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Time to talk about my writerdeck

veronicaexplains.net

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Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#161

Post by dv35z »

komali2 wrote: post #136
cortesoft wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> focused hard for a day on the wrong thing Entirely depends on what the author wanted to focus on. Who are we to say what is the right or wrong thing to focus on?

> Who are we to say what is the right or wrong thing to focus on? Just observers pointing out that her stated goal was "to write more." If she uses the writerdeck as-is for a couple years, then, she was one of those rare people that discovered an actual single structural obstacle that stood between her and her goal, and then solved it in one fell swoop. As an ADHD guy, I completely understand the cycle: have a thing…

Can you share more about your journal specifics, and Anki deck + spreadsheet? Thanks!

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#163

Post by gnabgib »

dv35z wrote: post #159
NathanielK wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am similar. If I physically write a couple times a week, my hand adapts though. It's a skill like any other. Fountain pens are nice too since you don't need any pressure. My writing looks a lot better if I just force myself to slow down and be deliberate, but honestly it's a constant battle. I'd definitely benefit from practicing penmanship on it's own.

Worth mentioning - for a long time, I found my handwriting messy AND my hand would tire out. When I was about a teen-ager, I decided to write in call-caps, very clearly. I've been doing that for a long time now, and worth giving a try.

teen-ager? call-caps? Cursive (several hundred years old) fixes this.. all-capitals(caps) or block-caps makes writing more laborious, possibly easier to read (which is why it used to be requested on hand-written forms?)

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#165

Post by beej71 »

chungusamongus wrote: post #17

The way people are coping with the current hellscape that is 2026 is interesting to me. Somehow, it always seems to be internalization. Like, if only I can lock in using this distraction free method, if only I start buying more physical media, if only I use a dumb phone and an mp3 player for my music, etc. etc., somehow that will resolve the intractable shitstorm happening right now. And none of that is even going to…

> Only collective action has the potential to do that at this stage.

Nothing resolves the shit storm, but it is absolutely possible to not be in it. Don't need collective action for that.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#166

Post by dredmorbius »

UncleSlacky wrote: post #94

Why not just use DOS? e.g.: https://github.com/lproven/usb-dos At least the laptops that can still run DOS natively tend to have fairly good keyboards...

You'd have to find a suitable editor. For a long time I had a copy of Wordperfect 4.x which I'd fire up occasionally under either DOSEmu or FreeDOS. Among other disappointments:

- I've forgotten virtually all my WP muscle-memory. Vim is where it's at. (I was once quite proficient at WP, but the last time I used it significantly was well over 30 years ago.)

- I find DOS apps tend to play poorly with any screen resolution other than 80x24 or so. I prefer more information density, but even running a console (rather than a terminal app) the experience tends to be subpar.

That said, for someone with familiarity with the apps and not too picky about resolution, that's an option.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#167

Post by dv35z »

daoboy wrote: post #6

I'm desperately awaiting the perfect eink device for this. I've got a great writing setup on Obsidian that really works for me, a royal kludge mechanical keyboard...just waiting on the next gen of eink The Boox One Note Max was sooo close, but they almost immediately discontinued the product and probably won't be supporting it long. Suggestions are welcome

My dream device is the "Solar A5 e-ink computer" - It's A5-sized laptop, so it fits in a leather zipped case for journals. If you're familiar with HP Journadas / Sony Vaios from early 2000s, that's roughly the form factor. There's a solar panel on the back of the screen / outside of the enclosure. The screen is e-ink, and the operating system is Linux Mint Debian Edition. For console mode, a good "writing station" applications are "mc" (Midnight Commander) and "ranger" - simple GUI for editing text in folders, like a blog/knowledge base.

Some challenges I've experienced: (1) Can't find A5-sized e-ink screens that accept HDMI as an input, (2) It would be cool to use a common Android phone, since there are many around. RaspberryPI is an option. Honestly, would love the simplest portable device that runs Debian Stable on a battery, (3) I have NOT been able to find small, A5-sized keyboards. Most small keyboards are cheap plastic bluetooth junk.

If anyone would like to seriously rally around this, let's talk'bout it. My vision for this laptop has always been "10:00 AM Austin Texas, sitting at a patio bar in direct sun, journalling/coding/writing". I have not been able to find any computer device that satisfies that situation, so there is obviously a market niche.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#168

Post by shimman »

chungusamongus wrote: post #51
black_puppydog wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing opposes a setup like this to collective action. Given that most of modern technology or at least most of the internet is built to actively distract you as much as possible to extract profit, it's just a sane choice to disconnect from this every now and again if you want to work on things that actually matter. And this can totally include things that are for the collective good, and in collective efforts.

It just seems like copium to me. The consolation prize is we get to come up with niche lifestyle preferences to cut out the distractions. We can fine tune our lives to increase productivity. More and more optimization until we're just machines. And then people will use that as a way to feel superior to the sheep who continue to scroll tiktok.

WTF is this comment suppose to mean? You're telling me a union organizer working to better the material lives of their community is "coping" by distracting themselves from corporate social media?

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#169

Post by em-bee »

cortesoft wrote: post #81
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It it reminds me of a lot of friends who wanted to "start blogging" and their first step was writing a new static site system from scratch.

I think it is great to combine two personal projects into one! For me, I can't learn anything unless I actually have a purpose for it. So if I wanted to learn how to write a static site system, I would also need to think of a reason I need one!

one of my goals is to work on the server platform that i am using for my websites. i want to write a blog, but i am using that desire to push myself to work on the platform, so i need to complete that blog interface first.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#170

Post by infinet »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #50

This is an awesome setup. I like it, good job. That said, I do think there's a bit of irony to solving your "paying attention to writing" problem by setting up your OS from scratch, choosing to swap out the default networking stack, installing a novel flavor of your preferred text editor because you're "trying to get to know it a bit more," customizing your battery readouts, tweaking the login sequence, and then, aft…

I guess I will setup something similar or more complex. But there are alternatives:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12114947

"George R.R. Martin Writes on a DOS-Based Word Processor From the 1980s". No internet, no multi tasking.

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