Neurotoxins

Some people consider me high-maintenance when it comes to what I eat, but there is a reason behind it. Living with a life threatening food allergy is rough.SO I make the most of it and and enjoy food that is safe for me in it's finest forms.

A few years back, after a close call with Anaphylaxis, I was diagnosed with a deathly allergy to MSG. MSG and/or Monosodium Glutamate is a food additive that has no positive benefits in our food. It exists simply to allow food manufacturers to use cheaper ingredients of little or no nutritional value.

In the 1970's scientists demonstrated that at least 25% of the population react to monosodium glutamate. Today those reactions are recognized from mild and transitory to debilitating and life threatening.

MSG-sensitive consumers react to free glutamic acid (or free glutamate) that occurs in food as a consequence of a manufacturing process or fermentation -- regardless of the name of the ingredient that contains the processed free glutamic acid (MSG). The Food and Drug Administration has even acknowledged that consumers refer to all free glutamic acid as MSG. Yet, consumers who choose to avoid MSG have great difficulty doing so, because more than 40 different food additives contain MSG without disclosure.

There are three neurotoxic amino acids commonly used as food additives: glutamic acid, aspartic acid, and L-cysteine. Free glutamic acid ingested as MSG can cross the placenta during pregnancy, can cross the blood brain barrier in an unregulated manner during development, and can pass through the five circumventricular organs, which are "leaky" at best, at any stage of life. In addition, the blood brain barrier can be compromised by such things as drugs, seizures, stroke, trauma to the head, hypoglycemia, hypertension, extreme physical stress, high fever, and the normal process of aging. It is generally accepted that the young are particularly at risk from ingestion of MSG.

MSG-sensitivity and allergies are difficult to diagnose because the reaction is not IgE mediated; because individual tolerance levels vary; and because MSG reactions may occur anywhere from immediately to 48 hours following ingestion. The key to diagnosis lies in the fact that an individual typically responds to MSG with the same reaction(s), and after the same elapsed time each time that MSG ingestion exceeds the individual's tolerance level.

MSG is contained in just about every fast food on the market - Ever think about why your McDonalds fries taste so good? A small kids fry contains 28 grams of the addictive additive.

So call me high-maintenance all you'd like, and keep on downing your death fries. I like my high maintenance foodie ways, I also like breathing and not having to inject myself and make the trips in ambulances to the ER.

Today I had pecan pie and cranberry sauce for lunch - the turkey, gravy, beans, stuffing, ham, potatoes, and almost everything else that was catered or brought in has MSG in it. I quite enjoyed my lunch, and tonight I plan on eating a bloody hunk of dead cow to make up for the missed protein. I'll live :)

The Cake Is A Lie

In honor of the annual IT Dept BBQ I made a binary

01100011011000010110101101100101

I thought about going for the full "The cake is a Lie" in binary on the cake, but I work in possibly the most un-geeky IT department of all time, to put that much effort into my culinary art project. Perhaps I will play the GlaDOS song while serving the cake? Wait, no one but me plays video games here... Hrm...

"quit now and cake will be served immediately"

"there's no sense crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake"

Disasters

It’s been some time since I’ve posted, and for good reason. We had a real life disaster exercise last week. A hardware issue rendered our system lifeless and although we did everything we could, we were still down for appx 24 hours. No data loss (thanks to some creative knowledge on how to recover missing files) but I still went without sleep for 40 straight hours to complete the recovery process.

In the spirit of last week I figured now was as good a time as any for a review of what should have been. No one should be without a DR plan.

• Step 1 in disaster recovery planning: organize the disaster recovery planning team. The team should consist of a primary representative and an alternate from each participating department. Organizing the disaster recovery team begins by creating a group consisting of members that represent all functions of the organization. The team must also include a high-level manager, or CEO, to endorse the plan and eliminate obstacles. Once arranged, the team will start an awareness campaign and create a schedule of their anticipated activities.

• Step 2 in disaster recovery planning: assess the risk in the Enterprise. The goal in this step is to assess the potential economic loss that could occur as a result of the determined risks. The team will use a business impact analysis to assess risk. In the analysis, all business processes should be identified and analyzed. As with any assessment, business processes should be ranked as critical, essential, necessary, and desirable. Legal and contractual requirements should also be assessed for consequences of business disruption.

• Step 3 in disaster recovery planning: establish roles across department organizations. The disaster recovery planning team determines the role each department and external party must play in disaster recovery. This ensures that all resources and expertise are properly utilized.
  

• Step 4 in disaster recovery planning: develop policies and procedures. Procedures are the step-by-step methods, while policies are the guidelines. Both are very important in recovering from a disaster. This step requires attention to detail. Procedures must be in place for every step in disaster recovery and response. Each function must be spelled out in black and white to ensure continuity. In our case having all the procedures in my head does not count towards documentation. Yes, I can do it from memory and experience, but should I not be here, what are they going to do?
  

