Recent content on Mike Bell - Blog & Stuff
I’ve decommissioned my remotelab.uk Mastodon server in favour of social.lol, I really like what they’re doing over there and had a similar idea for what I’d like remotelab to be. You can find me at mikebell@social.lol . There’s a new holding site up at https://remotelab.uk now. I finally got around to fixing my ForgeJo runners, it turns out it was never broken but the…
For as long as I can remember I’ve hated my body it’s a mess. I used to be quite fit before I started remote working (walking 5 miles a day does that) but it all fell apart and then COVID hit and I just never really recovered. It’s been a slow rot, a lot of my mental and physical health issues are caused by being overweight. But Mike you have a gym membership! Yes I do and…
Lot’s going on in this one, not a lot fixed though! Enjoy. Homelab Specs # In all the the years I’ve been doing this I’m not actually sure I’ve ever put the specs of my machines down. Not because I’m hiding it, I just don’t really know anymore. A lot of the equipment has been gathered over the years and once it’s running I just leave it. Main server #…
Insert something really interesting about my homelab to make it seem like I spend loads of time on it. Backups # Work continues on building up my backups to a place where I’m really happy with it. Immich is done but needs properly testing. ForgeJo on remotelab.uk is sort of done but needs re-working and testing. My parents proxmox backups aren’t working and I haven’t even…
If you follow me on Mastodon you know it as my home server. If you click through to my ForgeJo you know it as my git forge. It’s the host that hosts my private Elk server where the majority of my toots come from. It’s a lot of things but I’ve never really spoken about it or really come to terms with what it is now and in the future. In the beginning # When I bought the domain I…
For my resound app I wanted a really nice release process (it is after all part of my job!). Resound is a cli go app built with Cobra and Viper, it takes the last RSS item and posts it to Mastodon, pretty simple. You can checkout the latest version here . I’m using goreleaser to build multiple architectures and then push them to my ForgeJo instance here’s how I did it because there are…
I took some time last night to finally tune my renovate setup. There were a few issues with it - none of it renovates or my tech stacks fault, just stuff I wasn’t too happy with and things that could be improved. If your interested in my current working config here it is. renovate.json to default.json # When I first setup up renovate I used renovate.json as my main config, not sure why.…
I turned 40 in April, most people would be happy but not me. It marks a milestone in general shittery, a point in time where I’m forced to reflect on a decade of midlife crisis. I hate complaining (I love moaning as much as the next Yorkshire man) so please forgive this post, in fact please don’t read if your here for the tech stuff, hopefully normal service will resume soon. Just…
It’s been a few months since my last update as per usual! I try not to blog for the sake of it so I wait until I have a few things of value to update on. External Backups # I’ve been using Restic on my remote server to backup Forgejo repos for a while now so finally decided to roll it out to my homelab for Immich backups. Immich has some really nice backup and restore documentation and…
After using the Kobo Clara Colour for a few days here are my initial impressions. I’ve come from a fairly old Kindle so this has been really interesting. This isn’t a proper review just my thoughts on the new device and how I use it. Size # At first I thought it was a bit small, it’s certainly smaller than the Kindle by a good inch or so. I still fits nicely into my hand and…
When I was a kid me and my brother read a lot, we devoured books so much so my mum had to keep taking us to the library to get more. Eventually when we got a bit older we started buying our own books and both our rooms became full of Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkein and other amazing authors. I love reading it transports me to a better place. As I grew up and got older I went off to University and my…
A list of my default hardware and software for 2025, taken from here and expanded on. Hope you enjoy! 📨 Mail Service: Gmail Fastmail 📮 Mail Client: Gmail Fastmail 📝 Notes: Joplin ✅ To-Do: Google Calendar & Vikunja 📆 Calendar: Google Calendar Fastmail, Etar 🙍🏻♂️ Contacts: Google Contacts Fastmail 📖 RSS Service: Hugo 🗞️ RSS Client: FreshRSS ⌨️ Launcher: None ☁️ Cloud storage: Gdrive &…
