Nano Drama on Hellofest 2025! My best efforts!

 I want to continue writing about micro journal because that is the reason I revived this blog but I really have a good news.

Yesterday, there was the 2025 Hellofest, the animation festival.  And like back in 2014 (WHAAAT), it has the 8 seconds film contest.  It's a unique and special category that only can be done in Hellofest.  There is almost no creative limitation to what can be told in just 8 seconds.

Back in 2014 I tried making a stop motion with my amigurumis. I made it through the final with my 8 seconds animation: Simalakama.  I didn't win but it was a very special moment for me, to watch my animations being screened in a big screen with a lot of audiences.  Hearing and watching the live reaction of the audiences reminded me that I made animations for the audiences, and it felt wholesome.

Fast forward to 2025, It had been quite a long time since the last Hellofest.  I am now a teacher, I teach animation and I really hoped my students would join the 8 seconds film contest.  But the deadline was at the same time as the mid exam. I couldn't be the teacher who ask them to finish their mid exam animation assignment and at the same time ask them to join the contest. As an animator, Hellofest is a very special festival so I shouldn't skip it, so if my student can't join the contest, I had to be the one joining the contest.

With only 9 days remained to submit the film, I suddenly got the idea.  I have been writing about micro drama for my academic research so I was inspired by it.  Instead of making micro drama, I made nano drama, the even shorter duration of drama.  I wasn't exaggerating if I said I made the animation with micro journal rev.4.  I wrote down the dialogue and plot on the tiny screen of rev.4.  I really had no time to make proper notes of the idea. With the deadline approaching I need to make quick decisions. And despite I need the F5 keys to make animation, I didn't have time to replace my keyboard and I used micro journal rev.4 for the whole animation compositing and editing process.  Oh I made a lot of  quick decisions I didn't have time to think about it.

Since my drawing and animation are so so, I thought I need to use an extra special technique to make it unique.  So I use embroidery.  It was stupid and crazy decision, I spent the whole week to embroider all the parts.  Luckily, I was alone at home so nobody witness how messy my room was.

I thought of using stop motion, which use over the top camera, but I am suck at photography.  So I used scanner.  The scanner is broken, and I don't know if anybody realized, there are dead pixels on the pictures.  The animation production was the most violent production I ever had.  I killed a cicak (house lizard) accidentally I don't know how exactly,  I found its body underneath the fabric and paper scraps.  I also almost killed the printer.  And yeah, the scanner was already half dead. And I ruined the rev.4's spacebar that I have to replaced its insert steam.  Not to mention it was tiring to embroider everything.  It was a huge damage to my wallet because I had to order extra embroidery threads and the shop sent the wrong colors.  There was also system failure when paying the voice actor.  

But. overall it was fun experience and I love to brag about the process to my student LOL. I would like to share the whole production process here but I might have to write it down for an academic journal as well so I would get publication point (ah the life of a faculty member).

Then it was announced yesterday. I won best effort award!! it's totally worth it :D. 

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The Pink Themed Micro Journal Rev.2

I wasn't lying when I said Green is my comfort color

but Pink is my ultimate favorite color. 

I really like my Micro Journal Rev.2, it looks amazing right? The color is called Jurassic Park, because it is green and beige.  It is very retro, and since it has Debian arm linux, it doesn't have a desktop view like windows or mac, instead, it use ranger's dashboard.  Forgive me if I am using the wrong terminologies or words. 

The default dashboard of rev.2
picture is from Micro Journal quick start guide by Un Kyu Lee

I lived long enough, I experienced DOS.  The ranger on rev.2 gave me a feeling of nostalgia, with the green and blue text on black background.  I like that, but can I get pink text?

I have no programming skill, I don't understand linux and if I don't have to I would like to stay away from "terminal", but theoretically I can change the text color right?  But I don't know how.

Then one day in writerdeck's reddit, u/TheOriginalBeefus shared a tutorial to change the text color on microjournal.  YES, I missed that tutorial. How could I?

For the sake of the pink text that I've been dreaming of, I finally step into the unknown...

So here is how TheOriginalBeefus tips to change the text color.

or read it on reddit

Again, I like green but what about pink.

Logically, I just need to change "green" to "pink" right?

