D&D and the rising pandemic

[Ryujin]

I say that I can "head up a mountain for skiing in the winter" but I haven't done so since I was a kid (when it was free, as opposed to now, when it's expensive). I used to go sailing, too. My wife used to ride horses. All of these things are now priced out of our privilege level (which I would still count as pretty privileged). Heck, I even stopped going camping because it costs too much and you have to book it many months in advance. (I just can't decide if I will want to go camping on a certain weekend in July when it's still March!)

I also haven't been to any of the local museums since I was a kid, nor do I frequent the beaches. I do occasionally see live productions, but only once a year or so. Generally I'm too busy and/or can't justify the expense. On the other hand, I do all that tourist stuff when I travel. (Bringing us back to the pandemic of the thread - I don't know when I will ever travel again, sadly. I mean, I will as soon as it seems reasonable to do so, but I'm not getting on a plane any time soon, y'know?)

Might I make a suggestion, for when everything is open again? The Rio Theatre, on Broadway and Commercial, in Vancouver, plays host to "The Critical Hit Show"; a live D&D experience much like the shows at GenCon. Actors, playing their characters, on stage and with audience participation. They just had their 9th anniversary, albeit via their Twitch stream rather than live, but they'll hopefully be back up and running sooner, rather than later. It's the brainchild of Eric Fell.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Might I make a suggestion, for when everything is open again? The Rio Theatre, on Broadway and Commercial, in Vancouver, plays host to "The Critical Hit Show"; a live D&D experience much like the shows at GenCon. Actors, playing their characters, on stage and with audience participation. They just had their 9th anniversary, albeit via their Twitch stream rather than live, but they'll hopefully be back up and running sooner, rather than later. It's the brainchild of Eric Fell.

I know the Rio (used to live on the Drive, 20 years ago) but I have never watched live gaming. Though I might enjoy it (and so might my kids, who are teens) my wife would never be interested.. I could take the kids... I will consider it, thanks!

 

[Ryujin]

I know the Rio (used to live on the Drive, 20 years ago) but I have never watched live gaming. Though I might enjoy it (and so might my kids, who are teens) my wife would never be interested.. I could take the kids... I will consider it, thanks!

If you've ever watched the web series that hosts "Ulrick's" music video then Joanna, who plays the Elf Barbarian in "Standard Action", is part of the cast for "The Critical Hit Show."

 

[Zardnaar]

Interesting listening to various stories sounds like Aucklands problems.

Where I live it's 5-10 minutes drive to work, Half hour to one hour drive to camping ten minutes to the beach. Three hours to the mountains.

Comparing notes to friends in larger places mostly you do the same stuff. Work, send kids to school, watch Netflix.

The larger centers are better for things like concerts or sport events but if you don't care about them.

Shops seem mostly the same difference is the scale and high end luxury items.

Funny thing is talking to some of the people in bigger cities they seem to expect the smaller ones are out in the boon docks. Jobs even pay similar unless you're in corporate type ones. Friends got salty when she found out I gotta paid more than her, half the rent twice the size apartment. Her sister and father visted and confirmed it lol.

I don't really regard Boston as a large city. It's smaller than Auckland but I know it's pricey because it's in New England or close enough.

There's a lot less variety in prices here though. Dunedin my city is more expensive than Christchurch at around 1/3rd the size but it's almost half the price of Aucklands average. Christchurch is the cheapest city though.

But even the average town is around 280k and up. Idk how much Boise Idaho costs or state capitals in places like Iowa cost. Or how available jobs are but once again depends on what you want/expect.

Here you can get a 6 figure job in a small town eg engineer working for the local council. You might have a better life on 60k somewhere smaller than 100k in Auckland.

100k isn't regarded as enough to buy a house in Auckland though you need to be a DINK and that's almost double the average wage so yeah.

If you don't like the great outdoors though wrong country perhaps.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sell house in Auckland move somewhere cheap like London.

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

Sell my house here and buy two in Pittsburgh. How good or bad is Pittsburgh?

Vancouver seems worse.

 

[Cadence]

Sell house in Auckland move somewhere cheap like London.

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

Sell my house here and buy two in Pittsburgh. How good or bad is Pittsburgh?

Vancouver seems worse.

Coming from a city in the midwestern US, PIttsburgh feels like a nice, big midwestern US city with spectacular terrain. It has a nice aviary, professional sports, and a few universities.

A $1mil US does really well down here in parts of the south east...

311 Porth Cir, Lexington, SC 29072 | Zillow

311 Porth Cir, Lexington SC, is a Single Family home that contains 2178 sq ft and was built in 1996.It contains 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $867,500, which has decreased by $413 in the last 30 days.The Rent Zestimate for this Single Family is $5,972/mo...

www.zillow.com

400 Riverchase Way, Lexington, SC 29072 | MLS #579827 | Zillow

This 5020 square feet Single Family home has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. It is located at 400 Riverchase Way, Lexington, SC.

www.zillow.com

I tried to find more, but it was hard to find many that cost that much... Those are a bit of a drive (35 min for the first/ 20 for the second) from the state capital building/University. This condo is a few minutes.

