Long time no Blog......

Its been quite a while since I posted here. I would love to say that this is a new year's resolution or that I am turning over a new leaf but really all I am doing is trying to focus my efforts and priorities. Hoping that by putting this out there in writing that I will be committed to completing the tasks. Or at least shamed into it....I am not picky as long as it gets done. First off, I am committing myself to a more organized system at work. Sort of a hybrid of the Franklin Covey and the GTD systems. Second, a renewed effort to lose another 25 pounds as well as training for this summer's Warrior Dash (http://warriordash.com/register2012_ohio.php). My bro and I had such a blast last year. I think my youngest son as well as several friends are up for it. So anyway, hoping to keep a more consistent track of my efforts here. Anything is better than 3 years between posts. :-)

New Toy!

Well, I broke down and got myself a new toy. Not quite the convertible German sports car that some may have gotten but its something that I wanted. I bought a motorcycle. Yes, I know, kinda late in the season to ride but I got a great deal and a little cold weather doesn't stop me. The specs: 2003 Suzuki Volusia. A nice sized cruiser with some extras. Enough for two to take a long weekend trip somewhere. I will post a picture or two when I get the chance.

I also got a bit of news on the photo hobby front. One of my pictures that I took on a recent business trip to Southern CA is being considered for a San Diego magazine. Granted, this magazine is free and there are obviously no royalties associated with the pic but its nice to know that I am getting better at my hobby. The picture is from Old Town and its of the fountain in the center of Old Town. Check out my Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerrybedwell/ and look for the fountain. Not my best work but its still nice for the recognition.

Greener pastures

Well, its been a month since I started with my new company and things are going well. The honeymoon is still on, as some would say. Getting used to the things everyone gets used to when starting with a new company. Where things are....who to call when you need something specific...figuring out the quickest way to get those expenses submitted and returned. The overiding theme with this company is the culture differences. This company is most definitely global and things are a bit different. Not bad different, but different. I expect a GOOD 6 months of getting used to the culture, but I am excited about taking on this task.

More to come soon....

Oh, and by the way....I have begun posting pictures to my flickr page. I love my D40 and am already bugging the wife about a new lens. Just not sure if I want telefoto or macro. Maybe something quicker....lots of choices.

Time is dwindling...and other observations

My time here at my current employer is dwindling....today and tomorrow is all I have left before starting my new position Monday. Making the rounds of goodbyes and see-ya-laters is bitter sweet. I will miss a lot of people here but this is a small town and I am sure I will see a lot of folks again. Heck, I even hear from some people that have moved away after switching jobs (shout out to you in Indy).

Since I have been working to a close with my old employer I have had a little extra time to focus on some other things. Working around the house more...landscaping and such. And my new hobby/focus/obsession....taking pictures with my D40. I have joined a bunch of groups online along with reading many forum posts as well as adding a few of my own. There are tons of sites out there to help newbies out such as myself. The information is invaluable. Now all I need is the money to get some new lenses and accessories (much to the contrary of some other folks, my income is still limited....that 401K plan of winning the lottery is not paying off....mostly due to the fact that I don't play the lottery).

Anyway, I have posted some things out on flickr as well as a few yahoo groups. I am still learning and will use this blog to link over from time to time when I feel comfortable with my end results. Although one can goto flickr.com and do a creative search using my email address here and probably fine my photostream fairly quickly.

Thats all for now...more to come soon enough....

Greener pastures

There has been something in the works over the last couple of weeks...I would say that is the reason that I haven't been posting a lot lately but that would be a lie. Summertime tends to revolve around my sons' and their pursuits of all things sports. This year's only difference is that my oldest is now finding out how much he might enjoy a paycheck.

Onto the point of this little post. At the end of the month I will be switching employers. This is a change that is necessary for quite a few reasons (which I will get to later in another post). Suffice to say that it was just necessary. As to who I might be going to? An automaker is all I venture to say right now.

More to come....

Misc....

Just some random thoughts....I am in the middle of a big decision and needing to put some things down on paper (so to speak). Not that I can keep the topic of this decision very transparent but I will try not to blurt out exactly what it is I am thinking about. This decision is a big one. Lots of pros and not many cons for those of you who do the lists. But there are pros on both sides of the decision and that is what makes it difficult.

