I took an extra day off because my ankle wasn’t feeling right, and in hindsight it was the right call even if the scores aren’t good. Everything felt strong at the end.
Gaming, Japanese, and work behind the more.
I picked up Balatro today, I’m a big Slay The Spire fan even though I’m not very good at it (like. at all.) and seeing this thing take that formula all the way to a 94 on OpenCritic made me sit up and pay attention. This quote from Screen Rant sold me on it:
With its unlockable deck types, tricky economy, advanced joker concepts, challenge runs, and ascension-like “stake” system, Balatro offers countless hours to engage its treacherous machine of diversion. If this was preinstalled with Windows in lieu of Microsoft’s mandatory, productivity-wrecking Solitaire back in the 90s, modern civilization as we know it could have very well ground to a halt. For fans of deckbuilders, Balatro is an addictively delicious, menacing creation which devours hours without mercy. It should be handled with great care.
Leo Faierman @ ScreenRant
I mean, that’s probably not a great hook in terms of being otherwise productive but I tend to get hooked on these games for intense but brief periods.
I also wishlisted Kingmakers after their outstanding trailer, which you need to watch at least the first 23 seconds of.
Work-wise, I’m wrapping up a project to launch our first bug bounty (private/invite only for now), got to interview a guy to join the team and talked with my boss about maybe getting some new certifications. For clarity, since I last gave any updates on my job, I got heavy into IT, helpdesk to sysadmin to infrastructure manager to CTO, then moving to consulting as a cloud architect and site reliability engineer, joining one client as an FTE, and most recently, pivoting to cybersecurity which I have had a soft spot for forever.
Funny story, when I worked as an infrastructure manager for the state of New Mexico, my boss spent the entirety of the year I was there studying for the CISSP. I was scrolling reddit looking at conversations around security certifications and it came up, reminding me that it existed. This is basically a cybersecurity cert for leadership, security directors and such.
I sleepwalked the practice exam and got a 90 with no prep. They pass on a 70.
So, I’m probably going to take that in April and then focus on a hacking cert. I’ve been a big fan for years of the OSCP, because it’s a practical exam and really demonstrates your understanding of being on the red team (the attacking side of a security team trying to find flaws in their own platform). Everything I’ve seen is that it’s pretty legit, you can’t fake it, you don’t get to know the scenarios in advance, you’ve gotta know the stuff to pass. And I want it.
It’s not super aligned with what I really have deep knowledge of but that’s fun all by itself, I like to keep growing and staying challenged.
I think I’ve got a plan for my Japanese study that I’m good with. I’m using a set of books that are pretty notoriously difficult to use solo (みんなの日本語), but really it’s very doable with one extra book that they sell, and they have a lot of supporting materials online if you can read enough Japanese to find their teachers section. So tomorrow I’m hoping I can put my ideas to the test and try to come up with a longer-term routine. I’m writing it as I go as a course for others, so the time spent can be useful for others.
I feel really close to having my life back on track.