But no. By default, the only available color in Debian Linux is green, yellow, magenta, white, black, red, blue and cyan.  If your favorite color is among the default 8 colors, consider yourself lucky.

For me, the magenta is okay but... I WANT PINK, not purple.

So I ask my friend, Gemini, The AI.  Gemini has various solutions to the problem but in order to get the right solution I had some trial and errors.  I reflashed the SD card few times.  I sacrificed my miyoo mini's SD card as a backup.

and here's how I get the pink text.

PINK TEXT TUTORIAL LEVEL I

1.  type "Q" to drop out of the ranger

2.  type "sudo nano ~/.bashrc"  to open that .bashrc file with nano editor

3.  go to the bottom line of the file and type everything down:

if [ "$TERM" = "linux" ]; then

    # 1. Define the Colors (Magenta -> Hot Pink)

    printf '\033]P5FF69B4'

    printf '\033]PDFFB6C1'

    # 2. Set the Default Text to that Pink

    setterm -foreground magenta -store

    # 3. Force 'ls' to use Pink for folders

    export LS_COLORS="di=1;35:fi=0;37:ln=1;36"

    # 4. Fix the 'clear' command so it doesn't reset colors

    alias clear='clear; printf "\033]P5FF69B4\033]PDFFB6C1"'

fi

4.  then press ctrl+O to overwrite the file, press Y to confirm and ctrl+x to exit.

you are back in ranger!!!  type q to get out,

then type "chmod +x ~/.bashrc" 

you may need to shut down and restart to see the change.

what? nothing changed?  try to type q,  do you see a pink letter there?  go type "clear" and then type "ranger" again.  some texts are now in pink.

Every time the text color turn magenta or any other color, just try typing "clear".

* sorry I forgot to take picture of the micro journal on pink level 1

Now... you don't need to continue to level 2 if you already happy with that.   Level 2 is for changing the ranger's colorscheme to make it monotones.  You may noticed with the pink text tutorial level 1, only few text in pink, the other text are green or blue.  It depends on your preference, the color difference might come handy to check typos when writing script/ code, but since I don't do programming or coding or whatever, I want only pink text with darker and lighter shade. It looks more pleasing and harmonious to my eyes.

By default the ranger are using "default" color scheme.  There are actually other color schemes: jungle (if you like green?), snow (white and darker white, and darkest white, well basically monotones), and solarized (very popping color like red, yellow).  Using default is fine and recommended if you need color variations, to check typos when editing script, but if you are using micro journal only to write, snow can give you a more elegance look.

This is how the "snow" color scheme looks like

PINK TEXT TUTORIAL LEVEL II

so here's what I did:

1. the ranger colorscheme is in the configuration files so you need to create it first by press q and then type:

"ranger --copy-config=all"

then it will make that file that you need.  You are looking for the rc.conf file.

2. type:

"sudo nano /home/microjournal/.config/ranger/rc.conf"

it will open that file in nano editor

3.  Now, scroll down and find the text "set colorcheme default"

replace "default" with "snow" (or "jungle" or "solarized")

overrwrite the file by pressing ctrl+O, Y, and exit with ctrl+X

now restart the ranger (or the microjournal).  if the ranger dashbord text are all in white then you did right.  to make it pink just type q and "clear"

Pink Level 1 and Level 2 applied. SO VERY PINK :D

if you are opening any .sh file through ranger, the pink would go back to being magenta.  if that happens, just go back to dashboard, type q and type "clear" again to revert back to pink.  

Okay, that's all.

I think the snow colorscheme also looks good in another color, all you need to do is doing the level 1 tutorial but with different color code. 

Again, this is the solution I learned from Gemini AI, maybe there is more easier or safer solution. If you happen to know, just let me know :)

Weekend Project: The Real Punk Keyboard

So I got a new keyboard from Un Kyu Lee, the builder/designer of Micro Journals (Hmm I think I will make a dedicated post about Micro Journal).

Like the other keyboards,  I have to try on few set of keycaps before I decide which one is the best, visually and experience-wise.

