Site Update

Site Update is a semi-regular personal update or behind the scene of We Heart Music.

Site Update (September 2025)

Since September 1st, I have been really busy backing up the TypePad website, month by month… starting in August 2025 and working backward to January 2007. With everyone also backing up, they knocked the host offline for a few days, so I was worried for a while about getting all my data off of TypePad. It’s all fixed now, so as of a few days ago, I’ve grabbed all the pages and their thumbnails (displayed images). The next step is to drill down and download all the full images… which might not be possible, given the short time frame. We only have a week before they pull the plug.

Site Update: Day 4

I've been busy updating the We Heart Music About Page (which you can access on the very top menu, next to Contact, on the front page). It's kind of fun to take a drive down memory lane. As you can see from the timeline, there's been a lot of changes since 2007. I wish I had taken more screen shots at random times, rather than just waiting for an event to trigger a manual snapshot.

WordPress: Gutenberg and Covernews

When TypePad announced their closure a few days ago, we were scrambling to move our contents over to WordPress. To be fair, the plan was always to move to something modern, because we saw the writings on the wall with TypePad, when the platform stopped accepting new accounts during the pandemic (in 2020). When it seemed like this wasn’t a temporary thing, we started exploring alternative options, starting in early 2025.

Site Update: wheartm.com

In the last 24 hours I’ve been very busy for me. As you may, or may not, know, TypePad, the blogging platform that we’ve been on since 2007, is shutting down on September 30, 2025.

We have nearly 20 years of content, so moving each entry, one-by-one, is time consuming, and is not really an option. My only option is to quickly scrape the website and “save all” on my local hard drive and then eventually formatting it for the future blogging home.

Weekend Gamer: Update (May 2025)

As for the gaming, I finally got around to putting together my Galaga Arcade1Up. I’ve had this thing in the original box for more than a year, because I knew eventually, I had to move to Jacksonville, and it was just easier to leave things in its compact state. When I put it together, I soon realized I did not bring my Pac-Man and Street Fighter II console controllers… so instead of putting the Galaga side art, I prefer the bright yellowness of the Pac-Man side.

Florida Theatre

I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about the city. I did do a little research and shocked to discover the city has about 1 million people living there… that’s twice as large as Minneapolis! In fact, it’s the most populous city in Florida, and the largest in the South outside the state of Texas.

Zoho Mail

I’m planning on moving my email host to a new host called Zoho. This company is based out of India, and have been around since 1996. Their focus is offering their web-based Zoho Office Suite, for business, rivaling Google Workspace and MicroSoft 365. Comparing prices, Zoho is a much cheaper alternative. Breaking down their office pricing, Zoho charges $72 a year, while Google and Microsoft charges $150 a year.

Sony 70-200mm GM F2.8 lens at Springbrook Nature Center, Fridley (21 July 2023)

I’ve had my Sony 70-200mm GM F2.8 OSS lens since March 2023 and had wanted to do a photo shoot at the Springbrook Nature Center in Fridley when I first got it. Unfortunately, Minnesota suffered from one of the worst and longest winter this year that I had to delay my semi-annual trip to the park until now.

Sony 70-200mm GM F2.8 OSS

Then, the idea popped in my head to look at the Sony 70-200mm GM F2.8 OSS lens. This is the original lens that started Sony’s Gold Master (or G Master) lens line up in 2016. Sony has four types of lens: basic (not labeled), Zeiss (developed in cooperation with Carl Zeiss), G (Gold), and GM (Gold Master). G Master is the highest tier, basically the best of the best.

Site Update: George Perez Website 6.0

As many of you know, my oldest website, the George Perez Website started in 1998 and eventually found its home on Google Sites in 2008. The website lived there for 13 years, until Google decided it wasn’t profitable for them to maintain... and decided to shut down the classic site service (they offered a new inferior product in its place).