100 Sunset Blvd APT 1003, West Columbia, SC 29169 | Zillow

100 Sunset Blvd Apt 1003, West Columbia SC, is a Condo home that contains 3300 sq ft.It contains 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.This home last sold for $690,000 in January 2022. The Zestimate for this Condo is $877,300, which has increased by $12,420 in the last 30 days.The Rent Zestimate for this...

www.zillow.com

 

[Zardnaar]

Coming from a city in the midwestern US, PIttsburgh feels like a nice, big midwestern US city with spectacular terrain. It has a nice aviary, professional sports, and a few universities.

A $1mil US does really well down here in parts of the south east...

311 Porth Cir, Lexington, SC 29072 | Zillow

311 Porth Cir, Lexington SC, is a Single Family home that contains 2178 sq ft and was built in 1996.It contains 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $867,500, which has decreased by $413 in the last 30 days.The Rent Zestimate for this Single Family is $5,972/mo...

www.zillow.com

400 Riverchase Way, Lexington, SC 29072 | MLS #579827 | Zillow

This 5020 square feet Single Family home has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. It is located at 400 Riverchase Way, Lexington, SC.

www.zillow.com

I tried to find more, but it was hard to find many that cost that much... Those are a bit of a drive (35 min for the first/ 20 for the second) from the state capital building/University. This condo is a few minutes.

100 Sunset Blvd APT 1003, West Columbia, SC 29169 | Zillow

100 Sunset Blvd Apt 1003, West Columbia SC, is a Condo home that contains 3300 sq ft.It contains 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.This home last sold for $690,000 in January 2022. The Zestimate for this Condo is $877,300, which has increased by $12,420 in the last 30 days.The Rent Zestimate for this...

www.zillow.com

Yeah this is why some NZers are looking at USA to move. Outside the hotspots you still have cheap housing.

Whole country is hotspot here. A small town house is similar to the average UK price. Can you get something half decent in the US for 200-300k USD?

Aucklands absurd but so are the smaller centers relative to their size. 25% hike last year due to cheap borrowing.

We pay about $50 a week in rates to local council. Cousin pays $390 a week on a one bedroom flat.

More price spikes expected if the border reopens. If you want to disfe Covid and can get a visa don't bother unless you're a DINK on good money or have half a million+ or so in the bank.

 

[Cadence]

Whole country is hotspot here. A small town house is similar to the average UK price. Can you get something half decent in the US for 200-300k USD?

Ours is in the middle of that price range. Five miles from the university and state capital, one mile from the botanical garden/zoo, ok schools. 2,100 sq ft (not counting basement), 3 br, 2 ba, inground pool, and a nice wooded yard. Of course it's 50 years old and it's South Carolina. Being South Carolina the pay is less than some of the more expensive cities, and with under a million people in the metro area there is less room to be picky... but if you can work from home for a big city company that would give you some nice spending money. (Being the US, a big thing is a job that provides health insurance, and being SC right now the hospitals are overflowing with COVID).

 

[Zardnaar]

Ours is in the middle of that price range. Five miles from the university and state capital, one mile from the botanical garden/zoo, ok schools. 2,100 sq ft (not counting basement), 3 br, 2 ba, inground pool, and a nice wooded yard. Of course it's 50 years old and it's South Carolina. Being South Carolina the pay is less than some of the more expensive cities, and with under a million people in the metro area there is less room to be picky... but if you can work from home for a big city company that would give you some nice spending money. (Being the US, a big thing is a job that provides health insurance, and being SC right now the hospitals are overflowing with COVID).

Yeah I've looked at the Carolinas pre Covid. What people tend to forget though is you have to work in local conditions to buy said house so comparing prices directly is difficult unless you own freehold I suppose.

St Petersburg Russia is cheap I'ma off. Average Russian wage a fraction of our minimum wage.

Grass is always greener right?

 

[Umbran]

Do y'all take advantage of a lot of those things in Boston and DFW?

When not in covid-times, you mean? Heck yeah!

I'm not a sports fan, but.. come on - we have the New England Patriots, the Red Sox, the Celtics, and the Bruins. Darned tootin' a lot of folks take advantage of the sports scene around here.

My wife and I are fans of live theater, especially musical theater. Most years we are downtown several times to catch Broadway shows coming through, or concerts in some of the smaller venues. We also have the American Reparatory Theater, which does a lot of experimental stuff, and initial runs of things that will eventually go to Broadway. Except for pandemic times, we are on Boston Commons every year to watch Shakespeare.

We regularly have memberships to Zoo New England, and make occasional trips to the Aquarium, the Museum of Science when they have a cool exhibit or movie showing. We went with friends to the Museum of Fine Arts a little while before Covid hit, and the Isabella Gardner Museum has cool aspects of both art museum and garden.

This past year we took advantage of several properties managed by The Trustees (of Reservations) - they manage and maintain many public garden areas in Massachusetts, which we used for pretty places to go for open-air walks distanced from others during the pandemic. There's also the Boston Public Gardens we go walking in fairly often. We go to the Arnold Arboretum a couple times a year - the lilac collection they have is amazing around Mother's Day. I could smell them a quarter mile away through my mask this year.