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jenettWelcome to our eighth salon discussion thread. Wander in, invite a friend to come along, and chat! (Not sure what's going on? Here, have a brief FAQ.) You can find previous ones in my salon tag. Please take a quick look at the reminders at the bottom of this post, too.
Quality of life: what does it mean for you?
I was thinking, walking home from work the other day, that there's a lot of different kinds of things that make up quality of life, the "This is a good day" and "I like how I'm living".
In my current job, I don't make much money (especially given the amount of education required). But I live half a mile from work, in a gorgeous rural New England town where pretty much every view could be on a postcard. (And that's before you get to anything significantly scenic.) There's a downtown grocery store with local produce, and farmer's markets, and all sorts of other things.
I have a job that I mostly leave at work (I mean, I keep thinking about technology and libraries and information pretty much all the time, but that's because I love it, not because I have to bring work home). I have the world's most endearing and adorable cat.
But I also know that these things aren't necessarily what other people would choose (or what I'd choose at other points in my life, or if I lived in a different place, or had more money to play with.)
Things I'm watching: I'm currently rewatching season 3 of Doctor Who (I've been a fan since before I knew you could be: I grew up watching Tom Baker from under a chair in the living room.) Tonight, I'm going to go see the Joss Whedon Much Ado About Nothing for the second time so I can go with a friend (and because, on the whole, I would like to encourage people to do more projects of that kind.) What're you watching? Why is it interesting to or fun for you?
(This means I'll be out from 5ish until 9:30ish tonight. I assume you can all manage in my absence.)
Quick reminders
-jjhunter did a great guide to following conversations here on Dreamwidth. Also a roundup of regular Dreamwidth events.
- If you want to post anonymously, please pick a name (any name you like) that we can call you - it makes it more conversational and helps if we have more than one anon post.
- Base rule remains "Leave the conversation better than you found it, or at least not worse". If you're nervous about that, I'd rather you say something and we maybe sort out confusion later than have you not say something. (I've heard from a few people who worry they're going to say something that's going to be taken weirdly. If it helps, I am usually around and if there's a thing you'd like to get out in the conversation, but you're not sure how, feel free to PM or email or IM me, and I'll nudge the conversation that direction.)
- The FAQ still has useful stuff, and I added some thoughts about getting conversations going a few weeks ago.
- Comments tend to trickle in over the course of a day or two, with a few nearly a week later: you might enjoy checking back later if you're not tracking the conversation.
Quality of life: what does it mean for you?
I was thinking, walking home from work the other day, that there's a lot of different kinds of things that make up quality of life, the "This is a good day" and "I like how I'm living".
In my current job, I don't make much money (especially given the amount of education required). But I live half a mile from work, in a gorgeous rural New England town where pretty much every view could be on a postcard. (And that's before you get to anything significantly scenic.) There's a downtown grocery store with local produce, and farmer's markets, and all sorts of other things.
I have a job that I mostly leave at work (I mean, I keep thinking about technology and libraries and information pretty much all the time, but that's because I love it, not because I have to bring work home). I have the world's most endearing and adorable cat.
But I also know that these things aren't necessarily what other people would choose (or what I'd choose at other points in my life, or if I lived in a different place, or had more money to play with.)
Things I'm watching: I'm currently rewatching season 3 of Doctor Who (I've been a fan since before I knew you could be: I grew up watching Tom Baker from under a chair in the living room.) Tonight, I'm going to go see the Joss Whedon Much Ado About Nothing for the second time so I can go with a friend (and because, on the whole, I would like to encourage people to do more projects of that kind.) What're you watching? Why is it interesting to or fun for you?
(This means I'll be out from 5ish until 9:30ish tonight. I assume you can all manage in my absence.)
Quick reminders
-
jjhunter did a great guide to following conversations here on Dreamwidth. Also a roundup of regular Dreamwidth events. - If you want to post anonymously, please pick a name (any name you like) that we can call you - it makes it more conversational and helps if we have more than one anon post.
- Base rule remains "Leave the conversation better than you found it, or at least not worse". If you're nervous about that, I'd rather you say something and we maybe sort out confusion later than have you not say something. (I've heard from a few people who worry they're going to say something that's going to be taken weirdly. If it helps, I am usually around and if there's a thing you'd like to get out in the conversation, but you're not sure how, feel free to PM or email or IM me, and I'll nudge the conversation that direction.)
- The FAQ still has useful stuff, and I added some thoughts about getting conversations going a few weeks ago.
- Comments tend to trickle in over the course of a day or two, with a few nearly a week later: you might enjoy checking back later if you're not tracking the conversation.
Tags:
Quality of Life
Date: 2013-07-24 04:36 pm (UTC)-Ability to bike around town. (This means the community is not too sprawling AND that proper attention has been paid to bike lanes, speed limits, road widths, etc)
-A pre-dominantly socially liberal community (or at least access to sub-groups of the community fitting that bill)
-Not too large a city. (I tend to like my cities 150,000 people or less. Currently, I'm in a roughly 20,000 people city with about an additional 30,000 in nearby lakes/rural areas and about 10,000 tourists on any given weekend and it's fine. My last city was about 100,000 plus another 150,000 college students and was also fine.)
-Good parks and lots of green space
-Sensible parking solutions and laws. (I'm currently very annoyed that my neighborhood allows no on-street overnight parking when the houses are such an age that there are no driveways and the MOST alley parking anyone has is two cars. This makes having family come stay interesting.)
Geography things that make me feel at home:
-Access to water (oceans, big lakes preferred, but rivers and small lakes will work in a pinch)
-Four distinct seasons, bonus points to long falls and springs
-Rolling hills
-Quick access to farmland (bonus points for orchards and vineyards)
House type things that make me happy:
-Pale walls (blues, yellows, greens, grays) with a minimum of beige
-Hard wood, tile or laminate floors (no wall-to-wall)
-A gas stove
-On-site laundry
-Room for some flowers/veggies/herbs (if only in pots), but not too huge a yard for upkeep
-Decent windows (that open and shut and are not too drafty)
-Either air conditioning OR decent air flow for fans
-A minimum of a bath and half. (I'm married. Two toilets really helps, especially the few times we've both been ill.)
-Decent storage (Bonus points for big closets and a pantry)
-Trees in the yard/neighborhood, but also some sunny spots (for growing things)
-Enough wall space for bookshelves (bonus points for built-ins)
-At least one guest bedroom (bonus points for two, one of which is big enough to double as space for a desk and/or sewing machine)