Shades of permanence?

elSicomoro · 07-13-2002, 08:18 PM

Over the past year, there have been a few scenarios in which the Sycamores leave their palatial estate in Torresdale for other pastures. We've considered moving to another part of town, and out of Philadelphia...twice.

Yet, here it is, the middle of July, and Rho and I have just inked up for another year at our abode. The Sycamores are staying put in the City of Brotherly Love...until at least September of next year.

To be honest, it's a bit weird for me. In the past 8 years, I have lived in 7 different places (2 of those being dorms at college). Overall, I have lived in 14 different places in 27 years. The longest--10 years at my parent's first house in St. Louis. So, around mid-summer, I always get that urge to start packing up and head for a new destination.

From '98-'00, I did just that. Last summer, we looked for a place closer to my job at the time, but decided to stay where we're at. After nixing the idea of moving to Baltimore earlier in the spring, we came to a simple decision: "If the rent doesn't go up too much, we're staying here (at our current place) at least one more year." Our rent is only going up $30 a month, so we're staying put. And although it's tempting for me to look around at other places, I actually feel some contentment in staying put. First off, we don't have to come up with $1500-2000 to try and move. Secondly, we have everything we need within a short walk, bus ride, or 10-minute drive. In addition, Rho's job situation now seems stable (she works only 5 minutes from the house), and I hope to have mine stable by Labor Day. Lastly, I have no argument with the rent we pay, because of all the amenities we have and the area in which we live.

Someday, I WOULD like to buy a house. Obviously, not until there is job security on both ends and Rho's health is in a more stable state. But to be honest, I'm scared of owning a house. All the damned hoops you have to jump through with financing...what a mess.

What scares me the most is this: I am not mechanically inclined. Don't ask me to try and repair anything. I suck. I'm afraid that I'll buy a house, something will go wrong with it, I won't be able to fix it, and won't be able to afford to have someone come and fix it.

Oh...and I forgot the other factor: Where. We like Philadelphia and all, but neither of us sees us settling down here. I don't anticipate us being here more than one or two more years to be honest. I think Rho would like to go back to Baltimore. I'm not completely against that (b/c I could always find a job in Washington), but I dunno...Baltimore reminds me too much of St. Louis. I would love to be in Chicago, but Rho is concerned about the interracial factor, the winters, and the fact that she would be 800 miles from the nearest ocean. (To which I answer: People in our area already don't seem to like interracial couples, the winds aren't too bad if you don't live near the lake, and Lake Michigan looks like an ocean.

)

So, for now, we're going to go with the present and short-term future views: Staying here, finally putting up our pictures and posters, finding me a new job, and living in peace and happiness.

juju · 07-14-2002, 02:11 AM

I have the opposite urge. I have lived in the same small town for nearly my entire life. So, when I was a teen, the thought of moving anywhere away from home was extremely scary. I'm a little more used to the thought now that i've moved away and gotten married, but i'm not sure by how much.

I guess people have a hard time breaking away from their established life patterns.

Anyway, when i get my degree I want to move to somewhere near a big city. I need to find people like me, and be in a place where things that I enjoy actually occur. Currently, Arkansas harbors neither of these things.

elSicomoro · 07-14-2002, 08:48 PM

Where are you originally from juju?

I'm not a fan of Arkansas, but one of the coolest things I've ever seen happened there.

One night, my friends and I got bored, and we decided to drive to Memphis from St. Louis. It was the middle of the night, and we happened to exit off I-55 in Osceola for a piss break. So there we were along the side of the road with no civilization around, and I happened to look up at the sky. And there were all these stars...billions and billions of them. I had never seen a sight like that in my life. Good stuff.

As far as moving, I don't like the b.s. that comes with it (packing your life into boxes, calling CC companies to change your address, etc.), but I like the "challenges" that come with moving. Particularly with moving to a new city. I like learning about the city, driving the streets, figuring out who's who, creating a new home, etc.