I have taken to snapping pictures more than I thought I would when I got my D40. I have taken over 1500 pictures all in all. Pared them back down to a more manageable 1000 or so in storage now. I can't get over the quality and freedom that a DSLR provides. Its no wonder so many get hooked into this hobby. I will branch out to some nicer glass soon, I hope, but I think that outside of that I will refine what I know until such time as I feel it necessary to upgrade the body or add to the body count.

Cicadas have invaded our side of town this year....not quite like '87 (yes I remember that invasion I was 1 year removed from high school) or '04 but they are out and loud.

Summer is semi-officially here with the pools being open but that water is way too cold for my taste. Joey jumps in with no fear and I suppose I did the same at his age...I suppose.

Outside of our wonderful ECHL Cyclones, its another in a line of boring sports seasons here in Cincy. The Reds are losing (although Jay Bruce is a ray of hope for the future) and the Bengals are causing the wrong kind of press (thank YOU Ocho Cinco). It seems the only bright spots are the semi pro leagues. Florence Freedom games are a blast to attend and as mentioned before the Cyclones are up 3-2 in the finals.

Oh, almost forgot....the Certified Ethical Hacker training aftermath. It truly was drinking from a firehose. I have spent the last couple of weeks re-reading the material and still I feel the need to investigate more, download the utilities and test. And by test I mean hack...but only MY stuff. It is the "ethical" hacking.

All for now....

CEH Training...or...Drinking from the Firehose

Decided to hone some skills that were getting rusty since my foray into corporate information security policy....hacking and countermeasures. Or as some know it better, the CEH training. 5 days, 4 volumes, over 2300 pages. Overwhelming would describe the amount of information that was presented to the class. We had a decent sized class and a pretty good instructor. He knew the present state of the hacking industry and was able to focus our attention on the more relevant details of the course, which is ESSENTIAL when trying to process so much info. We also were actually preparing for the CEH exam at the same time, but that is more of a side note than the class itself. I won't bore anyone with what we learned, I just thought I would share with you some of my experiences while out of work (ha ha) and in training. As I said before, we had a good sized class, 10 students. A good mixture of backgrounds as well. A couple of developers, a couple of DBAs, some security people from larger companies where their skills and job titles are way more focused than mine, and a couple of general security folk (like me). It made for some very good discussions and learning when it came to topics that people were either familiar with or were asking more information about. We didn't have to rely on the instructor for every single answer, we had subject matter experts in the room. The amount of material is to say the least, daunting. And rumor has it that the next version or iteration of the courseware is going to increase. I can't see this increasing without extending the days that you sit or it will start to diminish the course. You get to a point where it becomes counter-productive to try and learn so much in such a short period of time. Break it down into smaller classes or extend the time for that single class.

The upside to all of this is that I did learn what I needed to learn. The downside is now I am paranoid. I now know how easy it is to exploit systems, especially ones that are NOT patched. Once you realize the risk you face, you tend to see things a bit differently (at least for the short term). But I also know that you need to take the parts from any training you attend and be able to apply them to your current job. Therein lies the task before me. Taking only the relevant pieces from this training (or any other for that matter) and applying them to my current job and employer and ensuring that they get the best bang for the buck, or ROI if you prefer corporate speak.

That is all for now...I will update again once I have stopped the paranoia from making me unplug every PC in my house for fear that I will get hacked.

The road less traveled...

