A Homelab Blog Beginning

With the end of the year fast approaching, I’m thinking a lot about my New Year’s Resolutions. Last year’s, to be clear.

(And the year before that one)

I’ve wanted to start and keep a career-related blog for many, many years now.

What has stopped me? I don’t think I have enough to say. My experience is spread thin across many disciplines, and I have no right to pretend I know enough about anything to build domain authority. I have no degree, a hole-punched resume, and a very spiky skills profile.

So what am I supposed to do with myself? Well, I’m a writer, and I’ve called myself a writer for literal decades now, so I guess I’ll write.

What about?

I’ve got this idea in my head that I’d be good at writing about homelabs. These are personalized computing set-ups, commonly built with retired hardware and free software, meant for learning and experimentation in IT and computer science.

I’m good at these. At least, I’m good at building something somewhat usable and then tearing it down. I’m good at building something that works for me. I’m good at hunting down software and tutorials, and figuring it out.

Homelab is a lot of figuring it out.

I’m a pathological worry-wart, and this territory comes with plenty of monsters. I’m afraid I’ve got all the wrong ideas about how a homelab can work. (Absurdity, really, to think such a way about the Lord’s most flexible creation the Computer.) I’m afraid the Homelab Community is waiting with pitchforks and ethernet cables to try me for Homelab Treason and commit me to a life of Arch Linux (I haven’t successfully installed that one yet.)

So, a word of warning to the Homelab initiate happen-stancing upon this article:

I’m quite certain I will write about a homelab without many hard-and-fast rules. The Wild West of Homelab. The kind of homelab to generate dire circumstances because of a fundamental lack of foundational networking and cybersecurity knowledge. The kind of homelab to accidentally run up a $300 cloud bill. A half-documented, buggy mess of a homelab.

I’m not going to do this on purpose, but I’m certain my gaps in knowledge are going to rear their heads and be noticable to adepts.

For now, I’m tired of waiting for some day where I’m technologically-enlightened enough to feel like I deserve to speak up and out. The day will not come. I am behind the curve, and destined to grow old with practically a peasant’s knowledge of computing.

Despite this sad fate, I am hopeful that I can share my unique perspective on the discipline of Homelab. Like I mentioned earlier, computers are incredibly flexible–beyond what most consumers dream of. The capabilities we have created… The free resources available… The creative potential… It is, to say the least, wicked. Positively wicked. You can do a lot from home, with what you already have on hand, and with the tools that other humans have worked really hard to make available to you at no cost.

This is the side of Homelab I hope to share with you.

This is my resolution for 2026 and beyond.