What's more, I suck for wasting my time on that time waster. So no more of that. I have too much I need to do this week and in the rest of my life to spend another iota on his shit. If he's too wrapped up in himself to relate to me I need to move on to more productive endeavors.
Like my stupid ass recommender system paper. That thing's been dragging along like a poor unfortunate animal caught in my life's wheel well. I need to come to a full stop and put it out of its misery once and for all. I have six days in which to do this. I need a plan simple and sensible enough to bring me through the next six days with a paper to turn in at the other end.
How about this: I know I work better in the mornings so I'll reserve two hours every morning this workweek from 8 to 10am. Then I have to come into work, but if nothing is going on I can write at my desk. I cannot, however, read at my desk. Not the way I like to read, with hi-lighted papers sprawled all over the place. So the reading I'll have to do at home or on screen. I'll need a way to take notes, both here and at home. I kind of suck at that, so maybe a stack of cards is the best I'm going to do here. Hopefully it won't get too far out of control and I'll be able to use them as visual tools.
So that gets me to lunch. I guess depending on how I'm doing it might be best to eat lunch at my desk to keep working; or maybe I'll need a break so as not to burn out. I'll have to see how that goes. Methylphenidate will have to be at the beginning of each day of this plan. So let's say I get another couple hours in during the afternoon. I can go home and nap or chill for an hour and do another hour or two after dinner.
Add it all up:
(3 days x)
2 hours in the morning
1 hour at work before/during lunch
2 hours after lunch
2 hours after dinner
-2 hours Thursday for Dr Feldman
2 weekend days (~4 hours each)
19 + 8 = 27 hours
Let's say I can divide the paper into two parts:
1. recommenders overview
2. Jinni
However I slice it, recommenders is going to be shorter than Jinni, so I'll give it 9 hours. That means reading, parsing, writing, editing all have to happen within those 9 hours. That leaves 18 hours for the Jinni part, during which I'll have to figure out what algorithms make the most sense for it, and justify my choices. This means the bulk of the reading. I'll have to sift through all the literature I can get my hands on here. When I take into account how much harder it is to write when references have to support everything I think maybe the breakdown should be:
3 hours: recommender systems reading
3 hours: recommender systems writing
3 hours: recommender systems referencing
6 hours: Jinni reading
6 hours: Jinni writing
6 hours: Jinni referencing
How best to break this up over the next 6 days? Since I've already written a general overview of recommender systems and can basically polish that to the end of time and still not be very happy I'm going to say forget it for now. I need to focus on the meat of the matter: how Jinni works. It is, after all, what I've been avoiding dealing with all this time.
So reading on Jinni is the first task. I'll need all my clarity for it too, so I'll allocate the mornings to figuring this out. If it becomes too confusing I can switch to recommender stuff as a break. When do I absolutely have to be done with Jinni reading? I'm going to say by the weekend I have to have it under control. I have to have at least the movie genome figured out good and solid. I'm thinking this time around the goal is to have as clear an understanding as possible before starting to write. The other way certainly didn't work.
After this weekend I can reflect on my social and romantic lives and start worrying about Xmas shopping. For now, I'm putting on the blinders.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
new house, new obsessions
Things I want to do to the new place which are preventing me from writing my paper:
Replace the hideous kitchen chandelier with a less gaudy pendant light. Contenders include:
Ikea Leran wicker lamp
-Ikea 365+ Brasa half dome lamp in black
-an awesome but way too expensive Tolomeo articulated suspension lamp
-a cylindrical wood veneer shade of some sort, maybe diy.
Replace the dining room table with a smaller table. Contenders include:
-a desk/console from CB2 called Laird which will most likely be way too narrow
-a square plywood and veneer table from Bludot called Nick
-a narrow strut desk/dining table from Bludot that can fit along the short wall by the door
-something vintage from CL or eBay.
Room lighting for the living room. This is an issue because the Orbit chandelier I've been dreaming about is way too big and I don't have an alternate in mind.
