Blog | Becky's Bits & Bytes

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2022 (4)

10/19 Bad Happy-Hour Small Talk
“I think sometimes people hang around at jobs too long, reliving childhood traumas because it feels comfortable. “Maybe it wasn’t those exact words, but I put down that sentiment. His awkward look of surprise clued me in that I chose inappropriate happy-hour small talk. But, seriously, who wants to talk about the weather or politics?...
08/12 Birthday Brag Post
“Bitch, be humble.” Nope, sometimes a girl has to brag. Sure I lost a bunch of weight and left an unhappy marriage. But, my swagger lies in my improved situational incontinence avoidance skills. Life goals at age 45, y’all. A year or so earlier, 40 feet from an unseen port-a-potty, I pissed my pants. Not...
08/02 Don’t Start Nothing, Won’t Bee Nothing
An interloper buzzes by as soon as my car door opens. I look over, and he’s doing exploratory bee work on the “Tech Field Day” bag sitting on the passenger seat. I can’t hate, though. In that upright hovering stance, he’s pure magnificence with his contrasting black and yellow jacket body and those little legs....
01/31 2021 Retrospective: Wins, Woes, and Lessons Learned
2021 was when I became 100% that bitch* who got sick, tired, and ready for change. Looking back, I’m grateful for those hella hard days where I could barely get out of bed. Those days were not how I wanted to spend the rest of my life. A desire to feel better drove me to...

2021 (8)

12/06 Me and Those NOT “Impeccable Words”
I talked shit as a byproduct of fear and bitterness. I kept it “real” which is how I justified letting loose with the “emotional poison.” This person I’ve other-ed shows all of the signs of regularly acting from a place of insecurity and fear. Instead of showing compassion and recognizing our commonality, I’ve branded them...
08/01 Noisy Neighbors
Wait, was that my downstairs neighbor pounding on my door? Full disclosure: the last thud shook the floor. Nothing is intentional with kids. They didn’t mean to fall out of a lawn chair in my sparsely furnished third-floor apartment. But it happened. When I open my apartment door post-thud, an irate older man with tattooed...
05/24 Missed Connections
A sun sconce, a mini porcelain doll, a bowl festooned with cheap plastic flowers. These things are what a clutter bug would expect to find in a plastic tote, stowed away for 20 years. At the bottom of the bin, I uncover a two-page email with the subject line “thoughts on us” from the person...
05/16 Here?
When my Aunt told me this has been a good year for me, I immediately stopped to tell her she was wrong. This year. Ugh, fuck 2021. And, yes, I’m aware that the world is full of suffering and hardships right now and my woes are pretty first world. This year, though, My recently diagnosed...
03/19 All I Have is This Commemorative Tote
January 20, 2009, meant a lot to many people. It was American history in the making as Barack Obama got sworn in as the first Black President. Commemorative swag was everywhere. Hell, even I have a Safeway-branded inauguration bag. For me, a far different memory usurped this historic event. It’s not every day a sonogram...
03/04 Finding Hope in an Inhaler
“No one ever loses weight and feels worse,” the expert doctor proclaimed on YouTube. Umm, except for me. Since September, I’ve lost 60 pounds, and honestly, I can’t remember a longer period of my life where I’ve felt sicker with a constant cough, major fatigue, and shortness of breath. I struggle to get through most...
01/06 CFD9: Cloud-Native State of Mind with Portworx
At a tech conference in 2016, Andy Banta (@andybanta) walked around with a tombstone declaring the “The storage admin is dead.” But four years later is this true? Often, it’s a storage admin or IT ops job to present the storage volumes for the containers. While containers may be stateless, applications are not. State needs...
01/02 2020 Retrospective: Wins, Woes, and Lessons Learned
Wait, in my 2019 retrospective, I asked the universe for change and adventure in 2020?! I don’t know about the adventure part, but the universe totally delivered on the change part. For me and the entire world. Before COVID shut everything down, I regularly took substitute teaching jobs and accepted paid writing jobs. I hoped...

