We took Friday off and spent the whole day at the lake. It felt so good to just take it so leisurely! We literally took our time from the day before with getting the boat uncovered, the battery charged, then the day of, getting the boat and truck fueled, having the tires checked, and swapping spots with the RV.
We brought the right amounts of booze, food, and waters… and water toys too. It had been awhile since DJ had been on the boat and it was his girlfriend’s first time with us. I think she enjoyed it! We even had her drive.
It was my first time going to a Splunk conference. I didn’t start planning until 2 weeks ago. Since we got “free” tickets, which just comes with our huge Splunk renewal, I wanted to give my team all the chances to go. My boss was going to be part of a panel for the Executive Experience there, so without anyone really going, I decided to take a ticket and go give support.
My boss is really into doing the challenges, so he wanted a team put together for Boss of the SOC. We all had a good time, and I learned a lot there. The event was at the Venetian and kind of at the Palazzo. It was even at the Caesar’s forum. I got to get all my CPEs for my certifiations for 2024!
This whole year, many of our build parties have led to this weekend. We’ve been working on costumes, dresses, and acquiring pieces for our outfits. We’ve been coordinating and making plans and reservations for months! and it all paid off!
I picked my brother up from the airport, and chatted a bunch on our way home. Picked up Jaime and loaded up the truck. It’s nice staying downtown, right across from the convention center. While there, we met up with Angela and Alex, Alex flew in to join us and was rooming with my brother!
We also went next door to find Mariah and give her, her badge.
The next day we unveiled our Cinderella outfits. Jaime really did an amazing job both on the Cinderella light up hoop skirt that was the magic effect for Cinderella to go from rags to ballgown, and Jaime also did a great job on Lady Tremaine. The whole outfit and hair!
Jonathan and I were so sassy it was hilarious! Our friends outfits matched well with our whole group!
Selfies!
Here’s a link to the video (you have to be friends with me on Facebook for it to work)
The end of the day, we switched into normal clothes, ran into one of our friends, and watched the drag show and the burlesque show and laughed more than we thought possible!
After a restful night, my brother and I did Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, Jaime wasn’t feeling well and stayed in for a bit. Surprisingly we got a few photo requests from people. We mostly walked the con floor searching for toys. We met up several times with many of our friends.
When Jaime came to join us, she was stopped by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and told how good she looked! He gave her a hug. That was really cool!
We ended the night with watching the masquerade and then grabbing some food before bed.
Our last day and it’s typically our plain clothes day so that we can wander around and shop. We got to see our resident Alien, Alan Tudyk’s panel and that was pretty fun! We also took some time to talk with our friends today!
We ended the night with a big group dinner, then hung out at the pool until they kicked us out, then finally when everyone was tired, we kicked them out of our room. Con was so fun this year!
Though I’m a day late to the conference, it was more than enough to spend some good quality time with my team and enjoy the conference and also meet up with some of my friends.
I stayed at the Parker guest house by recommendation and the place is really nice and quiet. Every guest was respectful and nice. I wish I brought cash so that I could have tipped them. I’ll know for the next time around.
I met up with the team the next day and we did some sessions and also walked the expo floor, which I always forget how big it is, it’s like 4-5 blackhat conventions all in 1. We had to say our hellos to certain vendors and friends and of course our newbies wanted a lot of the free crap there. I couldn’t believe I only took home like 6 stickers. For lunch, we left and went to the pier to eat. We also did a little bit of sightseeing, like checking out the wharf, watching the herd of seals, and going out to the Golden Gate bridge for photos. At the end of the day, we were discombobulated and most went about their own way. I took advantage of that and went to go see Steve and Kelly at their house, they had a friend coming over and they made dinner.
Kelly is so fancy with making appetizers that were amazing and we drank some wine. Some great conversation around the dinner that was delish, and listened to some vinyl records.
At the end of the night, it was time for me to go, so they ordered me a Waymo. Too funny since my coworkers were all abuzz on wanting to ride in one and are all put on the waiting list. I had to share the video with them so they could be jelly.
