An ode to the homelabber:
As a software developer, I never was a true sysadmin. I never pulled a server to replace a failed drive at 3 a.m. I never got to roll my little maintenance cart through a cold aisle, with hearing protection to keep my fragile eardrums from rupturing amidst a sea of 100+ dB screaming server fans...
That is, until I built my homelab. Now I can act like a sysadmin as I make sure my kids never have a moment of downtime while they're streaming their favorite episode of Odd Squad.
I can ensure my wife's Time Machine backups have five nines of reliability.
I can segregate VLANs to keep evil IoT devices off our main network.
I can jack up our power bill with used 1U enterprise gear sucking down 800 watts and making my family's eardrums bleed every time they visit the basement.
And I can do it all proudly wearing the new Cosplaying as a Sysadmin T-shirt on RedShirtJeff.com!