This as a positive caught my eye. We are extremely weird about jacking off over our team colors here. Especially where I live in east central Kansas (but really most of the country).
Flags everywhere, flipping out over the anthem and who is doing what during, numerous other examples. A sense of unearned superiority from most that I find a bit odd. Fuck yeah I’m proud to be from here! This is the place my parents fucked and created me man!*
*In b4 “why do you hate the troops?!” posts.
Pleasanton! you got it~
great town, expensive as hell, but… no homeless problem
I just don’t understand how such a nice guy can hate the troops so much.
I don’t hate the troops just one former troop…
Just playing of course!
I have to say, the most pro-American soldier place I ever trained was Australia – or at least for the Aussie women.
Going out in Aus was the closest to a sure thing I ever had (literally a different chick every night of the week, and then repeats) while in uniform.
Never paid for my own drink; generally paid for by women.
They were very keen on American men in uniform.
Or maybe they just like men, in general. Don’t know.
Did a training exercise with the 5th RAR in Darwin circa 2010, and I’d agree that Aussie women really like American men in uniform. The Australian military is also the shit. They actually make decent money, too. Besides being batshit crazy, which most of us were anyway, great guys as well. Kinda wish we’d visited other places in Aus, since we went from Japanese winter to Aussie wet season and were just slammed by the intense fucking heat, but I’ll make my way back there some day.
Lol, of course.
I live about 30 miles NW of downtown Houston. I like it because I basically never have to drive more than 15 minutes to do or buy anything unless I want to or I’m going to the airport. For someone that used to commute an hour each way, every day through the Fort Pitt tunnel in Pittsburgh, that means a lot. I realize my situation is different than most in this town though; traffic is a motherfucker here.
The city itself definitely has some things going for it:
world class restaurants
entertainment never skips you (just about every music tour rolls through at some point, and UFC 247 will be at the Toyota Center)
fantastic job market
no state income tax
housing is affordable (but property taxes can be a sumbitch in some places)
two airline hubs (you can fly just about anywhere nonstop)
bjj culture: gyms are all over the place; I have a choice of 4 that are within 15 min of my house; they also have tournaments at least 2-3x/month, and IBJJF rolls through twice a year
The downsides are the traffic if you want to go anywhere near downtown, the fact that the place tends to get flooded with alarming regularity (I moved here a week before Harvey made landfall), and the whole metro area is UGLY AS SIN. It’s all concrete; housing plans with privacy fences, shopping centers, office buildings, roads and highways. If Cleveland didn’t exist, it would be the ugliest city I’ve ever seen. The area I live in is nice enough once you get off the main road though.
Wilmington, North Carolina.
Honestly any of the pros are quickly leaving with the rise of heroin on an epidemic scale, as well as it being a highly sought after spot for northerners to retire in due to the lower cost of living, and a beach.
We have a restaurant pretty much ever 1/4 mile for 20 miles, or even closer.
There isnt any slight indication of a grid/block system. Even in the city. Google mapping parts of Wilmington looks like a death metal logo for roads.
The downtown scene is pretty hot, if that’s your thing. Lots of people, lots of booze, lots of drugs.
The northside is pretty nice, and leads right into open country.
The south side gets a bit sketchy.
It’s an okay place, and job security for trades/suppliers is pretty damn good, due to all of the new construction happening constantly.
I cant wholly recommend it though due to the racism here, lots of heroin, like… 15% of my graduating class is dead, and the traffic is a damn nightmare.
What made you leave California for Seattle, out of interest?
Skiing. Mostly skiing haha. But its the combination of super easy access to world class mountain sports combined with a booming international major metropolitan city that makes it the best place in the states, for me. Not to mention easy access to incredible water sports. Summers which are short, july-sept are 75-80 and sunny everyday. In my 40 person office we will have 1-2 boats out on the lake (in the above picture) wake surfing before work, at lunch, and then after work.
I was living in San Francisco after college and during winters was driving 8hrs roundtrip to Tahoe every weekend to ski and trading booze or bud for couchspace. It wore on me. When I got my engineering license I started looking around at other areas to live and Seattle was head and shoulders above Denver, Reno, salt lake, santa Fe, pdx, etc.
It’s not that I didn’t like CA, it’s that I think Western Washington is the tits!
