Re: life in Boston?

[Andras Radics <http://www.zip1.ziplink.net/~radics>]

Hi!

Thanks for Dihuyen's address!  Do you still keep in touch with her?

>  > Yes, we live in Boston.  Cool that you're moving back!  We like it out
>  > here quite a bit; the people and pace of life is very different.
>
> Different than the Bay Area?  I did grow up in Massachusetts/New Hampshire,
> but haven't lived there in many (almost 18) years.  I think Boston would be
> OK because it is civilized; it's not like Des Moines, Iowa or anything like
> that.

Boston is a neat city, lots to see and do.  Most high-tech is on the
outskirts of the city, though, and most high-tech workers live beyond
that, and commute in.  But yes, civilization is available for the times
you need it :-)  There are not as many startups as in Silicon Valley
(companies tend to be bigger), and there is perhaps less job-hopping,
and the Boston Globe help wanted section is atrocious (not alphabetized,
not even sorted by job category).

We live in the boonies (rural suburbs) of Boston, far from industry or
high-tech.  Here it's very different from the Bay Area.  There are still
working farms in town, and people keep horses without owning a mansion
:-).  In SF the population is much more urban, the mindset is urban, and
*Californian* :-) The difference is subtle, but quite noticeable once
you get attuned to it.  Much more mellow here, more connected both to
family and to the area.  It's weird, but California mostly consists of
people that moved there from elsewhere, and that gives a sort of
impermanence to the place.  (This is especially the case in San Diego,
where 80% of our neighborhood was 30-something yuppies with young kids,
and 15% was young kids :-)

Didn't you graduate from Lincoln-Sudbury High?  (You used to own that
LSH Unix Hackers jacket :-)  And if you joined Impell in 87 (+/-),
you would have left Mass. in 83, 14 years ago.  So where's the other
four years from?

>
> How do you commute to work?  Is bicycling a possibility?

I commute 20 miles, so biking is more of an adventure than I'm in shape
for :-)  Before we bought our house, I biked in once or twice (12 miles).
I would guess that unless one is a die-hard, traffic is too heavy to
make it a pleasant experience (even within the city), unless there is
a convenient route on residential streets.  One of my co-workers bikes
in occasionally, he lives a few miles away and avoids main roads.

>  > We also have grown to like canoeing quite a bit :-)
>
> I used to canoe with my family when I lived there.  Just be careful of
> mosquitoes!

This year it's not too bad yet, last year it was worse (but we didn't
have a canoe).  They used to swarm all over me after soccer (Wed. eve.
pick-up game in town).

> I guess his address is no longer http://www.fx.com/~rice?

Well, it *may* be.  He used to have it forwarded, so it may
still work.  I also have another address for him, http://www.den.com/~rice
(from the time he started his own on-line gaming company :-)
That too is forwarded.

Andras
--
/\ Andras Radics			May the Source be with you.
\/ http://www.ziplink.net/~radics