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fix theme, fix urls

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Don Harper 2025-06-17 22:14:34 -05:00
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date = "2020-01-25T04:00:00-07:00"
title = "Progress to Self-Hosting"
categories = ["SA"]
image = "/photos/Random/clouds2.webp"
featured_image = "/photos/Random/clouds2.webp"
summary = "Walking the path to Self-Hosting"
series = ["Self-Hosting"]
+++
So, it has been about two months since I wrote [Path to Self-Hosting]({{<ref "/posts/2019/11/path-to-self-hosting">}}) so I figured it was time for a check-in.
As a refresher, here is the list of services I came up with (I will probably add more):
* Email, both storage and web-access
* Document storage
* Media (Music and Videos)
* Source control (git).
* Calendar
* Contacts
* Password management
So, how am I getting on? Let's take a look.
## Email
I am still using GMail as my main mailbox, but I am trying to stay away from the web interface as much as I can. A long time ago, I set up mbsync to sync my GMail down to my laptop, and I use mutt to read emails from there. There are some emails which really need a GUI version to read it (mainly marketing type things), so I have a script to open it in FireFox.
I have been looking into places I can move my mailbox, but I need to figure out if I want to trust a third-party like Proton Mail or my hosting provider DreamHost, or if I want to stand up a mail server on a VPS somewhere.
## Document storage
I got an email from Google which told me that the promotional period on some storage was expiring, which got me to move everything personal out of Google Drive into my NextCloud server I run at home. I have to leave some things there as I use it as a file storage for an group I help run.
My [NextCloud](https://www.nextcloud.com) server has been given a bit of attention. I upgraded it to 17.0.2 and converted the SQL storage from SQLite to MariaDB. Things seem to be going well with that. I also switched the docker container image from the NextCloud one to the one provided by [LinuxServer.io](https://LinuxServer.io). They do a good job of packaging up images and providing a common way to manage and configure their docker images. I have switched over all my images to use theirs where I can.
Next steps here are to upgrade to NextCloud Hub 18, which is the latest release, and to get everybody else in the house storing their files on the NextCloud sever.
## Media (Music and Videos)
Back before there was stable and wide-spread music streaming services, I had managed to amass a large-ish music collection which I used various local clients to play. Once I decided to ditch Google Play Music, I needed a way to get play my music where ever. Enter [Airsonic](https://airsonic.github.io/), a music streaming server I can run under docker here at the house. For my phone, I am using an application called Dsub ([F-Droid](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/github.daneren2005.dsub/)) which lets me cache the music on my phone so I can play it without using the phone's data connection.
My next step here is to take the playlists I made in Play Music and port them over to AirSonic. I will also need to purchase some of the songs I am missing.
## Source control (git).
I have been running an instance of [Gitea](https://gitea.io/en-us/) for a while. It is a great basic git repo with web-front end. I have been playing with [GitLab](https://gitlab.com) at work and I might want to try it out. Yeah for docker making it easy!
## Calendar
Calendaring will present some of a challenge as I need to be able to see and update the family's calendars, and everybody else is using Google. I should write a post on what I am doing, but I am basically syncing down the Google calendar stuff, and then syncing it with my NextCloud server.
To view and edit my calendars, I am using something called **ikhal** which is part of the [khal](https://github.com/pimutils/khal) suite which is a CLI calendaring app.
If I need a GUI, then I use the calendaring app in NextCloud.
## Contacts
I am planning on using something called [khard](https://github.com/scheibler/khard/) which is another CLI app which will integrate with my calendar syncing solution, and my email client of choice, mutt.
## Password management
I have been using a CLI tool called [pass](https://www.passwordstore.org/) for a long time now. It stores its entries on the local disk using GPG encryption per file. It also supports git, so I have it stored in my gitea instance. I can also access it on my phone which is nice.

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date = "2020-02-29T04:00:00-07:00"
title = "February Update"
categories = ["SA"]
image = "/photos/Random/blocked-sky.webp"
featured_image = "/photos/Random/blocked-sky.webp"
series = ["Self-Hosting"]
summary = "Small steps to full self-hosting"
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(if I keep doing this series, I will need to make a point of getting more interesting sky shots.)
This month has been one of quiet progress, but not a lot of progress.
I did set up a private copy of [The Lounge](https://thelounge.chat/) for managing my IRC presents. That is going pretty well. Due to ${LIFE} issues, I have not done much else, but I am still using the services I have already stood up.
More next month.

