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leidend posted:Thanks for all the Palm Springs help. Yeah, the snakes are in their own little plexiglass area that's indoors, you can just avoid them entirely if you want. I will recommend that if you're going to go to the zoo then try and get there as early as possible. These are desert animals so they're generally active in the morning when it's cooler and as it gets hotter they get dormant and seek shelter. You'll have a much better chance of seeing some active animals if you get there when the gates open.
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Apr 21, 2014 03:52
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quote:Endeavor is free if it's not a day where you have to reserve a ticket, otherwise the ticket is "free" with a 2 dollar service fee.
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Apr 23, 2014 14:42
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FCKGW posted:Yeah, the snakes are in their own little plexiglass area that's indoors, you can just avoid them entirely if you want. That museum/zoo is a real treat. And yes, the snakes are in their seperate building that you can utterly avoid even entering. There is no other zoo around that has live mountain lions and bobcats along with giraffes and camels.
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Apr 23, 2014 18:16
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So some guy just approached me at my table asking me to sign a petition to split California into six states. They're really going forward with that braindead plan, aren't they?
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Apr 25, 2014 17:29
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:So some guy just approached me at my table asking me to sign a petition to split California into six states. They're really going forward with that braindead plan, aren't they? "Going forward with" in the sense that they're trying to get signatures, yes. I'd be amazed if they got enough to get it on a ballot, and if they did, it would fail spectacularly.
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Apr 25, 2014 17:36
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Leperflesh posted:"Going forward with" in the sense that they're trying to get signatures, yes. I'd be amazed if they got enough to get it on a ballot, and if they did, it would fail spectacularly. I just hope they don't dupe enough college kids to get it on the ballot in the first place, anyway. After I told him to sod off he went at a girl near me pretty aggressively.
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Apr 25, 2014 17:44
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Apr 25, 2014 17:46
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My favorite part of the plan is how it would create the poorest and richest states in the union along with adding 8 Republican senators and 2 Democratic ones.
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Apr 25, 2014 18:14
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Trabisnikof posted:My favorite part of the plan is how it would create the poorest and richest states in the union along with adding 8 Republican senators and 2 Democratic ones. My favorite part of the plan is how it's supposed to just happen in like four years.
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Apr 25, 2014 18:36
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Just to jog my memory, this proposition originated from Tom "Criticizing the 1% is JUST LIKE KRISTALLNACHT" Perkins, right?
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Apr 25, 2014 18:39
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Just to jog my memory, this proposition originated from Tom "Criticizing the 1% is JUST LIKE KRISTALLNACHT" Perkins, right? Nope, this is from Tim Draper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_C._Draper who knows what its like to work hard and have your grandpappy run the US Import-Export Bank. Edit: Enjoy a choice quote: The strongest argument for six Californias is that we are not well represented. The people down south are very concerned with things like immigration law, and the people way up north are frustrated by taxation without representation. And the people in coastal California are frustrated because of water rights. And the people in Silicon Valley are frustrated because the government doesnt keep up with technology. And in Los Angeles, their issues revolve around copyright law. Trabisnikof fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Apr 25, 2014 |
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Apr 25, 2014 18:45
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Sorry for the double post but I'm too lazy to rehost. I can't believe I'm on the same side as Ted....
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Apr 25, 2014 18:46
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Ha, I love that "Chico" made the cut. big image here 
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Apr 25, 2014 19:43
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Trabisnikof posted:Sorry for the double post but I'm too lazy to rehost. I can't believe I'm on the same side as Ted.... Is this meant to imply that this would be a bad thing? Smaller, more local governments means that the governments are better suited and more accountable to their populations. I only oppose to the six-state plan because the transition would be super-difficult and incredibly beneficial to Republicans, but in principle I think it's a solid idea.
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May 5, 2014 23:23
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aurorasparrow posted:Is this meant to imply that this would be a bad thing? Smaller, more local governments means that the governments are better suited and more accountable to their populations. Its not like there aren't local governments already. Its a false equivalency. Local governments in California can already do a whole host of things for their community. By breaking California into smaller states you would actually reduce pollution standards, education standards, and a whole host of other areas across the nation. Because the old adage "where California leads and America follows" is sometimes very true. California's size forces companies to sell cars across the country that meet higher pollution standards and textbooks that are quite more scientific than what would be published if Texas was the only large voice. California's size of course has economy of scale advantages at a government level too, meaning when Caltrans buys asphalt they can buy in a bigger bulk and save some money. What would breaking up California do to help any local community besides the theoretical "be more responsive"?