This is a story about customer service, or that lack thereof. Recently, and I say recently only in terms of millenia it seems, we started some light remodeling on our upstairs bathroom. We noticed that the tiles around the toilet were a bit loose. After pulling them up and removing the toilet completely we noticed a much bigger issue. Not only were the tiles loose and coming up but the subfloor was wet and had been for quite some time. To the point that it was dangerous to stand in that area. Unless you wanted to end up in the downstairs bathroom, that is. So I called my homeowners insurance company and asked for them to come out and take a look. After a few days (it was late winter\early spring and in the midwest that means WET so I was not the only one with water issues) she arrived and proclaimed that this was a valid claim and that I should get a few quotes and get them to her. I went to the local Better Business Bureau website and got a couple of names plus a reference from a very dependable co-worker and friend. We jumped through the hoops of getting each of the contractors to be onsite as soon as we possibly could. This type of repair: subfloor, tile surround of the tub and shower, some minor plumbing and a whole lot of drywall is out of my league and timeline. It would be months before I got all of that done and at my own expense. If a toilet leak caused the damage then I feel like my insurance should pay for it to be done professionaly. Anyway, we decided to go with the contractor that was referred to us and scheduled him out for a Monday morning. My wife and I decided to head up and take out some of the fixtures to help speed things along. As we were removing the medicine cabinet we noticed what appeared to be a spot of mold in the corner. That is the start of the downward spiral that has now become the bathroom repairs from HELL. The mold stopped my contractor from starting the demo on the bathroom, for good reason. I wouldn't mess with the mold either if I didn't absolutely have too. Anyway, I called my insurance agent again and told her of our discovery. She said she would be out in a day or two to check it out but that I should start looking for some companies to come out and get rid of the mold. Now, if you remember earlier I mentioned that it was WET and that she was busy. Mold remediation companies also do water damage work and with the subsequent flooding everywhere we couldnt get anyone to show up for days. Finally one company, who I thought was a godsend since they could come out quickly, told me they would be out in 2 days. They came out, assessed the mold and I thought that was that. Uh....no. This mold is not a result of the original claim. Now I have TWO claims. That means TWO deductibles. That means twice the headache of paperwork and all that comes with it. So now I have to schedule the mold remediators to come out and push out my contractor until they are done. We are now 2 weeks since we found the original water damage.

Now a tragedy of miscommunication, poor professionalism, and even worse customer service has begun. Not only do I get the run around from my insurance company, the decide NOT to renew my policy when its up in 2 months!!!! The mold remediator company has a technician that shows up on average 1 and a half hours late each day...that is on the days he bothers to show up. And my contractor is still out there waiting. The whole time all I can see is him getting into this 6 week job where I am stuck waiting. The more I called the insurance agent, the more frustrated I became. It went from her being busy to her not calling back or when she did she would tell me one thing and my contractor another. More than once I was told that things were ready to go only to have her tell him that she needed a document or a revised estimate. And the whole time I am fighting to get the Mold company to finish their work and get this huge HEPA filter out of the middle of my living room. The Mold company, whose name rhymes with TervPro, kept making appointment after appointment with me only to either cancel or show up late. This lasted for over 2 more weeks. Broken appointments, no returned phone calls, miscommunications, day in and day out. All building to the point of me sitting outside of a hospital room while my brother in law was getting surgery telling my insurance agent that I am fed up with the delays and that she needs to get her boss involved because I know I will.

This is about the time I would say...Long story short, but I know that is WAY past so here is a summary of where we are now.

My contractor is supposed to start in 2 days. My insurance agent is telling me that she will authorize him to go ahead and get started now and the mold company has gone and not come back, called, or anything. The Better Business Bureau will definitely hear from me when this is all said and done.

Anyone know how big a cubit is?????

Let's see...more than a foot of snow in less than two days. Add warm temperatures and rain for a few more days. Then dump 3 plus inches of rain on top of that, mix thoroughly and you get Ark building weather. Even schools are closing due to flooding, power outages, and the like. I never remember this happening when I was a kid....going to school in a blizzard, up hill, both ways, without shoes or a coat. But I digress...again.

I should have started this blog off when we bought our house a couple of years ago. It would have made for some nice reading and even some good therapy for me after having to do all the work we did on the place. Now we are waist deep in a bathroom remodel. Thank goodness we have another bathroom in the house or all of this rain we are getting might have been the only way I was going to get a shower. The bathroom remodel is technically not a remodel due to the fact that a toilet leak has caused all of the recent headaches. The good side to this is that the money is being footed by our homeowners insurance due to the leak. So the bathroom will get its much needed updating and fixing and we will only need a small percentage of the money. The bad side is that we are finding all sorts of things that need to be done to this bathroom and I have now memorized my insurance agents phone number.

More to come as things progress.....IF they progress.

Woa...its been a LONG time

At the urging of my wonderful wife, I have decided to try this blogging thing again. Maybe I can stick with it this time, maybe not. I was actually, sort of, motivated by an ex-coworker of mine that also has a blog around here somewhere. Congratulations Rick!!!!! He was someone that I did not envision having a blog but then the last time I spoke to him was almost 10 years ago. People change as life moves on. One thing this slighty middle aged guy has learned.