Happy new year homelabbers! I’m cheating a bit and rolling some of the work I got done in December 2025 into this update. I want to say my homelab is pretty boring now it just works which is awesome, only minor tinkering is required these days so I’ve decided to focus on observability for a bit. Knowing when and what things have gone wrong was sorely missing so I’ve finally…
Spurred on by this great article from Jessica Journals I’ve decided to document how I handle my music collection in 2025/26. I’ve split the post up into what seem like logical sections. Getting Music # Bandcamp is still my primary means of getting music at the moment, I’ve spent a lot of money on music over the year. It feels good knowing that the artists are getting something…
I think this is the first time I’ve done this although I’m not really sure, for reasons I didn’t do it last year. So this will be an attempt to summarise 2025 into something that makes sense. Onwards from the PE # 2025 was mostly a recovery year, it’s safe to say that things got better as the year on, they started rough in New Year with phased return to work and a promotion…
I’ve changed site generators and cms more times than I can remember (my git repo has the entire history of this site!) the one thing I try to keep the same is my CV. It changes roughly every few years with either a new job or update in skills. I want a way that regardless of however my site is built my CV is just there ready to go. Markdown first # My CV is a markdown file you can see it…
The frequency of blogging is directly tied into how work is going, what my physical health is like and what my mental health is like. At the moment work and my mental health suck so I’ve just not been able to put as much effort into blogging. I currently have the following posts that are in some state or another (in no particular order): I’ve ditched Github for my own forge Bilateral…
Do you floss your teeth? # Yes, every 2 or weeks I’ll floss my teeth. I’m trying to be a lot better about teeth care. It’s cost me enough already! Tea, coffee, or water? # Coffee first, I need at least 2 to get started in the morning. A cup of tea in the afternoon if it’s a rough day. Water whenever I need it. Footwear preference? # Adidas Gazelles, Vans, Crocs, Sliders -…
Update 20/07/26 - I can no longer recommend Crinacle Project Metas, mine have broken. I contacted the team at hangout.audio and all they could offer was a new pair at full retail price. It took a long time for the issue to re-appear after it went away so took months to finally pin down and record it so it ended up out of warranty. I’ve gone back to my Moondrop Dusks now. I’m by no…
Oh wow how things change in a month! I now have 3.5 homelabs, It’s an odd number but hear me out: OG Proxmox Server Parents Proxmox Server Mediaserver (I don’t classify this as a full lab) New Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 Kubernetes Cluster Migration to Kubernetes # For a while now I’ve wanted my own cluster, I’ve even built a few in Proxmox but none of them have ever…
I learnt very quickly there is no grace period cancelling your google workspace account, you get charged for the few days into your current period and then booted out. It’s a good thing. I’m now over my 0 bytes or 15 gbs quota depending on where you look in the admin panel but I’ve managed to subscribe to the Identity Centre free option. This means I can carry on using some…
This is going to be a series on how I plan on de googling my life. It’s not going to be easy but it’s becoming more and more necessary to get away from Google for my online services. I have the following components that I need to migrate and I’ll document my progress on getting away from google for each of those. Gmail # I’m looking at moving to either Fastmail or…
Bye bye Ubuntu Server 20.04 # I moved all my apps from Ubuntu Server to Debian 12 after testing it out for a few months. It’s faster and uses less resources. There’s also no snap which is great! Migration went fine it was tedious but gave me an opportunity to clean up some tech debt I’d made when I first set the vm up. Running sudo shutdown -P now was very satisfying. I still…
It’s around 6 months since the pulmonary embolism and while recovery is going ok there’s still some things not right. I’ve come to think of them as things I’ve lost in the fire. They’re not coming back or at least not without hard work. Confidence # My confidence has gone. I’m second guessing myself all the time. I’m not confident at work any more.…
Since it’s important to practice what you preach (apparently) here’s my post incident report on a P1 homelab failure Timeline # 09:30 - Services slow, services down 10:00 - Attempt to upgrade Ubuntu and reboot VM 10:00 - CPU spiking 100% across all 8 cores 10:15 - Increase core count to 16 and reboot VM 10:30 - Slow recovery but some services still down 16:00 - Server not on network…
