Random Comments/Stream of Consciousness Thread

[zelig]

Just heard back from the (french) publisher interested by my book about King. He's still interested, and want to release it in about a year

Congratulations. Please remember to keep a lettered edition for me!

[herbertwest]

Just heard back from the (french) publisher interested by my book about King. He's still interested, and want to release it in about a year

Very cool! Congratulations! Is there a specific focus for the book, or a King biography in general?

Nothing fancy. I was contacted by the publisher for a book about King, so it's like an order. It would be a sort of pocket book / guide about him (biography and then bibliography / movies based on his work)

[Theli]

Just heard back from the (french) publisher interested by my book about King. He's still interested, and want to release it in about a year

Very cool! Congratulations! Is there a specific focus for the book, or a King biography in general?

Nothing fancy. I was contacted by the publisher for a book about King, so it's like an order. It would be a sort of pocket book / guide about him (biography and then bibliography / movies based on his work)

Sounds fun! I hope to read it when it's released. Need to brush up on my French anyway!

[sentinel]

Ended up in the ER last night with abdominal pain. Turns out I had appendicitis, so they checked me into the hospital to remove the appendix. That was done this morning. Lying here in pain. Fun fun fun.

Ouch! That sucks, hope you are home and feeling better Paul!

[sentinel]

Just heard back from the (french) publisher interested by my book about King. He's still interested, and want to release it in about a year

That's awesome! Great for you!

[zelig]

Thanks Kerry. I got back home yesterday. Now I'm just resting/recovering. More time to spend online!

[amd013]

sigh

Well, just got a bombshell at work today. The company I work for (Intel), is closing my site and I have been given the option of relocating from the Chicago area to Austin TX. I have the option of working until Oct 16 and taking a severance package, or working until Oct 16, then get paid for 2 more months to go job hunting, I think there is also some type of severance package with that too. Whatever my decision is, I have to let them know by June 1, so its officially mode time. This really isn't that long to make such a life altering decision.

I think I will have to stop my SK purchases until all this gets sorted out. So the only thing I got coming is the pre-ordered 'Salem's Lot. I will probably also pre-order anything else that comes out in the meantime. I think I will try to cancel the Billy Bookcases I ordered from Ikea. They are scheduled to be delivered next Monday. No sense in building these then pay to have them shipped half way across the country a few months later.
(or store the boxes in my house for that long).

If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

[jhanic]

Best of luck, Mike! I'm sure you'll make the right decision.

John

[Iwritecode]

I know quite a few people that have moved from IL to TX and haven't regretted it a bit. I know quite a few more that wish they could do the same. No state taxes, no shoveling snow, no corrupt state government...

[Theli]

sigh

Well, just got a bombshell at work today. The company I work for (Intel), is closing my site and I have been given the option of relocating from the Chicago area to Austin TX. I have the option of working until Oct 16 and taking a severance package, or working until Oct 16, then get paid for 2 more months to go job hunting, I think there is also some type of severance package with that too. Whatever my decision is, I have to let them know by June 1, so its officially mode time. This really isn't that long to make such a life altering decision.

I think I will have to stop my SK purchases until all this gets sorted out. So the only thing I got coming is the pre-ordered 'Salem's Lot. I will probably also pre-order anything else that comes out in the meantime. I think I will try to cancel the Billy Bookcases I ordered from Ikea. They are scheduled to be delivered next Monday. No sense in building these then pay to have them shipped half way across the country a few months later.
(or store the boxes in my house for that long).

If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Pretty rough man. I wish you the best of luck with which ever decision you decide to make.

[Randall Flagg]

sigh



If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Terry (Sir_Boomme) lives about 15 miles north of Austin, he could give you some perspective.
Austin is the only "blue: county (Democrat) in Texas. Most Texans look at a political map and call it a target.
If you are staunch Republican, it's an adjustment, if you are middle of the road or left leaning, you'll be just fine.
It's a college town, so most any newer bar/restaurant you go to, the female servers are fetching. If you're married your wife may not enjoy that part of it...

