Marc Benton dot Com

My Bucket List

There is a show running on MTV now called The Buried Life.  Four 20-somethings are going around the country fulfilling both their and others versions of  a bucket list, or things to do before they die.  The title came from a Matthew Arnold poem of the same name.  Like them, I thought this passage from the poem poignant:

But often, in the world’s most crowded streets,
But often, in the din of strife,
There rises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life;

It made me start thinking of my unwritten list so I set off to put it on paper, or internet page if you will.  I realized a number of items I would add to the list I’ve already done.  With this in mind my list is not the normal 100 but set to 75 items.  After all I’m now in my mid-40 so I have less time than The Buried Life crew.

My list is full of silly items, serious ones, and some that might just be plain impossible to achieve.  The common factor in all of them though is that at least twice in my life I thought “Wouldn’t it be great if I…”.

So without further adieu here is my bucket list:

1.   Spend a week photographing NYC
2.   Get a tattoo
3.   Complete a cycling century
4.   See 170 lbs again
5.   Grow a pony tail
6.   Write and publish a short story
7.   Learn how to play a musical instrument
8.   Make a big donation to a charity
9.   Find my birth parents
10. Skydive
11. Shake the hand of a United State President, current or former
12. Ride a Harley (hopefully mine some day)
13. Make a cross-country drive and back
14. Hike the Appalachian Trail
15. Water ski
16. Snow ski
17. Go to space
18. Photograph Yellowstone National Park
19. Visit Mount Rushmore
20. Attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans
21. Quit smoking
22. Testify in a Congressional hearing
23. Shave with an old fashioned straight razor
24. Attend an Olympic event
25. Take my wife to Hawaii
26. Ride a galloping horse
27. Build something that lasts
28. Make a mark in the photography world
29. Climb to the top of the Washington Monument
30. Help someone find their religion
31. Scuba dive
32. Travel somewhere new and DON’T bring a camera
33. Ensure my family is taken care of for the future
34. Sing in a church choir
35. Learn to ballroom dance
36. Ride in a hot air balloon
37. Take a cruise
38. Travel – Bejing
39. Travel – Hong Kong
40. Travel – Tokyo
41. Travel – Scotland
42. Travel – Ireland
43. Travel – London
44. Revisit Barcelona, Spain
45. Revisit Rome, Italy
46. Travel – Moscow
47. Travel – Boston
48. Travel – visit all 50 states
49. Stand on the SkyDeck of the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago
50. Watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon
51. Take a photo safari to shoot wildlife in the western United States
52. Sing karaoke
53. Have a photo taken of me and Jerry Lawler
54. Be an extra in a motion picture, or a commercial
55. Inspire someone
56. Make a New Year’s Resolution…and keep it
57. Milk a cow
58. Swim in the ocean with something enormous (whale, great white, whale shark, etc)
59. Keep a Bonsai tree for many years and pass it on
60. Attend the Kentucky Derby
61. Touch the Stanley Cup
62. Try escargot
63. Be happy with who I am
64. Spend a year without TV
65. Attend Burning Man
66. Get an earring
67. Be a better Christian and have a better relationship with God
68. Learn to surf
69. Attend SXSW
70. Attend a viewing at the Sundance Film Festival
71. Take my son to Key West
72. Witness a day where all my bills are paid up to date
73. Find a career that I truly love
74. Create and maintain a successful website
75. Invest in a new idea

What is on your list?

Unemployment Day One

It’s 11:44 pm and Unemployment Day One is coming to a close.  For those of you that did not know, my last day at WorthPoint was yesterday.  While WorthPoint is going well and has a bright future, the situation called for a layoff.  If I was in our CEO’s shoes I would have made the same decision so there is no hard feelings on my part.  I wish them the best of continued success and thank the staff there for a rewarding two years.

This brings me to today.  I woke up as usual, came downstairs, poured me a cup of coffee and realized I have a new job…finding my next job.  Finding this new position will require as much effort as if I was getting paid now for my work.  I plan to get up every morning, come downstairs and spend at least 8 hours a day online, on the phone, or walking the streets.

I’ll record my daily progress and actions here in the hopes that it may help someone else that is looking for work.

• Today was spent putting some final polish on my resume in preparations for some major promulgation of it.  I have already put it to good use as I’ve been approached by a couple of friends on LinkedIn about a possible opportunity.  Two resumes sent out.