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May 5, 2014 23:40
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I think the assumption is that all of the large states (by population) would be broken up. Right now, low-population states have disproportionate representation at the federal level, because they all get two senators, and a minimum of one member of the House. Presumably, a pair of Senators that only represented a segment of California (or any other state) with the same population as Wyoming would better represent those specific voter's priorities. One problem with such an approach - leaving aside the lack of political will to make it happen - would be a massive increase in the size of the Senate, to a point where it would likely become (even more) dysfunctional. One way to fix that would be to re-map the entire country into 50 new states with roughly equal populations. But given how thoroughly gerrymandering has been used throughout the country for congressional districts, any political process to draw new state lines would likely just further entrench party strangleholds on the new states. This is leaving aside all the practical problems with splitting up a state which are always either ignored, or given completely stupid and unworkable one-liner solutions by proponents of splitting up states. Things like apportioning the original state's public debt between the new states, the chaos of regulatory uncertainty for every business or potential business in the state during transition, ensuring the new states honor contracts entered into by the original state, dealing with prisoners now housed in prisons outside the state in which they were convicted, public transportation networks that cross state lines, it goes on and on. It's inevitable that any actual event of splitting a modern US state would be a horrendous clusterfuck for at least a couple of decades, to the detriment of everyone living in that state.
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May 5, 2014 23:50
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Screw population propotionality, I want 50 states of watersheds!
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May 6, 2014 00:28
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I found out awhile ago that this thread's original purpose got a new thread. I'm tempted to head in there and see whether it's more correct to have fried potatoes or beans in a breakfast burrito... but they already banned burrito chat. (  breakfast burritos are an abomination, like "california" burritos, and there is no correct way... but they are all delicious)
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May 6, 2014 07:22
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kittenkicker posted:I found out awhile ago that this thread's original purpose got a new thread. I'm tempted to head in there and see whether it's more correct to have fried potatoes or beans in a breakfast burrito... but they already banned burrito chat. Eggs and chorizo on a tortilla? If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.
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May 6, 2014 07:26
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Breakfast burritos loving own. Eggs, pico, guacamole, cheese.
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May 6, 2014 07:28
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Breakfast Tacos > Breakfast Burritos in all ways.
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May 6, 2014 08:54
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Hey. What's a good place to live in San Diego that isn't Hillcrest or North Park? I used to live in Hillcrest/University Heights for a few years before I moved to Atlanta...and there's a chance that I may be moving back to San Diego. Maybe it's a good time to try somewhere else? Downtown or East Village? OB/PB don't really appeal to me.
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May 9, 2014 15:42
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This is gonna be me on Thursday, just swap Phoenix for Palm Springs People here complain when it gets to 24 degrees C, and that's the forecasted low for the middle of the night.
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May 13, 2014 01:49
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Las Vegas defined.
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May 13, 2014 02:42
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Chinatown posted:Las Vegas defined. Las Vegas is like 5C colder than Palm Springs right now. I don't know what that is in your silly medieval units, like 23? Edit: AC won't turn off in my hotel, so I just opened the window because it's still 100 at night. At least it looks like this 
UnfortunateSexFart fucked around with this message at 06:49 on May 16, 2014 |
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May 13, 2014 04:40
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Who's ready for a primary election!? Vote both Yes and No for everything, including all the state offices.
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Jun 3, 2014 02:46
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Voting straight down party lines so I can say "No, I didn't phone bank, but I did vote."
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Jun 3, 2014 02:52
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Most importantly, make sure you vote for Leland Yee for Secretary of State.
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Jun 3, 2014 02:56
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Papercut posted:Most importantly, make sure you vote for Leland Yee for Secretary of State. That's a man who gets things done, just check the wiretap!
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Jun 3, 2014 03:07
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If you're a big fan of voting No on stuff, the California Green Party (lol) put out some decent arguments for that position on Props 41 and 42. I think spending money on homeless vets trumps the party's aversion to bond measures, but whatever.
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Jun 3, 2014 03:46
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If you vote for any new tax in CA you are a loving moron. Good day sirs.
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Jun 3, 2014 03:47
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Chinatown posted:If you vote for any new tax in CA you are a loving moron. The D&D thread is in D&D, caio!
