DuhLaurien on Nostr: npub1t2pet…fpnsm Spence and I refer to all of this as "on chain, off chain, ...

npub1t2petmpfgkdq08x2k6t6hkalqn0h84czuslmgr5xm0pdqptcjuwqsfpnsm (npub1t2p…pnsm) Spence and I refer to all of this as "on chain, off chain, cocaine, shitstain" on Bowl After Bowl. 😂 DarthCoin is who I look up to as a noderunner. He writes tons of documentation and has a decent blog. I have been running an Umbrel for ~3 years and didn't have to worry about any maintenance until very recently. Here is a post from Darth on getting started with an Umbrel if you choose to go that route:
https://medium.com/@darthcoin/umbrel-btc-ln-node-getting-started-9919a2e64d8f

Yes, STAY AWAY FROM EXCHANGES if possible! I highly recommend attending local BTC meetups and finding ways to simply earn sats, like StackerNews, Nostr, etc.