Recent Posts

Creating a Github Hosted Blog

Currently taking a cybersecurity bootcamp through work as a side hustle. Part of what I'm doing in the class is documenting some things for myself and for others in the cohort that they might want to also do for the inevitable job hunt. Today's effort is spinning up a professional…

Pi-Hole Happiness

Definitely noticed that internet surfing has improved. I mean I knew it would but not to the degree it has.

Step 2 - Get A Dog

Bit of a non-technical sidestep…. I got a dog named Lafayette. A Great Pyrenees mix to be exact. Jesus, I forgot what its like to own a dog. To be able to talk to the creature and know that it understands nothing of what you are saying and yet if…

Step 1 - Pi Hole

Going to clean up my home setup. First step was to cut down on the crap ads and other stuff when browsing the web. I’ve set one up before so I figured it would be straight forward…. It would be if I didn’t have ATT and their supplied router. It’s…

Actions Not Words

I’m going to start this off with the main point. I love this realization for my mom. In a very real sense of the world it reassures me. I’m too damn old though to not realize that the tone of what I say leaves this too nuainced to properly convey…

WGU

Just now starting looking at the first class I'm taking at WGU. It's 1:44 AM on Saturday... Why I'm not asleep, I just don't know. What I do know is that I'm doubting my decision to do this degree. The work will be a slog. Not complex enough to make…

A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

My laptop has started getting flaky. I would be go along using it and then a random crash would occur. Or a reboot would fail. Etc, etc, etc... Confirmed my suspicions by running a memory diagnostic and found that the RAM is failing. $100 or so later and when the…

Apathy Wins

Started trawling through the PPP dataset and decided to focus on Bentonville based loans. That was a mistake. So many businesses that I know thrived during the pandemic or otherwise took advantage of the PPP loan program. Business where the owner has been publicly hateful to minorities. Or dismissive of…

Can't stop the signal, Mal.

I've gotten antsy about not doing some sort of large project. A side hustle to either push my understanding or create a new bullet point on my resume. I have plenty of work and other interests but a weak siren's call keeps rattling around in my brain. So I'll start…

Disclose The Agent - Write up

Decided to start back up with some basic training after someone mentioned LetsDefend.io. The site impressed me. Here is a writeup on one of their public facing challenges that kind of shows what to expect. Disclose the Agent Premise is that you've got a PCAP file and you need to…

Repeating Pattern

find . -type f -exec grep -li TXT_STRING {} ; strings /dir/to/executable | grep TXT_STRING lsof -i -P -n ... ... The number of times that I have to run these same commands. Find the string of text that is in the log file and where did it come from.

Big Feelings With Big Songs

I have had to explain why I like musicals on a few occasions. Usually a soft pause happens in a conversation where that is revealed but occasionally a direct question is asked. It is always a weird one because I have to guess what level of info do I reveal.

Derailed

I married a goddamn musician. Ain’t no way to make that shit right. - Ladonna, Treme S1E1 “Do You Know What It Means” There is no way to pussyfoot around this. Last couple years went south for me as it did for many. COVID sure as hell contributed but in…

Comptia Security

Starting the second part of my pivot triangle. Degree, certs, and proof of work. The certs part is going to be some of the roughest parts of the path. College is cheap and success is pretty broadly defined. (Make straight C’s and still have a degree…) For the certs I’ve…

Bellevue

My employer, Walmart, has started offering a tuition benefit to all employees. It’s mostly geared for associates trying to get their first degree but it is open to everyone. It works out to a dollar a day, they cover all other tuition and books. That was too enticing to pass…

Endobariatric

I’m writing this as I sit in the Endobariatric Hospital in Piedras Negras, Mexico awaiting surgery tomororw. I’m on the cusp of turning 40 and my midlife crisis is yielding a vertical sleeve gastonomy to help me overcome my weight. Harnessing this nervousness led me down the path of putting…

Weight Loss Surgery

I’m a big old boy. No doubting it. Six foot six inches and a weight that fluctuates from 360lbs to 410lbs. I’ll never be a small man but I’m looking at 40 and realizing that I miss out on shit. Airplane travel, riding carnival rides with the kids, swimming with…

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

That’s Empire, Louisiana and that’s my home town. A small town that is an hour’s drive outside of New Orleans. It’s where I actually grew up but let’s be honest, which are people going to know? Most people’s visual memory of New Orleans in the media probably stems from the…

Miles and Miles of Corn With a Beer Finish

The route My physical stretch goal this year is to ride my bike across Iowa. I’m stoked to do this after watching all the various recap videos but my biggest fear isn’t the ride itself. It’s the 8,500 strangers and the sleeping outside in a tent. Not gonna lie, those…

Observability Summit

Attended this as a pre-KubeCon 2018 event. My current task at work revolves around the Online Grocery product at Walmart. https://grocery.walmart.com/ It’s a organicly grown product that evolved from previous efforts internally. We’ve got a hodge podge of technologies running a code base that stretches back from years ago. Definitely…

Riding In The Rain

Due to a series of (un)fortunate events this evening I had one of the best nights in a while. One of those nights that recharge you. Powers your spirits enough to lift those around you as well. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying out this whole bike…