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Jun 3, 2014 04:01
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KirbyKhan posted:Wars are done and I'm getting out of the military. I'll be moving to LA this august. Friends of mine are looking for an apartment in/near KTown and I'll be bankrolling them with my hoodrich GI Bill welfare money. I am doing something similar, getting out of the military early next year, using my GI Welfare for a few years to go back to school and I'm looking at living in either Central Florida (Tampa/Orlando), Metro Texas (San Antonio/Houston/Austin), or Los Angeles. I really don't want to live in Texas, and I'm a little on the fence about Florida. In fact, every part of me except the rational fiscally responsible part, wants to live in the greater LA area, but little things like Cost of Living, Gas and House prices, not to mention utilities costs, taxes, and other potentially hidden costs that I'm not thinking of are really poking me in the eye. Having spent most of my life in/around the military I'm not familiar enough with those sort of things to know what to expect when settling down in one spot. (And having been so institutionalized by Uncle Sam always taking care of everything for me, it's not a little frightening). So I want to live in Southern California. Tell me what I should know, tell me things aren't that bad/expensive/crime-ridden, or tell me they're worse than I think. What do I really need to think of or know before I decide to make the leap?
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Jul 8, 2014 15:35
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Koreatown is getting a little more expensive as condos go up and people realize you can just walk to Larchmont, a popular yuppie brunch area. The landlords are typical scummy and do things like pretend to not be the landlord when they visit, present themselves as just some maintenance guy and tell you that they'll put their requests through to the landlord. Scold you for every thing that wears out or breaks in the apartment as if you were a child. As far as the right mix of cheap/access to fun, it's still pretty good. I assume the better neighborhoods like Santa Monica, Silver Lake are out of your price range. You can live in the Valley and sweat it out and have your commute be garbage. You could live in Long Beach, but the train systems are frustratingly disconnected and they run limited hours. You could live in North Orange County which is sketchy but relatively cheap and you can still find some safe spots like Tustin, or you can live in South Orange County which is expensive and sterile. If you want to live in the San Diego area, Oceanside in the north is right next to the marine base. It's far more... angry than your average beachside so-cal town. Once you get south of there, Carlsbad is half old rich people, half young people who want to party and Encinitas is rich hippie area. Vista is inland hot with a large hispanic population. If you want to be in the actual San Diego area, Pacific Beach is where 20-somethings go to live, party, and hook up. People usually burn out of that area in a year or two and move closer to Hillcrest or whichever neighborhood in that area caters to their individual personality. No matter where you live, you will need/want a car and at the same time, curse the traffic around you. Overall, it'll ultimately depend on where you get into school: UCSD, SDSU, UCLA, USC, CSU-LA, UC-Irvine, etc... Once you figure that out and post a budget, I'd be glad to help.
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Jul 8, 2014 17:42
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Blinkman987 posted:Koreatown is getting a little more expensive as condos go up and people realize you can just walk to Larchmont, a popular yuppie brunch area. The landlords are typical scummy and do things like pretend to not be the landlord when they visit, present themselves as just some maintenance guy and tell you that they'll put their requests through to the landlord. Scold you for every thing that wears out or breaks in the apartment as if you were a child. As far as the right mix of cheap/access to fun, it's still pretty good. I assume the better neighborhoods like Santa Monica, Silver Lake are out of your price range. You can live in the Valley and sweat it out and have your commute be garbage. You could live in Long Beach, but the train systems are frustratingly disconnected and they run limited hours. You could live in North Orange County which is sketchy but relatively cheap and you can still find some safe spots like Tustin, or you can live in South Orange County which is expensive and sterile. This is truth. You want to live close to where you will work and study. You will have a commute (and a car), but you should try to minimize it as much as possible. I'd like to say something about Riverside or San Bernardino but I can't add anything more than Riverside has cheap housing (and people commute to OC from Corona all the time, and the traffic is horrible) and San Bernardino (the city) is still bankrupt and (supposedly) crime is rising. Orange County is pretty safe except for Santa Ana. I second the sentiment that South OC is sterile, but Irvine is the prime example. They recently closed down one of the best indie coffee houses (with open mic nights and everything) because of noise complaints. At least it has plenty of Asian food. celeron 300a fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 18:24
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kittenkicker posted:Orange County is pretty safe except for Santa Ana. I second the sentiment that South OC is sterile, but Irvine is the prime example. They recently closed down one of the best indie coffee houses (with open mic nights and everything) because of noise complaints. At least it has plenty of Asian food. Santa Ana actually has a low violent crime rate (though it is the highest in Orange County, which has really low violent crime rates all around). Compared to most other US cities of it's size it's pretty safe, but I'm guessing it got its bad reputation among suburban Orange County weenies because it has way more poor Mexicans than they're comfortable with.
