Re: [OT] Places for a programmer to live?

Here's my opinions of the places I've lived in my life, sometimes as a
programmer, other times as just a dude trying to scrape by.

Guam -- Japan's Hawaii.  Stay away if you hate giant flying cockroaches
they try to call "palmeto bugs".  Go if you want to swim with giant
sun fish just off the Marianas Trench and eat fantastic food.  I
learned about 20 ways to eat a damn coconut there.

Maryland -- Uh, it's Maryland.  Yeah.  Anyway.

Seoul, Korea -- Kick ass place with super cool people.  It's fun to
stand on the subway platform and realize that you can spot all the
other westerners because you're the tall ones.  People kept calling me
"supaman".  Hilarious.  Inchon is great.  Itaewon was a blast.  I
wonder if Just Blues is still around?  Best damn blues guitarist
I'd ever seen.  Dude played Jimi with his eyes closed.

Tempe, AZ -- Small little town with a kind of hidden tech industry.
Lots of semiconductor plants, and ASU is a pretty nice university.
People there drive like idiots and nobody likes pedestrians.  They even
have commercials with the slogan, "Share The Road" telling the bikers
and walkers to get out of the car's way.  Summers there are hotter than
Satan's Asshole after eating a gallon of Goan curry.

Bellingham, WA -- Great little town where a smart guy like me (and
maybe you) could go die a quiet little death.  Bob Log III has played
there.  What more do you need?  WWU is a nice little university.  Great,
fun people.  Watch out for the chlorine plant down the
road.  Someday everyone's need to wipe their ass with white toilet
paper will kill all of Bellingham.

Austin, TX -- If you love live music then you *must* move to Austin.
The people there are super nice, very funky, and really pretty.  Any
bar on 6th or 4th street will have tons of music in every style.  I'd
say the average band playing in Austin is probably good enough to be
signed.  My favorites (if they still play) were Mingo Fishtrap and
Cadillac Voodoo Choir.  Traffic there is *horrible*.  There were
billboards at one time calling all the roads parking lots.  It's so
true.

Vancouver, BC -- Gorgeous rivers, oceans, forrests, beaches, and great
food found everywhere.  Too bad all the crackheads, meth addicts,
heroin abusers, and obnoxious whiny psuedo-liberals screw it up for
everyone else. The police there are more corrupt than a FAT32
filesystem after a Sasser Worm attack. Check out the "Pickton pig farm"
serial murder case for an example of Police effectiveness.  I have to
say that I've lived all over the US and been in some really bad shady
places, and I never felt so threatened and unsafe as I did in
Vancouver.  But hey, if you have tons of money you can just go
Snowboarding at Whistler and ignore it all like all the other rich
people living there.

Tacoma, WA -- Used to have the worst gang violence in the US.  Now
they've cleaned it up, fired the corrupt police, dumped money into
renovating and saving all the historic hotels, and created a tram that
goes like 4 blocks.   It's a start, and Tacoma I think is really poised
to take off.  That place will be great as soon as they clear the
prostitutes and crack dealers out of the blocks around the library.
You can buy some fantastic houses there for next to nothing.  If you do
work in any of the prison oriented businesses then you can have lots of
work there.  Tacoma has more prisons than Santa has hated children on
his list.  This is because Tacoma/Pierce County is Seattle/King County's
ashtray.

Portland, OR -- Ok, I didn't really live in Portland but I visited and
damn I wish I had moved there.  People in Portland were so damn nice it
was bizarre.  I thought I was a sucker in some weird reality show.  I
was walking down the street and a homeless guy asked me for some
money.  I said, "Sorry."  With a shit eating grin he said, "You have a
really nice day man." Another guy heard me playing harmonica and
offered me free food.  And who can't love a city that has both the
Santa Rampage *and* Chuck Palahniuk.  Anarchy rules!

New York, NY -- And finally, we come to NYC.  So far I like NYC, but
mostly for the work that's here.  The people are simultaneously great
and the biggest assholes on the planet.  People have no problem telling
you exactly what they think, which is great since usually they say it
to the other idiot who's standing on the stairs blocking the world
while he talks on his damn cellphone to make a booty call.  It's
incredibly safe and clean for a city with it's population.  I'd say NYC
is cleaner and safer than all the cities I mention above, except maybe
Portland.  And of course nothing beats walking down the street and
seeing 10 movie stars, 3 hot models, and having them all ignore you.
What an honor.  My only warning is that if you aren't really confident
in yourself then people will pick you apart with their fashonista
attitude.

Enjoy!



On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 07:09:56 +0900
Devin Mullins <[e-mail]> wrote:

> While we seem to be rife with OT threads, I thought I'd throw in an
> OT question that's been percolating in my mind for quite a while.
> 
> Where do you recommend to live? Feel free to provide just a city
> name, or to go into detail. When I say "for a programmer," I'm mainly 
> referring to the existence of programming jobs, but other aspects,
> such as the existence of ?UGs, proximity to nerdy attractions, etc.
> could play a part. Also feel free to just tell me some places to look
> for ideas, and then tell me to Get to Googlin'. :)