Friday Donuts

Friends, Healthy minds must exchange information. The influx and outflow of ideas and opinions are like a stream, bearing oxygen and leaching salts from a lake, and preventing mental stagnation. Listening to reason and sharing your thoughts has a cleansing, therapeutic effect. While the content of our communications matters (an echo chamber of vitriol and lies may do more harm than good), the process itself is just as important. In the absence of a sounding board, it’s possible to get all worked-up over nothing and make mountains out of molehills. And so, if you’re worried about someone’s mental health, talk to them –about anything. Don’t give advice (unless they ask), don’t offer to help (unless they ask) and don’t talk about a perceived problem (unless they ask). Just talk. Open a line of communication. The weather will do –or hobbies, humor, history, happy news… you get the picture. So, if you’re worried about someone’s mental health (or your own) meet-up and catch-up, preferably at

Friends, Color, that thin slice of the electromagnetic spectrum our eyes can perceive. Shorter than sound and radio, and longer than X and gamma rays the 400-700 nanometer waves we call light are wedged between infrared and ultraviolet. And yet, this narrow range can convey so much. This week, aspen trees are trading their boring green for luxurious gold, yellow and orange, and delivering a show that draws tourists from all walks of life to the mountains. The colors are so vibrant, even cloudy skies couldn’t dim the illusion of sunbathed hillsides set ablaze by some magical power. If you decide to go color watching, grab a donut on your way and watch-out for awestruck amateur photographers risking life and limb to take that perfect shot. Happy Friday!

 Friends, How do cyber criminals come-up with names? While the good guys have to settle for safe names --names that convey trust and are in good taste-- the bad guys have no such qualms. From organizations (Krypton, Venomous Bear, Fancy Bear, Blind Eagle, Lazarus Group…) to attacks (REvil, Operation Shady RAT, VulcanBOT, Nitro and Blackmatter Ransomware…), threat actors have the cool name market cornered. Still, I think we can do better than Zero Trust, Unified Threat Management and XDR (granted, any name that starts with an “X” must by necessity be cool!).  Then again, perhaps it's for the best. Who wants to hire Dragon's Bane to vanquish viruses with their Ultimate Forcefield  or Funky Phantom to thwart threats by implementing  their  Bot Thingamajig. So, it seems best that the companies that keep your IT infrastructure safe should themselves use safe naming conventions.  Some donut shops, on the other hand, seem unencumbered by that constraint (I'm looking at you Habit

Friends, The early bird catches the worm, however, as the sun rises I’d much rather have a Denver omelet than a diet of worms . Ready to fly the coop, my ducks all in a row, I ponder one more time whether a bird in hand is truly worth two in the bush. Egged-on by my quest to tuck away a nest egg, I’ve decided to change industries and hope that, like the phoenix, my career will also rise from the ashes of change. After all, I’m no spring chicken –my crow’s feet and gray bely my age – however, I have to trust my judgment and believe you can’t catch this old bird with chaff (whether or not folks think me an odd bird for my actions). And so I shall attempt to soar like an eagle, aware that counting my chickens before they hatch would be ill-advised. As I learn to talk turkey in the language of cybersecurity, I will endeavor not to hide my head in the sand, choosing instead to be like a duck – calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath! And while my excessive use of bird-inspired

Friends, I enjoy jogging without music. No headphones, no earbuds, no boom box… nothing! My wandering thoughts keep me company as I put one foot in front of the other. One moment I’m grateful for the awesome sunrise, which reminds that the instant a star, like our sun, starts fusing iron it’s doomed. Soon I’m pondering another element: carbon. It gets a bad rap as a greenhouse gas, yet it is the main building block of life as we know it. And so it goes. From funny observations to solving work problems, to world hunger, to keeping tempo, to mental math, to thinking about my kids, to prayer, to ... When a great idea comes along, I jot it down – after all, a quarter of the time I can’t remember a third of my half-witted thoughts. I suppose it comes down to learning to live with yourself – and loving it. Or like the donut sign says it’s about “peace, love and donuts” – by the way, if you make it up to Loveland, the little donuts at this shop were amazing! Happy Friday!

Friends, Sometimes, I’d like to stop time, capture a perfect moment and make it permanent. Yet, hard as I try to grab the fleeting and hold on, it’s not possible. Grapes must be harvested, leaves must fall, days must shorten and weather must turn. Snow will fall and, before you know it, make way for green sprouts to blanket the earth once again. Months make years, and decades make a lifetime. Yet, somehow, everywhere is here and it’s always now. Time’s constant churning tills the soil of my experiences and renews life all around me. I may begrudge that perfect moment's passing, but without change, I’d be stuck. I’d never see all the other perfect moments, waiting for me, just a blink away. So, what’s perfection? That’s a loaded question. I have a feeling it may involve a quiet conversation, coffee and a donut. I suppose I'll head-on down to Baked n' Denver and grab me some perfection. Happy Friday!