A Return...Kind Of

Introduction

For those who don’t know me (which is presumably most people who will read this), it is worth an introduction to myself.

I am a dad, I work in the technology industry (SRE/Software Engineer/Platform if you wanted to know), I play guitar, I listen to a variety of music (with a slight preference towards metal and EDM), and I am a little obsessed with Motorsport too.

For a few years I wrote blogs as YetiOps, mainly focussed on DevOps, Automation, Networking (TCP-style, rather than meeting people), but lost a little steam (partly life, partly time, partly jobs) and haven’t written anything in 3 years.

Ultimately, while I enjoy technology, I found the “persona” I put forward for the Yetiops blog (and related accounts) a little limiting. Yes, this is mostly my own doing for making it so technology-focussed, but it never felt right posting more personal, or music-related, guitar or anything else. The blog had been made for, and focussed only on technology since the beginning.

New approach

The last year of my life has been one of change. I won’t go too deep on this for now (at least, not in an introduction post) but suffice to say I feel like I need an outlet again, and blogging has always been a good place for me.

I really enjoy blogs from the likes of Neil Brown and Simon Wolf who post more about what interests them, whether it is technology, exercise, reusing old hardware or anything else.

What to expect

It’s hard to know exactly what I’ll be posting about, how often and how interesting it is going to be, but some general themes will likely include: -

Running

I started the Couch to 5k program in the middle of 2024, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I attempted to run the Circuit De La Sarthe in June 2025 (during the 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend), but due to the intense heat and illness-interrupted training I didn’t get anywhere close to the full distance. However I’m hoping to try again in 2026, and (barring illness/injury/being teleported to another planet) I think I can do it this time.

Having gone from thinking I’d never like running, to this year where I will have ran in 5 different countries by the end of it, I’ve definitely caught the bug!

Getting fit

I turned 40 at the end of 2024, and (along with other factors) it gave me a massive realisation that I wanted to take better care of myself. I also really enjoy cycling, strength training and just moving around more. After spending a lot of my career and life being mostly sedentary, this has been a massive shift for me. I am embracing it, partly to improve how I feel, but also to provide a better example to my kids.

Music and guitar

I’ve been music-obsessed since I was a child, and playing guitar for nearly a quarter of a century. I’ve been in bands, done a lot of gigs, and I’m hoping to get back to playing live again in the future.

Expect the odd album review, or just general recommendations every so often. And also the likelihood of adding to my already stupid amount of guitars!

Technology and homelabbing

I run a homelab (one that needs some work, but likely to be improved soon), I work in technology, and while I am no longer viewing technology as the biggest part of my life, it still forms quite a large part of it.

Also, I like to tinker with things. Whether that is reviving a long outdated laptop with Linux to make it useful again, monitoring my home network to a level that would put some previous jobs to shame, turn unused phones into decent webcams, or just making sure that I don’t break the internet for the family, I can’t help but throw myself into it from time to time.

Signing off

Expect more soon. Just don’t hold me to when!