[Theli]

sigh



If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Terry (Sir_Boomme) lives about 15 miles north of Austin, he could give you some perspective.
Austin is the only "blue: county (Democrat) in Texas. Most Texans look at a political map and call it a target.
If you are staunch Republican, it's an adjustment, if you are middle of the road or left leaning, you'll be just fine.
It's a college town, so most any newer bar/restaurant you go to, the female servers are fetching. If you're married your wife may not enjoy that part of it...

I thought that hot waitresses was standard everywhere in the world...

[zelig]

Best of luck with everything. Sometimes change can be good and maybe this will turn out to be a positive move.

[Randall Flagg]

sigh



If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Terry (Sir_Boomme) lives about 15 miles north of Austin, he could give you some perspective.
Austin is the only "blue: county (Democrat) in Texas. Most Texans look at a political map and call it a target.
If you are staunch Republican, it's an adjustment, if you are middle of the road or left leaning, you'll be just fine.
It's a college town, so most any newer bar/restaurant you go to, the female servers are fetching. If you're married your wife may not enjoy that part of it...

I thought that hot waitresses was standard everywhere in the world...

Not in Chicago...

[jsmcmullen92]

sigh

Well, just got a bombshell at work today. The company I work for (Intel), is closing my site and I have been given the option of relocating from the Chicago area to Austin TX. I have the option of working until Oct 16 and taking a severance package, or working until Oct 16, then get paid for 2 more months to go job hunting, I think there is also some type of severance package with that too. Whatever my decision is, I have to let them know by June 1, so its officially mode time. This really isn't that long to make such a life altering decision.

I think I will have to stop my SK purchases until all this gets sorted out. So the only thing I got coming is the pre-ordered 'Salem's Lot. I will probably also pre-order anything else that comes out in the meantime. I think I will try to cancel the Billy Bookcases I ordered from Ikea. They are scheduled to be delivered next Monday. No sense in building these then pay to have them shipped half way across the country a few months later.
(or store the boxes in my house for that long).

If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Come join me! I work down town Austin for a company called NTT. Same thing kinda happened to us we worked for a company here and one day they decided they were going out source us... either go to the new company (guaranteed for 6 months) or see ya.

Also RF is right it is a college town and lots of "nice things" to look at.

[TCCBodhi]

Also RF is right it is a college town and lots of "nice things" to look at.

I haven't been to Austin in quite a while, but I was always on a lookout for Nice Thing Leslie Cochran. Unfortunately, in looking for a picture, I see that Leslie passed away several years ago. I'm sure that he (or his preferred pronoun) has worthy successors though.

I'm sorry to hear of the chaos of the job change and the upheaval that it brings about AMD. If you like the job, Austin is a pretty dynamic place. If you don't like the job, a great severance package can be a great way to find the job that you DO like!

[Sir_Boomme]

sigh

Well, just got a bombshell at work today. The company I work for (Intel), is closing my site and I have been given the option of relocating from the Chicago area to Austin TX. I have the option of working until Oct 16 and taking a severance package, or working until Oct 16, then get paid for 2 more months to go job hunting, I think there is also some type of severance package with that too. Whatever my decision is, I have to let them know by June 1, so its officially mode time. This really isn't that long to make such a life altering decision.

I think I will have to stop my SK purchases until all this gets sorted out. So the only thing I got coming is the pre-ordered 'Salem's Lot. I will probably also pre-order anything else that comes out in the meantime. I think I will try to cancel the Billy Bookcases I ordered from Ikea. They are scheduled to be delivered next Monday. No sense in building these then pay to have them shipped half way across the country a few months later.
(or store the boxes in my house for that long).

If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Yep... lived in Austin area since 1979 -moved here to go to UT (hook em horns)
worked for AMD for many years (Layout design engineer)
know lots of people at Intel... we be some High Tech Hicks here...
Now I work designing chips for that big-ass fruit company.

