Aly and me Jammin'! We had so much fun!Monday, August 25, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
I have my appetite back!
For the past couple of weeks, I have not been able to eat anything. For some reason, no food sounded good to me. This is a big problem for someone that loves food as much as I do. The positive side is that I was able to lose some weight, but not eating kinda sucks. However, for some reason, last night I just couldn't get enough food! It was so nice. Im trying to think of all the things that I did recently that could have helped... I did a leg workout, I ate custard, I watched Pretty Woman with Lisa... Who knows, but I feel great this morning. I also got a good night's rest. I stayed in the guest bedroom last night because that is the only room in the house that has a bed and away from croaking toads. Anyway, got some sleep, got my appetite back, I'm in a great mood, its friday...Im ready to blow it up!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Dark Side Calling?
so, yesterday, my co-worker and I went to cowtown to a presentation about hacking wireless networks. Every time I go to these talks, I want to come back and try out some stuff. I suppose its the dark side in me calling me to do nefarious things. I suppose I owe it to my profession to actually try out some of the things the bad guys do, but its hard to balance work, family, and hacking. That being said, I secured an atheros card and downloaded some tools. Time to go down the rabbit hole...oh and for the record, the food at the North Dallas ISSA chapter is much better. In fact, the "BBQ" that the cowtown chapter ordered pretty much tasted like fail. I couldn't eat dinner because I was so put off by it.
The toads are keeping me up again tonight. About twice a year, we get toads that come to our pond and call out for mates. The mating call of woodhouse toads is like nails on a chalkboard to me and they sure are persistent! All freakin' night this guy called out! Can someone get this guy a mate for cryin' out loud!
The good thing, I suppose, about being up last night is that I got to watch the finals women's beach volleyball match. I am amazed at how good May/Wash are. It didn't even seem like the Chinese were at the same level. Playing in the rain made for an epic match! Go USA!
I seriously need coffee...
Actually played volleyball a couple nights ago...sucked it up. I may be getting burned out. I might also be getting desperate. I almost purchased some JumpSoles.
I seriously need a vacation...
The toads are keeping me up again tonight. About twice a year, we get toads that come to our pond and call out for mates. The mating call of woodhouse toads is like nails on a chalkboard to me and they sure are persistent! All freakin' night this guy called out! Can someone get this guy a mate for cryin' out loud!
The good thing, I suppose, about being up last night is that I got to watch the finals women's beach volleyball match. I am amazed at how good May/Wash are. It didn't even seem like the Chinese were at the same level. Playing in the rain made for an epic match! Go USA!
I seriously need coffee...
Actually played volleyball a couple nights ago...sucked it up. I may be getting burned out. I might also be getting desperate. I almost purchased some JumpSoles.
I seriously need a vacation...
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Catching up!
Whew, its been a while since I have been able to blog. The past 2 weeks have been a blur really. Ill try to sum up:
DefCon 16: This was my first DefCon and I must say that I was very overwhelmed! The hacker community is by far the most 'intense' crowd I have been around from a technology standpoint. There is a certain level of expertise that is expected before going into any of the talks. All this discussion about hijacking border gateway protocols and poisoned DNS cache put my brain into overheat mode. I think I almost committed hari-kari after hearing Mati Aharoni talk about how he exploited a bug in a windows process to make a 0-day. I had to dig way back to my computer science days as he walked us step by step in his debugger how he manipulated the stack and injected scripts to work his 'foo'. I was nearly in a state of drool, when I was immediately snapped back to reality by the cheers of 1000s of hackers rejoicing at the end result, a basic command prompt.
Aside from the talks, there was lots of hacker culture to take in as well. There was wall to wall black t-shirts and cargo shorts/pants. Anti-establishment was abound everywhere. In fact, I remember seeing one guy at the vendor booths selling anti-Christianity bumper stickers. I suppose Christianity is the ultimate establishment.
I did go to a party or two while I was there. Definitely a flashback to my college days. One party had the theme of 'freakshow'. There was a pregnant fortune teller, a contortionist, a man-baby, DJ, and beer...lots of beer (did I mention lots of beer?). Lets just say that it was all an excuse to consume said mass quatities of beer and act stupid. I probably spent too much time at the parties, but, hey, I was there for the experience right? All that being said, I saw pictures of some of the other parties I wasn't invited to and the ones I made it to were VERY tame in comparison.
Overall, I learned how to (among other things):
- hack internet kiosks (in less than 120 seconds)
- pick locks
- exploit facebook and other social networking sites
and
- turn off tvs using the conference badge.
Ill post some pics once I get them off the camera.
mmm...breakfast at the Peppermill
Me and Jo waiting for the next talk. There was a lot of floor sitting that weekend. btw, I think DefCon is one of the few times where I felt out of place wearing athletic apparel. *shrug*
Lockpicking Demo.
