Today my trip to the scenic underbelly of humanity comes to an end. I’m leaving L.A. today at 2:50 pm to arrive back in Denver at a few minutes after 6pm (darn time zones – it’s really a 2 hour flight).
All I really got to see while I was here was that the average person in California lives in half the space with twice the costs of people elsewhere. The parking is a nightmare, the highways are in ‘rush hour’ conditions almost 18 hours a day, the air smells like a racetrack 24/7 – it’s a very bad place to live.
I went to L.A. proper once while I was here, and all I saw was skid row. I drank the water and had intestinal troubles most of the trip. Nearly everyone I had to communicate with while I was here only spoke broken English. If you stop any where for more than about 30 seconds, someone will ask you for money – this trip was very much like visiting a third-world country, but without the culture.
I did get to drive around Sony Studios while looking for breakfast one morning, they filmed something for three days at the mall across the street, and I saw “Open Season” last night in really astounding 3D at an IMAX theater where I was –not- accosted by a bum looking for a handout, which was odd enough I noticed it.
My client is very happy with me and not so happy with the developer, and there will be repeat business from these folks *and* the developer (who is also happy with me, but not their programmers). As always I was offered a job while I was here – I’ve not run a test for a customer where I wasn’t offered a job… Too bad living here would probably cause me to slash my wrists in about a month.
All in all, this trip has put me off from ever wanting to come back here, even for a few days. South of here things are better. The Anaheim area is really nice, but that’s probably because it’s all owned by Disney and several large corporations.
But I’m *never* coming back to Los Angeles.