Black Rock Shooter (anime; finished and OAV)-Absolutely amazing anime that is by far my favorite. You have to watch the OVA (preceded the series) to understand the premise, but it is awesome and I love it. Another (anime; finished) Persona 4 (anime; finished) Bakuman 2 (anime; finished) Mirai Nikki (anime; finished)- A really good (kind of messed up) anime that keeps you on your toes. I highly recommend it. Shakugan no Shana Final (anime; finished)-Great way to end an awesome and epic saga.
Since we are at about 1/4 of the way through 2012, I thought that I would revisit my goals for the year to see what my progress is as well as whether or not I should make any changes. Overall, I’ve been pretty good with sticking with my goals, but I am going to drop the Sprite Stitch Challenge. I just don’t have the time/resources that I thought I would at the beginning of the year.
Health
Lose at least 75 lbs by the end of the year (totally doable and will leave me at a still healthy weight): I am already at -25 and am working on the rest of it. May have to make another goal once I reach this one, though.
Exercise regularly (weekdays; alternating between cardio and strength exercises): Exercising regularly, but I have not been doing the strength training exercises like I had wanted to. I will have to make a concentrated effort to work on this.
Drink recommended daily amount of water every day (even the weekends, which is where I usually drop the ball). I’ve been doing really well with this and have completely eliminated soda from my diet and have been drinking tea, coffee, and water.
Pay attention to portions: Again, I have been doing really well with this and plan to stick with it.
Get physicals done at least twice this year: Already scheduled my first physical of the year.
Get a cleaning at the dentist at least twice this year: Also just scheduled my first cleaning of the year.
Keep up with blood work to keep OBGYN/Oncologist off my back Yeah….I should probably do that….
Whiten teeth regularly: About to do my second round of whitening (four/year)
Don’t drink soda: Mission accomplished!
Finances
Pay off all of 2010′s medical bills by year’s end
Put money into savings after each pay period: Starting to do this.
Pay off last credit card
Start retirement fund and put money in it monthly: Yeah…haven’t done this yet.
Make monthly budgets and stick to them: Getting good with this one.
Social (ness? ability?)
Update blog every week day: I need to get better about this, but have already blogged more than I did all of last year.
Write a letter to any friend at least once a month: Done!
Initiate conversations with your friends (I kinda suck at that): Doing a lot better with this.
Call mom and dad at least once a week: I was doing really well with this until my new schedule at work started. Will have to get back on the ball.
Visit Florida for at least a week: Done! And trying to see if I can’t make another trip.
Visit with Nikita more often: Done. And I think I’ve already seen her more this past few months than I did all last year :<
Projects
Do/make at least 1 thing a month (outside of sprite stitch challenge): I have not been doing this at all…
Document (photograph) everything that I make: Will do if I make anything.
Don’t over-commit: Mission accomplished!
Do monthly sprite stitch challengesScratched off the list because I just don’t have the time to do them.
Hand make presents more often than buy them: Done this a few times already
Organization
Find a way to organize mail and bills: Done. Getting a mail organizer once we move.
Donate clothes I don’t wear at least twice a year: I have four bags of clothes that I need to drop off to the donation center.
Donate books I know I won’t re-read: I also have a box of books to drop off…
Find a way to organize badges, closet, make up, shoes and accessories that won’t drive the bf crazy or look tacky: Will be looking more into this once we make the move. I am leaning toward framing them.
Knowledge
Go through electronics textbook
Get a cert
Do something that’s mentally challenging and not mentally challenged
Misc.
Read at least two books a month: Up to about 4 books a month now, so I would say that this has no problem being met.
Stick with the ISBC throughout the year: So far, so good!
Do something good for yourself just because at least once a month: I kind of have been doing this. I skipped last month, though, since I spent time with family (even though that can arguable be considered a good thing for me).
Have at least a monthly date night with the bf: Done!
So, here we are at the end of another month. It seemed to have flown by pretty quickly and I was kind of lax about getting stuff done, unfortunately. I didn’t do the Sprite Stitch Challenge, even though I had two months to complete it. I just didn’t have the creative juices flowing on what I wanted to make and then once I figured out what I wanted to do, I just didn’t have the time to do it. I also have no excuse for not writing on here every day or for not doing the letter to a friend this month. I did, however, buy some stationary so the letters going out from now on won’t be on lined notebook paper, which is nice.
Write blog posts every week day (failed already yesterday….)
Arrange for shuttle pick up/drop off for next month’s vacation
Get an average of 70,000 steps a week on the fitbit (been averaging at 40,000. I think it is because we didn’t go hiking for two weeks and then last week I got hit with a bad allergy attack)
The month of March is going to be a little different because I am also including stuff I want to do/see while in Florida (not going to mention people in particular because I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings if I don’t see them or if they aren’t included on the list).
