I build systems for the sake of building them. Not because I need a home server — because I need to know how a home server works. Not because Obsidian needs a better folder structure — because the current one isn’t right yet.
This is where I keep the notes that don’t fit in a tweet or a README. Shell tricks I’ll forget by next week, tool configs I spent too long getting perfect, and the occasional essay about why I am the way I am.
What’s here
Bash Tricks — Brace expansion, process tricks, quick loops, keyboard shortcuts, and all the parameter expansion syntax I keep having to look up. The stuff that makes the terminal feel like a superpower once it clicks.
Toolkit — The tools I actually use daily: Ollama for local LLMs, Open WebUI to make them useful, Oh My Zsh plugins worth keeping, WSL setup, and Dataview queries that replaced my todo app.
AI Prompts — 20 ready-to-use prompt templates for Claude. Copy, fill in the brackets, and go. Organized by what you’re trying to do — debugging, building, reviewing, thinking out loud.
Reflections — How I figured out I’m a DevOps engineer, why I get more done during exams than after them, and the distinction between tasks, goals, and projects that finally made my system work.
Deep Dives — The longer pieces. Building a home server on an old HP laptop, lessons from reorganizing my vault too many times, and the search for life beyond Earth (the rabbit hole that kept me up at night).
If you’re new here
Not sure where to start? If you live in the terminal, the bash tricks will pay off immediately. If you’re curious about running AI models on your own hardware, start with Ollama and then check out Open WebUI. If you want the personal stuff — the notes about figuring out what kind of engineer I actually am — start here.
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