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nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

redscare posted:

Get your union to allow me and anyone else in the state who wants to buy into CalPERS and basically fund my own pension (and help fund everyone else's) and then I'll change my tune. The way I see it, public employees in CA can either help make things better for everyone else or they'll get jobbed out when the hammer falls because as it stands, public workers get an easy ride on the back of taxpayers who could never even dream of getting those benefits in this day and age.

We'd probably all love this because the more people in our pension, the less likely people are to gently caress with it. Plus the bigger bulk of contributions helps. You need to talk to your legislators, not unions. As far as we know, my union has no control over who gets in.

The real question is why don't private employers get this benefit in this day and age. Used to be we all did. My grandfather had a bunch of pensions, virtually all were from private companies that now provide 401ks. Government employees didn't cause that to die. We just held on to what we had. The fact is that the big employers want us to lose our pensions too because once they're killed off once and for all, there's no risk you'll ask "why don't we have what they have?"

nm fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Oct 24, 2013

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nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Lycus posted:

I think it's okay to say it if you're a newsperson on TV or something, but I've never used it in conversation and would never say "I'm for SoCal."

I see "socal" on lifted pickup trucks all the time. That is in the IE though. "The IE" as a name is perfectly acceptable to people from the IE too. They get it tattooed everywhere.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

DrSunshine posted:

Does the SF Bay Area-Sac conurbation really belong in "NorCal"? Usually what I think of as "NorCal" is everything north of the Sonoma/Mendocino county line, while the Bay Area is its own special sort of place. When I think of NorCal I think of pot farms, hick towns and forests. v:shobon:v

Those parts don't think of the bay and often Sacramento as part of norcal. But it is. They can go be the state of jefferson.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Keyser S0ze posted:

The actual Maginot line (the pine tree/palm tree) divide is in Madera, CA on Hwy 99...........so you get Fresno too, enjoy!

The line is at Delano.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Mayor Dave posted:

I've always thought of the dividing line as the Grapevine; once you're over the pass you've left civilization behind.

A: One side gets bakersfield, the other gets fresno. It is only fair.
B: It is the only line that matters because it could keep you from getting killed (in prison, but still).

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Grand Prize Winner posted:

I could imagine a hypothetical state split in which the primary contentious issue is who gets stuck with Fresno.

I suspect both sides would fight over not having Bakersfield.
Fresno gets you Yosemite, which is a fair trade. Bakersfield gets you very little (though apparently they just found shale oil).

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Big K of Justice posted:

I like the bay area so far, lots to see and do, the air is cleaner. I refuse to take part in the insanity of rental housing in SF and wound up renting a house in Novato, my commute is 35 minutes but I got room for vistors, a back yard and a place to work on my car.
Moving to Marin county for cheap real estate. The bay area sure is hosed up real estate wise these days.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

StandardVC10 posted:

Once you get Inland enough it acquires a kind of alien desolate beauty common to deserts, but getting there requires driving through rather a lot of sprawl.

It is actually right now, with little pollution, some snow on the mountains, and some clouds, even San Bernardino city looks pretty nice as long as you don't look down. We get a few weeks of that a year.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."
If you're recruiting in the IE, you always try to do it in the winter for this reason.

My interview was in the summer (June and September), so I knew better (and yet, here I am).

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

All Of The Dicks posted:

I get the impression that some of those angry about water sign dudes bought cheap farmland in the rain shadow of the coastal range, and are basically speculating on a water project that will raise the value of that land. How wrong am I?

Basically, these farmers are not short of water at all. They sell much of their water to cities in SoCal already. They want a greater percentage of the water so they can sell more to SoCal at a higher rate.
Oh and the land more than a few feet from the highway are very productive and get quite a bit of water. Most of those farms are owned by just a couple of Central Valley barons.
If you are a NSFW corp subscriber (which I am until I cancel because they got bought out), this is pretty good: https://www.nsfwcorp.com/feature/journey-through-oligarch-valley/. If not, google the Resnicks. They own a bunch of the water in Kern County (as well as Fiji Water and POM)

nm fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Dec 31, 2013

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Xaris posted:

Hope you like smoking weed, trees and hiking. Arcata is... quaint and there are some beaches that aren't bad (but really loving cold). Mostly just a lot of nice forests from what I remember. You can shoot a bunch of nice scenery shots (and smoke weed while doing it). Bring something warm because it's pretty much 40-60s and often overcast.

