KWorld's Profile

It takes all kinds to make a world....

Go Android! When I got my first smartphone a few years ago, I did tons of research and Android came out on top. I compare notes from time to time with coworkers who have different platforms (iphone and Blackberry) and I am always pleased with my choice to go with Android. I also got an Android tablet earlier this year and am quite happy with it. For the things that I do, Android is the best value. I never feel like I am paying too much for the devices and services related to my Android devices and their performance exceeds my expectations. I am glad to see a post about the platform on Unplugged.

I agree with SarahLemon - if you pick your kitchen gadgets carefully for reasonable quality and take care of them they can last you a lifetime. I do realize that there are a lot of silly kitchen gadgets out there that most people can live without, but I do think there is a large class of time-tested kitchen utensils that are truly useful and make working in the kitchen more safe and less labor intensive. I think that is the point of almost any kind of tool - to do a specific task well, consistently, safely and without a lot of extra effort.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I'll admit that I put off purchasing a funnel for years. I did buy a set a while back and although I don't use them every day, they do come in handy when I need them so I don't regret the purchase).

a chaise that I really don't have room for, but is there nonetheless. It worked well with the last two places I lived, but not here. For some reason I can't part with it. It *is* a useful surface to pile things on....

Lovely!

Great post!

I currently live in Knoxville and I don't care for it myself. I grew up in the Midwest and I lived in various cities in the south and northeast during my adult life. I moved here a few years ago for work. I am trying to leave. I sorely regret moving here. I really don't recommend Knoxville unless you have family in the area or are accustomed to life in small, insular, southern towns (and all that that entails).

The best thing that I can say about the region is that it is pretty. The Tennessee River winds through part of town and the Smoky Mountains are nearby. If you like hills and greenery at the expense of all else, then you may be happy with the place.

The second best thing is that the cost of living is low - there are low rents and reasonable prices. There is no state tax on wages, but sales tax is very, very high (including a tax on food).

Religion is a very big deal here - particuarly certain Protestant groups. I don't think the people in Knoxville are good at observing the separation between church and state. Coworkers of mine with children (I don't have any myself) have been alarmed and angered to find their children have been proselytized by teachers in the public schools here. There are a lot of religious commercials on television and from my perspective, people talk about their religious faith in a presumptuous way and judge others about religion.

IMO, Knoxville is the victim extraordinarily poor land use practices. The town is very, very sprawled out and it can take a surprising amount of time to travel from part of the town to the other. For many locations, you simply need to have a car. There is a city bus, but like most small towns, bus travel is very limited. City zoning seems to be non-existent and you can find rather toxic and dangerous commercial enterprises located literally next door to a house with small children present or near a school.

An alarming number of people in Knoxville are blatantly racist, sexist, xenophobic and homophobic and are greatly intolerant of normal human differences. If you are a minority of *any* type, my advice would be to AVOID Knoxville no matter what people here tell you about the social climate.

Knoxville, TN

$700 rent. A 2 bed room, 1.5 bath, 900 sq ft. newer construction house in an established neighborhood. A real front porch and a deck in back. Huge yard full of wildlife. (I pay more in rent than the neighborhood average - I have a pit bull mix and it is tricky to find a place where she is welcomed)

I never pay for a "swanky" hotel with my own money, but I will stay at them when my employer pays (and sometimes my employer does). I have mixed feelings about them and tend to judge them on the way they render services and the experience I have there as a guest, rather than on the decor or status. Certain hotels are excellent at protecting guests' privacy and efficiently and discretely making them comfortable by catering to their expectations as individual people. Everything is effortless and seems to work as by magic. They offer exemplary service in a very low-key manner. They deeply understand how to render that old fashioned kind of quality customer service that you seldom see anywhere anymore. Other kinds of "swanky" hotels seem more based on having ultra-trendy decor and a crass appeal to a gratuitously conspicuous consumption type of lifestyle. I hate these kinds of swanky hotels. I'm not one of the "beautiful people" types staying there to be 'seen' and I don't like all those signs sitting around telling me how "special" I am or the presumption that I need their staff to bow and scrape in order to feel that I have received good service.

I really pondered the sofa or sectional question and ended up buying a sofa a few years ago. I ended up moving three times since I bought it and I haven't had problems fitting it into different spaces. I think finding new a place to live would have been more stressful for me if I had to worry about having to fit a sectional in every potential space I looked at. In retrospect, I sometimes wish I had gotten a sectional because there would have been more room for me and my two medium sized dogs to sit on it all at once. But for my sometimes mobile lifestyle, I think the sofa has worked out well.