Reasons to Compost

My beloved dual chamber compost tumbler rusted through on one side.



We've been composting for 18 years. The tumbler is an intrinsic part of our system. All the kitchen scraps and [suitable] yard waste go in the tumbler, which tremendously speeds decomposition. You can easily give it a turn, instead of spending hour long sessions with a shovel. The tumbler sits on a frame of spindly metal legs which keeps the rats (and other critters) out while the worms do their business. We switch between active and cooking chambers, and empty the goo into the black box to "finish".

I thought we could limp it along until next summer, but the metal literally caves in with slightest touch. Total garden crisis. I talked with my husband, who asked if we could buy replacement parts. No such luck. $499 to replace the entire unit, if you can find it in stock, and money we just don't have right now.

The best options I could come up with were:

a) Stop composting and buy the stuff in a plastic bag.

b) Use only the black box and get rid of the tumbler.

c) Compost only the paper towels, coffee grinds, and egg shells to avoid the rat problem.

I wasn't happy, but tried to look on the bright side. Composting takes a lot of time. You have to stay on top of the mix, or it will easily sour. I was so relieved when Doug said he can fix it, no problem. (That sheet metal shop class from high school keeps sure comes in handy!)

This is why. He took one look at the compost I laid down on Friday.




You can't buy this. It's black gold.



I harvested 4 gorilla carts full of compost this week - that's 5.5 cubic feet per load.

Reasons to Compost

• Plants love compost. It makes the soil friable, and rich with oxygen and nutrients.
• Using compost instead of chemical fertilizer enriches the soil instead of depleting it. Plus you save money by not buying something in a box.
• The birds and salamanders will thank you for providing food instead of poisoning them.
• Compost keeps weeds at bay and significantly reduces water usage.
• It improves drainage, which the plants like, and helps the soil absorb rain instead of creating run off (El Nino).
• Top dressing your plants with a 1 -2" layer protects roots from frost in winter and the heat in summer.
• If you make it, you don't have to buy it - and cart a bunch of dirt around in your car.
• There's no real knowing what's in a box or bag. What you make is a superior product, tuned to the chemistry of your garden.
• Ameliorates the guilt of throwing out fruits and vegetables that didn't get eaten.

Pruning Deadwood and The Right Time

Sometime around June or July, the Rose Lady across the street busted me pruning the ornamental cherry tree out front.

"Tsk, tsk", she murmured. "You shouldn't being doing that at this time of year. It will bleed out."

"But this branch is driving me nuts! It's not in the right place."

I knew she was right, but rationalized it would be okay - until a few days later when I found a pile of goo in the flower bed under the tree, and couldn't figure out what it was...then I looked up, and saw sap flowing from the fresh cut.

I made a silent pact to never again prune at the wrong time, and pondered how there really is a good time - and a bad time.

Like when I over-sowed the wildflower seeds because none sprouted the year before, and then spent countless hours thinning an overgrown mass of seedlings because what I didn't realize is: the seeds didn't thrive the first time because I sowed in late Spring. California wildflowers need to lay dormant throughout a cold winter. The low sprout rate had nothing to do with viability or water or sun - and everything to do with timing.

Everything Worth Knowing About Business I Learned In the Garden
It's not an accident that "pruning deadwood" is a euphemism for letting go of employees that drag a company down. Many companies strategically use periodic layoffs to purge new hires that don't fit in, get rid of long term employees that can't cut it, and dump managers that block change and growth. Just as most plants need regular pruning to stay healthy, companies need to cut the deadwood.

But in the garden, there's a lot more to pruning than just removing the deadwood. My first priority is reducing the risk of breakage when the winter storms come. I thin the crown and lace the branches so the wind and rain can pass freely - instead of getting caught like a sail.

I shape plants to be part of the overall landscape, to create a tapestry instead of a patchwork quilt, with a plant plunked here and another over there. I take my time, sometimes multiple passes with days in between, watching how the plant responds, lest the cuts go to deep.

I take labels with a grain of salt, and spend a lot of time researching, reading what others have to say, and taking pictures of gardens I like.

