I’ve had a lot of failed attempts at maintaining a blog. I’d start with enthusiasm, then slowly fade out, only to rediscover the blog months later and usually shut it down completely. Something would spark the desire again, and I’d start the cycle anew. Today is one of those days.
This time, though, I’ve spent some time reflecting. Why did I stop before? Why the constant deletions? What was I feeling?
The answer is simple: I was striving for perfection. Reading old posts made me cringe, convinced they were too amateurish to share. I felt pressured to create professional-looking guides and tutorials, which were incredibly time-consuming. Often, I felt like the topics I wanted to cover were too basic.
This time, my perspective is different. I’m treating this blog as a personal journal – a place to document my projects and experiments, whether software-related, tech-related, or something else entirely. Looking back at this year alone, I realize I’ve worked on so many projects, some finished, others abandoned. I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned and accomplished. This blog will help me preserve those experiences. Plus, I don’t have a significant audience, so I don’t need to worry about someone stumbling across a less-than-perfect post.
So, what sparked this new attempt? I wanted to create a Telegram bot and decided to self-host it. While setting up my old PC, I needed a replacement motherboard. Browsing AliExpress, I found a deal too good to pass up: a motherboard with 16GB of RAM and a used E5 2680 V3 CPU for less than SGD 100 – only slightly more expensive than a replacement motherboard alone. A quick search revealed the E5 2680 V3 was significantly more powerful than my Ryzen 1600. And that, my friends, is how my home lab journey began.
I’ve dabbled in homelabbing before, running things like Home Assistant and a VPN on a Raspberry Pi 3 / Ubuntu server. This time feels different; it feels more serious. I even invested in a cheap UPS. I’m genuinely excited about this hobby, and it’s what I plan to focus on here.
- Edited with AI