2020 (21)

12/06 Dust Settles, But Not Me
Nothing in my life has been safe from my “good enough” paintbrush: health, work, relationships. I’ve settled far too many times to count. If a life do-over were in the cards, continuously accepting good enough would be fine. But I’m in my 40s, and I gotta learn this “you deserve more than you are settling...
11/12 Super Vectorize Me: Getting Personal with Your Canva Graphics
I’ve gotta confess using un-customized stock photos feels icky. Yes, I’ve done it, but those stock photos are a poor companion for the original content that I strive to craft. Every blog post needs a graphic, though. So, what’s a non-graphic designer supposed to do? This is where Canva* and Super Vector Graphics (SVG) save...
11/07 CFD9: VMware’s vRealize Cloud Journey Story
Do you remember E’s Untold Story where they delve into salacious celebrity stories or maybe it was Hollywood True Story? Who knows the name of the show, but who doesn’t love a good story? VMware’s vRealize story wasn’t salacious, but hopefully, you find something interesting in this blog post or VMware’s Cloud Field Day 9...
10/02 GHC20: You are Not Your Fears
“Inhale fear, exhale courage.” Deep breath. Who doesn’t want this ability?! This aptly named #vGHC session was completely perspective-changing and blog-worthy. Inhale Courage, Exhale Fear Doing the right thing. Speaking out against injustice and inequity. Showcasing our value at work. Managing careers as we lead our families through a global pandemic. Today’s call for courage...
10/02 GHC20: Overcome Yourself for BRAVE Conversations
I spent decades believing that I was an easy-going person, and this was why I didn’t engage in conflict very often. My adept conflict avoidance skills were a strength. The truth was I approached most conflict or perceived conflict with fear and trepidation. Most of the time, when I had an urge to speak up...
09/22 Bread and Sugar: Can I Quit You?
“No bread, no pasta, no sugar, no dairy.” When my ob/gyn issued this directive at my first prenatal checkup for my first pregnancy, I nodded along. I screamed “WTF am I supposed to eat?” in my head, of course. Giving up all of those things seemed inconceivable. Also, I dismissed my doctor’s concerns as overreactive...
08/24 Embracing What Is
“Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques Dormez poop? Dormez poop?” “Stop it!” My daughter shrieked at her older brother’s mention of the word poop. That one-room Airbnb rental with no tv, no wifi, and spotty cell service suddenly seemed like the worst idea. EVER. I also began questioning my ability to parent alone. Maybe, my husband staying...
08/04 Guess Who’s Attending Storage Field Day 20?
What you would do if you had a whole week away from your kids? Me, I’m attending SFD20 from August 5 – August 8th! Virtually, of course. If you’ve ever attended a Field Day event, you know the intensity required to synthesize tons of content, pose somewhat coherent questions, and socially interact with others. The...
07/16 Best Boss Ever
I stood there, stunned. Wasn’t that precisely what I said? Why did the idea suddenly gain more credibility, five-minutes later, when it passed the lips of a male co-worker? Why couldn’t my boss hear me and this idea? Was there something wrong with how I communicate? Was it me? This wasn’t the first time this...
05/19 Gremlin Grappling with PathSolutions
Anyone who has ever spent time on a network team knows the ability to detect, troubleshoot, and respond to seemingly random and irksome slowdowns and availability issues is a freaking superpower. It’s no stretch to imagine network gremlins hellbent on wreaking havoc on your sanity and ability to get work done. Once upon a time,...
04/28 Individualized Education Plan (IEP) Angst
Individualized Education Plan (IEP} time. Ugh, this is when I stew in the dashed hopes of my child ever catching up academically and simultaneously wallow in parental guilt and shame. I do all of this while preparing to battle teachers about why my child isn’t getting all of the needed supports or services. If you...
04/23 Getting out of the “Zone”
“Has anyone ever done such a horrible job that all of the work had to be scrapped?” I’ve graduated past asking that question, but thoughts like these appear whenever I agree to do bold, uncomfortable sh*t. I’m beyond grateful to Keith Townsend (@ctoadvisor) for the opportunity to present, but giving a session at CTO Advisors...
03/13 The Stories We Tell Ourselves
“I’m not sure that I have any interesting stories to tell. My life has been pretty boring.” When my Toastmasters mentor disagreed with me, I silently discounted her assurances. After all, how could she know whether I had had anything interesting to say. She hasn’t lived my boring life, and she doesn’t know the real...
03/04 SFD19: DellEMC Does DevOps
What does DevOps mean to you? Maybe, you think it’s a set of practices, or you are convinced just a buzzword. What’s not up for debate, though, is Dell presented a DevOps titled session at Tech Field Day’s #SFD19. Let’s delve into a few things I found interesting in this presentation. #1 The #AutomateAllThings Trend...
02/26 When You Feel Unseen and Unheard…
“I find it hard to believe that your mother didn’t hug you or comfort you.” Another writer questioned me about the personal story I submitted for the writing group. My blandly titled “LIfe Moments #1” submission recounted the night that my mother left my father and my perspective about it. I quickly replied I didn’t...
02/17 Six Months Later: Thank You, Next?
Six Months? Seriously? Has it been that long since I walked out of that job with nothing on the horizon, but a trip to VMworld on the schedule? “August me” was exhausted. I never thought “burn out,” but it was. These months away have left me energized, more self-aware, and excited for the future. My...
02/05 SFD19: No Komprise on Knowing Thy Data
One of my favorite presenters at #SFD19 was Komprise, an analytics-driven data management platform designed for getting insights on unstructured data. Think analysis of TB and PBs of file-based data (NFS, SMB) for customers across many verticals, including Financial, Health, Entertainment, and Government. Storage Field Day 19 wasn’t my first introduction to Komprise. Because of...
01/30 Debunking Your Inconsistency Story
audio recording courtesy of allears.cc “I’m not sure who I am, but I know who I’ve been.” —Modest Mouse. “Make Everyone Happy/Mechanical Birds“ If quitting your job doesn’t cause you to question your identity, nothing will. We are conditioned to tie who we are to what we do. More than that, we create stories...
01/28 Miracles and Meaning?
I’m ready to defer this haphazard career journey I started in August. As much as substitute teaching and exploring special education excite me, that “Change Yo Life” fund is empty, and not having a steady paycheck is hard. But giving up your financial security and not having a “shit hits the fan” safety net sends...
01/20 On the Road Again: #SFD19 Bound
In the last four months of 2019, I traveled so much that I had to make a promise to keep the peace at home. After HopperX1NYC in November, I wouldn’t travel again until January 2020. When I made that promise, I had my fingers crossed that an invite to Storage Field Day 19 would come...
01/13 New Gig Chronicles: Back-to-School Edition
Today is the revelation of something that I’ve worked for three months to bring to fruition. Honestly, this adventure might be 35 years in the making. Picture a bossy little girl, chalk, and chalkboard in hand, begging grownups to play student to her teacher. That was me. And I’m about to embark on my first...

