First Post, take three

There’s a joke in IT that if you can survive long enough to automate your own job, you’ve earned the right to move on. But it is just that, a joke. The real objective is to avoid burnout as long as possible in order to escape the daily toil of the dreaded helpdesk job, where we all begin our journeys and some of us never leave.

I’m Halley, IT…person? I don’t know, in small organisations whatever title you’re given in IT is largely meaningless as we all end up wearing multiple hats, and when I say multiple I mean all of them. I work at the messy intersection of helpdesk support, infrastructure, cybersecurity, project planning & management, and whatever the business just decided was urgent five minutes ago, has already implemented, and is finally telling IT about it. Right now, that means leading infrastructure and cybersecurity efforts.

I’m certified in a number of things (CompTIA CSIS, Microsoft fundamentals, etc.), but what really matters is that despite the daily woes of IT, I actually enjoy this job. I don’t know why it has taken so long for me to admit that to myself (and now the internet) but I actually do. I care about the infrastructure and environments I build, I care about its users, and I care about my team. Its a small team but we manage.

I also enjoy writing but two years ago I got caught up in the AI hype and began using chatbots to create outlines for things. It started slowly at first with just documentation skeletons but then I started using it to write entire blog posts. Finally I realised how damaging this is, writing is supposed to be fun and blogging should be reserved exclusively for humans. I place myself firmly in the anti-AI camp. It is a fantastic tool, but now there is so much AI slop floating around the internet that I’m beginning to think there is some truth to the dead internet theory.

Outside of work I spend an unreasonable amount of time poking at Linux, playing with Proxmox, and turning half-baked shell scripts into wholewheat automation (good line lol). Sometimes I even write about it. I’ve got full bucket of posts queued up on Ansible, infra patterns, and the deep weirdness of tech culture. You can expect some strong opinions and a few half-reasonable takes. Writing, for me, is a way to clear mental cache and keep moving.

If you’re wondering what the secret is to starting to write it is this: stop worrying about what other people are going to think about your writing. Most of them are idiots, fuck them.

You’ll find a status page, a /now page, and a growing pile of side projects scattered around this site. None of which are hosted here as I enjoy being a part of the Fediverse. Whether you’re here out of curiosity or fell down a link-hole somewhere, welcome. I hope you find something useful. Or at least familiar.

If you want to talk infra, write code, trade notes on self-hosting, or complain about modern computing then find me on IRC or XMPP.

– Yours, Halley.