Ah, where has the time gone?

The last few weeks of writing post for LaExpat where my first attempt at entering the blog-o-sphere. In writing the blog I had many mixed emotions. At times I felt inspired, strong and confident in my posts;, but come every other week I worried that I would bring the fail whale upon myself at any moment. Luckily I have survived mostly unscathed from my tour of duty.

From what I learned about during the semester, there are some important thinks to focus on. One of the biggest thing that I admittedly had a hard time focusing on was keeping the content relevant. When I first thought about this blog I thought that talking about my experiences in Austin would provide me with a cornucopia of topics to write about. What I realized is that I would have to work much harder than I expected to find content for post. If I had content readily available it, wasn’t relevant to my topic. If I am to keep this topic going, I will have to spend much more time investing in content.

When it came to writing blog post, I found a couple of best practices as for composing a blog. If I have an idea on the go, I found it was best to immediately make an outline on my phone. If I did not make a layout to keep my ideas on track; I found myself struggling to make a post. The best thing to do when actually writing up the post was to find a quiet spot away from distractions to pull out the trusty laptop and put down your ideas. At one point in the process of this class I had to replace my laptop battery because I had overloaded my laptop.

One of my first instagram photos.

I can apply the lessons learned through the blog to my professional career. While I have learned that I do not want to be the person in charge of a company blog, I would be able to be flexible in the future. I have realy come to learn and love Twitter and Instagram through the taking of this course. I am not going to tweet photos of my lunch, look up what celebrity power couple broke up, or follow every little thing my favorite comedians think of; but I now have an idea for what content can get attention and organic shares.

To Drive or Not to Drive.

http://movabilityaustin.org/2012/07/street-thoughts-on-rewards/

Austin is a beautiful tapestry of people from around the nation who come together to call this stretch of the Colorado River home. With this influx of people, one major problem Andy rapidly growing city runs into is traffic! The city has grown up so much and so fast that there is not enough maneuvering room for the people driving them.

When are actually moving in this town, the drivers have no constancy. For example, if you drive in Dallas you have to keep up or you will get mown down. In Austin, you could be going full speed in the fast lane when some grandmother will pull in front of you going 20 under. Don’t you dare think about going around people if you have any sense in this town. Driving according to rules of the road will likely get you shot in this town; it’s the same when you have to on ramps. Half the people in this town think you have to merge as soon as possible without even attempting to come back up to full speed. It leads to some pretty big traffic jams on the south end of town.

Because of the growth, I don’t think I would be doing south Austin drivers justice without mentioning the nightmare that the Stassney and William Cannon exits are the worst. I personally have been stuck in a mile long traffic line waiting for a left hand turn. This inter section took a full 15 minutes to get through. Txdot has been working on a plan, but the project has no funding and wouldn’t break ground until sometime in 2016. Until that time I always try to avoid this intersection as much as possible.

You think that growing up in la, you would be used to bad traffic. Austin is a level of traffic hell that no previous practice can prepare you for.  My best advice in this town is to keep a stress ball on hand and make sure you plan for idiot traffic.

Come and Sew It!

Hey, LAexpat here!

Last Christmas I discovered that by boyfriend never had a proper stocking. Upon learning this I thought, “It cannot be that hard to make one!” So I set out to make a stocking inspired by the one my mother made for me.  After a few false starts I learned that I can sew! Since then I have made pillows, tote bags, and I have mastered the hidden zipper. While it would be challenging to tackle bigger projects, I will have to wait until I get some time away from work or school to do so.

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Now I assumed that most men out there would say that this is a girly or insignificant skill set to have, but here in Texas the vast majority of responses I get from men ( and macho women) is, “whoa, those are survival skills and (stuff).”(I bet you weren’t expecting that); heck, grade school me would kick the snot out of current me. This always gives me the feeling that I have joined a club of people who can actually go out and make stuff that some Texans find cool. When I sent home some pillows to my grandmother, my mom demanded over a video call, that I explain how I put in the zipper so well.

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While I enjoy the reaction, it still feels weird and out of place. I almost get the feeling that this cultural habit comes from the need to shoe horn people into definable categories that fit our classic social molds. Every time I talk to a little old lady at the fabric store about what I am making, they ask, “Do you watch project runway?” It sounds like it is almost code for,” are you a homer?” Either way, it is one more thing about Texas that both confuses and amazes me.

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Check out my Pinterest where you can see some of my projects. Or check out the slide show below!

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Check out the views.

Hey, Laexpat here. In my last blog post I had some photos that inspire me from my adventures that I simply could not fit in to the last post. So here for your pleasure are some photos that express the feeling of wonder and adventure I love about La.

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Wait there is nature in Texas?

Howdy y’all. I was thinking. When I first moved to Texas I was under the impression that the state was developed into three categories; Cattle Ranches, Big cities, or oil fields. No one informed this office about the cuss load of land there is out there to explore, and some of it isn’t outlet malls!

