Let's do a quick update of my life in the last year:

Still working on the new version of Mister Mercury for the Kickstarter (Sorry, it's long overdue, but a series of editors kept dropping out due to personal conflicts. I found a new, reliable editor who will help me with the final stretch).

Still going to school, though now I have a job, which eats up even more of my free time.

Oh yeah, and I also invented an awesome personal word processor called the Write-O-Tron.

It's a simple computer powered by the Raspberry Pi- a tiny credit card-sized computer. It cannot use the internet. It cannot print. It does not have speakers. It, unfortunately, has very few functions whatsoever. It does one thing, and it does one thing well: It writes.

I got the idea from one of those really old word processors, those precursors to laptops-- you know, those things that are as portable and as useful for writing as a live Saint Bernard.

During my time at school, I became hopelessly addicted to the internet. I was constantly distracted by my smart phone, my laptop, and my desktop, and there were some dark times when I had all three of them out at once. It killed my concentration and I became addicted to multitasking. I had to take matters into my own hands.

Naturally, I had to build an entire computer from scratch. You know. The simple solution.

I started out with a cigar box, a screen from a car back up camera, and a guide from this guy. I mocked up a cardboard face plate and soon discovered that the box wasn't big enough to hold the massive load of wires I had:

Next I spent an astonishing amount of time shortening the wires so that they'd fit in the box and crafting the face plate from wood using HAND WOOD CARVING TOOLS:

Next I coated it with varnish. Poorly. This part is key. It had to look like an unskilled homeless man painted it. For some reason:

At this point, I posted a video of my proud work on YouTube. It got pretty popular, and even Adafruit Industries picked it up and showcased it on their blog:

Next, I added a solar panel with a cool hinge so the lid is always facing the sun. You know. In case the apocalypse renders all electric outlets useless:

And lastly, realizing that I will not always have my razor sharp 20/15 vision when my strapping youth fades, I added a larger screen. Maybe it was partly influenced by the constant chatter of commenters on my YouTube video telling me that my screen was tiny and pathetic.

Pretty awesome, right? I've used it to write about three short stories (one of which I got published), dozens of school papers, and, yes, revised chapters for Mister Mercury. I wasn't expecting something that I designed and built to be so reliable on the first try. It's hardly had any problems (except for my breaking of its components several times during its fabrication), and I can't complain.

And... that's about it.

...

Oh wait, that's not it, because I AM MAKING ANOTHER ONE. And I'm going to be doing it live on my twitch channel, located at http://twitch.tv/giandroid. The stream starts at 6PM Pacific Time on January 14th. Hey that's in... like... half an hour! Better get to it!

UPDATE: The streams are done! Wasn't it a blast? I uploaded the entire stream to YouTube and you can see the final video, where it all comes together, right here:

See you there!