I've moved my personal websites to a different hosting service to save money. There's quite a number of steps to take to achieve this so I maintain a checklist of what to do.

I've started using CrossOver from CodeWeavers for playing Windows games on my Mac computers. I had been using Parallels but hit an issue playing Miles Edgeworth. All of a sudden the show stopped, complaining about "IL2CPP". Parallels had issues with some games (especially if they need "DX12") but it was impressive that it worked as well as it did. I haven't tried problematic games with CrossOver to see they work better. CrossOver is a little less friendly to employ. There are a number of options for running games, It did run Miles Edgeworth happily for me, I found enabling DXVK (the Vulkan backend for D3D11) seemed to cure some missing graphic textures. In the long run I may get a Windows box as graphically more demanding games are unlikely to perform - but I'll carry on with CrossOver for now.

Pagoda has been converted to use a Sqlite database internally rather than flat tab delimited files. This port leveraged the sqlite3 Ruby gem which worked well. This database is different to the database used on the website itself. There are several benefits from this conversion. Actions like modifying columns, or adhoc queries, can be done using SQL statements. It flushed out issues like non-unique values in columns I hadn't realised were present. All the data is now in a single file which could in theory be distributed.

"Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations" is a repackaging of three investigation and courtroom games starring prosecutor Miles Edgeworth after he has a change of heart thanks to Phoenix Wright. Strangely there isn't any action in the courtroom rather Miles investigates crime scenes, interrogates witnesses, and indulges in games of Mind Chess to find out what people are hiding. Quirky characters, mysterious murders, tantalising turnabouts as Miles pursues the truth. Great fun!

There was a Shaun the Sheep theme to our annual pilgrimage to Anglesey Abbey to see the snowdrops this year. There were nicely ornamented Shaun the Sheep statues scattered round the grounds, competing with the snowdrops this year for attention. Virginia and I met up with my sister and husband at Anglesey Abbey at lunchtime, there were loads of people there and we had to have a snack in the overflow tent happily right by a heating device. I hate to think what the place was like during half-term the previous week. We saw some of the gardeners hard at work keeping the site interesting, better weather for them than other days. There were plenty of snowdrops and crocuses and irises and other plants I've forgotten the names of to admire. And it was sunny too! Indulged in cake after we walked round, less busy in the cafe then too.

I upgraded to macOS Sequoia to try and fix an issue (which it didn't') but introduced some new issues. One of those issues was Apple now tried to stop some of my personal '.command' scripts from running. I found a recipe on Apple Discussions which ran:

"Elementary" is a transplanting of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes to New York, but in the transplanting Holmes has become a definitely troubled character. Dr Watson has become female, and the to and fro between her and Holmes is vital to the series. She gets involved with Holmes to help him recover from drug addiction. The deducting is interesting, and often twisty.

BitWarden is now my password manager. I had been using 1Password and that worked well enough, 1Password has a better user interface in many ways than BitWarden. So why switch? BitWarden is cheaper, and has a free version which is pretty cheap! That in itself wouldn't have been a good enough reason. BitWarden I find easier to structure the hundreds of secure notes I have, one can have folders inside folders. That was a definite plus. It made it sensible to split up some of the secure notes I had. Switching did force me to prune out dead records, and reorganise what I have. I wouldn't have done that unless I had been switching. Some points with BitWarden. You have to notice which BitWarden area you're connecting to. Sometimes the user interface doesn't update as it should until you save again for instance when moving secure notes between folders.

In "Usotoki Rhetoric" a bright but impecunious detective Iwai Soma relies on cadging free meals off a nearby restaurant. One day he comes across a girl Urabe Kanoko collapsed from hunger who is cursed with an ability to know when people are lying. Being able to tell when people are lying is a useful ability for a detective so he hires her as an assistant. "Usotoki Rhetoric" is set in the early Showa era in Japan (the 1920s). Whether it's historically accurate I don't know but it's different and interesting. I'm a sucker for times past. The clothes are much prettier than modern day serials. The cases are varied, sometimes veering into the bizarre but often with uplifting outcomes. Kanoko grows through the eleven episodes. She comes to terms with her 'curse'. At points "Usotoki Rhetoric" does ask are there good lies and bad lies? As when the kind-hearted restaurant tries to organise a surprise Christmas do for Kanoko. As to whether the detective and his assistant ever get together - that is left a mystery.

We see Portmeirion in Wales and a few other worthwhile places.

Nine strange puzzle pieces. A series of nine meticulously planned murders. Who and why? What really sold me on this series were the references to the golden age of detective stories in Britain. Agatha Christie is world famous and still well enough known, but when a writer mentions John Dickson Carr (the greatest for me) I am well impressed. And one could say there is a flavour of Carr in this series. A young girl returns home to find her uncle murdered and a strange puzzle piece on the floor. But there is a hole in her memory, a detective is convinced she did the crime, but no charges are filed. Ten years she has become a criminal profiler, and re-unites with the detective when there are more murders and more puzzle pieces. Has she resumed the killing? What is going on? A background theme of corruption is typical of Korean TV dramas, and a level of horror, but there is also an artistry here. The series hints at a sequel but don't hold your breath.

The kitchen gets destroyed and recreated.

"The End of the Sun" is a first-person perspective Adventure game set in a rural landscape dominated by ancient Slavic beliefs. You play the role of an ashter, a Slavic sorcerer gifted with fire magic, who seeks to repair the threads of human destinies. You will do a lot of walking using WASD keyboard movement, left shift speeds up getting around. As you explore more areas open up, and you become able to time travel between spring and summer and autumn and winter. You will cross fields visit ruined castles enter waterfalls and in one memorable sequence have a psychedelic trip thanks to some mushrooms. That sequence was magic, one of those moments that make playing games so worthwhile. The M key brings up a map which is very useful (I only realised there was a map well into the game). The map could have shown where you were. The map also shows your inventory, but the game automatically uses inventory items for you. Most of the game's puzzles involve finding missing objects, a few puzzles involve finding the right order for things. The game is not difficult but there is a lot to do and see. You can drown in the lake, or do things too slowly at one point, but you get restored to just before. There's no real timed sequences, this is a traditional Adventure game set in a traditional world. The game automatically saves at points but you can manually save. For each profile there is only one automatic and one manual save slot. Speech is voiced with subtitles. The many cutscenes use the game engine to display in the scene you are in which works well. Most of the time there are ambient sounds of birds etc a few times there is subtle orchestral music. I enjoyed playing this game, through it getting immersed in a time when people believed in nature spirits as much as modern man believes in protons and neutrons. As you play you come to understand the stories being told (and untold) here. The mushroom trip is the icing on the cake.