The Random Adventure That Is Life (RATIL)

reading

Book Review - Ernest Cline's Ready Player One

!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!! I recently read Ready Play One in anticipation of the movie release in March. Multiple people told me the book was a fun read and the moving sounds good (I had to read the book while trying to avoid the trailer until I was done). I liked the

sans

SANS Holiday Hack 2017 - Wintered

This year's Holiday Hack did not disappoint. Using vulnerabilities and attacks that dominated the headlines this year made the event even more fun.

fun

Book Review - Frank Herbert's Dune

!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!! I just decided that I would write reviews for books that I have read that seem impactful in some way. Some of these might just be literary reviews but could stray to social commentary about how the book addresses current issues. The first book on the list is

mom

November Is (was) National Adoption Awareness Month

(Collection of posts from my Instagram so some of the formatting and emojis may look a little funny) November is National Adoption Awareness Month! 🎉 So this month I will be sharing a little bit about our adoption journey but I would encourage everyone to also listen for stories from birthparents

computers

First Useful PowerShell Script: PuTTY to SSH Config

I have done a little bit of PowerShell work in the past but mostly just training exercises and modifying existing stuff. With the release of Bash for Windows and the recent announcement that Microsoft will be bringing OpenSSH to Windows I figured this would be a good time to dive

computers

Metasploitable3 CTF

Rapid7 just wrapped up the second of their Metsploitable3 CTFs, this time for the Linux version of the intentionally vulnerable OS that both beginner and advanced hackers can hone their skills on. They only allowed 500 participants/teams worldwide. I had a lot of free time the week of the

computers

Hack The Box - Blocky

Blocky: Retired 9 Dec 2017 If you are interested in learning more about penetration testing, Hack the Box is a great way to get your feet wet in a legal and well built environment. Head over to hackthebox.eu to get started. Blocky has been the easiest box for me

fun

Hocking Hills State Park

While in Ohio for some Air Force training I decided to violate our 90 minute driving radius and drive two hours to the gorgeous Hocking Hills State Park. I have to admit, I did not expect much from Ohio, the drive in was about as flat as Nebraska and when

computers

Hack The Box: Europa

Europa: Retired 2 Dec 2017 If you are interested in learning more about penetration testing, Hack the Box is a great way to get your feet wet in a legal and well built environment. Head over to hackthebox.eu to get started Enumeration Using Sparta, I ran a staged NMAP

computers

Hack The Box: Apocalyst

Apocalyst: Retired 25 Nov 2017 If you are interested in learning more about penetration testing, Hack the Box is a great way to get your feet wet in a legal and well built environment. Head over to hackthebox.eu to get started. Enumeration Using Sparta, I ran a staged NMAP

computers

Making My Server IPv6 Compatible

I got a Reddit message from a user who is running a single stack IPv6 setup and was unable to access my website. I thought I had everything in order to make this work but apparently not. Thanks to this user for reaching out so I could fix the problem.

mom

Baby Wearing

I had thought I would be posting more when Trevor started this blog, then baby, then life, and so here we are with the first guest post!!!! If you follow my Instagram at all, you might have guessed that I like carrying my baby, like A LOT! We went through

computers

Air Force Network Research Homework

Continuing my Air Force Training's Advanced Distance Learning I had to choose a network protocol from a list and do a short research assignment on the tool. I chose DNS. I got 10/10 on this while also getting to use a link to a friends DNS exfiltraiton

adventure

Colorado Vacation - Lake Como

We recently got back from a good week long vacation to Colorado to visit our brothers and my nephew. Aside from the great breweries and awesome beer, my brother and I also got to do some back country camping. We chose Lake Como, nestled in the middle of the Blanca,

computers

Update All The Things - MySQL Migration

My Ghost installation recently informed me that an update was available. I usually try to take care of these as quickly as possible and have a little script the did all the updating for me. So I blindly kicked off my script and promptly bricked my Ghost install. Ghost Update

computers

Air Force Training: Guided Research Assignment

As part of my next round of Air Force Training's Advanced Distance Learning I had to chose a tool from a list and do a short research assignment on the tool. I chose Burp Suite. Here is what I wrote...seemed like a good idea of post something

adventure

Hacking and Skydiving

Well I was lucky enough to get to go to a Con (Conference) again this year. I went to DEFCON last year but this year decided to go to a smaller Con to see what that was like. Based on a co-worker's recommendation, I decided to go to

computers

SANS SEC642 - Advanced Web App Penetration Testing

I was just lucky enough for work to send me to a SANS course in Vegas (at Caesar's no less, where Caesar lives) because a member of our team had previously booked the course and then left the company. SANS has a great refund policy and would have

texas

WOD On The Lake

We recently moved CrossFit gyms to Crossfit Born Ready so that we could work out together and take the baby with us instead of working out separately. Lucky for us, they were doing a lake workout and BBQ the weekend after we started so we got to participate. The workout

food

Meal Delivery Services

We have been using the free/discounted trial periods for a bunch of meal delivery services 1) because it makes them really affordable and 2) because when we had just had our baby, it made a lot of sense to have easy meals, oh and 3) we are cheap and

aviation

Pilots N' Paws

I recently had the oppurtunity to work with a pretty sweet charity organization: Pilots 'N Paws. They are an organization that pairs pilots who want to fly with dogs who need transport to their forever home. In many cases, these dogs are within hours of being put down and

aviation

Formation Flight Photoshoot

Credit for these photos is to one of the other pilots I fly with. He did a pretty dang good job. About a week ago I was lucky enough to get to do a formation flight with the two planes from G4K Aviation, a Cessna 172 and a Piper Cherokee.

appliance

A/C Repair On The Cheap

Well, our house is literally falling apart around us. After the washer going on the fritz a couple weeks ago, now our A/C is acting up. Just another opportunity to save a few hundred dollars in the Steen household. Basically the fan inside was just blowing warm air. My

appliance

Maytag 5000 SUD and F35 Error

UPDATE: This ended up not solving the problem. I had to replace the Central Control Unit (CCU). This part is normally $200+ but I found the same part on eBay (along with some other control part) for $75. I installed this and now the error is gone, this was most

aviation

Baby's First Flight

I was finally able to realize one of my life dreams...taking my family on a cross-country flight. When I got my Private Pilot's License, my goal had always been to fly my family somewhere. Mrs. Steen and I had certainly flown before but being able to do