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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Jesse Erwin's Blog</title>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="flippy.css" />
<link
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Serif+Pro"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Jesse Erwin's Blog</h1>
<p>
Music, GNU/Linux, and ramblings. Posts are sorted by most recent. You can
subscribe via <a href="/rss.xml">RSS.</a> You can find an index of this
blog's posts <a href="/blogindex.html">here</a>.
</p>
<!-- LB -->
<div class="entry">
<head>
<link href=https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cormorant+Garamond
rel=stylesheet>
</head>
<h2 id="emo-music-what-is-it">Emo Music: What is it?</h2>
<small
>[<a href="blog.html#emo-music-what-is-it">link</a>—<a
href="blog/emo-music-what-is-it.html"
>standalone</a
>]</small
>
<p>
When most people think of Emo, a few images tend to arise; black
eyeliner, choppy hair, and bands like My Chemical Romance (MCR) are a
few of the things that you might associate with the word. Emo is just
sad and edgy rock made by depressed bands, right? Wrong. Well, mostly
wrong, at least. Emo is a term that gained much traction in the
mid-2000's from the popular Emo fashion; that is, the choppy hair and
sidebangs, black clothes from Hot Topic, and eyeliner on guys. In a way,
this fashion tarnished the name of Emo music, so I'm hoping to provide a
clearer insight into the topic and genre.
</p>
<p>
Emo saw its beginnings in the 1980's as a child of the Washington D.C.
hardcore punk scene. This new subgenre of hardcore punk was known as
emotional-hardcore, or emocore for short. It had the same speed and grit
as its father, hardcore punk, but focused on more emotional topics such
as heartbreak and despair. I don't listen to much of this, but the first
band attributed to being an emocore band is
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzvt4Gao39k"
>Rites of Spring,</a
>
who pioneered the emocore genre. If you don't listen closely, it sounds
just like hardcore punk.
</p>
<p>
In the 90's, emo gave birth to another new genre, called screamo
(commonly called skramz now). I don't know very much about this one and
don't listen to it, so if you want to learn more, check out bands like
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LBNMOeD2gc">I Have Dreams</a>
and
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Hq9U3kwWU">Moss Icon</a> then
read the pages on <a href="http://fourfa.com">this website</a> that are
about 'emo' and 'hardcore emo.' The general idea though, is that this
departed more from the hardcore punk side of things, and ventured into
raw negative emotion with screaming and actual crying at some points.
</p>
<p>
This brings me to the emo I know the most about: Midwest Emo. This is
what happens when emocore and indie rock get married and have a child.
It arose in the mid to late 90's out of no-name small towns in the
Midwest, and Chicago, hence the name 'Midwest' Emo. This genre brings
the emotion and topics from emocore into a softer, much less
punk-influenced shell. This music is heavy on 'twinkly' guitar riffs,
and songs complaining about first-world problems, though the emotion we
see here isn't always a negative one. When most people refer to emo,
they're probably referring to this. Bands to check out include
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9VhC0hiTg"
>American Football,</a
>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkFeXjRf3GA">Cap'n Jazz,</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jypydesbp8E"
>Sunny Day Real Estate,</a
>
and
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3kOyzJL7SY">Mineral.</a> There
are a lot of other bands and small subgenres that have emerged from
Midwest Emo, especially in the mid-2010's up until now. One notable
subgenre is 'twinkledaddies,' which is a more abrasive emo than Midwest
Emo, with twinkly guitars and yelled or screamed vocals. Notable bands
there include Snowing, Algernon Cadwallader, and Tiny Moving Parts.
</p>
<p>
Finally, I should explain why bands like Black Veil Brides, Pierce the
Veil, and the aforementioned My Chemical Romance are
<strong>not</strong> emo. For starters, they don't retain very many
influences from punk rock, or the original emocore. The genres I've
mentioned before are very anti-commercial, that is, most bands charged
only enough for their records to break even, and did most shows for
free. Most bands also existed on no record label, or on small
independent ones that they might have founded themselves. This is very
much aligned with the spirit of punk, and is why I consider Midwest Emo
to be an emo genre. The emo of the mid-2000's was commercialized, with
big record labels, pricey shows, and well-known bands that didn't even
consider themselves emo. Gerard Way, the lead singer of MCR, even
<a
href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/my-chemical-romances-gerard-way-taps-another-nail-into-emo-coffin-101867/"
>wanted nothing to do with emo music.</a
>
Most of the bands that are commonly called emo are actually pop-punk or
a sappy post-hardcore act.