Lots of night life, festivals (way to many) including:
south by southwest film/music (over 2 weeks)
capital 10,0000 (think boston marathon mixed with Halloween)
keep Austin Weird Fest
Trail of Lights at Christmas time
ACL music festival (over 3 days)
huge Carnival
huge 6th street Halloween - doesn't get any bigger than this
Pecan Street Festival (2 weekends)
The Circuit of Americas/Formula1
and list goes on and on - here's a partial list of the bigger ones, pretty much something every weekend-
http://austineventsandfestivals.com/

Big and small concerts weekly, and a few thousand bar/clubs with every kind of live music you can name every night of the week

Barton springs and Hamilton pools rock (both natural spring fed):








as does floating the Guadalupe river and the huge Shchlitterbahn water park just 25 minutes south of Austin. Lake Travis is fun when full, Lake Austin is just the Colorado river between dams... but great for skiing since it is a constant level lake.

Hike and Bike Trails all around Townlake... and you can get lost on the ones in the GreenBelt. Many Many city parks biggest is Zilker.

Lot of students... colleges in the immediate area...
University of Texas : 50,000+
Texas State 36,000+
Southwestern U 1500+
ITT Technical
St Edwards 4500+
Concordia
Huston Tillotson 1000
Austin Community 34,000+

Lots of colleges mean lots of hot college strippers (one in every class I took) and waitresses in restaurants

Lots of art galleries and several large museums.

lots of car shows... including cruise nights, small local shows, the lonestar roundup (few thousand hot rods), Austin Heatwave (few more thousand cars...mostly lots of donks and lowriders), and of course the big ROT Rally motorcycle weekend - ever heard 40 thousand Harleys revved at one time?...usually draws 200,000 people that weekend

Football is King, and the Longhorns followers are fanatical (I admit I am one of the worst)

If you like snow.... stay a decade and you might catch a glimpse of some...

As many good restaurants here as there are cars... and there's lots and lots of cars...

expect warm spring days from end of Feb thru Apr... Summer from May to mid July, Hell from July 15th thru first week in Oct..... warm fall from Oct thru end of November... luke warm winters thru Jan, with a couple of actual cold days slotted in there somewhere.
Ice is in your fridge... but about once a year, if you're up early, and really lucky, you might see some outside.... but if there is even just one cube on the ground, they'll shut the town down, close all schools and business.... and have an (N)ice day off.
All the rain comes in April and May... and it ALWAYS floods on Memorial day... so don't plan a picnic that day... any other day of the year would probably work out... Ice Day usually works for me.

oh yeah, the down side is...
traffic is absolutely horrid. worse than pretty much any US city ... we're listed by USA today as having 4th worse in the nation...
behind #1 LA, #2 Honolulu #3 San Francisco

and there's that Liberal thing...and a City council is fond of spending all your tax dollars on crap that doesn't make any sense. And.... all the highways are being turned into tollroads.

[herbertwest]

sigh

Well, just got a bombshell at work today. The company I work for (Intel), is closing my site and I have been given the option of relocating from the Chicago area to Austin TX. I have the option of working until Oct 16 and taking a severance package, or working until Oct 16, then get paid for 2 more months to go job hunting, I think there is also some type of severance package with that too. Whatever my decision is, I have to let them know by June 1, so its officially mode time. This really isn't that long to make such a life altering decision.

I think I will have to stop my SK purchases until all this gets sorted out. So the only thing I got coming is the pre-ordered 'Salem's Lot. I will probably also pre-order anything else that comes out in the meantime. I think I will try to cancel the Billy Bookcases I ordered from Ikea. They are scheduled to be delivered next Monday. No sense in building these then pay to have them shipped half way across the country a few months later.
(or store the boxes in my house for that long).

