#xteinkv4 — Public Fediverse posts

In one of those positive side-effects, ever since I got the building of this 11ty blog working all the way to pinging Bridgy Fedi it has really made me want to publish more on this blog. As Drivin n Cryin once sang "A toy never played with is not a toy at all."

On the most recent podcast episode I discussed my desire for the XTEink 4, an ESP32 power device that has a number of firmwares that can be flashed on it. One of those makes it a writing machine primarily. If you look at the various places where people talk about their writing cyberdeck type devices, a number of people have 3D printed frames that hold both that device and a bluetooth keyboard. All good right?

The truth is, I have almost that anyway. I'm writing this blog post right now, sitting in a Starbucks in Columbia SC while my kid is trying to see osprey fledlings in a riverwalk with a friend. I have a cheap iClever bluetooth keyboard paired to my phone, Gitnex on my phone connected to my Forgejo, all that jazz. My hope is that when I finally commit this to the repo, it pushes to the website and also to Mastodon. This is good stuff, right?

The truth is that my desire for zippy devices to ease writing on the go is ultimately kind of pointless for a lot of reasons. One is that while I am on the go today, that's a rarity. I spend an awful lot of my life sitting in my comfortable house in the country. Another is that I am now rounding the corner to my third full year without a day job. Writing anything - blog posts or fiction or anything I desire - is wildly available to me. I have ample computers and devices at my disposal and theoretically time to tap at keyboards. In reality, I've spent zero seconds writing zero words of fiction in that time. Whatever the holdup is, it is not rooted in my lack of a cyberdeck.

It is a sobering thought to realize that the problem is much more mundane than that, and that I am it. This exposes a larger truth about me and everyone. If there is something you want to do at a future point when you have more time to do it, if you aren't already doing it you won't do it then.

You do the things you do. It's not the perfect notebook or tablet or 3D printed enclosure that will make the difference. It's not the presence or absence of a PocketMage or XTEink or portable Smith-Corona.

I already have all the tools I need to do everything. The only variable is whether I do it or not. This hard to face. I'd rather blame Tyler Durden for my shortcomings but I can't.

My hope is to start today, where I am with what I have. I can only hope to carry it on as far as I can.

I miss blogging. I miss writing. Nothing is stopping me.