At least, we have reached the halfway point of this year. With that, it’s time to share some interesting things that happened in May.
Table of Contents
- At Last, The Server That Hosts Our Blog Now Runs on Red Hat
- Some Uma Musume News
- Other Anime News
- What is on my Mind
Audio version of this post will come out in the near future.
At Last, The Server That Hosts Our Blog Now Runs on Red Hat
It’s almost 10 years since I switched from shared hosting to doing everything myself on a virtual private server. I simply got frustrated by the downtimes due to limitations with shared hosting and poor security. Not to mention since I decided to pursue a career in Information Technology for my master’s degree, doing it myself makes sense. It’s after I find out that accounting wasn’t for me in 2010 and changing my major to Management Information Systems, I may as well do things myself. After all, I am going to need to learn those system administration skills eventually.
The server that hosts my blog used to run Ubuntu since it’s easy to set up and there are a lot of guides. While my blog migrated to another hosting provider, BuyVM, I kept using Ubuntu as the server operating system of choice.
Since Ubuntu 16.04 LTS went end of life just recently, I needed to migrate to a supported operating system. After all, besides having no security updates, there is the inability to install newer versions of PHP. WordPress was already notifying me that the version installed on my server is out of date before the migration started.
Since I will be supporting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in my day job, it makes sense to switch to it to have practical experience on it. Also, they have free licenses for personal use without support. Not to mention, upgrading to new versions of RHEL is a lot easier along with longer support compared to staying with Ubuntu. While it was tricky to set up due to SELinux also known as Security Enhanced Linux (which you shouldn’t really disable), I was able to get everything working. So far, the website loads a lot faster. Hopefully, I won’t have to another operating system migration for years to come.
Some Uma Musume News
As expected, Cygames continues to enjoy a lot of success from releasing Uma Musume since March of this year. Of course, it pretty much did the unthinkable as it sold over 100,000 copies for the first volume. Still, it’s not bad at all given that it’s based off a popular mobile game from Cygames. Not to mention, the second season was an improvement story wise compared to the prequel.
Aside from that, there is another piece of news that I find interesting. Yes, Uma Musume fans managed to raise 35,829,730 yen to cover the retirement cost for Nice Nature, which is 33 years old. Hopefully he can enjoy a nice retirement, but it shows the power of Moe Anthropomorphism.
Other Anime News
There is some saddening news that Miura Kentaro, which is the author of Berserk has passed away on May 6, 2021. While I haven’t read his works, I give my condolences to his family. Of course, it’s a known fact that video games are one of his past times and of course, he plays The Idolmaster and some fans blame the game for the delays.
If 2020 wasn’t a terrible year, it shows with a sizable drop of anime produced last year. According to the Association of Japanese Animations, there were 6.5% fewer anime. This is total of 98448 minutes of television anime produced compared 2019 with 105294.
It’s obvious that the pandemic took a huge hit in production thanks to social distancing and lockdowns. Of course, this is in addition to the usual issues such as tight schedules, poor working conditions, etc.
Now that studios became used to the new normal, maybe it won’t be as bad this year. As for live performances, well that is a different story as Japan continues to struggle to contain the virus with low vaccination rates. This makes me wonder if they should even do the Olympics this year or just cancel it.
Also, there is some good news for those who buy anime merchandise from Japan. Japan Post after a little over one year has resumed EMS shipping to the US on June 1st. However, EMS shipping fees have increased a bit, so I suggest comparing the other express shipping options first. I do not recommend Airmail currently because of Postmaster Louis Dejoy messing up the post office by delaying or losing packages.
Lastly, it seems that this year’s Otakon is happening this year. They will require masks for all attendees but won’t check vaccination status. This doesn’t make it that safe as there are adamant about not wearing masks or even getting vaccinated. This in in despite of vaccines being scientifically safe.
While I now live in the Washington DC Metro area since I moved into my new townhome at the end of January of last year, I have no plans to go. This is mostly because I am not comfortable attending events currently despite being fully vaccinated. Not to mention, there is no Japanese guests either, which makes the event not all that interesting. I will save up money to go next year in addition to Anime Expo perhaps. By then, I think the pandemic will mostly be in the rear-view mirror.
What is on my Mind
After five months of being stuck at home after staying with my parents over the Christmas holiday (of course, I stayed home for several weeks before I left), it’s nice to see them again. I also managed to pick up some sushi, rice balls, and teriyaki sauce from Mitsuwa in Edgewater, New Jersey.
Thankfully, there is no lines as New Jersey lifted most of the restrictions. I also stopped by Delaware to buy a new iPhone for my sister as an early graduation present. Yes, she is still working on her PhD in Biomedical Engineering, but hopefully she will graduate soon.
Aside from that, I didn’t really do much during the break. Yes, I ended up fixing IT related issues and help install the new TV that was in the box since February. I also built a new Intel Core i9 desktop for my mother. It’s mostly due to her Dell OptiPlex having issues and it’s almost 10 years old.
Since the Intel Core i9 10850k is on sale at Micro Center, I just went with Intel. It ended up costing a bit less than a prebuilt since my mother doesn’t play video games and just use it for work.
Basically, the computer took three hours to build, and I didn’t have to reinstall Windows 10. I just had to reactivate using a license key that we just bought. I also took out the Nvidia Quadro P600, which was in the Dell and install it in the new desktop. Hopefully, the computer is fast enough so she won’t go and try to buy a $2000 laptop she doesn’t need.
On the blog front, Like-spammers have bombarded my blog as mentioned in my last post. I have absolutely no intentions of reenabling WordPress likes ever, even if readers want me to. Of course, WordPress.com/Automattic won’t do anything about it. However, forcing summaries on feeds have appeared to have stopped the spam likers.
I find this feature useless as it discourages people from commenting on posts. While there is an improvement this year compared to last year, it’s still not good enough. So, if you like my content, please consider leaving a comment if you can.
Lastly, I finally beaten the last stage of New Pokemon Snap. While I haven’t discovered everything yet, a review is coming later this month. Also, I finally got a new capture card, an Elgato HD60 S+, which will allow me to do a passthrough to my projector. Also, it uses USB-C, so I don’t need a dongle compared to the Cam Link.
With that, feel free to share your thoughts on the topics I shared this month in the comments (please, don’t use the like button on WordPress Reader). As always, we have done these posts since June 2020. These posts come out towards the end of each month or beginning of the next. Feel free to check them out.
- June 2020 (Initial Start)
- July 2020
- August 2020
- September 2020
- October 2020
- November 2020
- December 2020
- January/February 2021
- March 2021
- April 2021
- May 2021
Berserk both the original season and the manga is great. I would recommend reading the manga and watching the anime (first season only the rest is trash).
Great to hear you got vaccinated but stay vigilant! Things seem to ebb and flow with this virus and you never know when we get a resurgence. I feel the delta strain could cause problems…
While it’s not the genre of story I cover, yes, I heard that the 2016 anime was pretty bad by how poorly the production is. Then again, Beserk 2016 looks like a masterpiece when compared to Ex-Arm, which is a complete disaster.
Yes, it’s unfortunate given that the places that are seeing a surge is well states that have a very low vaccination rate, primarily in the deep south. Where I live, it’s close to 70% who have the first shot. Not to mention, most of the deaths come primarily from unvaccinated people. It’s sad that people don’t value their lives by not taking the shot. The deaths are completely preventable since the vaccines are available and safe.