The next morning, up and at’em. I had breakfast at the hotel, how wonderful it was, and nice and quiet. Then made my way to the gang who already were in line for Jason Sudeikis. Obviously we’re huge Ted Lasso fans. When they let us in, we basically ran to the front. Lane joined us, so I got to see my boss, but you can tell he was tired. After some time wasting advertisements by sponsors of the RSA, we finally got to see Jason and that was just fun to hear him talk of his show. When we got out of there, Lane had some things to go do to prep for his dinner with whomever. We knew that might be the last we saw of him so we said our goodbyes. We then all took off to do some hanging out, drinking, networking, dinner, and then hanging out and drinking some more.
We said our goodbyes and the next day, it was just my buddy and I. We decided to lunch together and since my exercise count was low for over a week now, I chose to walk to the lunch spot. OMG San Francisco hills are no joke. I had to stop and smell the flowers so it didn’t look like I was gonna pass out. Lunch was amazing but then I got a message from the boss and had to go back to the hotel quickly to take care of some stuff.
While looking at my email, I saw i could move my flight up, so I did and before I knew it, I was booked for early morning. I also saw that I had a dinner that night with a vendor. Well, that’s neat, I didn’t have to order food.
Dinner was delicious at the Boulevard. I kept things easy so that I could make sure I didn’t oversleep. When I got back to the hotel, I finished packing and flew home early the next day.
As I promised my mom during Christmas time, from this point forward, I will come to Montreal for her birthday. And I did. She was so happy about it!
We talked about so many things about her life. We also did some estate planning.
When time did allow, we went out and visited some family. I also checked in on a couple of friends, unfortunately not all of them, this was to be the trip I spent with my mom. It was a little odd that Jaime wasn’t with me. She also had a business trip to go on. We did video chat as much as we could.
I got to hang with my friend of 41 years, Jonathan, and his wife made us dinner and I got to chat with his kids. So much fun. We then went to pick up his other daughter who wrestles at the YMWYHA that I used to be a part of. GSP was there. That’s cool.
from many years agoto today!kids too!GSP at the wrestling placewith B
I spent some time across the street with Rob at Cafe Solaris and introduced my mom to him. Mom won the big bucks! My friends, Nat and Mike also showed up. Nat and Rob were my classmates from high school, so they knew each other.
Mom and I drove out to St Lazare the next day to see her sister’s family and I got to chatting with them for a bit. Very nice to talk with them, see the new babies, and eat some delicious food. When we left, my friends, Nat and Mike showed up and we went to dinner. After dinner we went to Brossard and checked out their house. Super cool!
The next morning, though I was tired, I showered up, and got ready. We went to church for my mom’s birthday and afterwards, went to the casino where we met up with some family and friends so that we could eat and celebrate. Finally ran into my sister too. It was lovely and I know my mom was very appreciative of my whole trip and the quality time we spent together. I know I appreciate her.
Later that night, I got to hang out with my cousins! We talked a lot and went out to eat!
We were invited to play at the Cactus Park Community Alliance, today was their Community Safety Fair GAIN event, and the SWAT Team, the Bomb Squad, their K9 Units, Precinct Officers and the High School JROTC were there.
I know I don’t post too much about work and work projects because it’s just something mostly private and work related. But I think I could post this.
I have both Splunk and Cribl in my SIEM environment and because we have a tight relationship with our vendors, we had them come out to do an assessment from their perspective. So I flew out my SIEM guy and the rest were local, and we all got to work together and at the end of the day, we broke bread together. The next day was the same thing with the same members but a different vendor.
It was really nice to get with everyone and have these chats and validate what we are doing is the best thing we are doing.
After it was all said and done, I went to a happy hour for my team mate, Q, who got his CISSP
My buddy, Nick, flew out to Phoenix and we went to a concert that he literally saw the weekend before. He’s a huge Maynard fan, and Jaime and I haven’t been in awhile, so why not?
Lots of good music, the place wasn’t that crowded and it was also Maynard’s real birthday that day. The big 6.0. which is like, how cool to have 20,000 people come celebrate?
Pictures weren’t allowed… well, phones weren’t allowed to record, except for the last one… Which was cool so that everyone could just fucking enjoy the show. It was cool, I got a photo in at the start. I’ll post that picture soon.
We had so much fun watching the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain the last time they were in town that we had to go see them again! Its interesting to see how some swap out. How they use or re-use their musical numbers and skits.
We got there early enough to see some of our ukulele friends and catch up with them. So great to see them!
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