And this is where the internet really does simplify things. I was able to check out apartments, set up my utilities, and read the local paper and TV news. All because I could access the information online. If I hadn't been able to locate this information online, I honestly don't know how we could have pulled off such a move. I know that it would have cost us a lot more money and a lot more time.

juju · 07-14-2002, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sycamore
Where are you originally from juju?

I'm from Arkansas. I've been here since I was 2.

Quote:

I'm not a fan of Arkansas, but one of the coolest things I've ever seen happened there.

One night, my friends and I got bored, and we decided to drive to Memphis from St. Louis. It was the middle of the night, and we happened to exit off I-55 in Osceola for a piss break. So there we were along the side of the road with no civilization around, and I happened to look up at the sky. And there were all these stars...billions and billions of them. I had never seen a sight like that in my life. Good stuff.

Yeah, you can see a lot more stars when you're away from the city. Try going up on a mountain sometime. You can see even more stars than that.

As to the internet helping in moving, i'll have to keep that in mind whenever I graduate. It would be really cool to be within driving distance of NYC. Are there many good programming jobs in Philadelphia?

MaggieL · 07-15-2002, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by juju
. Are there many good programming jobs in Philadelphia?

No. I"ve been out of work here near Philly for over a year now.

elSicomoro · 07-16-2002, 05:28 PM

Philadelphia seems to be good if you are in:

--Medicine/Nursing
--Insurance
--Union labor
--Collegiate academics

And that's about it.

russotto · 07-19-2002, 02:21 PM

There aren't many good jobs near Philly. And there aren't many good programming jobs anywhere nowadays. I dare say there probably aren't many good jobs anywhere in the US nowadays. This economy sucks. Oh well, at least I still have a good programming job. Even if it takes 20 minutes for *)(&@)(*# weblogic to come up....

elSicomoro · 07-19-2002, 02:41 PM

I see lots of jobs out there, but they're generally things that are way above my head, and they're over in Mercer and Somerset Counties in NJ...or in Wilmington. I could do Princeton or even New Brunswick, but I'm not going all the way down to Wilmington.

juju · 07-19-2002, 03:05 PM

When I tell people around here what my plans are when I graduate, I tell them that there aren't very many programming jobs because of the poor economy, and they don't believe me! I guess people around here think that because I do something that seems mysterious to them, that i'll be rich.

elSicomoro · 07-19-2002, 03:22 PM

When you tell them that you want to go to the big city, do they shudder, and tell you how there are drug dealers on every street corner?

When I was in Cape Girardeau, I worked in retail with people that already had their college degrees. They said they did retail because they couldn't find a job in their field in the area. When I mentioned that they should maybe look in St. Louis, they would almost freak out, like, "Oh man! I'm not moving up there! It's too dangerous! All those drugs and shootings!" Yep...that's all that happens in a big city.

juju · 07-19-2002, 04:18 PM

Heh. No, they don't say it's too dangerous. They just look at me and confidently say that I won't like it.

How they know this is a complete mystery to me.

juju · 07-19-2002, 04:21 PM

Heh.. I just remembered something. A few weeks ago I was at work and start impersonating a hick just to be funny. This guy next to me says, "Hey, stop making fun of me!" The sad part is that I actually wasn't making fun of him at all, and yet I now realize that his voice was exactly like the one I was impersonating.

elSicomoro · 07-19-2002, 06:10 PM

I'm still trying to perfect my lower Northeast voice. I've got my South Philly voice down pat.

"Ey, what tha fook aw ya tryin to do? Buss my bawls heah?" Think of the Brooklyn accents from Welcome Back Kotter, but not as hard.

pjshimmer · 08-17-2002, 04:11 PM

Moving is a scary thing, that's for sure. I've moved from China to Texas, from there to South Dakota, from there to Indiana, and now I've just moved again for college (as Sycamore is well aware)

My experience with moving has been that it always gets better after you've settled down for a while. I have to honestly say that every place I've moved to has been better than the previous place, at least in most respects.

