so glad to finally be failing

My lease runs out in May. I'm paying $840/mo for a 998 square foot apartment a quick drive to work, an apartment with no frills except a covered garage I use for some storage.

Background: I've been mulling over the idea of moving closer to Minneapolis, being closer to friends (and girlfriend), at the cost of a longer commute... I've been thinking about my future in general, realizing that the job I've found myself in is actually a really good fit for me. So I'd like to stick with it, even if socially I'd like to be in Minneapolis.

And here comes the tricky bit. I just got a note in the mail yesterday from my leasing company asking if I want to move to a luxury apartment across town, at a reduction in rent of $90/mo. ( Collapse )

There's a fitness center, a heated underground garage, and a pool at the new place. It's $90 cheaper a month for the slightly bigger 2bed/2bath, and a move wouldn't be too painful. The only downside I can see is being committed to renting in Rochester for an extra 10 months. There may be issues with construction noise, or difficulty getting to the highway, but... I suspect it's not bad, and it'd still be faster than getting to the highway from my current place. The downsides are minimal, really, once I admit to myself that talk of moving to Minneapolis is a bit far off, realistically... :-/

So yeah, I'll take a look and see if there's any obvious problems.

Finally, they got the iTunes Diet Pepsi in the machine near my office. I bought my first one. "Please try again." I think I probably will. Numerous times. It's easy to switch from Diet Coke to Diet Pepsi, nothing like the difference between Coke and Pepsi. But once this thing is over, I will switch back. Oh yes, I will switch back.

Would be nice to get some free songs back for the money I'm already pumping into those machines daily though. Woot. :)

So I dropped by the business office of the apartment building at lunch... And it mostly seems nice. I have yet to see an apartment, but the grounds are ok, the fitness room is decent, and there's a nice "community room" for holding parties in when needed. Pool, jacuzzi, garage... bike racks in the garage. I found out that the "$750/mo*" rent quoted in the flyer they sent me is actually $899/mo rent, with two months free this year, prorated out across the whole year. That means come next March or April there's an automatic rent increase. ...unless they want to give the same deal again to keep me as a customer. Not that bad a deal, really. Even after two years I'm ahead on rent.

Anyway, at that point I ask about cable TV. They don't have Charter cable, which I would have expected to be a good thing, but... it's not a question of healthy competition. visionsystems.tv has a monopoly on cable in the building... you can get basic cable from them, or DirecTV through them, using their antenna. The high-speed internet is also through them.

Now, I am currently very happy with my service from Charter. Great cable/internet package with exactly what I want and nothing more or less... I'd be paying about $15/mo more once I moved for what seems to be rather weird Cable TV. At least the online lineup lists UPN and WB, where the paper one lists something else, so that wouldn't be as bad as I thought... But still, the installation fees, the prices, the requirement for a one-year contract, all of these smack of annoyances spoiling what should be a really good deal.

I wonder if ReplayTV even has this channel lineup in their system. I should check when I get home.

[Edit: I forgot that they're giving the first six months of high-speed Internet free... but I don't want to count on that since I'm thinking long-term here, and I don't know if I can use my old cable modem with that, so I might still be paying $5/mo rent on a modem, or buying a new one for DSL or something. And again, installation fees. Ugh.]

There was very little about that apartment that was "luxury." The accessories were nice, the community room, the garage, the pool, the barbecues. But the apartment itself was just like mine, only smaller. The floorplan was wasteful, with little dividing walls, a hallway whose door is either closed, or blocking the bathroom entrance, and junk like that. Unimpressed. Not moving.

So looks like I'm at Essex 'til May 2005. Unless I figure out something else.

Classic cars... some powder on the briefcase, a hair on the door, hiding under the water breathing through reeds. The CIA agent is exactly what he seems, after he finally introduces himself.

They definitely were simpler times. How do we get them back? Do we want them back? Can one write a Dr. No-style story these days and not fall short of modern sensibilities?

Classic gaming brought to the modern MMORPG world. It's Adventure Online!

Which reminds me, I need a DAoC lj icon.