The First Flaw

I've always wanted to be able to be a source for information, offering opinion on the front page of Google. But, by loading the blog posts as simple overlays with JavaScript, that was simply not possible.

This also meant I couldn't use fancy comments, easily. You may have read my previous post, where I set up comments via Utterances, and at the end I said, "I might switch to Guscus, but that seems hard". Well, I can now switch! Because each post is going to have its own individual URL, and won't be loaded via JavaScript, it means all of the blog problems are basically fixed.

But why a complete redesign?

Well, I'm going to be 100% honest. My old layout was vibe-coded, like not completely, but that was a big part of the development process. This meant I had no ability to make major (or minor tbh) updates easily. I relied on AI to make my website function.

This wasn't the only reason, however. I've been getting tired of how generic it was looking, and how annoying it was to scroll down to everything. I didn't actually intend for a Windows Xp style, even. I actually just wanted some icons on the left for my main three things, and to have a bar at the bottom for my side-projects. (Yea, I renamed it from "The Hub")

Quickly I realised how similar this style looked to Windows XP, so I went all-in. At the time of writing this post, I still haven't even finished the main page (or started the blog at all). My ideas are simply too unfathomable.

Why a different style for the blog?

Well, remembed what I said earlier this post (I hope you do, otherwise you have zero attention span)? "I want my opinion on the front page of Google" or some crap. But I didn't only want to have my blogposts nicely organised on Gooogle, I wanted to have a beautiful, neat collection of all my blog posts.

On the day of writing this post, I've actually came up with the design for the wordmark, which you can probably see somewhere on the screen. Basically, the point is that I want my blog posts to be on a beautiful, readable website experience.

The art and music websites

You probably are wondering about my art (digital art, photos and pixel art) and music pages. How would I organise those. The answer is simple. I would just experiment. As of writing this post, I have tons of creative ideas running through my veins. My idea for the music page is kinda simple, just having the Bandcamp emebeds stacked in a collumn.

My idea for the art page is actually kinda cool. I plan to have the images floating around in the background, with the sections of art in nice bento grid, with the sections on a sidebar on the left.

Conclusion

Anyways, thanks for listening to/reading my yap.

じゃね!
(Cya!)

Introduction

Today I have accomplished something (with the help of a lil AI...) revolutionary. My blog posts have comments. But how could I accomplish such a thing in the age of corporate garbage infecting the popular solutions like Disqus? Well, with the help of Utterances.

But what is Utterances?

Utterances is a comment system built upon GitHub issues. This means that you can keep your comments with your repository (or in a seperate repository). This also means that you don't have to run any server code, and you're not giving some random company all your data (except for GitHub but my site is already on GitHub so I don't really care).

The only problem(s)

However, Utterances isn't perfect (as is nothing) and it has a couple problems. Namely of which is that you cannot reply to comments, which is quite irritating, but you can just @mention people so it's "fine".

The more big problem is that it doesn't support (easy) custom styling right of the box. And this is because, and I quote DuckDuckGo Search assist, "due to same-origin policy restrictions". Whatever the hell that means... So, I can't have cool matching styling...

I might switch to Giscus, but that seems hard 😔

Changing the way this blog works a lil

Currently, I make these big issues where theres a bunch of different things all in one. I'm changing that and instead I will focus on one subject that's actually helpful to people.

Check out Utterances at: utteranc.es

Happy new years!

Yup, it's the new year once again! The cycle shall continue. I hope everyone reading has had a great Christmas (I actually took the ornaments off the tree just then) and has set (achievable) goals for the 2027th year since AD 0.

Comments coming soon

I'm finally adding comments to my blog post. I don't exactly when these comments will come out (I'm still sorting out the server stuff, as I have been for the past forever), but I assure you they will come at some point. Unless the Earth ends. Or I die. Or Bitwarden goes oof. That would suck.

I don't know what else to put here

Cuz idk what major things are happening, heres some minor things. I have another new subservice, 2factor - a TOTP generator (in beta). And while adding it today I forgot to change the version number, sorry guys! More words to this thing to fill up space.

じゃあね
(Bye!)

こんにちは！ (Hello!)

The new fonts (AAAAAA)

I changed my fonts...

If you're thinking, what the hell is this guy talking about? He changed his fonts, WHO THE HELL CARES??!?!? Uh, good point.

But, I think this deserves a blog post.

For the longest time, I've had the same font for headings and body text, and that didn't bother me. The font was originally Basiic, but that changed to Ticketing (but if you look at the src of this website it still says Basiic :P).

