Blog +1 – It's over 9000

My blog just hit five years anniversary back on February 2013. Despite the lack of posts in the last 6 months or so, 5th year anniversary is a huge accomplishment personally. Running a blog for 5 years (with few hiatus here and there) is not easy. Those who have/had a blog can totally relate to this. When I looked into my ‘Blogrolls’, there’s only a few of them that still exists. So if you manage to hit your 1st year anniversary, give yourself a huge pat on your back as it’s a huge milestone. Starting a blog is easy, however, keeping/running it takes a lot of effort and time. With that said, here’s some juicy announcements (for those who cares 🙂 ).

New Hosting

As much as I love WordPress for being open source and it’s free, it takes up a lot of resources. For those who uses shared hosting for their blog, how many times did your account get suspended due to ‘usage abuse’ ? few times I bet especially if you have a decent traffic for your blog. My blog has barely any traffic (~ 50 unique users per day) and I still got suspended.

Last month, my hosting provider, Dreamhost, informed me that I’ve been moved to Virtual Private Server which significantly costs more ($15/month for 300Mb RAM). Why did they move over you asked ? it’s simply because I used too much CPU and RAM in their shared hosting environment. I was not happy and somewhat frustrated with how things went considering I paid $10/month for a shared hosting. At the same time, I understood their reasoning and solely blamed it on WordPress for being such a resource hog.

Note that this is not the first time my account got suspended due to high CPU/RAM usage. Last time, I installed W3 Total Cache plugin to cache blog pages to prevent a lot of MySQL query calls on page load especially home page. It helped but it’s not enough so I signed up for Amazon Web Services and started utilizing their S3 storage and CloudFront to host images and other static files. Having a content delivery network (CDN) helps a lot with load speed and for not-so-busy blog like mine, it costs $1 per month.

Despite having page caching and CDN, wordpress is still too much for a shared hosting environment. Early last month, my account got suspended again and Dreamhost moved my account to Virtual Private Server (VPS). I had 1 week to figure things out before they start charging me ($15/month for 300Mb RAM). I definitely don’t have that kind of money and fed up with spending $$$ on hosting that I don’t need and not getting my money worth. The reason why it’s so expensive is because it’s managed VPS hosting. ‘Managed’ usually means that they setup the hosting environment for you and help you with issues.

My only option is to go with unmanaged VPS which means that I need to learn how to setup web server, MySQL, PHP etc to get my blog up and running. It was a lot of work but it’s worth it since I learned a lot about linux, web server and MySQL. Setting them up is somewhat easy but optimizing them is quite a challenge.

New Theme

Here comes my habit of changing a theme every year; it’s like a disease.. honestly. My new theme is called ‘Gridly‘  and it was developed by ‘Eleven Themes‘. It’s a simple theme, however, it uses a responsive design which means if you view my site on your PC, table or mobile browser, the theme will adjust its layout accordingly. The reason I chose a responsive theme is because I’d like to avoid having a separate them for mobile devices. With significant increase of mobile device usage, it’s a good idea to consider how your wordpress will look like in tablet and mobile devices. Unless there’s a better free responsive WordPress theme, I will stick to ‘Gridly’ for a long time.

Page Load/Speed

With new hosting, I have more control on how I want to run server where my blog resides. It took about a week of tweaking here and there before I got the desired result. Page load on home page has been significantly reduced and you can test it using Pingdom, PageSpeed Insights by Google and Yslow.

Why do I care so much about page load/speed ? end users can only wait for up to two second before going away from your site. Not to mention Google also cares a lot about page speed in term of Search Engine Optimization. Faster page load will rank your site higher in search results. Copy Blogger has a good article about website load speed and how to improve your site speed performance.

LEMP / LNMP

Unlike typical hosting environment running on LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP), this blog runs LEMP (Linux, Nginx (re: Engine X), MySQL and PHP. Some people like to call it LNMP instead of LEMP. Nginx is a light weight web server and can handle tons of requests at the same time. For a newbie linux user like me, it took some time to get LEMP up and running after millions of trials and errors but at the same time, they are valuable experience :).

