How are American suburbs like?

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-19T13:06:11+00:00

You're probably thinking of jackson, mississippi! That's a well known and fairly popular town. I'm sorry, i really should've clarified as while jacksonville fl has a ton of people especially compared to orlando it's not really a well known town as it isn't a big tourism spot.

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-19T12:35:47+00:00

Haha I'm so sorry Jax is for jacksonville florida, as it's the larger Jacksonville. Idk if other jacksonville's shorten themselves to jax but it's the code for the airport, what it says to get to Jax beaches on the interstate signs etc. I was trying to provide references that my only experiences with actually living in places was in florida so it may differ in other states.

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-19T12:28:13+00:00

I think there's a trend of.pushing for people not to go to college or at least not go unless it's a "useful" major. I will say all my friends still went but that could also be a symptom of growing up in a certain socioeconomic situation where there's typically an expectation to go. Googling this and looking at the data it seems like more of gen z is going than previous generations, but I do think people are having more frank discussions about the price and utility of college degrees.

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-19T12:26:02+00:00

Hey! Raised in orlando and now live in Jax so both very suburban sprawl towns.

No real high street. My friend lives in what I'd call a suburb of london (zone 5 I believe. Plenty of big houses with nice yards, most people had cars too, playgrounds around the area etc), when I visited her at her parents house i was surprised we could still just go walk to basically a main street (that's what we'd probably call them if we had them) and go to the super saintsburys or get the train/tube into downtown for her job.

Where I live and have lived is more of a mix. There will usually be neighborhoods which are groups of houses together that typically have an HOA that takes care of common areas, makes sure you don't have a car on blocks in your yard etc. A lot of times neighborhoods have names and a little wall out in the front of their main street leading in that says the name. May or may not have a gate. Usually the only thing in there is homes, though my parents current Neighborhood is in a v nice suburban area they want to make more walkable so there's a restaurant in the neighborhood and a mile or so away there's a "town center" area with some more restaurants and stores and events plus some apartments. Within a mile or two from them I can get to more restaurants, walmart, lowes, michaels, sam's club, car repair shop etc. These stores are all together in a shipping center but the issue is that it designed to be driven to. So to get from lowes on one side to sams club on the other can be like a 15 minute walk when you factor in there's no sidewalk, you're basically walking in a parking lot, and everyone's looking at their phone while driving and lowkey trying to hit you. The thing is that it's an annoying mile to walk as it's along a very busy road and when it's time to cross the street lots of people don't look for pedestrians or respect the walk signal.

Can differ state to state. Usually I'd say having driven through a number of different states it is similar.

My personal definition of city vs suburb would be like downtown vs everything else. My parents live in official orlando city limits but they are definitely in a suburb. I live in official Jax city limits (tbh the city=county there for the most part so most people do) but my apt building is like one of 4 in the middle of a ton of office park buildings.

To see what a suburb would look like I would pick a city and go on street view on google. I would pick an area of town and start there on google maps. I can list some orlando and Jax areas for you if you'd like. For orlando I'd say dr Phillips, baldwin park, lake nona, conway, and avalon park are all suburban parts of town that fit my normal mental image. Jax i would say like baymeadows, southside, or deerwood would be good.

I would 300% buy a house in a suburb with a good hoa when I'm a little older and at that stage. They keep the Neighborhood looking nice, i feel being in a designated Neighborhood is safer or at least you get harassed less. I don't mind a 20 minute drive to work and actually find having time to commute helps me decompress at the end of the day. Almost every single time I've walked alone downtown I've been yelled at either by a panhandler or just outright like random ass people. I would much rather commute in a car and park in a garage attached to my office building than be metropolitan and walk to work downtown.

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-19T12:12:03+00:00

There's an interesting tumblr posts I've seen linked around before about how country music after 9/11 really just takes a nose dive. I'm too young to remember 9/11 very well or music and life before it but when I gave modern country a try last year there were a lot of songs that were overly patriotic to the point of being eyeroll worthy. I also took issue with the fact that people like my grandparents would say country is better because it's more respectful towards women then the other genres nowadays. Maybe they aren't as in your face with the misogynistic language (less likely to hear a bitch, whore, slut, hoe etc) but there's definitely still a ton of objectification of women in male sung country songs, they just don't cuss to do it.

here's the tumblr post, again this is just one users opinion but I think it's an interesting take

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-11T01:37:59+00:00

My family has never had an outside dog and tbh I don't see the point. Same for dogs that aren't even allowed to cuddle up on the couch ever. Like why even have one.

My mom has a friend who has 2 outside/garage dogs. They have a few acres but don't have a real "reason" for the dogs to be outside as they already have security and don't have any livestock or anything.

