A new year has begun.

If we go back to two years to 2019 for a moment. I was diagnosed with a medical condition that is prone to immobilise me periodically for around 2 weeks. There were a few bouts of that. I also had some unrelated chest infections, tonsillitis, and a run of bad health that went through the peak of summer until December 2019. I had been pretty miserable and had seen my weight increase due to the lack of mobility.

By Christmas eve 2019 I had been on medication to control my condition long enough for me to get back to walking around. Sick of the misery I set myself a goal of doing the 10k steps per day that Fitbit offers as good minimum level. Through lockdowns this became an absolute mission but I got it done.

I got through my self-set 2020 challenges, and now I have to ask what next?

I have set some health, lifestyle, and hobby goals for 2021.

Lets get Spectabular!

I am going to introduce you to the table of the six labours, and one thing I need to track monthly:

Target	Rationale
11k steps a day	Slightly more than 2020. I have increased the number because this should take me over 4 million steps for the year which sounds like a thing. Really I am aiming to do 5 miles a day or greater than 1,825 miles in the year.
150 active minutes per week	This equates to 22 active minutes every single day. I will get there with a mix of jogging, cycling, using a kettle bell, using my stairs to step exercise, and anything else that comes to mind. This is the REAL target for 2021.
1 technical blog a month	The main focus of cornerpirate.com should always be technical content. As I will be posting my captain’s log entries once a month it makes sense to at least post something technical every month too.
Support my partner to exercise	I do not live in isolation. It is clear that my goals are only possible because of the love and support they provide. They created swathes of space for me to do so by looking after the kids and putting up with me going out at all hours to mine steps. There should absolutely be quid quo pro on this. They want a Saturday morning every week to be child free for a couple of hours to then do some exercise themselves. Totally onboard with that!
Record five songs	I can play guitar. I can sing reasonably badly. But that hasn’t stopped me increasingly putting out content. Usually cover versions thrown together with little skill in a single take. I don’t even practice before hitting record. I do not know the lyrics. I am reading them on screen and playing the chords as they come on some tab or other. Why not try writing some new songs myself and putting a little more effort into it? It is rare for me to get the time to do so meaning that starting with five over a year should be achievable. Looking forward to learning how to use the kit I have collected rather than going “fuck it audacity and the mic that I used for conference calls is sufficient”.
OSWE	I have pretty much no certifications to show I am even half way relevant or decent as a penetration tester. There are techniques that I need time to practice which are right there in the course material for OSWE. I am committing here to buying the lab access and using it. It is likely that I will be harvesting some of the technical blog posts based on the learning I do for this. I may or may not go for the certification. But for me I suspect the lab exposure and cost of many many evenings will be beneficial overall. If it looks like I can get a decent run at the exam than I might give it a go.
Panic Attacks	This is not a goal. This is just something I want to note happened or not in a given month. Gathering evidence as to their frequency, triggers, and impact. My logical brain is saying based on 2020 that these happen after a run of poor nights sleep.

I will complete this table each month to add a bit more brevity and structure to the rather chaotic approach used last year. Starting from February I should get away with much shorter blogs as a result.

How did I do in January?

Now into the meat.

Target	Summary
11k steps a day	5 miles of steps. Every single day.
150 active minutes per week	Done.
1 technical blog a month	A couple of drafts in progress but the day job put this on the back burner.
Support my partner to exercise	Week 1 – Yes Week 2 – Yes Week 3 – Yes Week 4 – Yes Week 5 – Yes (though contested by my partner I wasn’t fast enough in getting a kid ready to leave the house on time).
Record five songs	I have not prioritised it this month.
OSWE	I have not prioritised it this month.
Panic Attacks	A clear month.

The Good

• Board Games – I discovered that someone at the school had taught my eldest how to play chess. We had tried for years to play board games but their lack of patience and attitude to losing at anything was too explosive and caused fights. I bought a compendium of old board games and made the time to play just with them regularly. It has been great fun! I can see they have a logical brain when they are not exploding about losing. Seeing them mature is beautiful.
• Music – Having setup the Piano over the keyboard over the holidays, and procured a poster which shows the chord shapes, I have been able to belt out a few songs in the evenings. Since I have never had a lesson or loads of time to do this before it has been nice. I am happy mucking about like this. My goal clearly isn’t to master the instrument. Simply to have fun and this has been great.
• Health – I have lost weight. I am just not terribly interested in the number this time. The focus is the exercise goals and maintaining those and the results will continue. Or not. But I will be healthier regardless of my mass. In most things I find data and statistics comforting. Somehow weighing myself is a mixed bag as it can be as demotivating as it is motivating. Trying it differently this time and not going for weekly weigh ins.
• Audiobook 1 – I listened to Sandworm by Andy Greenberg. I found this very interesting and should be the kind of book you can recommend to non-infosec humans. It is well delivered. The pace is expertly done.
• Audiobook 2 – From there I moved on to Dune by Frank Herbert. I would like to state for the record that I didn’t listen to Sandworm (which is a reference to Dune itself) and then decide to buy Dune to listen to. That would be far too logical! I had actually been meaning to read Dune for many years. I had bought it on Audible before I was recommended Sandworm. I let the recommendation jump the queue and was laughing when Sandworm was revealed as a reference to Dune. The audible production of Dune is excellent and is the first I have heard with additional music. It isn’t quite a radio play version but is definitely acted more than just read.

The Bad

• Maybe not “bad” really. This one is actually a bittersweet. One of my team decided to move on to pastures new to continue their career progression. This is always both a sad and a wonderful thing. Sad because you won’t be talking to them every day anymore. But also wonderful because everyone needs to eventually move on. They were definitely ready to do so. Even though I will miss our wide ranging phone calls that always started “I have five minutes” and ended up an hour later with us both much happier for the exchange.