ihollywoodchina.com

My husband and I were talking. Now, I don’t think we’re going to do this immediately (we’d have to save the money and have jobs in the location first) but we are getting sick to death of all the water in New Orleans. If it isn’t the hurricanes, its massive rainstorms (the one from a few days ago caused part of our roof to cave in). We’re trying to think of where we want to settle down for a while and, though we both love New Orleans, the weather is starting to make it unlivable.

So here’s a few things we were thinking…

The west is out because we don’t want to deal with earthquakes, and frankly the cost of living and issues on most of the American west coast make it something we aren’t willing to consider.

The midwest is out mostly because our careers pretty much don’t exist there. We both work in hotels. While my current position can probably be filled anywhere, HIS can’t be and we’d take a major hit if we were to try. Due to our careers (I really don’t want to be stuck at front desk clerk/reservations agent status my whole life. I want to move up and not have to deal with the public anymore. He’s at Revenue Manager level and those jobs aren’t easy to get), we need whats called a Destination area.

That means a place with alot of tourism.

Personally, I really dislike New York (particularly the massive amounts of snow) and would rather not deal with the state at all so thats out.

Basically that leaves the south. The question is where in the south.

Mississippi and Alabama are out because they are still swampland just like Louisiana and we are sick to death of dealing with the chance of flooding due to hurricanes. If we’re going to have to deal with hurricanes (and lets face it, if you live in the south, you have to deal with hurricanes), we’d rather be on more stable ground.

Which means that, that I can think of, its Florida, Georgia, the Carolina’s and the Virginia’s.

Thing is, I need some opinions on this. I’m not an American but my husband is. That means that, while I’m vaguely aware of the benefits and negatives of each state, I don’t have any in depth knowledge. I’d ask hubby but we’re both at work right now, and we were having the conversation on the drive to work. When next I talk to him about it, I’d like to have more information under my belt as it were. I’ve done some research on the net but its no substitute for experience.

So now I’m asking all of you. What do you think?
Oh I’d like to add that I know Tennessee is an option. All his family are there. The thing is that it doesn’t have much besides Nashville and I’d pull my hair out having to listen to that much country music. Its all right, but hearing it every single day would be bad.

Well I lived in Richmond, Virginia many many years and loved it! Me and my husband would love to have the opportunity to move back. Yes there are hurricanes but I doubt they are to the extent of the Gulf Coast. Charlottesville has tourists coming to see Monticello and their biggest tourist season is the fall due to that whole area being Virginia’s wine country harvest season- me and my husband would take weekend trips to Charlottesville all the time and even had our wedding there after we moved to TN. Charlottesville is pretty popular for weddings as well since it is such a beautiful area. There is also UVA there and so you get a lot of people coming in town for football games. Totally different from New Orleans more laid back, quiet, and romantic. There are also ski resorts in the western part of VA- Massanutten is the only one I can think of now as I don’t ski.

North Carolina has the Outer Banks which is a great touristy area but if you want to be a little further from the beach they have a major airports in Raleigh and Charlotte. I prefer Charlotte though.

My best friend lives outside of Atlanta and I really enjoy that area but haven’t really been there enough to tell you much about it. My husband always talks about Savannah, GA being a ton of fun but I’ve never been there.

I don’t know anything about SC besides having a few friends that live there.

As for FL I’m just not a fan though I’m sure you know Orlando is a huge touristy area- I have family there that’s why I stay away lol.

I hope this helps you! Good luck!

I want to mail my GA tax return via fedex but they only show a PO box number on the forms.

Street address for courier delivery:

Georgia Department of Revenue
Personal Income Tax Section
1800 Century Center Blvd. N.E.
Suite 8300
Atlanta GA 30345-3205

Dear Red States…

We’ve decided we’re leaving. We intend to
form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue
States with us.
In case you aren’t aware, that includes
Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan,
Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will
be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people
of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and
all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best
beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get
Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.We get 85 percent of
America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get
Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to
make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent
lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of
happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be
pro-choice and anti-war, and we’re going to want all
our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to
fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they’re
apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose,
and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of
their children’s caskets coming home. We do wish you
success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but
we’re not willing to spend our resources in Bush’s
Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm
control of 80 percent of the country’s fresh water, more
than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of
the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 percent of America’s
quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech
industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living
redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister
schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will
have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and
their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S.
mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent
of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists,
virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh,
Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of
Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite , thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red
states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62
percent believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing
the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution
is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in
9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b ** ***ds believe you are
people with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we’re taking the good pot, too.
You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico .
Peace out, Blue States

i was originally voting for maccain. but Obama has this sense of integrity. And i think he’ll be great. People are saying that "america’s not ready for a black president…" well thats a little racist and he’ll be just a good as all the other historical presidents…..

we all need a lil change in our lives (:

Dear Red States…” A Letter From The Blue!

