What does Westwardfishdme do in his free time?

The world of today is boring, tiring, and so isolated. Perhaps it was the sparking of the Covid epidemic in 2020 that made people like this, or has it been like this always? I couldn't tell you. Not a single ounce of me understands where the world has gone, but most people just don't have hobbies anymore. I mean here in America, where you're expected to work until you practically die, I suppose there is very little time for hobbies anymore. At least, not until you grow old and retire at the ripe ol' age of 65.

I fundamentally could never bring myself to be as such. Call it 'youthful ignorance', naivety, but I get so goddamn fucking bored so fast that you would think that I have ADHD or require Subway Surfers at the bottom of every video that I watch; Which to an extent has caught my eye a few times— sometimes just watching people be cracked at mobile games is just fun to watch.

Nonetheless, boredom fuels creativity. I've learned from numerous personal life experiences that when there is nothing to do, there is something I could do. No, I don't just mean menial dumb-tasks designed to make you look 'busy', I mean actual endeavors that require time and thinking. Things that require a bit of skill and an understanding of certain concepts that fuel the drive for a creative process.

So what the hell do you do for fun?

If I told you all of my hobbies all at once, we could be sitting here for hours upon hours, but to be quite honest, neither me nor you have time for any of that. I mean, this blog serves to be an outlet for me, because truth be told: I have a bad habit of bottling my thoughts. Strangely enough, I suck at talking to people. Not because I'm rude, or emotionally unintelligent, but because I suffer from social anxiety. Strangely enough, while you would think that my social anxiety has made me really bad at reading people's emotions, it has done quite the opposite. I have become extremely good at reading the emotions and facial expressions of others, as well as picking up their behavior patterns.

This has made me eccentrically good at games like poker in which I can actually use this soft skill, in combination with probability and game sense to accurately determine the strength of my hand against my opponents. While I don't go out to casinos all that much, playing low-stakes home games with friends and family has become a past-time of mine.

In addition to poker, I have a great enjoyment of games that have a sense of competitiveness embedded into them. This has drawn me to video games such as Counter-Strike, Rainbow SIx Siege, League of Legends, Chess, and Deadlock. I'm not a world class player, but I have fun when playing these games because when you outplay your opponent it is such a satisfying feeling.

Across the board, here are my rankings in each

• Chess: I am roughly 900-1000 elo, in the intermediate range of players, but if I really wanted to, I could hit 1800-2000 elo.

• Counter-Strike: I am about 20,000 elo in premier, and 1600 elo in Faceit, playing at a introductory semi-pro level.

• Rainbow Six: before the rank changes, I was very close to being Diamond before they switched the top 1000 to Champion and added a bunch of changes

• Deadlock: I reached Oracle 3 before I just quit playing all-together, which is close enough to play amongst the top 1000.

• League: … we dont talk about my league rank (its like bronze 2)

Although I am not the best, I could play well. I'm a filthy casual at best, but because I can play a variety of games it has made me excel at picking up mechanics and styles EXTREMELY fast. Bunch that in with my skills of reading people from poker, I make pretty calculated decisions in each game, which I guess goes to show you the kind of person I am— extremely calculated. Which also makes me really good at strategy games as well.

But I don't just play games…

Game theory extends into a lot of other aspects of my life. Because I have experience in calculating risks and impacts on objectives in a team environment, it has made me extremely skilled at things generally. More specifically, I really enjoy finding logical conclusions to what otherwise would be obscure topics. This has made me really good at software design, penetration testing, setting up complex networks, and computers in general. For example, lets look at how my gaming skills translate into cybersecurity:

• Opponent wants access to a network, information, etc. and my goal is to prevent such a leak.

• There are many vectors from a operating standpoint, but also human vectors as well.

• Knowing how an attacker might manipulate someone into installing malware or giving up credentials has made me very keen on known discrepencies. One bad URL or an inkling of suspicion from an "unnatural" interaction is all it takes.

Poker is an information game. I can pretend I have a good hand, but at the end of the day, once showdown comes— I need to be able to back my hand. If my opponent sits there with Aces while I have Kings, it comes down to what the board draws for me to be able to make my hand. I can wager all day that my opponent could be stronger, could be weaker, but because I can judge the strength of his hand from strategic bet sizing as the game continues, I know whether it is a bluff or it's real.

On the other hand, it also forces me to think from my opponent's perspective— like chess. If I had Aces, how would I play this board? Or the chess equivalent, if my opponent controls the dark squares, how weak is my king? The same thing translates into cybersecurity. I need to think from my attacker's perspective, but also from my own as well. The best offense is a great defense. Cyber allows me to setup traps, trenches, and other immense defensive strategies, combining soft skills with hard skills that requires zero-sum thinking.

Playing computer games also has made me really interested in software development and information technology in general. Tracking variables, creating software to boost my productivity, and understanding how to make a computer run more efficiently has drawn me to computers. Not only do I love building computers, I love setting them up as well. I have made so many servers for not only gaming, but web server hosting, privacy centered applications, and file sharing that I almost feel compelled to build a new system weekly. I have built so many custom PC's and servers for people that I already have gotten years of experience in the field without stepping into an office or datacenter. I have setup secure networks for me to allow myself to remotely administrate their servers, if they ever need me to, and I have just made daunting tasks so much simpler for people.

I learned that my hobbies make me who I am, and that is a caring, compassionate, and creative individual. I not only just love building things from pre-designed documentation, but from scratch as well. I have a passion for building things that make people feel secure, and find recreation in their enjoyment that overall brings positivity to this world and so much more.

Hopefully, insight into my own hobbies resonates with you my reader, and perhaps brings you