Room lighting to replace the chandelier in the red room. Here I'm thinking of a knockoff of the Tolomeo idea consisting of a series of articulated desk lamps that I can direct wherever I want. It would be great for painting and craft projects, and not at all expensive.
Whether white or gray would be a better color for the walls in that room, given that I plan to do work there, and where and how to build fun structures for the cats to climb.
Whether to build the scratch post/climbing tree in the hallway as I have considered.
If/when to replace that front door. I hate the handle, and the fact that it drags across the threshold.
What color to paint the bedroom and whether making the long wall into a mural would be overwhelming.
Window treatments everywhere, and especially in the living room where I'm practically staring across at the neighbors. Also, whether and where to have a window farm, and whether one single privacy solution that closes off the window area might be better than individual window blinds and/or curtains.
Whether I can put a washer/dryer in the shelving area in the living room and what it would cost.
Redo the bathroom so that:
-the left wall is one big mirror
-the shower curtain becomes a glass door
-the sink is replaced with a vessel sink and the pedestal is replaced with a vanity for storage
-the marble is replaced by less hideous tiles
-maybe I can fit a small Japanese soaking tub in there
Wow that's a lot of thinking. No wonder I haven't wanted to get started on that paper!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
ow
What the hell is going on with me? Yesterday I had a total mood collapse, cried my eyes out, and felt lonelier than I have any right to feel. It kicked off when I realized that I was going to have to go out to lunch on my own because Justin had gone without me and I couldn't eat anything that was being served here. It pains me now to admit to such a pathetic, abject complaint, but yesterday it was the last straw and I couldn't keep myself from crying, alone, at my desk, so that anyone walking by could see it. I really lost it once Justin agreed to ride along with me to pick up food and we were out of the building, and it hasn't fully passed yet.
I'm sure that I lost a bunch of neural pathways, washed away like so many rickety bridges in a flood of self pity and despair. Last night I took it easy and played drop 7 while watching Bones on Netflix and am sorry to say I was having a very hard time getting above 200,000. If I think back now, over the past several days, I've been misplacing words and stuttering thoughts for at least a week, if not two or three. That I can't remember or didn't see it coming at the time reinforces the assessment, since memory and analytical ability tend to go just before the big crash. In terms of chemical input changes all I can think of is that I've been on a different birth control pill for a week; and that I took 20mg of Ritalin on Saturday. Nothing else has changed! I haven't missed a dose of medication, I've been working on my paper, dating, and finding a condo, and generally trying to get my life in order, but all at once I was losing hold of a losing cause.
Today I'm having light sensitivity, which could be another symptom, or maybe just a result of crying so much yesterday. I feel better, but that's probably because I'm no longer trying to keep from falling apart. Now I need to monitor my mood, try to note whether it improves in the days to come.
I'm sure that I lost a bunch of neural pathways, washed away like so many rickety bridges in a flood of self pity and despair. Last night I took it easy and played drop 7 while watching Bones on Netflix and am sorry to say I was having a very hard time getting above 200,000. If I think back now, over the past several days, I've been misplacing words and stuttering thoughts for at least a week, if not two or three. That I can't remember or didn't see it coming at the time reinforces the assessment, since memory and analytical ability tend to go just before the big crash. In terms of chemical input changes all I can think of is that I've been on a different birth control pill for a week; and that I took 20mg of Ritalin on Saturday. Nothing else has changed! I haven't missed a dose of medication, I've been working on my paper, dating, and finding a condo, and generally trying to get my life in order, but all at once I was losing hold of a losing cause.
Today I'm having light sensitivity, which could be another symptom, or maybe just a result of crying so much yesterday. I feel better, but that's probably because I'm no longer trying to keep from falling apart. Now I need to monitor my mood, try to note whether it improves in the days to come.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
my life is draggin its feet
Still no condo, no boyfriend, no end to my paper, and August is almost over. Where has my Summer gone? What have I been doing?
