2022 in 58 pictures here
2022 did not have an overall theme for me. I started the year worried I wasn’t going to graduate from university because I had some issues with my final year project. That was probably the darkest part of my entire stay in UI, I’d come home feeling both mentally and physically drained, fully aware I’d have to do it all again the next day. It stopped me from doing all I wanted to do during my final year.
I however managed to graduate with a Second Class Upper degree in Mechanical Engineering which to be honest I consider a W considering the little time and attention I put into the degree - (I am grateful for the friends and coursemates that helped make this possible). While I wasn't able to set up the cybersecurity club I wanted, I was able to help establish a cybersec track for Google’s DSC UI..
I tried to stay more in touch over the phone and well, that didn't work out. So, I decided to say “yes” more often when I was invited to go out somewhere (mostly with AB and Lulu/OSC XD). This has helped me learn how to be more present and grounded. I also started a new habit of taking pictures of things that interest me. It could be a colorful landscape, a unique structure, or something as simple as a fascinating pattern or texture.
This year, I moved to a new apartment and started experimenting with different hairstyles. I also learned how to Swim and picked up Salsa dancing. I listened to music more, totaling over 100,000+ minutes of listening time across 4 music platforms. During this process, I created Sound-Tunnel which allows you to move playlists between platforms - I had to reverse AppleMusic and TidalMusic to make it work.
Although I skated less in 2022 I got my first scar from skating, 5hyl0ck said it was a badge of honor...after laughing. The skate group we founded in Ibadan last year has now grown to 47 members. I'm heartbroken UI stopped being the rallying spot, all thanks to a man with a certain plant-related name.
Only one of the 3 passive income streams I set up in 2021 survived 2022… Sadly still not out of the rat race. I started working with Sh3nokam3 on an arbitrage bot, the current version returns an average $6 - 10 per day but it’s not fully functional and proper safeguards have not yet been implemented. Weirdly, there was always something more important or time-sensitive for us to work on. Hopefully, it should be fully active in 2023. I also made a closed-source script that turned my Discord account into a userbot, I set it up to automatically enter all lotteries and contests in every DAO I was in... Made quite a bit off it.
Worked with a small team on an utility NFT project, got a grant, completed the roadmap but sadly the crypto market entered a bear phase and activity pretty much slowed down on the chain. With the onset of a bear phase, I focused more on cybersec and freelanced with Nigerian and West African companies (:P thanks to Pr3sh_Cyb3r, Ghost and Mr. K). I demoed a vulnerability at Diary of Hackers’ CyberStarters Conference in Abuja and met a lot of the hackers I only ever texted over the phone, it was amazing.
I worked with 5hyl0ck on bug bounty targets and found a few vulns. I also started remotely working with a Web3 company as an Application Security Engineer, currently trying (with Sh3nokam3 and Kurrupt68) to secure a permanent red teaming Gig for M4x_he4dr00m. I suspect we might need to expand the team as we all seem to be busy. I'm happy with the team's growth, M4x changed from 5 hackers to an AppSec Engineer, a Penetration Tester, a Security Researcher, a Pipeline Engineer, and another Penetration Tester.
2022 feels like a buildup for 2023 and I’m curious and excited to see how things go.