Frank Schwenk

[█▀▀▀█] About Me

Frank Schwenk. IT pro by day, relentless tinkerer by night. Sometimes the other way round.

I build things that work (most of the time), break things to learn (always on purpose), and refuse to accept that printers are allowed to exist in their current form.

I solve tech problems with a mix of logic, caffeine, and occasional swearing. My other passions? Billiards for the strategy, photography for the chaos, and AI for the existential dread.

I believe in:

• Tech that empowers, not overwhelms.
• Life's like pool - sometimes you need a soft touch, sometimes you smash it.
• There's no such thing as "too many photos" (only not enough storage).

[█▄▄▄█] Why I Love Being A Nerd

People think IT is all about staring at screens and fixing printers (okay, sometimes it is). But to me, it's like being a digital detective, builder, and wizard all at once. Here's why I geek out over it:

1. The "Fix It" High

There's no better feeling than when a stubborn bug finally cracks after hours of trial and error. That moment when the error message disappears? Chef's kiss. It's like winning a boss battle - except the boss is your own patience.

2. Building Stuff from Nothing

Whether it's tweaking code, setting up a home lab, or automating the dumbest task (yes, my PC now sends me memes at 3 PM), IT lets me create things that actually work (most of the time). It's LEGO for grown-ups, but with more keyboard smashing.

3. The Constant "Wait, How?!"

Tech never stops evolving. One day you're mastering Windows XP, the next you're yelling at ChatGPT to explain Kubernetes. It's exhausting but never boring - like a treadmill that occasionally shoots out free cloud credits.

4. IT People Are My Tribe

No one else gets excited about a well-organized cable rack or a 10-line script that saves 5 seconds. Swap war stories about printer demons or RAID failures, and suddenly you've got friends for life.

[█▀█▀█] Why I Love Billiards

Billiards isn't just a game to me - it's a weirdly perfect mix of focus, frustration, and fun. I'm no pro, but here's why I keep coming back to the table:

1. The Click of the Balls

There's something so satisfying about the sound of a clean break, or the quiet thunk of a ball sinking into the pocket. It's like ASMR for competitive people.

2. It's Chess with Sticks

I love that billiards looks chill but is secretly a brain game. Every shot feels like a puzzle: Do I play it safe? Go for the flashy shot? (Spoiler: I usually miss the flashy shot.)

3. The Social Hustle

Some of my favorite memories are late-night games with friends, trash-talking and laughing when someone scratches on the 8-ball. The only game where my "thinking pose" (leaning on the cue) makes me look strategic instead of just lost.

4. Controlled Chaos

Let's be real - anyone who says billiards is predictable has never seen me play. What looks like a disastrous miss often becomes my most creative shot. I've learned to trust the beautiful disorder of physics - that rogue bank shot you never planned, the accidental English that saves your game. Sometimes the best strategy is to let the table surprise you. After all, if billiards was truly predictable, hustlers would be out of business and 8-ball wouldn't ruin friendships.

[█▀▄▀█] Why I Love Photography

There's something magical about freezing a moment forever - turning a blink into something you can hold. Here's why I'm obsessed with photography:

1. The World Looks Different Through a Lens

Suddenly, ordinary things become art. A rusty door, a coffee stain, a stranger's laugh - you notice details most people walk past. It's like seeing in secret code.

2. My Camera is a Time Machine

Photos don't just capture what happened - they trap how it felt. Flipping through old shots is like rewinding life: That sunset. That stupid inside joke. That face they made. Memory is messy, but pixels don't lie.

3. It's My Excuse to Explore

"I need better lighting" = wandering into back alleys at golden hour.
"Just one more shot" = talking to strangers or climbing questionable fences.
Photography turns errands into adventures.

4. Imperfection is the Point

Blurry candids, overexposed skies, that one bird photobombing everything - the "flaws" make it real. My gallery is full of happy accidents.

5. Sport & Stages - Where the Chaos Has a Deadline

Not everything I shoot is a quiet alley at golden hour. A lot of it is sports and live music - bodies in motion, bad light, zero retakes, and crowds that don't care about your composition.

Sports photography is patience and panic, usually in that order: you read the play two seconds ahead, miss the money shot anyway, and sometimes the "wrong" frame is the one that actually tells the story. Concerts are worse (in the best way): strobes, smoke, security giving you the side-eye, and one perfect moment when the light finally cooperates for half a shutter speed.

More of that work lives on f12.rocks and Instagram @f12.rocks - because some nights you don't get a second chance at the chorus.