If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Good luck on any decision you'll be taking

[jsmcmullen92]

sigh

Well, just got a bombshell at work today. The company I work for (Intel), is closing my site and I have been given the option of relocating from the Chicago area to Austin TX. I have the option of working until Oct 16 and taking a severance package, or working until Oct 16, then get paid for 2 more months to go job hunting, I think there is also some type of severance package with that too. Whatever my decision is, I have to let them know by June 1, so its officially mode time. This really isn't that long to make such a life altering decision.

I think I will have to stop my SK purchases until all this gets sorted out. So the only thing I got coming is the pre-ordered 'Salem's Lot. I will probably also pre-order anything else that comes out in the meantime. I think I will try to cancel the Billy Bookcases I ordered from Ikea. They are scheduled to be delivered next Monday. No sense in building these then pay to have them shipped half way across the country a few months later.
(or store the boxes in my house for that long).

If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Yep... lived in Austin area since 1979 -moved here to go to UT (hook em horns)
worked for AMD for many years (Layout design engineer)
know lots of people at Intel... we be some High Tech Hicks here...
Now I work designing chips for that big-ass fruit company.

Lots of night life, festivals (way to many) including:
south by southwest film/music (over 2 weeks)
capital 10,0000 (think boston marathon mixed with Halloween)
keep Austin Weird Fest
Trail of Lights at Christmas time
ACL music festival (over 3 days)
huge Carnival
huge 6th street Halloween - doesn't get any bigger than this
Pecan Street Festival (2 weekends)
The Circuit of Americas/Formula1
and list goes on and on - here's a partial list of the bigger ones, pretty much something every weekend-
http://austineventsandfestivals.com/

Big and small concerts weekly, and a few thousand bar/clubs with every kind of live music you can name every night of the week

Barton springs and Hamilton pools rock (both natural spring fed):








as does floating the Guadalupe river and the huge Shchlitterbahn water park just 25 minutes south of Austin. Lake Travis is fun when full, Lake Austin is just the Colorado river between dams... but great for skiing since it is a constant level lake.

Hike and Bike Trails all around Townlake... and you can get lost on the ones in the GreenBelt. Many Many city parks biggest is Zilker.

Lot of students... colleges in the immediate area...
University of Texas : 50,000+
Texas State 36,000+
Southwestern U 1500+
ITT Technical
St Edwards 4500+
Concordia
Huston Tillotson 1000
Austin Community 34,000+

Lots of colleges mean lots of hot college strippers (one in every class I took) and waitresses in restaurants

Lots of art galleries and several large museums.

lots of car shows... including cruise nights, small local shows, the lonestar roundup (few thousand hot rods), Austin Heatwave (few more thousand cars...mostly lots of donks and lowriders), and of course the big ROT Rally motorcycle weekend - ever heard 40 thousand Harleys revved at one time?...usually draws 200,000 people that weekend

Football is King, and the Longhorns followers are fanatical (I admit I am one of the worst)

If you like snow.... stay a decade and you might catch a glimpse of some...

As many good restaurants here as there are cars... and there's lots and lots of cars...

expect warm spring days from end of Feb thru Apr... Summer from May to mid July, Hell from July 15th thru first week in Oct..... warm fall from Oct thru end of November... luke warm winters thru Jan, with a couple of actual cold days slotted in there somewhere.
Ice is in your fridge... but about once a year, if you're up early, and really lucky, you might see some outside.... but if there is even just one cube on the ground, they'll shut the town down, close all schools and business.... and have an (N)ice day off.
All the rain comes in April and May... and it ALWAYS floods on Memorial day... so don't plan a picnic that day... any other day of the year would probably work out... Ice Day usually works for me.

oh yeah, the down side is...
traffic is absolutely horrid. worse than pretty much any US city ... we're listed by USA today as having 4th worse in the nation...
behind #1 LA, #2 Honolulu #3 San Francisco

and there's that Liberal thing...and a City council is fond of spending all your tax dollars on crap that doesn't make any sense. And.... all the highways are being turned into tollroads.