But I've been thinking around changing the system for a while now. And, I did it!

The new fonts look ... modern - new visual style?

Nope! Hell no way I'm ever changing the pixel-y retro style of my website. It suits me perfectly and I'm never changing the distinct style of my website. While I am planning to add some silly new features, the underlying visual style will stay the same.

What are the fonts?

Heading: Ticketing (my ol' favourite)
Body: Rubik (my favourite sans-serif font)
Blog: Source Serif 4 (it's a good font)

DingoWatch got a domain

If you have spent some time looking at my Neocities, you'll find a guy called DingoWatch, Hond, Dingo8888, Dingo - whatever you call him, he's gone through a load of names lol. He's setting it up soon (when he actually FIXES THE BLODDY WHOIS) and I'll tell you more in the next blog post.

Exciting new news for this blog!

Quick interjection! I'm going to try updating this blog bi-weekly, so stay tuned for a LOAD of new posts. I'll be adding loads more features (the to-do note is kinda bare) and a lot more!

Merry Christmas!

I almost forgot, it's flippin December ALREADY. I just want this part of the blog to say "Merry Christmas". I'll see you all next year!

じゃあね！
(Bye!)

Aesprite is one of those things that everybody says is really good and that you should buy, but I never did for a long time. This is because I used an app called Blockbench. Traditionally, it is a low-poly 3D modelling app, but it has a new pixel art mode, so I tried it out.

It was actually okay! And, I made some pretty cool things. Until then, I had to create around 30 sprites for a game (Rainycards) - but, we all know that it never got released. It was so hard to do even basic stuff, so I stopped making pixel art.

Rainycards was cancelled, and I needed to make a new logo for Hollowcraft, the best kitpvp server(!!1!!!1!!) So, I fired up Blockbench again. It went really well, and I made the logo that still stands to this day.

However, when I saved it, it didn't save the layers, it was just a basic, flat, PNG file. And, I didn't want the swords the swords on the logo anymore. So, I decided to research pixel art apps.

I've heard of Aseprite before and before, so it was my first idea when I needed a new one. And, my friend proplayer919 had it - it seemed like the greatest deal. I checked the price and it was 30 dollars. That was actually quite a bit of money for something that I can get for free.

But, alas, I bought Aseprite - and that's where I am today.

Yes ikik little blog post womp womp

I hate Chromebooks. I mean, they're supposedly the fastest computer that can run chrome - yet fail to reasonably handle 2 tabs. (Google Docs, mind you) Never had a virus, marketing garbage - my friend proplayer919 made one in seconds.

Today I'm going to cover why I absolutely hate Chromebooks, and what could redeem them.

Why I hate them

Chromebooks may seem like some amazing things that will let you browse the web with ease. Let me tell you a funny story.

I had to do a science project and I needed to have an encyvlopedia and Google Docs open. I opened my Google Docs thing, and it was already starting to lag with nothing else open. I opened the encyclopedia, and ... nothing happened when I moved the mouse. I managed to actively crash a Chromebook with 2 tabs.

Lightning round

Number 1. There's good Chromebooks ... that are garbage. Even the so-called good chromebooks with like 8gb ram and a decent processor fail to run YouTube and Google Docs. A good analogy ChatGPT gave me is that's a digital whack-a-mole. To be honest, very true.

Number 2. Everything is web-based, and nothing runs. I can't open anything if I don't have internet, and if I do I can't open even the most basic of apps because it's not designed in pure HTML/CSS/JS.

Number 3. They're not even good to use at this point. They used to have a niche - being okay for some basic web browing and then you got out your actual computer for anything else. But, with more schools adopting them for literally everything, you can't do lots of work. Just, staight up.

Now, they do have a purpose.

Because they're only web-based, you can really lock them down. If you have a test ... on Google Forms for some reason ... you can make it so you can't open any tabs or anything like that. But, then most tests are with Janison Replay (at least from my Australian experience) and you just loig out and click Janison and it's more locked down fully.

They tried to redeem themselves...

...and failed.

"Just install Linux!" you say. Uhm, first off, most school chromebooks are so locked down you can't even install an adblocker. Secondly, it's not instantly going to turn your Chromebook into a dev machine. You need good hardware and other things. Plus, you can only install a linux enviroment, not linux itself on Chromebooks. You need to jailbreak your Chromebook to use a OS that isn't ChromeOS.

