Hello and good day

As the first post to my Projects board, I wanted to take a minute to discuss what inspired this website and exploration, and what I’m working on.

Early last year, I realized I had some thoughts and abilities to share around architecture design and planning. It would be nice if I could share what I knew regularly and potentially help others in this area. I also had the thought that I hadn’t really proven my chops at all in the daily running, management, or practical application of the design philosophies I espouse. I had a lot of training, learning, reading, and theory craft, but aside from some GWBasic, C, HTML, and very high-level network support (way back in the day), I didn’t really have much practical experience. So the idea of a Homelab was born.

I had heard of this thing, but what was it, and what could I do? I started to research and found some very helpful sites and communities (I’m building a list that I’ll keep updated in a different area of the site so you too can find these awesome people). I purchased my first node and got to work setting up my first project and guide for a virtual Azure Local Node. It was fun, practical, and I was hooked.

Fast forward a year, and I’ve learned a lot (and have much more to learn). I’ve expanded my Homelab to have an actual cluster of nodes running Proxmox, a management node, a NAS, a proper network setup (albeit small), and a local AI desktop. It has given me a place to run apps I can use in my daily life, a place to try out various products and builds, a place to explore and design labs, guides, and walkthroughs, and a way to potentially help others.

To the wider world out there in the ether, thanks for giving me a place to do this, thanks for helping me do this, and if you’re here learning… thanks for checking this out and keep being awesome.