Man Terry you make it sound like Heaven on Earth..

[Iwritecode]

Man Terry you make it sound like Heaven on Earth..

No kidding. Now I want to move down there.

[amd013]

sigh

Well, just got a bombshell at work today. The company I work for (Intel), is closing my site and I have been given the option of relocating from the Chicago area to Austin TX. I have the option of working until Oct 16 and taking a severance package, or working until Oct 16, then get paid for 2 more months to go job hunting, I think there is also some type of severance package with that too. Whatever my decision is, I have to let them know by June 1, so its officially mode time. This really isn't that long to make such a life altering decision.

I think I will have to stop my SK purchases until all this gets sorted out. So the only thing I got coming is the pre-ordered 'Salem's Lot. I will probably also pre-order anything else that comes out in the meantime. I think I will try to cancel the Billy Bookcases I ordered from Ikea. They are scheduled to be delivered next Monday. No sense in building these then pay to have them shipped half way across the country a few months later.
(or store the boxes in my house for that long).

If anyone here lives in Austin, would be interested in your opinions on the city. Especially, if you are originally from another part of the country.

Thanks,
Mike

Yep... lived in Austin area since 1979 -moved here to go to UT (hook em horns)
worked for AMD for many years (Layout design engineer)
know lots of people at Intel... we be some High Tech Hicks here...
Now I work designing chips for that big-ass fruit company.

Lots of night life, festivals (way to many) including:
south by southwest film/music (over 2 weeks)
capital 10,0000 (think boston marathon mixed with Halloween)
keep Austin Weird Fest
Trail of Lights at Christmas time
ACL music festival (over 3 days)
huge Carnival
huge 6th street Halloween - doesn't get any bigger than this
Pecan Street Festival (2 weekends)
The Circuit of Americas/Formula1
and list goes on and on - here's a partial list of the bigger ones, pretty much something every weekend-
http://austineventsandfestivals.com/

Big and small concerts weekly, and a few thousand bar/clubs with every kind of live music you can name every night of the week

Barton springs and Hamilton pools rock (both natural spring fed):








as does floating the Guadalupe river and the huge Shchlitterbahn water park just 25 minutes south of Austin. Lake Travis is fun when full, Lake Austin is just the Colorado river between dams... but great for skiing since it is a constant level lake.

Hike and Bike Trails all around Townlake... and you can get lost on the ones in the GreenBelt. Many Many city parks biggest is Zilker.

Lot of students... colleges in the immediate area...
University of Texas : 50,000+
Texas State 36,000+
Southwestern U 1500+
ITT Technical
St Edwards 4500+
Concordia
Huston Tillotson 1000
Austin Community 34,000+

Lots of colleges mean lots of hot college strippers (one in every class I took) and waitresses in restaurants

Lots of art galleries and several large museums.

lots of car shows... including cruise nights, small local shows, the lonestar roundup (few thousand hot rods), Austin Heatwave (few more thousand cars...mostly lots of donks and lowriders), and of course the big ROT Rally motorcycle weekend - ever heard 40 thousand Harleys revved at one time?...usually draws 200,000 people that weekend

Football is King, and the Longhorns followers are fanatical (I admit I am one of the worst)

If you like snow.... stay a decade and you might catch a glimpse of some...

As many good restaurants here as there are cars... and there's lots and lots of cars...

expect warm spring days from end of Feb thru Apr... Summer from May to mid July, Hell from July 15th thru first week in Oct..... warm fall from Oct thru end of November... luke warm winters thru Jan, with a couple of actual cold days slotted in there somewhere.
Ice is in your fridge... but about once a year, if you're up early, and really lucky, you might see some outside.... but if there is even just one cube on the ground, they'll shut the town down, close all schools and business.... and have an (N)ice day off.
All the rain comes in April and May... and it ALWAYS floods on Memorial day... so don't plan a picnic that day... any other day of the year would probably work out... Ice Day usually works for me.

oh yeah, the down side is...
traffic is absolutely horrid. worse than pretty much any US city ... we're listed by USA today as having 4th worse in the nation...
behind #1 LA, #2 Honolulu #3 San Francisco

and there's that Liberal thing...and a City council is fond of spending all your tax dollars on crap that doesn't make any sense. And.... all the highways are being turned into tollroads.