2019 (45)

12/31 Word Up: 2020 Edition
“Daddy works. Mommy doesn’t work,’ my daughter cheerfully said to my mother-in-law as we packed up to lease. While I tried to quickly interject that she wasn’t right and that I write, her words stung. Was this the “less” I had envisioned for 2019? Eleven months earlier, my massage therapist asked, “Do you have a...
12/29 2019 Retrospective: Wins, Woes and Lessons Learned
Dear Universe. 2019 was pretty epic. Can you send just as much change and adventure in 2020? Signed Becky. 2019 changed me. Am I “100% that bitch” who takes bold actions? I hope. Author Simon Sinek has this quote that I love. “Words may inspire us but only action creates change.” This year’s adventures changed...
12/20 Dear Luigi …
“Did you pay him for this, mom?” my 11-year-old asked. He wasn’t asking about the ability to be a podcast guest, but for the sage advice that Luigi doled out. Liberally. Both of my kids became convinced that Luigi Danakos (@nerdblurt) was the new life coach that I recently mentioned. He wasn’t. However, like a...
11/30 Sabbatical Month 3: The End of this Sabbatical?
Trips to Anaheim, then Las Vegas, and New York after two days at home; it all sounds pretty amazing and makes for a happy life story on Twitter, right? Here’s the real-life part, at this juncture, the only way that I could have the freedom to attend these events is by giving up $11k/month in...
11/20 Got Newsletter?
A six-figure salary from a blog about succulents?! How is that even possible?! Wait, why CAN’T I make money from blogging? Re-thinking What’s Possible Thank you, Do It Scared® with Ruth Soukup for changing what I believed was possible with blogging. Ruth does these “Get Ruth-ed” episodes where she will “live” coach an Elite Blogging...
11/06 Post-Mortem of the Wrong Job
The twitter-verse is full of hopeful “new job” posts. Have you ever wondered how many of the jobs are happily ever after or do they fizzle out under the force of unmet expectations?! The latter story rarely gets told, but its the one I want to tell. Eight months into the tenure of my (now...
11/05 HopperX1NYC Notes: Social Debt with Natalya Sverjensky
What company doesn’t strive to be more agile, innovate faster, and just be more? If you had a computational problem, you could throw more processors at it. But “technology scales, people don’t.” Growing the team adds considerably more complexity in managing relationships, introduces the risk of organizational dysfunction, and adds “social debt” risk when these...
11/04 HopperX1NYC Notes: Raise Your Hand with Kim Kaupe
Session Details “The hardest person to convince that you deserve something is you.” Wow, these profound words are a powerful way to start a session. Who hasn’t struggled (or is struggling) with self-worth?! As women, society encourages us to be modest and downplay our successes. It ends up becoming part of our internal narrative, and...
10/31 Me + My Favorite Dealer
While a couple of friends were busy giving life-advice to hookers, I scanned the Mandalay Bay casino floor for my favorite dealer. Earlier in the evening, inquiries about whether others had a favorite casino dealer were met with strange looks and definite no’s. You might assume that I love to gamble, but I don’t. My...
10/27 Travel Diary: Anaheim
After attending the Tech Field Day Exclusive with HPE Storage at the Nth Symposium, I ended up with two days in the Anaheim area with no car, but I desire to explore. Orange | Santa Ana | Laguna Beach Orange, CA There’s not a lot to do in this part of Orange, CA. Prior to...
10/26 Float On: Sensory Deprivation Tank Lessons
TL/DR: Anxious thoughts + period of zoning out in a tank = total zen day Wait, Is that spa music? I stand up, push the door open, and check the clock. The clock reads 1110, and sadly it’s time for my 90-minute float to end. In what felt like minutes earlier (but who knows), I...
10/16 Sabbatical Month 2: Embracing It All
When is the last time you didn’t feel broken and defeated at 7 PM? Two months ago, my answer would have been NEVER. However, my sabbatical has brought me this peace. My kids’ Taekwondo class has become one of my usual writing spots. This feeling of calm is well worth the price of not being...
10/09 INSIGHT 2019: Top Session Picks
One place in which I feel incredible certainty is in my NetApp INSIGHT session selection. You probably will notice a NetApp A-Team slant. It’s totally intentional because I love cheering on my A-Team friends. It helps that they also have great sessions this year! 1222-3 Automate ONTAP Storage Management Using RESTful APIs—Simple, Modern, Powerful. Can...
10/08 Achievement Unlocked: NetApp INSIGHT Speaker (Panel)
“Sorry I can’t. Next year, though.” This pretty much was my fear-based response when Mark Carlton (@mcarlton1983) asked if I wanted to join the panel of the A-Team Birds of a Feather (BOF) session at NetApp INSIGHT in 2018. Props to Paula Silva (@paula_maria) for being much braver than me. Fast forward to this year,...
10/07 Finding Your Strengths
Why am I sobbing over test results? At 42, aren’t I too old for this sh*t.?! These results aren’t even a matter of sickness or health. Earlier in the week, I took the Gallup’s StrengthFinder 34. Two days later, I finally looked at the sequential ranking of my 34 strengths. Except for “competition,” the bottom...