Dear Red States…
We’ve decided we’re leaving. We intend to form our own country, and
we’re taking the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren’t aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon,Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We
believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially
to the people of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot
Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.
We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You
get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a
bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and
anti-war, and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at
once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they’re apparently willing to send to their deaths for no
purpose, and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their
children’s caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and
hope that the WMDs turn up, but we’re not willing to spend our
resources in Bush’s Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent
of the country’s fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple
and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America’s quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most
of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and
condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale,
Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care
costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the
tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh,
Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred
unless we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say
that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved
in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people
with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we’re taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt
weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,
Blue States

By the way I agree with this Letter. Most republican states need a wake up call.
Go Obama, we love you!!!!!

Awesome letter…Do states come in colors now?

PROFILEA Project Manager desiring to quickly become an asset to your organization. Offering 5 years of outstanding leadership experience to assist the advancement of your company, ensuring project timeliness, adherence to budgets, and that obligations are met. Proficient in MS Project.

EDUCATION2007-Present Keller Graduate School of Management Atlanta, GA
Masters of Business Administration

2005-2007DeVry University Atlanta, GA
Bachelor of Science Degree in Technical Management
Concentration in Project Management

Related Course Work: Contracts and Procurement  Project Risk Management  Advanced
Project Management  Advanced Cost Management  Total Quality Management (TQM)

COREProficient in Microsoft Office Suite  Effective Negotiation Techniques  Expertise in
COMPETENCIES Conflict Resolution  Experienced in Leadership and Motivation  Knowledgeable in Inventory Management  Skilled in Providing Customer Service  Performance Management

RELATED1999–2004United States Marine CorpsSan Diego, CA
MILITARY Project Manager/ Director of Welding Program
EXPERIENCE  Directly responsible for 40 employees and indirectly responsible for 200 employees.
Lead successful projects with assets worth over $100 million dollars.
Utilized project management techniques to achieve project goals in a timely manner.
Increased ready for issue rate from 58% to 99%.
Attended meetings and gave oral presentations to Commanding Officer and Executive Officer of Operations.
Developed budget strategies which saved company overall cost utilizing untapped assets.
Created and maintained contact with outside vendors.
Worked closely with Quality Assurance representatives to ensure accuracy and quality production.
Analyzed blueprints and technical publications and created innovative ways to manufacture products to save man hours.
Developed Excellence in Leadership training courses, providing extensive training
Achieved awards for outstanding work ethic, production, and leadership.
Acquired new business selling design for ch46ce fast-rope frames.
Oversaw project which entailed the transportation of a military logistics squadron.
Developed action plans to reduce the impact of potential risks and hazards associated with a military combat zone.
Conducted quarterly and annual audits.
Acted as liaison between outside vendors, customers, and logistics squadron.

ADDITIONAL2007-2008Old mutual Atlanta, GA
EXPERIENCEInsurance Agent
Extensive experience with CRM applications.
Maintained an 80 percent close ratio in a slowing economy.
Provided exceptional customer service by forming partnerships with business development, marketing, and other company divisions in order to determine most attractive offers for customers.
Managed 40+ accounts simultaneously.
Trained new agents on selling techniques and procedure in accordance with Georgia Department of Insurance.

2006-2007 United Rentals Acworth, GA
Diesel Mechanic
Produced sales from incoming customers to improve company revenue.
Responsible for $12 million dollars worth of fleet rental equipment.
Repair and maintain vehicles and equipment with mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic systems.
Awarded “Employee of the Month” 3 times.

2005–2006Northrop GrummanSunnyvale, CA
Navy Submarine Assembly Propulsion Unit Mechanic
Maintained and inventoried parts essential to the assembly of propulsion unit.
Followed blueprints and process specifications provided by engineers to assemble critical
pieces of hardware. Fabricated components measuring to the hundred-thousandth.

Marketing or Logistics.

The question you should be asking is "What do I love doing?" or "What is my dream job?" and work towards having the experience necessary.

I don’t understand why people get pissed off by it-mainly in the local media. The cost of tickets for some schools is more than professional teams’ and when you are at (basketball) Duke, UNC, Kansas, UCLA, Arizona, etc. or USC, Ohio St, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Florida, Bama, Tennessee, Georgia, Miami, FSU (football) you are basically SEMI-PRO to me. You aren’t a pro, but whenever your team is bringing in millions and millions in revenue and your coach is making millions, you are not truly a collegiate team. To me, lower D-1, D-2, Jucos, and NAIA schools are the only real collegiate teams.

Yours is a valid point for many of the programs you mention. At big-name Div. 1-A schools, the football teams are staffed by highly-paid coaches and scholarship athletes and their output pays for a lot of the "non-revenue" sports (e.g. everything except men’s and *maybe* women’s basketball). For the most part, the only time I hear complaints are for people booing players on programs that don’t have the same level of professional resources.

