I lied.
But hopefully, for my own health and sanity, it will be a while. I've been posting on the forums and though the answers weren't mean or new information for it, it just suddenly got to be too much information. Like sometimes when I troll all the news sources and read about everyday people suddenly snapping and turning on their families or workplace, or even stuff that happened in the past, I just get overwhelmed and depressed because of the mounting anxiety.
Doing the simple math will basically reveal that moving to Hawaii with anything less than 10 grand would be impossible, and that's with no real safety buffer. That's just cost of moving, along with first and last months rent for a studio apartment. And it's pretty much just a figure that I pulled out of my bum (with some basis in actual prices, of course. But still. My bum.)
So I think I have to back away from it for a while, and think about other things like editing and getting done so that I can contribute to saving lots and lots of money.
My god, it looks like a different country outside. In addition to the 3-4 inches of snow we already had that mostly melted, there's a nice glaze of light snow that's probably frozen onto the pavement, and it's also foggy outside. A little worried about my mom walking home.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Pros and Cons
When I'm not busy obsessing about the new iPhone, something that I'd like to have but have no real reason for doing so, I'm thinking about Hawaii. I guess my mom said that we've got Hawaii on the brain. But here's some of the things we've been thinking about. And tonight, after being bombarded with another storm, it's another thing to think about.
WEATHER/ENVIRONMENT
Con - No change in weather, seems to be in the mid eighties all year round with some rain. Possible Volcano activity, vog (volcanic ash, like smog), and there's a hurricane season. No snow, which would be a bit of a bummer for the kids. Alex tends to get overheat easily. Tsunamis aren't out of the question.
Pro - Snow was fun today - for about 15 minutes. Then appendages got cold and it got old. Plus my mom and wife are now stuck in traffic likely, so it's not that great sometimes. For some reason, people in Seattle just have problems driving in the snow. We never really came into this problem as much in Bellingham. And yeah, the weather is pretty constant, but I'm an island boy anyway, and never going above 80 ain't so bad. Alex and Zoe need to regulate their outside time anyway, we can't sit in the sun all day. And luckily, we won't be able to afford anything with an ocean view, and will likely be inland.
EDUCATION
Con - Hawaii's school system is infamously ill structured, and the test scores and fallout from the No Child Left Behind Act is really discouraging. The reading and math levels are probably the lowest for all the states.
Pro - To quote one of the websites - no metal detectors, few gangs, low violence. And probably the most important thing of all, study habits will have to be built from home, not school. We actually know this from within because we've had two in our family with a good opportunity with our public schools in Washington, and so far one hasn't gone to college and the other is failing her second year as a Junior. I don't have to worry about the safety of my children as much.
JOBS
Con - It's true, most of the jobs are tourism based, low paying, and some people do have to work two jobs in order to make ends meet.
Pro - I have videography, which is a pretty sweet chip to play if I need the money. Think about it. People go to Maui to get married (because it's lower key and more romantic than the bustling Oahu, but with more attractions than the Big Island), and they do this probably all year round. And because they're on vacation, they could get married theoretically any day of the week. This is all hypothesis, of course. But I'll likely start off doing something more practical to start off, to pay for rent and living expenses. Besides, it's not like I'm the president over here or anything. I've got nothing to step down from.
COST OF LIVING
Con - High, high, high. 8 bucks for milk, for example, and almost everything is a buck more than the mainland. Beef is oddly replaced by an abundant of Spam. Driving is expensive, eating out is expensive. What the locals like to call, "Paradise Tax."
Pro - Well, one of the things that I've always wanted to do is to minimalize my life. Seriously, you hear about how uncluttering your life will free up all your stress. Suddenly you don't worry about aquiring more stuff, which in the end, can't take it with you. We'll likely give up a lot of luxury items and learn to simplify our lives. Of course, I'm a bit of a gadget freak, so it'll be fighting my nature.
ISLAND FEVER
Con - People get claustrauphobic living on an island, because they can't go on road trips, unless you count looping the island. A lot of people end up moving back within months, or within a few years because they get so bored and sick of the same thing over and over again. I do tend to have this deal whereby I need a big trip every other year to unravel.
