Blog Posts


Linux Updates & Other Projects

4/13/26

It's been a while since I had a chance to update this site. Been to Caifornia and back even. Very busy.

So anyway, how's Linux going? Well, let me tell you I have had two completely different experiences with it depending on which computer I installed it on.

Thankfully, the first installation was a breeze. The first one was a dual boot with Linux Mint on my husband's old Dell gaming laptop, and it went flawless. Textbook, even. Haven't really had any issues, just a few minor glitches here & there but otherwise has been a great experience from start to finish.

So that gave me the confidence to try installing Linux on my old first-gen Surface Pro. Oh boy. What a completely different experience. I'm so glad I did the Dell first because the Surface was a fiasco from start to finish. In order to support the Surface touchscreen & pen you have to install a custom Kernal, which works best with Ubuntu and requires you to disable secure boot (something I didn't have to do on the Dell). Ubuntu is fine, I definitely like Mint better but also there's so many options for changing how the desktop looks in Linux it doesn't make too much of a difference. The biggest issue was secure boot. I got the kernal installed and the touchscreen/pen mostly work, but in order to re-enable secure boot you have to register the security key for the new kernel which probably would work fine on a normal laptop but the Surface being kind of a tablet and this also being the first-gen surface (ymmv depending on which Surface you're using with which distribution of Linux), I could not get it to register to save my life. So that's been something I keep fighting with from time to time. I am really enjoying Linux though. It's a breath of fresh air compared to modern windows- there's no adds, no one is trying to sell you anything, it honestly feels like Old Windows and I'm loving it.

In other news, I brought home my childhood bike that I've been obsessed with my whole life and am working on restoring it.

Apparently my Grandpa bought it at a yard sale in San Francisco. It's covered in the Olympic logo & stickers saying "Official bike of the 1976 Olympic Races" so of course when I was a kid (yes, this is the bike I learned to ride on as a kid, it was too big for me then & still is now) I thought it was the coolest thing ever & couldn't understand why the adults in my family were so blase' about it. Well, upon researching it when I got it home last month, turns out it's complete garbage. XD Apparently, the 1976 Iverson Decathalon is widely regarded as one of the worst bikes ever made. (And again, I learned to ride on it! No wonder I've never been a confidant rider!) It was sold by Montgomery Ward for $69 and according to those who remember, was called the "69-dollar wonder because you paid $69 and then wondered how you were going to ride it". Iverson bought the rights to use the Olympic logo as a promotion and got extra sales off the back of the 1976 Montreal games, but it doesn't have any real connection to the Olympics. It definitely was never raced in the Olympics like I thought as a kid.

1976 Iverson Decathalon, tan, on a green lawndecorative plastic medallion with olympic logo on bike frametan leather bike seat with olympic logoDecal sticker on old bike that says official bike of the olympic races

It's extremely heavy (recycled steel gas pipe tubing- I can lift my two modern bikes with one hand, not so the Iverson), badly made & has cheap parts, but you know, it may be garbage but it's my garbage. I still love it. I'm still going to restore it. I'm still gonna ride it, and am thinking of putting it on an indoor trainer eventually, it could be my stationary exercise bike lol. Honestly the fact that it's garbage actually gives me more confidence to work on it since I don't exactly know what I'm doing, now I don't have to worry about ruining a rare & unique museum piece or something.

And what about this website? What are we doing here, anything? Well, I haven't forgotten it just hasn't been priority. I'm mostly making small changes. The biggest factor I'm trying to accomplish currently is creating a sidebar layout in CSS for a sub-menu and other information & also adding a floating background to make the text easier to read while maintaining the starry background behind everything. It's advanced coding for me so it's going to take a while to figure out. It'll happen eventually though! This is my only social media now and the only place I post my projects, so it won't be abandoned, just slow to update. :)

At some point I'll also post about my journaling habit/system and the journal cover I'm currently making.




So I Installed Linux

1/18/26

So there is an old joke dating back to Windows 98 era that I am updating for our times what with Windows 11 looming on the horizon:

"The system requirements said 'requires Windows 11 or better', so I installed Linux."

We have two laptops and both are obsolete. My husband's old Dell gaming laptop from 2015 (which is what I have been gaming on), and my first-gen Surface Pro. I doubt either would run Windows 11, and spending money on a new laptop, especially one that can run video games, is not really something I want to do right now. Turns out there's a specific Ubuntu Linux kernal for the first gen Surface Pro- I need to order a new power cord first (it's been an issue, clearly it was a weak point on that model, I've had to replace mine multiple times.) but as soon as I do I plan on fully installing Linux there, replacing windows entirely. From what I've been hearing, the Surface will actually run better than ever with Linux, and Krita (the open-source illustration program recommended with Linux) is already what I was using on the Surface anyway. In the mean time, and especially since Linux is supposed to run better than windows and I've been having a hard time running Guild Wars 2 on the Dell, I installed a Linux Mint on a live boot USB per my husband's recommendation to test out on the Dell before actually installing (I will probably do a dual boot eventually on the Dell as I still need Windows for my side job).

Going to have to learn a lot, so far it has been very instuitive and mostly a piece of cake, but from time to time I will run into something that I don't understand and don't know what to do with. I'm looking forward to it though, I always was super curious to use Linux but never had a reason/time/resources to do so before.



What is the purpose of this website?

1/11/26

I recently discovered, through this video, that making personal websites is still a thing, albeit very niche, and it delighted my bitter little heart. This used to be my jam growing up- I made so many websites over the years (starting with Angelfire back in the day lol). I never really learned how to code, though- I knew enough HTML to make some edits here and there, but had always used a wysiwyg editing program. This will be my first website that I code entirely myself. I'm excited and looking forward to it. It may be a bit obsolete now but that's ok, it is bringing me much delight. So in that vein, this website will host my blog with posts of various creative projects as well as a whole host of nostalgic old web content. Bring back surfing the web, instead of doomscrolling.

My goals for this website