Arlington / Washington DC Area

[Tuerny]

DC area ..

Gaming community? I lead too sheltered of a life it seems.. supposedly there is a good one here. I just don't get out enough to actually find it.

...............

blah blah blah.

Hey, thanks for the link! It was informative.

 

[Tuerny]

Double Post...

 

[Tom Cashel]

1. You want a car.
2. You want a car.
3. You want a car.

Yes, by all means...ignore the fine, clean, well-maintained, relaible mass-transit system known as the Metro, and contribute to the catastrophic, apocalyptic traffic snarls that plague our fair city and its environs. Get a car! And get some high-blood-pressure medication to go along with it, because you will need it.

My wife and I have lived in Bethesda/Rockville, Maryland for the past 3 years, and just bought a house in Rockville, the Village of ROCK! It's a nice area, close to the city (by metro), and it makes us happy.

I play in 2 gaming groups, and there are many others to be found.

As for jobs, I recommend working for an Association. There are a ton of them in the DC area, and I like to call the atmosphere "corporate-light." It's like working for a company, except the bottom line is member satisfaction, rather than profits. Good stuff. My employer, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)--licensing body for Speech Therapists and Audiologists nationwide--was listed as one of the 50 best places to work by Washingtonian magazine for the 2nd year in a row.

 

[Tuerny]

First three rules of living in the DC area.

1. You want a car.
2. You want a car.
3. You want a car.

<cut>

Oh, yes, the cost of living in the DC area is dramatically higher than Orlando. Not as expensive as San Francisco or Manhatten, but close. All the lobbyists and government contractors drive the prices up.

Luckily I have a car (A nice little '99 Toyota Corolla) so thats not a big deal.

And yeah, I was doing some price comparison research and it appears things are quite a bit more expensive in Washington DC.

Since you seem to be somewhat familiar with Orlando, you are probably aware of the utter lack of culture in the area (I think Disney ate it). What does the metro DC area look like in comparison? Also do you think the difference is, in the end, worth it?


Jesse James Dean

 

[Tuerny]

D.C. overall is Lawful Evil, with fairly large populations of Lawful Neutral and Neutral Evil. All other alignments are represented, however.

Well I am lawful neutral, so that should work out well.

There is a lot of really nice stuff here, 85% of which is in the Smithsonian Institution. However, traffic is awful and weather is worse. (Although, if you are currently in Orlando, it will seem very familiar except that we get icestorms in February, which Orlando generally doesn't.)

Well, I would prefer a lightly milder climate. The presence of ice storms implies that the climate is indeed a bit milder than in Orlando.

I live in Reston/Herndon, not too far away from Game Parlor, and it is a very, very nice store indeed. Also, I'm looking to diversify my gaming group.

We can talk in about 11 months if I end up over there.

Real estate prices are through the roof ... and renting is even MORE expensive. However, if you have a degree in anything, you can probably get a pretty good job fairly quickly. And if you don't, well, there's always work at Starbucks.

If I come out there next August/September I will have a B.S. in Computer Science. I am already planning on applying to the Patent and Copyright Office (I have an interested in copyright and patent law and think that would be an interesting place to see if I want to spend the time to go to law school for it before committing to paying all the money for law school) and the big three intelligence agencies (FBI, NSA, and CIA). What other sort of big computer/technology employers are there in the area?

While everything is oriented towards English, working knowledge of Spanish would be very handy; less handy but still valuable would be Korean or Vietnamese. The whole area is extremely diverse in terms of racial distribution.

I only speak English. Diversity is good.

Inside D.C. itself or Alexandria, a car is superfluous (and in fact more of a burden than an asset). In the suburbs, life without a car is expensive, difficult, and time-consuming. (As in, so expensive that it's cheaper to get a car.)

Well, I already own a car, so I imagine that would cause me to prefer the suburbs at least slightly. Though I don't have a real problem with mass transit and, in fact, used it exclusively until I was 22. This was in Fort Lauderdale, which probably has a pretty bad mass transit system. So I wouldn't be opposed to a clean, working mass-transit system.