Okay, looking over my appointments in Shiny the end of July/beginning of August has been busy: I've been away a bunch of weekends and had dates interspersed in between. And I guess in early July I went to NYC and California for family stuff, which was tiring and at times depressing, and which also takes time to recover from. But classes ended in May! How have I not finished this paper yet?
I guess the condo thing I can't really rush. I just haven't seen the place I'm going to buy yet (the Bigelow St. row house notwithstanding.) But my dad has been really dragging his feet getting my down payment money ready for a speedy purchase. So that's a partial delay that feels worse than it actually is. I do need to keep prodding Dad until he coughs up a bank statement I can give the bank, but other than that I'm in relatively good shape.
Next: dating. Okay, so I don't have a date lined up every night of the week. But it's not like there are all these great guys banging on my door. The pickings on OkCupid have been slim! It seems I can only get 60% of the way to a match no matter what direction I go in. As it stands I'm set to go on a blind date selected by someone who met me for a couple of hours. I guess I just have to keep reminding myself that this could take a really long time and probably has very little to do with skill (i.e. it doesn't depend on improving my selection/sifting algorithm.) And I suppose the same can be said for buying a condo: it's a matter of time and perseverance.
Now the paper... bane of my existence, scourge of Summer. The thing that's basically made it impossible for me to take the time (although the expense would have been difficult to come by in any case) to take a week to go to England to visit Dini, Birgit and Carol. Although, now that I put it into perspective, I guess it hasn't been a terrible impediment to dating and looking for a house. If anything it's played the victim to those competing processes.
Hrm. I guess maybe my problem then is impatience. I've been expecting more from my Summer than it could feasibly deliver. I do need to refocus and push through the end of the paper, but it seems everything else is kind of on track. And I think I can manage that.
Okay, looking over my appointments in Shiny the end of July/beginning of August has been busy: I've been away a bunch of weekends and had dates interspersed in between. And I guess in early July I went to NYC and California for family stuff, which was tiring and at times depressing, and which also takes time to recover from. But classes ended in May! How have I not finished this paper yet?
I guess the condo thing I can't really rush. I just haven't seen the place I'm going to buy yet (the Bigelow St. row house notwithstanding.) But my dad has been really dragging his feet getting my down payment money ready for a speedy purchase. So that's a partial delay that feels worse than it actually is. I do need to keep prodding Dad until he coughs up a bank statement I can give the bank, but other than that I'm in relatively good shape.
Next: dating. Okay, so I don't have a date lined up every night of the week. But it's not like there are all these great guys banging on my door. The pickings on OkCupid have been slim! It seems I can only get 60% of the way to a match no matter what direction I go in. As it stands I'm set to go on a blind date selected by someone who met me for a couple of hours. I guess I just have to keep reminding myself that this could take a really long time and probably has very little to do with skill (i.e. it doesn't depend on improving my selection/sifting algorithm.) And I suppose the same can be said for buying a condo: it's a matter of time and perseverance.
Now the paper... bane of my existence, scourge of Summer. The thing that's basically made it impossible for me to take the time (although the expense would have been difficult to come by in any case) to take a week to go to England to visit Dini, Birgit and Carol. Although, now that I put it into perspective, I guess it hasn't been a terrible impediment to dating and looking for a house. If anything it's played the victim to those competing processes.
Hrm. I guess maybe my problem then is impatience. I've been expecting more from my Summer than it could feasibly deliver. I do need to refocus and push through the end of the paper, but it seems everything else is kind of on track. And I think I can manage that.
Friday, July 23, 2010
closer
Two-fifty! This is good news! It's not the official number, but it means I have more leeway in my price range. A 250K mortgage and 150K down payment brings my price range up to 400K. That puts me smack in the middle of the market I've been looking at, and if more stuff comes on the market in the Fall, I'll definitely find something I both like and can afford. Things are going in the right direction, at the very least.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
dr feldman sez...
