Home Automation Journey

A while back, one of my colleagues mentioned Home Assistant. I didn’t pay much attention at first because I was using a tool called DRAC Board. Fun name—and I liked it because it gave me a clean dashboard view for things like my calendar. But as I started working on more personal projects, I realized DRAC Board was too limited. No JIRA integration, inconsistent support across Microsoft To Do, Google Keep, and other tools I used. And honestly, it hasn’t really improved much as a product. For five bucks a month, it did its job, but it wasn’t enough for the long-term.

What really pushed me toward the home automation world was security cameras. With three little monsters—AKA my kids—running around, I needed visibility in the house while I’m working in the office. I had access to the cameras, but my wife didn’t, so I wanted a simple way for her to see what was going on in the shared spaces.

I played with Home Assistant again and discovered that a lot of camera systems support RTSP streams. Even my little rinky-dink NVR could spit out RTSP URLs with the standard format (rtsp://username:password@IP/channel). Once I realized that, I built a nice dashboard where my wife and I can pull up the camera feeds anytime. And that alone made Home Assistant worthwhile.

Integrations That Surprised Me

As I dove deeper, I found that Home Assistant has integrations for other stuff I already own. For example, my Withings scale—the fancy one that tracks weight, BMI, etc.—has an API integration. So now my weight trend shows up on the dashboard too. It only pulls in one user profile, but that’s fine for now. I’m not buying another scale just to track everyone’s data.

I also noticed you can pull in Xbox information. Since my kids often play using my profile, I can see what games they’ve been on. I haven’t tried Steam yet, but maybe that’s next.

Next Steps for Home Automation

I want to experiment with outdoor cameras next. The challenge is that I want all the features but I’m also really cheap. A lot of commercial brands either require subscriptions or offer limited functionality. And from a security perspective, I’m not overly concerned about digital locks being “weak.” Most break-ins aren’t Hollywood-style lockpicking. People smash windows, kick doors, or replay garage signals. So for me, it’s about features, not fear.

Ideally, I want:

• Fingerprint or phone-based entry for my kids
• Cameras at entry points
• Local + cloud backup of footage
• A system that doesn’t cost a fortune

I’ll keep refining it over the next few weeks.

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Fitness and Getting Back in Shape

This year, getting back into shape has been harder than I expected. Not because my body can’t do it, but because my willpower keeps fighting for time against everything else. The funny thing is, when I was the busiest in my life, I was actually in the best shape. So it’s not a time problem—it’s a desire and consistency problem.

I want to get back into jogging and lifting, especially after dealing with past shoulder injuries. Dance Dance Revolution is still my favorite workout, but it’s tough when the garage isn’t cleaned up (where I keep the dance pad). Sometimes the barrier isn’t motivation—it’s clutter.

I used to do:

• Push-ups
• Crunches
• Light lifting
• Jogging
• DDR or P90X

And I could bounce back quickly. Now, with more responsibilities, I can’t just “go hard for 30 days” and magically reset. I need a slower, more sustainable ramp-up. Better eating. Smaller habits. Less “all or nothing.”

Today I got outside and jogged a bit. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something. And right now, something is exactly what I need.

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Looking Ahead

Over the next few weeks:

• Keep improving the home automation setup
• Start working toward getting outdoor cameras
• Work on sustainable fitness
• Drop a few pounds through consistency, not intensity

Small steps, steady progress.