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date = "2020-03-21T04:00:00-07:00"
title = "Life Is Weird"
categories = ["Personal"]
image = "/photos/Local/General/20200319155036085840-0500.webp"
featured_image = "/photos/Local/General/20200319155036085840-0500.webp"
series = ["covid"]
tags = ["covid", "plague"]
summary = "Changes are afoot"
+++
Welcome to the new world order know as Corona Virus. We are fortunate to live in a spread-out city, and then live in the 'burbs on top of that, so we are mainly facing annoyances, not hardships. I will take that any day.
The image is from the our grocery store. That isle normally has paper products like toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, etc. Been empty for about two weeks now.
My $JOB told us all to go full time work from home for the duration this past Monday. This was not a big deal for me as I already do that two days a week, and in the past I have done it full time. The biggest issue is that the kids and the misses are home from school as well. They should be starting the *new* school on Monday, all on-line.
The logistics of getting the teachers ready are hard. Harder still is making sure the students have all that they need. While for most of the kids in the district, this will not be an issue was we do live in a fairly well off part of the world, however there are kids who **will** have issues with things like no access to a computer (or a home!), language barriers, or other challenges to learning. I know our district is trying to help all the students, but I worry about the other districts without the resources we have.
Upside for me? Well, more time with the family, more time for projects both on-line and off-line. It could be worse, I hope it will not get there.
Take care, check in on people, keep your distance until told otherwise, and wash your hands!

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date = "2020-04-07T04:00:00-07:00"
title = "Lockdown, week 4"
categories = ["Personal"]
image = "/photos/Local/Corona-2020/20200330180829796381-0500.webp"
featured_image = "/photos/Local/Corona-2020/20200330180829796381-0500.webp"
series = ["covid"]
tags = ["covid", "plague"]
summary = "Life among the family"
+++
As we enter week 4 of me working from home full time, things are different.
For me, the only hardship about working from home full time is having the kids and the wife also working from home (going to or teaching, depending) which makes work calls for all of us interesting.
On the plus sides, last time I was in the grocery store (last week sometime), I noticed that most things were back in stock. Some things are still a little low or no choice, but you can get it.
I do have more time for random things, and one of the things I did tonight was to use a tool call [muffet](https://github.com/raviqqe/muffet) to check for broken links on this site. As of this writing, there are no more broken links!

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date = "2020-04-18T04:00:00-07:00"
title = "Week 5"
categories = ["Personal", "Photos"]
image = "/photos/Local/Corona-2020/20200417162225.webp"
featured_image = "/photos/Local/Corona-2020/20200417162225.webp"
series = ["covid"]
tags = ["covid", "plague"]
summary = "How are you coping?"
+++
As we wander into another week of restrictions, I am taking a quick look at what I have been doing with my time not spent commuting to the office, and having to stay up late with the kids whilst they do their homework.
So, I have gotten my home hosting sorted and tied up. I now have two systems up running [docker](https://www.docker.com). The first is running the services I would want on the outside. Things like my calendar, music, files, photos, and movies. The other is running internal monitoring services.
My next project is to finish setting up a decent VPN solution (probably wireguard) and drop the external access. Since I am not going anywhere currently, I have already dropped inbound connections to the house. This web site is not served from the house.
My two other, um, obsessions? right now are cleaning up my MP3 collection (23K+ songs taking up 142 GB before cleanup). and getting back into photo editing with [Corel's AfterShot Pro](https://www.aftershotpro.com/en/).
The music collection has been not really managed, and it turns out that when I ran some tool over the years to clean it up, those tools actually created many duplicate songs. Now, the files are not direct copies, so I cannot easily use a tool to clean them up, but I have been working through by hand to clean things up and set up a naming convention I like.
As for AfterShot Pro, I used to use it a lot, but for some reason I really do not remember, I stopped using it, and did not really set it up on the 'new' laptop. I was watching some random YouTube photog talking about their editing flow and I liked it. I was never able to figure out how to easily moving through a collection of photos in DarkTable with just the keyboard, so I was never as fast with it. AfterShot Pro, however is a competitor to the Adobe suite, and as such, has among other things, great keyboard navigation.
In playing with it, I found some short videos to refresh myself, and to pick up a few new things, and went to town. Here are four photos from the last week which I was able to quickly edit:
{{<gallery dir="photos/Local/Corona-2020-04/" />}} {{< load-photoswipe >}}

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date = "2020-05-15T08:00:00-07:00"
title = "Another week (or three), more weird"
categories = ["Personal", "Photos", "SA"]
image = "/photos/Local/Corona-2020/20200513073711554420-0500.webp"
featured_image = "/photos/Local/Corona-2020/20200513073711554420-0500.webp"
series = ["covid"]
tags = ["covid", "plague"]
summary = "Settling in to the 'New Normal'"
Victor_Hugo = "true"
Focus_Keyword = "Plague corona covid work"
+++
10 weeks ago, my $JOB told me it was time to work from home full time until further notice. And, that is not the only change since then. The kids switched to distance education, the wife started teaching her students online, and we stopped going, well, anywhere.
Since I already worked from home twice a week, it has not been too major of a shift for me. The only real downside is that I am now getting invited to more earlier meetings.
The kids have mainly settled in to the routine of getting up and then doing their school work. Since it is mainly asynchronous, they have been getting up later. With school ending for the year shortly, they will have to get a new schedule.
My main outing each week is to get food. I have noticed that some of the oddest things are out of stock. This week, it was fast pancake mix (just add water) and .5L bottles of Mt. Dew. Odd things for people to horde. The other things people had horded (toilette paper and paper-towels) are back, but not at old levels.
The good thing is where we live, we are mainly isolated from the main madness. No one we know has gotten sick yet, so we are doing good there.
Two things I have been working on in my spare time. My home LAN (full of containers now) and my photo workflow. I need to write up some lessons learned from the first, and some photos from the last.
Stay safe, wear your mask, and see you soon.