I actually find the north coast is often warmer than the Central Valley in the winter. The central valley gets pretty cold (for California, it can dip below freezing and there's generally a few days with highs in the 40s) and the ocean warms things up.
It will rain a lot though, and yeah, lots of pot.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Forceholy posted:

Just stay out of the inland empire. Nothing ever happens in the inland empire.

Meth and crime happens.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Grand Prize Winner posted:

Hey, LA folks? I'm quoting this thread from E/N because it's about someone getting bored in LA. Maybe you could offer your suggestions to the OP.

I think she's more depressed than anything.
That said, LA has about 12 billion things to do from art museums, to finding the perfect bowl to pho, to finding the best taco, to stage, to wandering through neighborhoods, to a gigantic arboretum, to Disneyland, to skiing in big bear (when it finally loving snows) to getting drunk in a different bar every day for a decade. She has a car, right? You need a car.
I hate to say it but meetup is not unpopular here.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Leperflesh posted:


Whereas the alaskan wild salmon fishery is well-managed and sustainable, so always pick wild salmon over farmed. But domestic farmed catfish is probably one of the best most sustainable kinds of fish to buy, fed with vegetable sources, doesn't pollute, sustainable, and who doesn't love fried catfish?

Emphasis on the domestic. South-east Asian catfish is terrible.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Doctor Malaver posted:

I tried two videos at random. One was about a restaurant chain and he was interviewing patrons about eating and waitress about serving food (So you take food from... there? From the counter? (Yes) And you bring it to the tables? (Yes)) and the other talks about a hotel that's 90 years old and occasionally gets film industry people.
Maybe it's European haughtiness but it leaves me :geno:

If you can't like Huell, you can't come to California.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."
Its at the edge (you're two blocks from the Lamborghini dealer). You'll be fine.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Grand Prize Winner posted:

For someone from the LA area, what does the Tenderloin most closely compare to? Gardena? Lawndale? Compton?

Skid row with gentrification.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Leperflesh posted:

Taxicabs all take credit cards. You can also get around the city just fine using MUNI, it's just significantly slower than taking a cab. Way cheaper though obviously. There's pretty much no place in the city more than maybe four blocks from a bus line, and no two points where you're forced to transfer more than twice (in most cases, you can get to where you're going with no more than one transfer). That changes at late night, but there's still Owl service so with some more walking and a lot more patience you can still get to where you need to be on public transit if you really need to.

The Tenderloin is a long and thin stretch of lovely neighborhood. You can approach from the north or south and you'll only walk through like two blocks of tranny prostitutes and hobos, and in many cases not even that much. It's kind of perpetuated by the long string of cheap hotels, many of which offer weekly rates. Despite the shabbiness and minor drug crime, though, it's not what I regard as an actually dangerous neighborhood: you're not going to get mugged at gunpoint or anything. Someone will probably offer you some dubious recreational opportunities which you should pass up, though.

Despite the poor choice of hotels, the Tenderloin is fairly central of a location. You'll be able to get to most of the typical tourist destinations from there pretty quickly, even on a bus.

I actually find the Muni pretty good for what is almost entirely a bus system and it is pretty easy to navigate, at least in the more central areas, even for a tourist.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."
A burrito with french fries in it. Best drunk (or other other altered state) food ever.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

RabbitMage posted:

Alright fellow statespeople, where in California can you find a reasonable intersection between affordable land, proximity to a metro area, and water availability?

I want a tiny farm someday but I think I've been priced out of California, unless I go back to Fresno. And I ain't goin' back to Fresno.

Presumably some places here on the north coast might do, but I think it's too remote for me long term.

