2025 has been a mixed year for me. The Good times were pretty good, but the bad times were so bad.
Review of 2025
On the positive side, switching to working full time as an reseacher has been a great decision. I was able to focus on research topics and progress in these projects. Times were busy, but I enjoyed the work and the challenges it brought.
I had my debut as a chaos event organizer at the GPN, where I continued my tradition of organizing the helpers at the unifest, to be now part of the GPN Trollhöhle. I am pretty happy with the team and the feedback we got. Still, there is a lot to improve for this year.
Also related to chaos, was my talk on DOI at the MRMCD. This was my second, it was ok, but looking back I now see a lot of room for improvement. I need to work on my talk pipeline and get more practice in giving talks. I notice that its hard for me to formulate my thoughts in a way that makes the main points clear to the audience. The attention does not go to the words where I want it to go and so it is hard to get the message across. I need to work on this.
I got to travel a bit more, including switzerland, london, berlin, hamburg and munich. I went to fewer BSides than 2024.
In the CTF department, I had an good year. I participated in fewer CTFs than 2024, but I was able to focus on quality over quantity. I made an writup on Lakectf quals pls respond challange.
The bad times were pretty rough. I lost three close family members this year, including my dad. This is something that will stay with me for a long time, and I am still processing it. I am grateful for the time I had with them and the memories we shared, I will never forget them. My dad was a big influence in my life, and I miss him dearly. He was always supportive of my endeavors, and I know he would be proud of what I am doing.