Intro to the WriterDeck

2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

First off, let me acknowledge that the WriterDeck is both a product and an idea. I'll be covering the idea. Not because I don't believe the product is useful, but because I like tinkering so I made my own. I know the whole stack this way, and I get the Ikea Effect [1].

Let's start with the basics. What is a WriterDeck? Is it a piece of kit that you plug into the input port in your forearm and it automatically records your thoughts into words? Not yet, at least, but it does have roots in cyberdeck/cyberpunk cosplay. The idea is it's a bespoke device you cobble together (or pay someone to cobble together for you as a product) that's exclusively used for writing. And that exclusivity is the point! If you don't have the entire wild world of the internet at your fingertips, don't have emails or notifications begging for your attention, and don't have a flashy pointer hovering over the 'Games' folder in your applications menu--- [2] you write more.

Okay, I hear you ask, it's a writing device to focus your attention. But what is it? Why, it's whatever you want it to be! You got an old laptop? WriterDeck. You got a 486 gathering dust in your attic? WriterDeck! You got one of those ancient devices that the keys just transfer ink from a ribbon onto a page directly? WriterDeck! Also TypeWriter, but the point remains. Now, about my own personal WriterDeck. I've got a few single-board computers (SBCs) laying around, so I took this boy

and installed armbian on it. For software, I just have kmscons, neovim, vimwiki, pelican, and ssh installed. Basic config of neovim, using mini.nvim, vimwiki, and Arborist and nothing else (I'm just interested in highlighting and syntax information for ReStructuredText and a wiki for ideas/notes). I hook it up to a usb-powered little display, a small form factor keyboard, and an Anker power brick, and I'm good to go. The monitor and keyboard fit in the main compartment of a laptop satchel, the SBC and power brick in a pocket, and it's now portable! If I want coffee while I write, I migrate to the kitchen table. If I want to not get rickets, I migrate to the bench on my patio. If the world is overwhelming and I just want to hide, I call my therapist. Then I also migrate to the bedroom.

What does it feel like? It's weird at first, I won't lie to you. I found myself hitting alt+tab a few times with some momentary confusion on why my web browser didn't magically show up. Then I got more used to it and discovered I'll want to set some alarms or timers. I've found that, once the distractions are gone, I just write. Without a status bar blinking the time at me, and without breaks to check my email (and also the time), I don't keep track of how long it's been and what else I should be doing. This post alone, I've already written and revised for (by my watch) two hours and haven't got up to get a water or coffee yet, and only realized the time expenditure when I checked to include it! By that metric, I'd say it's an undeniable success at its intended use.

Do I think everyone should do this? Probably not. If you've no interest in writing, then a bespoke writing device has no value. Do I think everyone should evaluate their hobbies and see if reducing distractions will help them achieve their goals and remember why they picked up the hobby in the first place? Absolutely! Modern social media and internet culture prioritize spending huge amounts of time doing things that don't bring joy or fulfillment, and sometimes make you angry and sad for all your spent energy. That's also why I do photography with a camera rather than my phone, and why I think visual artists would benefit from an "art deck" with just drawing software and a tablet attached to it. Because at the end of the day, doing more of what you love should be part of your goals, and doing less of what bothers you will always benefit your mental health.

[1]	There's a measured effect where people attach greater value to things they build themselves, even when they're objectively worse for more money. Named for the flat packed furniture store for allen wrench reasons.

[2]	Emdash: a punctuation mark indicating that you're changing linguistic gears. Not a marker that AI wrote my post, because it didn't. AI would be far more hinged.

Why a blog?

2026-06-15T00:00:00-04:00

Why, in the year of our lord 2026, did you decide to start a blog? Well, it's quite simple. Drew asked me to. Well, it both is and is not that simple. In light of Drew's and Veronica Explains's posts and articles about the madness of the modern web and protocols, I've decided to start a Ye Olde School blog. Not to catalogue my technical knowledge, that lives in my tech page, but to catalogue my thoughts themselves on technology.

"But vi!" I hear you interject, "AI will make sure no one visits it! You'll be screaming into the void!". Perhaps. But you know who else screams into the void? Every journaller and diary writer throughout history. Maybe somebody will find this blog and subscribe. Maybe not. But either way, it will exist to be found, and that's not nothing. And if the AI learns some of my idiosyncracies, then I live on in the machine god's cold embrace. Let them break themselves on my stylistic oddities and weep tears of GPU fan bearing lubricant!

"But what if no one does?!?!!! You're wasting time!!" Perhaps. I could spend my time doing something the kids [1] these days think is meaningful. Maybe scamming 10 year olds out of Roblox money? Actually completing the gods-forsaken Skyrim main questline? Some other mindlessly self-indulgent passtime? But I choose to write things online for the world to see. And even, shock and awe, track back to one of my personae (languidnights and vitae ftr) to tie me down with. I may even like the thought of being strung up by my own statements, as owning your beliefs, mistaken or otherwise, allows you to grow intellectually.

What am I attempting, however poorly to accomplish? Thoughts on technology as a whole, as well as individual technologies. You'll see a piece on a Writer Deck (tm) Real Soon Now (cr), as well as my thoughts on how the internet exists at this moment (hint: badly). For example, don't be surprised to see a rant against js-first webpages next to a post about how games disrespect your time, both flanked by posts on how and why I use my camera.

At any rate, watch this space for my thoughts and opinions, and even some rants and ramblings, as I make a splash into the world of the (tech? opinion? left-wing utopianism?) blogosphere. Make no remembrance of the old blogs I had in the beforetimes. I doubt they still exist, but I haven't gone out to look for them in ye olde wayback machine.

Footnotes

[1]	The kids in this case are usually twenty-seven to thirty-five year olds who have failed to grow up and spend their days playing angry on the internet.

Languid Nights

Intro to the WriterDeck

Why a blog?