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About Me
Welcome! Not sure how you stumbled upon my corner of the internet, but here we are, sharing this space and wondering what comes next. Allow me to break the ice.
I’m CJ, a passionate tech enthusiast and cybersecurity nerd. My journey has been anything but traditional. I’m the type who dives headfirst into learning something new, masters just enough to be dangerous, and then chases the next shiny thing. ADHD much? Jack of all trades, master of none—but I like it that way. Let me tell you how I got into all of this.
Cybersecurity
I didn’t take the conventional route into cybersecurity. My career started in welding—specifically, building and installing medical, food, and brewing equipment out of sanitary stainless steel. Seven years in, I realized the physical toll of the work wasn’t sustainable long-term. OSHA protections sound great in theory, but when you’re on shutdown jobs where downtime costs $50k+ per hour, health takes a back seat.
During that time, I discovered a deep passion for cybersecurity. My evenings were spent on platforms like TryHackMe and HackTheBox, and weekends were filled with CTF competitions. I wasn’t just learning—I was thriving.
Eventually, I decided to transition into tech. I landed a tech support job at an “AI-powered search” company. A year into the role, I got my big break: an internal CTF organized by the Offensive Security team. After a day of grinding, I solved all the challenges and secured first place.
That was my gateway to a role on the Offensive Security team, where I honed my skills in incident response, pentesting, and corporate culture (turns out, not everyone loves colorful language). Now, I’m the Lead SOC Analyst at the same company where I started in tech support just three years ago.
I’m not here to pose as an expert or authority. I’m here because I love what I do, and I want to share that passion. Take my posts with a grain of salt—but know they’re written with genuine enthusiasm. I’m currently taking my MRE certification.
Ham Radio
Turning a passion into a career is rewarding, but it leaves a void where hobbies used to be. Enter: Ham radio. It’s a fascinating, albeit expensive, hobby. My setup is still a work in progress, but I’m loving every second of it.
Curious about the details? Check out my QRZ page: VA2CJX.
Homelab stuff
As if Ham radio wasn’t enough of a money pit, I’ve also built a homelab. “Fancy” might be a stretch—it’s more like three old computers held together by hope and duct tape—but it gets the job done. My current setup includes:
- A high-availability k3s cluster (hosting this site)
- Malware analysis sandboxes including an instance of CAPEv2 which runs it’s agent on a baremetal instance (a crappy NUC)
All of this powered by Proxmox, my beloved hypervisor.
Stay tuned for future blog posts where I’ll dive deeper into my setups—assuming I remember to write them.