[█▄▄▄█] Why I Care About Awareness

Some things matter more than hobbies or tech. Here's where I stand - and why speaking up (even quietly) counts:

1. Mental Health: It's Okay to Not Be Okay

I've learned the hard way that ignoring your brain's "check engine" light never ends well. Whether it's burnout, anxiety, or just feeling lost:

• Small steps help. A walk, deleting that toxic app, or saying "no" without guilt.
• Talk about it. Silence feeds stigma. (And yes, therapists are the ultimate debuggers for humans.)

2. No to Racism - Ever.

Tech, billiards, life - no space benefits from ignorance. I'm committed to:

• Listening more than speaking when others share their struggles.
• Calling out casual prejudice (even when it's awkward). Racism isn't "just a joke."

3. Inclusion Isn't Optional

From gaming lobbies to office meetings, everyone deserves a seat at the table. How?

• Amplify voices different from my own.
• Learn constantly - because "I didn't know" stops being an excuse once you know.

4. Democracy Isn't a Background Process

I'm in Germany. Lately the drift to the right isn't abstract news - it's neighbors, timelines, and "just asking questions" dressed up as normal. I'm not interested in both-sides theater when people's safety and dignity are on the line.

I won't pretend neutrality is a virtue. I believe in solidarity, anti-fascist clarity, and showing up - at the ballot box, in my own circles when someone talks bullshit, and whenever bigotry expects a free pass for being "polite."

This isn't a party platform. It's a line: human rights aren't negotiable, and silence isn't neutral when the loud voices get louder.

5. My Mental Health - or whatever is left of it

Some of this is labels, some is lived experience. Most brains run on Windows. Mine runs on some weird Arch-Debian hybrid nobody ships drivers for. Autistic, ADHD, gifted, neurodivergent - words I use in passing, not a CV. What follows is what I actually learned, not a TED talk.

• Specialists and tunnel vision. Too many doctors only see their own specialty. That's how you end up misdiagnosed, and a misdiagnosis buys you years of suffering you didn't need. I'm not anti-medicine. I'd just like someone to look at the whole picture once in a while.
• Autistic burnout is real. It's not "you need a vacation." It's your nervous system filing a bug report you can't mute. Recovery is slow, boring, and deeply unglamorous - and calling it laziness only drags it out.
• Still waiting for the spaceship. The one that picks me up and takes me back to my home planet. Until then I'm here, doing my best with a brain that never read the manual. Some days that's enough. Some days it isn't.
• The stuff we don't say out loud. Including suicidal thoughts. I'm not going to dress that up or hide it behind euphemisms. If you've been there, you know it isn't weakness or drama - it's a signal that something needs attention, loudly or quietly. Talking about it doesn't make it worse. Silence often does.

If you're in a mental health emergency in Germany, calling 112 is okay. You're allowed to. You should.

[█▀▄▀█] Artificial Intelligence: My Love Letter & Warning Label

This website was built with AI - and since then, so were more websites, a pile of tools, and experiments I've lost count of. (Still meta. Still my problem.) Here's my messy, updated take: I'm not just poking at chatbots for laughs anymore. I'm building with this stuff - and I'm still skeptical of anyone who says it's solved.

1. Vibe Coding Is a Real Job Now (Sort Of)

I live in that weird zone between "ship it" and "please don't ship that to production." AI helps me move faster on projects without ending in rabbit holes. It also helps me write code I have to actually understand before I trust it - because copy-paste without comprehension is just future-you's debug hell.

Tools move fast, models appear almost daily. I experiment. I break things on purpose. I also say no when the output smells like LinkedIn slop or when "just vibe it" would trash maintainability.

2. The Future? More Like Right Now

AI already curates our music, diagnoses diseases, and (badly) drives cars. It's not coming - it's here, awkwardly shuffling into every corner of life like a roommate who won't leave.

3. Yes, It Scares Me

Jobocalypse? Will AI replace me or just make me 10x weirder?
Deepfake Dating: Can we trust anything online soon?
The Paperclip Problem: What if GPT-99 decides we're the bugs in its code?

But fear's useless without action. So I:

• ✔ Use AI ethically (no robot plagiarism, thanks).
• ✔ Stay skeptical of AI "gurus" selling snake oil.
• ✔ Hope humans remember we're the ones with souls (for now).

[█▄▄▄█] Get in Touch

Interested in collaborating or just want to chat? Feel free to reach out!