There is a decent private sector here, but you have to dig to find it. Almost all non-retail types of jobs are in government contracting. (Contracting, not working directly for the government -- those jobs are hard to get because they generally involve very little real work and are impossible to get fired from except during an administration change, so once somebody has one, they keep it 'til they die.)

I am cool with government contracting work. There is lots of government contracting work in the local area as well (mostly in the modelling and simulation industry) and I have considered pursuing a job locally in it if national options do not pan out.

If you're a political junkie, you'll be in heaven.

That's about all I can give you without a more specific question to answer. Drop me a note if you'd like.

-The Gneech

I am interested in politics, though I am not quite sure I would call myself a political "junkie".

Hmm....specific questions.

I know it has a "good" night life and cultural setting, but what is meant by that? Are there major entertainment centers? Are there lots of coffee houses and place to have intelligent/intellectual-style discussions? What sort of things can I do as a young, single gentlemen who wants to meet people in a setting that doesn't require me getting drunk?

Thanks for your response!

Jesse D.

 

[Tuerny]

As for jobs, I recommend working for an Association. There are a ton of them in the DC area, and I like to call the atmosphere "corporate-light." It's like working for a company, except the bottom line is member satisfaction, rather than profits. Good stuff. My employer, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)--licensing body for Speech Therapists and Audiologists nationwide--was listed as one of the 50 best places to work by Washingtonian magazine for the 2nd year in a row.

Hmmm.....


What can you tell me about these "associations"?

They seem to be more focused on people with degrees in the humanities and pure sciences.

Jesse Dean

 

[Tuerny]

The first thing I quickly discovered when I moved out to the D.C. area was the necessity for a security clearance, at least in the database development arena. If that's a barrier that you don't have to deal with, all the better. I can't really comment on the cost...I moved here from San Francisco, so this is paradise for me.

How difficult is it to get security clearence?

I haven't been arrested before and have never gotten anything else beyond a traffic ticket.

Jesse D.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Yes, by all means...ignore the fine, clean, well-maintained, relaible mass-transit system known as the Metro, and contribute to the catastrophic, apocalyptic traffic snarls that plague our fair city and its environs. Get a car! And get some high-blood-pressure medication to go along with it, because you will need it.

Metro's not ALL that; it's very good, but you'll want to make friends with someone who has a car and will drive you places. Let them deal with the agonizing insurance rates and the traffic that makes you want to toss a Crushing Fist of Spite every five minutes. Out of the eight people in my gaming group, five have cars; only two drive to work.

If you want to, you can, in fact, live fairly easily without a car, as I do. I live close to the Clarendon* Metro stop, and commute out to Shady Grove Metro. My grocery and CVS are within walking distance, as is a mall (Well, I've walked to Ballston before on nice days) and a movie theater (Courthouse). Heck, I can even walk to Dream Wizards from the Metro (uphill...both ways!) or, if I'm feeling really self-flagellating, the Compleat Strategist out in Falls Church.

* - Man, I miss Fantasy Forum.

Let's see...taxes are lower in Virginia than Maryland, where they're lower than in DC. The roads are, as others have mentioned, amazingly annoying. Nightlife is fairly subdued, compared to, say, New York, but almost anything's there that you might want to do. We might even have a baseball team, hopefully in DC rather than Arlington. People've told you everything's expensive, which is true. For a while, finding an apartment was nearly impossible, which will be harder near the Metro; that's eased off lately, but it's still a pain in the rear end.

You also get the joyous feeling of, when reading a book or seeing a movie, going "Hey, I've been there!" It's actually tremendously cool, really. Stuff Happens Here, which is not always good.

Brad

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

How difficult is it to get security clearence?

I haven't been arrested before and have never gotten anything else beyond a traffic ticket.

It's actually not something you can go out and get. You get it as part of applying for a government-related job that requires it. It's not that difficult, from what I understand; otherwise, how would the government function?

Brad

 

[Tuerny]

It's actually not something you can go out and get. You get it as part of applying for a government-related job that requires it. It's not that difficult, from what I understand; otherwise, how would the government function?

Brad

Well, I knew that.

I was just wondering what major hurdles I would have to deal with if I had a mostly clean record.

Jesse D.