First Piece

Passion is an interesting concept. Everyone has a different thing or person or act that defines passion for them. In the end, though, it pretty much means the same thing: it’s what drives you. Personally. Emotionally. Maybe financially, if you’re that sort. It’s what excites you, maybe gives you a sense of purpose, or a goal to work toward. Wakes you up. Gets your attention. But does it define you?

I’ve had a foggy idea of what I felt passionate about. My family is an easy answer, and is certainly one of many things that drives my every move. But what of the other stuff: the things that are mine alone? That are “me?”

When I was in high school, I had an absurd notion of what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a guitar hero (alas, not the video game: this was the ’80s). I had piles of “Guitar For the Practicing Musician” magazine, a beginner’s Strat I feebly tried to play the tablature on, and the image of myself-turned-Eddie Van Halen in my head. I wanted to be him. “THIS is my passion,” I thought. But it wasn’t.

I was privileged, able to go to college on my parents’ dime, and no idea what I’d do there. All this despite loving to read, write and loving the hell out of noodling with my Apple //e. I read. I loved writing essays for class. I loved writing just for the hell of it. I cracked games, hacked BBS’s, phreaked free long-distance. Entered writing contests, joined computer clubs in another town. And while I was good at it all, my socially-awkward and insecure self never wanted to let on to my peers that this is what I did. This is what I loved to do. They were my passions, and my nerdy, hormone-ravaged, cripplingly insecure brain didn’t know it.

Which brings me here. I’ve been procrastinating the idea of writing another blog. I’ve written hundreds of TV, movie, food, and even baby related blog posts over the years, but I felt I was finally burning out. Honestly, I was beginning to feel a bit of a fraud: While I loved the shows, movies, food I wrote about, I wasn’t passionate about them (okay, I was about the baby, since it was my own, but babies grow up and it’d just be creepy to keep doing that after age four or five). So I gave it all up, concentrated on what I did in my real job(s) — technology and security — and kept writing for fun.

Finally, I’m going to try uniting my two personal passions: Writing and technology.

So that’s it. If you’re still here, then welcome! If not, then I can tell you to go fuck off and you wouldn’t know it, but that’s not you, you swell, excellent human being with well-honed tastes. My intent is to use this space to detail some tricks-of-the-trade in DevOps and security I’ve learned, some obscurities some people may not know about, and – as a result – hopefully help some like-minded (God help you) people out along the way. If not, then at least my passions are satiated, right?

Over and out …