Pro - I used to live on an island, which doesn't really count since I was technically only 14, so I couldn't think of any alternative anyway. But even living in Bellingham and here in Seattle, I don't really wander anywhere past 100 miles either way, except once in a while. Trips we take are by plane, which though expensive from Hawaii, isn't out of the question. Besides, there are the other islands we could visit for smaller trips.
Anyway, there's a slew of other stuff I can talk about, but for right now, I'll leave it at that.
And I'll try to make my next post about something other than Hawaii.
WEATHER/ENVIRONMENT
Con - No change in weather, seems to be in the mid eighties all year round with some rain. Possible Volcano activity, vog (volcanic ash, like smog), and there's a hurricane season. No snow, which would be a bit of a bummer for the kids. Alex tends to get overheat easily. Tsunamis aren't out of the question.
Pro - Snow was fun today - for about 15 minutes. Then appendages got cold and it got old. Plus my mom and wife are now stuck in traffic likely, so it's not that great sometimes. For some reason, people in Seattle just have problems driving in the snow. We never really came into this problem as much in Bellingham. And yeah, the weather is pretty constant, but I'm an island boy anyway, and never going above 80 ain't so bad. Alex and Zoe need to regulate their outside time anyway, we can't sit in the sun all day. And luckily, we won't be able to afford anything with an ocean view, and will likely be inland.
EDUCATION
Con - Hawaii's school system is infamously ill structured, and the test scores and fallout from the No Child Left Behind Act is really discouraging. The reading and math levels are probably the lowest for all the states.
Pro - To quote one of the websites - no metal detectors, few gangs, low violence. And probably the most important thing of all, study habits will have to be built from home, not school. We actually know this from within because we've had two in our family with a good opportunity with our public schools in Washington, and so far one hasn't gone to college and the other is failing her second year as a Junior. I don't have to worry about the safety of my children as much.
JOBS
Con - It's true, most of the jobs are tourism based, low paying, and some people do have to work two jobs in order to make ends meet.
Pro - I have videography, which is a pretty sweet chip to play if I need the money. Think about it. People go to Maui to get married (because it's lower key and more romantic than the bustling Oahu, but with more attractions than the Big Island), and they do this probably all year round. And because they're on vacation, they could get married theoretically any day of the week. This is all hypothesis, of course. But I'll likely start off doing something more practical to start off, to pay for rent and living expenses. Besides, it's not like I'm the president over here or anything. I've got nothing to step down from.
COST OF LIVING
Con - High, high, high. 8 bucks for milk, for example, and almost everything is a buck more than the mainland. Beef is oddly replaced by an abundant of Spam. Driving is expensive, eating out is expensive. What the locals like to call, "Paradise Tax."
Pro - Well, one of the things that I've always wanted to do is to minimalize my life. Seriously, you hear about how uncluttering your life will free up all your stress. Suddenly you don't worry about aquiring more stuff, which in the end, can't take it with you. We'll likely give up a lot of luxury items and learn to simplify our lives. Of course, I'm a bit of a gadget freak, so it'll be fighting my nature.
ISLAND FEVER
Con - People get claustrauphobic living on an island, because they can't go on road trips, unless you count looping the island. A lot of people end up moving back within months, or within a few years because they get so bored and sick of the same thing over and over again. I do tend to have this deal whereby I need a big trip every other year to unravel.
Pro - I used to live on an island, which doesn't really count since I was technically only 14, so I couldn't think of any alternative anyway. But even living in Bellingham and here in Seattle, I don't really wander anywhere past 100 miles either way, except once in a while. Trips we take are by plane, which though expensive from Hawaii, isn't out of the question. Besides, there are the other islands we could visit for smaller trips.
Anyway, there's a slew of other stuff I can talk about, but for right now, I'll leave it at that.
And I'll try to make my next post about something other than Hawaii.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Aloha?