• I spent about an hour this morning pouring through the Virginia Employment Commission portal.  For the second time in my life I’ve now filed for unemployment benefits.  Lets hope I can cancel them before I receive my first benefit.

• Sherri and I spent some time going over job sites and reviewing what types of positions are out there today.  We found some interesting ones and I’ve bookmarked them for review and possible submission.  The amount of job boards is somewhat overwhelming and you need to find the ones that cater to your industry.  I’ll cover this more in a future post.

• Updated my LinkedIn profile and requested referrals from previous co-workers.  I plan to spend more time on LinkedIn in the coming days.

• Most of the afternoon and evening I spent building a new site which I launched a little while ago.  Marc Benton Online is my social media resume which gathers in one place my professional and online experience along with all the places that make up my online identity.  I’m pretty proud of this and looking forward to hearing what you think.

Until tomorrow…

#snowpocalypse time lapse video

Sherri had a great idea of setting up the tripod and snapping off photos of our back deck during the snowstorm.  We used one of our spare Powershot S5IS since we didn’t want to monopolize our main cameras.  She took photos over about a 30 hour period and I created a slideshow video in an old copy of Premier Elements.

She uploaded it to weather.com yesterday and we just received reports from friends that they saw it on the Weather Channel.  We’re thrilled.

Can you spot the falling tree?

Let us know what you think of it.

Marc-a-Day

I’ve realized my life will not support a 365 photography project. The three times I’ve attempted it have resulted in failure after about 30 days or so. Maybe someday my life will normalize and become a little more structured but until that day comes I can POST a photo a day. Hence my new photoblog, Marc-a-Day.

This photoblog uses the DuoTone theme for Wordpress that is the evolution of the popular Monotone theme.  The background color dynamically changes for each post to present the best accent for the photo.  I’m pretty happy with this one, so far it’s been easy to customize and SEO friendly.

Stop by and let me know what you think.

My slow but sure comeback

My absence from the online community I hold dear is slowly coming to an end.  My sometimes self induced and mostly work induced hiatus has allowed many of my projects and plans to suffer.  I am slowly but surely reversing that trend.

I’ve spent the past two weeks taking inventory of my online assets, something I would suggest everyone do at least once a year.  Just like spring cleaning the house, your online space can get cluttered.  This was a long and sometimes confusing process due to the number of sites, services and assets I involve myself with.  In fact it is still on going.  The goal is to streamline my online presence into a circular path where each node feeds the next.  My various interests should not be separate entities but a series of pieces that flow into each other to create a complete picture of who I am, what I’m looking for, and what I can provide for you.

The initial plan is to rebrand and redesign this site, create a professional photography services site, publish a social media resume page (more on that in a future post), and a new daily photoblog.   These are assets that I will own the domain and be 100% responsible for the content and functionality.  Then there are other sites I utilize like Facebook, LinkedIn, SmugMug and Twitter where I have limited control over my content and very little in the functionality side.  Last year I did not do much to integrate my sites and these services other than reposting blog articles.  To be truly successful online you must find the recipe that uses all of these ingredients in healthy balanced portions.  I’m pulling my chair up to the buffet and loading my plate with what I believe will sustain me best.

Here’s my plans for the upcoming months:

• I’m working with a talented graphics artist now to create new logos.  My plan is to have similar branding across all of my work whenever I can.
• Once the logos are complete I will start work on redesigning this site, removing the User 40.0 moniker and creating new content.   I expect this to be completed and launched in late February.
• Tonight I’ve launched a new photoblog named Marc-a-Day.  If you can’t get enough of me here then go check it out and get some of me everyday.  This is not me taking a photo a day, I’ve failed too many times at that, but I will post a new, hopefully interesting, image a day.
• Two more sites will soon to follow, a new photography service offering along with an expanded social resume site.  I currently have a domain at marcbentonresume.com with a small social profile but I plan to expand this to include more of my professional background and also include a video or two on it.
• Photoblogging DC was both a success and failure.  Success as I was able to talk a number of truly talented photographers to contribute and our daily visits were steadily growing.  The failure was in the way the site was designed.  It was dependent on one person to format and publish the posts, something that eventually I was unable to keep up with.  I hope by the Spring to bring this site back with a better design where our contributors will have more functionality in the system.
• Sherri and I plan to organize more photowalks through this site and the Photowalk DC Facebook group.  Look for a late-February event announced soon.

We’ve recently kicked off a new decade.  Its time to let go of the baggage of the past and start anew.  I hope we all enjoy the trip together.