## Intro Hi! I'm Cole. (insert witty remark about being a 20-something trying to figure things out) That's not a typo, I didn't forget to write something there. Call it leaving something to the imagination. If you stick around and read some of what I have on here, you'll come to find I love parenthesis for sidebars. <div style="max-height: 500px; display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <img style="object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/intro-banner.png" /> </div> ## Outline (also available in the right-hand sidebar on desktop) - [[#Intro]] - [[#Outline]] - [[#Hobbies]] - [[#Cooking & baking]] - [[#Tech stuff]] - [[#More tech things that I don't have pictures of]] - [[#Certifications]] ## Hobbies Well, just about anything that interests me. Typically has something to do with tech, but I have some outliers on my hobbies list, like cutting stickers out with a vinyl cutter. This is probably the right place to put that I'm much more of an ideas guy; a starter, if you will. Never been much of a finisher (that's what she said) (sorry). Here's some stuff I've worked on: ### Cooking & baking <div style="padding-bottom: 5px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: var(--background-primary-alt);"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <div style="overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"> <img style="max-height: 500px; object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/4169A611-FE3C-40C8-B365-000438B3F1EB_1_105_c.jpeg" /> </div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"> Here's a cheesecake I made a few months back. First time making one and it turned out pretty great! This'll stick around in my recipes but I wish it weren't so damn expensive and stressful to make. </p> </div> <div style="padding: 10px;"></div> <div style="padding-bottom: 5px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: var(--background-primary-alt); overflow: hidden;"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <div style="overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"> <img style="max-height: 500px; object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/Pasted image 20250718195214.png" /> </div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"> Here's a picture of the kitchen when I was making imitation Chipotle. (yea it sucked to clean up) </p> </div> <div style="padding: 10px;"></div> <div style="padding-bottom: 5px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: var(--background-primary-alt); overflow: hidden;"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <div style="overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"> <img style="max-height: 500px; object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/Pasted image 20250718195353.png" /> </div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"> Some carrot cake cupcakes that I made for family </p> </div> <div style="padding: 10px;"></div> <div style="padding-bottom: 5px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: var(--background-primary-alt); overflow: hidden;"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <div style="overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around; flex-wrap: nowrap; gap: 20px;"> <div style=""> <img style="object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/Pasted image 20250718200520.png" /> </div> <div style=""> <img style="object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/Pasted image 20250718200513.png" /> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"> And some Christmas candy I made with Dad! Left is peanut brittle, and on the right is almond roca. Both recipes have been passed down in my family. </p> </div> <div style="padding: 10px;"></div> ### Tech stuff <div style="padding-bottom: 5px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: var(--background-primary-alt);"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <div style="overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"> <img style="max-height: 500px; object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/Pasted image 20250718200417.png" /> </div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"> Here's me trying to fix an Xbox 360 after accidentally scraping a tool across the motherboard and tearing some components off (oops). This one ended with me ordering a donor 360 e off eBay, pulling components off of it to replace on this one, and subsequently frying the motherboard. Two 360s went in the trash that day :( I remember being so bummed when I messed it up, I went quiet and just laid in bed next to my now ex, sulking having failed an electronics project. Quite the ambivalence to breaking things. </p> </div> <div style="padding: 10px;"></div> <div style="padding-bottom: 5px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: var(--background-primary-alt);"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <div style="overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"> <img style="max-height: 500px; object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/Pasted image 20250718200342.png" /> </div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"> Part of an ongoing project to make the best Guitar Hero controller. Poor pinky has been the guinea pig for all my tests. I have a project I'm actually working on now with the same Xplorer, which you can check out my progress on here: <a href="Articles/Progress Updates/Wireless Guitar Hero Xplorer" class="internal-link">Wireless Guitar Hero Xplorer</a> </p> </div> <div style="padding: 10px;"></div> <div style="padding-bottom: 5px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: var(--background-primary-alt); overflow: hidden;"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <div style="overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around; flex-wrap: nowrap; gap: 20px;"> <div style=""> <img style="object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/Pasted image 20250718202418.png" /> </div> <div style=""> <img style="object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/Pasted image 20250718202357.png" /> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"> Here was a prototype Letterboxd clone that I whipped up while traveling for work. I used SvelteKit for the framework and TMDB for the movie data. I don't remember why I abandoned this one. I actually quite like the way it looks and the design choices I made. I will say that the reason why it looks so good is I used prebuilt components from a library (<a href="https://www.skeleton.dev">Skeleton</a>), but I will give myself a pat on the back for decent layout of said components. Not perfect, but pretty good. </p> </div> #### More tech things that I don't have pictures of I maintain a Debian server at home on an arm-based CM3588 dev kit. I have 32tb of HDD storage hooked up to it, along with 2tb of flash storage. I store a lot of miscellaneous files and video projects on the flash portion, and a lot of media on the HDD portion that I access through Plex. Audio has always been an interest of mine. I'm one of those freaks who *hates* audio coming out of TV or phone or bad speakers. I need that sweet sweet bass and range. Naturally, I own several Sonos speakers (after inheriting my expensive taste in audio from my parents). I've wired a couple car stereos. I helped Dad hook up an Atmos AVR and immensely enjoy opportunities to use it for movies and games. Right now, I'm replaying Zelda: Breath of the Wild and I played it in real surround sound for a couple hours with the volume cranked. What an experience. I bet you could've guessed by now too that I've built PCs. I wasn't ever *way* into it like some of my peers or some people online but I still know my way around consumer PC hardware and can build a PC if I need to. I recently made the switch to Mac after getting into Linux, so the only PC I own nowadays is in the living room hooked up to the TV for light gaming. What started out as a slight interest turned into me configuring and maintaining 3 Home Assistant instances, one at home, one at Mom's, and one at Dad's. Now I am become death, controller of homes! (or whatever) Back in middle & high school, I made quite a few little games with Construct 2 & Construct 3. When I think back, I was always fiddling with a new game project or idea. Someday I'd like to go back and find a few that are working enough to publish on my website so I can go back and have a nostalgia trip when it comes across my mind. #### Certifications Because I'm such a nerd, I have some certificates under my belt. Here's what I have to show off: <div style="padding-top:5px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: var(--background-primary-alt); overflow: hidden;"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around;"> <div style="overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"> <div style="display: flex; justify-content: space-around; flex-wrap: nowrap; gap: 20px;"> <div style=""> <img style="max-height: 300px; object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/A+-png.png" /> </div> <div style=""> <img style="max-height: 300px; object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/um_ce_certificate_2024-09-10.jpg" /> </div> <div style=""> <img style="max-height: 300px; object-fit: contain;" src="Articles/attachments/CloudEssentials+-jpg.png" /> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>