Just gotta share my latest collab y'all! It's a good one.

You can find it on NG and on CDB so far - and I hope to do more with @CasualBreather in the future! We've been chatting it up both before and after the track, and it turns out we actually have surprisingly much in common... whoda knew? Suddenly I have a friend in France too...

The playlists were down here on CDB for a few days this week - which doesn't affect individual tracks like this, but if anyone's been trying to listen to full albums... that's fixed now.

The problem had something to do with the CSP I added earlier. Which seemed simple to use in theory, but in reality... ugh. Why would it block even internal scripts? Isn't the point to block only external ones? How does it work? What did I do wrong? I have no idea! I've opted for a plugin instead, since I apparently have no idea how to properly configure this myself. Check the security headers score now. Not bad eh. :)

What do those checks mean though? I have no idea either.

I mean I have a general idea, but browser security is not my field of expertise. I barely knew about security headers at all until I by-chance stumbled upon some tips on what headers to implement while looking for ways to speed up my site, which is since the recent server move still not consistently performing ideally in the performance department...

I don't even know if I'm maxing out on resource use or no, the control panel shows nothing. The server seems a bit misconfigured, and support non-responsive, so I'm currently testing a move to yet another host, which seems both more stable and more capable; hopefully I'll soon know if the ongoing issues are in fact server-related or no...

All this troubleshooting's taught me a fair share about server configuration though, and I've done quite a bit of optimization. No bad thing without some good to it.

Regarding the server misconfiguration on my current host: it seems to also have the unintended side-effect of bypassing the server account quotas entirely, and not measuring how much data I have on my account, so that's pretty cool... in the world of shared truly unlimited is pretty rare.

I just hope I'm not sharing this apparent misconfiguration and lack of limitations with everyone else on that account. Oh well. Backups.

In other news? I just revised three reviews, and felt like I'd been efficient enough to take a break and write a bit instead, so I'm writing this. There is much to be done yet on the revision front, I'm working through it...

Those first impressions of Eschalon: Book 1 are up now too, and second impressions are ongoing! I'm really liking this game... even though I've played through it already when I write this. It's one of those worlds where you feel there's more to explore even when you've been through it all. You can play it in different ways, as different characters, with different stats and abilities, and I wondered how it'd be with a different one, so I'm trying one now... though maybe it's more so that the game's a bit short, and so even when you finish it you don't want to give it up just quite yet.

It's not that short though - I'm 50+ hours in at this point, and on my second run. It's going better than the first one. I'm taking care not to sell off equipment I want to keep, and to be more strategic about skill points, and the optimal order of character evolution... like for example you can train yourself in certain skills in-game, and thus save a lot of extra points on not learning those skills at all beforehand, and certain skills are more helpful to hone earlier in the game than others are, like cartography... though then again you don't need cartography to complete the game at all, you could focus entirely on honing your combat. It's just helpful.

I think I'm getting a cartography addiction. I just want to map the world. I run into enemies without realizing it sometimes, while just following the edge of the forest and trying to map out the groves between the trees...

Anyway I can't wait to play the second book later on. But I'm taking my time with this one. And after this one I'm taking a break! Movies, next...

Reviews, and revisions, and the ongoing site stuff... that's the gest.

YT are celebrating their 20th Birthday huh!

(NG's celebrating their 30th - JSYK!)

The YT celebration's a bit too jumpy and fast-paced for me.

A mere minute to fit in both old nostalgia and all the most notable content creators from the past year? You're going a bit too TikTok YT! Chill.

I'm surprised more content creators don't share my sentiment - they seem overly praising, but maybe short attention spans have become a norm, and this is the future we're all headed towards...

I do love the Rick Astley cameo though, and theme, and I miss the old YT Rewind videos, so it's nice to have this kind of content back.

Shows they're in touch with the community after all, maybe more now than the most recent years. Maybe they're evolving...

Regardless of how impersonal I may feel they are compared to the one and only true online media pioneer still around here (NG) I still do appreciate their being there, providing top-tier content from creators around the world, and letting me still upload my vids for free.

Happy 20th YT!

Read on...

Yoooooo... (yah)
Here we go! (Ho! Ho!)
Cyberdevil on a roooll! (Woo!)
CasualBreather! (Rapper's heavens!)