Buzzword Survivor. These poor souls sat in a chair listening to 36 hours (straight) of vendor talks for a chance to win $10,000. They could not leave or fall asleep. The bad part is that they were smack dab in the middle of the room that had all kinds of other interesting things going on. Looking at this made me wonder if hell is anything like Buzzword Survivor...except without the chance to win money.
W@rk:
Unfortunately, my mini vacation in Vegas had to end and now its back to work. I am hip deep in, well, w@rk. I have a major project coming up that has me all stressed out. It will be my first major project since working for this company. One of my co-workers was asking me when I was going to take down the network. Apparently everyone else on the team has taken down the network at one time or another. I suppose this is my first opportunity...Im due.
Last friday was another Grill Friday. My boss and partner grill cook was out on vacation, so I got to man the grill solo. Lots of burgers this time. We raised about $150 for charity this time. I think there were a lot of people out of the office, but everyone again had a great time!
Today, Im going to head into Ft Worth for an ISSA lunch and learn meeting. They are going to be demoing some technologies that is relevant to one of my other projects. The ISSA chapter in Dallas had great food. I hope the Ft Worth chapter doesn't disappoint :p
Family:
This past sunday, I finally made it back to church after a couple weeks of world traveling and volleyball tournaments. It felt so nice to be back at church. I think my soul was calling for it. Lisa and I went to the college service at Denton Bible, called The Well. Its a more 'intimate' service aimed at the college aged crowd. We really enjoyed it as the morning service atmosphere seems so 'mechanical'. At the Well, they have a smaller audience, but do a really good job of creating a really intimate atmosphere. I suppose this will change now that school is back in, but we really enjoyed it.
Alycea is getting bigger and bigger by the minute. She has learned how to balance herself on the edge of the sink so that she can play in the water. I guess as long as she turns the water off after she is done...
She has also taken an interest in chopsticks. In fact, she likes the idea of eating with chopsticks so much that it doesn't matter what is on the chopstick, she just likes eating from them. Lisa and I use this to our advantage to feed her things she wouldn't otherwise eat. I put together a set of 'beginner' chopsticks (using a wad of paper and a rubber band) so she can practice.
Speaking of chopsticks, we have been watching way too much olympics lately. I, of course, love the volleyball matches and Lisa enjoys the swimming and gymnastics. Alycea even tries to imitate some of the gymnasts. If she weren't so clumsy, I would consider putting her into gymnastics...maybe gymnastics is what she needs (but she has some serious clumsy genes to overcome...she gets them from her daddy).
Volleyball:
I haven't had much time to play volleyball much. I did meet with a couple of guys in Frisco that are interested in creating a USAV team. I have been toying with the idea of playing again, but I have been so out of the scene, that I don't know many people that I would want (or would even want to have me) on their team. I feel a bit lucky as 2 of them are actual setters. Finding setters and middles has always been a problem. The problem with volleyball around here is that it is so 'click-ish'. I have played for a long time in this area that I know pretty much everyone in some sort or fashion, but I have come to a realization that I really don't feel at home with any of them. There is just something about volleyball people that is not 'compatible' with me. Maybe because I don't like to drink. Maybe I have different priorities *shrug*...but I digress. Because of this, I have to work extra hard to find the right people to play. Sometimes I feel like the Mavericks when they were going all over the globe looking for players because it was just so hard to get people to play in Dallas. I think that if the stars align correctly, I might be able to go into this coming season with a really good middle (I'm trying to keep him a secret until the season starts) and at least 1 setter. I just need to find a really consistent outside hitter now.
Other:
Weighed in at 197 this morning. Lisa is complaining that my booty doesn't fill my pants anymore. I may have to go shopping (I hate shopping for clothes).
Haven't cooked anything significant in a while. Im kinda missing it. Although Lisa is enjoying not having to clean the kitchen up after me. Im thinking Labor Day may see a brisket or two.
Game day was also this past weekend. I got to play a lot of lighter games. Considering what has been going on in my life in the past couple of weeks, I was quite ok with that.
DefCon 16: This was my first DefCon and I must say that I was very overwhelmed! The hacker community is by far the most 'intense' crowd I have been around from a technology standpoint. There is a certain level of expertise that is expected before going into any of the talks. All this discussion about hijacking border gateway protocols and poisoned DNS cache put my brain into overheat mode. I think I almost committed hari-kari after hearing Mati Aharoni talk about how he exploited a bug in a windows process to make a 0-day. I had to dig way back to my computer science days as he walked us step by step in his debugger how he manipulated the stack and injected scripts to work his 'foo'. I was nearly in a state of drool, when I was immediately snapped back to reality by the cheers of 1000s of hackers rejoicing at the end result, a basic command prompt.