You didn't mention crime, so Vallejo. You can get a fairly majestic, if worn, Victorian in Downtown Vallejo for pennies. You can walk to the ferry which goes to San Francisco fairly quickly and regularly.
Note, however, the crime rate and a police force which would sooner shoot you than help you. Also whatever they call Marine World these days is a den of thievery.

Edit: Wait a farm? The problem is that productive farm land is actually quite expensive.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

hepscat posted:

Last time I was in Sacramento it was looking pretty roughed up by the economy. Drug deals on the sidewalk in broad daylight, people smoking pot where I was waiting for the light rail even though there were cops in the stations. That was a few years ago though, maybe it's picked up.

Government is back in a big way. Not sure that open pot smoking is a sign of decline? Sacramento cops (hell, most urban California cops) aren't that concerned with weed.
Also, where are you seeing drug deals? Every city has less good neighborhoods where you'd see that stuff.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

leidend posted:

Any advice for a couple of non-drinking non-partying non-golfing mid-30s :canada: tourists going to Palm Springs in mid May? We've never been but we managed to have fun in Vegas despite being such bland fuddy duddies so surely there's something to do. We're staying in town at a major hotel and will be flying directly to PSP (local airport).

My wife is eyeing El Paseo for shopping.

Is it gonna be scorching hot/too hot to go outside by mid-late May?


I tried a spontaneous trip to the grand canyon from Vegas at like 4pm once. Oops.

Although for me everything in the southwestern US seems close since in Vancouver there's Seattle 3 hours away and jack poo poo for thousands of miles otherwise.

The palm springs tram is also pretty cool, plus it is a good 20-30F cooler up there.
Joshua tree NP is also actually pretty scenic, but it may be too hot to do anything but car tour. If not, there are some nice hikes -- bring water!

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

My Q-Face posted:

So how bad is rush hour? I've heard stories, and I've experienced the DC and Atlanta rush hours, are we talking 15mph for 30 miles?

I'm not trying to be all goony e/n ignore the advice, I just want to get an idea before I completely extinguish the idea of buying somewhere a little further away. Is Riverside county to OC just a really stupid idea?

Just to dogpile -- absolutely a stupid idea. The 91 from the 55 (actually further) to basically riverside is probably the longest parking lot in SoCal -- you will get fairly bad traffic jams even on the weekends -- weekdays are just unmanageable, unless you can pony up $10 each way for the toll lanes (and even then, they end at the county line, so anything into Riverside county is still a traffic jam). It is not uncommon to see the 91 from 55 to 57 entirely black on google maps.
Plus you have to live in the IE. Redlands and Claremont (They actually have trees!) verge on livable. Riverside (old parts) is passable for the IE. The rest is horrible and full of brodozers. I only live here because I work here and the traffic sucks.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Xaris posted:

I was living in Santa Rosa but there aren't that many around SF area (but I haven't looked too hard).

Gotta go to oakland

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

I live in the IE (ugh). Rosa Maria's isn't even the best burrito in the zip code, much less SoCal.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

mobby_6kl posted:

What's the deal with one-way car rent? Hotwire quotes me $300 for 10 days starting in SFO and dropping of in PHX but if I go to Alamo directly, there's a $300 drop-off charge on top that would push me over the budget. Can I trust the hotwire price if I book through them, or will I get hosed with the extra fee later anyway?

If it's the latter, is there any way to get a cheap car for a one-way trip? I recall hearing about companies needing to move their cars around (perhaps after someone's one-way rental) but can't find how to get in on that now.

Also, is hotwire insurance sufficient for someone with no other US insurance for liability coverage?

I had a whole bunch of other questions about California but if I can't get a car reasonably the whole thing falls apart :)

You might get a big drop fee at the end. Check the fine print.

Generally, Hertz actually is the cheapest one-way for whatever reason even though they are the often most expensive for non-one-ways. They also generally have the nicest cars.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."
Eh, Sacramento is actually a pretty nice city if you stay the gently caress out of the suburbs, which are godawful.
It has a lot of trees and open spaces, there's more than enough to do in midtown in the evening. Good bars and great restaurants. Is it a shockingly great tourist destination? No, but it is a pretty solid place to live -- again, if you don't live in the suburbs.
It also has gotten way more interesting in the last decade, so people who haven't lived there for a while should be taken with a grain of salt. People who did a "day trip" there should be ignored.

