In keeping with noting down the good and the bad briefly each month here is February.
The good
- Managed the 10k steps a day challenge for another month. Some days it was hard and other days I was way way over the minimum. Energy levels returning. It was particularly challenging given the run of epic storms battering the country limiting outside time but we got that done folks.
- Integrating a little weight lifting and pushups (standing up vs a wall for now) into the mix which have a major effect for me personally when burning calories. Trying to make that habitual as well. Picked up a kettlebell towards the end of the month and it really kicked my ass. Primo bit of kit that and I would highly recommend.
- Prepared a talk called “Intro to SQL Injection” for Glasgow Defcon. With January having gone great, I saw that there was no speaker booked and figured why not challenge myself to pull something together over a weekend. Vulnerable LAMP stack created, application and slides pulled together without fuss.
- Delivered said talk. Despite a few niggles about the venue layout and the microphone it seemed to go down well. Met some new legends (EHBEHCEH, KathrynMcBain, and laughingFalkor), and saw some returning legends for the first time in ages (wintervirus). Nobody seemed offended if I go for more advanced SQLi next month. So committed to doing round2 in March!
- Went on holiday to a log cabin and had a genuinely relaxing time (despite the best efforts of storm Ciara making it a little leaky).
- A colleague had a big test and not enough time to fully smash everything so gave me an absolute open goal of an RCE to play with. Not entirely trivial to get working but I managed to get a webshell, then reverse shell out of it at least and get some good onward findings. Felt good 😀
- Prepared a talk called “Intro(ish) to SQL Injection” for AbertayHackers after having my presence demanded by Casual_Unknown and akhanhack following what I call my triumphant talk at G3C in 2019. Triumphant because I went for joy, and folks came out smiling. Unfortunately see The Bad section below 😦
- I have used a FitBit to track my sleeping pattern in 2020. Fortunately or unfortunately I have no data from 2019 when all I can tell you is “living permanently awake and on high alert” which was unhealthy. By now I have a graph showing sleep quality if not duration improving. In a world of incremental gains I am saying this is definitely the most positive change to see. It is very likely the result of appropriate hydration in the daytime, and the moderate exercise.
- Continuing to utilise childcare to get more time with my partner. As the kids get more independent it is absolutely vital to stop the vicious holding pattern we had established where a parent was always on duty.
- Finally, over in Audiobook land I listened to almost all of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Techniques for Retraining Your Brain. I say book. It is clearly a series of lectures with indicative interviews with patients recorded for you to listen in on. It is helping me have the language and critical thinking required to take 2020 Pirate to a better place.
The bad
- Cancelling for said “Intro(ish) to SQL Injection” talk the morning off. Woke up. Kid was sick and my partner was sick. It made me feel absolutely awful to cancel something.
- In raking though the positives at least more of the content for DC44141 in March had been completed earlier than I would have.
- At least I wasn’t cancelling because I had some mad panic attack or anything.
Highlight of the month
- My kids are getting a much better version of their dad. While I have always been present and have tried my best. They are getting a more energetic, less sleep deprived version. I am importantly far less shouty than 2019’s immobile and permanently in pain shitshow of a father.
cornerpirate.com 