October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, so Let’s Talk About Clicking Links.

Last week, this quick conversation happened in my house:“Babe, did you send me a link on Messenger?”“Yep, go ahead.”“Cool, thanks.” There was an ease to it, because we were in the same house, just a room away from each other, my husband working on his computer and me working on mine. He doesn’t send links […]
On school (non)-openings, women in the workplace, and change communications. (We can help!)

It’s been a hard week for school administrators. In Fairfax County alone, we went from giving families a choice of sending kids back to school 2 times per week or keeping them home for the year for 100% online learning, to no choice at all, with home-based learning for everyone. Nearby counties followed suit. Considering […]
A problem of clarity and scientists versus journalists, or, why the world needs scientific journalists

We have a problem today. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that asymptomatic people very rarely transmit the coronavirus, and mask-haters rejoiced. Less than a day later, they seemed to retract their announcement, or change it, or … well what is it that happened? It appears that Maria Van Kerkhove of the WHO did announce […]
What have you done to adapt?

Late last week, a friend of mine posted to Facebook asking if there were any hair stylists out there who would be willing to coach her, for payment, through cutting her son’s hair. The responses from hair stylists ranged from “so you’ll take our livlihoods away forever” to “please stop–we have lost everything.” I don’t […]
Some work-from-home suggestions

Well it looks like more of us are going to be working from home, for the near and potetially farther future. As someone who has been a mostly remote worker for the last ten years, I have some thoughts and some suggestions that may make life a little easier for everyone. I hope this will […]
Is your cybersecurity posture ready for the quarantine?

Just about a year ago, I was working for another company–one that had managed to both stay open and pay its employees during the government shutdown of 2018. During that time, we saw many government contractors that had it much worse and that went out of business or had to lay off staff in order […]
Some instructional design talk

Not much writing really. I gave a 10 minute talk about my instructional design work to people who don’t know anything about the field. Someone was kind enough to record it, so here it is. Contact me today to talk about your project!
Four reasons that documentation should not be an afterthought

Why document what happens at the beginning of a project when documents might not be due until the end?
On being precise
My son sat at his computer earlier this week: “I have to memorize this thing for Civics.” “Is it the Preamble to the Constitution?” “Yes… How did you know?” “Because I had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution when I was your age. I think everyone does. Or did. I’m not sure. Let’s say […]
On planning, journaling, and getting stuff done
It seems everyone has a method of planning their business these days. In my life I have had more planners than I’ve had professional years, and most of them are completely empty beyond March. They are complicated. They are overwhelming. Someone whom I trust and who is a really successful entrepreneur recommended a set of […]