Month: September 2017

Someone asked me that at work this week.

Not sure if he saw it on my Twitter or LinkedIn or what but he asked.

“Yes, I do”

I didn’t ask why he asked. I don’t know if pretending to know such a thing, is a thing, or whatever, but that’s fine.

Here is the evolution, of how one might have gone from, what we called programming back when I did it, to what I do now.

Its early 90s. I have my first ‘real’ job at 19. I was at the reception desk for a federal contractor, while taking classes at community college.
Over a short period I turned answering the phones into posting job ads (we faxed them to the paper ;)) into naturally taking on more and more recruiting & HR responsibilities (I managed open enrollments etc).

The positions were primarily programming, some dbase, QA and support. I was curious about programming and eager to learn about it whenever anyone would take the time to explain it to me.

My commute was 75 miles one way. That is not a typo. I had lots of time on my hands during the commute (van pool). So, I read books about programming ((later I’ll tell the how I got into infosec story and the books I read on the plane ride to my first DEFCON)).
Anyways, one of the PMs, his name was William (I wonder how he is doing) seemed to appreciate my interest and gave me an assignment.

I wrote a remote profile maintenance program, on my own, in Visual Basic, for the USPS. Well, a piece of it. I was so proud of myself. Its really the only program I ever wrote. That was in 1993.

The commute got to me after a few yrs and I moved into an HR role for a local municipality. I could not shake my love for technology though, and when the whispers of bringing PCs into the fold started (yes we used typewriters and card files – though we did have a nifty AS400 system and dummy terminals) I jumped all over it and helped establish and build the helpdesk and deployment of units and training. Next thing you know Im a help desk manager.

When I relocated out of that small town, I moved to an ecommerce firm in the midst of the dot com boom (late 90s) managing their support desk – and yet I missed HR…

There’s a bunch of chapters missing here but suffice to say, I heard about a contract recruiting position and a) the pay was nice b) it seemed to be a good mix for HR and IT and c) was closer to home than the position at the ecomm firm in DC.

And here we are 18 yrs later – running a team of tech recruiters for a Big Data Analytics and Infosec company.

I could recruit for healthcare or transportation or construction, but I recruit in technology because, its what I love, and anymore, it touches everything.

That is all for now.

Be well,
<3 ~K~

Today was my 11th ultra (8th 50k) in 6 years. I went into it having run so few times in the last year I can count it on one hand. I told myself I’d do 5 loops. And I did. I wanted to do each loop in 2 or less hours and finish sub 10 (I did).

*edit* And technically I ran/meandered 37 miles, but who’s counting? 😉

“Its all in your head” I told myself, and “Just run when you can”
‘When you can’ for me, today, meant, when its not a steep climb or ridiculous terrain. Tired wasn’t supposed to be the reason.

For reference, my 50k PR (North Face) is 7 hrs and this took 9. Not my best showing of course, but I did what I set out to do and didn’t get hurt. I’ll take it.

Sometimes when people hear me describe all the ultras I do as ‘endurance’ or ‘adventure’ races, they say, ‘Oh are there obstacles?’ Well, not manmade ones. Not like the races where you leap over campfires and climb rock walls with ropes, or scoot under barbed wire.
But there are significant hills, and rocks and mud and rivers and roots, and sometimes mountains – so plenty of obstacles. Theyre tough, no joke. Here’s an example of today’s track.

This is going to be a shorter blog post than usual.

One thought that kept popping in my head though was how folks always ask WHY? Now Ive mentioned this before, how my dad said that no one who would understand my answer would ask, but here’s my answer.

BECAUSE I CAN.

Ive heard “I don’t run unless Im being chased” so many times, all I can say to it is “Ive never heard that one before” – But why do people do that? When someone shares something with me that is a part of their life, I don’t make them feel weird about it. If you belly-dance, or do cosplay, or collect thimbles, maybe you do mixed-martial arts, or eat sushi…..I don’t feel the need to proclaim that I not only don’t do anything of those things, I wouldn’t possible do them unless I was forced to. Whats the point of that? Is it to make the person feel abnormal for not being like you? Anyways – enough about that.

*Oh and I came home to pizza, wine, chocolate and coffee (he knows me so well)…

The 24 Hour is in April….maybe I’ll actually train for that one – maybe not 😉

Be well

<3 ~K~