10/07 GHC19 Notes: CR229 – Exerting Influence without Authority
Leadership vs. Authority Authority — Police officer who tells what to do. Leaders — Minister. Inspires others. Action plan to build influence Establish expertise and Influence. Invite thought leaders to discuss pros and cons. It’s not who you know, but who knows WHAT you know. Accountability. Give and receive feedback. Make sure you have a...
10/04 GHC19: Hooked on Story
I don’t need to convince you of the power of story. Or how it makes ideas resonate and have impact in a way that data and facts never will. Story also and data aren’t mutually exclusive. Despite title of this workshop, the storytelling framework isn’t confined to only technical problems. You can apply this advice...
10/03 Blogging So Hard at #GHC19
Getting to GHC The best things in life never come easy. The process for getting a ticket to GHC could fall into that category. I submitted a session: rejected. I tried to buy a General Registration ticket: sold out. Once I resigned myself to not attending, I was gifted a ticket for which I’m incredibly...
10/03 GHC19: Do Anything
I have serious soft spot for divergent career journeys. You used to sail boats for a living, and now you are an IT Consultant. Ooh, tell me more. This idea of “doing anything” also conjures visions of incredibly non-linear paths. I don’t feel like Carpenter’s career could be lumped into that category. However, she’s taken...
10/03 GHC19: Data Science and Pretty Charts
I don’t know what fun sounds like to you. But data science and pretty charts are a match for me. I’m also on this quest to explore various areas of IT that I think might be a fit for where I go next. While this probably isn’t based on reality, the idea of making sense...
09/23 Pure Accelerate’s Inspired Keynote
How many of us are living our dream life? As children, we wanted to be astronauts, architects, or doctors. Somewhere along the way, we begin to doubt ourselves and our potential. We abandon our lofty childhood aspirations for a humdrum life. Pure Accelerate‘s Day 2 Keynote speaker Leland Melvin didn’t fall victim to any of...
09/20 Three Nights of Karaoke
Is there anything more liberating than being okay with making a fool of yourself in front of others? We spend our whole lives avoiding situations like these. So, we keep quiet when we have something to say; stay in our chairs when we’d rather dance, or stay home when we’d rather go out and sing....
09/13 Sabbatical Month 1: Am I Enough?
Have you ever read something that so closely aligned with your soul that when you read it, your first inclination is to raise a hand and say “preach?” While James Victore, Feck Perfuction* book inspires many of these moments for me, his “Freedom is something you take” essay feels like it was written for me...
09/13 Doing Good: VMworld-Style
Will people remember you as someone who spent your entire life chasing a paycheck; consumed by your wants, needs, and fears? Or will your legacy be of someone that put good into the world? If you weren’t already thinking these things, there’s a chance that #VMworld at least inspired you to consider these ideas. Whether...
09/08 A WordPress Tale: The Rebuild
Now for the final post in this series. Let’s walk through the steps that I took to move my WordPress site from GoDaddy to AWS Lightsail. setup mail, configure SSL/TLS and resolve minor user-created issues. WordPress Move Mail SSL Minor Issues WordPress Move Backup your old WordPress Site Thank god for those Updraft Plus backups...
09/05 Weekend at the Improv
When I left my job, the thought of going around and having individual conversations to say “goodbye” filled me with far more dread than the idea of not getting paid for a couple of months. That was my lightbulb moment. Maybe, I have social anxiety. Honestly, I should have realized it way before that moment....
08/23 A WordPress Tale: The Phoenix Rises
Now #PoweredByLightsail, my WordPress site and I are no longer beholden to one website on a shared server controlled by a web hosting company. I’m the master of my own domain, or at least master of my own server. Literally. With more power than I will ever get on a hosted website (that isn’t dedicated),...
08/19 Sabbatical Month 0: Where Joy Awaits
Anyone else quit their job right before VMworld and then self-fund most of the trip from savings? Probably only me, right? I also ignored the advice where you were supposed to have a new job before leaving your old one. I know It all sounds crazy. I wish that I could say that all of...
08/15 A WordPress Tale: Burnt to Ashes
Even in my sleep-deprived state, a “must fix website” directive played on a loop inside my head. Two days earlier, I decided that NOW was the time to fix a two-week-old error that prevented my site’s WordPress Admin site from managing plugins or customizing the themes. The problem was irksome, but not a total show...
08/13 Disrupting the Birthday Blues
Silly rabbit, “happy” birthdays are for kids, right? When is the last time your birthday felt like a cause for celebration? If you are like me, the answer is decades. An “is this my life” sadness descends upon me every August and then vanishes until the next year. This birthday I feel hopeful and birthday...
