Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows that gloss over and sanitize the reality of adolescent life make me want to hit myself.
I think I'm going to drop the idea of creating an entirely new city for my stories and make it a renamed, fictionalized version of one I live by that changes the culture but keeps the same basic layout. It both reduces the amount of work I have to do and increases the quality of my results.
Hmmm, that`s true I guess, much harder to build from scratch. I suppose it depends on what type of world you are building.
I eagerly await the few drops of rain the weatherman promised us for today. I will set out teaspoons to capture the precious liquid. If I gather enough, maybe I'll boil an egg. (If you haven't heard, we're having a historic drought around here.)
Does LA suffer droughts on a regular basis then, and how bad is this one? I`d gladly swap some of our rain for some of your sun lol
We sometimes (often) get droughts, but this is a four-year drought, and is the worst in recorded history. We're all basically fucked.
How bad is bad? Rations on bathing? I`m sorry if it sounds silly but it`s hard for me to picture, I don`t have much context where droughts are concerned.
The governor of the state has made a law that says everybody has to cut back 25%. (Except agriculture, which consumes about 80% of the state's water - smell some corruption here?) So our lawns will turn brown. Our swimming pools will dry up. You know, first-world problems. We're told we have about one year's worth of water available. After that, who knows?
And I suppose the real problem is long term, will the rains you may have in the future make up for the loss you suffer now. Can you catch up I guess is what I`m trying to say. 80 percent? Yikes, what`s that for watering the orange groves? Definitely, no-one wants their swimming pools to dry up, that`s awful. Um, what`s a swimming pool?
@Krispee: We don't have as many orange groves as we used to. But we still grow water-intensive crops like almonds and (shudder) rice! How the hell do you justify a water-intensive crop like rice in a desert like California? A swimming pool is a largish puddle of water that kids have fun in. It's like an outdoor bathtub, but without soap, and often there's a bar nearby. Like, ten feet away.
@minstrel: Haha, that doesn`t sound too bad at all. I`ve actually just been reading up on it and one of the problems seems to be the over pumping of underground water supplies. And I can`t believe you guys actually grow rice. Rice, are you kidding me? I can understand them wanting to keep up with crops like almonds because I expect they bring in revenue. I do remember having a hosepipe ban a very long time ago but we don`t get dry enough summers here these days. We used to get much warmer summers when I was a kid, but they are rare now.
No offense, but isn't that area basically a giant desert? Wouldn't water issues be at the forefront of thoughts when erecting a city in a desert? I wouldn't grow things like rice there. In the Deep South, sure but there? Oo
It is a bit odd, to be sure....wonder what made them think about doing it in the first place. Normally those things are driven by the need to make money.
Yes, it is a desert. And water issues would be at the forefront if you were erecting a city, but remember, LA was never "planned." Hardly any cities ever are. It used to be a small town. It just grew and grew. Most cities grow from small towns. Nobody thinks, when they're founding the small town, "Hey! This city is one day going to have millions of people in it - better do some water planning!" The size of the place just sneaks up on you, and suddenly you find yourself living in a giant metropolis.
Exactly. LA started out as a small mining town that took advantage of the Gold Rush boom (did I get that right, @jannert ?) and over the years, more and more people kept coming to this little mining town until bing-bada-boom (stole that from The Fifth Element) it became the bigass city we know today And no, no one really thinks centuries ahead when they're building. I doubt the politicians of 1882 LA were all, "Hrrrrmmm... <smoking/drinking heavily while staring at the map of LA and surrounding counties> I think we'd best prepare for a potential apocalyptic, state-sized drought that may, or may not happen 133 after we're all dead. Let's get to work, boys!" It's mostly "Well, this part of the city is getting compacted, let's expand a bit more." or "Hey, let's add this new thing there!" and stuff like that.
