Good.

I know, I know. My lack of posting is lame.

Sorry if you've been checking my blog, anxiously awaiting my next update, only to find ... that my last post was 2 months ago.  :(

Part of that is a combination of laziness and not having a lot to write about. Once I stopped travelling, the blog turned into a journal of deciding where to live and look for a job.  The first part of that is (mostly) done -- or at least, the list has been narrowed a lot -- but the second part has barely begun, so I haven't written much about that. Not sure how much I'll write about my actual job search anyway. It'll get pretty dull reading "found one interesting job opportunity today ... sent a resume ... still no word from Potential Employer #14 ... etc." every time you check in.

Maybe I'll post the big stuff, like if I get actual interviews or something out of the ordinary occurs. Like last night, for example, the nice guy at the bodega around the corner offered me a job working at his shop. That was very nice of him, and out of the blue, but not what I'm really interested in, so it's worth a mention on the blog only because someone offered me a job based on my charming personality alone. /self-deprecating chortle/ Not because it's a real opportunity. Well, if I'm still unemployed two years from now it might be lol, but not right now.

Here's a short update, though: I'm renting a one-bedroom apartment in a cool neighborhood in Cleveland. One of the many neighborhoods my mom grew up in, in fact. The rent is reasonable and I can walk to a lot of places. Being Cleveland, some driving is still required, but that's not a big deal. Some people are mistaking me getting this apartment with me having definitively chosen Cleveland as the city in which I will live. It's not as permanent as that. Yes, I like Cleveland and if Cleveland is where I wind up, that should be totally fine with me. But I'm also on a month-to-month lease specifically so I can leave easily if an opportunity elsewhere comes along.

I got the apartment for a few reasons: One, as much as I like my mom and dad, living with them was getting a little old. Two, I knew I was dawdling about starting the next part of my life. I believed (and still do) that once I was out on my own and entirely responsible for myself once again, that I would get my butt in gear. And three, I wanted a space that was all my own so that when guests visit -- especially guests from out-of-town -- I'd have a nice little place to host them. Getting my own place definitely renewed my interest in ... well, in doing pretty much anything at all. I was really stagnating at mom and dad's. I'd stayed with them months longer than I originally planned/expected, so it's not surprising that I'd gotten a little too comfortable for my own good. But being on my own again makes me feel both more like an adult and more engaged with the world around me.

I still need to think about my long-term plan for this blog. I don't often read other peoples' personal blogs, but I've noticed an almost universal trend. Most personal blogs that are more than a few years old had the bulk of their entries at the start, then entries became more sporadic, and finally they tapered off altogether. My blog was easy to write when I was travelling, or planning for travel, or reviewing my 11 cities. Because I had something very focused to write about. Now, life is mundane again. At least on a daily basis. So I understand why so many people taper off in their blog writing. Unless they are writing about something specific that they do all the time (usually a hobby, and usually written as tutorials for other readers), people just run out of stuff to talk about. Or at least, stuff that would be of interest to anyone outside of their closest circle of friends.

But maybe I'm wrong: Does anyone find it interesting to learn the mundane details of other peoples' lives? Are any of you amused to know that I hid from some Jehovah's Witnesses who came to my door the other day? Anyone interested to learn that I'm taking drawing and painting classes as a new hobby? Or that living in a basement apartment means sharing one's space with about 25 spiders, and entails a constant battle of attrition against the dirt that follows me through the front door? See, reading those questions on a friend's blog would amuse and interest me once or twice. Reading them every week wouldn't. It's a large reason I'm not on Facebook; I'm just not that interested in every detail of everyone's life, and I don't presume that anyone at all is interested in the details of mine. Except mom and dad, of course, and I'm not even sure about dad.

Anyway, check this space every once in a while. I will add sporadic updates. Major travel, once I decide on a job/city. Maybe the most unusual events I experience. But in general, assume my life is satisfactory but exceptionally interesting, and don't expect a whole lot from me, at least for the near future.

More on where I might live

Urgh... some behind-the-scenes info:  Between my last post and this post, Google changed the interface to write and publish posts.  As well as other tools for managing my blog.  I won't know for a few blog posts if I like the changes (that you cannot see but I can), but if this post is all wonky for some reason, it might be the new interface.  OK, on to business...

So what am I going to do with the results of that city analysis?  Well, definitely look for jobs in one of the cities I was already really inclined to like:  Cleveland.  You know, when I did all my rankings, I tried to keep any favoritism out of it, by like, say, going easy on Cleveland's shitty crime rate just because it's my home town.  I made sure to give Cleveland a 1.  And I strove to not be too harsh on other cities, like LA, just because I didn't think it was likely I would end up there.  I'll never know if a completely objective reviewer would still have come up with Cleveland as the top city, but as Cleveland was always a top contender, I won't beat myself up for (possibly!) being too nice to it in my review.  And of course, not every measurement of the cities was objective anyway.

