Resolutions for 2011 December 27, 2010
Posted by Nick in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farShort Term:
Write a review on Name of the Wind by Thursday - Yes I know, this is a really REALLY small & easy resolution but might as well start with something simple
Figure out what certification to get next & get it before the end of the year – Need to figure out whether I wanna pursue a MCSA, MCSE, or CCNA. Hopefully will have this decided by March and start studying for it after PAX East
Finish my nanowrimo story from 2010 and get it and the 2009 one edited and in a decent readable format - Gonna finish the one for 2010 up before the end of 2011 and then with the help of a friend (whom I can hunt down) I am gonna have both stories edited past the first draft by March.
Build another web server – Build another web server, this time writing down specific instructions on how to do it again if I need to. Will get this done BEFORE I leave for PAX East.
Not-So Short Term
-Walk 2 to 3 miles daily
-Read a book once a month
-Write something once a month (short story, review, whatever)
-Do a podcast once a month (whether it be the AH one or something else maybe)
-Finish a game once a month
Long Term
-Run all races in Frankfort for the year (5k, 10k, Black Cat, etc)
-Update all my sites with content, an either improve their look on my own or find somebody to help out with the web design on all the sites
-Go to more technical meetups/conventions/etc (BGLUG meet ups, DefCon maybe?, etc)
-Get Rosetta Stone and brush back up on my rusty Spanish
Another year gone by
Posted by Nick in : Games,Life,Resolutions,Technology,Writing , add a commentWell, a lot and not a lot has happened this year 
-Tried my hand at enforcing for the first time at PAX East (FYI: It was Awesome)
- Got into a wreck courtesy of two random-arse deer. (They still managed to get up an run away afterwards)
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-Went to the KY State Fair for the first time with some friends….
…yea
-Attended PAX Prime in Seattle again, saw a time-traveling Delorean and many other awesome things (realized I couldn’t ever go to PAX as an attendee again, very weird not enforcing)
-Ate the best frigging burger I’ve ever eaten at a place called Lunchbox Laboratories
-Beat both Bioshock and Halo Reach (Bioshock was a long time coming, Halo Reach was a bit bittersweet being Bungie’s last Halo game)
-Got Security+ Certified after a month of studying. WOO
annnd yeah that’s pretty much this year put simply.
Resolution-wise I kinda fell flat this year….
-Get Another Certification - I actually achieved this resolution but only barely. The Security+ certification test I passed about 2 weeks ago but it took about a month an a half of constant studying . To this day I still can write out port numbers & protocols from memory, and know WAY more then I probably ever wanted to know about the different types of IDSs and firewalls that exist. Now I gotta start thinking about an MCSE/MCSA/or CCNA.
-Finish writing my novel - I paid a guy to edit my Nanowrimo story from 2009, give me some pointers and well THAT never happened. Honestly I knew even before I gave him the money that he wasn’t gonna finish editing it and while part of me is annoyed by this, the money helped him get out of a really rough spot so all in all I can’t be too mad about the situation. I tried my hand at Nanowrimo again this year but the timing of it wasn’t right, and I couldn’t finish it. The short an long end of it was I had to choose between either studying for my certification test or finishing up my Nanowrimo story, and the cert test took priority. I did write about 25,000 words or so, I think, and am maybe gonna try to finish it up before the end of this year, I guess I’ll see.
-Get out of debt completely - This sorta happened. I finally have my car paid off now, WOO but, the economy seems to keep getting worse, so the whole saving thing is still apparently impossible for me. I still have some debt but not a lot I guess, that’s the short version.
-Attempt to build a web server – It took about two or three days to get it down but I hosted a web server off my own file server case using Ubuntu. Now if you ask me HOW I did it, well that’s another matter. I think next year I might do this again but this time actually write more about how I am doing it, what steps I took, because while I know I know how to set up a web server, without notes I am just wasting a lot of extra time refiguring everything out again.
-Donate More - My plan for this year didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, maybe next year this will change.
