random ramblings

It’s my 3rd week in San Jose and I love it here.. It would be awesome if I could get fulltime job in this area after graduation. Hendrik already agreed that next time around he will follow me wherever I go. I also already told my mom that I won’t even apply for or drop my resume to companies in the midwest or the south anymore! :p I want to move to the coast.. West coast or east coast :p but preferably the west coast hehe…

The first thing I love here is the weather.. oh so nice.. well it gets hot during the day these last few days but I don’t feel it since I’m inside all day.. Everytime I’m outside it’s always in the 70’s or low 80’s hehehe. Look at the current weather.. it’s past 9PM in Austin and it’s still 89 degrees. Whooh ..

Then the diversity and the culture here is just so great !! Not just at work but the local community..

But the cost of living here is so scary :p

This morning on the way to work I passed by a Shell gas station and the price for regular gas (cheapest) is $4.64 !!!!! I used to fill up my car with premium gas.. my car didn’t require premium gas but from the beginning when the car was brand NEW (that was 7.5 years ago) we fed it premium hehe so I just got used to it and somewhat afraid to affect the engine or car performance if I switch. So when gas price climbed up to $2, then $2.50.. I still sticked with premium hehe.. Then sometime last year I think when it passed $3 I finally made the swith to medium grade hahaha Now that it’s nearing $5 should I downgrade again? :p

gasbuddy.com provides a nice map for gas price in a city.. here’s a snapshot of the situation in SJ vs Austin

Last weekend I had lunch with Niaz who is on a long-term work assignment in the area. I was surprised to learn he’s still here. I knew he was going to work here last year when I was still in Indiana.. so it’s been a year and didn’t know he is still here. Anyways it’s nice to see a familiar face. So he was telling me to be prepared of all the tax deductions from my paycheck hehe. California is a high tax state And he also told me that according to his calculation even if he makes $150k in salary here it’s still barely enough to support his lifestyle hahah

So I thought I should also look into this if I’m serious about moving here hehe

Bestplaces.net compares 2 cities on more than 100 attributes.. here’s the overview result of SJ vs Austin comparison.

*GASP* Is that for real?? $167K is the comparable salary for $100K in Austin??? I tried another website, CNN Money and the result is pretty close.. $162K in SJ = $100K in Austin.

Austin actually looks really good on the profiles.. lower cost of living than national average.. very high numbers in the education profile (a lot of advance degree residents), pretty high average household salary, much lower crime rate.. hehe I couldn’t agree more actually. Austin IS an awesome city.. my only gripe is just the weather and location in the middle of the country :p

Well it all depends on what kind of offers I’ll get this fall.. I guess we’ll decide when that time comes .. hopefully before the end of this year I’ll know where we’re going to live next..