This latest obsession about the 50th state is pretty all consuming. The more we read and find out, we're finding out more pros, and obviously, more cons. In addition to the poor education system, one of the other worries that I've been having is the institutional racism that seems to be boiling under the wraps. I don't know if it'll affect my kids or myself that much, but I'm worried about my wife, who is used to being part of the majority race. I mean, fair to say that in Washington, racism is alive and simmering as well. Even my wife has experienced some of this through my children's eyes, when we were in Packwood and some lady was commenting on our kids being Asian. "Haoles" as they are referred to, as just Cauasians who they feel stole the island from them, and turned it into just a tourist-driven economy. Some people are bothered by it, some aren't. I guess the concensus is that if an individual is open and respectful to the Hawaiian culture, they will be accepted as such. Common sense, really.
I've been lurking the forums and asking questions, just trying to get the most information I can possibly get to make an informed decision. We're even going so far as to thinking about a vacation to the islands at the end of the year to get a preview to the kind of lifestyle Hawaii has to offer.
I think though, for now I have to leave the idea alone for a while - it's consuming my mind a little too much to be anyway close to being healthy - looking at Flickr with "Hawaii" tags, looking up advice from natives, just submerging myself in wayyyy too much info. And my wife is pretty stoked about thinking about it too. She's looking at the change in lifestyle, a possibly slower pace of life, a change in scenery.
Now we know that it's easy to dream about paradise in the dead of winter in Washington, especially how cold and wet it is right now. But if this urging persists after summer, maybe we'll just have to try it and see.
I've been lurking the forums and asking questions, just trying to get the most information I can possibly get to make an informed decision. We're even going so far as to thinking about a vacation to the islands at the end of the year to get a preview to the kind of lifestyle Hawaii has to offer.
I think though, for now I have to leave the idea alone for a while - it's consuming my mind a little too much to be anyway close to being healthy - looking at Flickr with "Hawaii" tags, looking up advice from natives, just submerging myself in wayyyy too much info. And my wife is pretty stoked about thinking about it too. She's looking at the change in lifestyle, a possibly slower pace of life, a change in scenery.
Now we know that it's easy to dream about paradise in the dead of winter in Washington, especially how cold and wet it is right now. But if this urging persists after summer, maybe we'll just have to try it and see.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
First Post
Well, trying out this new blog after playing around with the template. It's hard to find a simple and nice template off Blogger, but maybe I'll give this a whirl. Tried the all-black one, but then I got depressed and slept for 10 hours. Anyway, I'm awake now.
Today hasn't been a real productive day. Today, in fact, was a odd sort of day whereby my wife and I were suddenly 3, and decided to abandoned a lot of logical rationale to explore an odd tangent of a thought.
I was finishing up a wedding today, and the bride's Filipino while the groom's Hawaiian. Well, probably not Hawiian per se, but you get the idea. Anyway, it was set to Hawaiian music, and then suddenly I said, "We should move to Hawaii." And like a untamed hungry flame that grew into a wildfire, the idea just took off. We were looking up things on the internet and just really got into it.
Thing was, since we were both somewhat in transition and untethered by a steady job, or a lot of friends or family, there was really not much holding either of us anyway. I mean, sure we had family and friends around here still, but the allure of Hawaii got to us.
We've never been there, and after reading some of the things about Hawaii, from the Aloha culture that's more laid back, a slower pace, beautiful scenery and sunsets, nice sunny weather, beaches, and really, a lower stressed environment and a feeling of community and culture - it was irresistable. We read about the higher cost of living, 7-8 bucks for a gallon of milk, and 800-1200 bucks for a studio apartment, and we were okay with that. Cost of living here in Redmond ain't much lower.
So all night, we were reading accounts of people living in Hawaii, the different islands, looking at photos on Flickr, and it was looking pretty good. We were thinking that when we did move out in a year or two, we'd be going to Hawaii to raise our family.
Then the repetition of certain facts kept coming in. Never mind the centipedes, the huge ass spiders, the volcanoes, and the higher cost of living. The terms "terrible education", "bad public schools", and "lousy schools" came showing up. Turns out privates schools are abundant in Hawaii, but tuition for it wasn't cheap, about 10 grand a year. And having two kids 11 months apart would mean 20 grand more than the higher cost of living. I guess Hawaii doesn't do school districts, and all the schools are controlled by the state. Teachers are severly underpaid, and the reading and math proficiencies are terrible. We were weighing the pros and cons of it, and knowing that the school system was severely flawed and going anyway would just be wrong.
