On The (Digital) Road Again
By Aaron Price, (price@jeannie.ultranet.com)
Aaron was the Documentation Services Assistant in Academic Computing Services for the past year. He is currently living and working in Massachusetts. - Ed.
It was just a couple of minutes past midnight eastern standard time
on Christmas morning. A light dusting of snow had begun to fall and the
Interstate was completely empty save a sole
Corolla with a
U-Haul trailer tagging along behind
it. Inside that car sat I, driving through
West Virginia and the
Appalachians listening to WBAP 820 AM
. . . I could not believe my ears. The only station I could listen to
between the peaks and valleys that was not preaching the airwaves blue
was WBAP. It made me think of home and how I got into this fine mess in
the first place. People who say the Internet is addictive are not
kidding. Here I was about a thousand miles from my home of 20 years and
about a thousand miles away from my future home for (hopefully) the next
20 years. From Texasto
Massachusetts the
shortest distance is not a straight line, but a fiber-optic one.
The Internet changed my life, it can change yours too . . .
So are you sick of life and looking for a change? Don't take refuge
in your computer but rather find new refuge with it. Follow my story
and you'll see how you can swing your life 180 degrees in under a month.
Begin with finding a new job. Hop on the World Wide Web and
surfsome of the many career sites on the web. Try CareerPath
(http://www.careerpath.com/) or
Monster (http://www.careerpath.com/index.html)
for example. They will show resumes and job listings geographically or
by subject.
I did it backwards. I decided where I wanted to live
(Boston), then looked for
businesses in the area. I searched the ISPs in particular and found 5
with job openings I was interested in. You can also hit the news
groups. glanced through ne.jobs daily lookingf or just the right hitch.
After you have found the job that was made just for you, shoot off
a nice brand spanking new resume through E-mail. It is best to send
a cover letter and then attach two copies of your resume. One should be
in ascii text and the other in WordPerfect. I found that both are the
industry standards for E-mail resumes.
Now getting the job is up to you. Remember the old standards of
follow-up-up calling and professionalism. I was lucky and my
father donated frequent flyer miles to fly me to Boston for interviews
with two companies.
After you get the job comes the hard part. You need to find a
new home! This is where I was shocked at the fantastic support on the
net. First make a beeline for Apartments For Rent
(http://www.aptsforrent.com/).
They rent many apartments over the WWW! You can get pictures of
complexes, floor plans, prices, info on accessories
(AC, dishwasher, pool, etc.), deposit info, etc. Some even have
scanned map directions to the complexes!
This place is classy even if you do not rent from them. Personally,
I used them to determine where I wanted to live. By scoping out the
apartment prices for various areas of Massachusetts I could determine
where I could afford! So I grabbed a paper of that region
(Marlborough,
30 minutes west of Boston if you must know.) when I
was interviewing for the job. That's where I found a good place to
rent.
While you are doing this hit the newsgroups again. This is where you
will get the confidence to actually make the move. Post a message on
a newsgroup pertaining to the area you are moving to. I joined
ne.general and basically announced where I was moving to and from.
Within days I was inundated with E-mail from people offering me tips
from driving in snow to the best Chinese food place on Harvard square.
This is the stuff that makes moving easier. I also got recommendations
on banks, automobile mechanics, prices of heating oil, regional
vernacular, and even which weatherman to watch on TV!
Don't forget to switch your attention back to the WWW. Check out
Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/) or
AltaVista (http://www.altavista.digital.com/)
and search for a home page for your town or city. Almost all have one
these days. They are great sources for civic info. Going to BostonOnline
I found commuter rail maps, traffic info, tax information (They
don't call it "Tax"achusetts for nothing!), and other tidbits that
helped me settle in.
Now for the trip. Back in the newsgroups I found the best driving
route to Massachusetts from
Denton
(2048 miles in two days!). I picked up tips on where to rest and where
to avoid. I found out that West Virginia outlaws radar detectors
(mine was broken anyhow), the Adirondacks are notorious for freak
snowstorms, and that there are left lane exits in the
New York suburbs.
So now it's the last day. Your eyes are full of tears as you wave
good-bye to the loved ones and your heart is excited that you are
finally moving on. Be sure to check out Purdue's Weather Processor
(http://thunder.atms.purdue.edu/)
to get the latest satellite images for the trip and hit Intellicast
(http://www.intellicast.com)
for some NexRad radar shots.
Once you've hit the road you have to leave the computer be.
WBAP will be your guide for most of the way as that station seems to own
the nighttime AM airwaves.
A Happy Ending
That's how the Internet has changed my life. I found a job, a home,
and a safe trip through it. And all for the price of about ten
"Dole For President" yard signs.
The only thing that disappointed me is that on the way I counted
only six Stuckeys. I could have sworn I'd break twenty.
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