</p>
<small>Tue, 27 Nov 2018 19:39:48 -0500</small>
</div>
<div class="entry">
<head>
<link href=https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cormorant+Garamond
rel=stylesheet>
</head>
<h2 id="kpop-should-be-illegal">KPop Should be Illegal</h2>
<small
>[<a href="blog.html#kpop-should-be-illegal">link</a>—<a
href="blog/kpop-should-be-illegal.html"
>standalone</a
>]</small
>
<p>
K-Pop should be illegal for a number of reasons. In this post, I will
try to detail the injustices that K-Pop directs at its listeners. These
wrongs are numerous, and detrimental to the unknowing victims that are
ensnared in the music form's trap of lies. Some of these are listed
below.
</p>
<ul>
<li>
K-Pop causes premature death. This is because the synthesizer that is
commonly used in the genre actually emits 25khz frequencies that
vibrate the stem of the human brain, causing intense suicidal
thoughts.
</li>
<li>
<a
href="https://www.8satire.com/jamaica-becomes-the-first-country-to-make-k-pop-illegal/"
>
Jamaica has banned K-Pop,</a
>
stating that it causes gayness in boys, and makes every other fan just
plain annoying.
</li>
<li>
K-Pop corrupts good music taste by subjecting young brains to an
autotuned slur of non-English words. Take note that the issue is not a
lack of English, but rather that a steady diet of Korean music fosters
a disdain for proper American and European culture, which will
eventually be the downfall of our nation
</li>
<li>
K-Pop promotes unrealistic beauty standards for both boys and girls.
Have you ever seen an unattractic K-Pop singer? I think not. That's
because K-Pop is a corporate controlled cash cow that recruits only
those who will be idolized by impressionable Americans based on their
looks.
</li>
</ul>
<small>Thu, 22 Nov 2018 15:47:13 -0500</small>
</div>
<div class="entry">
<head>
<link href=https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cormorant+Garamond
rel=stylesheet>
</head>
<h2 id="why-apple-sucks">Why Apple Sucks</h2>
<small
>[<a href="blog.html#why-apple-sucks">link</a>—<a
href="blog/why-apple-sucks.html"
>standalone</a
>]</small
>
<p>
I have an iPhone 4S. It certainly isn't the most glamorous device, but
it was a hand-me-down and it gets the job done. Using this older device
for a long time has made me notice some shortcomings of Apple's devices
that make them a lot harder to use. Here are some:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
Apple devices don't allow you to use the software that you want.
</li>
<li>
Apple tries to prevent users from repairing the hardware that they
own.
</li>
<li>
Apple's software creates an exclusive ecosystem that is hard to avoid
when you use their products.
</li>
<li>
Apple intentionally slows down their older products to force the
consumer to buy new ones.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
I'd like to go into further detail on the first point. Apple iPhones are
computers, and when you purchase a computer it should do what you want
it to do; not what Apple wants it to do. You can only use software that
is approved of by Apple, unless you jailbreak the device, which unlocks
the system so that software that Apple hasn't approved of can run. Apple
frequently tries to prevent jailbreaking of the devices, further locking
the user into their proprietary ecosystem. I like to compare these
things to cars. When you purchase a vehicle, you expect that you'll be
able to change the oil and replace parts as needed by yourself. However,
if you bought a car and you needed approval of the manufacturer every
time maintenence or upgrades were needed, you would quickly sell the car
and buy a new one; it is your car, not the manufacurer's.
</p>
<p>
This brings me to point number two. Apple tries to prevent users from
repairing the hardware that they own, and makes it as hard as possible
for independent repair shops to repair their products without approval.
Of course, this is so they might make as much money as possible by
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns"
>overcharging for simple repairs.</a
>
The car analogy comes into play here again: You shouldn't need a
corporation's approval to modify or repair something that you own.