Chicago, while coming in at "only" number 4, will continue to be a city I'll do a job search in.  It's always been my favorite place in the U.S. to visit, and since it finished closer to the top than the bottom of my list, I don't see a need to eliminate it from the running.

Portland winding up as number 2 didn't surprise me, but I would like to visit it one more time before I decided whether to spend time and resources looking for a job there or -- even more entangling -- pick up and move there!  I've been dawdling a bit making plans for a return visit, but maybe this weekend I'll grab the calendar and look up flights.

Washington at number 3 also didn't surprise me, but also didn't really raise my enthusiasm for returning.  When I lived there, I knew there were a whole lot of things I liked about the city.  But I never felt like I fit in.  I think what the city review did for my attitude towards DC was remind me that if life took me back there, I could find a lot of things to enjoy in the city, and ways to make it a comfortable place for me.  So will I search for jobs there?  Probably.  Well, yes, actually, as I've already applied for a couple lol.  But I think it would take a really good job to lure me back, at least for the moment.

The one city I'm not sure how to handle is Raleigh.  I really felt at home when I stopped by in November.  And I liked it a lot back in the day when I lived there.  But it finished 9th out of 11 in my review!  Even Asheville, which in many ways has less to offer because it's so small, finished ahead of Raleigh!  I will think more about this, maybe peruse some job opportunities and let the job market decide for me, or see if my contacts there have anything to say in favor of the city (which I know they will lol!).

Since there was not just one city that really jumped out at me as the place to live (either during my travels or during my post-travel review), I do of course have to choose a place to live in the meantime.  I've secured and will soon move into an apartment in Cleveland, where my lease is very flexible and I have only a little furniture and stuff.  So moving in and out will be easy, should I choose to live somewhere else.  I've always been a little cautious, even fearful, of winding up in Cleveland not because I really like it, but because inertia makes me settle down here and then never leave.  I think my current living situation, which is purposely designed to be medium-term at the longest, will prevent inertia from completely controlling my decision.  And knowing that Cleveland earned its spot on my list of cities I'd live in makes me comfortable knowing that, should I stay here, it's more of a choice than a default.

And the winner is...

Well that took me longer than I expected.  I've been working on my spreadsheet analysis of the 11 cities on my list.  And, OK, I haven't been working non-stop.  I actually finished it about 2 weeks ago, then I sat on it to see if my feelings about any of the categories or their ratings changed.  This morning, I tweaked a couple things, and finally feel like the spreadsheet is designed the way I want it to be.  (Thanks to my statistician friend for teaching me how to make a spreadsheet and how to make this one better!)

Forgive me if I'm repeating my last post.  It's been a month since I wrote it /sighs at self/ so I probably already said this.  But anyway...

I started the analysis by compiling a list of every category I researched, then ranking each category as "most important" "moderately important" and "less important."  Things like friends went in the first category, food and commute times went in the second, and sports and child/teacher ratios in the third.  Next, without really remembering the relative importance of each category, I made a separate (and very long) list of my research in each of those categories, then within each category, rated each city from "very good" (5) to "very bad" (1).  Finally, I assigned a weight to each category.  For example, while friends and fresh water are both in my "most important" category, I think friends are more important to my happiness and quality of life, so I have friends more weight than water.

Here are my results, from highest score to lowest.  Some commentary will follow:

1. Cleveland 75.7
2. Portland 72.4
3. Washington, DC 72.3
4. Chicago 68.2
5. Columbus 67.8
6. Denver 67.5
7. Des Moines 67.4
8. Asheville 65.6
9. Raleigh 62.1
10. Philadelphia 58.8
11. Los Angeles 53.6

The three most unexpected results were how high Cleveland and Columbus scored, and how low Raleigh scored.  

While ranking the cities, I tried very hard to combat any pro-Cleveland bias, fearing that because I'm currently in Cleveland and enjoying life, I might be giving it too much credit.  I'll never know if I let some unfair bias seep into my assessment of Cleveland, but I also knew as I was doing the exercise that it didn't matter, because I like Cleveland and I think I'd be happy settling down here, regardless of its results.

Columbus, while only scoring a 5, which is solidly in the middle, did far better than I expected.  While ranking each city, Columbus never stood out for any particularly great qualities.  But Columbus also never stood out for any bad qualities either -- it's just a gently pleasant city, and one I will at least consider in my job search.