[Cyberdevil]

Casually breathing running laps around Eden
I'm back on track, like it's track and field not Mac or PC
I wheeze a bit I'll keep it honest this shit ain't easy
Life! Got some advice for me? How to get peace

In my inner space - demons running rampant in a sea of rage
While I sit inside my room - and by the screen stagnate
I should be out on the move - going on evening dates
To be great - excellence is a trait - I've gotta raise

But I'll keep creating till then! Keep stacking tracks!
Shoulder the whole world on back! Go bouldering to relax!
Grow Stone Cold till I'm just an old soul on the mats!
Foam roll these tensions awaaay! When I'm not tapped!

I'm glad, that I've got my outlets though, I need 'em
Emceeing's freeing, met up with CasualBreather on NG
And I'm feeling, this instrumental, don't need no reason
It's all mental! My demons just waiting for me to feed em

[CasualBreather]

Cyber devilling I’m still looking for heaven
I lack a lot and start to notice this quest is forever
I run fast get things out, still close to the implosion
Like to show like I handle, but I couldn’t get deeper

My inner jail’s full of hell’s monster I’m no doom guy
Inhale exhale, get fresh air ain’t repairing my screwed mind
I’m solid on the outside, a shell a fraud, a pure lie
My confidence is fake, I’m walking straight but I’m all blind

Lot of yapping tracks, meaningful ones are so rare
I have goals in stacks, why am I still full despair
I’m so badly scared about the future,
Past left me grounded there, where to find the right suture

Lucky there’s place like here, for empathy and catharsis
Better freestyling with Devil rather than with fake angels
This beat serves a purpose thanks to him and I like this
Cyber show the people how really bending that shit is

[Cyberdevil]

It's nerve-bending, never-ending, best amend and learn again!
When you fail and burn again! And your teacher (life)'s stern again!
Then when the surly sermon ends surely you'll have turned on friends!
I don't believe in hell or heaven - inferno's just a scurge of men!

Purge dissent! All I really want to do is find my ZEN!
Mime along until I know the words of wisdom that make sense!
All these heathens in these streets, it gets heated, I discretely
Duck OUT! Get the fuck of out of Dodge, no meets and greetings

In my meetings I sit easily, smoldering these dumb raps
In the back of my mind, leaning over like a hunchback
Do I feel alive? Would I jump if I sat on a thumbtack?
I eat the same, feel the same, breath in vein, feel no pain

I'm meager and depleted yet I'm overweight
Flow state is overrated, focus on the golden gates
Even if it's cat gold, fake gold, fool's gold, but you know
I'd rather be a fool than a tool! I exhume slow...

[CasualBreather]

Thought that growing up will solve all doubt
Acquire wisdom, live freedom, find peace
The worst is not that doubt never stopped
It amplified with passing years, just increase

What’s the procedure, do everybody just fake it
Don’t wanna be a leader but at least manage my biz
Tiny bit masochist, required in this hell pit
Close to the seizure but I’m on this I won’t seize

So, we will tame Cerberus, get used to flame
When life keep punching us, we will do the same
Maybe we just need to see this all as a game
Skill points adjust and optimize the aim

We discussed it with my CD mate
Sometimes we’ll fake trust until it’s in frame
If you missed a bus don’t be ashamed
Because we all have perks so don’t be afraid

[Cyberdevil]

Yeah! Don't be afraid and don't feel no shame if you stumble!
Like you're on a trapeze, and life's a circus! *drum roll*
Everyday you get up best go gung ho, panic a bit
Then quit panic and rip this old world asunder

Make it your world, slow down, find your role
Don't mind the toll it takes on your primal soul
Our one goal's to find purpose, climb till whole
I'll use my mind till I find I can't mine no more

This goldmine of ideas... goldmine? It's more a GOAL mine
Like you score in soccer, hit the globe with a toeline
I'm going over this road, why?! Don't ask why, just why not!
Crossroads? You'll never get as many of those as I've got

YEAH! Cyberdevil! CasualBreather! (YEAH!)
Creeping up through the Ether, to your speakers...

*the end*

Been a long week!

I cleared out the old server on the first days of it.

I'm not sure what the usual personal integrity process is like when you terminate a hosting account - back in the day I didn't care much about such things. Now I wonder if they run a few extra writes on your account data, as to really erase all traces of personal info - or if servers are written to so continually that there is very little risk of any data actually being traced.

Or is this even a consideration with a server-based OS? Does their storage work differently?

I don't think other hosted customers have any kind of access to drive-level data anyway - and certainly no ability to rewrite parts of the drive, but I did my due diligence anyway, and properly cleared out all files that I had there. Settings and databases too. Making sure to go through everything one final time, and see that no new data had been added that I'd be losing, and that the backups on my new server were now working alright.

