hanko, Finland

Software development

I still enjoy making small tools outside work, especially when they save me from doing something tedious by hand. For Neito Rev.2, I wrote a script to calculate the RGB LED positions for the firmware. I wrote that code manually, without AI. Much nicer than working through every position myself.

I also enjoy Advent of Code. I’ve taken part over several years and kept the solutions my own, without using AI to solve the puzzles.

My Advent of code solutions

Example of how to target a matrix of elements with CSS and provide different values to each one with SCSS

Whisky

I have whisky casks ageing at Teerenpeli and Nagu Distillery, and a steadily growing collection of bottles at home. I also enjoy beer and gin, but whisky has the nice advantage that an opened bottle doesn’t need finishing in one evening.

Teerenpeli Cask Nagu cask

olli.works cask at Teerenpeli Distillery

Video games

My Steam and Epic libraries are growing faster than my time to play them. When I do get a moment, it’s usually Red Dead Redemption 2, Skyrim, Minecraft, Valheim or How to fish. Every now and then I get a Rocket League session in with friends, just to find out how rusty I’ve become. 🎮

A screenshot of Rocket League match end screen

Tinkering

When something needs fixing, I usually want to see whether I can do it myself. Sometimes that means creating a 3D model and ordering a print from Hekeke, sometimes following a YouTube tutorial with the thing already in pieces. Every now and then, the power tools come out. I’ve written about a few of these projects in Modern DIY repairs.

Modern DIY repairs