Why wouldn't anyone believe that there aren't many jobs (nowhere near as many as 5 years ago) in the computer fields? I think it's obvious that the economy is quite bad right now, and the computer field has especially been hit hard. Hopefully by the time I get my undergraduate degree in Computer science, the job field will be good again

What I see nowadays is a lot of CS undergraduates going for graduate school in CS b/c they can't find a perfect job like they thought they would when they started out. Even graduate CS students have trouble finding a really good paying job. Some of those people are going to graduate school simply to kill time.

elSicomoro · 08-17-2002, 06:47 PM

Shit...I keep forgetting that you're 19 now. Where are you going to school, anyways?

07-13-2002, 08:18 PM	#1
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	Shades of permanence? Over the past year, there have been a few scenarios in which the Sycamores leave their palatial estate in Torresdale for other pastures. We've considered moving to another part of town, and out of Philadelphia...twice. Yet, here it is, the middle of July, and Rho and I have just inked up for another year at our abode. The Sycamores are staying put in the City of Brotherly Love...until at least September of next year. To be honest, it's a bit weird for me. In the past 8 years, I have lived in 7 different places (2 of those being dorms at college). Overall, I have lived in 14 different places in 27 years. The longest--10 years at my parent's first house in St. Louis. So, around mid-summer, I always get that urge to start packing up and head for a new destination. From '98-'00, I did just that. Last summer, we looked for a place closer to my job at the time, but decided to stay where we're at. After nixing the idea of moving to Baltimore earlier in the spring, we came to a simple decision: "If the rent doesn't go up too much, we're staying here (at our current place) at least one more year." Our rent is only going up $30 a month, so we're staying put. And although it's tempting for me to look around at other places, I actually feel some contentment in staying put. First off, we don't have to come up with $1500-2000 to try and move. Secondly, we have everything we need within a short walk, bus ride, or 10-minute drive. In addition, Rho's job situation now seems stable (she works only 5 minutes from the house), and I hope to have mine stable by Labor Day. Lastly, I have no argument with the rent we pay, because of all the amenities we have and the area in which we live. Someday, I WOULD like to buy a house. Obviously, not until there is job security on both ends and Rho's health is in a more stable state. But to be honest, I'm scared of owning a house. All the damned hoops you have to jump through with financing...what a mess. What scares me the most is this: I am not mechanically inclined. Don't ask me to try and repair anything. I suck. I'm afraid that I'll buy a house, something will go wrong with it, I won't be able to fix it, and won't be able to afford to have someone come and fix it. Oh...and I forgot the other factor: Where. We like Philadelphia and all, but neither of us sees us settling down here. I don't anticipate us being here more than one or two more years to be honest. I think Rho would like to go back to Baltimore. I'm not completely against that (b/c I could always find a job in Washington), but I dunno...Baltimore reminds me too much of St. Louis. I would love to be in Chicago, but Rho is concerned about the interracial factor, the winters, and the fact that she would be 800 miles from the nearest ocean. (To which I answer: People in our area already don't seem to like interracial couples, the winds aren't too bad if you don't live near the lake, and Lake Michigan looks like an ocean. ) So, for now, we're going to go with the present and short-term future views: Staying here, finally putting up our pictures and posters, finding me a new job, and living in peace and happiness.

07-19-2002, 04:21 PM	#12
juju no one of consequence Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Arkansas Posts: 2,839	Heh.. I just remembered something. A few weeks ago I was at work and start impersonating a hick just to be funny. This guy next to me says, "Hey, stop making fun of me!" The sad part is that I actually wasn't making fun of him at all, and yet I now realize that his voice was exactly like the one I was impersonating. Last edited by juju; 07-19-2002 at 04:23 PM.

07-14-2002, 02:11 AM	#2
juju no one of consequence Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Arkansas Posts: 2,839	I have the opposite urge. I have lived in the same small town for nearly my entire life. So, when I was a teen, the thought of moving anywhere away from home was extremely scary. I'm a little more used to the thought now that i've moved away and gotten married, but i'm not sure by how much. I guess people have a hard time breaking away from their established life patterns. Anyway, when i get my degree I want to move to somewhere near a big city. I need to find people like me, and be in a place where things that I enjoy actually occur. Currently, Arkansas harbors neither of these things.