</p>
<p>
I won't go into detail on the other two points I listed, but there's an
important question that must be asked by users of Apple products: Do I
own my devices, or does Apple? Apple certainly doesn't want you to own
things that you bought, and that's why they try to maintain strict
control over them. Join me in resisting Apple's injustices against users
by not purchasing products from a company that doesn't want you to own
them, and by spitefully modifying and repairing the products that you do
own.
</p>
<small>Tue, 06 Nov 2018 19:20:38 -0500</small>
</div>
<div class="entry">
<head>
<link href=https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cormorant+Garamond
rel=stylesheet>
</head>
<h2 id="why-i-use-gnu-plus-linux">Why I use GNU plus Linux</h2>
<small
>[<a href="blog.html#why-i-use-gnu-plus-linux">link</a>—<a
href="blog/why-i-use-gnu-plus-linux.html"
>standalone</a
>]</small
>
<p>
People ask me sometimes why I choose to use GNU/Linux instead of an easy
'just werks' OS like Windows. Usually this is coupled with a statement
calling me stupid for not playing Fortnite (since Fortnite doesn't work
on Linux). The biggest reasoning for me is ease of use and
customization. I enjoy tinkering with things and tweaking them to look
just the way I want them, and you can't do that with Windows. It takes a
lot of effort to get any customization working, and that is usually at
the cost of security and system resources.
</p>
<p></p>
<p>
Since I've mentioned system resources, I might as well go into detail on
the advantages Linux has over Windows in that department. One of Linux's
largest strengths is its minimal resource requirement. I have found that
Windows uses on average 2 gigabytes of RAM while the computer is idling.
In fact, 2 gigabytes is the minimum requirement just for Windows to
work. My setup of Arch Linux, in contrast, uses an average of 230
megabytes. This leaves more resources for tasks the I want to complete.
The laptop I'm typing this on has 5gb of usuable RAM, and that leaves
only 3gb available when I run Windows. This doesn't even take into
account the outrageous disk and processor usage of Windows.
</p>
<p>
Windows is also hard to fix. Only Microsoft has access to the source
code, meaning the average joe won't be able to repair a bug without help
from Microsoft. In addition, the main method of fixing any issue seems
to be reinstall Windows or install an obscure third-party tool. This
could be the reason malware is so prevalent, as well. Linux is easy to
repair, however, due to its open-source nature, user and developer made
documentation, and an a usually ready-to-help community. Fixing a
problem is a breeze in the world of Linux. Linux is also much more
secure and doesn't have many issues with malware at all. I don't have
any sort of anti-malware (antivirus) software installed on my systems.
</p>
<p>
I mentioned in the last post that macOS and GNU/Linux are pretty similar
and support much of the same software. I choose not to use macOS for a
couple reasons. First, it's pretty difficult to get working on a
computer that isn't a Mac. Second, Apple has a bad habit of being an
evil corporation that spies on you, and their software isn't
freedom-respecting.
</p>
<p>
You're probably wondering now, what's freedom-respecting software? In
short, it's software that doesn't disrespect the personal liberty of the
user. I have a definition
<a href="/pages/freesoftware/whatsfreesoftware.html">posted here</a>
that explains exactly what this means. I'm no free software purist and I
use some proprietary software, but free software is usually much more
convenient and secure. Anyway, those are the reasons I use Linux.
</p>
<p>
Edit: I totally forgot to add a link to Richard Stallman's reasons for
not using Microsoft products and Windows.
<a href="https://stallman.org/microsoft.html">Here's the page.</a>
</p>
<small>Fri, 02 Nov 2018 15:35:43 -0400</small>
</div>
<div class="entry">
<head>
<link href=https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cormorant+Garamond
rel=stylesheet>
</head>
<h2 id="whats-gnu-slash-linux">What's Gnu slash Linux?</h2>
<small
>[<a href="blog.html#whats-gnu-slash-linux">link</a>—<a
href="blog/whats-gnu-slash-linux.html"
>standalone</a
>]</small
>
<p>
You might be wondering, what exactly is GNU/Linux? I hope to clarify
that in this post and provide some insight into the history of this
system.