That said, have to do, have to see? That's stuff you're looking for in a vacation destination. Get drunk in midtown and laugh at hipsters. The major appeal of Sacramento is being in a livable city that is 1 hour from the mountains and 1 hour from the ocean. That is pretty awesome.

nm fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Sep 18, 2014

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

ookuwagata posted:

Davis is awesome. You can pet the cute little farm animals, watch one get slaughtered in their training processing facility, and then buy the tasty and expertly cut meat from the meat lab on Thursday and Friday afternoons.
This is the best part of UC Davis. The administration now though seems to be ashamed of being the University Farm, which is sad. Moving the pigs away from the nuclear scientists was kind of sad (but smelled better).

nm fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Sep 24, 2014

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

ookuwagata posted:

The pigs are out near the bee facility now right? I remember our forensic entomology class collecting decomposition data on rotting pig fetuses near beehives, while hearing the screeching and wailing of pigs nearby.
Yeah, out by the airport.

My grandfather, who was an animal scientist at Davis, thought the pigs next to the nuclear reactor was the funniest thing ever. I think they waited until he died to move it.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

teh_Broseph posted:

Outsider perspective too was that Davis was dang groovy. We both thought if they were combined and Davis was dropped on top of downtown Sac, they'd make for a pretty great city.
Davis gets a bit boring after a while, especially if you're not into drinking with college students every day (That isn't to say Davis doesn't have some cool stuff). Sacramento has more to do, particularly in restaurants.

Fun fact, within the last 20 years you couldn't even buy underwear in Davis, you had to go to Woodland or Sacramento. It has grown up really, really fast. Davis used to be way smaller than Woodland.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."
For what it is worth, I live in socal (to be fair, the ie) and I'm actively trying to move back to Sacramento. I liked it and the COL is so much lower than the livable parts of the bay or socal. Also, it has trees.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Chinatown posted:

The IE is literally a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Literally. Utter desolation, despair, drugged out people, and the rest wishing they will eventually escape.

I live in the only good part (redlands), but I mostly agree. If southwest didn't fly out of ont, I'd have shot myself by now.

That said, I'd rather live here than orange county.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

mobby_6kl posted:

Probably, is there anything else to do there? I don't have any special equipmet and would prefer not to buy or rent anything expensive.

I also don't have a tent - is it possible to just camp out of the car wherever or how does that work there?

Depends on how you feel about meeting the San Bernardino County Sheriff.
I guess you could car camp at a real campground, the ones at JT are pretty cheap.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Bicuspid posted:

Welp you guys were definitely right about the rent. I ended up with a 500 sq feet studio in japantown for 2700/month. I like that the neighborhood has some parks around and the complex is good with large dogs so I just bit the bullet on it.

LOOOOOVE the weather here so far. Hopefully summer isn't too hot.

Theres a reason for the saying the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Hot it ain't.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

bobula posted:

Depends, are you a weirdo?

Appears to be a goon, so yeah.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."
Frech fry burritos?

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Keyser S0ze posted:

I've lived in California for 46 years and ain't never ran into a burrito with french fries and if I did I'd throw it back. :colbert:

Seems to be a San Diego invention from the 1980's. Also seems like a cost cutting move to shove cheap potatoes in there instead of tasty carnitas.

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2011/05/when_and_wheree_did_san_diegos.php

They're pretty loving good. The fries soak up the juices and drat.

I say this as someone born and raised in Northern California.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."
I like all types of burritos. I don't discriminate (unless they're from taco bell or Texas or something).

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Leperflesh posted:

I currenty live in Concord, CA and I'm fairly well convinced that there is no place in this town, no single spot, where you are more than 200 yards from a burrito for sale.

I'm pretty convinced that if at least 20 people live somewhere in CA, you can get a pretty solid burrito.

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nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."
Burritos are proof god loves us and wants us to be fat.

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