A month?

Seriously, has it really been a month since I last posted? I guess it has. I have fallen in love with my new job, again. Unfortunately it means being away from the family for a while. After talking to my wife it looks like it may be a long while. She is not confident that the funding for the contracts I work on will continue, and she would hate to move our family here only to find out in a matter of months that both of us would be unemployed. I tend to look at things in a more positive light... that is that God moved us here, he will allow us to stay here.

I have to be honest though. She does have a point. Turns out that a lot of the contracts I work on are funded through earmarks. Public enemy number one for the newly elected Conservative Congress. The Conservative philosophy really appeals to me, and I have to define myself as a Conservative. It is really funny/ ironic that my lively hood depends on government spending. I see no conflict though as defense is a legitimately defined and enumerated power in the Constitution, whereas the Department of Education is not. Perhaps that is why I never was too enthused about being a teacher. Working in the Defense industry for government contractors I don't feel that I am being contradictory.

Unfortunately pursuing the career I love has taken me away from the people I love. In order to support the people I love I have to be away from them. It really is a tough catch 22. I could go back to Colorado Springs and hope that something falls out of the sky the way that On Target Enterprises did when I was at WalMart. That is the thing though. I do not have WalMart to keep my family fed, and I can not work there again for at least two more years. That means that I may not see my family again for two more years.

Thank you all for your prayers during this time. Please keep them coming.

Prayers,

Pisio

ARRGH!

Yep... thats it.
Prayers Pisio

Started the New Job

It is almost as if I never left the site. I have landed a job working for basically an old employer working on the same projects I worked on the first time I worked here. It feels like home. I need my family here with me soon, and I think that it will be again.

Prayers,

Pisio

Job Update

For those of you who have been following, my unemployment claim was denied. I am assuming that they will try to claim I was insubordinate or something like that. They are really good at that. The funny thing is one of the last things I was told was that I was told was that if I did not like it I could find another job. All I did was what they asked; I started to look for another job. It is going to be fun to appeal the denial of claim. If nothing else, I am just planting the seed for someone down the road who may not be fortunate enough to find another job within a month.

That is correct. I have found another job. I will be working on Maui again. Initially, my beautiful family will not be able to come with me. However, down the road I am hoping that they will be able to. The reason that they can not come is that the company I am working for is not able to guarantee me work beyond six months. I have a history on Maui and am a known commodity there so the site will be able to use me. That means the money should continue to come into them for my services.

I will be keeping up this blog in my free time at home as well as another one. Look for a link and a brief snippet of what that one is about soon. Please pray for me during this move. It is going to be a rough year or so.

Prayers,

Pisio

Update: I have let it go... :)

Imagine this

You are driving down the road in the middle of a blizzard. The wind is blowing and the snow is blinding. You can not see see three feet in front of the car. Your kids are in the back seat strapped into their car seats when your tire blows out. You pull your car to the side of the road and have a decision to make. Turn off the car so that your cell phone can operate or leave your kids in the car with the engine running and the heater going, but you have to get out into the weather and wander far enough form your car so that your cell phone will work. Why these two options? Because the government has decided installing a cell phone jammer in your car is the only way to keep idiots from driving themselves off bridges, or into buildings.

Apparently now it is the business of the United States Government to intrude into your life to the point where they could disable your private property in your private property. Seriously. Lets think this through a bit though. If they put this device anywhere visible or known, the operator can just disable it. It can not be in a place where the operator can be tempted to disable it, because it will only be a matter of time before they do. It can also not have an on and off switch, as the operator will simply turn it off. This means it has to be directly connected to the batter, or the cars electrical system in some fashion; as soon as your car is on, the device necessarily has to come on.

What then do you do in the case of an emergency like the one above? How do you safely call a tow truck while keeping your family safe as well. I have been in cars that will not start up in extreme cold when minutes earlier they had been running (for those of you from warmer areas, this is why people leave their cars running while they go into a convenience store in the middle of December). The bigger question though should be is this even a valid concern of government?

I have a better solution. Let the idiots on the road be personally responsible for their actions. Stiffen the civil and penal penalties allowed for idiots who harm others while on their cell phones in vehicles. You do not punish the whole for the actions of a few, unless the whole is wrong to begin with. The US government really needs to stay out of our cars, our homes and our pants.

Umm... and I thought

Never mind. I really am suffering from a major case of writers block. I am worried about my family and other things. I had two successful interviews with a company that would take me back to Maui and my family would hopefully follow this summer if work stabilizes. I have not heard a peep from them since the second interview concluded on Thursday.

I guess there are no rules for professional behavior about getting back to a candidate for a position. I know that as a candidate I should send a Thank You, and I did. What about the company though? I have applied for a bunch of positions over the last month and aside from the auto reply e-mail saying they had received my resume... NOTHING. Not even a reply that my skill set is not what they are looking for.

I guess this is just normal practice in a time of economic hardship though. I am sure the companies are receiving several applications a day for the same position. They must just be overwhelmed. I know in the past, I have been fired for less. Maybe these companies should evaluate the people they have screening resumes...

Prayers.

Pisio

Congressional Pay

Last night I was watching the Glenn Beck program and he was talking about ways for the government to save money. One of the ways he talked about was limiting the pay of those in Congress to the average pay of what those in the military are making. While I like the premise, I think that it is flawed. I do not think that he has thought this through enough, although I have not read his book Broke yet so I do not know.

Personally I think a better method would be to tie Congressional pay to the median income of the district or state that they represent. Federal "servants" like the President and those in the military could never make more than the median income for the United States as a whole. Right now, that would mean a salary of around $50K a year for enlisted military (a huge pay increase) and the President (a huge pay decrease) (Officers should be paid on a scale that starts them at 10% above the median income and goes from there). Senators would be paid no more than the median income for the state that they represent, and House Reps would be paid no more than the median income of the district that they represent.

I think that this would serve several goods. First and foremost, Congress critters would no longer work to get people dependent on government programs. Welfare and state aid in general decrease median wages for areas therefore by encouraging state aid, Senators and Representatives are deflating their own wages. It would be in the best interests of all involved to set policy that keeps people employed and increases the chances that they would set policy to keep higher paying jobs in their areas. Providing these opportunities for those that they serve is in their best interest, and it would necessarily decrease the need for entitlement programs. The more you can do for yourself, the less you need government.

This also takes the keys to pay raises for themselves away from Congress. The only way they get a pay raise is if the economic situation of the areas they serve improves. Imagine how fast we would see common sense policy in place if they pay of those setting policy actually depended on the policy that they set. I have a feeling the budget would be balanced every year, and policies that forced companies overseas would be eliminated, or at least left to the discretion of the states.

I don't know, I just think that this makes more sense than the current way things are done and the way that Glenn Beck was proposing. My guess is though, this current bunch of leeches would just se the federal minimum wage at $200 per hour and say we tried. That would then force all business out of the area and the median income would be $0 though... Guess what they would be paid... :)

Prayers,

Pisio