Life is like a DHCP Client, your given an IP address for a period set forth by the DHCP Server. You can hold onto the IP as long as the server will allow you too, or you can release the IP address in an effort to obtain a new one.

While we are limited to what life throws at us (the IPs given the the DHCP Server), we are not necessarily at the whim of the DHCP Server, we too have choices to keep the IP given to us or choose to release and/or renew.

Recently, I made a tough decision to release my IP address that was currently assigned to me. It was not a choice that came easy. One can only take so many attacks from the outside before changing your IP address is the only obvious option. You spend so much processing power on the incoming attacks that you don’t have time to perform what you where made and designed for.

Clearly, Server Admins know how many resources incoming attacks take on CPU’s… and not surprising in life, we can find ourselves in the same situation… spending brain power on processing and fending off an attack than doing the work of what the server was designed for.

While I will have to wait awhile before getting a new IP address, until the offending attacker moves on to another host/victim, it doesn’t stop me from lower my brain load and getting back to business of what I was designed for.

I thank everyone for their support during this time and for my God who has just shown He is in control of the situation, no matter what attack is being thrown at me. While some might view God as a firewall that would protect you from the attacks, I see Him more as a System Admin, letting you do your own thing, but taking control and providing adjustments along the way.

I never had the opportunity to grow up around girls. It was a boy’s world where I came from. So, having two daughters of my own, and girly girls no doubt, is really an eye opener to how much females are just wired, even at a young age to be the way they are. The example which prompted me to write this relates in a visit we made this past weekend which included a road trip. We went by a college that my wife attended for a year, and she made reference to our oldest who is 4.5 years old that she went to college there. Of all the possible responses, questions and follow-ups that could have come out of a 4 year old, she simply responds, “What did your hair look like?”

If you’ve ever had the joy of paying COBRA, you will understand the pain inflected and scars it will leave. Get this, to cover my family with insurance and prescription coverage that is $983/month. Yes, $983/month. That is a lot of cash to pay for when your Group Coverage Plan stops. It usually stops when you’re OUT OF A JOB. Other things stop as well, including that which pays COBRA. Witch Doctors make these decisions I tell you.

It is no hidden secret that having a laptop computer can make you mobile. Even if your not a typical mobile user, having a laptop can give you mobility where you need it most, in your own home. I can’t tell you the number of times I have been stuck in my home office for hours and hours on end for something that didn’t require my 100% focus while my wife and kids went on about their day when I could have easily been a part of their day, even if tied to a laptop in the living room, kitchen or elsewhere. Lately, I have been on a programming phase and that requires more focus. Little girls running around screaming and asking 100 questions can keep productivity down while writing code for enhancements or bug fixes. For those projects, the home office provides nice protection from outside distractions. But, for everything else, I am a member of the family unit once again.