Q1 in Review

I believe the key to progress is staying on track on focusing on what you are trying to accomplish. There have been numerous projects that have just died off to the way side due to numerous reasons. This blog and status updates will hopefully improve that track record.

January 2nd, 2020 I posted the Operation 2020 blog post. If you have not read that post you may wish to check that out first. That is where I had set my goals out for the year. It is not the original, check the repository for the modifications that have been made over time. Also, if you like the blog make your own with the code. The code for the posts and blog are open source.

Q1 has come to a close, here are the notes and updates.

Achievements

• Hobbies
  • Created my own beer recipe from scratch that is about to be bottled; looks good so far
  • Created my first five batches of mead
    • one bottled and consumed (needed to be aged longer)
    • four in primary fermenters
  • One book down!
• Personal
  • Went to Dallas for a Check Point Cloud Certification training; pre-pandemic
  • Blog posting is currently on a higher than anticipated pace
  • Peppermint plant has spouted and seeds are in place for aeroponics
• Projects
  • SeanlandBot project has been brought to life!
    • some goals may evolve into SeanlandBot goals
• Tech
  • Social media activity has been fairly consistent
  • Now have a self hosted chat server, using Rocket Chat

Career wise, as a security engineer my role in the team has been increasing. Due to the pandemic I had the opportunity to provide customers with VPN solutioning. I was able to help a very large manufacturer temporary scale up their VPN capabilities (10x times the normal users - so I was told) while waiting for equipment to arrive.

Areas to Improve

These are the next steps that are going to be taken to improve my progress

In Hobbies, I have had difficulties finding habaneros. I am currently growing them from seed in hopes of inserting them into the aeroponics system. There will have to be a second wave of seeds in order to cover all the plants I wish to grow. I am currently designing possible aeroponics systems. I will have a plan selected and order the parts this weekend.

As for the Projects my main problem here is focus. I tend to jump around from project to project. I will need to stick to Most Hosts and SeanlandBot to an acceptable completion then move to making that first dollar!

Possible Changes to the List

Travel is going to be an issue. Depending on what the year evolves into, this may or may not go. I would like to keep as much of the travel goals that are realistic. We will have to see where this goes.

Aquaponics vs Aeroponics: Aeroponics won. I do not want to deal with the fish.

I would like to add another major project after Most Hosts. Nothing has been decided on. I do have a few ideas to play with. Ideally, this would be a potential income earner.

The Review

Overall, Q1 has been very successful. There were a lot more accomplishments than expected in both hobbies and personal goals. As for development related projects, I do not feel I have made much progress. Effort has been put in, but it has either been misguided or wasted. I have begun plan development more, instead of jumping immediately in and just coding. The SeanlandBot suffered an headfirst brick wall collision that required a re-write.

Planning has become a big part moving forward. It may even become a post...

Thanks for reading. As usually, feel free to find me on the internet and drop me a line.