Some of the things that have changed with me over the last 11 months since my last post? I have continued down the Information Security path. Got my CISM certification. For those of you who might not know, that is Certified Information Security Manager. Added to my CISSP I think I am done for a while. Continuing down this technology path I have also started up a small comsulting firm called RDB Consulting and we specialize in Home Based and Small Business Information Security consulting. Providing affordable security services to firms who otherwise may think its not affordable or attainable. This is very early in the startup stage but it is going very well, thanks for asking.

From a personal standpoint, things are a-changin there as well. My oldest son is pushing 16 and will be asking that all important question...Can I have keys dad? Another summer of baseball quickly approaches as my youngest son has already started practicing at an indoor facility. A few other things have changed as well. I have started back into photography as a hobby. I have made the all important switch (finally some would say) from film to digital. Once I feel that I have gotten a handle on this new fangled digital thing I might even post a pic or two. We also now have 2 wonderful little puppies, Buddy and Suzi. Not spoiled at all, mind you.

Check back soon...if you like....and I will post some more info. For now....later.

Getting back on track

Well, I know I was hoping to get back into the blogging saddle and update this thing a bit more frequently than once or twice a year and I have met that goal...as lowly as it is. I have successfully signed up for another Cert...the CISM. I have the book and have started studying...the test is in June. I am also so slammed at work that I am going to be lucky to study at all except for maybe reading late into the night every night.

Hopefully I will be back on tomorrow with a better update....I know you all are on the edge of your seat holding your breath for it....

A new day is dawning....

I know its been a coupla days especially since I sort of vowed to renew my posting regimen but things they are a-changin around heya...as they say. I accepted a new position with a company in town. A better position for me, yes, money and all others aside. Funny thing is that when I first was approached about this particular position I struggled with the decision for some of the right reasons and a few very wrong ones, although my heart was in the right place when I was thinking about it. I actually was basing my decision on guilt. I felt bad that the guys here would be short handed for a little bit. My wonderful wife quickly reminded me that that particular reason was not a good one to stay. And she was right (as usual). Making this decision was hard on many levels. I really like the guys I work with. I have not been totally unhappy in my job. But within the last 5 years I have made a concerted effort to focus myself in a particular field of geekdom and this opportunity lent itself to that arena. In other words, an offer I couldn't refuse. But that did not waylay the guilt and sadness at parting ways with working closely with these guys that I have grown to respect and in some cases actually like. I know now why changing jobs is one of the most stressful things you can go thru. The search is ok, almost exciting in a way. Knowing that someone out there wants your skills enough to pay for them is nice...flattering. And keeping up on the interview skills in necessary in my book. So overall, this process has been good and bad. Not like I am gonna lose contact with anyone, I will be literally 2 blocks away...but the daily interaction will be missed.

Rhymes with S#!Tworks

Let me first say that this post is going to be a bitch-fest. I intend to gripe, whine and complain about a certain Fitness company that has a few gyms in my little burg here. First, they purchased the OLD gym that I belonged to and quickly (the ONLY thing they have done quickly) closed most of the neighborhood gyms including the one that was most convenient to my domicile. Then they proceeded to tell me that they wouldn't honor the contract that I had with the old company. I complained, loudly of course, and got them to bend some on the terms or renewal. Which is ok since I had a contract with the old gym that guaranteed me a nice low renewal rate but sucks because they should have honored the signed formal contract that I had presented them. And now that my 3 year term is up and I wanted to renew it, at the rate quoted by THIS company after I had negotiated it less than 2 years ago, they tell me that the yearly rate has DOUBLED. So of course I asked to talk to someone about it and all I got was the phone # of the home office in Northern Ohio. I called them the next morning and got a phone monkey that didn't care why I was upset he just wanted to tell me how I can send an EMAIL to cancel my renewal. No, you can't do this over the phone to a real person, you have to send an EMAIL!!!!!!! Huh??!!!?!?!!? I absolutely cannot believe that they actually do business this way.

Well...its about time

Almost a year in between posts. Looks like a long time, seems like it was only a month or two. Sounds like every other person telling the world that time just flies by. I wish I could say that I was exaggerating or that I just say that but it really does fly by. Anyway, back to the point at hand...its been almost a year. The blogger site is no longer beta...I still need to check it out and see whats what (I am a geek after all). A year....what has happened in that year...I passed the CISSP, not sure if that is on last year's posts or not. Still at the same job. New house, loving that. The kids are another year older (more of that time flying thing). Gee...middle aged man telling you time flies and not much has changed. Talk about stereotypical.

