Vol 2.1 - Tactile Zine

If you’ve ever wondered what got me back into keyboards after 6 years away, it’s pretty simple. I was at a point in my life when I had a lot of free time and got sucked into the vtuber fandom. Between the streams I liked and still keeping up with technology, I was on YouTube pretty often. I would see recommendations for videos from Linus Tech Tips or keyboard typing samples which would remind me of the hobby. But the moment that I really remember is when Hololive Indonesia vtuber Pavolia Reine did a stream reviewing her fans’ keyboards.

Reine's fan said this was the JP standard layout for Hololive fans, kusa.

Also IRyS talked a lot about her love for Mode and keyboards in general. I was so surprised that my little niche hobby that I was into years ago was suddenly being talked about in so many places. But surely the hobby was still small right? I thought nothing much changed since 2017…so I casually started looking into keyboards again. Obviously a lot has changed so I have a lot to learn again. Since I’m doing all this research, I figured this would be a nice time to restart my Tactile Zine series as I dive back into the hobby.

Everything the zine comes with. Please note that the zine will not say "Draft 4F" on the cover in the final version.

Volume 2.1 is the first in this revival zine series. In this volume, I talked to HoffmanMyster, LightningXI, and ThereminGoat. I wanted to speak to people who have a lot of time in the hobby and are still involved. In case you’re not familiar with these people and need an introduction:

HoffmanMyster is an old friend of mine who has been a long time community member and now Drop employee. LightningXI is a Twitch streamer who builds a lot of keyboards and the owner of the best keyboard community. And ThereminGoat writes your favorite switch reviews on his site.

I want to buy a zine, where do I go?

The zines will be $10 shipped worldwide. Please note they will ship using USPS letter mail stamps. For more details, please see “On Shipment” in this link.

The first sale of the zines will be at the Glastonbury CT NEKB Meetup - Coffee and Keyboards at RaonJena on 7/8/23. An online sale will follow soon in July 2023 with information to come. And I will have these zines for sale going forward on my site as well as at any meetups I’m attending. I will announce when the online storefront is open and has stock. Link for the storefront is here.

I’m interested but what’s a zine?

Check the introduction paragraph from this post.

I want more updates

Check out the links on my homepage. I mostly post updates in the geekhack thread.

Links for the Interviewed Folks

HoffmanMyster

• Website
• Personal Instagram
• Typing Test Instagram

ThereminGoat

• Website

LightningXI

• Website
• Twitch

Things I Learned (Or Relearned)

• Carving stamps
• Practiced print making
• Git - commits, CLI, commenting
• Jekyll and Github - DIY website
• Libreoffice Draw - Software replacement for Microsoft publisher
• Recording discord call using discord bot Craigbot - understanding audio channels and mixing
• Whisper and other AI transcription software - converting the calls into written text
• Relearned how to layout a zine and how to edit words/stories.
• Commissioned art - Learned how to work with an artist. Infinite gratitude and thanks to Bustorblador for the capz mosher. And special thanks to booper for allowing us to use the capz sculpt as inspiration.
• Relearned how to cook up a theme and storyboard - I want my Zines to have an overall theme and a new reason to read them each time.
• Setting up a custom domain and email
• Maintaining a self hosted nextcloud instance - personal backup for all things Tactile Zine Creative Works
• Rediscovered my enjoyment of fountain pens - see your thank you notes!
• Relearning how to post and engage in IG.
• Formatting between printers can be wildly different. Therefore multiple test prints are needed.
• Continued Linux desktop OS and CLI learning. The zine was made on Pop OS and Debian.
• Made my second cut and paste thing: The summer 2023 tour “poster”. Infinite thanks to HoffmanMyster for finding the vintage pic and allowing me to use it.

Zero, Kingsaver, Tengu - Top to Bottom

Keyboards Used During Development

• Filco Zero with SKCM Green Alps. SP DCS Alpine Winter. And various vintage caps. Resin from booper.
• Kingsaver - Retro (From 2013) Korean Custom with SKCM Blue Alps. Vintage caps from an Acer 6011 and Wang 724 as required. Resin from Fifth Fantasy and Booper. Novelties from SP.
• Tengu - Huge gratitude and thanks to Ninewalker for the loaner. Gateron Ink 8008 switches. Keycaps are Keykobo White on Black, GMK CMYW, and Retro (2012ish put the matrix site info down) GMK purple mods. Resin from Hello Caps, HungerWorkStudio, and Sludgekidd. (Please note nothing is for trade/sale)

Behind the Scenes

• The thank you notes are handwritten with various sample inks in Platinum Preppies or a Pilot Vanishing Point. The paper was hand deckled. The stamp was hand carved.
• The chat with Hoff lasted for almost 2 hours in a voicecall. The transcript originally started at almost 30 pages in Word (what’s the Libreoffice called?). Editing down this interview took me a very long time and was the majority of the time I spent editing.
• Goat’s interview was done in late 2022 when the zine was still a fledgling idea. I also didn’t realize the body of work they had out there besides the zine including a previous Switch+ interview and a podcast.
• I was originally not going to interview a 3rd person but I decided it felt odd not to.

Outro

I know I said this in the zine but if you stumble on this post without buying the zine, thank you for your interest and support. To anyone who’s been interested, talked to me about the zine, pitched an idea, let me bounce ideas off them, or just took the time to read something I posted: Thank you. I say this in the zine too as well but thank you very very much to bustorblador for creating the amazing capz mosher art. And thank you to booper for giving us permission to use her sculpt for the art.

If you’re going to any meetups that I’m also attending, I hope to see you there. I’m looking forward to hearing any feedback on Volume 2.1 and I hope you’re excited for more zines to come.