-Do another BGLUG Presentation – I was gonna demonstrate a DoS attack and how to protect a web server against it. I had the web server built and would have demo’d a DoS attack but well…I chickened out. The truth of the matter is there is a big difference between hacking someone’s wireless security and trying to overload a personal web server your running off an ISP. ISPs tend to get a little annoyed when you even mention running a personal web server and getting them to go along with a fake DoS attack…yeah I’d have a better chance getting a date with Karen Gillan from Doctor Who
Long Term resolutions…..yeah let’s not even get into those…
Next up, resolutions for 2011!
The 15th! March 15, 2010
Posted by Nick in : Games,Job,Life,Resolutions,Running,Technology , add a commentNot much has been going on lately, been working my butt off per usual with work and random crap.
Got the “GAME NES ATLAS” in the mail awhile ago and it was everything I had hoped for; I know all of that stuff is online now but the nostalgia value, at least for me personally, just can’t be beat, paging thru those vintage 90s guides = WIN!
Finally built a working web server, albeit in a roundabout way, took about a week to figure out. Broadband/cable company generally frowns on customers building and hosting their own web servers. If I did things how the cable company wanted me to do them though, I’d have to pay a couple hundred yearly for a static IP…yea screw that. Looking on the web some I found a more free solution (http://www.everydns.com/dynamic.php).
I would go into the technical details on all of it but, you really don’t wanna read all of that and um…it’s been so long since I set up everything I am kinda foggy on all the processes myself.
Tech Tip: How-To’s are a good thing to write after you figure out how to do something really complicated, chances are you’ll want to do it again but, by then will have almost completely forgotten how to do said complicated thing.
I was gonna use this web server in combination with a presentation for BGLUG but that idea looks nixed now. Running a Denial of Service attack for educational purposes is easy enough but doing it in a way so as to not piss off my ISP is a bit more tricky.
Other then the above, I has just been puttering about. Finally played a copy of Borderlands a friend lent me….not AS good as Fallout 3 but it’s definitely close to being as addicting as Fallout 3 was. The dialog so far is really what makes Borderlands different from Fallout 3; LOTTA cussing, and southern accents.
Well that’s it for now. Got start training for a race in May so hopefully I’ll update again before or by then
Yeahhhh…little creepy February 5, 2010
Posted by Nick in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Nostalgia January 22, 2010
Posted by Nick in : Games,Life , add a commentYes, I spent 17 bucks on a years old game guide.
….and I would do it again.
Todays’ magazines are alright, I mean I have a subscription to Runner’s World and I like it fine enough but, my old love for the 80s/90s Nintendo Power magazine…I’ll never feel that way about a magazine again. I’ll never have that simple joy of finding an issue of Nintendo Power in a bookstore, of sitting in a chair for hours reading and re-reading every page with a song in my heart, enjoying some awesome Zelda illustrations
I’ll never be able to recreate that feeling of chuckling over a Howard & Nestor comic stuck in a car going up to Ohio for winter holidays.
(Maniac Mansion is still AWESOME FYI)
There was something about those early issues I guess, people who read it back then will know what I am talking about. Part of me knows I am being nostalgic about the magazine and that there were some issues that weren’t as awesome as others but, still…for it’s day the old Nintendo Power was really something to be enjoyed. Sure they gave guides and tips to games but there was a feeling of communication between gamers and game developers going on in those early issues that I am not sure is possible to recreate in todays’ hyper-technical society.
Nowadays the information on how to beat Zelda or Super Mario Bros 3 is readily available at the click of a mouse. New releases have walkthroughs an videos come out on them mere days after their release…and while all of this is nice it has robbed the newer generation of gamers of that feeling of community I guess, that experience, that us older grizzled gamers were lucky enough to be a part of.
Ok I am rambling at this point….
