Free Republic

Dear FRiends, I have an employment opportunity I am seriously considering. Although right now, it is local, there is a strong possibility that sometime in the future I would be asked, or could choose, to relocate to Florida, specifically the Fort Lauderdale area. I'm currently single, in my late 30s, but I still have hopes of having a family. I've been told by people that work for this company that they have a difficult time getting people with families to locate from the midwest to Florida. The general feeling up here is that Florida isn't exactly a "family friendly" place...

One of the ladies in my office has a grandson who goes to school with this young boy. From her email: "Police issue missing child alert for second grader 11:40 p.m. Police were searching tonight for a West side boy, 7, whose parents say never returned from school. The mother of DaQuan Gage, a second-grader at Watterson-Lake Elementary School, told police her son left their Goodwalt Avenue home with friends Monday morning but never came home. Police issued a missing-child alert at 9 p.m. Police described DaQuan as 4-feet tall and 55 pounds, wearing tan pants, a camouflage jacket, blue...

I'm in the very early stages of evaluating a job opportunity in Fort Lauderdale. I currently live in Ohio. I'll likely be coincidentally visiting next month, and that will be a good opportunity to see the city. What should I look for when I'm there as far as seeng the "real" Ft. Lauderdale? I'm curious what people who live there think of the area - things like the cost of living, commuting, etc. I'm guessing the salary will be around 60k +/- 10k, which in Ohio is a comfortable living. I believe the facility is somewhere in downtown Ft. Lauderdale....

I intend on displaying my flag on Memorial Day. However, I do not yet have a staff and planned on hanging it vertically, so it will be visible from the street, either on the wall at the back of my porch, or from the front of my porch. I know how to hang it properly, but I read that, on Memorial Day, the flag should be flown half-staff until noon. There doesn't seem to be any "half-staff" provisions when hanging the flag without a staff. Should I do anything different before noon with the flag hanging vertically? Or should I...

Please excuse the vanity. I already did a Google search and didn't find what I was looking for. I'm a network admin for a small office. I've noticed that many well-intentioned people continue to forward bogus e-mails, something I would categorize as scam e-mail, rather than spam, as it isn't being sent by a marketer or other manevolent person, but rather by uninformed or unsavvy users. Such things as warnings about non-existant problems, notices for non-missing children, chain letters, etc. We are filtering spam, but this sort of stuff still gets through because its coming from valid senders. Is anyone...

I just received a call from Dennis Kucinich. It was a precorded bit of mindless drooling. Anyhow, what I found interesting, is my caller ID registered Digital NRG. 214.764.1441. 214 isn't one of the area codes for this area, so I gave them a call. Turns out its this place http:\\www.digitalnrg.com. They are headquartered in Texas with an office in China. So, the man who's always droning about jobs, couldn't be bothered to even hire a company from his home state, much less his home district. For all who are interested, here's the text of his call (with my editorial...