Soundtrack for today

(I couldn't resist the cheesy title 😅)

Well, today finally marks the end of my struggle with Azure support to get my account re-enabled. To be fair, they were really helpful and patient with all my questions.

It turns out that a deeper look on their side revealed the existence of a crypto miner on one of my servers (😱). I have no idea where it came from, and they wouldn't give me more details, so I can only assume I was hacked. Not sure how or why, and I'm itching to know! But I guess there's nothing for it. I'm not a security expert, but I did take all the precautions (well, almost all). I understand how someone could hack one of my apps and mess up the database, but getting direct access to the server is something else...

Anyway, this is actually a chance for rejoicing! Now that I know how things stand, I'm finally unblocked to move forward with my life.

Today I spun up a new VPS on a new provider, and I'm slowly bringing all of my projects back online! So far, this includes only a few of them:

(An amazing side effect of all this reorganization- which mostly benefits Mire users- is that the new provider's IPs are not blocked by Substack! It means you can now follow Substack folks directly from Mire.)

These are the ones I most wanted for myself or that I've received the most queries about. Throughout the next week, I should finish bringing online the remaining apps.

There's a catch, though. A relatively big catch, actually. I only had an old data backup, so a bunch of stuff was lost. I'm especially sorry for those who had important data on Mire and Guestbooks, as that's now gone.

The backup I had is from mid-September 2025. So if you created an account after that date, you'll need to recreate it. If you can't log in with your old username/password, then it's very likely your account is no longer there. Sorry!

(Same for your guestbook(s). If you don't see it, it's because you still need to create it.)

Also, for all Guestbook users, I strongly suggest that you double-check your embed code! If your account and guestbook still exist, then it's certain that the old embed code still works, but if you end up creating a new account/guestbook, then you need to update the embedding code! Don't tell me I didn't warn you.

With all that said, I'm thankful for all of you who had patience while I sorted this out :) I understand if you don't trust me with your data anymore (I would also be hesitant to do so), but I guess these things happen, especially when you're a single person managing lots of stuff, hah. But I've learned my lesson: never keep all your eggs in the same basket. I'll spread out my backups across different places so if I lose access to the VPS, I can still move stuff somewhere else with minimal data loss!

...

I'm happy to finally close this chapter, and hopefully won't be bothering you with "Azure"/hosting stuff for a while now :)

Thoughts:

  • I've been thinking a lot today about how the best way to stop yourself from continually acting out a negative behavior is to truly realize just how hurtful that behavior is for you.
    • I actually wanted to write a post about this because I feel it's important, even though it's obvious.
    • Some days ago, I had an experience in which a knee-jerk reaction from me caused a whole lotta problems for those in my vicinity. All is good now, thankfully, but I find myself seriously re-evaluating why I had that reaction, and I see a path to abandoning that "reactive" behavior, hopefully for good.
  • My playing of Cobalt Core is going great! At first, I didn't quite understand how the cards fit together with the movement and everything else that's going on, but today I beat my first run!
    • It's funny because once it clicks, the game just feels easy.
    • Well, to be honest, I also got a good build going, so maybe that's why it's easy, and not because I suddenly mastered the game.
    • After beating my first run, I got access to a new character for my crew, which has some AWESOME drone/missile cards. Can't wait to play a bit more tonight.
    • The only drawback is that my bathroom breaks are becoming longer than they should be (that's the problem of playing on a Nintendo Switch, which you can take anywhere).