So as fast as the idea become a vision, it returned to being simply just an afterthought. But who knows.
Thing is, moving down south has its benefits and drawbacks. For some reason, the thing I worry about my kids aren't really their education, or what jobs are readily available to them. No, I worry about their safety. All these stories about sexual predators, about pedophiles who kidnap, rape and kill their victims. I worry about their peers, who seem to have substandard morals handed to them from their substandard parents. I worry about the parents who are so wound tightly that all they seem to need is a reason, any reason, to blow up in someone's face. The pace down here is devastatingly detrimental to peoples' anxieties. We're all like red ants, running over each other and once in a while, forgetting who we're stepping on. Granted, I'm not even really in the thick of it, being self-employed, but man, I feel it, and I'm looking for a change of pace. A different window. I don't want my kids to know my fears because they wouldn't even think about leaving the house.
That's why Hawaii didn't seem like such a terrible idea. Well, for now it's shelved.
Today hasn't been a real productive day. Today, in fact, was a odd sort of day whereby my wife and I were suddenly 3, and decided to abandoned a lot of logical rationale to explore an odd tangent of a thought.
I was finishing up a wedding today, and the bride's Filipino while the groom's Hawaiian. Well, probably not Hawiian per se, but you get the idea. Anyway, it was set to Hawaiian music, and then suddenly I said, "We should move to Hawaii." And like a untamed hungry flame that grew into a wildfire, the idea just took off. We were looking up things on the internet and just really got into it.
Thing was, since we were both somewhat in transition and untethered by a steady job, or a lot of friends or family, there was really not much holding either of us anyway. I mean, sure we had family and friends around here still, but the allure of Hawaii got to us.
We've never been there, and after reading some of the things about Hawaii, from the Aloha culture that's more laid back, a slower pace, beautiful scenery and sunsets, nice sunny weather, beaches, and really, a lower stressed environment and a feeling of community and culture - it was irresistable. We read about the higher cost of living, 7-8 bucks for a gallon of milk, and 800-1200 bucks for a studio apartment, and we were okay with that. Cost of living here in Redmond ain't much lower.
So all night, we were reading accounts of people living in Hawaii, the different islands, looking at photos on Flickr, and it was looking pretty good. We were thinking that when we did move out in a year or two, we'd be going to Hawaii to raise our family.
Then the repetition of certain facts kept coming in. Never mind the centipedes, the huge ass spiders, the volcanoes, and the higher cost of living. The terms "terrible education", "bad public schools", and "lousy schools" came showing up. Turns out privates schools are abundant in Hawaii, but tuition for it wasn't cheap, about 10 grand a year. And having two kids 11 months apart would mean 20 grand more than the higher cost of living. I guess Hawaii doesn't do school districts, and all the schools are controlled by the state. Teachers are severly underpaid, and the reading and math proficiencies are terrible. We were weighing the pros and cons of it, and knowing that the school system was severely flawed and going anyway would just be wrong.
So as fast as the idea become a vision, it returned to being simply just an afterthought. But who knows.
Thing is, moving down south has its benefits and drawbacks. For some reason, the thing I worry about my kids aren't really their education, or what jobs are readily available to them. No, I worry about their safety. All these stories about sexual predators, about pedophiles who kidnap, rape and kill their victims. I worry about their peers, who seem to have substandard morals handed to them from their substandard parents. I worry about the parents who are so wound tightly that all they seem to need is a reason, any reason, to blow up in someone's face. The pace down here is devastatingly detrimental to peoples' anxieties. We're all like red ants, running over each other and once in a while, forgetting who we're stepping on. Granted, I'm not even really in the thick of it, being self-employed, but man, I feel it, and I'm looking for a change of pace. A different window. I don't want my kids to know my fears because they wouldn't even think about leaving the house.
That's why Hawaii didn't seem like such a terrible idea. Well, for now it's shelved.
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