[-] hamtron5000 8 points 5 days ago

oh man, this is a great question. i'd rest, first and foremost, for kind of a long while. i'm chronically exhausted right now. then, when my body starts to feel like it can do things again i'd love to grow food, write poems, play music, hike, explore, and interact with people over shared food and conversation.

19
Ideation - What to Run? (self.selfhosting)
submitted 1 week ago by hamtron5000 to c/selfhosting

Imagine I want to create a local internet for my community. Things that will be useful, helpful, and easy to use. Ideally, setup/maintenance would be relatively straightforward too, since I will for the time being at least be running this solo.

So if I'm going to be the community SysAdmin but also have free choice of what to run, what would you think about the following ideas of things to share with people?

-Radarr (movies) -Sonarr (TV shows) -Lidarr (music) -Calbire (or Readarr I guess, for books) -Jellyfin (media streaming) -Nextcloud (file sharing)

And then as for me myself, I'd probably set up a Graylog Open instance to aggregate issues, and have a couple of separate physical servers for these different things.

Do you think that would be helpful/useful/fun for getting community members to think about the potential of hyperlocal internet?

Alternatively, are folks doing this already? If so, how do you have this kind of thing set up?

If I'm dreaming big, I would also love to set up a mesh relay to offer this intranet stuff to the community.

I'm hoping that these ideas are solarpunk enough and selfhosting enough to warrant community feedback.

Basically, I guess, are there any other community SysAdmins out there doing this kind of work?

Thanks for your time.

109
submitted 2 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/solarpunk

Hello all, happy early spring to those of you who are experiencing it! Here in western Colorado, we've got our tiny rainy season going on. what are you doing in your communities, in your gardens, in your organizing spaces? what kind of cool praxis have you got going on?

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submitted 2 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/edc@sopuli.xyz

middle-aged IT generalist guy, United States. from left, lens cleaning cloth, REI 1L nalgene, handkerchief, coffee tumbler, ridge wallet, generic grid lined notebook, Leatherman Signal, Pilot G2 .07 pen, keys for work with included tiny flashlight, and phone case (Peak Design Mobile) to represent the phone (Pixel 7 Pro) used to take the photo.

not pictured: car/bike keys, as the wife has the car today and it was snowing so i didn't bike, and wristwatch because i forget, constantly, that i'm wearing it; it's just a part of me. generic Timex Weekender with a nylon strap. does nothing special but tells me the time, accurately, on a face i can read, even in the dark.

[-] hamtron5000 5 points 3 months ago

I am a coffee addict, and I need a bottle holder that can hold my thermos, lol! But yeah, it's also nice for a quick grab.

18
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by hamtron5000 to c/utilitycycling

https://imgur.com/a/ivFq4VE

Hi all,

A coworker gifted me a free Trek 4500 from the early 2000s, largely unused in the last many years. It sat in my back yard for a few months while I thought about what to do with it; I've finally made the first movement towards having a badass utility bicycle.

Step one involved knowing that I like a more upright riding position and am not the most comfortable or agile person on a bike (that's nice-speak for "I'm a pretty fat guy" and "I never really rode bikes as a kid so I learned how in my mid-20s and am still not 100% comfortable with it"). So I bought a pair of swept-back handlebars which I then kept in a closet for a month, lol.

Finally I decided to just move forward, so I took the bike to the local bike shop and had them do their inspection, basic needed maintenance, and installation of the handlebars. Now I have something fairly comfortable which also looks kind of neat.

Four more things I have planned to do:

  • Add a back rack that I have on an old trashed frame also in the backyard.
  • Acquire and add fenders. While it rarely rains here, when it does I'd like to be prepared.
  • Acquire and add a front rack, since this is going to be largely for groceries and errands.
  • Add a bike trailer, again for groceries and errands.

Other possibilities include a different seat, a handlebar bag in lieu of a front rack, essentially anything else to make it cool and functional.

Do y'all have any recommendations for stuff that might be worth adding or doing to this bike to make it comfortable for someone overweight to commute with and do basic errands and groceries with?

