InfoSteph

I also lost momentum having to miss swim class two weeks in a row waiting for this swim cap lmao.

Thank god I have chlorine removal shampoo now.

Tried 3 swim caps and they all made my hair wet 😭

“My clients use this and swim every day, their hair is never wet…”

Yeah, well, they are either lying or have 3 strands of hair. Because how???

YouTube video by Phillip Wylie Damien Burks: From Aspiring Game Dev to Cloud Security Leader

New episode! 🎙️
I spoke with @damienjburks about his journey from game dev dreams to cloud security success ☁️💻
🔹 AWS vs GCP vs Azure
🔹 Why Python matters
🔹 DevSecOps advice
🔹 Building community in cyber

Watch/listen: youtu.be/r_3iZJcFORs
#Cybersecurity #CloudSecurity #DevSecOps

There are problematic elements??

My mom on the phone: It's my daughter's fault, beat her up.

Now why am I in it???

Y’all know that KPop Hunters movie? There are so many catchy songs from it. They’ve been stuck in my head all day.

Proud of myself. I’m making some big girl decisions today.

This warms my heart! Glad to be back, too. It's never gonna be perfect timing, so I just picked now.

That was incredibly cheesy, but I stand by it.

There are people who so amazingly cover specific tech and the problems within it. And I'll have some of those posts, sure. But most of my posts will be focused on the people part of security and what we face and navigate.

The people make the change.

The thing is...sometimes, talking about security is boring. And that's because we have the same convos over and over and over again. With new technology.

So, I won't be talking about things that others talk about. I will be human-centered. That's my bag. I focus on the people behind the machines.

So, I have two brands I am managing right now:

Just a Sec with Steph is a more personal brand, where I talk about things like my neurospice, personal development, learning and growing, fee fees (emotions), etc.

The Sec Edit is for security-related content, but still aligned with who I am.

Great minds! I have also always complained about how hard it is for my name to be used as a fun title of something. Then, I stumbled upon the word epiphany LOL.

Thank you for the love, oh stylish one!

July Newsletter: The Energy Audit Allow me to reintroduce myself...and this wonderful newsletter that I've neglected. I'm back, baby! New epiphanies, new updates, new commitment to consistency!

✨ new substack just dropped ✨

i’ve been quiet for a minute, but i’m back with a new format, an epiphany, and a gentle promise to stop giving all my energy to things that don’t give back.

Also, I'm on a biweekly schedule now!

📝 read here: open.substack.com/pub/justasec...
💛 comment if it resonates

Yesterday, my dad told me “Well, life is not fair. So you know how things go.”

And I go “So? Why should I be okay with that? Life can be unfair all it wants, call me the balancer.”

I’ve also been learning a lot about my Igbo heritage. Separation from the Christian faith has cracked that door wide open in a way that I never thought would happen.

It’s causing me grief to see how much was demonized and rejected because of Christianity and colonization.

For dear life!

I have a newsletter coming out this week, and then I’m back on a regular newsletter schedule. Also gonna be releasing 1 “Diary of a Security Analyst” post on The Sec Edit.

Being busy, building skills, keeping my eyes on the prize, and staying informed are how I’m getting through these times.

Amidst all the calamity, I find pockets of joy. I’m in improv classes, swimming lessons, and I just applied to the local community college for some continuing education classes.

I haven’t hiked as much this summer because of the rain, even though it’s a cooler summer than the last 3 summers.

Survival tools don’t always translate well in seasons of growth.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely soft skills dominant. I have hard skills, but my soft skills garner more success overall, both in execution and reception.

Neurotypicals, though, or maybe just corporate environments, have an unnatural affinity for blatant deception and appeasement.

"...to be right and ignored at the same time." Omg, you're singing my song. Literally!

I also feel some people are working out so much of their personal issues within work dynamics. And I don't want to be involved in that, but I often am.

You said it, peace would come from working for myself.

It's my 5-year plan. To work for myself. 7 different companies over 12 years, countless managers, countless leadership styles...it all boils down to the same thing.

I have accepted that I can be happier if I work for myself and just provide services to people.

Not to mention, it's EXHAUSTING. It's like I am expected to speak a language without a dictionary or a translator. And no matter how transparent I am about my personality and work style, I am still expected to participate in utter and complete nonsensical dialogue...

And people find it...FUN.

I ask too many questions, I seek logic too often, I am too emotionally in tune, I see patterns too clearly, too curious, to transparent, too emotionally honest.

It makes it pretty difficult to feed into the random, space-filling dialogue that permeates corporate environments.

There are a lot of soft skills I'm not good at. One of those skills is talking in circles just to appease leadership. No actual logic to the circle talking, just doing it because the dynamic is a preferred one.

My neurospicy brain cannot exist in those dynamics without making people mad.

I've been considering doing this!

I think that I’ve felt the most amount of mental isolation since the election occurred. I don’t have anyone around me that wishes to discuss things, preferring BAU. I don’t blame or judge them.

However, I am left alone with my own thoughts and that’s been rough.

Yeah, I looked it up and thought the ones I’d seen were Tesla-made. Forgot to respond and correct myself. Retract my statement lol.

*We* haven’t focused on anything, it’s private companies developing these. They can do what they like and focus on what they want to.

But agreed that public transport should be better. Just am accepting that it won’t be.

I don’t want to misrepresent myself, I think we’re not there yet as a society and more time is needed. But they are EVERYWHERE here. I’m amazed it’s that person’s first time seeing them. There’s not a day that passes by that I don’t see them. We’re already in it.