• Trees cheer you up more than a million quid does
    155 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43540577]You can reflect in the city as well.[/QUOTE] Yeah, on how shitty everything is and how people kill everything natural to build constructs that perpetuate a society of excess. Simple pleasures in nature > shiny cars and concrete any day. Some places may have character, and there are nice cities, but most cities and their surrounding areas are just wasteland. Yeah, they're cool for a bit, but after, say, twenty seconds of being in a car trying to drive around, my mind is shot and I'm contemplating murder. But maybe I'm just biased as fuark 'cause I've grown up in the country. If I hear one car go by, that's a lot for a day. Probably just a culture difference more than anything, but I could never live full time in a big metropolitan area. Sorry for coming off like a jackass.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43540585]People romanticize the countryside far too much in comparison to the cities.[/QUOTE] We get it, you prefer to live in the city. That's your preference, and it's perfectly fine. Everyone prefers to live in different places for different reasons, and that's fine too. Having lived in a small growing village town, I don't like that I have to drive half an hour in every direction whenever I have to do something. But I appreciate how quiet my area is, and I personally find it to be pretty relaxing. I'd be happy with a small suburb on the outskirts of a large town.
I've lived in rural areas, small & medium sized towns and large metropolitan city centres. Personally I prefer the peace and quiet of rural habitation now, for being able to run free and relaxed in fields and uninhabited woodland knowing there's nothing around for miles. Perfectly quiet with clean air. Can just lie down and soak it in. I used to prefer the city. The city is more artificial, rigid and confined, but the obvious benefit is the social interaction and activity which I suppose could be seen as facile too. I guess it's a personal decision really. I think people can get very uncomfortable when they're not involved in hustle and bustle all day every day, whilst others get uncomfortable when they're dealing with too much of that information and just want to lie in a field.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43540411]and it's too dark to walk around at night.[/QUOTE] But then you can actually stargaze without light pollution
[QUOTE=3noneTwo;43540815]We get it, you prefer to live in the city. That's your preference, and it's perfectly fine. Everyone prefers to live in different places for different reasons, and that's fine too. Having lived in a small growing village town, I don't like that I have to drive half an hour in every direction whenever I have to do something. But I appreciate how quiet my area is, and I personally find it to be pretty relaxing. I'd be happy with a small suburb on the outskirts of a large town.[/QUOTE] Used to live in Hong Kong (downtown HK, aka central) for a year or so. Part of me misses the 5 min walk, 15 min subway to anything and everything. Other part of me still wants to see greens. [img]http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/hong-kong/hong-kong-street-trolley.jpg[/img] [QUOTE=Sungrazer;43540723] What a cancerous growth on the Earth's surface.[/QUOTE] Just needs to be done right, and it's quite nice. [img]http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/grasstram-ed02.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=meppers;43540784]Manhattan figured this out over a century ago [/QUOTE] Argh, seeing the grid pattern behind Manhatten never stops amazing me. I've been there, and even then the grid still impresses me. I'm not sure if it's a pathetic comment on my mental wellbeing, or just a fascination at a pattern actually being repeated nicely in real life.
[QUOTE=Angus725;43540850]Used to live in Hong Kong (downtown HK, aka central) for a year or so. Part of me misses the 5 min walk, 15 min subway to anything and everything. Other part of me still wants to see greens. [img]http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/hong-kong/hong-kong-street-trolley.jpg[/img] Just needs to be done right, and it's quite nice. [img]http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/grasstram-ed02.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] but HK is a short ride away from fantastic countryside.
[QUOTE=Angus725;43540578]Moved from a suburb of Vancouver, which looks like this (roughly the same in the winter due to mild temperatures): *image* To Downtown Toronto: [IMG]http://farm1.staticflickr.com/251/521780059_5187f3fd42.jpg[/IMG] It gets pretty depressing when you suddenly find that there is no green anywhere. With proper city planning, it's possible to keep greens and skyscrapers in the same place. Eg: *image*[/QUOTE] I think you could have picked a better picture of Toronto, it actually has a decent amount of green spaces throughout for a city of its' size (though obviously not as much as Vancouver) [IMG]http://www.dukeaerial.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/IMG_8805e-e1302789851280.jpg[/IMG] as well as Toronto Island, which is just a quick ferry ride from the downtown [IMG]http://inanutshell.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/toronto-islands.jpg[/IMG]
I'm from a small coastal town, which can look fairly spectacular. It's blatantly obvious where I am (the image used is from wikipedia and URL named, and the canal+light railway are pretty famous) [t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Royal_Military_Canal_at_Hythe.JPG[/t] The seafront is only a 10 minute walk away from that location, though it can be a tiny bit gray. Currently in London though, pretty close to Hampton Court Palace with loads of greenery across the (admittedly green) Thames.
