Behind the Book: Real World Survival
September 2, 2026
I asked a member of my own team what he would do in an earthquake. He said he would get under the window, without hesitating. He was not stupid. Nobody had ever told him.
Tag: Survival & Disaster Lessons
Preparedness beyond the server room: disaster lessons, survival thinking, and the practical mindset of planning for failures of every kind.
Character DevelopmentBehind the Book: The Ultimate Bug Out Bag Guide
September 2, 2026
The Northridge earthquake threw me out of bed at 4:31 in the morning. Then the shaking stopped, we realised our son was missing, and every piece of theoretical knowledge I had was worth nothing.
EmergencyHurricane Season: Do It Now, Because You Cannot Do It Later
August 26, 2026
Everything you need for a hurricane is on a shelf right now. The day it lands on the news, the water aisle is empty and the gas lines are around the block. Decide now whether you are leaving or staying,…
Business ContinuityThe Day Every Safety Net Failed: Anatomy of a Cascading Disaster
July 4, 2026
My consultant called while I was driving to a Renaissance fair: the power had failed, the generator had not come on, one UPS was missing, a coin-sized battery had died, the DR link had been down for two days, and…
Business ContinuityDisaster Recovery Is Part of the Transformation, or It Is Not One
July 4, 2026
A DR plan is a set of precise claims about a specific environment. A transformation is the deliberate, wholesale changing of that environment. Put those two sentences together and you see the problem most transformation programs never address.
Business ContinuityTwenty Years of Disaster Recovery: What the Real Ones Taught Me
July 4, 2026
Lightning fried a computer room around me. Backhoes cut my DR links. A tabletop exercise with a truck bomb and an active shooter taught a room of professionals that half of them could not authorize anything. Twenty years of disaster…
Business ContinuityThe Server Under the Desk
July 4, 2026
We were hunting for a machine during a disaster recovery effort. Systems were talking to it, work depended on it, and it was not in the server room. We found it under a user's desk in accounting, running decade-old software,…
EmergencyFacing Hurricane Irma: 7 Lessons in Storm Survival
February 8, 2026
September 2017: the forecast confirmed Irma was coming straight for my corner of Florida, and we had days to get ready. I had ridden out storms before, but this one's numbers were ugly. Here are seven hard-earned lessons from preparing…
CybersecurityHurricane Milton Was Truly Frightening: The Aftermath
October 12, 2024
Milton dropped a record 14.5 inches of rain and spawned two dozen tornadoes. Here is the firsthand aftermath and what it confirmed about readiness.
CybersecurityPreparing for a Category 5: My Hurricane Milton Experience and Advice
October 9, 2024
Milton reached Category 5 with 155 mph winds. Drawing on decades of disasters, here is my complete preparation routine and why pets belong at the center.