What I'm doing now
a website with a link that says “now” goes to a page that tells you what this person is focused on at this point in their life. For short, we call it a “now page”.
#Learning cloud architectures
I recently got a CompTIA Security+ certification. I found the material easy to grasp, and have been evaluating what I should learn next for my career. Here’s what I’m thinking:
I have avoided “the cloud” and its spawned concepts of Infrastructure as Code, microservice architecture, and DevOps. I’ve operated under the assumption that old fashioned on-premises monolithic infrastructure is usually cheaper and comes with less surprises, and so far the conservative approach has worked out well. But time and tide wait for no man, and it is clear that the architecture and tooling of the cloud are the future, regardless of what hardware they’re running on.
I’m exploring my options in terms of relevant projects and certifications but here’s what the shortlist looks like now:
- The Cloud Resume Challenge (Azure)
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate ([AZ-500][https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/azure-security-engineer/?practice-assessment-type=certification])
- The contoso-real-estate Enterprise-grade Reference Architecture for JavaScript
- An over-engineered Home Lab with Docker and Kubernetes by Fernando Cejas
Building this website will hold me accountable to define and follow through on my goals. In addition to developing new technical skills, I’d like to get better at expressing myself and hone my writing skills.
#Fitness
Fitness is a major focus of mine for a few years now. I’ve lost over 100lb from my peak, but I’m still aiming for 15% bodyfat so I can then focus on building muscle. I do quite a bit of walking and go to the gym most days. Recently I’m trying to do at least 100 push-ups daily aiming to eventually do sets of 60.
Hiking has really grown on me in the last 6 months. I frequent Pine Mountain in Cartersville, GA because it’s a decent length, steep trail with beautiful views and a scenic summit. There are connecting trails going to and beyond Cooper’s Furnace, prefect on days that I have time and energy to spare.
#Motorcycling
Early this year, I purchased a Kawasaki KLX250S, essentially a dirt bike with a license plate. The idea was to recapture what I enjoyed about riding dirt bikes with my dad years ago, and to have something that could get me to trails without needing a truck. I’ve yet to really take it offroad, but I have thoroughly enjoyed riding the thing on the street even though it vibrates like crazy—a single cylinder flying up and down at 8000rpm just to reach ~60mph. And to be honest, I’m already tempted to look for something more powerful.
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