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One of my favorite spots is Hamilton pool, as legend has it, was discovered in the mid 1860’s by the 8 year old son of Morgan C. Hamilton; but may have been know about earlier as the land was previously the territory of the Tonkawa and Lipan Apaches. In the century and a half since, The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife declared it a significant natural area in Travis County, and purchased the land in 1985. The park has since been under development to return it to its natural environment.

        My first experience with the pool was in January 2013. While it was not ideal weather to go swimming my experience there was wonderful. You have to walk behind the waterfall and explore the grotto to understand the beauty of it. The canyon trail to the Pedernales River is a very beautiful and gentle trial to explore that I would highly recommend if you have the time.

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Hamilton pool reminds me a lot of my favorite easy hike in la, Switzer Falls. I first learned of the trail by passing through the Angeles national forest with my boyfriend on an exploration outing back in 2011. I was amazed at the beauty of the forest that had been so close my entire life but I had never had the chance to visit. When I first visited the falls I did not realized that you have two options: you can take the longer 4.5 mile roundtrip trek to the very base of the falls, or you can make it a 2 mile trip and explore the old resort area.

photo Via cougarmagic

Before the mountain range became a national park, the range was dotted with many popular resorts from around the turn of the century. Switzer Camp was originally founded in 1884, and after a major forest fire destroyed it, the resort changed hands and had a chapel added around 1911. Now there is not much to see of the old resort except an old slab under berry bushes and some arches on the hill side. I love to hike to the top of the hill where the old chapel was and look out on the beauty of the river valley.

Most people will take the long trail towards the falls. I unfortunately never packed trunks to swim in the many pools or went when the water was warm enough to enjoy. It is a wonderful day trip with a wide variety of terrain and views. If hiking isn’t your ting there is a wonderful shady picnic area at the trail head. Every time I make it back to la I try to visit this little treasure.

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I hope that you too will have a chance to explore some of my favorite areas in the great outdoors.

There should be an app for that!

Laexpat here. I’ve been thinking more and more often these days that there is a serious problem on our hands. How do you avoid all of these hipsters? Every time I go out there are so many hipsters trying to be at the cool new place that it is almost ruined. I can’t seem to swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a hoard of them.

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So I thought; there should be an app for that! Here is my idea: Hipster alerts, Friends don’t let friends put up with hipsters. It could be so simple; once the user opens the app they will be able to post a location specific alert to the gathering of hipsters who are totally ruining the good time you are having. Now others in the area will get the location alert and immediately avoid the area so their good night won’t be ruined as well. In the app will warn you just before you turn the corner at one of the sighting locations within two hours, so you won’t make the same mistake of going there that your friend did.

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If the user is lucky enough to snap a photo of the offender in the act they will be able to post the photo to a virtual wall of shame. This will provide ample shaming and allow everyone else to laugh at how silly the hipsters would look. Hopefully with enough posts, hipsters will catch on and cut that silly stuff out!

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With your help Hipster Alerts can help save millions of nights out.

Get your drink on!

 

Hey, Laexpat here. Something has been on my mind of late. It’s hard to find a small local laid back bar to hang out at in Austin. Ok, that sounds weird but hears me out. In Austin I have so far found dirty sixth, Fourth Street, Rainey or some big-chain bar; let me tell you they leave me very unsatisfied.

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Dirty sixth it’s too loud, too full of drunks and too touristy. I have been once and that was enough to say never again. I have heard from a friend that east sixth is still a cool and laid back place to go to but I have yet to go.

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Fourth street should seem like the obvious choice as it is the gay bar hub of Austin. Problem is it’s just full of sterile personality-less cliché gay bars. Take Oilcan Harry’s; it seems like the kind of generic-safe gay bar that every girl wants her gay best friend to take her too. Every song has the same booming beat that is only good for drunken girl dancing and there is no room to move around the bar as everyone is too preoccupied tying to get picked up by Brian Kinney. If you can’t imagine it give your girlfriends too many wine coolers, put on some dance music, tell Karen that Beth has been talking shit about her, and have two people make out in the corner. That should just about sum it up.

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In all honesty, Rainey can be a fun and magical place as was my first visit. I went on a brisk march night with my brother and visited Clive bar, Bangers, and Craft Pride. There were no crowds and you could actually have a fun night hanging out and just bull-shiting amongst friends.

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Every time since has been too got damn’d pretentious. If you have ever tried to order a mixed drink at Half Step, you would know that it is a miserably long wait on even the best of nights. Their problem lies with the fact that the cool looking mixed drink is overly complicated. First you have to fit large cubes of clear ice with flat bottoms into a glass with a round bottom; this results in the “mixologist” having to hack away at the ice for a good half a minute to get the damned thing to fit into the glass. Next you have Florence flasks full of mixers that only hold a few drinks worth; so between every three drinks the bar tender has to pull out the un-cool big bottle and a funnel to refill the flask. This takes so long you could be sober before your next drink. I would give the place another try if they could, ya know, put a flat bottomed ice cube in a flat bottomed shot glass and speed up production just a wee bit.