Oh well, maybe I will have something interesting or a muse that will inspire people to stop and think about life on the next post.....but probably not!

All WAS quiet

All was quiet on the exam front. I took it. I thought I had failed miserably. I read and re-read all of the post exam quotes that said that you come out of the test feeling like you have no idea how you did. I was 80-20 that I had failed. I was wrong. I got the confirmation email yesterday. Why I didn't post yesterday is due to one of the worst headaches in recent memory. I was barely functional for most of the work day.

Now comes the fun part. Getting someone to vouch for my professional and moral character. How hard is that gonna be? I wonder if there is a time limit on finding someone and begging, errr I mean asking them to send in the appropriate paperwork.

2-3 more weeks and it will be official, as long as no one decides to back out on the sponsorship.

Waiting....

I hate waiting....

T minus two and counting

Ah yes, 48 hours till Exam time. I am really wishing it was today instead. I am starting to go over the same things again and again in the attempt to sharpen any weak areas. I will have the weak areas, don't get me wrong, its just that I think I need to stay away from trying to cram them right now.

More later...

Down to the wire

Well, after a weekend of practice tests and hammering down the Orange Book classifications, its not onto sharpening Crypto skills and making sure Access Control is solid. Then some time with App Dev to round things out. All sprinkled with practice tests from online and my handy dandy CD that came with the All In One guide. I also have some slide decks that help pinpoint the areas of concern.

The practice tests are not going too badly actually. Hitting in the 80's most of the time. Every once in a while I catch myself making a stupid mistake like reading thru the question and not seeing the double negative or catching the first answer I see that fits without comparing it to the other answers and I pay for it in the scores. These practice tests are more about getting the format and the rythm down than it is seeing the same answers over and over again. If you are memorizing answers then I have a feeling that this test will NOT be for you.

Man, this too early for this...

Here is the early morning edition....dateline dining room table....11pm on an otherwise quiet Monday evening. 24 has just ended and the adrenaline is pumping. No better time to tackle the ins and outs of the OSI model. It should be easy. The layers themselves are a no brainer. Its the danged protocols and sub-layers that are getting to me. I know that the physical layer is on the wire. The layer that handles the voltage. The top most layer, the application layer is another easy one. Its the one closest to the user. HTTP, SNMP, SMTP, and the such. The presentation layer, another easy one, NO protocols just services. JPG, TIFF, etc..... Session layer, application to application traffic cop. RPC, and SQL play there. So far so good. Transport layer, the computer to computer traffic cop. Now the protocols get a little fuzzy but I found a way around that. The T in transport leads me to TCP which helps me with UDP. TCP is a connection oriented protocol so the logic stands good there. Now onto the Network layer. And I seem to hit a wall right here. Data Link layer...same thing. I know that the data link layer has the sub layer of MAC and one other LLD, I think. But I draw a blank on the protocols for the network and data link layers. I know there is ICMP, IP, IGMP, and the like and I am pretty sure its the network layer for that. What I can't do is provide the details on just WHAT the network layer provides. I can stretch and say that the data link layer provides the LAN/WAN translation and that it draws me to FDDI, etc...you know, the protocols associated with LAN/WAN traffic. But still no confident statement.

These are the struggles I am having. My practice tests are coming along and with less than 2 weeks they better be. This is a stumbling block that I HAVE to get past. Even if there is not ONE question on this exam about the layers, yeah right, I MUST get this down.

Maybe some divine intervention would help.

Keeping up

Keeping up this blog is harder than I had imagined especially when I need to crack the books and take some practice tests. I did find a really good site cccure.org for taking online practice tests. They have the most detailed queries for taking tests. One can drill down and really pound your weaknesses. I also found some random slide decks from various sites such as cissp.com,etc..

All told I have quite a bit more material to pour thru. I guess I better get back to it.

Well...THAT didn't take long

It took exactly one post on here for me to fall off of the wagon. I got caught up last night and studied for oohhhh, about 10 minutes. Not exactly what I would call a marathon session of learning. I got derailed by, of all things, TV. That damned Howie Mandel. How many times have you heard that recently? He hosts a "Millionaire" type game show that is actually quite addicting, at least to me. Then there was 24. The one show on Mondays that I look forward to.

Another nail biting, fast paced, action filled, cell phone battery killin, edge of your seat, episode.

I promise to study tonight for a good two hours after I get home!!!!!!!