Allow Some Deny All - Hacking, Coffee, Community

 GrrCON 2018 has come and passed. It's been an interesting year since the last one with a whole lot happening since then. Let's look at some of it... Accepted to grad school Against all of my own beliefs, I got accepted to graduate school. This semester includes a class in social engineer, IoT, and finally homeland security. It's been a wild semester so far. I've had the chance to work on some great projects and learn some really interesting concepts. I won't say it's all been great. It's been incredibly busy! I'm working part-time, TA'ing, and going to school full time. Hard to find time for much more in all honesty. Not every day does it feel like it's worth it, but looking at the semester so far it has been. Ran a teen hacking program at the local public library This was pretty awesome honestly. I happened to mention to a friend that I was thinking about doing a teen program to get kids into hacking. She just happened to work at the...

A little under a year ago I was sitting at GrrCON trying to decipher why I wasn’t enjoying myself. I didn’t want to go to the villages; I didn’t want to mingle, and I definitely didn’t want to listen to talks. It’s an understatement to say that I was weighed down by some anxiety, apprehension, and fear. The weekend eventually culminated in me having a panic attack in the parking lot. While crawling into the shower — hungover of course — the next morning I came to the realization that I was unhappy with where I was headed. I couldn’t enjoy the conference, because I was thinking about everything that laid in front of me after the conference.  Flashback six months earlier and I was contemplating what I would do once I graduated from University. I was about to graduate with a BS in Network Engineering. A job offer was on the table at a respected managed service provider in Chicago. The pay was great, the benefits were outstanding, and it would be a move to the big city! A newfound in...