[-] hamtron5000 7 points 3 months ago

To answer my own question, a couple things. Today my wife and I mounted two cat shelves to give our boys a way to get to a high and inaccessible place - my wife got a couple of carpet squares from her workplace and glued them onto two shelves, which we mounted today.

i also recently built a really basic compost bin. baby steps, right?

15
What's Up? (self.diy)
submitted 3 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/diy

Hello, comrades! What kind of stuff are you up to these days? Anything cool, anything you want to share about?

25
Winter eBiking (slrpnk.net)
submitted 4 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/utilitycycling

well, my plan was to fix up a free entry-level mountain bike a coworker gave me - and, to be clear, i still intend to do it. however! i ran out of time, money, and know-how, all relatively quickly. and combined with that, i also decided somewhat last minute that i don't really want to drive to work any more in 2024 if i can possibly help it.

so instead i dusted off my electric chariot, my Shadowfax, my E-Motion ebike which i have named "Thora". she's my go-to ride in nice weather, but has been packed up for the winter. last night i got her out of her "garage" and charged her up, and this morning i did my quite short 1.5 mile commute in cold weather for the first time. 21 degrees F, -6 degrees C.

just wanted to say, i super appreciate all the advice shared in my other thread about winter biking. i wore my snowshoeing coat, gloves and glove liners, and a stocking cap. it worked! the only rough part was my face; it got so cold i got a headache. that said, i can just try a scarf tomorrow.

here's to functional transportation, even in the wintertime.

[-] hamtron5000 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

finally finished my compost bin - just three pallets in a U shape, but it worked! added PiHole and Unbound DNS to my home server setup to keep ads and other nonsense as out of our lives as possible. more to come!

37
submitted 4 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/solarpunk

welcome to the first day of the New Year here where i am, in Western Colorado, USA. i am feeling an uncharacteristic sense of optimism today; any day can be full of new beginnings, but how great is 1/1/24 to also be full of opportunities?

speaking of which, what kind of actions have you been taking recently, or do you plan to take in the near future? how are you bringing solarpunk into the world?

may 2024 be a good year for you and yours, and me and mine, and ours, and humanity, and the earth.

[-] hamtron5000 5 points 4 months ago

lol, fair. we did Thanksgiving this year so Christmas is at my mom's. ha!

[-] hamtron5000 6 points 4 months ago

i have two old PCs refurbished as Ubuntu servers running the latest LTS version.

machine the first: - Taskwarrior - Taskserver - Docker and Docker Compose - local media and stuff on a 2TB NAS

machine the second: - Docker and Docker compose - Jitsi Meet server - Rustdesk server

coming soon: - PiHole - Unbound DNS - Plex (maybe) - Mealie (possibly with a dedicated ancient iPad that will live in the kitchen) - BirdNET-Pi

also possibly a home weather station built out of a Raspberry Pi 4B that is on order; i love the idea of having one of these in my backyard to track our microclimate.

45
submitted 4 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/selfhosting

hi there, comrades! just curious, what do you all actually host for yourselves?

i currently run a two old PCs refurbished as Ubuntu servers and am looking at adding a Raspberry Pi 400 that i was gifted and don't know what to do with. i have ideas though!

anyway, i'd love to hear what you've found useful, helpful, and/or fun to run. my own answer will be in the comments.

[-] hamtron5000 9 points 5 months ago

from my wife and i: we relatively recently received some free bikes from a colleague of mine. i'm fixing one up myself to be an ultimate commuter, but my wife said she didn't really want the other one - so we're fixing it up to give to a fifteen year old we know who needs reliable in-town transportation. it should be done this week, and he's getting it on Friday. i hope he likes it!

also, we're decorating for the holidays but in a sustainable, old-fashioned kind of way. my wife is a really good fabric artist and has crocheted a long holly vine that wraps around our living room. it's well off the ground, and so that's where we hang our ornaments so our two energetic kitties don't succumb to temptation and danger. we did hook up house lights this year, powered by rechargeable batteries that i recharge using our Jackery and a solar panel. it's small things, but it's a start.

i've mentioned it before but we're still planning on our community building chili feast, we've just had to move it to January due to our schedules. and we still host weekly zazen (Zen Buddhist meditation) at our house. we have four folks outside our family who come almost every weekend, and last weekend we did our first all-day sit on Saturday, from 8am to 5pm. i just launched a website for our group, in the hopes that anyone in our rural western Colorado locale that searches for "meditation", "Buddhism", or "Zen" and our city name will find our site and, if they feel like it, join us.

