Humble Homelab Beginnings
Since moving from Big Data development to a DevOps/Cloud Engineering role at work, I’ve been diving into a lot of topics that are new to me - networking, virtualization, configuration management, Linux System Adminstration, DNS, etc. In an effort to strengthen my knowledge in these areas, I’ve been looking for ways to put them to use at home. So with that in mind, I decided the beginnings of a proper homelab setup were in order. Step 1: Upgrade from our ISP-provided modem/router combo to some quality home networking equipment.
In place of the combo we now have:
- Motorola MB7621 24x8 Cable Modem
- Edgerouter X
- UniFi AP-AC-Lite
- Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ with Pi-hole setup for network-wide ad blocking.
So far I’ve been happy with the new setup. I’ve got a few enhancements planned, starting with multiple VLANs for network separation and a guest WiFi network.
bottleflies at Big Room Bar, 8/31/2019
bottleflies recently played Big Room Bar with Supertrust and Picasso’s Dream. Check out more photos and videos from the show, courtesy of John Six. Next Up: bottleflies play the 2019 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon & 1/2 Marathon on October 20th. We’ll be rockin’ at the 6.2 mile marker, hope to see you there!
YoWutUpdate July 2019
Guitars Not Guns Ohio has had a busy couple months. In April we completed our second class with the Boys & Girls Club, this one at their Pheasant Run location in Reynoldsburg. In May we had another successful benefit show, raising over $1,300 towards future classes and guitars for students. In June WBNS-10TV did a feature on the chapter. And since then we’ve begun collaborating with several new organizations, hoping to soon have some classes scheduled for the fall.
These classes are only possible thanks to all our amazing volunteers. We’re always looking for more volunteer guitar teachers, so if you or someone know might be interested please reach out today. To learn more about what volunteering with GNG is like, check out this blog post on my experience.
After a long hiatus and some false starts, bottleflies are back on the stage. Since releasing our EPK in March, we’ve played a couple shows at CRAFT & VINYL plus another at The Midden.
We’re itching for more gigs, so if you’ve got any leads let us know. In the meantime we’ve begun recording an album, check out our Soundcloud for updates.
In June I had the honor of performing with Mr. Jim Rossi during his retirement concert at the Fox Theater in Salinas, CA. Mr. Rossi was my 2nd grade teacher and a musical mentor throughout my early life.
It was a packed stage and a packed house there to celebrate Mr. Rossi. I joined to play “Hey Jude” (sung in Italian) and “We Are The World”. It was a great time, and brought back a lot of fond memories from my time as a member of Mr. Rossi’s Glee Club. A big thank you to Mr. Rossi for all his efforts in sharing the joy of music with Salinas students!