07-14-2002, 08:48 PM	#3
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	Where are you originally from juju? I'm not a fan of Arkansas, but one of the coolest things I've ever seen happened there. One night, my friends and I got bored, and we decided to drive to Memphis from St. Louis. It was the middle of the night, and we happened to exit off I-55 in Osceola for a piss break. So there we were along the side of the road with no civilization around, and I happened to look up at the sky. And there were all these stars...billions and billions of them. I had never seen a sight like that in my life. Good stuff. As far as moving, I don't like the b.s. that comes with it (packing your life into boxes, calling CC companies to change your address, etc.), but I like the "challenges" that come with moving. Particularly with moving to a new city. I like learning about the city, driving the streets, figuring out who's who, creating a new home, etc. And this is where the internet really does simplify things. I was able to check out apartments, set up my utilities, and read the local paper and TV news. All because I could access the information online. If I hadn't been able to locate this information online, I honestly don't know how we could have pulled off such a move. I know that it would have cost us a lot more money and a lot more time.

07-16-2002, 05:28 PM	#6
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	Philadelphia seems to be good if you are in: --Medicine/Nursing --Insurance --Union labor --Collegiate academics And that's about it.

07-19-2002, 02:21 PM	#7
russotto Professor Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 1,788	There aren't many good jobs near Philly. And there aren't many good programming jobs anywhere nowadays. I dare say there probably aren't many good jobs anywhere in the US nowadays. This economy sucks. Oh well, at least I still have a good programming job. Even if it takes 20 minutes for )(&@)(# weblogic to come up....

07-19-2002, 02:41 PM	#8
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	I see lots of jobs out there, but they're generally things that are way above my head, and they're over in Mercer and Somerset Counties in NJ...or in Wilmington. I could do Princeton or even New Brunswick, but I'm not going all the way down to Wilmington.

07-19-2002, 03:05 PM	#9
juju no one of consequence Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Arkansas Posts: 2,839	When I tell people around here what my plans are when I graduate, I tell them that there aren't very many programming jobs because of the poor economy, and they don't believe me! I guess people around here think that because I do something that seems mysterious to them, that i'll be rich.

07-19-2002, 03:22 PM	#10
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	When you tell them that you want to go to the big city, do they shudder, and tell you how there are drug dealers on every street corner? When I was in Cape Girardeau, I worked in retail with people that already had their college degrees. They said they did retail because they couldn't find a job in their field in the area. When I mentioned that they should maybe look in St. Louis, they would almost freak out, like, "Oh man! I'm not moving up there! It's too dangerous! All those drugs and shootings!" Yep...that's all that happens in a big city.

07-19-2002, 04:18 PM	#11
juju no one of consequence Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Arkansas Posts: 2,839	Heh. No, they don't say it's too dangerous. They just look at me and confidently say that I won't like it. How they know this is a complete mystery to me.

07-19-2002, 06:10 PM	#13
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	I'm still trying to perfect my lower Northeast voice. I've got my South Philly voice down pat. "Ey, what tha fook aw ya tryin to do? Buss my bawls heah?" Think of the Brooklyn accents from Welcome Back Kotter, but not as hard.

08-17-2002, 04:11 PM	#14
pjshimmer Keeper of the Decorum Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 59	Moving is a scary thing, that's for sure. I've moved from China to Texas, from there to South Dakota, from there to Indiana, and now I've just moved again for college (as Sycamore is well aware) My experience with moving has been that it always gets better after you've settled down for a while. I have to honestly say that every place I've moved to has been better than the previous place, at least in most respects. Why wouldn't anyone believe that there aren't many jobs (nowhere near as many as 5 years ago) in the computer fields? I think it's obvious that the economy is quite bad right now, and the computer field has especially been hit hard. Hopefully by the time I get my undergraduate degree in Computer science, the job field will be good again What I see nowadays is a lot of CS undergraduates going for graduate school in CS b/c they can't find a perfect job like they thought they would when they started out. Even graduate CS students have trouble finding a really good paying job. Some of those people are going to graduate school simply to kill time.

08-17-2002, 06:47 PM	#15
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	Shit...I keep forgetting that you're 19 now. Where are you going to school, anyways?

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