Playing the Holiday Hack Challenge

It's the holiday season and with it comes the SANS Holiday Hack Challenge for 2025! The game has a large draw every year as security pros descend on it to play one of the easiest video games to navigate, but one of the harder ones to solve. I started playing when the game launched on Wednesday, October 5th. Last night I got caught up into trying to solve two of the problems in the Retro Computer & Gaming shop. I overthought them quite a bit, but finally finished the last one a little after midnight.

I usually end up tinkering with the HHC every year, but rarely get too far into it. There's usually too much going on in life. This year I've gone farther than I have in a very long time. Its been frustrating and its been fun. I want to get it finished this year. 🤞

Writing is changing how I read

On the writing front, I've noticed that when I'm reading I tend to think about how the author is doing things. It's not a 100% thing. When I get into the story, I forget to pay attention. However, I'm much more interested in how the author did things now. How do they do the dialog, descriptions, and action? How do they structure it? Then I try to apply my observations to my writing. Hopefully, it makes the story more enjoyable to read. It's one thing to see how someone does it. It's another to apply it to your writing. I have a lot more reps to put in before it becomes natural to me. Here's to improving my writing. 🍻