Aside from the talks, there was lots of hacker culture to take in as well. There was wall to wall black t-shirts and cargo shorts/pants. Anti-establishment was abound everywhere. In fact, I remember seeing one guy at the vendor booths selling anti-Christianity bumper stickers. I suppose Christianity is the ultimate establishment.
I did go to a party or two while I was there. Definitely a flashback to my college days. One party had the theme of 'freakshow'. There was a pregnant fortune teller, a contortionist, a man-baby, DJ, and beer...lots of beer (did I mention lots of beer?). Lets just say that it was all an excuse to consume said mass quatities of beer and act stupid. I probably spent too much time at the parties, but, hey, I was there for the experience right? All that being said, I saw pictures of some of the other parties I wasn't invited to and the ones I made it to were VERY tame in comparison.
Overall, I learned how to (among other things):
- hack internet kiosks (in less than 120 seconds)
- pick locks
- exploit facebook and other social networking sites
and
- turn off tvs using the conference badge.
Ill post some pics once I get them off the camera.
mmm...breakfast at the Peppermill
Me and Jo waiting for the next talk. There was a lot of floor sitting that weekend. btw, I think DefCon is one of the few times where I felt out of place wearing athletic apparel. *shrug*
Buzzword Survivor. These poor souls sat in a chair listening to 36 hours (straight) of vendor talks for a chance to win $10,000. They could not leave or fall asleep. The bad part is that they were smack dab in the middle of the room that had all kinds of other interesting things going on. Looking at this made me wonder if hell is anything like Buzzword Survivor...except without the chance to win money.W@rk:
Unfortunately, my mini vacation in Vegas had to end and now its back to work. I am hip deep in, well, w@rk. I have a major project coming up that has me all stressed out. It will be my first major project since working for this company. One of my co-workers was asking me when I was going to take down the network. Apparently everyone else on the team has taken down the network at one time or another. I suppose this is my first opportunity...Im due.
Last friday was another Grill Friday. My boss and partner grill cook was out on vacation, so I got to man the grill solo. Lots of burgers this time. We raised about $150 for charity this time. I think there were a lot of people out of the office, but everyone again had a great time!
Today, Im going to head into Ft Worth for an ISSA lunch and learn meeting. They are going to be demoing some technologies that is relevant to one of my other projects. The ISSA chapter in Dallas had great food. I hope the Ft Worth chapter doesn't disappoint :p
Family:
This past sunday, I finally made it back to church after a couple weeks of world traveling and volleyball tournaments. It felt so nice to be back at church. I think my soul was calling for it. Lisa and I went to the college service at Denton Bible, called The Well. Its a more 'intimate' service aimed at the college aged crowd. We really enjoyed it as the morning service atmosphere seems so 'mechanical'. At the Well, they have a smaller audience, but do a really good job of creating a really intimate atmosphere. I suppose this will change now that school is back in, but we really enjoyed it.
Alycea is getting bigger and bigger by the minute. She has learned how to balance herself on the edge of the sink so that she can play in the water. I guess as long as she turns the water off after she is done...
She has also taken an interest in chopsticks. In fact, she likes the idea of eating with chopsticks so much that it doesn't matter what is on the chopstick, she just likes eating from them. Lisa and I use this to our advantage to feed her things she wouldn't otherwise eat. I put together a set of 'beginner' chopsticks (using a wad of paper and a rubber band) so she can practice.
Speaking of chopsticks, we have been watching way too much olympics lately. I, of course, love the volleyball matches and Lisa enjoys the swimming and gymnastics. Alycea even tries to imitate some of the gymnasts. If she weren't so clumsy, I would consider putting her into gymnastics...maybe gymnastics is what she needs (but she has some serious clumsy genes to overcome...she gets them from her daddy).
Volleyball:
I haven't had much time to play volleyball much. I did meet with a couple of guys in Frisco that are interested in creating a USAV team. I have been toying with the idea of playing again, but I have been so out of the scene, that I don't know many people that I would want (or would even want to have me) on their team. I feel a bit lucky as 2 of them are actual setters. Finding setters and middles has always been a problem. The problem with volleyball around here is that it is so 'click-ish'. I have played for a long time in this area that I know pretty much everyone in some sort or fashion, but I have come to a realization that I really don't feel at home with any of them. There is just something about volleyball people that is not 'compatible' with me. Maybe because I don't like to drink. Maybe I have different priorities *shrug*...but I digress. Because of this, I have to work extra hard to find the right people to play. Sometimes I feel like the Mavericks when they were going all over the globe looking for players because it was just so hard to get people to play in Dallas. I think that if the stars align correctly, I might be able to go into this coming season with a really good middle (I'm trying to keep him a secret until the season starts) and at least 1 setter. I just need to find a really consistent outside hitter now.
