Just another weirdo. Refuses to keep the peace pace.
Whew, it has been a crazy year. I’ve not written nearly as often in this journal as I’d originally hoped for but I think that maybe this is a good thing since the root cause is kind of the topic of this post. I’ve been busy doing things. Things that are completely out of my comfort zone. Things that make me travel (not a big fan of travel). Things that make me sweat. Things that make me nervous.
At this point, I’d like to share a little big life lesson that I’ve learned along the way in my journey. It’s good to be uncomfortable. In fact, it’s the only way I’ve found that I can lead a fulfilling life.
This isn’t a super revolutionary concept and is in fact, pretty well known. For me, I wanted to list/share how this has helped me for personal growth and fulfillment. Now let’s list this year in a nutshell:
So over the past couple of months, I’ve spent a fair amount of time learning things. New-to-me languages, re-visting my attacker stomping ground or “roots” (methodologies and toolsets), as well as new defenses mechanisms being considered for web standards. Outside of technology, I’ve tackled new physical challenges both in the gym, diet, and learning a new form of martial arts. …and no, I’m not going to talk a lot about that because I can’t stand the “crossfit” or “paleo diet” effect - you know - that time someone did it and then it became their whole identity? Newp newp newp.
But, I really think it is important to stay a “forever student” for several reasons:
This week I started at GitHub working on the security team. As part of our indoctrination to GitHub, we learn about the company’s core values - chief amongst them, is empathy. This kind of reminded me of a recent situation since they are tangentially related.
I had an interesting revelation and conversation recently. My son started Kindergarten a few weeks ago. We’re learning the ropes as newcomers to the school system. During their indoctrination, the school reminded us that some children have peanut allergies and that, in order to make it a more inclusive environment, we should avoid packing items that contain nuts for our kid’s lunch and snacks.
We just took a family walk not long ago and during that walk, I remembered a recent exprience that should be shared.
Several days ago, I tried an experiment with my 5 year old son related to emotional control. He was on his 3rd night in a row of sleep deprivation because he is a night owl and was/is adjusting to the new kindergarten schedule of early mornings. He is normally not one to have outbursts and is usually a really incredibly rational kid - which, is why I even tried this with him and will warn you - mileage may vary.
I wanted to focus on writing. I’ve purposfully omitted fancy features like social media shares and widgets from this site. I did not host on Medium or some other blogging platform because I hestitate to even call it a blog. More of a journal. This is just a spot for my thoughts as they come (and often go) and as such - opted for the most simple writing tool (for me). I chose a user page on GitHub, pointed my domain at GitHub’s DNS, filled in the custom domain option on the GitHub project, selected a custom theme in the settings (minimal), and voila.
I look forward to writing again.