Prologue

I have a problem. I have too many creative interests.

Right now, as you read this, you’re are nestled deep in a literal shed-based lab in the middle of the woods. You’re perched upon a docker container, resting on a Portainer, sitting on a ProxMox server, carved out of some commodity hardware (and old iMac, to be honest) some 200 feet from where I sleep. The hand buried Cat 6 that connects my home to this remote he-shed comes in through my floor in the room’s corner along with a Starlink antenna run starting from a dish mounted in the center of my front yard. The fact you’re here at all is a miracle of modern technology. I used up 20 hobbies to get you this far. That should tell you something.

Similarly, I have many creative passions, yet I struggle to commit to any for an extended period. Unexpectedly, I’ll feel a strong desire to jump from one place to another. Many days I’ve arrived at my shed to work on an existing writing project and had no inclination to finish, only to get pulled away and decide to create something else. Something visual maybe? Or worse, I’ll start another music project or decide to mix/master another album. Or even worse still, make a game.

Why tell you all this? Well, I want you to understand me a little. As well as preparing you so that you won’t be surprised if you find a screenplay tucked between two tutorials. Especially when one tutorial is dedicated to an Appian low-code application and the other to SuperBasic on the Foenix F265K2 retro computer. Followed by a mere fraction of a novel manuscript and a photo capturing the night sky’s stars (or a cat, dog, or chicken). Maybe with a rock song idea thrown in between? You get the idea.

But also know, I’m done with the modern internet. I understand it seems ridiculous to say that punching away at Ghost while I do it, but I mean I’m trying to undo the damage it’s causing me creatively. I’m drained of YouTube suggesting trash videos to watch, Instagram’s fakeness, stupid click-bait thumbnails and blogs written to get money clicks. I'm tired of 24-year-olds telling me how to get 10k views while only making videos telling people how to get 10k views. I want to decentralize, relax and create. So that’s what I’m doing. Self-hosting what I can and federating everything else.

In conclusion, I need an outlet. A place to call mine. So this is it.

I’m thrilled you're here and read this far and I look forward to the feedback, laughs and conversations we might engage in.

Jeff