Read this month’s ISBC book
Read 4+ other books
Put money in savings
Keep up with blog posts while on vacation
Get an average of 50,000 steps a week on the fitbit
Finish the 100 push up challenge
Go to Dinosaur World
Go on an airboat tour of the Everglades
Go on a haunted tour of downtown St. Petersburg with friends
Eat the best Cuban sandwich I can find
Do something with Nikita for her birthday
Go to goddaughter’s birthday part
Do something special with goddaughter for her birthday
Make Easter baskets for the godkids and leave them with their momma
Instead of having pictures of everything (because that got really old and ugly looking fast), I’m just going to do a list of stuff that I have read, watched or listened to and then just link to the appropriate sites for descriptions/additional information (American tv shows will be linked to wikipedia, anime to anime news network, music to youtube, and books to goodreads).
We are still watching the same anime and American tv shows that were mentioned last month, but we have also started to watch Supernatural. We are now completely and hopelessly addicted to this series.
Since things are gearing up for our first (Twitter/G+) discussion tomorrow, I thought that I would make another post about what’s going on in the wonderful world of the InfoSec Book Club.
I started to write up questions for discussion tomorrow, but it felt too much like I was preparing essay questions. So instead of posting discussion questions, I’ll start with a question at 10:30 AM (EST) and then will move the discussion along throughout the day. If that doesn’t work out well, then we will try the discussion questions with next month’s book.
As far as I know, we are still on for the Google+ hangout with Kent Nabors and Jayson E. Street to discuss the book this Saturday at 8PM (EST)
Speaking of next month’s book! Just wanted to remind you all that we are still set to read Kevin Mitnick’s Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker next month (which starts on Wednesday).
March’s book was supposed to be Silence on the Wire: A Field Guide to Passive Reconnaissance and Indirect Attacks, but after consideration and a lot of input, it will be switching places with September’s book (Metasploit: The Penetration Tester’s Guide).
I think that is it and I look forward to the discussion tomorrow morning and the G+ hangout on Saturday!
Since this is the first month of the InfoSec Book Club, I thought that I would do something fun with it and offer a little giveaway. The prizes aren’t “super amazing”, but are fun and have something to do with the book as well as one of the authors (you’ll see what I mean below). The first person to email me the correct answers (verified by Jayson E. Street) wins the prizes.
All three answers can be found in the story portion of the book and you can email me your answers at: magen@tottenkoph.com
The questions from Jayson are:
1. How many Scooby Doo references are in the book & on what page numbers?
2. Who had the “Pulp Fiction” avatar?
3. One of the characters name was taken from an email used to propagate a virus who is it?
The prizes are a USB pen (like the one used in the book, except it has a laser pointer in it) and your choice of: 36 pack of Pepsi, 36 pack of Diet Pepsi, or a Pepsi-Cola wall-mounted bottle opener.
UPDATE:I also wanted to let you all know that Heidi has told me recently that she spoke with Syngress and No Starch Press and it has been arranged to have some copies of the books from those vendors at Shmoocon.
One of the good things about being forced to stay home because of the snow is that I got to read and watch some stuff that I may not have otherwise made the time to read/watch. Now the trick is to keep up the habit of reading even though I can go off and do other things. I also got a new phone the weekend before the snowstorm so my old phone is now serving as an mp3 player (since the iPod decided that it doesn’t want to hold a charge anymore and I really don’t want to buy another). Which is great not only because I don’t have to pay for another device, but I got to listen to some music that I had forgotten about while deciding what to transfer.
What I’m listening to: The Automatic Automatic: Not Accepted Anywhere
What I’ve been reading: Dissecting the Hack: The F0rb1dd3n Network (Jayson E. Street, Brian Baskin, Kent Nabors); The Light Fantastic and Sourcery (Terry Pratchett)
What we (bf+I) are watching [American TV]: Castle season 4; Fringe season 4; Damages season 4; 30 Rock season 6; Archer season 3
What we are watching [anime]: The same anime night line-up as last month (only change is that Fate/Zero is on hiatus for a season I believe). We have also watched When They Cry-Higurashi* (Higurashi no Naku Koroni), it’s sequel Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai*. And we just started watching Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (pretty fun spinoff from the Index series).
*Don’t watch this with children or if you scare easily. Don’t let the really cute drawing style fool you.**
**No, seriously. This stuff is kind of messed up, y’all.
I don’t know if I have ever been snowed-in at home before (I vaguely recalling it snowing when we lived in Fort Campbell, KY). But I pray for my mom’s sake that we weren’t. Because holy crap am I bored. And restless. Both of which are terrible things and usually how I ended up in trouble when I was younger. I’m also feeling lazy/unmotivated when it comes to doing anything creative. But I’m making myself do stuff anyways.