Saw her today and she thinks I should take OOP in the fall, which wasn't really one of the options I'd been considering. Her thinking goes, if the subject matter is fairly concrete and no research is involved it'll be easier to stay engaged. I can't really disagree with that, since I did make a complete mess of the spring semester. So case closed. I'm taking one class, and its name is CS 603!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
school
In review: the program requires a total of 10 courses. I've taken two this far. I need 8 more to go, three of which are required courses:
HF 750 testing and assessment
HF 710 managing a user centered design team
GS 602 business process management
Four of which are electives and have to come out of this list:
HF 720 localization and the global market
HF 730 visualizing info
HF 740 info architecture: user centered design for the web
HF 751 measuring the user experience
HF 755 special topics
HF 765 advanced user interface design
HF 770 prototyping theory and practice
HF 780 field methods
HF 790 internship
And one non-HF elective, which I've pretty much decided is going to be:
CS 603 object-oriented application development
I'm inclined to take one of my requirements, and depending on how ambitious I'm feeling, perhaps two. I can't say I'm feeling terribly ambitious right now with that paper still hanging over me, but this has to stop. Registration is next week.
HF 750 testing and assessment
HF 710 managing a user centered design team
GS 602 business process management
Four of which are electives and have to come out of this list:
HF 720 localization and the global market
HF 730 visualizing info
HF 740 info architecture: user centered design for the web
HF 751 measuring the user experience
HF 755 special topics
HF 765 advanced user interface design
HF 770 prototyping theory and practice
HF 780 field methods
HF 790 internship
And one non-HF elective, which I've pretty much decided is going to be:
CS 603 object-oriented application development
I'm inclined to take one of my requirements, and depending on how ambitious I'm feeling, perhaps two. I can't say I'm feeling terribly ambitious right now with that paper still hanging over me, but this has to stop. Registration is next week.
progress
I've set up a telephone appointment with a loan officer for tomorrow morning and I've emailed Dad my estimates of how much money I'm probably going to need for a down payment. I guess I could have done that yesterday but I was damned tired! So what's one more day? Unless Dad's already settled things with the buyer.
Anyway, this time tomorrow I'll have more data. Maybe now I can turn to challenge number two: dating. Or, I can add to the existing set of concerns "work." Work is slow and not very exciting these days and I need to dig in if I want it to change for the better, and learn something new, and get a raise, etc.
Anyway, this time tomorrow I'll have more data. Maybe now I can turn to challenge number two: dating. Or, I can add to the existing set of concerns "work." Work is slow and not very exciting these days and I need to dig in if I want it to change for the better, and learn something new, and get a raise, etc.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
start somewhere
Okay, so right now I have a couple of processes I need to break down in order to get a better handle on everything involved. First there's dating, which I'm starting to think I'm not doing as good a job at as I could. Second, there's buying a place. And if I really want to, I can pile on finishing the paper and figuring out what to take next semester (i.e. school,) but for the moment let's keep it simple.
I think I'll start with the condo problem, since it's got the fewest moving parts. The elements there are:
-how much can I afford?
-where do I want to/am I willing to live?
-how quickly do I have to/want to move?
How much can I afford?
So the first point is pretty straight forward. I can afford something around 400K, maybe 4.25K if I'm really willing to push it and/or wait until later in the year, when I'll have more money available. But then the question of where the extra down payment money is coming from becomes an issue. So really, the answer to this question directly depends on the official sales figure of my house in Brazil. Dad should have an answer relatively soon, and now he understands the tax constraints I'm working with. But there's more. How did I arrive at the 400K figure? I'm figuring that I can qualify for a 200K mortgage, but I haven't actually verified this yet. In fact, I need to get in touch with a lender to find out how big a mortgage I can get. Okay. That's a first step.
Next: once I know how much money I can borrow, I need to find out how much money I'll have from the sale of my house that I can officially use. The amount currently in the bank is 220K reais, which is like... 123K dollars. If I assume that I'm paying taxes out of that amount plus the realtor's commission, it's going to be more like 100K. But that's if I assume that this is the official selling price. So I need to know how much my house sold for.