[QUOTE=NoDachi;43540870]but HK is a short ride away from fantastic countryside.[/QUOTE] Agreed, lots of nice parks beyond the skyscrapers. [editline]14th January 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=minge-killer;43540881]I think you could have picked a better picture of Toronto, it actually has a decent amount of green spaces throughout for a city of its' size (though obviously not as much as Vancouver) as well as Toronto Island, which is just a quick ferry ride from the downtown [/QUOTE] Toronto's not so bad in the summer. Winter just turns the entirety of TO into grey due to the lack of evergreens.
Being from Oregon, I could not imagine living somewhere that doesn't have as many trees as us.
[QUOTE=Rents;43540419] Mid-sized town master race.[/QUOTE] Hell yeah, I've got a three meter wide footpath and jacarandas planted the whole way down. During spring the whole town turns purple and it's delightful.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43540411]Not to mention there's a lot of desolation and the people tend to live 20 years in the past in the countryside.[/QUOTE] We've got decent satellite Internet, all LCD based displays, and the oldest computer in the holler is a laptop from 2008. We're not so techno phobic as you think we are.
I am lucky to live in Bellevue, we have a shitton of green here. [IMG]http://svcdn.simpleviewinc.com/v3/cache/default/62CD9C610037FDE5FEED967444058AD8.jpg[/IMG] It has suburbs surrounding it, but there are still trees everywhere. also gaben cheers me up
[QUOTE=space1;43540833]But then you can actually stargaze without light pollution[/QUOTE] i wouldn't trade the convenience and excitement of a city for stargazing
[QUOTE=mecaguy03;43541011]I am lucky to live in Bellevue, we have a shitton of green here. [IMG]http://svcdn.simpleviewinc.com/v3/cache/default/62CD9C610037FDE5FEED967444058AD8.jpg[/IMG] It has suburbs surrounding it, but there are still trees everywhere. also gaben cheers me up[/QUOTE] What mountain is that one all the way in the background?
[QUOTE=valkery;43541136]What mountain is that one all the way in the background?[/QUOTE] Mount Rainier.
I live in a City where half of it is engulfed in a tropical rainforest. So early morning 6-9am, you can enjoy nature and everything is covered with forest dew and cool fogs seeps out from the forests to cover the whole city. Then 10am onwards you get the super hot busy city where no one gives a shit about nature. I still kinda miss the metropolitan life though. Light Rails being on time is more than enough to cheer me up back then.
College towns are the best. WIU represent!
I hate going to the countryside, I just find it dull
Check out Namba Parks in Japan, I wish more cities had stuff like this - trees + buildings [img]http://spfaust.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/12445_2_namba4big.jpg[/img]
Cities attract sociopaths. Easier to move between marks, more marks/social groups per square mile, etc etc
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;43541245]I hate going to the countryside, I just find it dull[/QUOTE] [img]http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/books/most-scenic-drives-in-america/central-states-shawnee-hills-af.jpg[/img] [img]http://images.travelpod.com/tw_slides/ta00/9b4/ab2/shawnee-national-forest-felsen-1-n2-decatur.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.horsetraildirectory.com/pictures/illinois/Indian%20Kitchen.JPG[/img] Does this look boring?