I know some plants are in the wrong spot, and need to get moved to flourish. Others will never perform and need to come out. Then there's the thugs that try to take over the world, stealing resources and crowding everyone else out - those I jump on swiftly before they spread.

The Right Time
Fall is the time to prune the trees and large shrubs, when the plants are sleepy and the sap runs slow. The branches are clean of leaves and spiders, and the birds are done nesting.

Fortunately, it was only one branch, and the tree survived.

Sometimes, the right thing to do is nothing at all.

Cons as a Place to Hire

Here are my thoughts about Career Tracks and job hunting. 

Summer Camp Experience

I was pretty dismayed by the BSidesLV Career Track. I came to the conference with a folder of resumes, and every intent of hitting those sessions until I looked at the agenda, and realized the bulk of the material was aimed at college students or recent grads. 

Trust me: There is nothing anyone can tell me about a Life at a Startup that I can't beat, like coming to work to find the doors chained and padlocked.

While there were a few talks that sounded interesting, the way the track was laid out, it felt like I needed to dedicate the entire day, and there were other talks I wanted to go to, in addition to volunteering as a red shirt.

I was working security during the chill-room table time, so had a great excuse for eavesdropping on two of the tables without looking like a creep. The conversations were 100% buzz-word compliant. I'm not certain any of the parties involved had any idea what the other people were saying...and all I could think of was the career fair booths that I'd (wo)manned in the past, collected literally a thousand resumes, and I swear not one of those resumes landed on a manager's desk. Not one of those people got hired! As a matter of fact: We would rent the booth for PR, to make it look like we were hiring and growing and competitive.

The clincher was when some guy wandered into the SOC room to "volunteer", and when Nous politely told him the schedule was set 2 months ago, he said, "But I'm here to jump start my career!" and stormed off.

DefCon mirrored the same focus and fervor for young people.

I didn't hand out a single resume, and came away feeling pretty much like an anomaly: ton of experience wearing many different hats in tech, newly interested in infosec, discovering the stuff I've always done to get the job done is called "hacking" - and that it's really cool being around other people who don't think like everyone else either i.e., college was a looonnnngggg time ago.

#DerbyCon Hiring List

I bumped into Rob's tweet and followed to his post:

http://www.room362.com/2015/09/2015-derbycon-hiring.html

It’s often tough from both hiring and job hunters to find one another at conferences. I think this is mostly because of a couple things.

1. No one wants to stand at a both on either side and talk job stuff in front of a bunch of people and people at booths rarely get the chance to get away.
2. It’s hard to know “who” to talk to.

So I created a very simple Google doc to help put twitter handles and links together for people who are job hunting and people who are hiring to kinda get to know who to talk to.

Yes! Such a relief to see someone else's analysis of my problem, and addresses my primary issue which is: If I can just talk with the hiring manager or the team, I can explain what I do to relieve pain - and at the same time assess whether they are a good fit for me, because I really don't want to be a sacrificial lamb (hired to fail), work for another asshole, or work for a company that can't make payroll.

Note: I think a key component of why the Hiring List is so appealing and successful is because it is constrained to the con - not after, and not inclusive of non-attendees.

There is an amazing amount of communication that happens face-to-face that you just can't get via any other form of communication, and that I think is key to getting hired and building the kind of trusting relationship that successful teams need to thrive. 

Ideas

I don't know if Rob's Hiring List can work at BSidesLV. I can imagine getting overwhelmed with contacts...

Here's a few ideas, just to kick-around other options that might help the not-right-out-of-college job hunter. Goal being to inspire better thoughts and conversation (the over-used word of 2015):

• Anonymized Hiring List? This is prolly a bad idea, but set-up a "drop-box" for hiring managers so their home feed doesn't get bombed, and so they don't continue to get bombed after the con, but they can still meet face-to-face.
• Flip-it-around: Instead of company booths that job-hunters approach, what about tables where we can advertise our skills - and what we're looking for. I almost came with a custom printed shirt "Looking for work!", but then decided that could be mis-interpreted ;-)
• Coffee social - or something like that: I would go to a gathering dubbed as a meet and greet opportunity. I don't like selling my shit at Happy Hour because it's Happy Hour! Or at a Party because it's a Party! Maybe I'm old school (okay I am), but there's a time and a place and aggressively hunting folks when they are hanging out is just rude.
• Resume board: Heavy sigh. 

