Relaunching the blog

Cover photo by Joel Vodell on Unsplash

Background #

I got burned out on work, writing, and everything in general during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Working in information security has been known to be a major source of burnout and I experienced it firsthand–my energy levels were running on fumes, my creativity tanked, and I was agitated all the time.

I took some time away from writing to recharge. Ok, I took 2 full years away from writing to recharge. Now that I am back, I’m going to do things a little differently.

A new purpose and some accountability #

I’m going to write on topics I’m interested in or care about instead of strictly technical posts.

I will not publish daily.

Weekly? Maybe. Monthly? Maybe.

My primary goal for 2024 is to consistently write, edit, and publish articles throughout the year.

To help me achieve this goal, I have:

• started a notebook where I can incubate ideas
• created a simple but flexible weekly writing schedule
• found an accountability partner to keep me on track

Themes you can expect #

I expect posts to generally fall under one or more of these categories:

• AWS & “The Cloud"™: AWS is still my go to for deploying repeatable & secure infrastructure and maintaining projects and web apps. Based on personal experience, I have a lot of great examples of what to do (and what not to do) when it comes to Serverless, DynamoDB, and Automation & Security on AWS in general.
• “Company of One”: In 2023, I read Paul Jarvis’ Company of One and his approach to building a fulfilling career that does not focus on scale spoke to me.
• DFIR & Information Security: I have been in digital forensics/incident response field for approximately 20 years. I’ve seen things. I’ve lived through things. I’m seeing things repeat themselves.
• Flying: I have my FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate (small umanned aerial system) but I’m currently working towards my private pilot certificate.
• SaaS: I havea been toying with 3 different software as a service (SaaS) side projects in an attempt to learn new skills and implement some of the Company of One principles. I’ll share some of the lessons I’ve learned on SaaS planning, development, internationalization, and payment processing.
• Software Development: Learning Go, Rust, and Vue.js helped me overcome my burnout. Go in particular is allowing me to finish many of the projects I’ve started.
• Video Production & Editing: I am in love with DaVinci Resolve and my recently acquired Blackmagic Speed Editor.
• Attempting to become a Polyglot: I’m a native English speaker but I know just enough German, Spanish, & Mandarin to cause an international incident. My goal is to get to A2 and HSK2 or higher in all 3 this year. Ambitious but achievable.

What’s next? #

I have to get back to writing…