I decided I will move this blog back to JAMstack by the Summer 2021. The new Ghost is awesome.
Do not expect much updates here.
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Old Saigon
Found these two photos in my Dropbox backup. They had to be taken before 2010 since nobody is wearing a helmet. These are pictures of Saigon in District 1 at the roundabout. I took the photos at Highlands Coffee in the Saigon Tax Center. These were probably the best photo resolutions back then. I miss this part of Old Saigon.
WordPress, Ghost, or JAMstack CMS
Recently I decided that I wanted to move all my sites to one blogging platform to “save time”. So I migrated several sites to WordPress. Using StudioPress and Genesis Blocks, which is an enhanced version of Gutenberg, made the transition easy. Yet, I watched my costs go up in one month. I run my server with DigitalOcean with ServerPilot as my front-end. Running 4-5 WordPress sites is a breeze, running more than that by myself requires a larger server configuration.
I was running Ghost as my blogging platform for Matsunaga’s Odyssey. Then I decided to move it to WordPress so I can make it more interactive with various social media. WordPress is great in this respect. So anything “blog” related should strictly be used with WordPress in my humble opinion. The new version of Ghost is awesome but right now, I will not make the transition back to it as my main blogging platform. WordPress plugins still beat Ghost’s integrations at this time. Ghost can be costly if you have a lot of traffic with these integrations though WordPress’s plugins seem to be moving towards more “costly” subscription models now.
WordPress Plugin developers are trying to make this platform the New Joomla which I am not happy about. Joomla became too costly with some features that should have been added by default with the main installation. I have watched this happen with WordPress. Hopefully with further Gutenberg and JetPack developments, WordPress can move back to what it used to be away, a default out-of-the-box CMS. Hopefully they can choose a flexible subscription model as well or else developers will move away from this platform with clients.
Sadly, there are some projects that WordPress is no longer suitable for. If you are creating websites that will not be updated daily or weekly, it does not make sense to use WordPress anymore. I started using JAMstack over a year ago and love it. I have leaned towards using the Vue.js framework which I love. I have three websites running Nuxt.js at Netlify which were easier to develop and deploy then WordPress. Netlify has a very generous free package. Their pricing is actually cheaper than me running my entire WordPress sites with DigitalOcean.
Hence I am deciding whether I should start to move sites over to JAMstack, especially my project sites. I have a restaurant site that will be moved over to JAMstack next month. I am planning to update my delivery site as well which is already developed with Nuxt. I can even run some WordPress sites and Ghost sites headless with Netlify!
It is amazing how over one month ago I was planning to go all WordPress then to realize that may not be the best option at this moment. It is an exciting time in the world of web development.
I will keep posting my thoughts. Be assured, I will keep Matsunaga Odyssey and SaigonNezumi.com with WordPress but many other sites may get migrated to a JAMstack equivalent.
Until the next post…
Best Actress Nominees (Japan)
I watch a lot of Japanese Drama so I am familiar with several of the actresses nominated below at the 44th Japan Academy Film Prize. I watched Nagasawa Masami in Sanada Maru and Our Little Sister. I watched Hirose Suzu for the first time in Our Little Sister as well.
Our Little Sister is one of the first Japanese films I enjoyed watching. I actually rewatch this film to see how much more Japanese I can comprehend.
Nagasawa Masami won her second consecutive Best Actress award.
Last Chance Check JASDF 3sq F-2 ViperZero – 1-300
1-300 makes some great JASDF aviation videos. Below is the latest video of the F-2 ViperZero.
In memory of Smokey
Well, it has been awhile since I looked at photos of my old cat, Smokey. Smokey was an American Shorthair Cat that was given to me back in 2005. He was about 6 months old when I got him, a short tiny kitten. He was hard to take care of but eventually we built a bond that was only broken by death. He had lived with me from my Phu Nhuan District house in Saigon, Vietnam, to the final apartment in District 1. I found these photos in my Dropbox backups for this blog.
The final greenish photo was Smokey in his last days. This was back in April, 2010. He was about 6 years old when he was suffering from kidney failure. He had been poisoned in my last house. The vet and I put him to sleep and he was cremated right after. We spread his ashes in the Saigon River.
Age of Samurai (Netflix)
Guess what is on Netflix now? Age of Samurai will look at the historical battles of the Sengoku Period in Japan. The first season looks at the rise of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. I am curious to see if my ancestor and namesake for my website, Matsunaga Hisahide, will be in this docuseries. The trailer is below.
Just recently, a popular drama known as Taiga in Japan, finished a series that took place in the same time period. Kirin ga kuru looks at the life of Akechi Mitsuhide. It is interesting to watch both series at the same time.