08/07 A Change Could Do Me Good
On Mother’s Day, my daughter yelled, “I want a nerf gun” over and over again. I responded to her demand with my list of things I wanted: a clutter-free house, a job that I love. After reaching “job that I love,” my son stopped me. “Haha, like that’s going to happen.” When I pressed him,...
08/05 Foreseeable Fun at VMworld
Months before anyone ever needed to be #vegasstrong, VMworld 2017 was my conference happy place. It still is. When a blogger pass came through making attendance possible this year, I was thrilled. While 2017 will be hard to top, here’s what excites me about this year’s conference. Community Being surrounded by inspiring people way smarter than...
08/03 Pure Accelerate and My Pantone 300 Heart
An invite to attend Pure Accelerate, as part of a Storage Field Day Exclusive, popped up in my inbox. Usually, invites to Tech Field Day events inspire hand-flapping joy. This invite though, immediately, caused me to pause and consider. Can I even attend this event? Not only am I a huge fan of NetApp, but...
07/29 GHC Plus Me!
Have you ever wanted to attend an event so badly, but you couldn’t get a ticket? Maybe you were in the 7th grade, and you spent hours dialing into the radio station for NKOTB tickets. At some point, even the most ardent optimists give up. We’ve all been there, right? A Golden Ticket 2019 did...
07/04 Heavy
When I think of what my best life would look like, rarely do I consider that “big” issue of my health. Mostly, my thoughts drift to work/life balance shit. Since that moment in June, when I needed to buy last-minute plane tickets to visit a sick relative, though, health has shifted in my priorities. My...
06/24 Saying “Yes” to the Blog
This morning, I have so much for which to be grateful. I’m home after attending my third NetApp A-Team ETL. I also submitted my fifth and final blog post for SolarWinds Orange Matter and Geek Speak. The latter feels like an epic accomplishment given my life’s topsy turvy state for the past two months. Yay! On two...
06/04 A Failed Test
Over six months ago, I began studying for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification. Along the way, priorities shifted, and any studying got sidelined. In a quest to motivate myself, I scheduled the test for April, then re-scheduled it for May, and then June. Each time, I delayed the exam because I didn’t want to...
05/25 Why Blog?
As an angsty teenager, I filled journal upon journal with my thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Inside these journals were words that I didn’t want to share with a living soul. Fast forward to today, I blog about these thoughts and feelings and then share… publicly. I’m sure that I self-censor more than that journal. However,...
05/02 Serving Yourself
At 11, my son somehow still thinks that I’m both important and cool. Before bringing him to work for #TakeYourKidToWorkDay, I set expectations that both me and the work that I do are not valued here and that most likely no one would need anything from me during the day. I said these words in...
04/17 A Lesson Almost Lost
It’s been a year since that breakup. My feelings haven’t changed. I still love both the company that treated me well and my former network team. After all, it wasn’t them, it was me, right? Regardless, it’s been a year full of discomfort, introspection and a smattering of guilt. Because my husband works for the...
04/04 A VAST-ly Different Storage Story
Who doesn’t love an inspirational quote?! The idea of tying one of my favorite quotes into a tech post kinda excites me. So, here goes. This quote pops into my head on the regular. Mostly, it’s when a project’s to-do list is way too long, and I feel overwhelmed. I think of this quote and...
03/28 Answering the Call?
Prior to turning 40, I felt discontent with my life’s direction. These feelings prompted me to really examine what I want from life and to act accordingly. If it sounds kinda mid-life crisis-y, trust me it was/is. Last year, I left my comfortable job for a job whose primary upside is that my really long...
03/15 Power of Encouragement
When did you last accomplish something that inspired so much pride that you wanted to tell everyone? Hopefully, you don’t have to think back that far. Normally, I would. Today, I don’t, and I’d love to share. Bucket-list goals, Beware. I’m coming for you! About two weeks ago, I applied to present a session at...
02/18 California Dreamin’ My Way to Storage Field Day 18
I’m going back to Cali. Cali. Cali. Ah, yes. West Coast bound, I will be in a little over a week for the kick-off of Storage Field Day 18 (SFD18). If you’re an aspiring #extracreditkid like me, getting an invite to be a Tech Field Day delegate is the pinnacle of awesomeness. Of course, you...
01/07 2018 Retrospective: Wins, Woes and Lessons Learned
It’s pretty easy to forget personal triumphs and focus solely on ways that you feel that you’ve failed or fell short on your aspirations. This holds especially true at milestone events like birthdays and the start of a new year. I usually try to reflect on the previous year and take a mental note of how...

