Industrious One / Logs

Captain’s Log, 2025.11

Little Raspberry Pi box sitting next to the Comcast gateway
It’s so small!

I am pleased to report that, after these past few months of low energy and very necessary rest, I am starting to feel some inspiration to putter and make again. I still have to be careful not to overdo it because I bonk out pretty hard when I do, and it can take a whole day or two to bounce back. But it feels good to be making a comeback!

I set up a (very) little home server.

Inspired by Elena Rossini’s articles on self-hosting, as well as the people we’re helping decorporatize at our community potlucks, I put together a little home server to poke at and learn from. Say hello to Cheryl! That’s her in the picture at the top: a Raspberry Pi 5 with 16Gb of RAM, a 4Tb SDD, and a cute little aftermarket enclosure. After a few false starts I was able to get YunoHost up and running. She’s surprisingly speedy!

I’m still finding my direction with this project. I know that I’d like to run a private code forge and media server for myself. I’d also like to try hosting my own Fediverse instance (GoToSocial or Friendica, most likely), and learn enough to help others do it as well. Maybe something to sync and share files and photos? There’s lots here to explore.

(It turns out I did this just in the nick of time, as RAM prices skyrocketed right after I made the purchase. I don’t think Raspberry even lists the 16Gb option any longer.)

I evaluated YunoHost.

What a cool little box of toys this is! Once installed it absolutely works as advertised: press a button and your new service is up and running, with an auto-updating SSL certificate and everything. It’s very slick. But while I love the idea, I feel like it is hiding too many of the details from me, and I’m not learning enough about what’s happening under the hood. And since my goal here is to learn WTF I’m doing, I’ll probably wind it back and figure out how to install and administer the individual services directly instead.

I would and will absolutely recommend YunoHost to others, and if I get far enough to start helping other people I’ll likely revisit it. In the meantime, if you’re looking for inspiration to start self-hosting you won’t find better than Elena Rossini’s My So-Called Sudo Life.

I set up a private code forge.

So, yeah, I want a private code forge where I can start spinning up these new projects of mine without having Microsoft and who knows who else hoovering up everything I write to feel the LLMs. I went with Forgejo (I don’t know how to pronounce this word) because it’s feels familar to me as a GitHub user, and it powers Codeberg, which is where I’m hoping to move my public projects.

The installation was surprisingly easy and by the book and I was up and running on the LAN that evening. It took me a little longer to figure out how to make it accessible outside my network, so I can work remotely and collaborate with friends. I finally learned what the term “reverse proxy” means (it’s a way to route incoming network requests to one your local devices), and once I knew what I was looking for Forgejo’s reverse proxy instructions were straightforward to follow.

And, I can’t believe I’m saying this but Xfinity’s port forwarding support and instructions are actually quite good. I didn’t bother trying to set up any kind of dynamic DNS because my public IP hasn’t changed since I first set it up, and this is just for my own use, and it looks like it might be kind of a PITA.

So yay, my first self-hosted service! I took good notes and I’m hoping to write up the process of getting from a box of hardware to online. It will show up here on this site somewhere if I do.

I started shaping up the writing.

If you’ve been following along, you might remember that, as I write these words, I still don’t actually know what I’m going to do with them. Only that I should do something. After chipping away at it over a couple of months of Wednesday Night Writing Clubs I think I may have actually, finally struck on something that could work for me. Sort of a monthly “captain’s log” with a zettelkasten stuck on the backside. Will it work? Did it already work? Do these words exist in the world outside myself? Oh, the suspense.

Something that I do know: I write really slow. It may be a while yet.

Upgraded the GGC.

The Giant Gaming Computer is the one next to the TV in the main room. Before this month it was a home build that I’ve had since the kids were little, upgrading a component here and there when the games just wouldn’t go. Then Microsoft goes and announces “Game AI” and I am so off this ride: I ditched Windows 11 for Bazzite, a gaming-oriented distribution of Linux. It works great. It starts, it launches Steam, I play my games. They work. I am happy. And no “game AI” anywhere in sight.

But wait, there’s more.

Designed a couple of t-shirts. Don’t know if I’ll have them printed or not but had fun playing around with ideas. I would really enjoying having some kind of outlet with a physical presence, and not all only existing inside the computers.

Dealt with a few rounds of separation anxiety. Normal and expected, if less fun. I’m at a place now where I can look at it academically, at least a times. It doesn’t have to be a “bad” experience. It can be just “an experience”. And from that perspective, I can appreciate, just a little, the opportunity to experience it. A little. Sometimes.

Transgiving! A new tradition and extension of the community potlucks. A place for anyone that wants one on the US holiday. Catered by our local favorite Sophie’s BBQ, who smoked a turkey for us along with their oh-so-good BBQ and sides. Maybe 20 or so people over the course of the day, enjoying the food and company and lots of Brotato.

More messing around with Godot, and now godot-midi. I have an electronic drum kit and I have ideas.

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