Today I was released from Elara Caring. I'm not entirely sure how to feel. I feel in one way relieved because the place was very un organized and not at all what I was accustomed to working in. I felt like I made a difference but some how politics got in the way. It's really sad to me to see how such a great place could be run so poorly. We took care of people who took care of people and yet the leadership didn't seem to know what direction to take the company so it just floundered for the two and a half years I was there. They seem to not have a clear line of sight to what direction they were headed in and that translated to a good amount of disaster around every corner. It really felt like a sinking ship and no matter how much water we bailed it still kept coming harder and faster. As with everything I do I try to see the good in things so I would say I met some great folk and we accomplished a good amount of work which at a minimum I can see was something that directly impacted those care givers. Sad to go but I am still happy I got a chance to make a difference in those limited lives I was able to impact. I love what I do and will not stop loving it till I can no longer do it. Now on to helping a new group with the talent I was blessed to have gained over the years of being in IT.

To New Adventures

 Today I leave Keurig Dr Pepper and on Monday I will start my new adventure with Elara Caring. I always tell people I even though I worked roughly 23 years for the same company I feel like it was at least 6 with all the change in leadership. I have learned so many things along the way. Much about my self and much more about how to work with others. As I move on to this new stage in my life I find that all the people around me which I have interacted with are being so supportive. I feel like it's a reflection of what I put out in to the world. I have always governed myself by some basic principles. One of them is treat others as you want to be treated. The amount of love and support I have been given (because of this) has been overwhelming. Through all of these adventures I have been backed up 100% by my loving wife and my amazing children. We have been the true definition of a team. Together we have conquered so many obstacles. I probably should have started this blog with the fact that MY WIFE started my adventure when she decided to leave her post of 13 years as a Para Professional and start a new job as District Receptionist for FISD. She showed me that moving from where you are most comfortable can be done. She just needed to finally recognize her true worth. She spent a ton of time giving to those who did not recognize her value beyond their own needs. I found this to be true for myself as well. I spent years letting others shine from all the great work I accomplished. Some were even promoted over me. It took me 23 years to realize one thing... If I don't take care of myself (career wise) who will. Now I see my boys and can tell they have taken up this same mentality. They have both decided to take on new roles in new organizations and are both VERY up to the challenge. My wife and I could not be prouder. Sitting here bored out of my mind waiting to start my new job allows me time to think back to all the time I have had to develop in to the person I am today. I am proud of what I have accomplished with KDP. I know the org is better because of the foundation I helped build and it will continue to grow upon that foundation.

Troubleshooting SSL Certificate issues - tips and tricks

This site is very handy for learning about the certs and protocols a server has installed and listening.

https://jumpnowtek.com/security/Using-nmap-to-check-certs-and-supported-algos.html

ForeScout Tips

Change the location of where ForeScout Scripts run from:

• ssh into the CounterAct appliance:
• vi /usr/local/forescout/plugin/va/local.properties

Add or Modify the line to reflect the directory you want the scripts to run from:

• config.script_run_folder.value=c:\windows

Restart the VA service:

• fstool va restart

FireEye Cheat Sheet

Maintaining FireEye NX Appliances:

First it is highly recommended you remove retired guest images so you can backup your appliance.

• guest-images purge retired-version

Then backup the appliance. You can back up locally or to a remote location. If you don't need to keep the events you can just do a basic config backup and not the fedb. Two ways to do it... via web or cli... I will show you from commandline. Remove  +fedb to just backup your config.

• backup profile full to local prefix NXAPPLIANCENAME - Full local backup
• backup profile config+fedb to scp://UID:PASS@BACKUPSERVE/ - Remote config and fedb backup

Make sure content updates are occurring.
If you have a CMS make sure your NX is connected to it.

Rotate your password regularly. 60-90 days.

Clear DNS on MAC

Clear DNS Cache-MacOSX

dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Use dig to see if dns responds with block page address 146.112.61.*

Holiday Partys, you gotta love them!

Today Oni and I went to her school Christmas party it was a blast. We had so much fun that we left the party at 9:00pm picked G up from a game, dropped him at home then went back to PARTY ON! Needless to say it was a great time. Should have braught the camera. Hope it's like this next year. :-)