Where in the US?
One of this morning’s blog reading discoveries was a post by Kellan on Find Your Spot, a “where in the US you should live” survey. It asks you a ton of questions about weather, cultural activities, transportation, and recreation and then recommends the 24 best places in the US for you to live. Sounds like fun, right?
Unfortunately, it seems to be dreadfully wrong. My top 3 results:
- Kent, Washington
- Provo/Orem, Utah
- Tacoma, Washington
I mean, I guess it’s nice that 2 out of the top 3 are within an hour of where I live, but Kent? I mean, I guess it’s close to Ikea, and it’s easy to navigate, with all of the big wide streets full of warehouses, but other then that, it’s the butt of most “Seattle suburbs” jokes. Go watch reruns of Almost Live for edification. Tacoma’s supposed to be better then it was, but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for, either.
I’m going to resist commenting on Provo. I’ve been there a couple times, once driving through as part of a road trip, the other on work, and I have no desire to go back, much less live there.
The first batch of questions were on weather–I thought that I said that I don’t like cold streaks, warm is good, moderate weather is best, sun is good, but a bit of snow is nice. I suppose that explains number 5 on the list: Anchorage, Alaska.
Here’s the full list:
- Kent, WA
- Provo-Orem, UT
- Tacoma, WA
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Anchorage, AK
- Fort Collins, CO
- Olympia, WA
- Hampton, VA
- Bellingham, WA (Hey! I’m from there)
- Hickory, NC
- Tulsa, OK
- Manchester, NH
- Bismark, ND
- Spokane, WA
- Sioux Falls, SD
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Chattanooga, TN
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Portland, ME
- Greenville, SC
- Loveland, CO
- Amarillo, TX
- Ogden, UT
- Clarksville, TN
I’ve been in 6 out of the top 10, so I guess the list isn’t completely worthless, but in many ways it reminds me of one of those career placement tests that I took in high school. It told me that I was lousy at organizational skills, would average a ‘D’ in college accounting classes, and should consider a career in accountancy. It also claimed that there was no hope that I’d pass a college zoology class, but the rest of the sciences would be straight ‘A’s for me.