For those nostalgic now though, I direct you to the following:
2010 – Sadly there are no cheap flying cars January 11, 2010
Posted by Nick in : Life,New,Resolutions,Running,Site Update,Technology,Writing , add a commentWell 2010 is here and….eh…it seems alright so far. I’ll be honest, I didn’t watch the ball drop or go to any parties, no I spent it trying to finish up Mass Effect….yea I know..but it was cheap and I had loads of fun playing it, and in this economy sometimes that’s the best you can ask for.
2010 New Year’s Resolutions
Short Term Resolutions
Get another certification - I wanna get MCSA, MCSE, or CCNA certfied. Got Network+ certified last year and would like to add another one to my resume. Money is pretty much what decides whether or not I can mark this resolution off the list. Certification tests cost mucho moolah and that’s something I don’t have at the moment, sadly.
Finish writing my novel – I wrote a novel during Nanowrimo but never actually gave it a proper ending. I wanna end the story and then deconstruct the rough draft, see if I can’t get something more cohesive/readable together out of the mess that is that first draft.
Get out of debt completely. – I have 1300 left to pay on the car and another 3000 left to pay off on the credit card. I am doing this, no more of this debt BS. It’s gonna be a rough road though. Canceled GameFly on Friday, didn’t renew Flickr Pro account or Skype account for this year, budgeting only $50 for gas and food every week, etc, etc. Yeah the first two or three months of living sparsely are going to suck.
Attempt to build a web server – I have the hardware and software to build a server, I just need the time and space to do such a thing. I have always wanted to do this, and it’s such a simple small thing to do.
Donate more – Over the last year I have kinda realized I need to donate to causes more. I see all this crap around my place, taking up space, not being used, and I think to myself, what a waste of money. If I can actually get outta debt by the middle of the year, I have a plan to donate a decent amount of money to a cause I am pretty down with. I don’t wanna say anything more about it until I am sure I can pay off all my debt though. I’ll post more on this later, if I can check resolution 3 off.
Do another BGLUG presentation – I really enjoyed the last presentation I gave on WPA Hacking and really wanna do another security-centric presentation. A presentation on WEP hacking looks likely but I am also considering demo’ing a Denial of Service attack and what can be done to toughen up a server from a DoS attack.
Long Term Resolutions
Work on Websites More – Again I make this resolution every year and every year I kinda half ass it. Still…I wanna utilize all the .com’s I have. I have been meaning to start up a site devoted to Mac tech (crankymac.com) for awhile, as well as developing another site devoted to Ubuntu tech/news (orangesplatter.com). I also wanna create a site that is a live novel of sorts. Essentially the site would be updated with a page or chapter a week. In this way I wanna reproduce the feeling people use to have when Dicken’s novels came out in sections, slowly, over time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a great writer or anything but I think a live web novel is kinda cool, plus I can always insert interactive elements into it if I ever decided to (audio logs/newspaper clippings/etc)
Train for a Marathon – Pretty self-explanatory, I’d like to run a marathon…one day, preferably before I am 30. I can’t say why I wanna do it, it’s just an impulse I have had for awhile.
ANNNNNNNNNNND that’s it
Maybe I’ll mark some of these resolutions off this year, maybe not, but I sure am gonna have fun trying to see if I can.
Resolutions – Ehh…sorta December 7, 2009
Posted by Nick in : Games,Job,Life,New,Resolutions,Running , add a commentSOOOOOOOOOOOO.
October 31st I ran my second 5k ever, and it went good…better then good it went great. The route was more or less the same and my time went from 54 minutes (05/09/09) to 43 min and 8 seconds. The overall race was a lot of fun, running through the streets of Frankfort at night in the cold air, (if you live in the area I highly suggest you do it next year). After the 5k in Oct. though I pretty much stopped with the training, part of this was due to Nanowrimo but I think part of it was, I had accomplished what I had set out to do. I ran wayyy better then I had the first time and that was all I wanted to do.
