👋 Hi, I'm Ezra Snow, usually "EJSnow" online. I enjoy gaming, programming, and messing with Linux. I'm currently daily-driving Arch Linux, coming from Windows (though not directly, I explored several other Linux distros before landing on Arch). This site was written entirely on Arch btw. I'm also hopelessly nostalgic for Windows 7 (this site is evidence of that lol).
My main PC (Details and specs):
I'm Ezra Snow, a nerdy (extremely) 17 year old guy who may be addicted to computers and Linux (I spend far too much time using and messing with Linux on my computer). I currently live in North Carolina, and I'm a senior in high school. After I graduate, I'm going to study computer science at LeTourneau University. When I'm not doing school or messing with Linux, I'm often playing video games or programming.
I am also mildly interested in self-hosting things. One thing I definitely want to do is self-host this website, and also probably set up a NAS or something. I do not currently have a domain though, so I can't do much yet (I really should get a domain it's not even very expensive). *sigh* Maybe someday. For now I mess about in the LAN on my PC.
Games I like (in no particular order):
Fun fact: I wrote parts of this section on my phone by ssh-ing into my PC. Termux is wonderful (The vast majority was written either on my PC or my laptop though).
Select any image below to view it full size
My main PC, that I use for gaming, some web development, and pretty much everything else that isn't schoolwork (including Windows nostalgia). I built it over a year ago and it's worked really well, despite its age. See more details here.
Specs (original → upgraded):
Items in bold are considered to be significant upgrades.
A Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5-15IIL05 laptop I got for free in August 2025 from my grandparents. The keyboard was mostly dead due to a lot of dirt finding its way into it, so they had gotten a new laptop and gave this one to me. After doing a deep clean of the keyboard, it works great now. I use it for school and general messing around when I don't want to sit down at my PC. It's even capable of lightweight gaming; it runs Minecraft and Geometry Dash very well (also JSAB and Hollow Knight run solidly too). It can even run Skyrim at 720p and extremely low settings, but it can't run much beyond that. It's kind of insane for a free laptop. The battery is even still pretty good, at least in Arch Linux (it's significantly worse in Windows).
Specs:
This laptop has been in my family for a long time, and from 2022-2024 it was the kids' laptop (but mostly mine). It was originally my mom's, but she got a new computer a while ago, and this laptop came to me. Technically, it was only for school, but it was also my introduction to computers, Windows, PC gaming (despite the fact that it can't play very many games), and I even started playing around with Linux on it towards the end. I also put an SSD and more RAM in it, which improved it a bit but not nearly enough. Before I started messing with Linux, I played around with Windows 7, first in a VM (which was horrendously slow), and then I set up a dual-boot with Windows 10. Windows 7 was actually really good on that laptop.
In October 2024 this laptop was retired after I built the Redstone Computer. I resurrected it in February 2025 as a small Minecraft server and it actually wasn't too bad for that. However, that server is long dead, and the laptop is hiding in my closet, waiting for the day when I resurrect it as a Windows 7 nostalgia PC.
Specs:
Idk why not have a blog lol. I will probably not post here too often.
In February I decided to try to "secure" Twilight (my laptop), by enabling Secure Boot and encrypting its SSD. Now that I've pretty much finalized the setup, I thought I'd write down a detailed explanation of it. Also, welcome to the blog!
The Redstone Computer is a Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF that I got for free last year and turned into a low-end gaming PC/daily driver. I mostly play lightweight and older games, and the computer runs all of them pretty well, typically at a mix of high and ultra settings at 1680x1050 60Hz.
Things I have for future reference; they're on here because this makes them easy to access from anywhere. These mostly aren't general purpose guides; check official documentation (like the ArchWiki) or other locations of good repute for those. ;)
My preferred route for installing Arch Linux including full disk encryption (with TPM2-based automatic unlocking!) and Secure Boot support. This mostly exists just in case I ever have to do a full reinstall/just because I want to fully document my installation route.
I recently set up Secure Boot on Twilight (my laptop). It works well, but the ArchWiki's documentation was a little confusing to follow, so I wrote this guide that targets GRUB. I have changed my setup significantly and I'm using systemd-boot now, but I'm leaving this here in case someone else finds it useful.