</p>
<p>
You're probably very familiar with Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS;
they power most of the personal computing market. However, you probably
don't know very much about GNU/Linux, which is commonly shortened to
just 'Linux.' These are operating systems: the software that drives a
computer and allows use of it. GNU/Linux is very similar to macOS, and
not quite so similar to Windows, but they all generally allow you to do
the same things, albeit in different ways.
</p>
<p>
Windows is based on MS-DOS, an old operating system that your parents
probably used, and GNU/Linux and macOS are based on an operating system
made by AT&T-Bell Labs called Unix. MacOS and GNU/Linux function
similarly and support much of the same software, as do other operating
systems such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD (macOS is based on a BSD
distribution called Darwin, which is the Unix variant created at
Berkeley under the name Berkeley Software Distribution). While BSD is
basically a direct descendent of the original Unix, GNU/Linux are simply
based upon its structure.
</p>
<p>
Unlike the other operating systems mentioned, GNU/Linux was not created
for monetary gain and business purposes, but instead was created for
moral and political reasons. In 1983, a hacker named
<a href="http://stallman.org">Richard Stallman,</a> who currently worked
at the MIT AI Laboratory announced the
<a href="https://gnu.org">GNU Project</a> , an operating system meant to
protect the personal liberty of its users. You see, Stallman had come
from a time when computing was open. The human-readable code of every
program (not the 1's and 0's that the computer understands) was
available to its users, and they could edit it in order to make it work
the way they wished. For example, at one time Stallman edited the
printing program for an MIT building so that the users were sent a
notification whenever their document had finished printing, so that they
didn't need to get up and wait at the printer until it was finished.
This wasn't possible with the new wave of programs that were becoming
popular in the 80's. These new operating systems only provided the
machine code of programs, which isn't easily readable or modifiable.
</p>
<p>
Through the next several years, Stallman and his team worked to piece
together a new operating system, using Unix as their template. They were
almost finished creating their OS in the 90's, but they were missing one
crucial part of the system: the kernel. The kernel is the core of the
operating system. It allocates the resources of the computer (CPU, RAM,
etc.) and contains device drivers. Essentially, anything that you see on
a computer has to go through a kernel before it reaches you. A Finnish
computer science student, Linus Torvalds, had written a freedom
respecting kernel, which he named Linux. This was added to the GNU
system, creating a complete GNU system using Linux as the kernel. This
is where the name GNU/Linux comes from.
</p>
<p>
Of course, while Linux is used in GNU systems, that isn't the only place
you see it. Linux is actually the kernel for the Android mobile OS,
meaning that everyone with an Android smartphone has Linux in their
pocket (but not GNU). Linux and GNU based systems power most of the
internet, as they are very secure and well suited for servers. In
conclusion, GNU/Linux is an operating system with a rich history and
eccentric creator. In my next post I will detail why I choose to use
GNU/Linux over something like macOS, Windows, or FreeBSD.
</p>
<small>Thu, 01 Nov 2018 21:01:43 -0400</small>
</div>
<div class="entry">
<head>
<link href=https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cormorant+Garamond
rel=stylesheet>
</head>
<h2 id="funtoo-linux-not-the-fun-version-of-gentoo">
Funtoo Linux: Not the Fun Version of Gentoo
</h2>
<small
>[<a href="blog.html#funtoo-linux-not-the-fun-version-of-gentoo">link</a
>—<a href="blog/funtoo-linux-not-the-fun-version-of-gentoo.html"
>standalone</a
>]</small
>
<p>
On Monday I began a three day journey into Hell. By Hell, I of course
mean the scourge known as Funtoo Linux. A bit of background before I
begin: Funtoo is a derivative of Gentoo, the distribution that is known
for being notoriously laborious to install and keep stable. There are
minor differences in Funtoo and Gentoo, those being that Funtoo has a
precompiled kernel available, doesn't have documentation nearly as good
as Gentoo, and uses git instead of rsync for some things. Of course,
these differences are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, as
Funtoo is supposed to be 100% compatible with upstream Gentoo. I didn't
install Funtoo for these edits, I installed it because judging by its
name, I assumed it would simply be a fun version of Gentoo. It is not a
fun version of Gentoo, but a worse version. Never make the mistake I
did, and install Funtoo. With outdated documentation, I spent three days
struggling through compiling and configuring xorg and my touchpad, with
my touchpad never working. I gave up and reinstalled Arch Linux, and
will attempt vanilla Gentoo soon.
