zkbro

🗓️ Weeknote 2025-W26

2025-06-29 20:07

This week whizzed past. Was at a number of sites for work. Doing all sorts:

Out of nowhere (maybe too much coffee?) I challenged myself to a self-hosting spree, seeing if I could install and run a new software or tool on my own network. It was hard going, not everything worked, and I have a lot of cleaning up to do, dregs of the failures, but I sure learnt a lot of things. Here's the list:

I got that whole list up and running, but I definitely need to circle back and tighten up some things. Some I access via IP addresses, some via dedicated domain names. They all deserve better configuration, maybe some scripts to improve my workflows. I need to migrate some cloud-hosted data across, and even do some integration across the services. I may end up dropping some and replacing with others. I really need to improve my security too. I'm sure I've left a few doors open.

Reading between the lines, I wanted a dopamine hit. And this sure provided. Every time I successfully loaded a new service in a browser from another device I got a rush. I got excited through the day thinking about what I was going to try next. I found lists of software to self-host that kept the possibilities coming (selfh.st, awesome-selfhosted), stumbled across some reinforcing blog posts to keep me on my path, and inspiring possibilities with the new direction I was taking.

Overall it was a bloody good learning-by-doing crash course on self hosting.

But yeah, I do wonder why I need these dopimine rushes so bad? I guess I don't set myself up better throughout a regular week. Running used to give it to me all the time, but how do I get it through a 9-5 all day every day? Am I just kidding myself when I say I enjoy my job? Sometimes I need a big thing. Was a week-long self-inflicted challenge my big thing, and am I going to suffer a deep depression next week? Honestly I don't know. I'm going to try and transfer some of the energy I experienced to the following weeks by kick-starting my running again, and studying for my Cabling & Infrastructure Techncician certification. Maybe I need to gamify it somehow, or add some little regular milestones along the way. My online buddies sg, dima, and lc have their own methods. Maybe I should work on my own... In saying that, this week was not a failure. I learnt a tonne, I still exercised, I ate well, and I accomplished things at work. Everything I do however, feels like there are 10 other things I should tackle as a result of it. The more I do - the more I need to do. Need? WTF this is not sustainable.

Anyway, next week I'll try to return to some normality, get out of my head, enjoy the lengthening days, and get some running under my belt.

Oh I also got my car's annual warrent of fitness, got my printer up and running, introduced my house-mate to Pantera, and brewed some kombucha.

💻 Tools

During my week of self-hosting I discovered and revisited many other apps that fit the bill but I didn't get to because of various reasons. Here they are.

📺 Watched - After Mr Robot, I've gone down a Rami Malek path.

🕸️ Currently reading across the web