About

Hello! My name is Matt Cooper and this is my personal blog. 

On this page, I'll share a little insight into who I am and what I enjoy doing.

I work in the Information and Cyber Security Industry, both in the private and government sector. I thoroughly enjoy this industry as it gives me the ability to participate in and experience so many different facets of technology. It works well because I find interest in breaking things down, figuring out what makes them work, and finding ways to manipulate them into doing things outside the scope of their intended purpose.

Immediately prior to my Info/Cyber Security career, I spent nearly a decade navigating litigation and arbitration in Insurance Industry. Before which, I enjoyed roughly 12 years in the physical security realm, focusing on event security and executive protection.

I live in the southeastern U.S. where I'm a happily married husband and the father to 2 kids. One is furry (Mastiff puppy) and the other is a teenage human (scarier than it sounds).

Table of Contents:
1. Hobbies and Interests
1.1 Graphic Design
1.2 Pets
1.3 Outdoors
1.4 Homelabbing / Self Hosting

Hobbies and Interests

Graphic Design
While I don't have any formal training or education in graphic design, it's something I've been enjoying for well over a decade. My skillset is all self-taught or what I've gathered over the years as I've worked on various projects. For me, design is somewhat therapeutic.

Pets
Over the years, I've had various different dogs. Currently, I have a 120lb, 4 year old American Bandogge (Bandog) Mastiff (aka American Masti-Bull), named Harley. She has a beautiful gray/blue coat and one of most unique personalities of any dog I've ever parented. 

Outdoors
Although I'm deeply invested in technology across many portions of my life, I've always found myself venturing outdoors or into the mountains. There's no doubt that I enjoy nature and all the natural beauty it has to offer. I regularly travel to the mountains to push the reset button and re-ground myself.

Homelabbing / Self Hosting
I was self-hosting services and running a home lab well-before venturing into the technology industry, as a career. I host a small data center full of various servers, networking appliances, storage arrays, and more. Within this environment, I run multiple different services, applications, and tools. This environment allows me the opportunity to spin up virtualized instances or programs for testing, investigations, or even just for fun.

Purpose of this Blog
I wanted to get back into blogging but, under a new theme or brand. The purpose behind this blog is just as an outlet to share experiences, information I find interesting, and general nuggets of knowledge. "Beard Nuggets" was born out of the concept of sharing casual "nuggets" of knowledge or information to ponder. Unlike some niche blogs, I have no structure or strict theme I intend to adhere to. This is purely for my own enjoyment.