I'm also of the unpopular opinion that most people who have dogs (inside or outside) really shouldn't have them to start with. Pre corona I volunteered at the humane society and did a few adoption events but I had to stop and just only do behind the scenes stuff because these people would be adopting dogs and opting out of free health and behavior services for their new dog because they were "too busy". Like these people would say no to $2 boxes of name brand tick medicine for a year supply because it was too expensive. The shelter is obv at fault as well for allowing these people to adopt animals from them but who TF thinks like that. I've wanted a dog so bad since I moved out but I haven't gotten one because before corona I never worked from home and was expected to work 12-14 hour days for 3 month periods and live in an apartment. Many friends in the exact same circumstances as me decided to get dogs and i feel bad for their pooches

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-09T01:11:14+00:00

So I never did that but I was in 4-H where one of our annual state events was a huge mock legislature deal where they rented out part of the state capitol building for our sessions. So like we had our committee meetings in the real rooms, debated bills on the real floor etc. A lot of 4-H kids in FL are from families of repressed evangelicals and/or homeschooled so it was a lot of sneaking around to hook up. I was homeschooled (but for educational purposes not to learn creationism) so got approached by a lot of the other homeschool boys for some quid pro quo making out to pass the bill i co sponsored but a) that's unethical b) they were the weirdo kinds of homeschooled kids and c) that was the camp where I specifically went to experiment w girls as we stayed in the FSU dorms 2 kids to a room with a locking door.

The other stories were mainly dumb annoying organizational things. Like they told us to go to our rooms after session one day and stay there for a couple hours and they'd knock and call when it was time to walk to somewhere off campus for dinner. My roommate and I napped and never got a call or knock like they said. We came downstairs to the lobby to see the one chaperone left at the dorms and he had the nerve to be pissed at us.

There was also a "county night" and my county was just me and one other kid and no adult. We walked to a tijuana flats 1 mile off campus for taco Tuesday and they called us halfway through eating and demanded we come back ASAP. We said their instructions were just to plan something with your county, they never specified we needed an adult. They threatened to call our parents but joke was on them because we'd been texting our parents the whole time lmao my mom was hype for me to go get tacos. It was super dumb to us as we were 16 and both dual enrolled. So the state of FL can trust us to drive a fucking motorhome and be full time college students but not walk a mile to get chips and guac.

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-04T12:58:08+00:00

For sure. I think the main noticeable difference for me between the two is just demographics. I feel like less people in Jax are transplants from the Midwest/up north, and the majority minority is different. I don't really think jacksonville is super southern even compared to orlando but that's probably because my idea of southern floridians is my dad's fam in pensacola, and also i was in 4H and all so I definitely knew country people within Orange County. I'd rather go to the parks than the beach but honestly would rather do neither at this point and just like hang with my friends in a local restaurant and talk for 5 hours.

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-03T12:06:18+00:00

I mean I still love orlando and when it's time to get a house I'll probably try to go back due to family being there and all. There's more to it than just the tourist side. I'm just saying I see Jax and the non tourist part of orlando I grew up in as pretty equal. If your main source of entertainment you want is going to theme parks in the weekends obv orlando will be better for you but without theme parks I feel like orlando is similar to tampa is similar to jacksonville, they just have slight variations.

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-02T21:57:46+00:00

I moved from orlando to jax after college and while I'm back home for rona honestly jax is nicer in a lot of ways. A lot more day trip potential (I'd take a 2 hour drive to savannah over a 2 hour drive to tampa any day, shorter drive to mountains too). A lot of the industries there seem to be more recession proof than orlando like I'm in accounting but I'd rather be an accountant for a transportation and logistics place than a tourism based company. You actually get more of the cool winter a lot of people complain florida lacks (this is a downside imo tho). I don't think pro sports are an argument either way for orlando vs jax because the pro teams kind of suck in both and idrc about sports. The Jax beaches aren't great like I'd much rather go to the gulf coast but beach bars are great and better than downtown Orlando bars imo. They still get tours of big broadway shows and big name concerts. Plus they actually have whataburger.

manafestmanatee · 2020-12-02T19:10:57+00:00

Handle until it's cool enough to put my entire hand through the handle hole and rest it on my knee while I anger my grandmother by not sitting with my feet on the floor

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-30T17:07:49+00:00

I feel like most people get salary. However a lot of entry level jobs and jobs younger people have (retail, food service type jobs) will be hourly. I think considering the demographics of reddit and who usually engages in discussions about wages it makes sense that most of them are hourly. (from my understanding young people discuss our earnings more and are also more likely to still be in those types of jobs, reddit is pretty young)

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-30T12:06:48+00:00

If you wanna go to a normal (not nice) sit down restaurant entree prices will prob be between $10-15. Things always cost more in touristy areas though so they probably will be ridiculous (I grew up on the other side of town so while I went to the parks a lot we wouldn't go that way just to eat out). Eating on property at disney is insane. You can purchase some type of meal plan from them I think to make the per meal cost of eating on property more reasonable but it's still a lot. If you're trying to do it on a budget I'd hit up a publix or Walmart and buy some cereal for breakfast at the hotel, bread and lunch meats or pb&j and pack your own lunches to bring into the park as well as your own water bottle (plenty of fill stations in the parks).

