from the dryest sources

Kate and I are sitting on the couch reading things we’re supposed to be reading; Kate’s reading some continuing-education material on breastfeeding, and I’m reading the CoBIT 4.0 spec , which, as promised by my boss Richo, is pretty freaking dull.

After Kate read me the paragraph about how it’s not surprising that breastfeeding occasionally provokes a sexual response in the nursing mother (given nerve endings and whatnot), and that very, very occasionally this can bring a woman to orgasm (which as a likely future father I can only imagine would be a fairly odd moment to walk in on), I figured that the stuff I’m reading couldn’t possibly compare.

I was totally right. CoBIT is basically an abstract framework to describe best practices around information handling for companies who have little, uncommon things like computers and data, i.e. every company. The suggestions for developing process, communications, and security, are all pretty good, but of necessity, they’re abstract and dry. The doc actually isn’t as bad as I’d feared, though, and the reason Richo asked me to read it is both clear and getting accomplished: how do I learn how to think about security and processes from a manager’s point of view, and not strictly a hands-on geek.

It remains to be seen whether I want to think like this long-term, but it’s the challenge du jour, so I’m doing it.

My favorite phrase so far: ‘Effective metrics should [provide] a high insight-to-effort ratio.’ (emphasis mine) A high insight-to-effort ratio is pretty much what I’ve been aiming for my entire life, though I hadn’t thought to phrase it like that. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? (If not as good as a breastfeeding orgasm, perhaps less weird.)

I just reheated some of the coq au vin I made earlier in the week, sorta roughly based on Alton Brown’s recipe , though I added parsnips at the beginning and parsley at the end and added several dollops of mustard (man, reduced red wine and mustard cooked together are a combination to keep handy) before serving it over seared spinach instead of the traditional egg noodles. (While not really light, the dish at least glances at South Beach compliancy. (absent the carrots and parsnips, natch.)

While it’s been reheating really well, I made a mistake which continue to plague us. I stewed the chicken back along with everything else, figuring it’d contribute connective tissue and other good things. In the process of taking the solids out to reduce the liquids, the back completely fell apart. Despite going through the stew twice with my fingers to remove all the bones, we’re still picking little teeny vertebrae out of our mouths two days later. Next time, I should either skip adding the back or not try to remove any of the bones. As it is, the dish appears deceivingly bone-free to the unwary eater.

Perhaps it’s just a good reminder that meat comes from animals .