The Station

the biggest problem with this plan is that it requires an upfront capital investment. at the very least, you gotta arrange where you're gonna stay. and where you're gonna stay is where you're gonna keep your stuff, and i've got a lot of stuff i wouldn't want to part with. which means it'd have to be moved, including furniture and stuff. so, that's gonna require a moving truck. so, for even the most basic pack up and move job, you need the truck and the money for an apartment. or, you can buy all new stuff. then you need the money for stuff and an apartment. either way, it's not simple. me, i don't have any money. i had to move back home, and that's AFTER i got a job

also, c'mon, new york, that's a terrible choice. new york would swallow you whole. you wouldn't know where to start. i'd start out smaller, like st. louis or milwaukee or cleveland. but not too small

I disagree with shane, people run off every day without good plans or anything. You would have to compromise on how you want to live but you could do it.

Right on, Jim!

Also, Shane, why Milwaukee or St. Louis? That's hardly a change at all. New York has style, character, and homes with architecture that make you proud to own them (much unlike LA - good glory their homes are ugly!).

I also disagree with Shane. It's possible to do, I've even contemplated doing it myself. It would take a small capital investment, maybe 2k tops(2 months rent+security deposit+1 month food&bills until you find work) I don't know if NY is a good place though. The ideal place would be somewhere with lots of jobs + low cost of living. which from my limited knowledge would be florida or the southwest.

Also as Jim says unless you have a lot of money to begin with you would have to be able to scrape by for the first month or two

New York is a hell hole, and you know how I feel about hell holes.

Seriously, I had planned relocation before the end of the summer had I not found a better job. I still think that it'd be a shame to live in one general location my whole life, but it's been pushed back a bit anyway.

no offense, but based on most of your locations for living, it is very possible to be spending 1K in rent per month alone. it can be very expensive. as for you brian, you are wanting to do this for yourself and then hope that God makes everything work out in the end. isnt that selfish in a way? i mean He has already found you a job and given you a great oppertunity, yet you still would prefer to throw that all away and venture into unfamiliar territories and just hope that this is what He wants. sounds sort of selfsih to me. finally, LA might have different looking homes, but are they really ugly or just a style that you are not familiar with. you seem to have been raised with a very midwestern sense of style, which is fine. however others view all of the architecture around here frugal and want something different, more beach/modern/vintage/etc. if they are so bad, then put up with it for a year and build your midwestern farm house on the beach. wait, that would be ugly!

Good points, Anonymous. [How I wish people would identify themselves]

The idea of going somewhere else was actually a challenge presented to me by someone I consider to be a very Godly man. If I were to choose to accept this challenge it would only because I would feel that is what God actually wants me to do.

That might sound crazy; why would God give me a job opportunity and then ask that I refuse it and do something else? Perhaps he's testing my loyalty to him by asking me to step out of my comfort zone and continually depend upon him to supply all my needs as he calls me to work for his kingdom elsewhere (See Matthew 6:33-34).

The main objective in this situation (and most any other decision for that matter) is determining what will have the greatest impact for the kingdom of God. Perhaps, the greatest impact is for me to go to LA alone where I can witness for Christ as an insider in the engineering/scientific community, utilize a portion of my good salary to fund other ministries, and just live the life of Jesus in front of the general populace of spiritually deprived southern California. Then again, perhaps the greatest impact would be for me to pray with a group of Christian friends about where God would want us to go and what He would want us to do and obey that. In the latter case, there would be the strength afforded by the fellowship already existing between us and that might achieve more than a steady job ever could.

As of right now, there is no one else to go. So, I have no choice but to stay with my original plan and trust that it is God’s will. If those plans change, it will be by God’s instruction, never by selfish whim.

In response to your other points:

I fully expect rent to be well above $1k/mo. However, with four people living at a single residence (at least until income is established) it would not be difficult to make rent based on part-time jobs worked while better employment is sought. It is feasible.

True, I am not used to southern California’s style. However, art is subjective and as such I am allowed to say that I am disgusted by the area’s artistic offerings. And it’s more than just style. I hate the fact that the houses are so small, have no space between neighbors, have no lawn or landscaping, and priced absurdly high. No, I don’t want a farm house at the beach! I want a Frank Lloyd Wright in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. If not that, I want a swanky west-side New York town home (think Meg Ryan’s place in You’ve Got Mail). Of course, I could always be happy with a 100+ year fixer-upper in any quaint Midwestern town (Saugatuck, MI or Galena, IL preferably) where my wife and I will do all the work and have it just like we want.

wow....a fixer upper like that is way more work than you think! also, frank lloyd wright was actually a much looked down upon architect and was fired from so many of his jobs for not being able to create a vision, in case you wanted to know.

and is it just me, or is Brian starting to think like sal from 'on the road' by jack kerouac. ok, every part of the book except the drugs involved. or is that inclueded too?

More work than I think? Doesn't matter, God has gifted me as a craftsman and I enjoy challenges.

As for Wright, back to the subjective nature of art; I like him, that's all that matters to me. I especially like his furniture and interior design.

I've never read On the Road, but hesitate, my friend, to put me in a neat little box. I don't think you know me that well. Wish I knew who you are. From the Kerouac reference, I'm going to guess Jeremy Hajek. In which case, we need to get together for lunch sometime.

actually brian, that is not me, however i have suggested we get together for lunch a while ago, and you refused.

"God has gifted me as a craftsman and I enjoy challenges."

Want to come help me with a few projects? God has gifted me as a programmer, and as such, I tend to make physical objects worse if I try to improve them.

well we all knew jim was bad at physical projects. note him trying to put together a TV stand :-P

I'm good at instruction-based assembly, actually. I can do that stuff. I constructed 5 bookcases in like an hour. It was like an assembly line.