What he said. What did he say?

It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I’ve actually booked marked a bunch of stuff to blog about, but have just lacked the time to actually do it, so here’s a single post with all topics:

- I’ve read two very sensible pieces on the immigration situation. One is here and is more of an ironical thing than anything else, but sums up my feelings pretty well. The other is by Newsweek’s Robert Samuelson whose opins I normally don’t agree with much at all, but he is exactly right with this one. The popular liberal position on immigration creates an unholy alliance between them and big business who love to exploit illegal immigrants and perpetuate this potential enormous permanent underclass of our own creation. Samuaelson’s suggestions should be immediately adopted by all involved.


- This guy is an ass. Anybody out there who thinks diplomatic solutions abound in the Middle East only if we participate MUST see that there is purpose and design to this kind of crap. Dems beware: your continued insistence on maintaining a divide in orderto get into the White House is giving these rogues carte blanche to dis American efforts at every turn. I predict, (at least hope) the Iranian people will force change from within and the INTERNATIONAL community assists in this effort.




- I heard a term used on my new favorite radio station DAVEFM this week: “Lite Green”. I think it was John Mayer who used the term to describe his position with regards to Cheryl Crow’s recent public dressing down of Karl Rove over the administrations global warming policy. Mayer was quoted as saying something to the effect, “If you’re ‘Lite Green’ you have the common courtesy to let the guy finish his meal and speak to him as you would like to be spoken to”. ‘A’ fucking ‘Men’. That is the problem folks. I consider myself someone who is genuinely concerned about global warming and environmental issues, but am EXTREMELY turned off by people screaming at me and TELLING me what I HAVE to do about it. Making it a partisan issue is about the dumbest thing anyone could want, but that is exactly what those who are most vocal about it are doing. If you really care, become ‘Lite Green’ and I and many others will be far more supportive with solving the problems.


- Update on the domestic front. Our Lawrenceville house is officially on the market and we have entered into contract on a house in Peachtree City. Our perspective new home is much older, but much bigger. We’ll have a bit of work to do on it to bring it up to what Mrs. Alva and I would consider “complete”, but all things considered, it’s going to be our piece of heaven. It’s funny this time around, when we built the house we live in now, it seemed that things we’re so much simpler. With the current process, it seems we’re writing checks every time we turn around. I told a good friend of mine last night that if I could go just one week without writing a $500 check for something I’d be a happy man.

After three weeks on the new job some things have taken me by complete surprise. I had to prepare myself in the weeks running up to my first day for the long commute and thought it would be the biggest challenge. Not so much in reality. It’s turned into my new way of staying informed (since I can’t read the paper and web news as thoroughly as before) and a chance to listen to music uninterrupted. It’s really been nice. The flip side of that is the massive decrease in my available time. I no longer arrive home at 5:05 PM. It’s closer to 7:00 and that sucks on many fronts. It sucks because I can’t get much done, like mowing the yard before the sun goes down, but even worse, I get much less time with my little girl who for some strange reason really misses me. I attempted to cut the yard Wednesday night well into darkness and ended up mowing over my wife’s keys that I had laid down in the driveway. Cost me $190 to make that right and get everything replaced. Another unexpected check goes out the door…

All in all though, I’m warming into my new job pretty well. Another nice surprise is again enjoying the benefits of having my manager right around the corner. In my last position, the buck stopped with me locally and my director was 700 miles away. It had it’s advantages, but some big downsides as well. I continue to reveal more stuff I’ve got to learn, but am picking up loads quickly. We’re at a point in the moving project where we’re about to enter the ‘wait and see if a sale develops’ phase which should allow us to have a more normal life.

So that’s the world turning for me in a nutshell. Don’t be a stranger; keep checking back here and elsewhere. I may miss my old life a little, but am looking more forward to my new one.