Below are some articles that helped me with setting up LEMP

• WordPress permalinks with nginx | lowendguide.com
• How To Install Nginx And PHP-FPM On CentOS 6 Via Yum
• Install Nginx, PHP 5.4 & PHP-FPM on CentOS6 via REMI Repository | mellzamora.com
• Nginx and PHP-FPM Configuration and Optimizing Tips and Tricks

How long have you had your blog for ? Let me know some challenges you run into in comments below.

Anime Season Spring 2013 Watch List

It’s that time of the year where a new anime season begins. Here’s my possible watch list.

Date a Live | Red Data Girl | Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come Wa Machigatteiru | Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live | Joujuu Senjin!! Mushibugyou | Photo Kano | Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince | Ore no Imouto Ga Konnani Kawaii Wake Ga Nai. | Shingeki No Kyojin | Hataraku Maou-Sama! | Kakumeiki Valvrave | Suisei no Gargantia | Hentai Ouji To Warawanai Neko | Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride | To Aru Kagaku No Railgun S | Dansai Bunri No Crime Edge

Date a Live

Date a Live anime is based on a light novel series with the same title by Tachibana Koushi. Baka-Tsuki has them translated up to volume 7 for those anyone who are interested. Looking at the PV, it appears to have 1 guy + many girls theme alike with battle scenes which I tend to avoid.

Its story is about a boy named Shido Itsuka who possesses a power that allows him to seal powers of a spirit in his body (re: Shaman King anyone ?). The story setting takes place in Eurasia where a strange phenomena called a “Spacequake” destroyed the whole continent and costed at least 150 million lives. To possess a spirit’s power, Shido needs to make the spirit to fall in love with him. For some strange reasons, all spirits are female.

I would give this a try for few episodes but I can see myself dropping this series from my watch list.

RDG: Red Data Girl

Red Data Girl is based on a novel writen by Noriko Ogiwara. My wife probably will like this type of anime and it looks to be a romance / slice of life type. It’s definitely not my cup of tea. I most likely will wait what my wife has to say before watching this anime.

Main protagonist of Red Data Girl is Izumiko Suzuhara, a 15-year old girl how has been raised at Tamakura shrine. Despite of being shy, she wants to try to live in a city and her guardian recommends her to enroll to a high school in Tokyo accompanied by his son and her childhood friend.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come Wa Machigatteiru

http://vimeo.com/61386178

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru is based on a light novel with the same title written by Wateru Watari. Main protagonist is Hachiman Hikigaya who really has a bad personality such that his future advisor coerced him into Service Club in order to change. It looks it’s going to be another 1 guy + many girls theme anime. I’ll give it 2-3 episodes at most.

Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live

I never heard of this series before, however, it’s apparently  a third series after Pretty Rhythm: Aurora Dream and Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future. The first and second series were 51 episodes each so the 3rd series most likely will be 51 episodes. It’s kinda a stretch to watch 51 episodes for this type of anime (re: idolmaster).  I’ll pass on this one.

Joujuu Senjin!! Mushibugyou

Joujuu Senjin!! Mushibugyo kinda reminds me of Inuyasha x Kenshin and it looks decent but I don’t want to get my hopes up and be disappointed later one. For samurai related theme, I haven’t seen anything as good as Kenshin arguably. I’ll give it 2-3 episodes before deciding if I am going to follow the series or not.

Photo Kano

Photo Kano is based on a Japanese dating sim game developed by Dingo and Enterbrain. It was released for PSP back on February 2012. As you may already notice, Photo Kano is successor of KimiKiss and Amagami; they all were developed by EnterBrain. I love both anime series of KimiKiss and Amagami and can see my self enjoying this one. I also followed the manga  closely and will definitely have this series in my watch list. Unless it’s really bad, I don’t think I will ever drop this series.

Its story revolves around Kazuya Maeda who is a second-year high school student who takes pictures of girls with his camera. The manga focuses on Rimi, his childhood friend, as main heroine; I assume the anime will also pick Rimi route.

Note: youtube video is from the PSP game as I couldn’t find a PV for Photo Kano ^^;;. If you know a PV, shoot me with a link.