I finally have some closure on the PE that turned my life upside down at the end of October last year. I have it written on a piece of NHS branded paper. It’s innocuously included in a list of other ailments from a consultant only vaguely related the rest of the bullshit I’m having to deal with (health wise not NHS they’ve been ok/great). I feel like there should be some lead up,…
“You did it proper.” Consultant Adding to my list of things I never want to hear again. Those words were proceeded by my consultant showing me the images of my chest and the two bright white spots that were the clots that nearly killed me. Recovery isn’t easy, the physical side I can handle I can’t do as much, my chest hurts, my chest hurts more in cold weather. I’m…
aka how I nearly went crazy trying to figure out how to build docker images in Forgejo Actions. With the default setup from here you can get up and running with foregjo actions but it won’t allow you to build docker images inside your workflows. When I tried to build a docker image in a workflow I kept getting the following: ERROR: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at…
This is one of those problems that now that I get it it really shouldn’t have been so hard. Like everything with development and homelabbing documentation is key. Huge thanks to: https://mastodon.social/@mcrmonkey https://hachyderm.io/@badnetmask without their toots on Mastodon I wouldn’t have been able to grok and actually get things working. Now that I have my forgejo instance up and…
This guy used to come into my local years ago on his own and talk to everyone. He was a friendly enough older guy, had a few drinks and went home to his partner. We got talking about hot sauces and he said he made his own. Me and another local said we’d love to try some so he brought some in. It was really good! Sweet and very spicy. He eventually bought us both in huge bottles of the stuff.…
A list of my default hardware and software for 2024, taken from here and expanded on. Hope you enjoy! 📨 Mail Service: Gmail 📮 Mail Client: Gmail 📝 Notes: Joplin ✅ To-Do: Google Calendar & Vikunja 📆 Calendar: Google Calendar 🙍🏻♂️ Contacts: Google Contacts 📖 RSS Service: Hugo 🗞️ RSS Client: FreshRSS ⌨️ Launcher: None ☁️ Cloud storage: Gdrive & Synology Nas 🌅 Photo library: Google Photos &…
Potentially a long one this time round. Lot’s of changes/updates/additions to my homelab. I’m also still managing a second homelab for my parents which brings it’s own set of challenges but is a lot of fun. New Jellyfin Server # The Jellyfin android tv app is going through some awesome updates at the moment (just landed in v18!) namely trickplay images and support for skipping…
It’s been about 2 weeks since I was in hospital and things are starting to sink in. Firstly just how serious things got and secondly the trajectory my life is/was taking. I’m trying to figure out when to go back to work, I’m having more good days than bad days but I’m not out of the woods yet, a new symptom is my lungs are aching when I move, it’s really as pleasant…
The title pretty much sums it up, BPEs suck. How did we get here # For most of the year I’d been feeling a bit off it, dizzy spells and being exhausted, I put this down to ME/CFS being a pain as per usual. In June we went to Cyprus for two weeks holiday it was hot but we had such a great time. When I got back I caught COVID (4th times the charm), whenever I get it I’m always very ill…
I’m half writing this for the people mentioned at the end and my own records since when I say the past 5 days has been crazy I really mean it. You can read a bit of back story here . 17th October # Varicocile Embolisation - a simple surgery to get rid of the varicose vein on my left testicle (yes it can be as painful as it sounds). 4-5 hours waiting for a 30 min op no worries. Feeling a bit…
This week I had some pretty crappy news, I had a chest x-ray on Saturday because my lungs feel like I’m breathing razor blades. The nice doctor said that it was most likely down to post/long COVID. It’s kinda a good thing to know because that explains why I’ve been feeling so grim since I last had COVID. The x-ray shows I have scarring and dark spots on my lungs which is…
After over a year I’m going to take down my personal Lemmy server. Running it on Hetzner has been relatively easy and with only a few hiccups along the way, for a single user instance it uses about 20-30gb of storage for it’s db and image cache. Why did you selfhost? # Like most people after the Reddit enshitification I was looking for a new home, Lemmy seemed like the right place.…