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I would love to find a little local gay bar like we had in LA that you would not be driven to consume massive quantities of liquor just to put up with the place. One little quiet spot that immediately comes to mind is a The Roosterfish in Venice. I have heard that there are a few small places that may fit the bill so I won’t lose hope. Until then this is the Laexpat signing off.

Houses and condos and generic malls oh my!

Hey, Laexpat here. Something has been on my mind lately. In Austin we have a housing shortage. I know shocker right. I do feel I must fess up and admit, I am part of that problem, only having moved here 2 years ago next month. The good news is we keep building suburbs and expanding to fit the 122 people a day that are moving here. The problem that occurs is what quality of suburbs we are building.

Austin proper is a huge draw for people to move here ( all be it a bit to hipster;  more on that another day) . There is a wide variety of clubs, eateries and local haunts available fairly easily. However you cannot afford to live there unless you are a part of Austin’s elite. The median listing price for a home in Austin’s Rosedale neighborhood is 434,950. Compare that to round rock at 124,900 dollars and you can see why a family at the median income of 50,000 dollars chooses to live outside the city.

This mad scramble to meet demand has lead to a mortifying reality. Pre planned generic communities that are shoddy. Take my neighbor hood, I live in a house with an ally but the developers put all the utilities, clean outs and power boxes in the front yards just because it was easier to build this section the same way as the others. This also leads to a lack of options when it comes to housing floor plans. There are 5 of my currents house’s floor plans on the same street as me, taking into the fact that the HOA controls the paint colors it shouldn’t be shocking to tell you two of them are in the same color as mine. I can see myself walking into my neighbors houses with good regularity because you can easily mistake them for mine.

Unless you live downtown you have very few local restaurants available and you can hardly walk anywhere. It is hard to find a neighbor with features similar to what I had in Hollywood or Culver City. In both of my old neighbor hoods I was only a short walk from a market, café, shopping and theaters. Once you get the malls, unless you are in down town, you can almost be guaranteed that you will be shopping at the same generic nationwide stores at every mall you go to. If I wanted to have only nationwide options, why would I pay more to live in Austin.

With time, more variety should be breathed into these neighbor hoods once they are established. Until then please, please help me find variety in the houses available.

May I have some good food please ?

Photo: The Salt Lick

 

Hey there. So to start off this blog I will tackle food. We all need it, eat it, over eat it and hate it.

The first thing I looked forward to eating in Texas was BBQ. For Californians the whole clogging you arteries with delicious meaty goodness is something that is supposed to be kept on the down low. But here in Texas it is celebrated at restaurants such as the Salt Lick, Blacks, and Smitty’s. I have never wanted to bathe in BBQ sauce once In California, but here, it seems like I am always one side of brisket away from taking a dip. There is something about a deeply smoked side of brisket that tri tip will ever achieve.

As for ethnic food, that’s an entirely different story. I have become so disappointed with the quality of Asian food. Back home I could easily find a hole in the wall restaurant that would almost be guaranteed to serve flavorful, deeply complex, and authentic food. Heck my neighbors ran a Chinese restaurant until I was 13 years old.

In Austin everything sings the same dismal one note tune; SWEET AND SOUR, Minus the sour. There also seems to be an unholy clashing of cultures that goes on. I have seen my share of menus that have sushi pizza listed. I’m sorry; your teacher should be allowed to shoot you for such a culinary abomination.

I also don’t want Tex-Mex every time you say Mexican. I do not want everything on my plate to be covered in some sort of sauce or cheese. Don’t get me wrong, it is a tasty way to go but it is no home cooking. I love Chile rellenos, carnitas and good fish tacos; so far that can’t be found. Now call me a west slider but I have had a hankering for titios tacos for about 3 months now. Someone please convince titos of starting an overnight ordering system.

I implore my fellow Californian expats! Please convince any friend of Chinese, Japanese, Thai or Latin heritage who is a halfway decent cook to fly out here and save me from the culinary badlands.

Hello Folks

My Name is Samuel Herbert, I have two dogs, a loving partner, and attend Texas State San Marcos. As some of you may realize from the tittle I’m not an Austin native. Now like many a Californian I made the great trek across the desert to find the hippy bastion of Texas that is AUSTIN! Cheap(er) land, no income tax, and carry conceal permits every where you look. But these where not the draws that pulled me here. For me and my boyfriend we Came to Austin because he needed good work and I could transfer with him. No hate for California, no animosity like many of my fellow cali expats, Just moved here for the opportunity.

Now that I am here, what the hell was i thinking! Its stinking hot, humid as hell and there are bugs every where you go. In the words on my boyfriend ” who decided to populate this cuss hole?” But not all is lost. I have started to see the beauty of Austin along with its faults. No matter how awesome the BBQ is, I still long for Home.

So here I intend to dedicate this blog to my experiences in my adopted home, what is awesome about Austin and what could be better in the opinion of a California raised boy. I think many of my fellow Californian expats may have the same opinion. I hope you all enjoy this little blog!

You can also follow me on twitter!