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince

First time I watched the preview, its character design reminds me of Gundam Seed. I haven’t watched any action/mecha anime recently so I most likely will give this a try for 2-3 episodes. If it’s decent enough, I will follow the series, otherwise, I am just going to wait until it ends then watch all episodes all at once.

Ore no Imouto Ga Konnani Kawaii Wake Ga Nai.

I am little bit skeptical with second season of Oreimo since I just don’t see how it needs a second season. During first season, I was really into it up until around episode 10 then I kind lost interest in it. Does anyone know what the second season will be about ? I couldn’t find anything on the internet about its story/plot.

Shingeki No Kyojin

Based on the PV, it looks like it’s going to be humans vs giants battle anime; unusual concept but it looks interesting. Shingeki no Kyojin is based a manga series written and drawn by Hajime Isayama. It’s set in a world where human population is confined within a city surrounded by giant walls to protect them from Titan (ie giant human-like creature) who devours humans for no reason.

Hataraku Maou-Sama!

Hataraku Maou-Sama is based on a Japanese light noverl series written by Satoshi Wagahara. It’s about a demon king named Satan (nice choice of character name) who is about to conquer his world but for some reasons, he gets stuck in Japan and works for a fast-food restaurant. PV looks interesting and will definitely watch at least 2-3 episodes before deciding to go further or not.

Kakumeiki Valvrave

This spring 2013 anime season is going strong with more mecha anime. The more the better I guess; I’ll give this one a go for 2-3 episodes before deciding to continue or drop it.

Suisei no Gargantia

It ‘s 3 for 3 this spring 2013 anime season for mecha genre. Instead of the usual space settings, this anime takes place on Earth (or some other planet). The main protagonist lost in a battle then wakes up in a strange world and he is in a panic mode. Animation is nicely done as expected from Production I.G.;they just don’t disappoint. As long as its story can complement, this definitely is in my watch list and chance of dropping it is very low.

Hentai Ouji To Warawanai Neko

I am really looking forward to this one since I have read the manga and found it hilarious and entertaining. It’s about a second year high school student named Youto Yokodera who is arguably biggest pervert at his school but he keeps everything inside and never tells anyone what exactly in his thoughts or rather his perverted thoughts. One day, his fellow perverted comrade told him about the power of warawanai neko statue. Apparently, praying to the statue will grant you a wish of removing a personality trait from yourself that you don’t wish anymore.

With so much hope, he goes to pray to the statue and he meets a girl named Tsukiko Tsutsukakushi who wishes to be more like an adult and not showing any emotions. Both of them pray to the statue and next morning, Youto finds himself that he’s unable to lie. All his perverted thoughts come out of his mouth and causes him all sort of troubles. Meanwhile, Tsukiko is unable to show any sign of emotion whatsoever. Despite having their wish granted, they don’t like it at all and realize that the unwanted trait goes to someone else who needs it. Being in the same situation, they work together to find person(s) who receive their traits.

This is definitely in my watch list and will likely not drop it during mid season.

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride is second season of Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girl. To be honest, I have a low expectation of this second season since I didn’t really enjoy the first season due to lack of story depth and too much ecchi/oppai/panty shot/etc. Unless someone can convince why I should watch this, I most likely will skip it or wait until the series is finish then watch them all at once.

To Aru Kagaku No Railgun S

Hnnnnnnnnnn, second season of To Ara Kagaku No Railgun is finally upon us. I love first season of Railgun and find myself re-watching whole first season multiple times. I cannot wait for the second season and my expectation is running high; I hope it’s as good as the first season. Not much to say about this anime but it’s definitely in my must watch list.

Dansai Bunri No Crime Edge

Dansai Bunri No Crime Edge is based on a manga with the same title written and drawn by Tatsuhiko Hikagi. It tells a story about a boy named Kiri Haimura who is obsessed with cutting other people’s hair. One day, he meets with a girl name Iwai Mushanokouji who cannot cut her hair because of a curse. It appears that only his scissor can cut her hair. Story plot sounds really weird and out of the ordinary but I still think it deserves to be watched for 2-3 episodes.

So what’s in everyone’s watch list this season ?

Sources: Crunchyroll, Manga Reader, Zerochan, Wikipedia, MyAnimeList, YouTube, AnimeNewsNetwork, anime chart