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Jul 8, 2014 18:56
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Ya you will know pretty quick if you are in a neighborhood with exceptionally high crime rates in Southern California. Unfortunately the stereotype of massive wealth segregation is pretty accurate. You'll pretty much always be at risk of having someone hit your car and then drive away and if you're unlucky getting it broken into. But violent crime is incredibly rare; especially compared to the breathless reports on the national news.
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Jul 8, 2014 19:06
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Blinkman987 posted:Overall, it'll ultimately depend on where you get into school: UCSD, SDSU, UCLA, USC, CSU-LA, UC-Irvine, etc... Once you figure that out and post a budget, I'd be glad to help. I'm not sure yet about the school, but I already have a Bachelors from a decent school (Penn State  ) and I'm not setting my sights on post-grad work.Try not to laugh too hard, but what I am looking at is Orange Coast College  . I don't know how good they are or aren't academically (nor do I really care), but they have an Aviation Pilot Training Program (An AS degree in "Aeronautical Science" or something) which includes getting the FAA certs as part of the degree. I'm looking at OCC instead of a Vocational Flight Training program because of conditions of the GI Bill. For whatever reason, the GI Bill will only pay 10K flat-rate per year for Vocational flight training, but if it's part of a program at a "degree producing school", they'll pay 20K per year for tuition and fees, plus the Living stipend. Don't ask me why the difference, personally I'd rather go to a Pilot Mill and get all of the certs and hours to be a commercial pilot/flight instructor within 6-7 months, but I want my benefits to pay for as much of it as possible, and come out on the other side with some money still in my pocket, so a school like OCC is the best way. Because they offer it as part of their AS degree, the GI Bill will cover most of the costs. I've only found a few schools which offer Pilot training as part of the curriculum instead of through some kind of agreement with a local flight school (which usually ends up with your paying all of the flight school costs out of pocket while also paying tuition at the school). So anyway, that school is in the Costa Mesa/John Wayne Airport area, I guess northern Orange County? To give you an idea of my budget, I should have about 50K cash set aside, though that's not for living expenses, it's to split that between the first two semesters' tuition and fees, and a downpayment on a house. Figuring about 30-40K for the downpayment/closing costs/etc. My monthly Income is dependent on a few factors and outstanding answers I'm waiting on, but I'm guessing between 2 and 3K per month while in school, plus maybe income from a part-time supplemental job or something. That 2-3K will only last about 2, 2.5 years, after which I will have to get a real job again. Living with close/walking access to LA culture sounds great, though I do foresee myself spending large chunks of my free time Skydiving at Lake Elsinore or Perris Valley, so it's not essential. Having said that I'm not looking for sterile gated communities or angry red voter neighborhoods like Oceanside. If I wanted that, I'd go to Florida. I'm not overly concerned about crime, especially violent crime. I am insured, but given that stereotype of wealth segregation, I also don't want to invite retributive damage or theft of my car, or my house, or turn my neighbors against me when my car is parked in front of it. (The car is a recent Audi convertible). TL;DR, I'm looking at Orange County College in Costa Mesa, I have about 30K to put down on a house (and VA home loan benefits to boot), and a minimum monthly income between 2000 and 3000/month while in school. My Q-Face fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 20:47
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Honestly just stick around Costa Mesa, it's reasonably cheap and safe. Or if you want to be able to walk to some fun places go with Long Beach which actually is much more fun then its reputation lets on. Assuming you stay below 7th street.
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Jul 8, 2014 20:51
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I don't think you should buy a house. If you're planning on a new career within the next three years, it's almost always a bad idea to buy (due to the large transaction costs you will probably wind up behind rather than ahead, compared to renting, if you need to relocate after you're done with school). You may also have trouble qualifying for a loan given your change of employment and the income you suggested you'd be getting, even though you probably can get a VA loan instead of the normal ones. You may not be aware of just how expensive houses in orange county are, as well: open up Redfin or Zillow and poke around to see. It looks like houses in Costa Mesa start at around $450k, with most being in the 600k+ range. Neighboring Irvine isn't much cheaper - I found a condo for $375k but the houses were all well above $400k. Check out the house buying thread for more information. Generally the cost of living near the coast is very high, but it's supported by high salaries. If your income isn't adjusted based on the local cost of living, then you're basically going to be living like a student: that is, renting something while you're in school, and then moving somewhere a lot less expensive OR getting a job that makes a lot more money.
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Jul 8, 2014 22:03
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