I have an idea for a second entry for the sprite stitch challenge (the exquisite corpse challenge is supposed to span over two months, so there really isn’t any reason why I shouldn’t be doing two entries). Based on the clue that I was given, I was thinking of having the second entry be of the black mage trying to attack a chocobo with other chocobos behind the mage, unaware. I’m unsure how it will turn out, but I guess I will see later today when I try to make the pattern.
On the diet front, it has been 5 days since I started the diet and have been good about staying on it. I have to fight the urge to hop on the scale every day to see if I have made any progress, which I know isn’t really going to help me any or is a good thing to do. I have been slacking a little bit on drinking water at home, but have increased the amount of green and white teas that I drink. I’ve also been craving chocolate. Badly. Like I would gladly sell off the bf for a king-sized bar of quality dark chocolate. But I haven’t. I’ve been doing pretty good at fighting that craving (we’ll ignore the fact there is no chocolate in the house and we can’t go anywhere because the roads are covered in ice and the bf’s car has crappy tires).
I’ve been unable to start going back to the apartment complex’s gym like I had planned to start doing this week (not just because of the snow, but they are doing some upgrading to the equipment that they have). I have, however, been doing yoga every morning in the living room before logging in to work. It has helped to keep my back from hurting since I’ve been in a weird, hunched-over position to work on the laptop from my coffee table. I’ve also noticed that I have been sleeping better since starting to do this daily again.
I also finally finished this month’s ISBC book and am working with Jayson on a giveaway when I post up this month’s discussion topics. I feel kind of bad about having the twitter/G+ discussions this month since a lot of people will be at Shmoo, but I figure that they can participate in the convo from their phones in between talks and can join us on the G+ Hangout at 8PM EST on Saturday if they are able to.
There is only a little over a week before we start the first month of the first annual (I’m not ashamed to admit that I already want to do a second year of this if it goes as well as I hope) Information Security Book Club! The first book that we will be reading is Dissecting the Hack: The F0rb1dd3n Network, Revised Edition by Jayson E. Street, Kent Nabors and Brian Baskin. It is available in hardback as well as paperback (the ebook version of it magically disappeared sometime between DEF CON and now :/ ).
On January 27, I’ll post some discussion questions on here and then at that point anyone who is interested in the conversation can join in on Twitter using #isbc or join the conversation on Google+. Even if you have already read the book, I hope that you join us in the conversation!
I thought I’d do a nice, light blog post after getting all heavy yesterday. Just wanted a quick update before moving on to the (admitted) fluff in the rest of the post: I spoke with my doc and she said that it is completely normal. That after the surgery, Ada (the remaining ovary) went into sleep/shock hormone-wise for a few months and is now back to doing the work of both ovaries. She said it should all even out, but if it doesn’t by the end of next month I need to give her a ring and we need to talk about hormone replacement therapy.
Anyways! On to the fun stuff! This is what I’ve been reading, watching and listening to. I know it seems like a lot of stuff. M and I are trying to save some money with the holiday, video game (even though most of what we are waiting for comes out in January and March of next year), and birthday seasons (because holy crap, a lot of people were born in December/January) here, which means lots of staying home and watching TV so we don’t go out of the house and get tempted to spend money. It seems to be working so far, which is a huge relief.
What I am listening to: Mad Marge and the Stonecutters (self-titled album)
What I am reading: “Deadline” by Mira Grant –second book (third, I think, if you include the novella that serves as a prequel) in the Newsflesh series. Good read if you like zombie fiction and government conspiracies. After this, I think I’m going to read some Discworld books. I haven’t read any in a while and there are a few arcs (witches, industrial revolution) that I didn’t even know about. May re-read the old ones too just for fun.
What we (bf+I) are watching [American TV]: Castle season 4 (just started after marathoning our way through the first 3 seasons. Holy crap.); Fringe season 4; Dexter season 6; and Walking Dead season 2.
What we are watching [Anime]: Minami-ke (cute little slice-of-life show that we just finished) and Paranoia Agent (starting this tonight)
What we’re watching on Anime Night: Every Monday, we get together at M. and E.’s place and watch anime. This season we’re all watching: Persona 4 (Cannot say how much I love this series); Shakugan no Shana Final (last season of Shana anime. Great story, voice actors, everything. Definitely watch all 3 seasons if you haven’t already); Bakuman (cute series about a pair of high school students who want to mangaka); Mirai Nikki (creepy/awesome as hell anime about a group of people who were given special diaries by the God of Time. Last one who lives, is the new God.); and Fate/Zero (Prequel to the anime Fate Stay Night. Which I still need to watch….)
