Highlights for the week
POWER TO THE GEMINIS
Another week come and gone. No real progress on the job hunt. I want to believe in the power of positive thinking, but there's also reality. Is this even working?!
Truth is, to manifest success I need to believe in what I want .. thoughts become reality! positive thinking leads to positive actions which creates positive results.
The biggest highlight of the week is the celebration (on 6/18) of the New York Knicks historic win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Championship.
As I reflect on the past 25 years, I've been noticing a key pattern I can't seem to distance myself from. A pattern where, no matter how hard I try to climb up, I'm always getting pushed down. The evidence is as follows:
- Life - father wasn't much of a father, role model, or anything. He preferred the avenue of corporal punishment over proper instruction when it came to literally everything. My only other role model died early. And later in life, when I sought out mentors to help with my career aspirations, they failed me too.
- Sports - Tried out for football and baseball in HS when I had no business being there. Was on track for 2 seasons but barely did well in shot & discus (no coaches). Fencing in college was awesome!
- Dating - Failed at that in HS and College. Had a terrible prom experience.
- School - Did ok in HS, but failed the classes I needed for College. Failed the Bio/Pre-Med program. Barely got above 3.0 in English .. zero mentorship to guide me.
- Social - didn't really fit in in HS. Got rejected a bunch for fraternities in College. Joined a few clubs and did well there. Otherwise, struggled to fit in.
- Plan-A applied to the Air Force knowing this was going to be my life goal ... got rejected by the Staff Sergeant for health reasons.
- Work - barely able to land a job while in College due to schedule.
- Plan-B, C, D ...:
- When I did, held on to that bad boy for years. It was my everything after I graduated. Then I got fired for something that wasn't my fault and drifted for the many years that followed.
- Lingered in food service until I was in my 30s. Tried some bs corporate gig as a documentation clerk but that didn't work either. I was an idiot then.
- Got my A+ thinking this was going to be the start of my tech career .. didn't get very far with it. Had no money to pursue more.
- Tried desktop publishing and didn't get far with that either. I needed Quark - a software program that was way too expensive.
- Eventually landed a course in Devry, took out a plethora of loans, and so began my second career track in IT. Overall, the school did very little to prepare me for a career in Security, or web development for that matter. Once again, I was out in the workforce unprepared, in debt, and no viable experience to work with.
- Tried freelancing as a web developer, and I had some clients. Learned a lot about managing the project from start to finish. Sadly, my web dev skills left a lot to be desired.
- Tried some SEO job ... didn't take it serious and got shown the door.
- Tried a survey developer company that wanted me to also be their internal IT guy for all things. That didn't work out either.
- Landed a QA role with zero experience. Learned everything I could on the job, zero guidance from others. Things were going well until a new manager and a restructure. Got the boot. Landed a better job at a quaint start up and became the "voice of experience" in QA. That was an awesome four years. Then priorities shifted and because I had no viable automation experience, got shown the door. After 4 months, I landed a role at a digital agency and that was awesome until it wasn't. A loss of a major client lead to mass job cuts and I was one of them. Another few months out of work and I landed a great gig that didn't last long (quit a toxic manager). A few months after that, landed a great job that lasted a couple of years until several rounds of layoffs found me on the unemployment line once again. Several months and another job, and it was the best paying gig I had until a new CTO joined and eventually cleaned house. Our entire team was disbanded. And so was the beginning of the end for QA for me.
- Two years of unemployment and hardcore focus on pen testing (self-taught) and I found a mentor that brought me to a great job that lasted all of 9 months. This one hurt the most!!
To quote Jim Rohn, WHAT CHALLENGES YOU, CHANGES YOU -- a great mantra to begin the next phase of my life. I want the back-half to matter.
MONDAY
Affirmation: THE LIFE YOU WANT IS BASED ON THE ACTIONS YOU TAKE TODAY
Imagine the life you want. What does good look like? What will it take to get you there? What actions are you tak8ng to make that happen?
TUESDAY
Affirmation: ACTION FIRST .. THEN EXPERIENCE .. FINALLY CONFIDENCE
Confidence grows because of action. Small daily habits done consistently over time produce tangiable results.
WEDNESDAY
Affirmation: A DREAM WITHOUT ACTION DIES
Words to live by - Success is not something you wish for, its something you work for.
Who do you want to be? Success begins in the mind so decide to think positive thoughts.
Setbacks are wisdom; feedback, not failure.
THURSDAY
Affirmation: BELIEVE IN WHAT IS POSSIBLE
If the NY Knicks have shown, it is that grit and tenacity are the keys to victory. In several games they were behind by double-digit points, and yet somehow they managed to pull it off. In Game 5, it looked like they might lose. Thanks to the heroics of Jalen Brunson and the rest of the squad, they pulled off the victory. He alone scored an individual record-breaking 45 points while the rest of the team had scored a combined 49 points.
On a personal projects side, I've not gotten much done. See the breakdown below.
FRIDAY
Affirmation: CELEBRATE EVEN THE SMALLEST OF WINS!
The world, the economy, and every other personal circumstance is against you. Celebrate when you get a moment of victory, even in the smallest of things. This will help you keep going when everything feels like it is not working.
What We’re Grateful For
- I've highlighted every day what I'm grateful for, so I will encapsulate my gratitude by saying I am grateful for everything: getting the chance to celebrate another birthday; achieving my fitness goals; advancing in my learning; and getting to wake up in a loving home with a wonderful family
What We Loved
- Going to the DAILY SHOW on my birthday. That was a pleasant surprise.
What We Learned
- Cloud Pen Testing - Google Cloud [Status: TO DO!] | Azure [Status: TO DO!]
- AI/LLM Pen Testing - Wraith.sh [Status: TO DO!] Module-4
- INNER WORK [Status: TO DO!!] Rollover from last week. I keep sleeping on this.
- QA DAY - "SevereQA" business idea [Status: TO DO!!] Writing up the business plan and how to use agents.
- Substack 2nd Article [Status: TO DO!] Have outline, need to get typing.
- Web App PT - Started on Etsy [Status: TO DO!] No progress this week.
- Android PT - HexTree [Status: TO DO!] Android Bindermodule .. No progress this week.
- QA DAY - Playwright CLI + C-Sharp [Status: In Progress!] Set up the environment, have a unit test in place. Need to build this out more.
- Writing - "Husb" [Status: IN PROGRESS!!] .. No progress this week. Saving it for the weekend. So far, Lilith is in the depths of hell.
- READ Finish reading "Zorro" [Status: IN PROGRESS!!] No progress this week.
- AI/LLM Pen Testing - Wraith.sh [Status: DONE!] Module-2: Indirect Prompt Injection
- AI/LLM Pen Testing - Wraith.sh [Status: DONE!] Module-3: System Prompt Injection
- Web App PT - Pinterest [Status: BLOCKED!] Still no resolution.
TO DO
IN PROGRESS
DONE
What We Longed For
- As always a consulting job, making good money, doing great work, surrounded by smart but chill people I can learn from.
What We Loathed
- 2026 .. not just the job market, but literally everything: the economy, our president, our congress, our financial institutions, and the tech sector. It's all one big mess and getting worse by the week.
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