Other:
Weighed in at 197 this morning. Lisa is complaining that my booty doesn't fill my pants anymore. I may have to go shopping (I hate shopping for clothes).
Haven't cooked anything significant in a while. Im kinda missing it. Although Lisa is enjoying not having to clean the kitchen up after me. Im thinking Labor Day may see a brisket or two.
Game day was also this past weekend. I got to play a lot of lighter games. Considering what has been going on in my life in the past couple of weeks, I was quite ok with that.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
This past weekend!
Well, I survived SpikeFest 08! SpikeFest is an annual outdoor grass volleyball tournament. I have never played in SpikeFest and I made an effort to pull together a team this year to compete. I had a great time, although the weather was absolutely a beating. On Sunday, it got up to 107!!! As mostly an indoor player, this was insane. Lisa still goofs on me for even attempting to play in that weather (in fact, she was even planning all the things I could get done in the yard because I 'loved the heat so much'). My team played great, although we didn't get past the second round, we did finish second in our pool. To our credit, all the matches we lost, we took it to a third game (best 2 out of 3).
Monday morning, I woke up with all kinds of soreness, nicks, bruises, aching this and that....you name it. The worst part was my toes. Apparently the shoes I played in were not good for grass volleyball. I did do a lot of side to side work as I did more blocking than hitting. Anyway, I have a few more blisters on my feet than I had before. Overall, Im glad I did it and I felt that I played with a team with good skill and, even better, a great attitude about everything.
What else...
I have tons of work to catch up on. There has been a lot of bad stuff out there that has been keeping us on our toes. The whole DNS Cache Poisoning deal has everyone up and arms. I suppose there is always something out there. The bad guys have way too much time and money on their hands.
Speaking of...Defcon this weekend. Another first for me. Should be fun. Vegas, here I come!
Not work related...
I had my first celebrity look-like accusal a couple of weeks ago. Some girl behind the counter of a local candy store was eying me strangely while me and the family were buying some goodies. After a while, she said I looked familiar and that I looked like 'one of the guys on Lost'. Now, there are all kinds of guys on that show, some are people you wouldn't mind looking like, and others that you would rather not, and believe me, after she told me this, I mentally went down the list of guys that she could have meant. This was a very neurotic moment for me...what if I look like Hurley or Ben (Ben is not exactly 'ugly', but he does have a weird look to him)? Anyway, after we got home, I frantically looked through the web trying to figure out who I may resemble and I think my mind is at ease with Miles. Lisa said that he looks 'typically asian' and agreed that I COULD resemble him (more so than the other guys on the show...which Im ok with). Some people may like being accused of looking like a celeb, but I'm ok with not going through that experience again.
And lastly, a quote that I found interesting...actually an answer to a riddle:
'You give your keys to your best friend and have him drive the old lady home. Then you sit with the girl because she is the girl of your dreams"
Monday morning, I woke up with all kinds of soreness, nicks, bruises, aching this and that....you name it. The worst part was my toes. Apparently the shoes I played in were not good for grass volleyball. I did do a lot of side to side work as I did more blocking than hitting. Anyway, I have a few more blisters on my feet than I had before. Overall, Im glad I did it and I felt that I played with a team with good skill and, even better, a great attitude about everything.
What else...
I have tons of work to catch up on. There has been a lot of bad stuff out there that has been keeping us on our toes. The whole DNS Cache Poisoning deal has everyone up and arms. I suppose there is always something out there. The bad guys have way too much time and money on their hands.
Speaking of...Defcon this weekend. Another first for me. Should be fun. Vegas, here I come!
Not work related...
I had my first celebrity look-like accusal a couple of weeks ago. Some girl behind the counter of a local candy store was eying me strangely while me and the family were buying some goodies. After a while, she said I looked familiar and that I looked like 'one of the guys on Lost'. Now, there are all kinds of guys on that show, some are people you wouldn't mind looking like, and others that you would rather not, and believe me, after she told me this, I mentally went down the list of guys that she could have meant. This was a very neurotic moment for me...what if I look like Hurley or Ben (Ben is not exactly 'ugly', but he does have a weird look to him)? Anyway, after we got home, I frantically looked through the web trying to figure out who I may resemble and I think my mind is at ease with Miles. Lisa said that he looks 'typically asian' and agreed that I COULD resemble him (more so than the other guys on the show...which Im ok with). Some people may like being accused of looking like a celeb, but I'm ok with not going through that experience again.
And lastly, a quote that I found interesting...actually an answer to a riddle:
'You give your keys to your best friend and have him drive the old lady home. Then you sit with the girl because she is the girl of your dreams"
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