August/September update on my Homelab Kubernetes # Finally fixed an annoying config issue on my local machine, 10.0.4.1 != 10.0.40.1 , that’s a few months of on an off debugging wasted! Not had chance to get things up and running yet, I’m a bit unsure of whether to use ArgoCD or Flux, I have used ArgoCD in my previous iteration. Parents Homelab # I finally handed off the server to my…
Title pretty much sums it up, when you see this post the theme will have changed. PaperMod has served me well over the years but I was getting that itch to try something different and it didn’t support having drop down menus. Having the ability to have drop down menus is quite important now, I want to keep my menu clean but still have room for pages like slashpages (I’ll be adding more…
June/July update on my Homelab June # Not much happened in june, I spent most of it on holiday and I “cleaned” up my ssh keys so locked myself out from my phone and tablet. I really need to figure out a better solution for managing ssh keys. I’ve been talking about doing it for years but haven’t gotten around to putting a solution in place. Changelog # New k3s server…
The aim of this post is to try and explain what it’s like living with ME/CFS. I can’t quite remember where the idea of spoons as a unit of energy came from, I think it might have been from my friend Gem, so I’m blaming/crediting them. So why are spoons a great way to measure units of energy, human energy or I guess effort. Because spoons are a physical thing and that makes things…
I spend all my online life in tech (I started setting up devenv.sh while I had covid ffs) so decided to branch out and find other things to read that are interesting but NOT tech related (maybe). Matt Lakeman - Notes on Tajikistan I found this from Hacker News and decided to give it a click not only is it really interesting but it’s very well written. Matts humour comes across really well…
Here’s a very quick update on my homelab. Changelog # Deprecated Homer Implemented gethomepage.dev Update all the containers Implemented FreshRSS Semi-deprecated Commafeed gethomepage.dev # Not sure where I picked this up from but it’s been really cool so far. I really like the service discovery using docker labels and widgets that pull in additional information. FreshRSS # I looked at…
Back in 2023 I had the worst 24 hours for a long time. It feels weird writing about this since when I look back it’s just so completely insane that everything happened like it did. I’m trying to be as eloquent as possible but it’s hard for reasons you’ll read. I’ve redacted everything I can, $work is whatever job I was working at at the time, while not impossible to…
I’ve been collecting watches for 10 years now there’s something about them that really appeals to me. I rarely ever show them off they’re quite a personal part of me and each watch has it’s own story. For reasons that most watch collectors will understand (even if they don’t practice) I have strict rules on purchasing watches: I can only own 6 7 8 at a time as many as…
This is a replacement for my Kubernetes Homelab Pt0 . I figured that it was best to write about my homelab in general since I’m not running k8s at the moment. Temporary 2nd homelab # I temporarily have 2 servers, ones provisioned and ready for installation at my parents place to replace their aging Raspberry Pi Home Assistant setup. Here are the specs: FIREBAT T8 Pro Plus Mini PC Intel N100…
Spotifys quality sucks, it’s UX is horrible and it pays it’s artists pretty much sod all so it’s time to move away and build my own cloud music service. It’s a lot easier than it sounds! How do I get my data? # Replacing each and every album I have saved on Spotify is no mean feat, I have hundreds saved on there. My first problem was getting all that data out of Spotify…
While reading Kev Quirks latest post on #100DaysToOffload (RSS ftw as well) he hits upon the exact problem I’ve been having with creating more content for the blog. At the back-end I effectively have a custom-built CMS that has been designed, from the ground-up, to work exactly how I want it to. Emphasis on the “to work exactly how I want”. This blog is built using Hugo, posts…
I’m going to attempt to document my journey migrating from my current homelab setup to kubernetes. I can’t promise when these posts will come as I’m finding I have less time and energy outside of work to do these things but here goes! Where are we now? # Currently I have two main setups: Ubuntu Server - this serves as my docker-compose vm k8s server and 3 agents The Ubuntu Server…
I’ve had my personal AWS setup for 10 years now and it’s time that it got organised. I’ve made previous attempts at this using Terraformer but it’s output wasn’t structure enough for my liking. TLDR; template code can be found here . This time round I’ve decided to split it up into two components: Base Applications Terraform style guide # I have a few rules that…