Sometimes motivation becomes an issue. Exercise and diet may be all ship shape and work might actually not suck and still you can find it hard to get excited about things. Just over a week ago I was in Washington DC for Shmoocon. That was a motivator. But, now I have a motivational hangover.
I swear I’ll actually post pics from the con sometime today. I got into the office this morning all raring to go. No meetings and a free hand to do something technical when I saw it.
The wall.
There it was looming over my desk ready to fall on me. Someone get a spatula and a sponge. This is gonna be messy.
So, I started to do some root cause analysis. I’ve been reading “The 4-Hour Workweek” which does little to inspire me for my day job. Not that I loathe it. Just the idea of sitting on a beach making money while listening to waves roll in is rather appealing. The other half of the analysis was a comment that was in the moderation queue from a halfwit that, based on his resume, I would have hoped for better. James will be handling the reply to him but, it was that the commenter demonstrated a complete absence of sense. Maybe the combination of the two ganged up on me with a sock full of oranges.
Who knows? I find that as I write this I’m already beginning to feel an uptick in my mood.
Beaches and douchetards make for an ugly combination on a Monday Tuesday morning.
What do you do to help get your motivation into high gear?
To the proud constituents of the Liquidmatrix Army:
I call upon you this day to take note, not since the dark ages of October 2006 has there been such a glorious day for our proud people.
Much as was said by El Jefe, our glorious leader (shall he reign forever), it’s time to grow up and own it.
As you may have noticed in recent times, I’ve been… shall we say… the anti-recluse.
If you were paying attention, you would’ve seen me here:
And of course, no one could possibly forget seeing me here:
And with such public excursions, the swiftest reconnaissance squadron known to any – the Liquidmatrix Army – would have also noticed me (or my evil twin half-brother) in a few other places.
Upon the sage advice of El Jefe, I did a funny (and potentially cripplingly foolish) thing.
In submitting an abstract for a speaking engagement, I did the unthinkable and just like Superman (III),
strangled that grey-hat hacker Myrcurial and completely outed myself in what has been amongst the info security (and control systems security) best held non-secrets.
So howdy everyone, just call me James.
And don’t worry, I’m not changing – I’ll be the same acerbic person you’ve all come to know and (love|hate) – I do have a reputation to uphold after all. 
It’s a long weekend for me and I’m taking some time to catch up on posts that I’ve been meaning to get done. Also, I’ll be mucking about with our database but, it shouldn’t be so that anyone will notice. Mind you…
Have a great weekend folks. Check back for a (belated) wrap up from Last Hope.
In the meantime here is an amusing piece from Bruce Schneier on why people shouldn’t listen to him.
Sorry for the lack of updates today. Our backend database cluster decided to fall on its sword this morning and we’re cleaning up the mess. We’ll be updating content again tomorrow first thing. Unless of course I happen to I feel froggy after work then I’ll tackle some updates.
Thanks for the emails. All is well.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Thanks to everyone who sent us a tip over the weekend on a great news story. I’m sorry I haven’t replied back individually but, I’ll try to catch up over the next 48 hours.
If you ever happen across a story that you think is something that should be shared with the community at large feel free to send us an email at “tips SHIFT 2 liquidmatrix dot org”.
We look forward to hearing from you. And if you don’t see you’re story on the front page don’t take it personally. We don’t get paid for this (yet) but, if we do manage to turn this into a full time gig you can bet we will be on top of things!
It’s been a long haul working in critical infrastructure. There were times were the boredom and politics were overwhelming but, I know that I was able to make a difference.
Now, I’m moving on to new adventures. I think I’m going to keep the new job under wraps for now. Some of you know where I’m off to and that’s fine. I’m just going to avoid talking about it here. This site isn’t about my day job.
I have been running the site for over 10 years now. First as a .com and for most of the time as a .org domain. I have a chronic addiction to sarcasm and occasionally I enjoy throwing out arguments to stir it up. A lot of you noticed that this week.
Heh.
This site is an outlet for me as well as brother Myrcurial. For me I use it as a way to stay current. I have really enjoyed growing this site, especially over the last 2 years. And you, the readers/commenters, have really made that an enjoyable experience.
Yes, even the “cyberdouchery”.
Thanks everyone. I hope that our fearless co-writer Myrcurial will pitch in more over the summer. A project that I have been involved in will take a lot of time in a month or so as it comes to fruition.
So, we’ll see how it all plays out. I’m feeling awfully reflective as I prepare for the last day at work.
Odd.
I’m not sad to go.
It’s just long overdue.
Well, after six years working in the critical infrastructure vertical I have decided to move on. I tendered my resignation yesterday and will be moving on the new adventures in a few weeks. I’ll let slip my new day job at that time. It has been an interesting ride to say the least. There have been high points such as my appearance on the front cover of “Information Security” magazine.
And there were low points as recently as two weeks ago. All in all it has been a helluva ride and I made a lot of great friends along the way.
So, now I will have to write my “tell all” book about the true state of critical infrastructure security in North America.
Wait for it…
Hear that thud? I just gave some DHS folks a stroke.
I’m kidding of course. No book on that subject.
This site will go on. Thanks to all of our readership.
Well, we’re no Led Zeppelin, Tragically Hip or Peter Gabriel. That being said it should a great time tonight when the band that I play bass for, “The Shiitake Project” takes the stage at Clinton’s in Toronto.
We are raising money for prostate cancer research. The show gets rolling around 9 pm.
Have a great weekend all!
[UPDATE]: We blew the roof off for a full house! That and we raised over $1000 for prostate cancer research! Thanks to all who attended.
Now, I’m a happy guy. Today seems so much nicer than this time last week. Trees are starting to wake from their deep freeze.
And now, the news…
Click here to subscribe!
- Infosec: Security pros ‘ignoring’ their own message
- Web criminals fuel big rise in “trojans”
- Controlling Encrypting File System (EFS) using Group Policy
- Security breaches down – but at what price?
- Software that Assesses Security Risks to Transportation Networks
- Sun publishes Java Card 3.0 specification
- Microsoft ‘kill switch’ resurfaces in Office subscription apps
- The new security guy
Tags: News, Daily Links, Security Blog, Information Security, Security News
I was checking out my stats for todays readers when I noticed an inordinate spike in traffic from the site Network World. Being the typical curious sort I cruised on over to see what was the hub bub.
Well, damn.
Jon Brodkin has a piece on “20 useful IT security Web sites” and Liquidmatrix is on his list (slide 12)!
I would just like to say thanks to Jon for making my day. This will just encourage me to write more.
Be sure to check out the full piece as well as the other sites he mentioned over on Network World.