Thanks everyone for there encouragement!! Especially Terry for this nice summary of Austin. I am sure the only aspect of Austin I won't like will be the hot summers (if only I could live in Austin from November to May, and Chicago June to October). The hard part of this is leaving behind all my friends. Once I move I won't know too many people, and nobody outside work. I am generally very shy/introverted and have hard time making new friends.

@IWriteCode: Thanks for the info on no Income Tax, I guess thats a nice built in 3.5% raise. Property taxes also, appeared to be lower based on the few houses for sale I looked at online last night. Sales taxes, appear to only by slightly more, so I wonder where the rest of the money is coming from. I guess they save on not have those corrupt politicians. (so I take it Texas prisons don't have a special wing for former governors?).
Yeah, definitely won't miss the snow. Guess I can leave the snow blower as a bonus to the next owner of my house.

@RF: I tend not to allow myself to get too worked up on politics, I know I am a little naive in that aspect, but I usually just look at how a candidate stands on the various issues, rather then party affiliation. I hope you are right about the eye candy. I am single, and hope they are attracted to middle aged, overweight, and balding men! LOL!

@jsmcmullen92:

Actually this is not the first time this sort of thing happened to me. I have had a weird carreer path. In 2009 I worked for Freescale, and they exited the telecommunications sector, and closed our location. Part of the team was bought by Fujitsu, and I had the opportunity to move to Phoenix. At that time, I wasn't emotionally prepared for the move, and I didn't want to move to such a hot city. I ended up being unemployed for 1 year and 1 day. I was rehired by Motorola, and it was my 3rd stint there. Ironically Motorola/Google sold my group to Intel, then Intel later bought the group from Fujitsu that I turned down. I am now considering trying to join that group instead. (for work assignment reasons, I think I would enjoy the day to day work responsibility in that team more then the Austin team).

@Sir_Boomme:

sounds like we are in very similar fields. I am more in the frontend of design. Although I have dabbled in the backend and layout design in the distant past. I got a message from a tech recruiter from your "big-ass fruit company" via Linkedin. I think he was looking specifically for Cupertino Ca, but that he could forward my resume to Austin. Think I would have to pass on that, since if I move to Austin, I might as well stay with Intel. Would be giving up too much for a lateral move.

Trying to work out a visit to Austin before the decision date of June 1. Will let you all know how it goes.

Thanks again so much for everyone's support. It does mean a lot to me!

Mike

[Sir_Boomme]

I won't like will be the hot summers (if only I could live in Austin from November to May, and Chicago June to October).

hot 100+ degree summer days aren't that bad, as long as you trade the snowblower for a really good air conditioner count on having 80 to 90+ days above 100 per year... with at least 20-25 consecutive ones from the end of July thru August. when I say 100+... we're talking up to 105 to 108.

The hot days are not the worst about Austin... trust me... the traffic is. Word of advice... live near your work if possible. I have to drive 45 miles completely across town from far northeast to as far south west every morning... it sucks. Especially if it's Aug 1st, the air conditioner goes out in the car, and you get stuck in rush hour traffic (starts at 2:30 pm and goes until 8:00 pm).

