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Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 6

Today was Anne of Green Gables all day, all the time.

For those of you who haven’t read the books (I haven’t) nor seen the TV shows/movies (I only vaguely remember them) it might be a wonder that a fictional character has this kind of impact. I think that LM Montgomery, who wrote the books, was so strongly associated with Prince Edwards Island (all but one of the books was located at PEI) and local pride; there is lots of that we have learned helped.Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 6

Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 5

Today was our transition from the first part of our trip, in Cape Breton Island, to Prince Edwards Island.

Interestingly when we asked people in Cape Breton about PEI, they almost always said that it was pretty nice but they rarely visited there. One person described PEI as a potato field surrounded by water which we thought pretty funny. We found when we landed in PEI, the reverse was equally true. There they all said that Cape Breton was very pretty, but rarely went.

For one thing it is free to drive over the very short causeway to Cape Breton. It costs between $40 and $60 to take the ferry, or drive over the bridge, from PEI back to the mainland one-way. It is free to enter PEI. So once there, the trick is to figure out to sneak out and avoid the toll. Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 5

Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventures in Nova Scotia – Day 4

Tuesday was a leisurely day starting in Ingonish on the East side of Cape Breton about half-way down the coast, completing the loop we started yesterday, swinging back in a circle through Baddeck and ending up in the early afternoon in Mabou, at the bottom of the west side of Cape Breton.

The Lantern Inn & Hollow where we stayed overnight was on the Atlantic Ocean. That morning, we walked on the beach. Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventures in Nova Scotia – Day 4

Ellen and Dan’s Excellent Adventures in Nova Scotia – Day 3

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Today had two main parts to it, the Alexander Grahme Bell museum and our trip around much of the Cabot Trail.

To finish off a comment on our stay in Baddeck, a lovely community on the shore of a truly beautiful lake, Bras D’Or, our B&B we stayed in called the Water’s Edge Inn, was a great place physically, really nice room, and very centrally located in the town. However, it was pretty ordinary when it came to breakfast. The only juice was Apple, the breakfast consisted of a pre-measured container of fruit-salad, you know with that heavy syrup stuff, a plastic bag with two slices of white bread which could be toasted, and an optional cup of waffle mix which could be poured into the waffle maker. Ouch.Ellen and Dan’s Excellent Adventures in Nova Scotia – Day 3

Ellen and Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 1

Ellen had long expressed an interest in visiting Prince Edwards Island, the site of the Anne of Green Gables stories, and nearly Nova Scotia. I had always heard it was a very beautiful place to visit, the high’s were going to be in the 70’s, not the 90’s, and going would be consistent with my saying yes to as much as possible so Ellen would let me continue to go to Disneyworld once every two years.Ellen and Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 1

The Problem With Government Security

During the time I served as the CIO at the US Department of Transportation when I wanted to annoy my Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of the CISO staff, I would point out that in my opinion there were two things wrong with computer security within the Federal Government.

First, we put security in charge.

Second, we kept secrets.

If we solved for those two issues, we would not have a security problem.

Of course, I was joking. Well sort of.The Problem With Government Security

My Slides from the University of Maryland University College 2010 Annual Cybersecurity and Homeland Defense Symposium

Last month I was the keynote speaker at the University of Maryland University College 2010 Annual Cybersecurity and Homeland Defense Symposium and Job Fair, http://www.umuc.edu/securitystudies/cybersymposium_agenda.shtml.

A few people asked me to post my presentation, but I have found that my current job as the COO at Powertek Corporation has caused me to miss many of my self-imposed deadlines for doing many things, including updating my blog.My Slides from the University of Maryland University College 2010 Annual Cybersecurity and Homeland Defense Symposium

Management of Change Conference, Dan Heath Author of Switch

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The kickoff to this years Management of Change conference here in Philadelphia was the Presentation of the Honorable John J. Franke Award and then a presentation after dinner by Dan Heath, who wrote Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.

This years winner of the Franke Award was recently retired from Government service Jim Williams. Independent of his obsessive Red Sox fandom (is there any other kind of Red Sox fandom come to think of it?), Jim is one of the wonderful people. Jim has represented the best qualities of Government service at least to me. He has been consummate professional, dedicated to achieving the highest possible results, and at the same time a good partner to work with for the private community that supports Federal programs.Management of Change Conference, Dan Heath Author of Switch