They say it's not what you know, but who you know.

So, I'm putting what I know out there, and hoping that someone out there who I know can help.

I'm looking for a job upgrade. Better salary, hopefully better commute, and a change of pace from where I've been the past 5 years.

My resume is here.

Highlights: Graduated from Georgia Tech in 2001 with a B.S. in Computer Engineering. Worked through college as a co-op student for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. Currently working for a company that helps hospitals out with billing Medicare patient insurance. So, yeah, I know HIPPA, ANSI 835/837, and all that other stuff.

I know more about Visual Basic for Applications than anyone should ever have to. I've worked with run-of-the-mill Visual Basic, too. Clipper and XBase are also on my list of strong languages. I've been working a lot with moving dBase applications over to MySQL lately. I can read Perl, believe it or not. Also, I've been practicing a bit with PHP and XML. The coursework at GA Tech prepared me to learn any new language quickly: Hand me a programming environment with which I am completely unfamiliar, and I'll be debugging in a week, improving the code in two weeks, and writing completely new stuff before you know it.

I'm especially practiced at data mining, data archiving, and automated data analysis. I'm a puzzle-solver. I jump at challenges. I'm responsible for the creation of a huge number of handy little push-one-button applications around the office for those tedious little repetitive tasks that several of my co-workers never thought to do any way other than the hard-way.

Also, I am an Eagle Scout.

I'm living in the Atlanta area right now, but I'll be glad to move to anywhere a good job will take me.

So, anyone got any leads?

Neutral Good Gnome Ranger Bard
Follower Of Baervan Wildwanderer

Alignment:
Neutral Good characters believe in the power of good above all else. They will work to make the world a better place, and will do whatever is necessary to bring that about, whether it goes for or against whatever is considered 'normal'.

Race:
Gnomes are also short, like dwarves, but much skinnier. They have no beards, and are very inclined towards technology, although they have been known to dabble in magic, too. They tend to be fun-loving and fond of jokes and humor. Some gnomes live underground, and some live in cities and villages. They are very tolerant of other races, and are generally well-liked, though occasionally considered frivolous.

Primary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.

Secondary Class:
Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.

Deity:
Baervan Wildwanderer is the Neutral Good gnomish god of forests, travel, and nature. He is also known as the Masked Leaf. His avatar is always accompanied by an intelligent, giant raccoon, named Chiktikka Fastpaws. His followers, like him, enjoy the outdoors and work to protect it and guard those who also enjoy it. Their preferred weapon is the halfspear.

Detailed Results:

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXX (7)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXX (9)
Chaos --- XXXXXXX (7)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Neutral - XXXXXX (6)
Evil ---- (-3)

Race:
Human ---- XXX (3)
Half-Elf - XXXX (4)
Elf ------ XXX (3)
Halfling - (-1)
Dwarf ---- (0)
Half-Orc - (-1)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXX (8)

Class:
Fighter - XX (2)
Ranger -- XXXXXXX (7)
Paladin - (0)
Cleric -- XX (2)
Mage ---- (-1)
Druid --- (0)
Thief --- (-4)
Bard ---- XXXXXXX (7)
Monk ---- XXXX (4)

Brilliant comment heard from Boortz on the radio today. Paraphrased due to the fact that I was working when I heard it.

For everyone who says we need to work out a compromise to end the fighting in Lebanon: Hezbollah's stated objective is the destruction of Israel and death for all Jews. Israel's objective is to not be destroyed. How can anyone possibly come up with a compromise between these goals? Do we allow Hezbollah to only kill half of the Jews? Or do we just chop an arm and a leg off of each Israeli citizen?

Just got back from a weekend with my bride-to-be in Orlando.

Saturday morning: Drove down, and stopped on the way to buy dinner show tickets, and to shop at a discount book sale. Ahhh, books! Yes, I'm a rabid bibliophile. Got there late in the afternoon, and checked into the hotel, which I'd found at Hotwire for quite a bargain. Turns out the reason it was a bargain was that the hotel was in the midst of renovations. Didn't mind the pool being closed, we wouldn't have used it anyway. We did mind the damp carpets on our floor from the construction people hitting a pool supply line. Good news, they moved us up a floor without a fuss. Overall, the staff did everything they could to rise above the circumstances. Had dinner in, took a walk, basically rested the rest of the evening.