</p>
<small>Thu, 25 Oct 2018 19:30:21 -0400</small>
</div>
<div class="entry">
<head>
<link href=https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cormorant+Garamond
rel=stylesheet>
</head>
<h2 id="suckless-the-good-and-bad">Suckless: The Good and Bad</h2>
<small
>[<a href="blog.html#suckless-the-good-and-bad">link</a>—<a
href="blog/suckless-the-good-and-bad.html"
>standalone</a
>]</small
>
<p>
There seem to be some misunderstandings regarding suckless and their
software philosophy, so I'll lay out the basics here, and what I think
is good and bad about their programs.
</p>
<p>
If you don't know, <a href="https://suckless.org">suckless</a> is a
collective of hackers that write minimal software meant for advanced
users. They've released well-known programs that include dmenu, dwm, st,
and others. Perhaps the most notable quality of these programs is their
"non-features," that is, they are lacking of common features and must be
configured by editing a C header file and then recompiling the software
with every change that you make. This sounds like a hassle, but because
the software is small, it will compile in a fraction of a second.
</p>
<p>
Suckless software is admittedly harder to configure and install than
other programs, so why use it? At first glance, it just looks like a
good attempt at messing up package maintainers, as you can't effectively
distribute binaries of these programs. There are numerous advantages to
this, in addition to the disadvantages.
</p>
<p>
Before I go further, I should explain exactly what suckless does with
its code. The basic idea is that code quality should not be measured by
quantity, but rather simplicity. Suckless prides itself on the low
resource footprint of its programs, for example, dwm is less than 2000
lines of C. Programs are delibrately written without common features,
and those features are usually distributed via patches in .diff files.
This keeps code fast, easy to write, and modular, hence the Unix way.
the general idea behind all of this is stated on their site: "Ingenious
ideas are simple. Ingenious software is simple. Simplicity is the heart
of the Unix philosophy. The more code lines you have removed, the more
progress you have made. As the number of lines of code in your software
shrinks, the more skilled you have become and the less your software
sucks." To sum it up, the more simple you can make a solution, the
better a solution is.
</p>
<p>
Suckless isn't all good though. Like I stated above, you have to
recompile a program every time a configuration edit is made to it in
order for the change to stick. This makes it difficult to distribute by
a distro's repositories, since the user would be getting a version they
can't configure. Also, the software is hard to use and configure in many
cases.
</p>
<p>
Note that suckless software isn't meant for most people. It is stated on
<a href="https://suckless.org/philosophy/">their philosophy page</a>
that the programs are meant for experienced and advanced users. If you
don't want to edit a C header file and recompile every time you want a
different colorscheme, then suckless isn't for you. It's a model that
can be appealing to a lot of people, though.
</p>
<small>Sun, 21 Oct 2018 18:25:32 -0400</small>
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<h2 id="anime-should-be-illegal">Anime Should Be Illegal</h2>
<small
>[<a href="blog.html#anime-should-be-illegal">link</a>—<a
href="blog/anime-should-be-illegal.html"
>standalone</a
>]</small
>
<p>
People who watch anime are the scum of the earth. Here's why: you see
them running around with their "Nayrooto" lookin' arms flapping around
behind them like they're paralyzed from the shoulders down. They
frequently speak Wapanese, a false dialect of Japanese, and call
eachother "Onii-chan" and "Senpai." They may deny their weeb status,
calling themselves "Otaku," but this is a lie and only further confirms
their status as weebs. Remember, a weeaboo is anyone who watches anime
or reads "main gahs." This is not good American culture, and it should
be stopped. No true patriot would ever wear any clothes made by a filthy
jap, especially after the tragedy known as Pearl Harbor. Please join me
in firmly rejecting these evil communist sympathizers in the following
ways:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Buy gasoline and burn anime stores.</li>
<li>
Sign a petition calling for banishment of anime in American schools.
</li>
<li>
Watch American-Made film and television, such as Spongebob Squarepants
or any MTV production.
</li>
</ul>
<small>Thu, 18 Oct 2018 19:15:48 -0400</small>
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