Thanks for the info on no Income Tax, I guess thats a nice built in 3.5% raise. Property taxes also, appeared to be lower based on the few houses for sale I looked at online last night. Sales taxes, appear to only by slightly more,

upside...no state tax
downside...Austin likes to raise their taxes every chance they get
and due to the past 5 year drought conditions, there's major water restrictions for watering the yards and washing cars, filling pools... and they fine you... and the tap water costs more (lake travis is only about 45% full)

look at the outer satellite cities.. less taxes, saner city councils, less restrictions...
why I live in Pflugerville and drive everyday. but also round rock, cedar park, leander, buda, oak hill
anything..in Austin... southwest is more $$$ - you'll find Michael Dell/Lance Armstrong/Sandra Bullock types in that neck of the woods. (I live far northeast...and that says what about me? hmmmm...)

I hope you are right about the eye candy. I am single, and hope they are attracted to middle aged, overweight, and balding men! LOL!

get yourself a good camera... works for me...

Trying to work out a visit to Austin before the decision date of June 1. Will let you all know how it goes.

give me a holler when you do.

[Merlin1958]

I won't like will be the hot summers (if only I could live in Austin from November to May, and Chicago June to October).

hot 100+ degree summer days aren't that bad, as long as you trade the snowblower for a really good air conditioner count on having 80 to 90+ days above 100 per year... with at least 20-25 consecutive ones from the end of July thru August. when I say 100+... we're talking up to 105 to 108.

The hot days are not the worst about Austin... trust me... the traffic is. Word of advice... live near your work if possible. I have to drive 45 miles completely across town from far northeast to as far south west every morning... it sucks. Especially if it's Aug 1st, the air conditioner goes out in the car, and you get stuck in rush hour traffic (starts at 2:30 pm and goes until 8:00 pm).

Thanks for the info on no Income Tax, I guess thats a nice built in 3.5% raise. Property taxes also, appeared to be lower based on the few houses for sale I looked at online last night. Sales taxes, appear to only by slightly more,

upside...no state tax
downside...Austin likes to raise their taxes every chance they get
and due to the past 5 year drought conditions, there's major water restrictions for watering the yards and washing cars, filling pools... and they fine you... and the tap water costs more (lake travis is only about 45% full)

look at the outer satellite cities.. less taxes, saner city councils, less restrictions...
why I live in Pflugerville and drive everyday. but also round rock, cedar park, leander, buda, oak hill
anything..in Austin... southwest is more $$$ - you'll find Michael Dell/Lance Armstrong/Sandra Bullock types in that neck of the woods. (I live far northeast...and that says what about me? hmmmm...)

I hope you are right about the eye candy. I am single, and hope they are attracted to middle aged, overweight, and balding men! LOL!

get yourself a good camera... works for me...

Trying to work out a visit to Austin before the decision date of June 1. Will let you all know how it goes.

give me a holler when you do.

A better guide for, Austin you will never find!!! He loves to show off his wonderful city!!!

[Sir_Boomme]

Also RF is right it is a college town and lots of "nice things" to look at.

I haven't been to Austin in quite a while, but I was always on a lookout for Nice Thing Leslie Cochran. Unfortunately, in looking for a picture, I see that Leslie passed away several years ago. I'm sure that he (or his preferred pronoun) has worthy successors though.

I'm sorry to hear of the chaos of the job change and the upheaval that it brings about AMD. If you like the job, Austin is a pretty dynamic place. If you don't like the job, a great severance package can be a great way to find the job that you DO like!

don't worry, Leslie... the famous gross cross-dressing, public thong wearing, always drunk, mentally-ill, legal-scofflaw, belligerent, public-nuisance and all-around bum that gave bum's bad reps....
might be dead... but not gone.
Our liberal Austin City Counsel - always in for the weird... actually proclaimed his day of death March 8th "Leslie Cochran Day"...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/us...rite.html?_r=0

and are supporting plans to build a freaking life-size statue to the bum... it's one thing to support weird... it's another to spend tax dollars (on public land)to support weird

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/289...leslie-cochran

[Sir_Boomme]

yeah... I really want to see this immortalized downtown...

http://images.search.yahoo.com/image...-s&fr2=piv-web