Finally Friday!
It's crazy to think that I'm even still doing this. A thought that came to mind, especially with dealing with my job is maintaining a level of secrecy. Back when dial-up was a thing, no one really cared about privacy and what they shared online. As you can see from the earlier entries I made in 2005, My full name and a ton of information was made publicly available. Today you won't really see that. Social engineers and hackers like myself (though I'm ethical) could use that type of information against you today. Though I do have countermeasures in place for the information available on this site, it's still crazy to see how careless myself and everyone else was with how much information we gave up and posted.
I feel that the internet availabilty and social media has changed our society into something that's becoming more and more negative. Back when the internet was "the wild west" and you could instantly connect with and chat with people in chatrooms anonymously, no one ever took anything to heart that was said. There was a lot that said that was wrong and was said to be of shock value, but for the most part, it was taken like a grain of salt because it was some random stranger on the internet. I know there were some bad things occuring on these chats, and that's why the user made chats got shut down first. I'm not really talking about those things as they were far and few between.
These days nothing is anonymous. Even if you're using TOR networking or a VPN, you can still be traced. The social media platforms, even with fake accounts aren't anonymous. It started out as such a good thing. It was where you went after work or school and just caught up with friends that you made. Talk shit about the other random people there and then call it a night. You'd step away from the computer and go about your normal life.
Now everything is instantly at your fingertips and always with you via your phone. Social media allowed for me to reconnect with old friends I hadn't seen or spoken to in years. It was a great tool. People would post statuses of what they did that day, how they were feeling, etc. Now that everything within social media has evolved, the only thing you will ever see anymore are political memes and people doing dances for likes/clicks. It's helped to create this huge divide in people from what I've seen.
Even I fell victim to this divide until I realized what had actually happened. I couldn't figure out why I was so bothered and angry about political disagreements. Then I realized what happened. This next generation of internet users have realized that it is easier to just say things and not listen and easier to just post pictures portraying their narrative than it is to have actual civil discussion and debate on sensitive topics. This creates a false narrative in people's minds that "if they dont agree with me, they are extreme and don't agree with anything I do". Of course there are extreme cases, as with anything, but those numbers are so far and few between.
Another thing that has happened is this whole war with misinformation. Purposely creating posts and memes and images with incorrect information for clicks and likes. This is a huge marketing tactic for money that is quite honestly pure genius in my opinion, but not moral due to the outcome. Since we have the worlds information at our fingertips now, everyone relies on it rather than the previous methods of retaining information. The thought process is "why should I have to remember this, I can just Google it".
That's all fine and well, assuming the information you're getting is correct, which hasn't always been the case. So with misinformation, talking to talk and not listening to have discussion has created this huge divide with the social media presence, and naturally, people are making money from this.
Anyway, a little bit of a rant there, but just thought it was funny how much information was always put out there versus now everyone pretends to keep privacy even though their data is being sold with these platforms they use.
Anyway, so today is finally Friday! It has been a very rough week for me emotionally, but I'm still here and still grinding. My job is tough, but so rewarding, and I get paid too much to bitch about anything hahaha. I never thought in a million years I'd be getting paid this much, but I'm definitely not squandering it either. We stick to a decent budget, line our IRA's, Investments, and will soon start dabbing into the real estate world. Once that takes off, I may be able to retire super early and just travel the world again. Future goals. But for now, I'm just doing what I need to do and making myself more marketable in case I don't want to retire early.
Today I woke up early and went on a 2 mile run at a slow pace, then hit a back and arms workout. I haven't really been hitting it hard lately, but today I got it in. I had set out several goals this year for my "New Years Resolutions". I've hit every single goal so far with the exception of my fitness goals.
My goals had included not playing any video games for the whole year (I was obsessed with Rust), getting my OSCP, starting school again and working towards a masters degree, getting a new job, and competing in a bodybuilding competetion. I've hit and exceeded everything but that fitness, so I'm starting to shift focus towards that again.
All but one of the certifications I have right now. GPEN is missing and is on the way in the mail.
I'm trying to get back down to where I used to be. I know I can do it. I've had abs for years, just need to buckle down and do it again.
Tonight we are going to a High School football game. We usually go every Friday because my brother in law is a coach for the team here. They are a pretty decent team and it's GA, so the football is always good. Anywho, till next time.