Sunday: After a late and leisurely breakfast, headed out to the Lakeridge Winery. Didn't know Florida was in the wine business, did you? Neither did I. Turns out they've got quite a flourishing company, making wines from muscadine grapes and hybrids. After a free tour and wine tasting, we bought a case of various wines (Cuvee Blanc, Cuvee Noir, and Southern Red) and some bottles of muscadine juice, and headed back to the hotel.
That evening, we went out to the Arabian Nights dinner show. The magician was great, the food was delicious, and the horses and riders were amazing! A tip: There's this place that advertises themselves as the Orlando Vacation Bureau, with a trailer-sized office about 5 hours north of Orlando on I-75 which sells tickets for this show and most other theme-ish events at a discount. They'll want to sign you up for a 90-minute sales pitch, but you can still get a discount without the pitch.

Monday: Weather turned foul, spent most of the day resting. Bride got a call from a theatrical improv outfit she's worked with lately asking desperately if she can show up for a gig on Tuesday at 8am. The tough part, she's still got an audition to do at 6:30pm Monday evening, kinda the excuse for the whole trip. After discussing it, we decide it's well worth an overnight drive, especially since we can spend the rest of the day resting. So, at about midnight, we got up, checked out of the hotel, and started driving. I dropped her off at her gig early, made it the rest of the way home, got the wine inside, and crashed in bed.

And now I'm home again.

Now, the candidates to replace Mark Taylor as Lt. Governor:

Casey Cagle , Republican
Flashy web site, other than that, not too much that impresses me.
Ralph Reed , Republican
Ex-chairman of the Christian Coalition, Washington insider, and so on. Controversy follows him around like his shadow.
Greg K. Hecht , Democrat
His basic message seems to be, "I'm qualified, and I can win". He does seem to be big on fighting oil prices by persecuting the oil providers, and that includes anti-price-gouging laws, which are just dumb economics.
Griffin Lotson , Democrat
His web site tells me that he's good at getting his picture taken with other people, and not much else.
Jim Martin , Democrat
His big priority seems to be increasing state spending on medicine. I've said before and I'll say again, what the medical industry needs is to become a more customer-oriented business, with the doctor's customer being the patient, not Medicaid or Medicare or an insurance provider.
Steen "Newslady" Miles , Democrat
Her web site gives the usual list of what she wants to address and why she thinks it's important, but not a glimmer of how. I have yet to find the nitty-gritty.
Rufus O. Terrill , Democrat
Finally, he doesn't seem like a nutcase, and he has actual ideas on his web site. Not all of them are agreeable, but just the fact that he has them is something. I like his ideas on school choice. I don't like his ideas on health care, but then, I don't like anyone's ideas on health care so far.

Not as many entertaining nutcases as the Governor's race.

Update: Apparently Cagle is considered somewhat of an underdog against Ralph Reed, and I do like voting for underdogs. And then there's eglamkowski's analysis of their debate....

Just some notes on who's running for what in the Georgia primaries next Tuesday, to help my own decision-making. If any other Georgia dotters out there have any insight, please, speak up.

So, what I've got here is first impressions from their web sites, and what I know about each of them.

