Work I Completed
This week was focussed on getting ready for the Young ICT Explorers (YICTE) Competition. This was different to any competition I had done thus far as it was a presentation. Most competitions I participate in are either CTFs, or various coding challenges. With the exception of PyCon (as it was not a competition just a conference), I had never presented with a goal other than to achieve marks in school. Luckily, PyCon was able to assist as I could basically reuse my presentation (I have made no progress since PyCon…), with slight modifications to direct the humour more towards the judges. This, I think, went pretty well. As hard as it was to hear over a zoom call, I could see the act of laughing a couple times. Another thing that zoom made difficult was, well, all of it. It was really hard to hear what anyone was saying during the question time, which was made worse by the fact that my hearing is not great to begin with.
YICTE was also in a group – the same one as PyCon. This made it a lot easier to present for all of us, which was lucky seeing as we didn’t start planning until the night before. It was also concerning when we found out the day of the presentation that we actually had only 5 minutes, not 10. This later proved to be an extremely loose measure, but it was enough to make us preemptively panic. We cut some jokes and unnecessary explanation out because of this. We presented fine, but it didn’t feel like anything special – doesn’t come near the feeling when we presented at PyCon. It was somewhat underwhelming. It makes me unsure that we can win but I guess we will just have to wait and see. All the other presentations were cool too which is even worse. Its great for them but my ego cannot take losing to year 11s anymore. I need this to assert dominance.
We also started this week by receiving out 3rd place prizes from PeCan+CTF. This was initially with the 6 month subscription to PentesterLab. This is definitely something I will use and it alone is a good prize. But soon after we each received codes for free Canva hoodies. I haven’t ordered mine yet (I think my code might be expired too), but as soon as I come up with what I want to customise it with I will. That is all I expected. But then, on Monday, a parcel arrived labeled “Royal Tornado 4”. Inside this was a world of swag. There was a shirt, a bottle, a satchel (?), a book, a massive highlighter, and a torch. The satchel was actually pretty cool with all its pockets for things. I’m not sure if I will use it since its not very discrete with its bright blue colouring, but its the thought that counts.
(imageHereWhenIReceiveIt)
Reflection
It got somewhat stressful building up to YICTE and having not prepped, but nowhere near as the previous things I have partaken in, especially since I had a PyCon presentation ready. I am a little dissatisfied with how the YICTE presentation went, bit it still wasn’t bad. Their questions sucked though. We talked how WINSTON was made to have diverse applications, and all their questions were aimed at whether his applications were diverse. I don’t know how much attention they paid but its ok.
Receiving many prizes was fun – I do like my free merch so this is very exciting. There’s also the genuinely useful thing that is PentesterLabs. I plan to use that to assist my skills in the near future, as even though I do not plan to pursue a career in cybersecurity, it is still a field that interests me greatly, and any learning is good learning. More importantly though is the hoodie because it was FREE.
Overall, last week may be the last stressful one for a while, which is such a relief. One more week left this term, then one more term left this year. Its getting close to the end and I am eagerly awaiting it.