So once I've got those two figures I can add them together and get the real price range I should be shopping in. But why have I been working off the 400K figure then? Is it just because it's an easy number to remember? Because it's where stuff starts to look less crappy? It seems pretty unrealistic for me to assume that I was going to have 200K for a down payment. I must have been slowly inflating it as I browsed houses. Oh well.
Okay, so now what? I readjust down to what? 325K? That's terrible! I don't think I've seen a single place at that price that I liked. No wonder I inflated my price range. So I really need to find out the upper limits on both the previous points. At least that's settled.
Where do I want to live?
So I've been saying Cambridge, but after seeing all those places I definitely can't afford and don't even like that much I'm having my doubts again. I saw that nice place in Audubon Circle sell for 400K this weekend, but I didn't want to live in the Fenway, and the gourgeous Harvard Square place in the mid-rise is under contract at 465K, way out of my range. So maybe I need to look at the requirements I've set up for myself and how flexible I have to be with each one of them.
The most obvious is location. I want to live:
-in a dense, active area
-closer to work than JP
-reasonable street parking or parking spot
-somewhere desirable where it'll be easy to re-sell
Cambridge fits all of these requirements. Particularly, Inman Square (although parking is borderline there;) Harvard has kind of the wrong kind of activity (students) but still has movie theaters and places to eat; Central Square is so-so culturally; Porter Square is better than Central Square, plus it's closer to work; Cambridgeport is residential, but near Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and Memorial Drive so I'll rank it on par with Porter; Kendall is kind of sparse so I'll rank it lower than Central; and the same goes for North Cambridge. These last two are actually on par with JP so if I consider them I have to put JP in the same category. JP has higher quality of life than either of those, with its green spaces. There are still some in-between areas like Agassiz and Wellington-Harrington, which are neither here nor there areas stuck between squares. I guess they rank just above the lowest tiers, but I suspect that if I actually go to a place in those areas the distance is going to push their appeal down for me. Just saying.
So for Cambridge the ranking goes:
1. Inman
2. Harvard
3. Porter/Cambridgeport
4. Agassiz/Wellington-Harrington
5. North Cambridge/Kendall/JP
I'm nominally considering places in Somerville, but pretty much only if they're near Inman, Porter of Davis, in that order. So a place in Somerville near Inman maybe rates the same as a place in Cambridgeport; a place in Somerville near Porter rates the same as a place in the Agasssiz area; and a place near Davis is about par with a place in North Cambridge. Hence:
1. Inman
2. Harvard
3. Porter/Cambridgeport/Somerville by Inman
4. Agassiz/Wellington-Harrington/Somerville by Porter
5. North Cambridge/Kendall/JP/Somerville by Davis
South of the river I'm pretty much only considering the South End and the Back Bay. Back Bay is even a little crowded with students, and the same goes for the Fenway, Kenmore, Audubon Circle, parts of Brookline, Allston, and pretty much anywhere else. I guess Beacon Hill is student-free, but I think I have a bit of a cultural problem with the idea of living there. In fact, I have a bit of a cultural problem living anywhere in Boston except for JP, so these neighborhoods all have that going against them. Plus they're not any closer to work. What they have going for them, or at least Back Bay and the South End do, is that the buildings are beautiful and there's plenty of places to eat, but I'm not sure how to break that down into desirability currency.
I guess the thing about the South End is that because the places are so much nicer I'm willing to live in a smaller space. A lot of places have patios, roof decks, bow windows, and are brick. I don't think I'm quite willing to live in a garden level apartment, but the right patio could make me change my mind. The cats would love it! By comparison the Back Bay has less to offer. It's stuffier, slightly more expensive, and doesn't have the same back patio/deck profile for some reason. So how about this:
1. Inman
2. Harvard
3. Porter/Cambridgeport/Somerville by Inman/South End
4. Agassiz/Wellington-Harrington/Somerville by Porter/Back Bay
5. North Cambridge/Kendall/JP/Somerville by Davis
It sure seems funny to lump Somerville and the South End into the same desirability category, but in terms of what I'm looking for I guess it's about right. It certainly puts those higher prices into perspective, anyway. I guess I should qualify that by noting that resale potential follows a different valuation scale, but I can make that scale up later. Maybe I can put them all into a decision matrix!
