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My current job responsibilities are solely concentrated in "Information Security". Basically, it's my job to identify what the people in our company need to do and what technology we need to implement to minimize potential threats to our assets. Part of this is putting together a bunch of documents that let employees know what things are ok to do with our data and what things are not ok. Essentially, these documents establish trust between companies, employees, partners and customers. For instance, employees are told that if information is marked "restricted", they can't let anyone else know that information without their manager's approval. Before approving, that manager has to ensure that it's ok that other person (such as a customer) receive that information. The way the manager knows if it's ok is by verifying that the recipient has also accepted the rules for what things may be done and may not be done with that information. After that, the manager checks to ensure that the way the information will be sent to the recipient will be secure -- so that someone else can't eavesdrop and also get that information. It's complicated and sounds like it's a big pain to work with, right?

Outside of geekdom, this kind of exchange happens every day between friends. If something happens to me that I don't really want to share with the world, I may still tell a close friend about it so that I can get advice or moral support. I'm supremely confident that you can relate, since this is just human nature. We need each other. Close friends don't need a 300 page information security manual, a manager and an information security team that tells them not to gossip... Ideally, they just know what's right and what's wrong. Unfortunately, the ideal isn't always the case and as I found out today, it wasn't for me and my family recently. I'm disappointed that someone that Casey or I calls a close friend would betray our trust. It's damaging from multiple perspectives and uncalled for. That's all I have to say about it. I'm finished now.

Labels: trust

On Thursday, Kaetlyn was diagnosed with Croup. She hasn't completely recovered but is doing much better. Unfortunately it's making its way through the family. Even my Mom (who stayed with us the last couple of weeks) got it just before going home. My symptoms seem to be improving, so hopefully I'll be "all done" soon. Poor Casey and Alyson though, they sound awful! I don't think Emma has had it yet... We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Labels: croup, sick

I have a very vivid memory from summer vacation when I was about 10 years old when my grandparents took me to Captain D's for all you can eat peel-and-eat shrimp. We walked in and my grandfather asked the cashier if he was sure they should charge me the kid's price because he knew how much I loved shrimp. The cashier laughed of course, but 80-something shrimp later I bet they wished they had charged more!

Emma loves them too, although she's gravitated towards the fried variety. Certainly it's unhealthy to consume anything in incredible amounts, but besides the huge quantity it's always been my assumption that there was something that was unhealthy about shrimp (well, at least since I've been old enough to think about such things). Kinda like eggs I guess... they're good for you to eat occasionally, but most people will tell you that eating a three-egg omelet every morning will do you in. Well, I'm not sure I agree with that either, but I digress. Anyway, I was surprised that I hadn't been let in on the secret that eating shrimp is actually quite healthy! For a truly unbiased source, check out the USDA. Shrimp has an incredible amount of protein with no carbs and almost no fat. The only negative is the cholesterol... but compare it to eggs and you've really got a winner.

<nerd alert>
Egg has a cholesterol-to-protein ratio of .034:1, while shrimp is .01:1. Case closed, and I didn't even do ratio for fat!
</nerd alert>

In case you're wondering, lobster and crab are in the same boat (no pun intended), although some varieties of crab can have a good deal of sodium. Shrimp does seem to have the greatest concentration of protein though!

Labels: nutrition, seafood, shrimp

I sit here feeding Alyson, watching Emma and Madison color together and chat quietly at the counter and listen to Kaetlyn as she wanders the house trying to figure out what she's going to do next... and I can't imagine people like this 20-year-old guy who shot and killed himself [Free link, but you have to open the PDF] just over 100 years ago just because he was bored. There's some very interesting stuff in the free online archive of the New York Times.

Labels: waste

Casey has blogged most of this already, but it just seems wrong to have such a giant gap and then randomly start blogging again with no warning.

• Our new car's gas mileage is so much better than our last one that we're saving quite a bit of money on a monthly basis as a result. I'm thrilled of course!
  
• Arkansas was great and we have already put down a deposit to go back next year.
• Despite some drama and personnel upheaval on my team at work, three major projects have wrapped up in the last 7 weeks and all have been big successes due to the help of a close friend/co-worker. One of those projects was to move the office to a brand new building which has shaved 10 minutes each way off of my commute!
• My mom came to help out for 11 days last month and it was a really great visit. The girls are still talking about it and Casey and I got a great break due to all the help.
  
• One of the drains in our kitchen sink broke and after hours of trying to get it off (to replace it) using brute force and chemicals we finally broke down and bought a whole new sink. Best part is that I actually got it installed myself and all of the plumbing has worked great.
  
• According to a child psychologist that we've been taking Madison to, it seems she does not have anything on the autism spectrum. Instead, it's likely a strong case of Obssessive Compulsive Disorder, which has to be handled very differently on our side -- so we're relearning our habits quite a bit.
• I'm feeling uncomfortable about the heap of unprocessed photos I've taken over the last several weeks and am anxious to get them online but may not have the time soon.
  
• Madison started school and is reportedly the best mannered child in the class. When she asked repeatedly to ride the bus we were nervous about the idea, but she really loves it.
  
• We're in the home stretch of pregnancy with baby #4 but aren't yet sure what name we like best. It's been a rocky, painful and uncomfortable journey for Casey, but at the moment we're coasting along ok.
• I'm sick today with a stomach bug, and while snoozing this morning we got a call from Madison's school saying that she was really sick and needed to be picked up. She's home and everybody seems to be hanging in there. Hopefully this one doesn't hit the whole family.
  

Labels: everything

In some ways, northern Arkansas looks a lot like Colorado. Hopefully I'll have pictures soon to show.

E: Daddy, I want a pink one, not a black one. Black isn't my favorite color but pink is my favorite color.
Me: What do you mean? Pink or black one of what?
E: The horsey! The horsey I'll ride on vacation.
Me: Oh, honey God doesn't make pink horses. I'm sorry.
E: Well, who makes pink horses?

*sigh* :-)

Labels: E, horse

As you've heard, we're a fan of the Dallas World Aquarium and have been several times. Apparently there's a much older and lesser travelled aquarium called the Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park. We heard about it on the news because the City of Dallas is looking at budget cuts in the fall and is considering closing it. After looking at their web site and seeing how cheap it was, we decided we needed to go. We weren't sure what to expect and certainly thought it'd be much smaller, but last weekend when my mom was in town we loaded everybody up and went down to Fair Park. We were really happy with the whole trip. It is tiny compared to DWA, but I got better fish pictures there than I ever have. The girls got to touch a horseshoe crab and see a baby turtle up close. After we left there, we got snow cones at a stand just outside and wandered around. It's been so long since I have been down there I had forgotten how cool of a place it is to go to. We wandered around the pond and then went in to see the IMAX projector get prepped and started. Emma was very excited to see the huge reels of film start moving and watch the giant projector slide all the way up to the ceiling to start playing the movie.

I think we'll be going down there again soon. Maybe the museum will be our next stop!