They are! Updraft is a breeze. Cron's running fine too now, and I still haven't had any downtime since the move.

I have, however, still had issues with the site loading abnormally slow for me in the afternoon, and I'm not sure I can do anything about this.

I noticed my bandwidth was getting eaten away pretty quick, so I went through Cloudflare's security settings and tried enabling bot protection. Suddenly bandwidth usage dwindled, and CF started mitigating around ~50,000 hits per day on the main domain (the only one that really uses data).

I still get the legitimate hits: search engine crawlers and what-not, but hopefully much less of the malicious or just unnecessary stuff. CPGuard (which is new software to me - I had Immunify 360 on the old server) is stopping much less since I activated CF's built-in settings too, so now the bad traffic is getting throttled before it even hits the server, and that's a good thing! Less hits on the site = less overhead and resource use.

Since my site is getting this level of interest though - and it seems it wasn't before the move - I wonder if the reason for the afternoon slowdowns could be that the entire server is then for a time under attack. And that the slowness I'm noticing does not correlate to resource usage specifically on my account, but to the server as a whole.

Either that or there are some other sites on the server that are using an abundance of shared server resources every afternoon...

I hope my host figures it out, and gets notified if it goes overboard. If they don't I reckon I'll ask.

As it is everything's fine for most of the day, yet if I try editing posts later on I have trouble reloading pages; getting images to load; being anywhere near productive enough with my workflow. So I work a bit more with my sites earlier during the day now! And that's alright.

It could of course be that my own IP is somehow throttled. That either server, CF or WP firewall doesn't like me.

I discovered while trying to login from another computer that CPGuard keeps people away from wp-admin entirely if cookies aren't enabled, too.

The page doesn't even load, you just get redirected. So that's... good I guess. I just hope similar things don't happen for legitimate visitors, on other areas of the site...

Like you, dear visitor, how does the site currently load for you? I'd be interested to know. I know playlists are currently broken. Working on that...

Still not sure if the server's the issue otherwise, or if I'm the issue, or if there's some totally unrelated anomaly or complication somewhere along the line that's giving me issues. Like my ISP, or my connection to the IP in Germany that this site is now using...

I had some issues with email forwarding/SMTP working initially too, but that's fixed, which means I'm receiving weekly firewall reports now! Among other things. Seems those send-out's didn't work on the old server.

Guess how many blocks I get each week (or got, before the CF thing - it'll be interesting to compare the next report with this one)? Here's a glimpse:

I'm keeping the full reports to myself. :) Maybe more on those later.

Anyway: Outside the site-related stuff good buddy Andreas has been visiting this week! We've been walking lots, playing table tennis at a country house/manor, sauntering through a nice Spring market that served delicious almond-based gluten-free saffron pancake with whipped cream and raspberry jam, trying obstacle courses, eating rock fish at Bro Park, and overall not getting nearly enough sleep, but it was a fun visit still!

Also been working a bit more than usual. 4/5 days. Extra hours.

Also, did you know about the international Free Comic Book Day?

There is one comic book shop in Stockholm that gives out free comics too apparently! Every year. The first Saturday in May. If I'd have been better prepared for it maybe I'd have gone.

This Saturday I was recouping from the recent visit, low on sleep; possibly a little down from consuming (delicious albeit) Bro Park sourdough bread with gluten, but for next year... gotta write this down.

I've booked a few plane tickets too.

Suddenly prices between Stockholm and Luleå (the national route I need to take each year to get to/from the wild wild North) dropped ~200 SEK per ticket. And they had a sale, with a 20% rebate, so suddenly flights were like half the original price!

Unfortunately I book most of my travel in advance, and already paid double the price for four flights, but the July dates may not have been cheaper now anyway...

My summer now is fully booked. The first trip's coming up quick, in just about two weeks. And right before it I'm headed off on another cruise...

On NG I have a few musical collaborations on route (and this recent one), I'm trying to make time for a little more Eschalon: Book I (new game I'm playing - it's good - I'll have a first impression post up soon), and have been trying to get in a little more exercise and time outside in preparation for this quickly approaching summer, too...

Isn't it strange how when you think you finally have a bit more time to spare, that time just disappears, and suddenly all is booked in and you have not enough time for anything anyway? It keeps happening!!!

Also, new OK GO video y'all. I'm late posting that too.

Speak more soon.

Read on...