Nanowrimo started up in November and it was touch and go there for a bit but I did it. For those not in the know Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal of Nanowrimo is to encourage people to write…a LOT; specifically for the month of Nov. a system is set up which monitors your word count each day. If you are able to write up to or beyond 50, 000 words by the end of November, you WIN! I of course won but, I didn’t finish my story.
My story in a nutshell mixes The Gunslinger/Traditional Zombie Apocalypse/Lovecraft all into one bunch. I’d post some bits of it but the thing is really REALLY rough, plus again…I haven’t finished it yet. I think in the beginning, the whole writing process was painful but, round the last couple of pages a flow began to take shape and form, so much so that I said to myself, “Oh shit, this is gonna be a series, there is just too much here to be able to wrap up in 100 pages”.
That’s been about it these last couple of months. Work has been busy per usual, been racking up a lot of comp time I’ll never use but it’s nice to have just in case I guess. Went ahead and booked my flight and hotel for PAX East up in Boston for March, looking forward to it but MAN flights are expensive. Thanksgiving was nice albeit too short, then again when is it ever long enough.
Bought Left 4 Dead 2, Assassins Creed 2, and Modern Warfare 2, amazingly enough I actually played and beat Modern Warfare 2 before a year had passed. Short review – MW2 is GOOD….but maybe a bit too real at times.
I got no clue what I am gonna do for the rest of this month. I think a lot of my co-workers are taking the last two weeks off but I am staying here to monitor things just in case. I think I might try finishing some books I had half started, maybe finish off another game. Really really tempted to work on my novel more, finish the thing and then edit the crap out of it. Who knows though.
Still in debt. Its my own fault but I accept it, cause I know the reason I am in debt was to help somebody out in more need then myself and I am cool with that. Still sucks though.
I guess that’s it.
Went to check back on the resolutions I made at the beginning of the year. Sorta satisfied, will need to do better for next year though
Walk/Run A Marathon – Eh not so much. I think maybe next year. I enjoyed doing the two 5ks this year but I just had too much stuff going on to really devote the time I wanted to, to training for the 5ks more, and further training for a marathon. I think first I am gonna try doing a 5k in 30 minutes, then from there work my way up to a 10k, and then MAYBE after that point, I’ll consider trying to run a Marathon.
Learn to Play a Musical Instrument – Yeah no. I actually went to see about getting piano lessons at the beginning of the year but never followed up after that. The lessons themselves seems kinda pricey, maybe when I have more money and time to devote to learning the piano fully.
Take a picture every day for a year. – Yet again with Project 365, I could only hold on for soo long till I just gave up. I think a big key to making Project 365 work is traveling to new places a decent amount. Was worth a shot to try it again this year though.
Learn (or re-learn) a language. – Downloaded some Spanish Audiobooks from Audible. Listened to it a little but a lot of it seemed kinda repetitious for me. Again need more time to focus on this.
Learn how to create & edit a podcast. – I sorta do this? Ok, yeah I need to work more at it.
Do more exploring – Went to Seattle again this year and it was a blast, met and talked to some cool people this time, instead of like last year. ALSO I got to visit the Microsoft Campus which was pretty darn nifty. Not exactly going to another country mind you but still an experience
Write a book or participate in NaNoWriMo – Yep, thinking of doing it next year too I enjoyed it so much
Learn more programming languages like C# and PHP – On and off I have been dipping my toes back into programming, a little smidge of ASP.NET a month ago. I also took a class on SQL one of my co-workers was giving.
Develop and use all my websites more. – Gonna TRY and do that this month but time will tell. I have 11 domain names burning a hole in my pocket though, and they gotta be used at least some.
Another day another dollar September 30, 2009
Posted by Nick in : Uncategorized , add a commentBeen working WAY too damn much lately.
Per usual, the cliff-notes version of what I’ve been up to.
-Did a security presentation for the BGLUG group, demoing how to hack a WPA or WPA2 protected wifi access point secured with a simple password.
Nick Grugin – Backtrack Demo from Jordan Keyes on Vimeo.