Ray McBerry , Republican challenger.
His web site has an animated gif of a golden cross in the upper left, and an animated gif of the "stars and bars" Georgia flag in the upper right. He wants another vote on the state flag. Personally, I think that issue should've died a long time ago. The Ten Commandments are also a big issue for him, which is another red flag for me. It's not that I personally have any problem with a display of the Ten Commandments, but rather, it seems to me that a lot of those who are so enthusiastically for such displays are showboating.
Sonny Perdue , Republican incumbent
He's the incumbent. He hasn't done anything to make me particularly love him or hate him.
Bill Bolton , Democrat challenger
Check out what he has to say about the "God- Nation" (with a link to StopGodDeceivers.org. He also wants to reshape marriage law to define four different types of legal marriage, including shotgun marriage. Is it just me, or is this guy kinda tough to take seriously?
Cathy Cox , Democrat challenger
Incumbent secretary of state. Rumor has it that someone in her campaign messed with Mark Taylor's wikipedia entry. And as the local fishwrap points out, she claims to be an "outsider", but she's not.
Mac McCarley, Democrat challenger
An invisible candidate. Can't find anything else about him. Except that he's apparently a veteran who's very concerned about making sure we spend enough money on veterans. Not that I have any problem with that, but I need to know more. Much more.
Mark Taylor , Democrat challenger
Incumbent lieutenant governor. He boasts a lot of tax-cutting, which is good. He's also proposed a lot of spending, which is not so good. Also on the down-side for me, looks like he blocked the Defense of Scouting bill, which would've prevented state agencies from discriminating against the Boy Scouts. I'm an Eagle Scout. I'd have to hear a very good defense for him blocking this bill.

Looks like the real battle here is between Cox and Taylor on the Democrat ballot, with the winner taking on Sonny in November. I've got no great excitement for any of the front-runners, and the "dark horses" are either nut cases or invisible.

Oh, and an online quiz pegged me as a Sonny Perdue voter. But the quiz-makers don't know any more about Mac McCarley than I do.

Hmmm. Guess I'll have to look at the Lieutenant Governor's race.

Saw it yesterday afternoon.

I think Scott Kurtz sums it up best.

So, the city manager was arrested for DUI and possession of an open container of alcohol in a vehicle. His open container was a glass of wine, and the vehicle was a golf cart.

Let's assume, for the moment, that DUI and open container laws exist for the sake of protecting citizens from the harm that a drunk driver can do. Let's also assume that it's the innocent bystanders we want to protect. I don't much care for laws that exist only to protect us from our own stupidity, there's something a bit Big Brotherish about that in my book, and I'm all in favor of people learning from their own mistakes, just in case you haven't seen my sig.

So: Should DUI laws apply to golf carts? Or, at least, should you be subject to the same consequences for being tipsy behind a golf cart wheel as behind a gas-guzzler? Granted, they are a very common form of transportation in this town. But really, it's not like a golf cart can compare to a half-ton of metal racing at 90-mph.

Any thoughts?

So, just the other morning, I was listening to this discussion of creation vs. evolution on the radio, and the question that came up over and over of the exact age of this ball of dirt we're living on.

Some people insist that the world is billions of years old. Others are adamant that it's only a few hundred thousand.

Here's my thought:

Einstein and Hawking have told us a few things about relativity, specifically, the idea that time really isn't the fixed constant that we think it is. And the theory goes that time is especially relative in certain hard-to-recreate circumstances. If the beginning of the universe isn't a hard-to-recreate circumstance, I don't know what is. I would be surprised if there weren't a lot of relativity going on back then.

From the theological perspective: Time is an aspect of this physical world in which we exist. God, Heaven, and the Host all exist beyond this world, in an Eternal state. Our senses just aren't all that prepared to grok what true timelessness really is. God's given us some clues, but we're very much accustomed to living by the clock and the calendar.

Add into the mix the fact that I've quite possibly overdosed on high-quality sci-fi in my lifetime.

So: Am I totally off my rocker to suggest that maybe a true seven-day creation and a billions-of-years creation may not be all that contradictory?

And I'll end with a joke from rec.humor.funny:
Mortal: What is a million years like to you?
God: Like one second.
Mortal: What is a million dollars like to you?
God: Like one penny.
Mortal: Can I have a penny?
God: Just a second...

Can't make this stuff up....
This caught my eye from the latest News of the Weird:

"The May 10 tornado that hit Highland County, Ohio, touched down in the town of Hillsboro, along Wizard of Oz Drive."

Who'd a-thunk?

...that under the immigration bill that the House just rejected from the Senate, that illegal immigrants would have been allowed to pay just 3 out of 5 years of back taxes. And it's up to the illegal immigrant to pick and choose which 3 years. Consider, also, that these are 3 years of work that's not in any corporate records, not in any tax records, and if they happen to "fudge" a bit (gee, fudging on taxes, here in America?), the burden of proof is on the IRS.

