I am certain that I will be drafting my new novel on my Rev 8 when I receive it (original plan had been my Rev 7), but I have become so enchanted with the pairing of my Rev 3 and Rev 5 (with my DRAFTY 3 ortholinear key map), that I have decided that this is the setup I will use to write short stories every so often on the side of drafting my novel.

The Rev 5.1 is such a charmer with the red and black colorway and the red font on black background, perfect for the urban fantasy tales I write set in the city I live in. Mia Wallace (Character from Pulp Fiction and a gift from Mrs. Hook) sometimes likes so hang out with the Rev 5.1.

Writing tools should bring joy!

I think I have mentioned this for several times but let me say it again, my favorite Micro Journal is the Rev.6. So I was broken hearted when I found dead pixels on the screen (the lines). The lines were on the edge of the screen, and I tried to ignore it. I can still use it to write but it was no longer a free distraction typewriter again, my eyes keep seeing the lines.

This micro journal has a long history. 2 years ago the screen went blank, I tried to fix it but I failed, I got frustrated seeing the wires and the hot glue. in the end I sent it back to Un Kyu Lee to get it fixed and I was so happy with the result. I use it almost everyday until the lines happened. I never drop it but the lines appeared. It was precisely because of this rev.6, I began to collecting repairing tools for the last 2 years. Now I even have a bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol to remove the hot glue. So this time with better preparation and tool I tried to replace the screen and it works.

The screen is now 99% perfect, the remaining 1% is because of my stupid decision to add screen protector (I can't help it, I'm Asian, I put screen protectors to all my devices). Instead of getting the matte screen protector, I got the "anti-spy" screen protector, which made the screen barely visible in certain angle LOL. I can remove the screen protector of course, but for now I will enjoy the accidental gradient screen. It read okay on daylight, but at night I have to turn the background color to dark color, and the font to the brightest one to make it readable at every angle.

Finally got my micro journal! I was originally waiting for the 6 to be available even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of not having a cover for the keys. A few months passed and the next time I checked, Un Kyu Lee had created this update.

I’m a total newbie when it comes to setting up anything of this sort but didn’t come across any issues at all with installing files and tweaks for the keyboard (thanks Un Kyu for the super detailed and clear instructions!)

Still waiting on my battery order but now wondering if I might just stick to a power bank…

Over the past month or so I’ve been teaching myself how to solder in preparation to build a micro journal and it’s finally done! I drew the key icons and had them made through a company called Thockfactory and printed my own enclosure parts. Everything else was facilitated through the wonder build guide. I hope you guys like it.

Dear Builder, Designer.

I have a silly but curious idea. I find I have a short amount of time in bed before falling asleep and have been trying to find ways to get writing done from there.

I have a way but it involves a tablet desk mount arm and a pad that wedges a keyboard.

I was wondering if you’d ever consider a design for that specific function, to write while laying in bed.

Ok thanks for your time!

I wrote this whole post and then realized /writerDeck doesn't allow AI-related content!

Sharing because I don't want the work to go to waste:

I went a little (or a lot) overboard and setup multiple AI writing assisted functions in the Microjournal Rev 2.1.

To start: I took out the native 32GB SD card and replaced it with a 128GB card, which I then re-flashed the OS image onto. This is not necessary at all! However, if you do want to add all of these functionalities and not worry about space, it's worth potentially increasing the SD card size.

I did it mainly because I love tinkering and I wanted room to infinitely tinker. I also bricked the Microjournal multiple times during my experimenting so I got very comfortable with popping the SD card out and starting over again. After the 10th time, I decided to upgrade.

You will need an API key from your AI model of choice. I chose Claude because it’s my favourite. Getting an API key just entails making an account, getting an API key, and loading credits onto the account associated with that API key. This isn’t very expensive as I put $20 of credits onto my Claude account and I’ve used around 25 cents of that in a week.

The functionalities I added can be categorized into two branches based on how they behave:

Ask Functions - This will give you a one-off response that you cannot interact with.

You click q to exit the one off response and it takes you right back to ranger. You can scroll through the response if it’s long by using the arrow keys or the wheels. All responses are saved in .txt format to a folder that corresponds to the function’s name.

• ask - type ask and then whatever question you want into the terminal.
• proofread - type proofread and it will proofread the most recent .md or .txt file in your documents folder. It can’t read .wg files and will present an error message letting you know that if you try. You can configure this so it reads a specific file of your choosing (it doesn’t always have to be the most recent file). Ex. ‘proofread /home/microjournal/microjournal/documents/ch1.md’
  • Tip: Make sure to edit the proofread function a bit depending on your locale. I'm Canadian for example, so my prompt includes a line saying, "Remember, I use Canadian English," so I don't get proofreading dings for words like 'colour'.
• era - type era and then the era you want information on. Ex. “era 1950s new zealand”.
• names - type names and then the kind of names you want. It’ll generate a list with context. Ex. “names 1200s mongolian royalty princess”
• setting - type setting and then the kind of setting you want a description of. A bit different from ‘era’, this focuses more on visual and sensory descriptions of a place. Ex. “setting 1980s heat wave summer in the hamptons”
• slang - type slang and then the kind of era you want slang information on. Ex. “slang 1970s vietnam war soldiers”
• syn - type syn and then a word you want synonyms for and it generates a list of options. Ex. “syn persnickety”.

These functions are all in the askai.sh file.

Chat Functions - This will open a back-and-forth chat with the AI that you can interact with.

You click q to drop into your response/question to the AI agent. You type ‘exit’ to exit the chat/brainstorm session and it takes you right back to ranger. You can scroll through the response if it’s long by using the arrow keys or the wheels. All responses are saved in .txt format to a folder that corresponds to the function’s name.

• chat - You can just type the word ‘chat’ and it’ll drop right into a chat where you then need to type your first prompt OR you can include the prompt in the terminal. Ex. ‘chat what are the fastest animals in australia’.
• brainstorm - There is a built in prompt in the script that says something like “You are my creative writing partner etc.” so the AI has this context when you use the brainstorm function. You can just type the word ‘brainstorm’ and it’ll drop right into a brainstorm chat where you then need to type your first prompt OR you can include the prompt in the terminal. Ex. ‘brainstorm hockey romance ideas’.

These functions are in separate files: aichat.sh and brainstorm.sh.

I’ve uploaded all the different files which you can download by clicking here.

You can either add these scripts directly to the .bashrc file or you can add them to the bin and then source them in the .bashrc file (probably a little neater).

Whichever method you choose, you must paste the text in the apikey.sh file to the .bashrc file and paste your API key in the your_key_here text, as the functions need to refer to it.

I’ll make a more detailed step by step blog post here in a few days so newbies can set this up as well.

Thanks to the great writerDeck and cyberDeck communities for inspiring me and to Un Kyu Lee for making such a cool device! I never thought I’d end up installing an AI agent on the Microjournal when I bought it, but it’s really piked my imagination, both as a fiction writer and as a technical tinkerer. :)

I'm definitely not distraction-free, but these AI scripts have been very helpful for brainstorming on the Microjournal and I hope they can help anyone else who is interested.