[QUOTE=Psychokitten;43541501][img]http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/books/most-scenic-drives-in-america/central-states-shawnee-hills-af.jpg[/img] [img]http://images.travelpod.com/tw_slides/ta00/9b4/ab2/shawnee-national-forest-felsen-1-n2-decatur.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.horsetraildirectory.com/pictures/illinois/Indian%20Kitchen.JPG[/img] Does this look boring?[/QUOTE] Reminds me of starved rock. The areas around rivers are cool.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43540411]But the countryside is so boring and shit. It's too quiet[/quote] So make some noise. The countryside is only quiet if YOU let it be quiet. [quote] the people are too homogeneous[/quote] And that's a bad thing? [quote]internet is worse[/quote] Not necessarily. Sure my DSL may be slow as shit compared to cable, but I don't have download caps telling me how much data I can actually download on the internet I pay for. It's half a dozen in one hand six in the other, really. [quote]you have to travel for ages to get to any shops or attractions[/quote] Which is good. Short trips, such as leaving to go to a shop from a suburb, are absolutely murderous on your car's engine. It also discourages disposable lifestyles since you have to buy for the week at minimum and you are your own garbage truck. The urge to shrug and use paper plates/plastic forks and cups drops like a fucking rock when you're hauling three bags of the damned things back into town every week to drop off in the dump... [quote]a lot of the farms smell like shit[/quote] I'm surrounded by farms and I don't smell them at all. But you wanna know what [i]does[/i] smell like shit? A 20 year old clapped out garbage truck burning more oil than fuel trundling along in a busy street. /Suburbs Wanna know what else smells like crap? A 15 year old ex-cop-car-turned-taxi-that-needs-a-new-gearbox /Inner City [quote]and it's too dark to walk around at night.[/quote] Bullshit. Your eyes just get spoiled by all the streetlights in the city. Also, you can actually see shit in space out in the sticks, and that alone is enough to keep me from moving into the city. [quote]Not to mention there's a lot of desolation[/quote] Desolation? You mean freedom. See, I live out in the sticks, and living out in the sticks lets me do things that'd have SWAT units converging on my house if I was in a suburb. I can take my 7.62mm rifle out into my back yard and plink away at oil filters all goddamn day. Nobody cares. I can run my noisy nitro RCs in my back yard all day long. Nobody cares. I can set off fireworks literally from dawn to midnight on the fourth [i]and nobody cares.[/i] If I wanted to I could buy some $200 junkers from the scrapyard and bomb around in my back yard with them until the motors gave out, then shoot 'em full of holes, and nobody would care. We also don't get people posting political bullshit in your front yard, which is wonderful. You do that shit in a suburb and you'll have a criminal record longer than a city bus within a month. It's truly amazing how liberating the desolation truly is. [quote]and the people tend to live 20 years in the past in the countryside.[/QUOTE] They're so far away it doesn't matter what decade they're living in. My neighbors are a quarter mile away. They can be as hardcore conservative bible-thumping Republican as is humanly possible and I won't even know about it. It's not like the suburbs where you know half the shit that goes on in your neighbor's house whether you want to or not, and it DEFINITELY isn't like apartment life where you can keep statistics on your neighbor's farting habits if you so desired. [editline]14th January 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Psychokitten;43541501][img]http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/books/most-scenic-drives-in-america/central-states-shawnee-hills-af.jpg[/img] [img]http://images.travelpod.com/tw_slides/ta00/9b4/ab2/shawnee-national-forest-felsen-1-n2-decatur.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.horsetraildirectory.com/pictures/illinois/Indian%20Kitchen.JPG[/img] Does this look boring?[/QUOTE] They do, but only because nobody's out there in an ATV or 4x4 having fun. Especially in that second picture. That trail is absolutely perfect to blast up in a jeep or something similar.
[QUOTE=Psychokitten;43541501][img]http://www.horsetraildirectory.com/pictures/illinois/Indian%20Kitchen.JPG[/img] Does this look boring?[/QUOTE] if you live in a city you can visit that too, probably just as frequently as the people in the countryside do, because those places are usually located in parks that are usually far away and crowded with tourists
[QUOTE=Zukriuchen;43541697]if you live in a city you can visit that too, probably just as frequently as the people in the countryside do, because those places are usually located in parks that are usually far away and crowded with tourists[/QUOTE] Nope, you can live in/right next to places like that, and they're far from packed
[QUOTE=Angus725;43540937]Winter just turns the entirety of TO into grey due to the lack of evergreens.[/QUOTE] For real, even though Vancouver is overcast or raining about six months out of the year the fact that the mountains and parks are always green and lively do a lot for seasonal depression
[QUOTE=Appellation;43541737]Nope, you can live in/right next to places like that, and they're far from packed[/QUOTE] but there's still plenty of stuff like that near some cities. even if i lived right next to a place like that, i doubt i'd go there that much. i lived in this super small town the year i went to the US, and there was a shitload of places just like in those images, and we did go to them a couple of times, but guess where we always went to? that's right, the city nearby
Huge cities are bad, absolutely desolated rural areas are bad. Something inbetween is nice.
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