Mal
LightNews LightNews
mal.social
Mal
@mal.social
510 followers 520 following 1.3K posts
reader, learner, solver, techie, dog dad, corporate drone, Browncoat. he/him

discord: malcolm.r
https://mal.omg.lol/
Posts Replies Media Videos
mal.social
we are at a showing for Clue at @butleru.bsky.social they just had an interview with Lesley Ann Warren who seems lovely.
a movie screen showing "Scott Stander presents Clue The Movie 40th Anniversary Screening. Hosted by the original Miss Scarlett Lesley Ann Warren. It includes a picture of the character in the famous green dress as well as a headhot of the actress.
November 13, 2025 at 1:18 AM
mal.social
I would love to get out of bed but
Mowgli, our black pittie is sleeping in some blankets.
November 9, 2025 at 4:57 PM
mal.social
we have a visitor!

cw: praying mantis close-up
a praying mantis on a window with its head turned towards the camera
September 20, 2025 at 7:39 PM
mal.social
timeline cleanse. the boys were sunning earlier today.
Mowgli, our black pitbull with a white chest is laying in the grass looking out. my arm is resting on his back as we both sit in the sun.
September 19, 2025 at 10:50 PM
mal.social
*sigh* another drive down. and unfortunately my replacement is also DOA. here's hoping a new replacement arrives quickly.

#homelab #truenas #selfhosted
an error message from TrueNAS indicating a faulted hard drive.
September 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
mal.social
y'all wearing this in a 5 Guys where it's 100% Mexicans cooking is fucking WILD
a racist white boomer man stands waiting for his order at 5 Guys Restaurant. he's wearing a camo hat and a green sweater that says "We owe illegals nothing we owe our veterans everything" on the back.
August 29, 2025 at 11:05 PM
mal.social
god linkedin suuuuuuucks.

no i don't have a million fucking dollars IN SAVINGS OR ANYWHERE. DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE IT IS TO EXIST.
screenshot of a post from Fisher Investments. it says "Are your savings worth more than $1,000,000? Will you be able to make ends meet in retirement?"
August 20, 2025 at 8:07 PM
mal.social
UPDATE: we have TWO monarch caterpillars!!!
two monarch caterpillars. one is unfocused in the foreground, vertical on a plant stem. the other is in focus in the background, perched horizontally on the underside of a leaf.
August 16, 2025 at 8:31 PM
mal.social
look at our new friend! I've been told it's a monarch caterpillar! 🐛🐛🐛
a close-up of a caterpillar with black, white, and yellow stripes sitting on the stem of a plant.
August 16, 2025 at 12:50 AM
mal.social
one creature in this photo has a partially torn ACL but is being a huge idiot about it.

he goes nuts if he's kept inside while one of us is cutting the grass.

buffoon.
Mowgli, our black pitbull, is walking in the grass next to the lawn mower. He also has some grass on his back.
August 8, 2025 at 11:54 PM
mal.social
a perfect angel snoozes
River, our white and brindle pittie, sleeping on her side on a bed with blue sheets. she's partially covered with a blue and white blanket
July 7, 2025 at 3:38 PM
mal.social
recharging.
2 pitbulls, one brindle and one black, are laying out in the grass soaking up the sun.
June 23, 2025 at 8:44 PM
mal.social
it's 92F outside and my lab sits directly underneath the roof but plex must live on. lab AC unit working overtime today

#homelab #plex #grafana
a time-series chart showing energy usage. it is a 90-minute window showing mostly 1kW usage the whole time for my lab AC power.
June 22, 2025 at 8:18 PM
mal.social
the compressor is mounted into a molded plastic bottom casing, and the bolts were just spinning in place. not good.

my grand idea? u-bolts. check this shit out.
the underside of a rackmount AC unit with bolts sticking out of it. a top-down shot of the inside of the AC unit. the compressor is on the right. it is held down by a u-bolt. a collection of u-bolts
May 6, 2025 at 3:15 PM
mal.social
unracked. brains removed and replaced into new chassis.

next: rack new chassis, move drives over.

#homelab
2 server chassis laying open on the floor server chassis laying open with components installed.
May 4, 2025 at 1:13 AM
mal.social
this weekend's #homelab project. consolidating 2 separate chassis (2U 12-bay & 3U 16-bay) into one 4U 36-bay Supermicro chassis.

and praying I have the right low-profile brackets for everything 🙏🏻
top view of the Supermicro CSE-847 chassis. the lid is off showing the empty interior. there are random parts and tools surrounding it. top view of a full server chassis slid out of a rack. front view of 2 server chassis in a rack.
May 3, 2025 at 5:28 PM
mal.social
on the other hand, the distant view to the north is very nice.
a dusk-ish view of a mountain ridge in the distance.
April 10, 2025 at 1:56 AM
mal.social
oh. neat. now the server won't start after patching 🙃
screenshot of the mysql installer showing that the "Starting the server and upgrading system tables" task has failed
April 6, 2025 at 8:28 PM
mal.social
reading The Last Emperox and this is a bit on the nose these days eh @scalzi.com ?
a page from The Last Emperox by John Scalzi: "Let's be clear about what's going on... It's the end of civilization as we know it. and it's going to be great for business."
February 26, 2025 at 11:12 PM
mal.social
context: got a vasectomy Friday.

got this delivered today. no one I've texted has fessed up yet.
an open box of bottles of baby formula.
February 4, 2025 at 5:52 PM
mal.social
hoooooo boy got the storage upgrade completed last night. love having ample elbow room 😍

#homelab #storage #truenas #selfhost
screenshot of TrueNAS storage pool info showing 113.87 TiB of free space.
January 22, 2025 at 3:37 PM
mal.social
GIVE IT TO ME NOW.
screenshots of USPS tracking information. "Expected Delivery on Tuesday 21 January 2025 between 3:15pm and 5:15pm"
January 21, 2025 at 8:56 PM
mal.social
ugh. I really want this table. it's gorgeous. a bit big for the space we have, though. also it's very pricey lol.
a breakfast table with a two-tone stained square top. the base is a shade of dark brown with 3 drawers. there is a barstool to the left, and 2 wooden chairs on the right.
January 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
mal.social
rails arrived today. got the chassis racked and plugged in, drives installed. idling it "only" adds about 130W of power usage.

the bottom 12 lights are red because the new drives aren't connected to a controller. still waiting on that to arrive.

#plex #homelab #storage #truenas
the front of a server rack. there are multiple chassis shown. the focus is on 12 drive sleds with flashing red lights.
January 17, 2025 at 8:16 PM
mal.social
pending the arrival of 2 more parts... #plex upgrade this weekend 😍

#homelab #storage
3 stacks of hard drives, 4 drives in each stack. each drive is in a static bag. they are all sitting on a deskmat with a graphic of the lunar surface on it.
January 16, 2025 at 3:13 AM