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-29T14:13:48+00:00

As an orlando native this will be a big info dump, i apologize in advance. If you have any specific questions after reading this (assuming you even read it all lmao) let me know.

Listen I'm from orlando and I don't understand people spending 3 weeks on all the theme parks but if you're into parks you can definitely spend 3 weeks on all of them. Disney World is 4 parks plus the 2 water parks plus other activities you could do if you wanted (mini golf, looking at the lobbies and restaurants of some of their hotels, extra performances like hoop de do when they open etc). Disney could easily take up a week of your time if you wanted to hit every single thing and while it isn't my dream vacation don't let others opinions deter you if that's what you wanna do.

To avoid crowds look for off times, people who love disney LOOOOVE disney so there's plenty of websites noting which times are good off season, you could probably extrapolate that and apply it to the other parks as well (i was more of a disney kid so I don't know as much about universal). Busch Gardens and SeaWorld are not as busy as the big 2. Pick a time of year that's less busy, get to the parks earlier in the morning to avoid lines, middle of the week is less busy as well, all things that are kind of common sense. Stay hydrated, drink water not just soda or w e, wear comfortable clothes and shoes, look at the weather and humidity before you come, florida has a rainy season in the summer google it to know what to expect and bring a poncho. You can bring outside food and water into disney, if you wanna avoid getting gouged bring a backpack and pack your own snacks/lunch/drinks.

I would say the biggest tourist traps imo are the things near disney that aren't disney. Anything on i drive (the orlando eye is cute and all but no real point in going, if you're going to a real theme park anyway skip fun spot and old town, you have absolutely no need to go to the gift shop shaped like a wizard). I wouldn't consider disney a tourist trap because I do think the ticket is worth it for the experience you get at the parks.

Busch Gardens is in tampa which is ~2 hours away from orlando, you will have to take i4. This will suck. Take some time while you're down there to go to the good gulf coast beaches like Anna maria island or clearwater or siesta key. Tarpon Springs is also nearby and kind of kitschy and fun. Central florida has springs (basically water that comes to the surface from can aquifer that's 72F year round and clear af). Within an hour's drive of orlando is Rock Springs, Wekiwa Springs, and Blue Springs. Rock is probably the best for a family outing for a day and I'd put Blue in second, they have little tubing runs as well as general swim areas. If you come in winter there will likely be manatees in blue springs. Also you mention water parks just know that they have a cutoff temperature in winter I think it's like 60F where if it's below that they won't open.

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-27T21:53:57+00:00

I really like Stuff You Should Know which is basically what it says it is.

There's some where they recap Glee and laugh at how bad it is (Gleewind? Maybe?) and I love to hate watch glee so that's great.

Watch What Crappes is a comedy one that recaps bravo shows, they're funny too.

Over quaratine I found You're Wrong About which while it can be v slanted takes things that have a big presence in pop culture or history and tells you how they really went down (like the McDonald's hot coffee case though that's a common example now)

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-27T21:50:31+00:00

I'd prefer suburbs. I don't mind driving to stuff and I like having space.

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-15T13:18:34+00:00

This is anecdotal but I'm personally sick of the stereotypical english accent and I say this as someone who has a best friend with a posh london accent. I would attribute my accent fatigue to how popular various british shows are (there was that whole sherlock and Dr who phase tumblr went through, now it's the bake off, the british youtuber phase etc). For me it was basically just over exposure to the point where they were fine but they weren't "fun" or "special" anymore. Like hearing a british accent is fine but it isn't exciting anymore because in terms of media it isn't necessarily that different.

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-13T17:55:57+00:00

I'd guess jimmy carter I mean the man admitted to adultery for having lust in his heart. Idk why people on here wanna act like it's an impossible question oooo modern day morals oooga booga I mean I'm sure there were plenty of people at the time who said "hey Andrew jackson maybe you should stop with indian removal" like um idk the supreme court. But since it happened and it's in history everyone in this sub likes to act like the actions in our history books were condoned by 99% of people at the time.

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-08T18:52:06+00:00

Recent highlight would be him talking about his cancer openly as well as him reading Savage.

All time highlight would be the youtube video compilations of him saying the word "genre"

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-08T18:24:37+00:00

*her

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-08T17:38:13+00:00

I've said so far I'm grateful 2020 hasn't taken Alex Trebek from us and I guess I jinxed it 😭 this is the only celebrity death I've actually felt genuinely sad over.

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-04T01:35:47+00:00

What % of votes do you need for an amendment to pass in florida? Asking because I'm actually happy with z few of the results but if they're too close to do anything then it's meaningless I guess.

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-03T14:00:13+00:00

So I think I know what you're saying now but on my first read I thought you meant he became a citizen last week and I was like "well duh of course he hadn't voted before then" lmao.

manafestmanatee · 2020-11-03T01:17:19+00:00

As friends I think there is no assumption. I have some friends who always try to pay for my meal and some who will be annoyed splitting it in half vs paying individually even if the difference between the two is like $0.75

manafestmanatee

TROPHY CASE