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.