Again, another bill that deserves to go down in flames. Don't get me wrong, I hate our system of taxation. But if any American citizen through a simple error of math misses paying so much as a dime in one year, even if they've never broken a single non-tax law in their life, that person's gonna lose their firstborn before the IRS is gonna let them go.

Anyway, it's my observation that one of the reasons illegal labor is such a problem is that our tax code punishes you if you don't break the law. With the myriad of taxes and government-mandated expenses on legal labor, some jobs are just not worth the minimum expense to employ someone for an hour.

If only there were a better way.....

The issue of the day: Gay marriage.

On the one side, we've got those who want a Constitutional amendment on the matter. The Federal Marriage Amendment. I'm personally quite glad it failed. Marriage has almost always been and should remain a matter of state law. I've got a long list of state and local issues that should never have entered the federal arena, and I don't care to make it any longer. The fact that it was even brought up in Congress was nothing but political showboating and pandering, and a waste of time and paper that could have been put to much better use. For example, doing something about our hideous tax code. But I digress.

On the other hand, we've got the mess that the Episcopal Church has gotten itself into. In this, gay marriage is just a symptom of a larger issue: A Christian church that is rejecting the defining principle of Christianity (Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Word made Flesh, who suffered and died to save humanity from the eternal penalty for our sinful rejection of God). A Church that derives its authority from scripture while rejecting the authority of that same scripture. We've got a new Presiding Bishop who, just yesterday, called on "mother Jesus".

In the traditional Christian view as I understand it, matrimony is a matter of deep spiritual importance. Matrimony, like priesthood, is a calling from God, as a foretaste of a true relationship with our Creator in Eternity. In its highest, truest form, two people become as one, without losing their individual natures. (I've known a few couples who have a union to this degree. I've known plenty of couples who haven't.) We humans didn't create marriage, any more than we created ourselves and our gender-based natures. It's more than a matter of social contract, more than a matter of convenience. It's way more than anything Hollywood makes of it.

Finally, I've received an answer to The Letter!

This from Georgia's governor Sonny Perdue:

Dear Mr. Dolan:
          Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me about the role of government in our lives. The freedom of which you speak is a precious gift, and it is the duty of those in public office to protect the freedoms of all citizens.

          It is important that your elected officials know of your concerns, and I am always pleased to receive comments from Georgia's citizens. Many of the items you mentioned in your letter are more appropriately addressed at the federal level. I encourage you to get in touch with your Members of Congress so that they can keep your views in mind. For your convenience, I am including a list of the names and contact information for all members of the Georgia Congressional delegation.

          I appreciate the opportunity to learn what is on your mind and hope this information will assist you as you pursue this matter further with the federal government.

Yours truly,
Sonny Perdue

Way ahead of you, Mr. Perdue. Guess I need to write him a letter on some specific issues I wish the state government would just butt out of. Things like funding charities. Heck, I could even be radical and suggest that marriage should be a purely religious institution without state involvement.

Sheesh, these politicians, have to walk them through everything....

1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

3. Africans drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

4. Italians drink large amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

5. Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Words are fascinating, aren't they?

Take Fascism, for example. Most folks associate this word with Hitler and Nazis, and these days, it's all too often used as an emotional attack against the President by hyperventalating leftists who wouldn't know real Fascism if it bit 'em.

If these nutcases had checked the dictionary, they would see that Fascism is formally defined as a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. In economic terms, a fascist system is generally defined as one in which the state owns the means of production but hands them over to citizens and citizen-run corporations for day-to-day running.

So, where does the etymology come in? Well, I discovered a short while ago where the word comes from. It comes from the Latin fascis, plural fasces. And what's a fascis? It's a bundle of sticks, usually tied with a red strap, often wrapped around or attached to an axe. Back in Roman times, officials carried them around as a symbol of authority and penal power.

The ancient Roman symbol is still used in a lot of places today. Take a look at the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Hard to see it in this picture, but there are two gold fasces on that wall behind the Speaker's chair, one on each side of the flag. This commemorative five-dollar coin has a pair. There's one on the back of this WWI victory medal, and the LAPD badge boasts a border design based on the bundle and straps.

Just some interesting stuff to know.