Bill Brenner

Duncan at 12: Like Me, Only Better

by Bill Brenner September 16, 2015 Children's issues

Yesterday my younger son, Duncan, turned 12. He’s been through a lot, and he makes me proud every day. Mood music: I often tell people Duncan is the spitting image of me at that age. He certainly looks like I did at 12. And as I did, he has developmental challenges. As a kid I was never diagnosed with something like ADHD or placed on the autism spectrum. But that was the early 1980s, when…  [Read More]

My Anti-Drama Code of Conduct

by Bill Brenner September 14, 2015 Communication Skills

Man, there are a lot of hurt feelings out there lately. In my industry, they call it security drama. But it goes way beyond that. Post your political and religious beliefs and someone is quick to tear you apart. I’m not going to summarize the latest examples. A lot of Facebook and Twitter streams are already clogged with all that snot. Instead, I’m going to tell you the behavioral code I try to live by when…  [Read More]

Dealing with 9/11: Then and Now

by Bill Brenner September 11, 2015 The stormy past

I wasn’t in New York City the day the Twin Towers fell. I know many people who were, and they have the scars and stories to show for it. My 9/11 experiences are not heroic or even all that dramatic. But they are case studies in personal growth. It was a terrible day, but I’d like to think we all learned something positive about how to live in the aftermath. This is simply my personal measuring…  [Read More]

Nana’s Desk

by Bill Brenner September 9, 2015 Family

It’s been more than two years since Nana Ruth passed away. The other day, family went through her house, looking for possessions to be preserved. Like this desk: Nana Ruth did a ton of writing at this desk. She was a prolific diarist and churned out a lot of letters. I’m going to keep the tradition alive my doing a lot more writing here. I’d like to think she’d be pleased about that.

Schooled By a 14-Year-Old on Good (and Bad) Passwords

by Bill Brenner September 7, 2015 Infosec

This is about an information security practitioner getting schooled by a 14-year-old about something as basic as an iPhone PIN number. Mood music: Since I work in information security, family expects me to be THE expert. And sometimes I ask for trouble when I try to teach people a lesson — like grabbing phones and writing on the owners’ Facebook walls to demonstrate the value of having a security PIN on the phone. One day…  [Read More]

Anxiety Level Green

by Bill Brenner September 4, 2015 Fear and anxiety

A while back I wrote about the various stages of anxiety based on the first five colors of Newton’s primary color system. In the last week, I’ve realized that I’ve been at level green for at least three months. Mood music: At the time I wrote it, my description for Level Green was: Green. This anxiety appears when the less-frequent stresses spark up. Yesterday was a perfect example in my world: I was already ramped up from…  [Read More]

A Musical Approach to Blog Writing

by Bill Brenner September 2, 2015 Adventures in writing

I’m often asked how I came up with my process for writing and promoting my blog posts. Each time I offer a musician’s analogy. Mood music: I write posts the way a musician writes a song: scrawling lyrics down on napkins and notepads, perfecting the chorus and bridge of each song by playing them over and over, tweaking them as the mood dictates. Sometimes I’m writing a one-off post and sometimes I’m writing a series,…  [Read More]

The Most Important Skill to Deal with Life

by Bill Brenner August 31, 2015 Coping tools

I’m trying to teach my kids to be flexible. Like me, both are obsessive planners. Just yesterday, my older son was telling me he’d been planning out his entire school year right to the last day. My advice to him? Don’t get too locked into those plans. Mood music: I’m not trying to discourage careful planning. It’s good to plan; it keeps us organized. I find daily list making to be enormously helpful. I’m also…  [Read More]

Surviving the Persistence of Time

by Bill Brenner August 26, 2015 Dealing with life

Here I am at another birthday. I’ve been telling people I couldn’t care less this year. It’s been a rough summer with too much upheaval, too much grief. There’s not much to celebrate. But the truth is, I’m grateful to be here. Mood music: That I’m now in my mid 40s is surprising — in my mind, at least. When I was sick with Crohn’s Disease as a kid, I lost a lot of blood…  [Read More]

The Boy Inside the Man: An Inspirational Story

by Bill Brenner August 25, 2015 Adventures in writing

This blog is my personal tale. That it helps some people because they can relate to it was an unexpected bonus that I try to live up to. As part of that I will share personal tales from other people that have taught me a lot. The latest example is “Being ‘Whole’ Isn’t My Goal” by Paul Nobles. I don’t know Nobles personally, but the man captures things I relate to. He writes of things…  [Read More]

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