The other part of "where" I want to live is the kind of place. My wish list so far has gone like this: One to two bedroom, 800 square feet, second floor or higher in a two to three family, with some sort of outdoor space and reasonable parking. Not a fixer upper. I think these are very good attributes, certainly for Cambridge. As I said earlier, in the South End I might forgive the lower level for an amazing patio. We'll see.
Okay, what else?
How fast do I have to move?
Apparently the Summer is a slow time for real estate, and I can certainly attest to the scarcity of desirable properties in my price range in the places where I want to live. So I have the option of holding out til the Fall and hoping that more stuff comes on the market. The down side to that is that I'll be busier in the Fall with both work and school (and some Pavement shows.) Actually this ties in with what I should take in the Fall, but I'm not going to deal with that right now. At this point I have to figure out whether anything out there is worth buying, and if the answer is no, not try and squeeze into something that I don't really like.
The other option is (again, once the money figures come in) buying something more expensive that I do like and getting it over with. So this again reinforces that the priority has to be getting those two things out of the way before putting any more energy into looking for places.
Whew! That was an hour well spent.
I think I'll start with the condo problem, since it's got the fewest moving parts. The elements there are:
-how much can I afford?
-where do I want to/am I willing to live?
-how quickly do I have to/want to move?
How much can I afford?
So the first point is pretty straight forward. I can afford something around 400K, maybe 4.25K if I'm really willing to push it and/or wait until later in the year, when I'll have more money available. But then the question of where the extra down payment money is coming from becomes an issue. So really, the answer to this question directly depends on the official sales figure of my house in Brazil. Dad should have an answer relatively soon, and now he understands the tax constraints I'm working with. But there's more. How did I arrive at the 400K figure? I'm figuring that I can qualify for a 200K mortgage, but I haven't actually verified this yet. In fact, I need to get in touch with a lender to find out how big a mortgage I can get. Okay. That's a first step.
Next: once I know how much money I can borrow, I need to find out how much money I'll have from the sale of my house that I can officially use. The amount currently in the bank is 220K reais, which is like... 123K dollars. If I assume that I'm paying taxes out of that amount plus the realtor's commission, it's going to be more like 100K. But that's if I assume that this is the official selling price. So I need to know how much my house sold for.
So once I've got those two figures I can add them together and get the real price range I should be shopping in. But why have I been working off the 400K figure then? Is it just because it's an easy number to remember? Because it's where stuff starts to look less crappy? It seems pretty unrealistic for me to assume that I was going to have 200K for a down payment. I must have been slowly inflating it as I browsed houses. Oh well.
Okay, so now what? I readjust down to what? 325K? That's terrible! I don't think I've seen a single place at that price that I liked. No wonder I inflated my price range. So I really need to find out the upper limits on both the previous points. At least that's settled.
Where do I want to live?
So I've been saying Cambridge, but after seeing all those places I definitely can't afford and don't even like that much I'm having my doubts again. I saw that nice place in Audubon Circle sell for 400K this weekend, but I didn't want to live in the Fenway, and the gourgeous Harvard Square place in the mid-rise is under contract at 465K, way out of my range. So maybe I need to look at the requirements I've set up for myself and how flexible I have to be with each one of them.
