Hi Karin! I'm Phil.
Wow the Midwest! I've never met anyone from there. Have you always lived there? Is it nice? Do you like it there? I can't imagine what "sucky weather" means to someone else. Not sure if you've heard but we pretty much stay in the pocket of 55-65 degrees and overcast/fake sunny all year around. We have the occasional 70 degree day. San Francisco is an interesting place to live. Outside of the five years I lived elsewhere in the bay area, I have lived in the Excelsior District of San Francisco my entire life. It is one of the last few ungentrified neighborhoods in San Francisco. Which is curious because our city is only 49 sq mi, and if you drive a mile down the road you are no longer in the excelsior but the way more expensive Mission and another mile in the other direction is no longer Daly City. I am pretty much 6 minutes removed from downtown San Francisco [the super expensive and crazy busy place you hear about/see on TV], but my neighborhood is a smaller pocket of a residential area. There are still Mom & Pop shops here. There isn't a Starbucks here. It's not "dangerous" by bay area standards, but trouble is there if you go out looking for it. It's weird too, San Francisco has these invisible neighborhood lines that everyone pretty much abides to. One second you're walking on really nice 4th street/Mission [where the SF Metreon, a big event center and movie theatre mini-mall is], and just two blocks down, is 6th/Mission which is known pretty much as a hub/haven for drug users/abusers/homeless, police presence dips, etc. The two neighborhoods are the two neighborhoods and they don't bleed into each other. Weird huh?
Not all of SF is super expensive. Granted I'm sure it costs more on average to live here [gas is $3.45/gal] its very doable. My roommates are my best friends, we are all semi-successful college dropouts. Haha. We have a 3 bedroom house that we rent out for $2000/month. I'm sure that sounds like a lot, but keep in mind you would pay double/triple for a 1 bedroom place downtown.
It's great to hear that you've been getting the help you've needed. I'm not sure if it helps but if you ever need to shoot a message to a random-internet-stranger, you can count on me!
So if you've never had a job at 26, does that mean you still stay with your folks? That's cool. What is that like? Do you have a good relationship with your family? I'm sure you have a micro idea of the dynamics of my family based off the posts I shared in that askreddit thread, but thats how it goes for a lot of us growing up here. Either through a lack of space/privacy/no choice, a lot of my close friends here never really had the option to go to college. IMO its a great thing that you've had nothing but time to figure out what you want out of your life.
Yeahhhh, dating's dating. I don't genuinely feel that bad people have an affinity for me lol, but the string of women I've talked to are all from the "i want to have my cake and eat it too" camp. Its happened pretty frequently. It does decide to come and get me in the form of doubts on my downinthedumps days - but generally i believe I'll find someone I can be happy with.
I love ALL music. I grew up listening to hiphop - then my teenage years listening to music scores from video games lol. Rock came later and then EDM came after that. And all of it all has a place to stay. I think you'd see it once you look at my musical taste haha. i think i and a lot of everyone else label genres wrong - even one of my favorite producers flips between calling himself a dubstep/trap/future producer. So - what would you call chillstep. Link me!
The concept between DJing is easier to grip if you've ever had a background in music and understand tempo/measures, and even easier if youve ever played any BeatMania and know how to "count" music I guess I'd say.
Heres some of my recent likes on soundcloud as well as some of my more favorite songs in general.
ODESZA - Say My Name (feat Zyra) (GANZ Remix) - GANZ is labelled FutureBass a lot. Gabrielle Aplin - Panic Cord (HUCCI Remix) Juventa feat. Kelly Sweet - Superhuman (Au5 Remix) - I wish this song was a little less heavy on the dub because the vocals are effing beautiful. Oh Wonder - Shark (Illenium Remix) MaHi - Remember feat. Shana Munson DubVision - Turn it Around - anndddd the more housey stuff Andrew Rayel - One in a Million (Paris Blohm Remix)
I lucked out, and GANZ is coming to town on Thursday! Super excited. Have you ever been to any EDM events?
You know what? I've been playing video games since I was three year old. And I have NEVER played a single MMO. Am I missing out? Would I need a supercomputer to play? I have a dingy laptop I use for work that can barely run my mixing program. Haha.
I took a small break from reading to start/finish a project I was working on - but heres what I've read so far this year.
1) Chuck Palahniuk - Invisible Monsters 2) Robert M Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 3) Glenn Cravens - Evo Moment 37 (One of the Most Famous Moments in Competitive Gaming History) 4) Chuck Palahniuk - Choke [Re-read MY ALL TIME FAVE!!] 5) Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange [in progress] 6) The Story of Button - interesting story written by a 4channer in greentext. I like greentext as a medium but this story pretty much reads like 50 Shades of Gray haha.