2025 - The Transition Year

Year at a Glance

Month	Focus Areas	Status
January	Network security operations, ISE management at work	Archived
February	Enterprise networking, policy management	Archived
March	Infrastructure planning, learning paths defined	Archived
April	Windows/WSL development environment, PyCharm setup	Archived
May	Casa_Digital_Personal begins - First full-stack project	Complete
June	domus-digitalis started - PKMS architecture, YAML automata experiments	Complete
July	Full-stack acceleration, Next.js/React learning curve	Complete
August	Database design (PostgreSQL), authentication (OAuth)	Complete
September	Redis caching, deployment strategies (Vercel/Railway)	Complete
October	Multi-language support, theme system, API refinement	Complete
November	Terminal migration begins - Ansible, Quijote-reader, Rust learning	Complete
December	Principia PKMS, dotfiles-optimus, Neovim transition complete	Complete

Month

Focus Areas

Status

January

Network security operations, ISE management at work

Archived

February

Enterprise networking, policy management

Archived

March

Infrastructure planning, learning paths defined

Archived

April

Windows/WSL development environment, PyCharm setup

Archived

May

Casa_Digital_Personal begins - First full-stack project

Complete

June

domus-digitalis started - PKMS architecture, YAML automata experiments

Complete

July

Full-stack acceleration, Next.js/React learning curve

Complete

August

Database design (PostgreSQL), authentication (OAuth)

Complete

September

Redis caching, deployment strategies (Vercel/Railway)

Complete

October

Multi-language support, theme system, API refinement

Complete

November

Terminal migration begins - Ansible, Quijote-reader, Rust learning

Complete

December

Principia PKMS, dotfiles-optimus, Neovim transition complete

Complete

The Journey

2025 marked a deliberate career transition from network security engineering to full-stack platform engineering. This wasn’t an abandonment of networking expertise — it was an expansion.

Phase 1: Foundation (May - October)

Environment: Windows 11 + WSL2 + PyCharm

Started building full-stack applications to understand the other side of infrastructure. Network engineers configure systems; platform engineers build them.

Key Projects:

Casa_Digital_Personal (May 31) - Learning project for full-stack fundamentals
domus-digitalis (June 4) - Personal knowledge management system
- 415+ commits through present
- Next.js 15, React 19, PostgreSQL, Redis
- 7 language support, 8 custom themes
- OAuth authentication, PDF export
- Deployed: Vercel (frontend) + Railway (backend)

Phase 2: Acceleration (November)

Environment: Transitioning to Arch Linux + Terminal

The terminal migration began. PyCharm felt heavy; Neovim called.

Key Projects:

ansible-linux-automation (Nov 9) - 157 commits of Ansible playbooks
quijote-reader (Nov 1) - Reading list application
ise-automation (Nov 18) - Production Ansible for Cisco ISE
home-lab (Nov 19) - KVM virtualization infrastructure
ollama-local (Dec 6) - Local LLM experiments

Phase 3: Transformation (December)

Environment: Arch Linux + Hyprland + Neovim + Fish

The full terminal workflow crystallized.

Key Projects:

Principia (Dec 12) - Knowledge management system architecture
dotfiles-optimus (Dec 14) - Complete environment configuration (135 commits)
instrumentum-nvim - Custom Neovim configuration (194 commits)

Technology Stack Evolution

Category	Start of 2025	End of 2025
IDE	PyCharm + WSL	Neovim + Lazy plugins
OS	Windows 11	Arch Linux
Shell	PowerShell/Bash	Fish + custom functions
Terminal	Windows Terminal	Ghostty + tmux
Desktop	Windows	Hyprland (Wayland)
Git	GitHub Desktop	Lazygit + CLI
Docs	Markdown/Word	AsciiDoc + Antora

Skills Acquired

Full-Stack Development

React 19 + Next.js 15 (App Router)
TypeScript/JavaScript
PostgreSQL + Prisma ORM
Redis caching
OAuth (NextAuth.js)
REST API design
Vercel/Railway deployment

Infrastructure & DevOps

Ansible playbook development
KVM/libvirt virtualization
Docker containerization
GitHub Actions CI/CD
Vault PKI (HashiCorp)
Borg backup automation

Network Automation

Python network libraries
Cisco ISE API ecosystem (ERS, MnT, pxGrid, DataConnect)
802.1X EAP-TLS at scale
Policy-as-code patterns

Project Metrics

Metric	Value	Notes
Total Projects Started	15+	Active development
Total Commits (domus-digitalis)	415+	Primary learning project
Total Commits (dotfiles-optimus)	135	Environment configuration
Languages Used	8	Python, TypeScript, Lua, Bash, Fish, YAML, SQL, AsciiDoc
Repos Created	20+	Personal projects only

Metric

Value

Notes

Total Projects Started

15+

Active development

Total Commits (domus-digitalis)

415+

Primary learning project

Total Commits (dotfiles-optimus)

135

Environment configuration

Languages Used

Python, TypeScript, Lua, Bash, Fish, YAML, SQL, AsciiDoc

Repos Created

20+

Personal projects only

Lessons Learned

Start before you’re ready - Casa_Digital was messy. It worked. domus-digitalis was better.
Environment matters - The Neovim migration increased velocity 3x
Automate everything - dotfiles-optimus means any machine is 30 minutes from production
Document as you go - Principia captures everything; nothing is lost
Network + Dev = Platform - The combination is more powerful than either alone