Today marks 15 years of federal service. Holy shit. I’ve been working for VA for that long.
I started as a lowly GS4 and now a GS11. I look back and I’m already ahead of where my mom was at the VA at my age. And she was a GS13 when she retired I her 60s. I love what I do. I feel I have a made a real difference for both veterans (getting disability compensation) and fellow VA employees (training to be better employees). While my job has plenty of BULLSHIT, the job satisfaction/pay/benefits easily make it up. (Also I still don’t have a college degree. I am one credit shy of an AA and DGAF.)
I now earn 8 hours of annual leave with my 4 hours sick leave a pay period (2 weeks).
I could take 2 days off a month if I really wanted to. Also I get to build my leave to where I can always carry over 240 hours to the next year. It’s going to be disgusting.
I am so fortunate and grateful to be given all the opportunities that came to me from VA, but also earned them from working hard.
I passed my Shodan (basically first-degree black belt) test for the US Federation of Battodo! It’s a big step, but it’s also only the first of many (now I need to focus on the next set of kata for my ZNTIR Shodan test in August).
Finished work for spring vacation. Also new years party tomorrow with my gym. Will be introducing pork scratching. I’m sure it will end well, and this is in no way related to making me eat cuttlefish. Have a week of house cleaning and chores then off to Osaka with Gimli. Going to gorge myself on takoyaki.
This reply doubles as my Boo-yah. My team came in 4th at the Regional CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition)!
@GeorgePatches@Cremlian
As for Palo Alto, they were a sponsor so we had to use them in the competition. All I’m going to say is that you definitely want to stay up to date. The Red Team walked into that thing like it was a door even on the up to date version of PANOS 7. Definitely go to at least 8.06-h3.
Nice. Yeah it was super stressful but fun and I learned a lot. Also pretty good validation that I’m in the right field as I was the only person in the competition to keep one of the red team guys out.
I keep seeing Hamilton tickets in my area but they’re all for places that are selling only group ticket (10-20 people) or for season ticket holders! I’m really tempted !
Yes. These theaters that aren’t in NYC make all their money from season subscribers. When Hamilton started traveling they decided to make a season package required. Just like when GameStop and Best Buy make a new video game console only available in a bundle with crap you don’t want.
I finished my paralegal certificate program and my final grades came in, 3.75 GPA! Now for the terrifying prospect of finding work with zero relevant experience to put on my resume.