The most obvious is location. I want to live:
-in a dense, active area
-closer to work than JP
-reasonable street parking or parking spot
-somewhere desirable where it'll be easy to re-sell
Cambridge fits all of these requirements. Particularly, Inman Square (although parking is borderline there;) Harvard has kind of the wrong kind of activity (students) but still has movie theaters and places to eat; Central Square is so-so culturally; Porter Square is better than Central Square, plus it's closer to work; Cambridgeport is residential, but near Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and Memorial Drive so I'll rank it on par with Porter; Kendall is kind of sparse so I'll rank it lower than Central; and the same goes for North Cambridge. These last two are actually on par with JP so if I consider them I have to put JP in the same category. JP has higher quality of life than either of those, with its green spaces. There are still some in-between areas like Agassiz and Wellington-Harrington, which are neither here nor there areas stuck between squares. I guess they rank just above the lowest tiers, but I suspect that if I actually go to a place in those areas the distance is going to push their appeal down for me. Just saying.
So for Cambridge the ranking goes:
1. Inman
2. Harvard
3. Porter/Cambridgeport
4. Agassiz/Wellington-Harrington
5. North Cambridge/Kendall/JP
I'm nominally considering places in Somerville, but pretty much only if they're near Inman, Porter of Davis, in that order. So a place in Somerville near Inman maybe rates the same as a place in Cambridgeport; a place in Somerville near Porter rates the same as a place in the Agasssiz area; and a place near Davis is about par with a place in North Cambridge. Hence:
1. Inman
2. Harvard
3. Porter/Cambridgeport/Somerville by Inman
4. Agassiz/Wellington-Harrington/Somerville by Porter
5. North Cambridge/Kendall/JP/Somerville by Davis
South of the river I'm pretty much only considering the South End and the Back Bay. Back Bay is even a little crowded with students, and the same goes for the Fenway, Kenmore, Audubon Circle, parts of Brookline, Allston, and pretty much anywhere else. I guess Beacon Hill is student-free, but I think I have a bit of a cultural problem with the idea of living there. In fact, I have a bit of a cultural problem living anywhere in Boston except for JP, so these neighborhoods all have that going against them. Plus they're not any closer to work. What they have going for them, or at least Back Bay and the South End do, is that the buildings are beautiful and there's plenty of places to eat, but I'm not sure how to break that down into desirability currency.
I guess the thing about the South End is that because the places are so much nicer I'm willing to live in a smaller space. A lot of places have patios, roof decks, bow windows, and are brick. I don't think I'm quite willing to live in a garden level apartment, but the right patio could make me change my mind. The cats would love it! By comparison the Back Bay has less to offer. It's stuffier, slightly more expensive, and doesn't have the same back patio/deck profile for some reason. So how about this:
1. Inman
2. Harvard
3. Porter/Cambridgeport/Somerville by Inman/South End
4. Agassiz/Wellington-Harrington/Somerville by Porter/Back Bay
5. North Cambridge/Kendall/JP/Somerville by Davis
It sure seems funny to lump Somerville and the South End into the same desirability category, but in terms of what I'm looking for I guess it's about right. It certainly puts those higher prices into perspective, anyway. I guess I should qualify that by noting that resale potential follows a different valuation scale, but I can make that scale up later. Maybe I can put them all into a decision matrix!
The other part of "where" I want to live is the kind of place. My wish list so far has gone like this: One to two bedroom, 800 square feet, second floor or higher in a two to three family, with some sort of outdoor space and reasonable parking. Not a fixer upper. I think these are very good attributes, certainly for Cambridge. As I said earlier, in the South End I might forgive the lower level for an amazing patio. We'll see.
Okay, what else?
How fast do I have to move?
Apparently the Summer is a slow time for real estate, and I can certainly attest to the scarcity of desirable properties in my price range in the places where I want to live. So I have the option of holding out til the Fall and hoping that more stuff comes on the market. The down side to that is that I'll be busier in the Fall with both work and school (and some Pavement shows.) Actually this ties in with what I should take in the Fall, but I'm not going to deal with that right now. At this point I have to figure out whether anything out there is worth buying, and if the answer is no, not try and squeeze into something that I don't really like.
The other option is (again, once the money figures come in) buying something more expensive that I do like and getting it over with. So this again reinforces that the priority has to be getting those two things out of the way before putting any more energy into looking for places.
Whew! That was an hour well spent.
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