28
submitted 5 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/solarpunk

'sup, comrades?

hope you're well. what's going on in your worlds? how have you been spending your time, energy, and interest? any cool praxis in your worlds?

18
submitted 5 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/utilitycycling

hi all - i am wondering what your daily riders look like - for example above i have my ebike (a secondhand Eco-Evo by Easy Motion), which is my summer daily driver since i can charge it with solar energy and don't get as hot cycling (i'm fat and i live in a desert, which is a miserable combo sometimes).

right now i'm working on putting together a winter "acoustic" bike by putting together a bunch of parts stripped from old bikes i've salvaged or been given, but i'd love to see any ideas for what folks ride.

[-] hamtron5000 15 points 5 months ago

To answer my own question, I'm working on restoring/modifying two mountain bikes I recently got for free from a coworker. I'm hoping to turn one into a sweet daily commuter for me!

I'm also a Buddhist and host weekly zazen at my house every Sunday morning. I feel like Zen/Buddhism and solarpunk go hand-in-hand - seeing the reality of interdepence, we can't keep killing the earth!

Finally, I'm also trying to get started composting again. I did really well last winter then got out of the habit when it got warmer (I have a thing about smells). I am hoping to get back into it now that it's cooler and maybe I can pay less attention to the smells for a bit.

36
submitted 5 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/solarpunk

Hi friends and comrades! What are you working on these days? I'm really interested in praxis and in new ideas of what to do in real life to advance towards a solarpunk future.

Hope you're all well!

25
submitted 6 months ago by hamtron5000 to c/diy

'sup, comrades? i meant to do this thread weekly, but oops! forgot for a month. oh well - what do you have going on, what are you working on?

[-] hamtron5000 7 points 7 months ago

to answer my own question, i'm installing some rainwater catchment barrels at my house hopefully this week. all but one (we have four) were sourced from local folks. once these are installed, i have purchased a zero-pressure drip irrigation system and am going to try to have that installed before the first big frost, usually about two or three weeks from now where i live. there won't be any water in it this season, but it will be ready to go in the spring - or so i hope!

[-] hamtron5000 6 points 7 months ago

i've posted about this before, but here's our current progress on deep lasagna mulching our front yard. we just had an apple tree put in, and i have seeded the grass clipping-covered area of this part of our yard with cover crops. laughing wife for scale.

[-] hamtron5000 5 points 8 months ago

nah, go for it; i readily admit to knowing only what i have googled so far about things. i'm using cardboard because it's what i have; i am also composting, but buying stuff is out of the realm at the moment. glad to hear that tilling isn't necessarily all bad; tilling = bad is what got me on the cardboard thing in the first place.

i do appreciate the heads-up!

[-] hamtron5000 22 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

to respond to my own post, i have set up a solar panel to charge a Jackery (mobile generator) that I am going to use to recharge my ebike when the charge runs down. photos forthcoming!

we've also got seven birdfeeders up and running on our property, and two bee hotels. it's been over 100 degrees F where i live (rural western Colorado), so we repurposed an old hummingbird feeder to be a bug waterer, and used our local Buy Nothing group to find one of those pet watering bowls that refills from an attached jug. we filled the bowl part with rocks so bees have a place to land and filled the remainder with water, so now our bee hotels are right next to a bee waterer, too!

here's a link to the image since i can't figure out embedding an image, embarassingly.

bee hotel and a hummingbird feeder: https://flic.kr/p/2oRYzjN

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hamtron5000

joined 10 months ago