You can run games. If they're OG Temple Run - even in that case they will probably run at about 10 frames. You can't run Steam. You can't run Minecraft Java ... or Bedrock tbh. You can run Cloud Gaming, with input lag. But, even games that do run have input lag.

"Offline". They are offline for as long as I can drink tea. That's 2 minutes by the way. I dare you to attemp to edit a Google Doc while on a train or a plane without internet. Google Docs will crash, and then ask you to go online. Maybe you spent too long on an offline doc? Yeah, no. Using a Chromebook offline is as reliable as giving a child your bank account. They will spend all your money buying ice-cream. For Chromebooks, they spend your time saying it's offline only to crash and for you to lose all your work.

What redeems them

Chromebooks are good controled enviroments. Lockdown for tests, as a kiosk, or using them in libraries where to bo honest nobody is productive anyways. For anything else, you're better of with even a Raspberry Pi.

In conclusion...

...they work. Barely. Another good think that ChatGPT said is that Chromebooks are what happens when you make a laptop out of anxiety and glue. I like that. I bet a Chromebook would explode if you had over 10 tabs open. If you want to do anything else that isn't just clicking around on websites. Get a real computer. Even a beat-up ThinkPad will give you a better time.

TL;DR

Don't use a Chromebook.

So, do you choose Minecraft Java Edition or Minecraft Bedrock Edition? Well, there are reasons for both, and I'll cover why you might choose one or another. But, this might be a little bit biased because I am a massive Java player on Prism.

Bedrock Edition

It's no secret that Microsoft is trying to make Bedrock the main version of Minecraft, and for a big reason. Bedrock is being pushed forward because it is on almost any device and operating system, except for Linux and Mac. Another reason is that Bedrock is more profitable - look at the marketplace! A texture pack for 30 dollars!? Why do I have to pay? Yes, you can manually find some on some very strange websites, but just why?

But if you are just planning to play a world by yourself or with a maximum of 7 other people then Bedrock's world hosting does that, almost no hassle. If you want to play with more people, then there are servers that support Bedrock - and sometimes even Java. There also is Realms - which costs money. The thing I don't like is that you have to download an app for your phone just so you can play on servers on console. Like, if some random guy on the App Store can allow for servers, why can't Microsoft? Well, they want money, they want Realms.

And then, if you want to truly customize your experience with mods, then you have to pay. You pay for the game - then pay for DLC. It is how most modern games work and I hate it. You pay for a game and you have to pay more to be able to enjoy it. Like, don't you pay for a game to play it?

What if you want to play an older version? You can't. So, you now pay for a game to not be able to enjoy it, and can't play older versions for some old memories, I think that Microsoft is torturing their very fragile playerbase. Well, you can - but do you really want to visit some really sketchy sites? Oh, you don't? Too bad, so sad.

Java Edition

Java Editon was the first version of Minecraft, so it but be better - and it is. Very, very better. But, every good thing has problems. Let's start with optimization. Java Editon runs on outdated OpenGL technology, so it is bound to be slow as OpenGL was originally made for Windows 98, so from 1998 - that's a long time ago! Even on decent hardware, you can be expecting around 60 frames per second on deafult settings. That's not very good. But, with some amazing mods, you can be expecting around 300 frames - much better!

If you want to have mods, you can! If you want to have your own custom skin, you can! If you want it, you probably can get it. This is because Java is much more open to modding, and the devoted fans love adding new features - I even play with 53 mods installed! In fact, people can make almost anything for Minecraft Java because it is so open.

What I haven't touched is how hard getting these mods and other things are to get. The easiest way to get them is to use a launcher, and I personally recommend Prism because of how lightweight it is. Because it is open source and gets all of its profits from donations, it means that they don't have their own Java installation. This means that you have to download another launcher to get a working Java directory to be able to reach the end goal of installing Prism. But once you have Prism, installnig mods and modpacks is a breeze. The other way to do it is very, very hard. Firstly you have to download the mod, and then search for your .minecraft folder, install fabric, install this, install that, it gets really tedious.

But, Java Editon has more servers to play, and more options for almost erverything, even without mods. There can be modded servers that run on vanilla Minecraft. That is crazy! As soon as I tried Hypixel and BendersMC, I instantly fell in love with Java. But, these servers are harder to set up than Bedrock.

TL;DR

If you want a quick experience to play with friends, then Bedrock is probably the safest option. Though if you want a more fun and enjoyable experience, then Java is definitely the best option - in fact I think that Java is the best for everyone, with a nice modpack.