When I became a Christian, I didn't magically become a better person. I certainly didn't become a perfect person. Now, over 30 years later I'd like to think I've improved in some areas. However, I fully realize that I have a long way to go to be Christ-like. This is part of the process we call sanctification, by which the Holy Spirit helps us address the issues and problems in our character and gives us the strength to change.

Back when I was growing up, it wasn't unusual to see church services on Sunday morning TV. Given that this was before cable and satellite television became widespread, this was the only thing on the few local channels we received. I thought about how fancy the services were. There was a lot of ceremony. There were words I didn't understand. It seemed like to be a Christian I had to learn this whole new way of acting and performing.

In our world today, Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) sells. For years advertising how told us we aren't good enough... unless we buy the product they're selling. Negative stories generate far more clicks, and ad revenue, than positive ones. In our hyper-fixated social media reality, providing a scathing criticism of some "evil" or "wrong" is a tried and true formula to increase follower count, generate revenue, and become a "content creator." God, through Paul, told us to act differently.

I remember that as I wrestled with the Gospel, I kept asking myself if I was too far gone for Jesus to save. I had grown up with the idea that if you're a good person, you can go to Heaven. If you're a bad person, you go to Hell. What's the line for good versus bad? What's the tipping point?

ALT: Steve Urkel's Iconic 'Did I Do That?' in Family Matters

Like everyone, there are times I feel overwhelmed by life. What usually overwhelms me are the things out of my control. I can't control if a loved one passes. I can't control if someone I care about loses their job, or gets sick, or their only car is no longer drivable. I can't control if someone important to me does what they want instead of what they should. That feeling of helplessness leads to that sense of being overwhelmed.

The concern that a particular technology is going to destroy the world seems to be an ever present fear. The technology changes but the fear and the marketing around that fear doesn't. Currently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the current technology to fear. Yes, AI can do things far faster than humans can. We should expect that if AI is used offensively, such as the tests that were done by…

When I look back at my past, there were a lot of things which happened that were painful. Quite a few of them were things or people out of my control. It'd be easy to scream, "It wasn't fair," and while that may be true, it doesn't erase what happened. Then there were the bad things that happened because of choices I made. Actions have consequences and I certain reaped a lot of bad consequences from bad decisions, my bad decisions.

A few months ago I started using Deepstash. Deepstash breaks books into the key ideas, usually 10-12 per book. If I am thinking about reading a book, I check Deepstash to see if it's there, first. If it is, I go through the key points. They provide the framework and context for my learning. Likewise, I have just started using it for after I've read a book, especially if it has been some time since I last read said book.

Do you have a case where you have a named instance you'd like to migrate to a default instance? Is there pushback on doing so? Are there concerns that there's too much work or that something critical might break?

Probably the best piece of advice I ever received is to take time to gain perspective.

I developed these rules a while back, before COVID. I had a period of self-reflection when I realized I was spending time wastefully arguing with folks on the various platforms with no real expectation of changing my mind or theirs. I review these rules periodically to reduce the likelihood of following into those same patterns. I'm not always successful, but I'm far better than I was.

Fabiano Amorim has written an excellent article at Simple Talk on securing msdb. Here's why you should read it if you're a DBA or security professional.

Here is a short emotional intelligence (EI) post for today, courtesy of Seth Godin. When we are rejected, whatever the situation, many of us want to know why. We want that nugget of information that explains why we weren't accepted. What if they don't and aren't willing to provide a reason? What if the reason they give doesn't match with the facts or whatever else they said or wrote?

Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing are two areas of emerging technology that receive most of the tech news. However, the Stanford Emerging Technology Review tries to include any relevant emerging technology area where we see significant progress.

Pinal Dave wrote up his methodology for what to do when you discover bad data in production. If you’ve never been in this situation, having a plan beforehand is critical

If you haven't seen the announcement, Anthropic was able to utilize Claude (Mythos Preview) to find cryptographic weaknesses in two algorithms. However, this doesn't impact anything anyone has in production today. The research is interesting and something we should take note of, but nothing to panic about.

Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included in that announcement were high level details about MDASH with MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, which is reported to perform better than Mythos on a particular security benchmark, CyberGym. The announcement indicates that Project Perception opens for public preview on August 3, 2026.

