It’s been quite a bit of time since I’ve posted here, so quick update on what’s happening.

It’s mothers’ day soon (it happens that this day is not the same depending on the country, so i’m hoping to be spammed twice as much) and I got spammed to “think about my mother and get her the latest kitchen appliance”. First, I think it’s awfully sexist to consider that my mom would be happy to have a new mixer or vacuum cleaner. I’m pretty sure she’d prefer a good science fiction book. Second, my mother died 3 years ago and that’s a painful topic for me. I do think about my mother and I don’t need to be reminded by random strangers for marketing purpose. It’s slightly too late for this year, but I plan public shaming on the topic next year.

I’m French, I could vote for the presidential election. First round was April 23rd, second round was May 7th. I received the place I could vote by mail (woohoo for snail mail) on May 4th (star wars day). The paper was originated from Paris on April 24th, so after the first round but it’s supposedly from the consulate of Geneva. More fun, I couldn’t change the location for my wife, so my wife and I were allocated to different locations (300 km apart). Of course, if I wanted to vote, I’d have to commute for more than 90 minutes and queue for more than one hour outside. I’m not sure if it’s on purpose or not, but I call that a scandal and not democracy. Of course, I could still vote at the same time because I never managed to get unregistered from metropolitan France when I moved abroad 12 years ago and I’m still receiving this at my parents, which is another scandal by itself (even better, the consulate told me once it’s work as intended  because I can’t vote for municipal elections s they don’t exist here, so I must be registered in France to be able to vote…) Of course, if I vote twice as the government offers me too, I’d be committing major fraud and be legally responsible, confirmed by the consulate as well. That block might end up translated and shared with the government to foster visibility if I get to find time.

I’ve restarted playing World of Warcraft, after a 6 years break. Stuff has really changed, often for the best. The game is much more casual now, it’s super easy to level up, earn money, much less grinding is required. The universe seem pretty empty: despite having a new extension, it’s clear the game is coming to end of life and struggling to keep players. Most of the game and UI by itself evolved quite a lot, much of what was before provided through addons is now embedded into the core game. While it’s feasible to play casually (we play 2 accounts with my wife), it’s still super easy to sink hours in it. Especially if you have a slightly addictive behavior and have to discover 4 extensions at once. The environment is even bigger than before, nicer. I however really don’t like the concept of pet battles, I don’t really get this in-game pokemon. Some new professions are really looking like useless grinding (thinking about archaeology) while some other mechanisms have been revamped for the best: I love the concept of garrison and wish I could customize it a bit more.

I’ve recently doused myself with some gifts: I upgraded my computer for new graphic card (from GTX 560Ti to GTX 1060), new screen (Ultra wide curved 34 inches screen for a whopping 3440×1440 resolution). I wished I’d done it earlier, the price step is steep but the comfort is just 10 times better. Got some new tools as well, so I’m pretty much setup now (sewing machine, belt sander, jigsaw and best of all, chisels from my great-grandfather). Time for some new hacks soon.

My website is currently hosted on google cloud for free (perks of working for them, I had a coupon). This coupon however is expiring, I need to either pay or switch providers. I was looking for a simple solution that would allow me to serve this simple blog with what I thought was some very easy requirements:

• As managed as possible, I’m too old to do basic sysadmin myself (and I’m kinda already doing that very day at a slightly larger scale). Especially doing kernel updates and maintaining apache configuration is not what I want to spend my week-ends doing.
• Https support: cause I’m paranoid (It’s not because you’re paranoid that there is not someone out there trying to kill you)
• Vanity domain support: I have my domain, I don’t want to be on florent123.wordpress.net or foobar.blogger.net
• Easy to update and maintain: auto-update, from web UI customization / updates (wordpress, despite not being super secure
• Cheap and mostly powerful enough to handle a few hundred queries per day.

To my utter surprise, it’s not so easy to find and align all requirements. I’m almost thinking about serving from home…