Raleigh surprised me with how low in the rankings it finished.  I have a lot of good feelings for the place, but I'll have to think hard about whether those good feelings (which might be error-riddled nostalgia?!?) outweigh the below-average showing in my assessment.  I think if I seriously consider a return to North Carolina, it should be to Asheville instead, which I also enjoyed and which scored higher.

Portland and Washington mostly lived up to my expectations.  As I ranked the cities and Portland scored 5 after 5 in so many "quality of life" categories, I knew it would wind up near the top.  And Washington has a combination of objective factors I'd really like in a city and a few subjective factors, like plenty of loved ones and an easy job market.  I thought Chicago would end up near the top; I'm only surprised that its actual score wasn't closer to DC and Portland.

LA and Philly's rankings were also predictable based on how they rated as I went through each category. LA especially, had 1 after 1 in so many categories.  Where LA shines, it really shines, but it has too many problems and too many things I wouldn't like about living there.  Philly's low score was a combination of overall shabbiness, and getting the lowest score in my most heavily-weighted category (friends and loved ones).

Denver and Des Moines in the middle of the pack seems about right.  I really liked both cities for very different reasons, but both have some weaknesses when compared to some of the other cities so neither was likely to wind up at the top of the list.  I'm amused that their scores were almost identical (67.5 and 67.4) because they sure didn't score the same in most of the categories!

Since that was a lot to write and to read, I'll save more thoughts for a post in a few days.

Now What?

So I am all done with this part of my research and my next step will be taking all that data and organizing it and ranking everything.  I'll rank both the importance of each factor to me (example: Number of friends = high, weather = medium, number of sports teams = low) and how each city ranks within that category.

I expect in the end that the results of my rankings will more or less conform with my feelings on each city.  I think I've already noted (maybe not in the blog, but to people who've asked about it) that I can just feel a few places rising to the top and some dropping to the bottom.  Much of that has/had to do with my feelings about each place when I visited.  But some good impressions have been reinforced by some of my research.

What I'm curious to see if which city, if any, surprises me and winds up ranking really high on all of these objective factors, when my feelings and memories about the city didn't have it ranked quite so high on my list.

I expect this project will take a few days (during which I'll also be spending a lot of my time at the Film Festival) so don't be surprised if I go AKB (away from blog) for a little while.

Asheville Revisited

This is the last recap, praise the lord. These took much longer than I expected! And I've run out of steam, so this one will be pretty short, too.

Asheville is very pretty, being nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I don't feel the need to go on about how pretty the mountains are, they just … are. And that has the added benefit of making the city terrain hilly, so I'll get my exercise when I walk about town.

The architecture in Asheville varies. Downtown still has some old buildings that are attractive, and some big old southern homes. But it's not all beautiful. Asheville's half-a-skycraper is about as boring as you can get. And outside of the old southern homes, there's not a lot of cohesion to the housing. Some are good-looking and modern condos, some are 1950 ranches, some are … you get the picture. The man-made objects in Asheville are not, on the whole, ugly. But I don't remember Asheville for its man-made beauty either.

The people are very nice. Like central North Carolina, people seem courteous and willing to talk for a while with strangers. I'm a little worried about the greater Asheville area being labelled a “evangelical epicenter” – I just kind of think I won't fit in there. But my own observations and Paul and Heather's statements make me think Asheville itself would be a pretty good fit for me, with people being rather liberal and open-minded and accepting of differences.

A non-too-ugly church in Asheville.

I don't have many friends there, but I have at least three, which is more than I would hope for in a fairly small and out-of-the-way city like Asheville. I also spent some time with my friends' friends, and wouldn't mind seeing more of them if I lived there, so I'm confident that between the people being nice and having pals to introduce me to people, I'll find a social circle that fits me well.

Things I think I'd like about Asheville:

• It's real funky. Lots of artist studios, independent restaurants and businesses (i.e., not chains!), community activities like drum circles, theaters, etc.
• As the smallest city on my list, I'd like the pace and the ease of things. Now, because it's in the mountains, Asheville is kind of sprawling (it can't spread out evenly in a circle). But the up side of that is most of the drives are easy, if a little on the long side. Prices are reasonable, waits are short, that sort of thing.
• The physical environment, from the mountains to the weather. Asheville gets all four seasons, with mild winters and not-too-hot summers, plus a mix of sunny and rainy days. And I've never lived in the mountains but think it would be a real treat.

Two not-too-ugly buildings downtown.

