A few housekeeping notes before we get into the blog

• Heather’s grandmother had a stroke. It…..wasn’t looking good in the first few days…but things have gotten a little better. Sentences, recognition, can walk with a walker. She is going into a stroke rehab facility. She just got out of the hospital yesterday, so she is doing even better now….More news as it develops, but its certainly a serious thing.
• Today is Heather’s last day at her current job. Feb 1st, starts at the new firm, and we are so stoked.
• Inspections went well. Everything is all set for the close on Feb. 14th. It cant come soon enough. I’m ready to be in my own place again.
• Everyone is holding strong in trying times, but its a bit rough now. Family helps. Its definitely good to have plenty of family around.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming

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I went to the Georgia DMV today. To get a drivers license in Georgia, you need the following:

1. A Birth Certificate or Passport
2. A Social Security Card or a W-2
3. 2 documents proving your place of residence (bank statement, utility bill, etc).

This is frustrating, and I think it is worth mentioning that you are required to have a Georgia Drivers License or ID (which requires the same documentation) to register to vote.

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This leads me to a discussion about the body politic in my new home state.

When I told some of my former colleagues in Silicon Valley that I was leaving, I got a very odd question:

“Are you going to be ok in Trumpland? Aren’t you going to be surrounded by religious zealots?”

Id like to break this down in a few pieces. First, oh yeah, plenty of religious people….

The first time I ever came out here, I was evacuating for Hurricane Ivan with two of my Tulane cohort. I was trying to navigate to Heather’s parents house (the house I am in right now). I was lost (this is pre-smart phones, pre-google maps), so I asked her to navigate me to her house. One of her instructions included “now, turn right at the church.”

At that exact moment, I was at an intersection with a church around the corner. I said, “you are going to have to be more specific.”

Second, the religion spread doesn’t necessarily mean that its some sort of cult or Stepford Wives type situation. Lets look at the metric that alot of the internet considers. How did Georgia vote in the last presidential election:

Plenty of blue yo. Map courtesy of NYT. 

Immortan Trump won by 5 percentage points. Thats closer than alot of other southern states. In fact, he lost Cobb County (by 2%).

My point being, I think its a horrible idea to throw a Red state in one broad generalization. No one likes being put into a general hole.

I think humanity likes to think of everyone in broad generalizations.

To continue using the modern scale of judgement, I grew up in a county that went 78% to the god-emperor. But, i think people forget, there is  still a fair 12% of people who exist in there. That could include a future me. Or hell, I was definitely a republican when I was turning 18 (cause I actually had religion back then. REAL Greg had religion. FAKE Greg definitely doesn’t believe in a god).

Point is: I hate this idea of Red America and Blue America. Or the Archipelago. Have you seen that thing.

This is stupid, and I hate it. By this maps recognizing, anyone who voted Democrat in a county that didn’t end up going for Captain Cheetos is in a fucking inner tube floating in the ocean. 

Those are the people I feel for. Cause that was me. I can’t find it at the moment, but I was the only voter in my district in Lafourche parish to vote for Mary Landrieu during one of her terms (can’t recall which now). I was plenty weird, and I felt like an outsider (see also all entries in the previous blog).

But, I digress. I think we are better off remembering that we are all trying to continue the American experiment. And yeah, Trump is doing some completely awful reprehensible shit. But we have mechanisms for that. Plenty of people are already suing. We have already had one of the greatest demonstrations of our time. Keep that shit up.

Just remember three things:

1. Remember, there are plenty of people who are adrift in that Red State ocean because that’s home, that’s where they were born, that’s where they want to be, or they don’t have anywhere else to go.
2. Not every Trump voter is a demon. Believe it. Some of them are plenty weird (and not in a bad way, look at REAL Greg).
3. Don’t do stupid shit like this. Anyone who things seceding is a good fucking plan clearly has no appreciation for history  and is most definitely not prepared at all for what the consequences are.

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I’ll leave you all with this thought. These were the words Jimmy Carter wrote as a message to anyone who intercepted Voyager 1.

Don’t screw up the second to last sentence.