February has come and gone. It's already a short month, but it seems to have been even shorter this year. But maybe it feels like that because I was a away for a whole week to attend a wedding.

Before we get to that, I wanted to chat about something a bit more technical I've been thinking about.

My CMS right now is Ghost

For years I've been using Ghost CMS, self-hosted, for my personal blog. I still love it, except for one thing, which can be a pain, which is updating the software.

It's been okay since the last major update, but in the past, I've screwed some stuff up that's created some unexpected urgency to fix as it's left the site down from time to time.

So I'm looking at possible replacements to resolve that issue. Right now, I'm looking into Kirby and Hugo. Neither requires a database. While that's not really a restriction, it does simplify the setup and make backups a bit easier.

Kirby is PHP which I already use on my server for some friends' sites I host. While it uses flat files, its user interface, which I like, is used to modify those flat files. When you visit the site, Kirby presents those files (mostly Markdown) as your web pages. Also, it's not free. There's a decent licensing fee for hosting a site with it.

Hugo, on the other hand, is a static site generator, which basically means I'd maintain my site's files, templates, and content locally using an editor. Then it generates the static files I'd then upload to my webserver to update the content. This has the benefit of being the fastest for loading, and since they are static files, nothing would have to go through PHP or some other server software. It's completely free, too. Hugo also has some great looking templates I may want to use to switch up the design here.

It may take me a while to get to experimenting, so don't expect a change soon. Maybe during the summer.

A Wedding in Turks & Caicos

Me relaxing by the beach

I was best man at a longtime friend's wedding earlier in February. It was in Turks & Caicos. It was quite the experience.

First, we flew up to Philadelphia, where we met with the family and went from the mild Arizona winter into the cold Philadelphia wind chills that were below zero.

The estate we stayed at in Turks & Caicos
Our own private beach

The island and water were beautiful and provided a magical backdrop for the wedding.

Wedding festivities

House Construction Update

The house is coming along. The newest information is that our flooring is getting installed, and they're putting up the stonework on the outside colums.

Flooring to match the cabinets
Start of the stonework for the columns outside our house

Movies

  • Send Help is Sam Raimi's latest film. And it felt like a warm, comforting blanket. Loved it. Hope he's got a lot more in him.
  • 100 Meters is an anime film about two kids who live for the 100 meter dash. The animation is amazing, and the story is pretty good too. On Netflix.
  • Copshop (2021) was really entertaining. Enjoyed this one a lot with actors chewing the scenery quite a bit. Another director I like quite bit, Joe Carnahan.
  • The Rip is another great action flick from Joe Carnahan. Had a lot of fun with it, too.
Dust Bunny
  • Dust Bunny is directed by Brian Fuller, whom I've liked as a writer/creator for almost all his previous projects. Most notably, for creating Pushing Daisies, but also for the TV series Hannibal. This film is like a delirious dream for most of it. I enjoyed it. But you kind of have to give in once you realize you're experiencing stuff as the kid in the film is, which isn't quite reality.