[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":171},["ShallowReactive",2],{"posts-en":3},[4,102],{"id":5,"title":6,"body":7,"date":92,"description":93,"extension":94,"image":95,"meta":96,"navigation":97,"path":98,"seo":99,"stem":100,"__hash__":101},"content_en/blog/homelab.md","Building a Home Lab: How I Turned an Old PC Into a Learning Machine",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":84},"minimark",[10,14,19,22,26,29,64,68,71,74,78,81],[11,12,13],"p",{},"In my search to learn more than just the web tech I picked up in school, I decided to build a home lab from an old computer I had lying around. I wanted a place to explore servers, Docker, CI/CD, and all the infrastructure stuff that rarely comes up in a classroom. A place to experiment without worrying about breaking anything that matters.",[15,16,18],"h2",{"id":17},"the-hardware","The Hardware",[11,20,21],{},"The machine I used is an old Dell with an Intel Core i7, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Not the most powerful setup, but more than enough for what I needed.",[15,23,25],{"id":24},"what-i-use-it-for","What I Use It For",[11,27,28],{},"I installed Ubuntu Server and set up a few services. Currently running:",[30,31,32,40,46,52,58],"ul",{},[33,34,35,39],"li",{},[36,37,38],"strong",{},"Docker"," — the foundation for everything else",[33,41,42,45],{},[36,43,44],{},"Prometheus + Grafana"," — to monitor hardware and container metrics",[33,47,48,51],{},[36,49,50],{},"Portainer"," — to manage containers without touching the CLI every time",[33,53,54,57],{},[36,55,56],{},"Nginx"," — as a reverse proxy so I'm working with domain names instead of IP addresses",[33,59,60,63],{},[36,61,62],{},"Tailscale"," — so I can access my home lab from anywhere without port forwarding or exposing services to the internet",[15,65,67],{"id":66},"my-first-project","My First Project",[11,69,70],{},"My first idea was a docs app where I write everything about the server what's running, how it's configured, why I made certain decisions. Useful as a reference, but also as a record of what I'm learning.",[11,72,73],{},"The interesting part came with GitHub Actions. I set up a pipeline that automatically builds and deploys the docs app to my home lab every time I push to main. It's a basic CI/CD setup, but building it myself made the concept click in a way that reading about it never did. Understanding how automation fits into a real workflow is something I'll carry into every project going forward.",[15,75,77],{"id":76},"whats-next","What's Next",[11,79,80],{},"I want to dig into Kubernetes, understand what it actually solves and when it's worth the complexity. Beyond that, I'm curious about infrastructure-as-code with Terraform: managing servers and resources through config files instead of manual setup.",[11,82,83],{},"The home lab isn't a side project. It's how I stay sharp outside of work and school, and it keeps pushing me toward becoming a better developer.",{"title":85,"searchDepth":86,"depth":86,"links":87},"",2,[88,89,90,91],{"id":17,"depth":86,"text":18},{"id":24,"depth":86,"text":25},{"id":66,"depth":86,"text":67},{"id":76,"depth":86,"text":77},"2026-05-07","How I built a home lab to learn about servers, Docker, CI/CD, and everything in between.","md",null,{},true,"/blog/homelab",{"title":6,"description":93},"blog/homelab","bJNBMGSkgUthNjctmJkSf3-V2-jsNGCUI2Pb-VwmVDQ",{"id":103,"title":104,"body":105,"date":164,"description":165,"extension":94,"image":95,"meta":166,"navigation":97,"path":167,"seo":168,"stem":169,"__hash__":170},"content_en/blog/learn-by-building.md","I'm 23 finishing my degree and building things anyway",{"type":8,"value":106,"toc":159},[107,110,113,116,119,123,126,129,132,134,138,141,144,146,150,153,156],[11,108,109],{},"There are two kinds of students at the end of their studies.",[11,111,112],{},"One waits. Graduates, sends out CVs, and hopes someone gives them a shot. The other builds. Not because they have to, but because staying still doesn't feel like an option.",[11,114,115],{},"I fall into the second category, though I sometimes wonder if that's smart or just stubborn.",[117,118],"hr",{},[15,120,122],{"id":121},"who-i-am","Who I am",[11,124,125],{},"My name is Ben, 23, studying Digital Design at Hogeschool PXL in Hasselt. On paper, I'm a designer. In practice, I write more code than I open Figma and that's 90% of the time just for the dev seat ;). My stack runs on Vue/Nuxt, Next.js, Laravel, Payload CMS, and Tailwind CSS, but honestly I just pick whatever solves the problem best.",[11,127,128],{},"Right now I'm doing an internship at a marketing agency in Hasselt where I'm not tracing mockups. I'm building and shipping full websites. I've got a few projects under my belt already, and every time I finish one I think: \"hmm, what could be better, faster, different?\" And then I get back to work.",[11,130,131],{},"That's not theory. That's just work that got done.",[117,133],{},[15,135,137],{"id":136},"how-i-learn","How I learn",[11,139,140],{},"I learn by building. By making mistakes in production, by reading documentation at 11pm or bothering my best friend AI, by shipping things that aren't perfect but do work. Every site that goes live is proof that I picked up something new along the way.",[11,142,143],{},"That also means tackling things I hadn't done before. Setting up a VPS, getting mail integration to work, thinking through a multilingual routing structure. Not because someone asked, but because it was necessary.",[117,145],{},[15,147,149],{"id":148},"why-im-writing-this","Why I'm writing this",[11,151,152],{},"This blog is an extension of that way of working. No marketing fluff, no tutorials you can find anywhere else. Just honest conversations about what I'm building, what breaks, and what I take away from it.",[11,154,155],{},"Expect posts about my journey as a developer, my thoughts on the industry, and maybe even some personal stories. Because I believe there's value in sharing the process, not just the result.",[11,157,158],{},"If that resonates or if you just want to see what I'm making. Feel free to keep reading.",{"title":85,"searchDepth":86,"depth":86,"links":160},[161,162,163],{"id":121,"depth":86,"text":122},{"id":136,"depth":86,"text":137},{"id":148,"depth":86,"text":149},"2026-05-04","An honest introduction about who I am, what I build during my internship, and how I learn by just doing.",{},"/blog/learn-by-building",{"title":104,"description":165},"blog/learn-by-building","uNx02_rKfbJ8cBc0l0oh2NHUJiKEXbbUfzBlN8Tkr2c",1778180701041]