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date = "2020-08-09T04:00:00-07:00"
title = "Life in the new world"
categories = ["personal","photos","work"]
#image = ""
series = ["covid"]
tags = ["covid", "plague"]
summary = "Strange things are up at the QuickieMart"
Victor_Hugo = "true"
Focus_Keyword = "Plague corona covid"
+++
**Note** I started writing this 13.Jul.2020. It is now 9.Aug.2020. Oops.
As we go into our ~~17th~~ 21st week of the Plague Apocalypse, I find that I have slipped into a routine for the week, but one which does not involve much creativity.
I have set a menu which is heavily driven by broad themes (Taco Tuesday, Take-out Thursday, etc). I still get dressed for work as if I was going into the office, which
for me means slacks, shirt, and a tie. I spent a decent chunk of my time in the office on video calls, so why should I change what I wear simply because I doing it from
somewhere else? Plus, it is a signal to my family that I am working vs not working.
I have gotten a lot of little projects completed. Both around the house, and on my computers. And, I have fund time to take some training classes at work above what is
normally required of me.
I am still posting [weekly photos](https://www.donaldharper.com) photos, but they have been more snap-shots vs photos. I am finding that my creative drive is lacking right
now. I am not sure if it is due to the stress of the wider world with the virus and the, um, interesting politics in the US currently or the stress from work.
I found out a while back that the group I work in at my $JOB is leaving Houston for whatever reason, and that I could move the North East, the UK, or Singapore. While we did talk
about moving to the UK a few years back, we are not in a position to pick up and move anywhere, let alone overseas. I have two leads for different groups out of the office
here which I am pretty excited for. They both have some great opportunities, as well as their own issues, but in the end, it is still a job.
I have had a lot of time to study up on photography and on coding, and I need to find some time to go practice both. One of the big issues is that since there are no
commutes currently, folks have been scheduling even earlier meeting, so my mornings are 'at work' earlier than they were before this whole mess. I need to push back on that,
where I can.
I am also going to try to post more here as a place I can leave notes to myself.

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date = "2020-08-13T04:00:00-07:00"
title = "Butterfly on Yellow Flower"
categories = ["Photos"]
image = "/photos/Flowers/20200813170424-006.webp"
featured_image = "/photos/Flowers/20200813170424-006.webp"
series = ["Macros"]
summary = "Macro or not to Macro"
Victor_Hugo = "true"
Focus_Keyword = "Butterfly"
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Trying something new this month. Who knows how this will work out. 'Macro' photos, not always with a macro lens.
![Butterfly on Yellow Flower](/photos/Flowers/20200813170424-006.webp "Butterfly on Yellow Flower")

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date = "2020-10-17T00:00:00-07:00"
title = "Still Alive"
categories = ["Personal","Work"]
image = "/photos/Flowers/20201010165824-008.webp"
featured_image = "/photos/Flowers/20201010165824-008.webp"
series = ["covid"]
tags = ["covid", "plague"]
summary = "Still alive and kicking"
Victor_Hugo = "true"
Focus_Keyword = "alive"
+++
As we enter the 32 week since this fun started, things have changed a bit, at home, and at work, but we are still alive and kicking.
Starting tomorrow, the youngest will go back to face to face instructions. Her school has had zero reported cases of the plague, so we feel pretty safe about it. The middle has been back for a few weeks, but his school has had a few cases. The oldest is still doing all her classes for college on-line.
On the professional front, as I [mentioned a while back](/posts/2020/07/life-in-the-new-world/), my $JOB was making changes. Well, Thursday past was my last day with the group I started with almost 4 years ago (missed 4 years by 4 weeks) and Friday I started with the new group. I will be doing the same basic role, but using different technology stack so I have a bit of a learning curve to deal with. Also, it is looking like I will not return to the office until late Spring at the earliest.
I have dusted off my old [Ansible](https://ansible.com/) playbooks, and I have gotten them up to date. I used this when I set up my new desktop that $JOB paid for. It is missing some things that I wanted when I bought my first desktop in over 15 years like discrete graphics card, AMD CPU, and more RAM, but the main board is really nice if only limited to 32G of RAM. My first step is to upgrade the 16G of RAM the system came with to 32G. I have started to look for a decent GPU card to add to the system. The case is nice and large and easy to work in, so adding the GPU should be an easy task on afternoon. But first, I need to decide on the GPU. I do not really game, so the GPU will be used for photography and sadly Zoom calls.
Pretty soon, I will need to replace my keyboard. The current one is a 78-key non-mechanical keyboard. It is nice and quiet, but it is just a tad to small, and I have not really been able to touch-type well on it. I got it so I would not disturb anyone else while working, but since I will be solo in the home office again starting Monday, I can get away with something which makes a little noise.