Things I think I'd dislike about Asheville:

• Similar to Raleigh, I'm a little nervous about some of the ugly attitudes that can be found in the South. And western North Carolina (outside of a few larger towns) is not exactly a bastion of enlightenment. It's where, for example, people like Eric Rudolph go to hunker down after bombing abortion clinics and the Olympics. (Not to say that crazy people can't be found everywhere, but I don't think it's a coincidence that a religious whack job would feel at home out there.)
• It's not super accessible from other places I might want to be. It's kind of a long drive to Cleveland, but a shorter one to DC. Because it's small, there are fewer flights in and out of town than I'm accustomed to, and my searches usually can't find direct flights to either DC or Cleveland.
• Could I find a job there? Almost definitely not in my niche field of the law. Maybe in another field of law? Would I run into the problem of not being from the area? I don't know if Asheville is provincial when it comes to hiring in “conservative” fields like the law. Maybe I'll call my pal Kenny, see what he thinks. He's originally from Virginia, so he'd have an outsider's perspective.

Des Moines Revisited

The people in Des Moines were quite pleasant. They'd say hello on the sidewalk, and everyone I tried to chat up about the city took the time to talk about their home. The people (surprise!) very Midwestern. Down-to-earth, but not stodgy, not too serious, but not all spacy either. The pace of everything seemed a little slower than, say, Cleveland and definitely slower than Chicago, but the pace didn't drag.

At the blues concert.

I don't doubt that neighbors in Des Moines would be neighborly and that I'd be able to casually meet people. I'm a little worried about whether there are a lot of people in my peer group (which I consider 30s and 40s) who are unmarried and have no children. Not that those are the only people with whom I make friends, but it's easier to plan things when your friends don't have family obligations. Now, my demographics research did not turn up information that Des Moines is notably more family-heavy than most other cities on my list. But a number of the locals I talked to, without being asked, said they thought I'd be a little unusual, being still single and 37.

Having only one friend in Des Moines, and a Warcraft friend at that (i.e., not a “real life” friend) I am a little worried I'll be lonely, at least at first. But I remind myself that I've made friends everywhere else I've lived – even unfriendly Washington – so I won't worry too much about Des Moines. And nothing I've heard from people who know the place leads me to believe it's one of those towns that on the surface is nice to newcomers, but never really lets them into the true social circles of the city.

Des Moines is kind of a plain city. It's not ugly, but nothing about it really stands out as being really attractive either. Some of the neighborhoods are nice, and there is a large sculpture garden downtown. And of course some individual buildings are attractive, as are some homes, but the architecture leans towards the generic rather than the interesting. The town is not dense at all, which means there is green space everywhere, and that helps make it look pleasant. But it's all the same kind of green space: Grass and trees. Des Moines is totally flat, so there's not even change in terrain to distract the eye.

Offspring of The Thinker and that rabbit from Donnie Darko.

Now, one thing I really liked about Des Moines is how quickly one can escape the city and its suburbs and be out in the country. So if I want a change of pace, escaping the city will be really easy. Having said that, the only place to escape to is … flat land with cornfields as far as the eye can see. Different from the city itself, but not particularly beautiful.

You've got to admit though... This is really charming!

Things I think I'd like about Des Moines:

• Des Moines felt really comfortable, and even easier than, say, Cleveland. Everything is an easy 15 minute drive away, nothing is hard to access, parking is plentiful. There is enough infrastructure to support the people (groceries, restaurants, tables at the library) so there's not a lot of standing in lines or waiting for seats. Traffic is light. As someone who can be really bothered by all sorts of common irritants like traffic, waiting, and other people, having and easy life would please me.
• I like Iowa generally. The small towns, the farms. And I actually like open and flat (although admittedly it could get dull after a while). I like that Iowa matters in presidential elections. And I think participating in a caucus would be really interesting.
• This is a town where I think I could easily achieve my (minor) dream of owning a house! The homes are reasonably priced, especially compared to incomes. And there were enough nice neighborhoods of older homes, I know I could find a place I like.

The Art Museum.  A non-rink-a-dink art museum, at that.

Things I think I'd dislike about Des Moines:

• I'm worried I'll get bored. Or maybe not bored, but run out of new experiences to try. Des Moines is pretty small, and less ethnically diverse than most bigger cities, so there might be fewer festivals and restaurants, etc.
• It's a combination of fairly far away from the people I love, and it's not exactly a tourist destination. So I'm looking at doing a lot of travel to see my friends and family.
• People will make fun of me for moving there. Hell, people made fun of me for visiting there! LOL. (I can withstand such teasing; I needed something to list as a thing I wouldn't like about Des Moines, hehe.)