If you are considering any of the ISACA AI certs like the Advanced Artificial Intelligence Audit (AAIA) or the newly release Advanced Artificial Intelligence Risk (AAIR), ISACA will be discounting their material for six weeks, starting on Monday, May 18, 2026 and running through Thursday, July 30, 2026.

My most recent bout with imposter syndrome was with ISACA's Digital Trust Ecosystem Framework (DTEF) foundation exam. I'm blogging about it because I know a lot of people struggle with imposter syndrome, even though they don't specifically recognize what's going on. So let's talk about the challenge. The DTEF foundation exam is a 60-question multiple choice exam that you have two hours to complete.

Professor Patrick Winston of MIT used to give a one-hour talk about how to speak. Though Professor Winston is no longer with us, his talk still is. If you want to get better at speaking, even if you're an experienced speaker, I recommend taking the hour to watch the recorded video.

But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed to ask a critical question, "Who am I doing this for?" When I agree to work crazy hours, am I doing it for me, my family, or the organization? And once I determine who I'm doing it for, the next question is, "Is the sacrifice worth it?" Sacrifice means giving up something of value for something of greater value. Is my sacrifice going in the correct direction?

In cryptography, the RSA and ECC algorithms which we use primarily for asymmetric cryptography are susceptible to Shor's Algorithm in quantum cryptography. Cracking those algorithms with classical computing is seen as requiring thousands of years, which is why we use them so heavily for things like TLS. Not so with quantum computing.

I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class on April 13-16, 2026, in Columbia, SC.

If your organization is spending money, then meaningful results are a must. Pen testing isn't supposed to be a pat on the back. It's supposed to be a tool to assess defenses and so you can make adjustments. It's a critical feedback loop for cybersecurity. So a report back of, "We didn't find anything," is useless.

I am guilty as charged. The quote was in reference to how people argue about details in fitness or finances that are more detailed than is useful to them. We do this with respect to a lot of things. I have argued points in projects and security that weren't worth the time we devoted to the discussion.

On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released patches for SQL Server to address privilege escalation vulnerabilities in supported versions. Time to patch!

If you want to learn better, pause more in your learning to intentionally review.

If you don't have a plan, you'll accomplish it. That's not a good thing.

Love God most of all. Yes, love people, your nation, your ideals, and other things, but never more than God.

Whenever there is time, teach why we do something. Otherwise, it'll be lost.

Following the advice in Smart Brevity improves communication.

When you are faced with the choice between kindness and personal gain, choose kindness.

Pass or fail, act on your certification test results.

We can be tempted by a short term reward over long term success. We must resist such temptation when it occurs.

There's a great article from MIT Technology Review about resetting on the hype of AI. AI's current state is somewhere between the die hard evangelists and the doomsayers

Every year, the South Carolina State Internal Auditors Association and the South Carolina Midlands ISACA Chapter partner together to put on a "CPE catchup" opportunity in December to provide last minute CPEs for those needing them to maintain or renew certifications as well as to raise money for Harvest Hope.

For a number of years I have subscribed to Randy Franklin Smith's Patch Tuesday newsletter. It tends to hit my inbox in the wee hours of Wednesday.

In Parts 1-3, I covered how I prepare for a certification exam. In this last part, I'll talk about how I go about taking the exam.

Even preparing for a class or seminar with set materials takes a lot of time and effort, more so when you build your own content. So why teach?

here is the compiled video of the Red Teaming course Microsoft put together.

In parallel with the presentation I gave at the PASS Data Community Summit on quantum computing's impact on data, I wrote an article specifically on impact with respect to Microsoft SQL Server.

After I have understood the details for a certification test (part 1), including format and the rules for taking it and after I have taken time to learn how the test is structured and what's covered (part 2), next is studying for the exam.

If you're looking for particular "Black Friday" deals, here is what I've seen advertised in the community. I have not taken any of these classes, so I can't give a review/recommendation except to say all are being offered by current or former Microsoft Data Platform MVPs:

In the United States, today is Thanksgiving. The intent behind the holiday is to remember all that we have to be thankful. I have a lengthy list from friends and family, health, and a whole bunch of other things.

I mentioned this in my talk on Quantum Computing at the PASS Data Community Summit: Microsoft has announced that the post-quantum cryptography APIs are now generally available.

This was announced last week at Microsoft Ignite and it's been covered by others such as Brent Ozar, but if you haven't heard, SQL Server 2025 is now generally available.

The advantage of understanding the make-up of the exam: I can tailor my efforts for best results.