2018 (7)

12/12 99 Problems… But Too Many Podcasts Ain’t One
I love podcasts! In the seven months that I’ve made the long trek into Washington, D.C. for work, I’ve pretty much become a podcast junkie. I’m unable to commit to just a few and always on the prowl for more. Being able to listen to entire podcasts is the silver lining to my commute. It...
10/23 My “Woman In Tech” Story
At this year’s Women in Tech (WIT) panel at NetApp Insight, CEO George Kurian cautioned the audience not to focus solely on STEM as the only way to bring more women to tech. This point hit home for me. I didn’t come to tech through STEM. I grew up poor. Both of my parents dropped...
07/06 Lose Some Complexity with Zerto at #SFD16
If you’ve ever attended a Tech Field Day or watched any of the presentations online, you know that a lot of really cool tech gets covered. Unfortunately, depending on your job, you may see solutions that you can’t take straight back to your 9-5 job and implement. Let’s fast track to Storage Field Day 16...
05/26 Retrospective on Why I’m Learning to Reverse My Risk-Aversion
Six months ago, I wrote this unpublished and slightly unfinished post about how my life was missing growth, adventure, and challenges. It was kind of my a-ha moment that I needed to do something different and that I needed to start taking risks. Leaving a well-paying job in which you are valued and treated very...
04/13 Why I Stopped Treading Water
An old boss used to say “If you aren’t moving forward, you are just treading water.” When I submitted my resignation a few weeks ago, I had these words close to my heart. Since 2011, I’ve gone to work at the same place. During this time, I’ve seen countless people come and go. And I’ve...
02/25 Multi-Factor Authentication, FTW!
I was super excited when ONTAP 9.3 came out with multi-factor authentication support. I tweeted about it and even went on a Tech ONTAP recap podcast for NetApp Insight 2017 and talked about it. Usually, there is a trade-off with convenience when it comes to security. Security is typically inconvenient. Multi-factor authentication is the exception...
02/24 How working in DoD makes patching ‘yo sh*t’ an imperative
In the world of ops, it’s natural not to want to patch/update a finicky application. What sys admin wants to break sh*t?! Interestingly, Equifax’s former CEO blamed the entire data breach on the sys admin that didn’t patch Apache Struts. Fortunately, working in the Department of Defense, we have systems in place that alert us to...