-Went to Seattle, WA for PAX ’09, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Panels, games demo’ed, music, etc, everything was groovy. Best part of the trip was getting to go to a pre-PAX Microsoft Community Event.
I got to tour the MS Redmond campus, play upcoming video games, get a free meal, and got some nice FREE SWAG (see XB Live code for full version of Shadow Complex!).
-Started going to an SQL night class on the 21st. So far it’s going decent but I need some free time to memorize the stuff taught in class better.
-Writing bug has hit me yet again, have a pretty good idea for a story, already developing the world it’s set in, just have to put pen to paper.
-Starting back in my 5k training regimen. Stopped for a bit after starting some new medication but, I’m determined to get out there today. I registered for the Black Cat Chase at the end of Oct and need to get ready.
-Finally caved to family and started taking cholesterol meds. Only stipulation I made was they not harass me ever again about my health. Side effects have not been horrible….but they have not been great either.
-Got Halo 3: ODST, played Halo 3: ODST, finished Halo 3: ODST. Verdict = A pretty decent game.
…and that’s mostly it.
Slowly moving forward July 17, 2009
Posted by Nick in : Books,Film,Life,Running,Technology , add a commentWell lotta random stuff has been going on lately.
ADD is rearing it’s head though, so the short non/ranty version.
- Took Network+ Certification Test and passed WOOO.
- MCSA Certification looks like the next certification on the list for me, now to pass all four tests.
- Friends came down and visited me for 2 weeks. Love them but THREE PEOPLE+1 Bedroom Apt + 2 WEEKS = NOOOOOOO
- Been on a reading kick lately; Ex-Machina isn’t half bad, Angel: After the Fall is meh, Dead She Said was alright. Gonna try to finish up Fool Moon but heh I have been promising myself to do that for awhile.
- Started slowly training after June for 5ks. It’s one of those “couch potato to 5k in 2 months” training regimens but I am taking it REALLY slow and doing each week for a month instead. My body has way more weight then normal people, and I know if I push myself too hard, too quickly I’ll end up paying for it.
Seriously considering Wardriving sometime this weekend, likely when I go to Lexington for an Ubuntu-esque meetup.
Oh if you haven’t seen it already check out Fanboys. Especially if your the kinda geek that loved the original Star Wars movies but thought these last three were utter shite.
….also if you wanna see Kristen Bell in the Leia gold bikini…yeah….that’s pretty sweet too.
Till next time.
Hurdy Gur.
5K May 11, 2009
Posted by Nick in : Books,Life,Music,Resolutions,Running , add a commentWell Saturday I ran my first 5k.
Ok….ran is probably overstating it….briskly walked, that’s probably putting it more accurately.
The race started at 9am, so I got there a little early, still only half awake.
About 5 or so minutes before 9am, they asked us to line up and get ready for the race to start. I was kinda surprised at the turnout for the 5k.
When 9am hit, everybody flew off. I almost did the same…almost got swept up in it all but..I wanted to finish the race, not blaze through the first mile only to be able to barely move by the second. I had been walking day and night before the race but, even from all that walking beforehand I knew enough to know I was in no shape to run full tilt here at this race.
Around 2.85 miles I was getting frustrated. 46 minutes had passed and I hadn’t even gotten 3 miles outta the way.
As I rounded the last bit of the race, I saw the race clock read 54 minutes as I passed the finish line. My race time was horrid BUT, I wasn’t last, and I actually finished the thing within an hour, so I was happy.
I think after all this I learned a lot of things.
-I need to start walking in the morning as much as I do at night. My body was not use to walking/jogging that much that early
-I need to get use to walking on completely hard/flat ground. I have gotten too spoiled walking on sidewalks, which feel WAY smoother then you might think.
-I need to start walking faster during my two to three mile walks. 54 minutes to finish 3.12 miles was crap.
-Next race, I am eating and drinking something beforehand. I had little to no energy thru most of the race till I picked up a cup of water at the midway point of the race.
5k Route: www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ky/frankfort/1130811416
