Plan A, B, C, D

[garote]

Well. Presently, I'm leaning towards either Plan A or Plan B. Some additional thoughts:

Plan C: I don't think I can rally the support of my musically inclined friends to go through with this, really. In fact, I'm pretty sure there isn't a single friend of mine interested in living in the Sacramento area who doesn't live there already.

Plan D: It's easy enough to escape all these material possessions, but it's not so easy to get back into the craft I'd be leaving. Perhaps it'd be better for me to arrange my travel plans for a later date, when it's less of a one-way-ticket.

Plan B: Sure, it's boring, comparatively, but if I'm going to set myself up for future advancement, the time to buy property in Sacramento is now, and no mistake.

Plan A: Yes, Zeugma, there is a very 'temporary' atmosphere in most college environments. And I am definitely feeling too old to waste my time experimenting and fooling around ... I've already learned all I'm gonna learn from that. But here's a question for you now: Can you reccommend any better place for me to go, to locate the types of people I might care for a friendship and/or relationship with? I can't think of one. If you had no wife or friends, where would you go looking to meet them?

Comments

[ex-zeugma416.livejournal.com]

It's true -- I'd go to a college town too. Colleges are definitely the best places around for finding interesting people, at least if we're going to stay on this generic level. The interesting college atmosphere is one of the reasons Torrey and I are still here, and the main reason we're only really interested in moving to another college town, when we do move. (We would probably do this even if Torrey didn't plan to be a college teacher herself.)

There's a big difference, though, between living in a college town in order to be around the interesting people, and taking classes. Of course you know that a degree would probably be a waste of money, but there's another thing:

The college atmosphere seems to be an enormous trap for guys at loose ends. When I wrote that reply, I was worried about you, because I have seen a certain, otherwise intelligent person waste scads of time and energy pretending he was still an undergraduate, mostly in (frustrated) pursuit of sex, and (futile) clutching at his youth. It really depressed me to watch him do this over the course of a couple years, as his thirtieth year approached, when he could have been channelling his energy into some kind of future. His life had become intolerable to himself, and instead of moving towards some kind of life he could accept, he took weekends off to plunge into the college ghetto and get wasted. Not that I thought you would take this particular path, but the example was close enough to apply, and it worried me. That's all.

[ex-zeugma416.livejournal.com]

Actually, there was one last thing. I think that plan B is entirely compatible with certain elements of A or C. I can easily imagine you blending the three, buying a house in Sacramento and installing a studio in the basement, to which you invite friends from Davis and Sac State (not to mention the Monkeys) for routine sonic chaos.

The cacodaemons will nest in your basement and spout cacophony!

:

[garote]

Ahhhh now I understand a lot better where you're coming from.

Yeah, the college ghetto. I saw plenty of that at UCSC. It's the aspect of college that Southern California makes films and television shows about. Fuck it. Fuck it up the ass with a big rubber dick.

Is this person you refer to anyone I might know?

:

[garote]

Well, the reason I separated them is because, if I try to do all three half-assed, I probably won't be satisfied with my work in any of them.

Investing in a house means I'd need solid, steady income, and my job would have to take priority over everything. I wouldn't be able to take many days off in a row to be in a jam session, and I wouldn't be able to gerrymander my work hours around a schedule of local college events, let alone a schedule of classes.

What's more, setting up a music studio means I would need a few partners in crime, to offset the burden of making those big house payments.

Re: :

[ex-zeugma416.livejournal.com]

This is true. You could create some kind of arrangement like what I saw my painter friends doing, in Denver. Everybody who 'belonged' to the studio contributed a portion of the costs to, as it happened, the painter who owned the building and operated her furniture-refinishing business out of the adjoining studio.

Nobody lived there, of course, and that makes things a little different from what you're proposing -- i.e., since it would be in your house, people couldn't just drop in whenever they felt like it to do work or goof off, and believe me, that studio was almost constantly occupied with people painting, since everybody had a key and it was a little haven for doing work and relaxing, not to mention having little parties with 'safe' people (which is to say, people who wouldn't stumble into wet canvases if they got drunk).

See my journal for the long anecdote I wanted to post here, in this connection.

[beatings.livejournal.com]

Ah, finally a chance to focus on this dilemma! My thoughts:

(A, the College option): A college degree is about as valuable as a high school diploma was a few years ago -- it ain't much. You even said it -- it won't be of any additional value to you at this point. Why stay miserable at the college ghetto, especially since you already have lots of friends who are aging and maturing at the same rate you are? :)

(B, the Money option): This is a much more down-to-earth option. If I had appropriate bucks and income, I'd consider doing this, although this will tether you to whatever location you buy the house in, at least a little, so keep that in mind.

(C, the Musical option): This would be great, if it happened in a more organic way: Say that you and I decided we wanted to live together again, we could conceivably rent/buy a place with an extra room, and make a studio out of it. Or we could set up our 1337 gear in our bedrooms and network everything together, so that we could work independently when we needed to, or whatever.

Actually, I'd love to try this with you, but I'm not exactly the pinnacle of financial stability right now, and it's hard for me to conceive being part of this plan without having it end disastrously. I'm not trying to berate myself, it's just that money, employment, and career issues are big uncertainties in my world right now. I'd still like to try this, but we all have time on our side, and I feel like we shouldn't race to put ourselves in a situation where we can argue over property dividends, and stress over tracks like 'Forest of Monkeys' :)

(D, the Travel option): Definitely travel, since it's good to whet your appetite with the world. (Why do you think I move around so much ;) In this regard, I can offer a little advice: Wherever you're going, it's good to know friendly people who you can stay with, since not only will that make the whole experience easier financially, but it's a thousand times more fun, and they can show you the ins and outs of the location. Zima and I were lucky when we went to Europe, our first destination was Maschinenfest, and with our charm and good looks (not to mention her skills in German and Spanish) we befriended a bunch of people who begged us to stay with them. The rest is history...

On the other hand: Time is on your side. We'll all be sufficiently 'young' for years, we can probably do this sort of thing whenever we want (re: your dad's example.) I know I'll be travelling again, it's just a question of when >:)

(E, the as-yet-Untold option): Take small steps, by buying your own condo closer to Lantronix, which is conveniently positioned above a Japanese Schoolgirl parlor, who will invite you to socialize at their school and periodically go back to Asia with them?

Hopefully all this discussion isn't driving you to stagnate and do nothing about it. I have plenty to think about myself, regarding my future, and it's hard to force myself to look that far ahead.

eep

[garote]

Option A: Well, yes, I have lots of friends. But they're scattered all over the country. Heh heh.

Option B: House-tethering. Yeah. One of these days perhaps Santa Cruz property values will descend into the realm of sanity. But I doubt it. Sacramento is definitely my _second_ choice.

Option E: That would be interesting. :) However, buying a condo around here would just not be "me". And for how long I would then be tethered to the area,... bleerghk!

Option D: Yes, travel roXor! I have to start making more short trips. To campground within California and stuff like that. I'm already pretty hip on road trips anyway, so ...

eep

[garote]

As for C: Perhaps we can do this yet. :) A little more time, a little more ca$h squared away ...