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And Now, Finding a Place to Live...
R. Alex Whitlock
It looks like I'm going to be living in the slumhole. At $7.50 an hour, I really can't afford much better than that. I took a tour of the rooms yesterday. They are a couple steps down from college dormatories, but at least two of the available rooms are cable-ready. That's very important if I'm going to get cable-modem. Cable-modem is actually cheaper than the alternative, which is to get a landline dedicated for the Internet.
Pros
Cheap
Cable-modem?
15 minute walk to work
3-4 minute drive to work
Cheap
"Furnished"
Located near downtown
Downtown not as dangerous as Houston downtown
If I should have a desire for adult entertainment, I wouldn't have to walk long
If I want to buy a gun, there's a store right down the street.
Would live, work, and go to church within 20 blocks.
Cheap
Reaks of authenticity
Cons
Eel wouldn't likely visit often.
That's just as well, because she'd have to leave at 10pm
Which doesn't matter because she won't likely visit often
Which is fine because she'd be arrested after 10pm
I don't particularly want adult entertainment or musicians.
No fridge
No protected mail (unlockable mail slots)
May not have a bathroom.
10 minute drive to Eel's place
No covered parking.
Landlord shows serious butt-crack.
Reaks of things other than authenticity
There's one other candidate. To give you an idea about this place, they call themselves "Thrifty Living." As near as I can tell, it's a hotel that's been converted into apartments. The parking situation is a bit better and I'll bet all of their rooms have bathrooms. Unfortunately, I think it costs more than the Dormatory (for lack of a better name because, oddly, the complex actually doesn't have a name. Just an address).
Observations
I lived in a $50/week hovel when I first moved outta my folk's place. (It still stands, as far as I know, across from the Fiesta and West Alabama and Dunlavy, here.)
That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Alex, I wish you luck, man. Just be careful, wherever you wind up. I mean, yeah, you might be stronger if you make it through and don't wind up getting yourself killed, but eh...that still requires NOT GETTING YOURSELF KILLED. :)
Oh, and in that vein, you might wanna rethink that "15 minute WALK to work" thing. Might not be the "Pro" you think it is.
Course, what am I saying? I live in one of the great "murder capitals" of the country! :)
One small observation, though: Places with curfews and/or lockout-times have them for a reason.
Just something to think about.
Heidi, I imagine that the curfew, as agitating as it is, is probably in place for good reason. As mentioned before, I don't get the feeling like this is the best part of town.
That said, I don't feel the slightest bit unsafe walking around there in the day. Eel and I walked in the area at night and it was a bit off-putting, but compared to Houston I'm really not that concerned.
I'm not entirely convinced that people around here really know the meaning of the word "crime." Of course, I say that and when I was at the state courthouse, there was an employee there who'd obviously had the living tar beat out of her, so that's reason for at least some concern.
The biggest fear I have is actually theft. I'll have renter's insurance that'll cover most things. I'm worried about my data, though.
What about storing back-ups with Eel? I mean, if you're going to be in this place, you definitely want to take all the precautions you can, and having another place to store info would make the idea of having your comp stuff stolen a little less emotional (though equally frustrating and outraging, I would presume).
And, if not at Eel's place, what about a safe deposit box? Relatively cheap and probably insured in some way. ???
You can't completely prevent theft of identifying info, but you could at least back up all of that, plus all your writings and such.
Eel's HD isn't big enough to hold all of the data that I'd want stored. Most likely I'll have to buy an external HD to keep with me. That's about all I can think of. It's something I've been considering doing anyway for my laptop.
As far as ID theft goes, I'm leaving myself wide open to that. There's no secure mail here (we get a slot with no lock), which means a PO Box or having official documents sent to Eel's.
Man, getting a cheap place can be expensive! :)
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