Three Servers and a Parking Lot
I started with one goal: take ownership of my domains in a way that didn’t require constant attention.
The obvious approach was to point everything at one server and call it done. One parking lot, one handler, one certificate strategy, one mental model.
And for a moment, that worked.
But while I was migrating domains, I noticed something I’ve learned the hard way over the years: when personal identity and public production share the same infrastructure, the boundary eventually gets blurry — and when it gets blurry, it gets stressful.
So I changed the plan mid-flight.
Instead of one server, I split the world into three:- Production — the projects that can be weird, satirical, or experimental
- Family — the domains that attach to real names and real people
- Museum — the souvenir shelf, the “this mattered once” section
It cost me a couple hours of redo work, but it bought me something I care about more than time: clean separation.
This is one of those moves that looks like overkill from the outside, but feels like peace from the inside.
The practical benefit is obvious: fewer accidental crossovers, fewer OPSEC concerns, fewer “wait—what server is this on?” moments.
The deeper benefit is harder to describe: it makes the whole system feel like it has rooms. Like I’m not trying to live in a storage unit.
The parking lot still exists — but now it’s organized by purpose.
And that makes it easier to build.