My other Micro journals, the rev.6 and rev.2 revamp use retro punk keycaps, which are keycaps that resemble classic typewriter's buttons.  I really like the esthetic and I think it fits the retro futurism concept of Micro Journals.  The keycap set is cheap, and if you don't mind buying from 1688 you can get it in various colors, it also has Russian, Thailand, European version. BUT it is designed for full keyboard with ANSI layout.  Micro Journal is designed in Italy so, it use ISO layout, with a J-shape Enter key.  And the ortholinear Micro Journal needs some 1u sized keycaps, so the set doesn't have ctrl, cmd, opt, tab keys that are short like the alphabet keys. 

Micro Journal Rev.2 and Micro Journal Rev.6

My Microjournal rev.6 and rev.2 were using the other unused keys to replace ctrl, cmd, etc.  Since both rev.6 and rev.2 are using 40% ortholinear keyboard,  I have 60% keys that unused.

I would love to get another retro punk keycaps but money doesn't grow on trees.  Dang! I AM SO LUCKY that money doesn't grow on tree.  I am terrible at keeping the plants alive.  

Anyway.. since I have a lot of unused keycaps... I got an idea, to used the leftover keys for my new keyboard.  I am still the same as before, I still hate printing.  I can get keyboard stickers but I don't like the idea of sticking stickers.  What if I get bored?  I thought of using fabric because I like fabric, maybe I can add embroidered letter.  But I scratched that idea, considering the texture of embroidered fabric might be uncomfortable for typing.

So I took the IKEA catalog that has been sitting on the floor since... last year and making a serial killer keycaps real punk keycaps.  The texture of the catalog paper is nice and I don't mind if the paper ruined or faded later, I can get another IKEA catalog.  After all there is no guarantee that I wouldn't get bored of it right?  And the best part is, it is not sticking to the keycaps, so it is removable. Perfect for me.

And I think... It looks wonderful right.  I don't know why the retro punk keycap is called retro punk, but now with the collage the retro punk keycaps look more punk!

Now I feel bad about the Evangelion keycap set (the previous set that I used).  It is pink, it is cute but I still haven't find a keyboard that fits for the keycaps.  I thought that pink keycaps would fit the pink keyboard but I didn't like it.  The punk keycaps are not pink but somehow I like it better than the pink keycaps. It gives personality although I am not a punk.

I Like Green but I Love Pink

 Don't know when did I start my obsession with pink.

I remember one day my parents bought 3 binder notes (loose leaf) for me and my siblings.  My brother took the blue one, my sister took the green one, and I got the pink one.  And afterward, I always got pink.

Growing up, I was bullied for being a girly girl.  If you imagine a stereotypical cartoon character or movie character  who dressed in pink, that people/ viewer hate, well that's me.  I like being a girl, I like being a princess. Like, how did they expect me to behave?  I am always a girl.  So I tried not to be too girly, I tried not to laugh like a pink character,  I tried to wear poker face. I used to hate being a girly girl, a sassy girl, but that's who I am and they bullied me so I hated to be myself.  Anyway...  That's in the past.  I am no longer afraid of wearing the brightest pink to the art gallery where everybody wears black like in funeral.  One of my childhood friend (who was not very close but she never bully me) even asked "I don't know you like pink".  Well, my friend, please tell the world, I like pink!  

Pink unleashed!!!  

But it's not like I am always wearing pink like Legally Blonde or Barbie.  My comfort color is green.  Even my coworker call me "nyai" because she always see me wearing green.  I choose green luggage over pink luggage because it feels safer.  But of course not the matcha green. Neon green LOL.  What is subtlety anyway?

It has been 8 years and I suddenly write again?

It is funny.  I don't realized I was that sad because I lost my job. I mean looking at the last few post, I can make a conclusion that I stopped writing because I was THAT sad.

Good news. it's all in the past. I already have a new job.

Things are okay. 

Last time I wrote the blog was in 2017?

The me in 2017 would have never guess it that in 2018 I got scholarship for master degree.

Yeah, it was never a plan but I did back to school, and graduated at 2020, Exactly on the day the social limitation started because of the Covid Pandemic situation.

I didn't plan to be a teacher but here I am, a teacher LOL.

one of the draft that I didn't publish was about Hellofest 2018.

Guess what, tomorrow is Hellofest, and they will screen my animation :D

yup even after 7 years, some things remain the same.

And why do I start blogging again?  

Because I don't know where to put my notes.

So yeah, I can stop suddenly and I can start suddenly too,

I don't know if anybody stop by and read my blog,  But hello! thanks for stopping by