• Step 5 in disaster recovery planning: document disaster recovery procedures. Policy and procedures must be documented and sent through the proper channels for approval before being stored for future implementation. Each policy and procedure must be drafted, reviewed, and approved by management and all departments and organizations responsible for implementation. The plan must be available at all times during the testing phase, and especially during disaster response. Again - not something you only want one person to know.
  

• Step 6 in disaster recovery planning: prepare to handle disasters. An “information campaign” is the word that works here. Get the information out, make everyone aware, and ensure they all know the plan. All parties must be aware of the plan from executives to general staff. Nothing worse than closed door communication - especially with your IT staff. Make sure they are well informed.
  

• Step 7 in disaster recovery planning: train, test, and rehearse. Practice makes perfect! During this step, the organization conducts a live simulation including all departments and supporting organizations–as if a real disaster is taking place. Observers are in place to monitor and evaluate the procedures being implemented. Weaknesses are determined so updates and modifications can be made.

• Step 8 in disaster recovery planning: ongoing management. Maintenance is the key here. Continual assessment of threats, changes in structure, and impact of new technology and recovery procedures. This step requires continual monitoring of new technologies and system changes. Any changes are documented, and updated training is given.

Long story short - we survived and all is heading back to normal. It will take time to document and make things right. I just hope we can avoid another hardware failure or disaster in the meantime. I was really hoping my days of pulling all nighters as an operations specialist were over. Yes, I CAN do it, and probably will if you ask me to, but I don't enjoy it as much as I once did and I think it's time for someone else to share the role of know-it-all recovery guru.

Conference Memories

In honor of tomorrow's virtual SEC, I figured I would reminisce over conferences of the past. So many great memories and so many pictures to choose from, I narrowed down to some of my favs in the past 4 years.




Meeting Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and being heckled by Gilbert Godfrey is somewhere near the top of the list. I really did like him in Aladdin!






There has always been an ongoing Star Wars theme for us geeks! I am surprised we haven't had a full cos-play event at one of these things yet!






Swing dancing was probably my favorite of the interactive, not that it ever stopped me from dancing at any of the parties. I generally had to warm up the dance floor for a good hour or two at any event before I could convince others to join me (or maybe they just needed that time to have some liquid courage)

I fear (and yet would probably still be very amused) should Jim ever decide to create a video montage of my dancing antics.








Go kart racing was a blast in Fort Wayne, even tho my car got buried in the snow... And who could forget snow doughnuts? Gotta love those vendors!








While most everyone loved their cardiac arrest in the bun in Philly - I really could have gone my whole life without a cheesesteak, but what a great photo op for the Symi-Mafia!







And who could forget the infamous recreation of Milli Vanilli's blame it on the rain in San Diego? That evening set an all new standard for male chest bumping in water!










Or what about JBF's inappropriate care bears in San Antonio?








Or the trip to Sun Studios in Memphis? That's where I officially became a published recording artist with "pretty hair" sang with Elvis's mic and got to play Johnny Cash's guitar!






And the countless karaoke songs sung - I think I covered all of the Madonna "Like A" songs over the years... Virgin, prayer, etc...






Or creepy drunk Santa who wasn't really all that creepy or drunk after all?







And dodgeball!!! Oh how I miss playing dodge ball this time of year!






While I am sad to not be on the tennis courts today, I am looking forward to the next two days and virtually networking with my people. I heart my Symi friends!!! I wonder if we'll crash the chat servers or if there will be a side FB conversation? I'll be playing virtual dodgeball tonight for old times sake and hoping to make new, yet I am thinking somewhat less photogenic memories this year!

Warped Birthday Cakes

Today is the birthday party for a dear friend with a rather warped sense of humor. I couldn't decide between a zombie baby or a cat litter cake, so I made both for tonight's party at the Saucer.


Zombie Baby cake was inspired from the time Josh etched RIP into a cake at work because e thought it was a tombstone cake, come to find out it was a cradle cake for a baby shower at his office.

The cake is a blood red inside with gummy worms that will fall out when he cuts into it.





Cat litter cake is an old Halloween standby of mine. It's german chocolate with chocolate frosting covered in crushed white oreos colored green and blue like cat litter. The cat turds are made from large tootsie rolls with pinched ends and it's a delicious creation that most people never taste because they can't get over what it looks like.

It's served in a new cat litter box with a new cat litter scoop. I promise both were washed and sterilized and it's completely edible and delicious :) I will say this is the first time I have ever spelt out someone's name in fake poop.