Other than that, for major programs that are pipelines to the pro level, I guess we’re supposed to acknowledge that their players are just ‘in training’ for becoming highly paid professional athletes and hence are on the learning curve. Can’t say as though I agree with that philosophy, but I guess that’s what people think. As long as you’re talking about the high-end, heavily financially endowed athletic programs, few people will complain if you boo a bad performance. It’s the other 90% of teams that deserve a little slack.

I live in Georgia. The Governor is making State Agencies furlough state employees 1 day a month to help balanced the state budget. Do you think this is an easy out quick fix or should he raise a tax to make up the difference? Why should the state employees pay for the budget deficit with their pay and not the rest of the people in the State? I believe he is doing it as a quick fix and not really looking at the budget to cut or raise taxes to bring in more revenue. What will happen next year…2 days off, more layoffs for state employees… we already had our budget cut 8% and our cost of health care went up 5% this year. Some departments didn’t receive a raise either. Should they furlough all employees including the Governor and his office as well as teachers? Where does it end?
But should their be furloughs of State Employees (which includes public school teachers and university professors, government officals and emergancy workers) or should the burden of the "quick fix" go to all the residents of the state. There are approximately 100,000 State employees and 8.1 million residents as of 2000.

Ever ones suffering now so maybe its better to lose a day a month than some lose thier jobs.

I live in Georgia. The Governor is making State Agencies furlough state employees 1 day a month to help balanced the state budget. Do you think this is an easy out quick fix or should he raise a tax to make up the difference? Why should the state employees pay for the budget deficit with their pay and not the rest of the people in the State? I believe he is doing it as a quick fix and not really looking at the budget to cut or raise taxes to bring in more revenue. What will happen next year…2 days off, more layoffs for state employees… we already had our budget cut 8% and our cost of health care went up 5% this year. Some departments didn’t receive a raise either. Should they furlough all employees including the Governor and his office as well as teachers? Where does it end?
But should their be furloughs of State Employees (which includes public school teachers and university professors, government officals and emergancy workers) or should the burden of the "quick fix" go to all the residents of the state. There are approximately 100,000 State employees and 8.1 million residents as of 2000.

Ever ones suffering now so maybe its better to lose a day a month than some lose thier jobs.

I was reading a story recently about the towns in Georgia that had endured the severe water shortages. Now that they have ended, people are using LESS water (i.e., they’re conserving), so the water companies decided to charge more for the water to make up the loss in revenue. Might the same thing happen with oil? After all, oil is controlled by a cartel that controls the prices, and my understanding leads me to believe that, at least for now, no true shortage exists (i.e., supply can meet demand). In other words, most of the high prices right now are due to speculators and the pointless war in Iraq and not because of simple supply and demand factors. Thgughts?

Yes and no. The oil companies have all kinds of tactics they use they artificially drive prices up and bring them down. But ultimately, the remaining supplies will be in areas that cost more to extract, so prices will go up just on that basis alone, assuming the companies can get permission to extract the oil in those areas. Witness the ongoing battle to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We revisit this every 10 years or so, because one day they know the battlefield will shift and they might get this through!

But now, there’s a lot of research underway for alternative energy sources. Even the oil companies are diversifying and hedging their bets. Which means that they still want to be able to keep the money rolling in even after the oil is gone. But a lot of other companies have stepped into the field, so I expect competition may help keep prices down in the not-so-distant future.

There are a lot of uncertainties here, such as terrorism, and politics, and the ability of some countries to truly conserve. On a personal level, I have to buy premium gas for my car, and I will make sure that is not the case for my next car, which I’m fairly sure will also be a hybrid.

Cool question.

Here’s the case for the blue states. You can definitely count me in!:

In case you aren’t aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.
We get 85 percent of America ’s venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian
Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of
single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war,
and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If
you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they’re
apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they
don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their children’s caskets coming
home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we’re not willing to spend our resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country’s fresh water, more than 90 % of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 % of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 %of America’s quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with
88 % of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 % of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 % of the hurricanes, 99 % of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 % of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite , thank you.

Additionally, 38 % of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 % believe life is sacred unless
we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 %say that
evolution is only a theory, 53 %that Saddam was involved in 9/11,
and 61 % of you believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we’re taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico .

Peace out,
Blue States

BTW, Grump56, I’ve made it all the way to age 62 without EVER having used pot at ANY time in my life, in spite of living in the midst of a thriving university community in he 1960’s! The last statement is simply for those who CHOOSE to partake. It’s none of my business if they do–nor yours.

Us and them huh….that’s sad, I am a Liberal and live in a Red State, I like it just fine…it gives me more of a chance to get involved and try and change it.