A Trip Down Memory Lane for 2012

2012: A Life Changing Year

Wow, what a year. I can't believe that it's already the last day before the start of a new chapter. 2012 has been by far the most rewarding year of my life. It has been full of experiences, adventures, lessons learned, and many new opportunities.  As a final post to close this year, I'm going to highlight some of the most memorable experiences that I had, and that I am very thankful for.

1. Participated in the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC)
2. Lost 15 Pounds by Regularly Exercising, and Eating Healthy
3. Invited to the USCC Virginia Cyber Security Boot Camp in Arlington, VA
4. Participated in the National Cyber League (NCL) Championship in Orlando, FL
5. Sold Computer TechBytes, my Computer Repair Business
6. Opportunity to Intern at LivingSocial in Washington, DC
7. Participated in the Hungry Hungry Hackers (H3) Competition in Atlanta, GA
8. The Experience of My Brother's Terrible Car Accident
9. Privileged Best Man at Steve & Angelica's Wedding
10. Opportunity to Work at Trustwave SpiderLabs in Chicago, IL

It's really amazing. I remember when I talked about what I wanted in 2011. I knew what I needed to do and accomplish in 2012 in order to continue moving forward in my journey. It's kind of exciting to be able to look back and honestly say that I did just about everything that I wanted to do. Of course, this doesn't mean that 2012 was perfect. As a matter of fact, it was far from being perfect. I did learn a lot of things however, and they will stay in the back of my mind for when the 2013 year comes.

In short, 2012 was the year that I got to learn the most in my field of interest. It was the year that I knew I needed to have solid work experience and opportunities under my belt for when I graduate in 2013. It also happened to be the most fun year that I've ever had. I had a chance to travel a lot more than I ever have. I was able to go to Disney Land, the Florida beaches, and experience the night life in Washington DC and Atlanta--all with a lot of great friends.

All in all, I made a lot of moves this year. I'm happy that I did and I wouldn't change anything about them. I am most thankful however, for having my brother and family in my life. They have been the most supportive people ever since I can remember. Despite our every once in a while complications and annoyances, it's really nice to say that this was also the first year in a very long time that I can remember spending more time with my family after I came back. It's interesting what being away can do, even if it's just for a couple of months. Even more interesting were all of the things that changed in our family when my brother got into an accident. I wish you all a safe new year, and I'll see you in 2013! Don't forget to plan your goals and make your moves!

DerbyCon 2012 CTF 1st Place Winners!

So this is definitely a very old post because DerbyCon was a couple of months ago, but I realized that it has been several months since my last post. I've started to create my blog on my personal website (jamesejr.com), so I will probably treat this one as my personal blurbs for whenever.

Anyway, this was my first DerbyCon experience, which was held in Louisville, KY. It was definitely worth the drive out there, and I learned a few things from great talks and awesome people. This year I managed to work on the CTF a lot and managed to land first place with the rest of the guys on this picture. It was not much different than other CTF's I've been in before, but there were several challenging challenges that were great to attempt and learn from. I found the binary files to be amongst the most interesting. Hopefully with the coming months ill be able to head down to Schmoocon and Thotcon!