Not yet, but I'm trying to leave retail marketing web development to work at a local water utility. It's difficult to find a position I'm qualified for, though. If it pans out, it'll be a 25-30% drop in income, but with the benefit of a short commute, good long-term job security, and the peace of mind that my work helps keep the community alive and in clean water.
My best to all those out there pursuing peace of mind and happiness.
This topic resonates with me, because I'm currently building a horrible marketing static page with images and videos that top 150MB, prior to optimization. It causes me psychic pain to think about pushing that over the wire to people that might have data caps. Not my call, though...
Back when I grew up in the 80s and 90s there was a child abduction scare due to high profile cases like the Michaela Garecht case in Hayward, California. In fact, we lived in the same general community as her family (my parents knew the Garechts). Yet they still allowed my sister and I to choose how we got to and home from school (bus, walking, or bike) or to our friends' house. Speaking to them in adulthood about it, they said their choice to allow that was a combination of what you said -- teaching us to be autonomous -- and also that it jibed with their busy professional lives. Seems like they also got stares of disapproval from other parents, but I think it was the right choice.
Our family used to attend Newman Hall Church in Berkeley, California back in the '90s -- a very brutalist building of a church. Although religion never took for me, I had fond memories of the after-church donut feasts in the community space.
I don't know if the intention of the architecture was to get me to focus on the mass, but young me just spent the entire time taking in the strange geometries of the place.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3TtT716k3bUkdAVh6
This, exactly. We Americans have very little knowledge base on how to build HSR, so it's as much a workforce training and proving ground as it is a functional line.
Normally, yes, you would be correct. But in the case of the Shinkanzen, it rolls to a stop, carefully opens it doors and allows the elderly to depart, gazes at the natural beauty of Japan all around it, and ponders on the question of whether the elderly passengers really exist at all. It decides they do and, as soon as the conductors are back aboard, closes its doors and departs the station at a deliberate speed. It moves towards the next station on this line and on the wheel of dharma.
Arlanda is my favorite major-city airport. I'm not as well-traveled as many, but I've been to dozens and it's my favorite. I've transited between Stockholm, Norrtalje, and the airport in bus, tax, and train, with each being the easiest experience I've had with that respective form of transit.
A journalist acquaintance of mine in NYC was in touch with the orthodox community there, who were somehow associated with the Temple Institute, the organization working together with American evangelicals to breed a red heifer. According to scripture, sacrificing a red heifer at the Temple in Jerusalem would herald the coming of the messiah. So the plan (as I understand it) is to breed the heifer, demolish Al-Aqsa Mosque, rebuild the temple there, sacrifice said heifer, and Bob's your uncle, here comes the messiah.
If this is all the actual case (I'm going on his word, since I wasn't the one in touch with these individuals), it represents a real attempt to bring about the apocalypse -- at least according to scripture. It would certainly cause an enormous amount of turmoil around the world, especially the Middle East.
Hearing your description really makes me want to visit and experience the...dread? Similarly was a motorcycle ride I took through the Searles Valley and the town of Trona, much further north of there and near Death Valley. What an unreal setting that place is.
Sweden has a similar right to roam called "Allemansrätten" that allows people to go cross-country through private natural lands as long as they follow a handful of guidelines. I think it's generally that the traveler needs to stay out of private gardens, off farmland, away from homes, and not despoil the land. There is so much open land in Sweden that it's pretty simple to achieve all of these goals just a few dozen kilometers outside Stockholm (my opinion: I haven't actually tried it).
Gush on! This is the kind of thing I love to occasionally see here. Wish I could live on the water, but slip fees are pricey and limited where I'm at. Best to you!
The companies that told me I was a rejected applicant via email, I was disappointed for a short while, but moved on. The companies that left me hanging and never said a thing, I still hold a grudge.
My respect to the companies that care enough to offer us that swift closure.