2017 (5)

11/14 The Thrill of Working at a Place Knee-deep in Technical Debt
I’m fortunate to work in an environment where we’ve been able to pay down some technical debt and stabilize our IT environment. With the hard work of an excellent team, a supportive manager, and some personnel stability, we’ve made significant progress. Working late nights, weekends, and the occasional holiday is now the exception. It...
10/31 TFDx and SFD14 Delegate Thoughts: Pre-Attendance
In the past year, I’ve made a concerted effort to go outside of my comfort zone. When the opportunity to attend both Commvault Go Tech Field Day Exclusive and Storage Field Day in the same week came up, I leapt for it. This event will be both my first Storage Field Day and also my first...
10/09 Mandalay Bay Exodus
I recognize now that, although, I was terrified that I was never actually in danger. Also, I realize that unlike the 58 victims of the shooting at a concert at Mandalay Bay, I went home to my family. With these feelings comes a sense of guilt for struggling to process the evening. Sunday night...
09/09 Highlights from My First VMworld
On Monday, September 4th, I did my first podcast interview. The podcast was the Tech Interviews with Paul Stringfellow, a fellow NetApp A-Teamer. If you never had the pleasure of listening to Paul’s podcast or met him firsthand, you may not know that he is one charming guy. Seriously, he’s “Hugh Grant” charming. The...
09/08 First Timer’s Guide to NetApp Insight
While NetApp Insight is great for tech veterans, it’s also perfect for a conference newbie. The tech community is a very welcoming! At 4,000+ attendees, the turnout is pretty big, without being overwhelming. Even though there is a second Insight conference in EMEA about a month later, there is still a pretty hefty global turnout....

2016 (2)

11/07 Holy Ham Sandwich! NetApp Hybrid Cloud is Real!
First things first, I’m awed by the depth of the technical expertise of the NetApp A-Team advocates and advisors. I’m incredibly honored and grateful for the opportunity to join the family. It’s a NetApp fan-girl’s dream come true! #womenintech. Being part of the NetApp A-Team comes with perks like pre-release access to announcements and briefings...
11/01 Craniosynostosis is a birth defect that affects 1 in 2000 babies
Have you ever seen a baby with an odd-shaped head? Sometimes it’s nothing to worry about. Other times, it could be caused by a premature fusing of the sutures in a baby’s skull. Because a baby’s brain grows rapidly in the first year of their life, their skulls have unfused sutures to account for this...