Thoughts?

Sinners and Saints; Infosec and Hackers: Parallel Universes

​

I heard a fascinating interview on the radio ​yesterday; Terry Gross speaking with Nadia Bolz-Webber, a Lutheran pastor in Denver. ​

When asked why people are surprised she's a pastor, Bolz-Webber responded, "...I tend to swear like a truck driver...I'm very heavily tattooed, I have sleeve tattoos, basically, and very short hair, and I'm, like, 6-feet-1-inch [tall]. I don't actually act like a pastor either. I don't have that sweet, nurturing, "come to me; I'll co-sign on all of your BS problems," like, I just don't have that warm, cozy personality, and I'm kind of cranky and a little bit sarcastic, I guess."

Looks more hacker than pastor, huh?

Bolz-Webber was a stand-up comic in recovery when she got her calling. She was giving a eulogy at a friend's funeral, when she realized the crowd of academics, comics, and alcoholics were people like herself; not readily welcomed by mainstream churches.

So she went to seminary, and started ​her own church: ​The House for All Sinners and Saints​.

Everything was great, until The Denver Post ran a ​front-page ​feature ​​about Bolz-Webber, and the "normals" descended on the church​.

She struggled with "our weird" ​getting "diluted" - but eventually ​faced the basic tenant of her ministry: accepting ​strangers - including "bankers in dockers".

What struck ​me are the parallels with BSidesLV: 

• A church for sinners and saints and a conference for infosec and hackers.
• Vibrant communities built on shared interest, not necessarily shared belief. 
• Unexpected dramatic growth from people outside the archetype.
• Built on accepting strangers and Encouraging diverse voices.

I am so grateful for the BSidesLV community. Being one of those people with a foot in each door, I'm interested in the intersection, the exchange of ideas. Being able to hear other perspectives is invaluable - even [especially!] when I don't agree. 

Sometimes I change my mind ;-)

Bright creative people aren't easy. We're not easy to live with, and we're not easy to work with. 

So please: bring your toys back to the sandbox. We need each other. 

Def Con - A Beyond Noob Perspective

Having read a number of posts recently that poignantly express disappointment / frustration in how much Def Con has grown and changed, I want to share my beyond noob experience.

We went to our first DefCon last year.

I was on a short term contract at a local PD, filling in until the new IT Director started. After the first few weeks, I came to realize many of the problem reports boiled down to malware and squirrely network issues. I traced a few nasty trojans to a couple of roaming Windows accounts that belonged to personnel who had not worked at the agency in years. I regularly worked on computers that had not been updated in over 5 years old...I was shocked.

Every night I came home, shared the latest story with my husband - and started studying. I was totally out my depth; Infosec is his thing. After a couple of months, he asked if I had any interest in going Def Con. I'm like, what's that? and then Yes!

It was a totally impulsive decision. We booked late, and stayed in the "wrong" hotel. Didn't read the FAQ, and wore Firefly brown. Brought the kid, didn't party, don't gamble, don't really like Vegas...and had SO MUCH FUN!  It was like becoming a room without a roof.

We met the most amazing people! Totally got into the badge, even though no hope of "winning". Went to some really good presentations.

Watching videos is not the same. There is a vibe, an under-current, that you get standing in those dreadful lines, walking down the hallway, listening to the buzz, hanging out in the chill room. It changed how we interact, what we're interested in, what we make.

I know the conference has changed. 23 years is along time. But what you may not see, is: Def Con is what you make it. It is the essence of the badge, a multi-layered interconnected puzzle.

If part of what you value is reaching out to the disenfranchised bright creatives, expanding a community of non-conformists, those who question authority - and best practices! People who make impulsive decisions, stay up too late, and (oh god!) take things apart, this beyond noob found a path at Def Con - and is looking forward to BSidesLV and 23!