My Divorce, Work, and Iraq

Happy lighthearted post! Yay! [sarcasm]. OK, maybe I'm just trying to grab your attention... did it work?

My Divorce - So, I got divorced a few days ago... Facebook divorced that is. Sarah's Facebook account got randomly erased from existance. She tried to go through technical support to have it recovered, but you can guess how responsive they were. So to make a long story short, she just created a new account. The catch is, when she tried to list me as her husband, it said that I was already in a relationship with someone (her Facebook ghost... creepy!). Anyhow, I had to end our relationship on Facebook so I could re-marry her new account. Where does one go for an online honeymoon? Do I have to pay alimony?

My Facebook divorce:

My Work - So, I have to apologize, this news is a little slow in making it to our blog. A couple of weeks ago a friend in Sarah's womens group heard I was looking for an IT job. She said I should get her my resume and she'd give it to her boss. I got it to her, and after a few interviews I have a job! I am still working with InterVarsity for a few more months but I have a contract to start full time as soon as I'm done with InterVarsity. Woohoo! It's so nice to have something lined up this early. I am actually working one day a week there to try and get up to speed so I can hit the ground running when I start full time. The company is called CoNetrix and my title will be "Network Engineer". We basically are the outsourced IT department for several area businesses (a lot of banks). My position will mainly consist of installing and maintaining servers and networks. My first two weeks have been great. Some of the most attractive things about this company are the company values and the way people treat each other. While it's not a Christian company most of the people there are and they do business like they are. There is just an overall value of working hard and doing what's right (by the customer and to our employees). Even though there is a steep learning curve ahead of me, I am way excited to start full time.

Iraq - I just got done reading a special issue of NEWSWEEK called "Voices of the Fallen". It is basically just letters from Iraq of soldiers who have since lost their lives to it. VERY powerful. It made me even more grateful for my country and our freedom. There is an article on the last page of the issue that contained two quotes that struck a chord in me as I read and re-read the words of fallen soldiers:

"Amid the strategy, the cost, the risk, the politics, do policy makers remember that when they start a war it is as if they dragged heavy hands across the map of the world and altered the details of daily life? Every name on the sloping black wall of the Vietnam Memorial tells a story. It is a collection of might-have-beens, a book with half the pages gone. "

"The rationale for going to war has to meet many tests, but one of them -- perhaps the most important one -- is whether the mission is strong enough to carry the weight of so many ghosts and so much misery, here and in Iraq, too."

I encourage you to pick up a copy of this if at all possible. I read it cover to cover tonight. It really gave me a new perspective on the war (any war for that matter). I am not anti-war, but it makes me think, and thinking is good.

-Paul