If you want to know about anything specific I’m happy to answer very honestly. Eg, the cold drizzle does really suck in in April and May after 7 months of it. But 5 of those months are rain in the lowlands and nuking snow at the ski resorts 50-90 mins away, so I’m stoked. Plus I’m a ginger so it lessens my chance of skin cancer ;). I also try and take a tropical vacation in spring- flights to Hawaii are cheap (we are on the coast after all) and you can do 3 day weekends there without burning even half a day on travel due to the time zone change.
I’ve never been but it sounds like an amazing place from what you’ve told me and from what I’ve seen and read elsewhere. One day I will for sure. The closest I have been would be CA / UT, so nowhere near unfortunately! That’s a stunning vista from your office.
Looking at moving to Texas, specifically checking out El Paso right now being it’s cheap and checks quite a few boxes. My company has locations all around the US, also checking out TN, KY, IN, OH, FL. Only cold state I’m considering is Iowa.
With regards to where I live (Southern California):
-weather, perfect year round
-always stuff to do
-tons of jobs
-quality higher ed (tons of 2 year and 4 year colleges) at reasonable cost
-Very scenic
Cons:
-Expensive houses
-COL is insane (make $75k and right at edge of poverty)
If I could live anywhere, it’d be a beach town here in Cali. Simply too expensive tho.
I’d reconsider on El Paso. It’s only a few miles across the Rio Grande to Juarez which is becoming pure narco state.
If your seriously planning it, take a look at Las Cruces NM near the university. The commute would be 45 miles but it’s flat and easy on I-10. Much better quality of life than El Paso.
Texas and FL have no state income tax, which is a huge plus.
Where in Iowa? I went to college in Ames and can tell you that if you want stuff to do all the time the only truly viable city is Des Moines (suprisingly large arts/entertainment culture). Other than that, I loved Iowa. The people are friendly and the food is excellent (especially the pork).
Where in Tenn? I lived in eastern Tenn for a couple of years and loved it. Most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Appalachians, Smoky Mtn National Park, rednecks, NASCAR, moonshine, BBQ, and Girls Raised In the South (GRITS) 
My company has postings currently in Jackson, Johnson City, and Memphis. I’ve not thoroughly researched the first 2, however I’ve read some worrying things about Memphis. I’m kinda leaning to find a biggish city since my son has a disorder and I’m likelier to find the medical help I need there. Two cities that I’ve read good things about are Chattanooga and Nashville, though I hear home prices and traffic in Nashville creeping up.
The particular city I’m interested in I right outside Des Moines- Urbandale. I have an acquaintance from Clive and he’s said Urbandale is pretty nice, pricier than some areas though. Even though the homes are more expensive overall and property taxes are higher, AND there’s an income tax, I’m giving Iowa real consideration due to their schools reputation, and Des Moines specifically spending higher than average on a per pupil basis. Imperfect metrics, but they do form a picture. There’s probably a ton of stuff I still need to consider.
Currently, Long Island. I’m not from here so I guess I miss the attraction. This place is massively fucked up - apologies to those that are born and raised, like my wife. Been here since 2004 and the place is just full of assholes. I live in Nassau and don’t get out east much, so I guess I am missing much of the charm.
Lived in Orlando for about six years, just hot AF all the time. I was a golf pro there so I was out on the lesson tee for eight hours a day and didn’t appreciate it that much. I liked Melbourne, and other coastal cities, but Odo wasn’t that great. Bunch of retirees and meth heads working in service. Better than LI though.
Before Odo, I lived in Sacramento, California, and loved it. Got a little cold in the winter, and the Tule fog could be challenging at times, but it was cool. Affordable, nice weather, close to nature, a good place to live.
Before Sac I lived in Bethesda, MD. Blue crabs good. Traffic bad.
Before that I was in Portland, Oregon. I grew up there and this was my second tour. Portland rocks. Yeah, it rains all the time, and there are a bunch of liberal fucktards running the place, but it’s a great city.
In between stints in Portland, I lived in Silicon Valley - Palo Alto and Santa Clara to be exact. Best weather on the planet. Insanely expensive, but a phenomenal place to live. My family has a place in Santa Cruz, just over the hill, and I plan to retire there.
And then there is Corvallis, Oregon, where men are men, women are men, and the sheep are nervous. I spent six of the best years of vacation there while attending Oregon State University. It’s a great town and I love living there. Again, the rain thing, but hey, you get used to it. If you get there, be sure to play golf at the Corvallis Club!
