Why Do I Bother?

As you know, I recently celebrated my 40th Birthday. What a perfect time for a mid-life crisis. Since I am not in a financial position to buy a new sports car, take on a mistress, or buy enough clothes to start cross-dressing, I decided to go with a tattoo.

It’s a flaming sun with two dragons chasing each other around the inside of the orb. I have been talking about getting a tattoo for some time now and for Christmas I got a gift certificate for a tattoo shop near Seattle from my family up there. You may not be able to recognize that fleshy object to the left as my right calf. The tattoo fills most of the large calf muscle and is about 5-6 inches in diameter. Click the image for a full size view.

I didn’t know exactly what to expect since this was my first tattoo. I learned from the tattoo artist, Dave at Gem Tattoos, that the calf is one of the more painful areas to get inked. Most people start with the shoulder. I wanted it in a place that I could easily show off but still be able to hide when necessary. I know the design is a bit unusual, but I was very pleased with how it turned out. If you live in the Kirkland, Washington area and are interested in a tattoo, go see Dave and tell him Jeff DeLeon-Benham sent you. It won’t give you a price break, but do it anyway.

Technorati Tags: 40th Birthday, mid-life crisis, tattoo

Tags: Birthday, Christmas, Holidays, Just For Fun by Jeffrey
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dreams

Any of you dream analysts out there care to take a stab at this one?

So … Mel and I are headed out to pick up the pizzas I had ordered. Naturally we stopped at the little portable DMV shack (Department of Motor Vehicles for those of you not from around here) in the Safeway (grocery store) parking lot. We chose that location because you don’t have to take a number and wait to be called to pick up your pizzas at the DMV shack like you might have to at the other DMV.

Anyway, I tell them my name and we pick up the 2 large pizzas that I had ordered to feed the 4 of us; me, Mel (my wife), my mother in law, and my niece. Hearing that I had only ordered 2 large pizzas, Mel becomes very upset with me and says, “You only ordered 2 large pizzas?” In a huff she says to the clerk that we need an additional large pizza with cream gravy. She then gives me the stink-eye as if I had purposely ordered only 2 large pizzas knowing that they would never feed the 4 of us.

Being angry and embarrassed I stomp out of the DMV and wait in the parking lot. She can carry the damn pizzas herself!

I’ve had odd dreams before, but this one takes the cake … errr, pizza.

Technorati Tags: dream, pizza, DMV

Tags: Just For Fun by Jeffrey
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There are a number of big events coming up for Mel and I. I thought you might like to hear what’s going on …

First of all, Mel had an interview with a company near Seattle, WA that went very well. She has been asked to attend a second interview at the company headquarters in Salt Lake City, UT. It would be a great opportunity for her, for both of us. She’s a little nervous about the interview tomorrow, but I know she will do great! I can’t name the company just yet, I’ll tell you when she gets the position.

That brings me to the second item. Mel and I will probably be moving to the Seattle area in the next few months. It’s a good move for both of us. Mel will be closer to her family which she longs for, and I will be able to pursue multiple IT jobs in the area. I will miss my family and friends, but it’s only 3 hours away.

Tomorrow is also my 40th birthday! Holy shit! My parents were old when they were 40 but I’m certainly not. Since Mel will be in Utah we wont be celebrating tomorrow. Instead we are taking the weekend off. First we’ll share dinner and a party with about 19 of my friends and family, then a few of us are headed to the coast where we have rented a house to continue the merriment. It will be a hoot.

In spite of how busy we have been, Mel and I did find the time to celebrate all the changes in our lives with a little dancing. There’s a video of the event that you can find at http://www.dancesisterdance.com/myvid/index.php?v=fd14f4079eaa0. Make sure you have the volume on your speakers before you click on that link.

Thanks for dropping by the blog!

Tags: Announcements, Birthday by Jeffrey
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First, To my subscribers:

I have been using a different posting method lately that allows me to post to my blog without actually being logged into my blog software. Performancing.com has a very cool tool for bloggers that allows you to post to most popular blog platforms while viewing another page on the internet.

It’s a pretty neat deal, but unfortunately I have discovered that posting by this method does not trigger the portion of the software that notifies my subscribers that a new post has been made. If you’ve been wondering where my semi regular emails have been, that’s the answer. You’ve only missed a few recent additions to the blog, but it would be worth your time to direct your browsers over to the actual site. Be sure to check out a few of the posts that have been bumped off the front page, you can do this by clicking on the “next page” link after the last post on each page. I’ll be posting by the regular method in the future so you should start receiving emails from me again. Sorry for the interruption.

Next, some help on adding a favorite to your browser:

Here is some very simple, but useful help. Most of you already are quite comfortable with this process and need read no further. I know, however, that some of you are visiting my blog regularly by doing a search through Google. I get a report every day on all the Google searches that reach my site. It is a very interesting report and often reveals some very humorous search strings. Someday I may post a list of all the strange things that people have searched for and found my site. Anyway … part of the report I get reveals that some of my regular readers are going to Google, typing in “why do i bother” and clicking on the “I’m feeling lucky” button. While this will get you to my site, there a few easier ways to do this.

First, in either Firefox or Internet Explorer you could simply type “whydoibother” (yes, all scrunched together like that) in the address bar at the top of the browser and then hit Ctrl-Enter. using this method will add www and .com to anything you type up there and take you to the site.

Second, if you are a regular visitor you may just want to add me to your favorites list. In Firefox you can do that very easily. First, open the “View” menu, then the “Toolbars” sub menu and make sure that the “Bookmarks toolbar” has a check next to it. You should see a toolbar directly under the address bar that has all your bookmarks listed. Now simply click and hold the little question mark that appears in the address bar next to my URL and drag that to your bookmarks toolbar. If you’re feeling adventurous you can create folders on the toolbar to organize your favorites by right clicking on the toolbar and selecting “New folder”.

If you are an Internet Explorer user you can add a favorite to your list by first navigating to the page that you want to bookmark. Then you simply press Ctrl-D and customize the information that appears in the little pop up window in your browser. Internet Explorer also allows folders for your bookmarks so you can easily organize your favorites into categories.

I hope this was helpful to some of you. Thanks for continuing to visit my blog.

Technorati Tags: Performancing.com, favorite

Tags: Announcements, Computers and The Internet by Jeffrey
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