Major rant

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There are many things stressing me out:

1. My job search has been completely unfruitful.
2. I have been priced out of the cities and neighborhoods I might want to live in.
3. I am worried that the ship has permanently sailed for finding friends/romantic partners with the same interests.
4. Mike Pence.

1. My degree is in geography and urban planning. GIS professional and urban planner are probably the only occupations I am qualified for. But Houston has no zoning, so urban planning jobs are scarce. GIS is a very small field and heavily tied to the oil and gas industry, which is in a major downturn. I have tried learning programming and Oracle/SQL, but I have been rejected by those jobs because my degree isn't in the great, almighty Computer Science.

Incidentally, when I first graduated from high school, nearly 20 years ago, my college major was computer science. But my first semester, I had a calculus professor and a computer science professor who were both complete a**holes, the latter of whom WANTED his students to drop so he could focus on research.

In addition, the public school district I had attended beforehand did not adequately prepare students for college or the real world. The only thing they taught students to do was to follow orders, no questions asked. They also had academic and disciplinary policies that could only be described with one word: racist!! ! The academic policies involved giving students easy A's, with the thinking that giving students A's basically for merely showing up was the only way to increase minority graduation rates, thus implying they are "lazy" or "stupid". Zero tolerance policies involved such things such as: no backpacks, no going to your locker on your lunch break, you must have an ID badge with a lanyard on it. They were never about keeping students safe. They were about keeping minority students in line. To this day, I refer to one of the assistant principals as the "Generalissimo". Because of the school district policies, I feel I have been cheated out of higher paying, in-demand tech jobs.

2 and 3. I have been priced out of cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and New York because I am unable to be qualified for said tech jobs because of my degree. Only techies, doctors, and lawyers can afford to live in those cities. If I were to stay in Houston, the desired neighborhood is Montrose, near downtown. Unfortunately, like the above-mentioned cities, the neighborhood has been severely gentrified and the average house goes for $500,000. (The average house in Houston as a whole goes for less than $200,000). My thinking is in those cities and neighborhoods, I am more likely to find people who like animated sitcoms and indie stuff like I do. I currently live in a very conservative suburb of Houston (I don't identify as conservative or liberal anymore). Here, watching those things is as bad as watching porn. Plus being a Lutheran in state that's half Southern Baptist, half Catholic doesn't help either. (I don't require that friends be Lutheran)

4. Mike Pence. I constantly bristle at the thought of him possibly becoming president. I despise Trump's presidency (not that Hillary would have been any better). Pence wants theocracy. We all know the s**t he pulled as governor of Indiana. He would probably make fornication illegal, as well as any sexual position he considers "sodomy" (basically anything other than missionary). Those totally contrast with my extremely high sex drive, which any potential romantic partner absolutely, positively, *must* have. It's already bad enough there are laws in most states against marijuana and public nudity. The War on Drugs was an excuse to entrap, incarcerate, disenfranchise, and possibly re-enslave black people. Laws against public nudity violate separation of church and state. We saw what conservative censors did to Elvis, George Carlin, and GG Allin. Laws against DWI and public drunkenness are nothing more than backhanded attempts to bring back Prohibition.

You may consider that a lot of people find employment in fields other than what they were trained. At a recent party I met a lady who is now a professional landscaper. She now gets to use her creativity. She was a civil engineer, but got soured on the fact that her job basically turned into a job in cost cutting. She does have to work out in the cold weather these days, but she is much a happier with what she does. We do live in a state with lots of wealthy people who can pay for her services. That is another thing to consider. Wealthy people can afford to pay for specialists.

You can live on the outskirts of these cities---especially if you either have a car, or decent access to public transportation.

I live in New York City, probably about 15 miles from downtown. You can get a studio for under $1,000 sometimes, one bedroom like $1,200-$1500. Yes, it's pricey (if you're in the Pacific Northwest, it's "spendy"). If you get a roommate, it's affordable to live in most of the "outer boroughs" of NYC near public transportation.

You can get clerical jobs in offices--but you have to train on Microsoft (Word, Excel, etc). There are many of those types of jobs. The salaries are not decent---but they go up once you get experience.

You can also take a civil service test and get your name on a "list." Generally, one can be on a "list" for 3-4 years. Sometimes, somebody is called when it's least expected. Civil service jobs have excellent benefits all around, even if the salary sucks.

The most affordable major city in the US is Omaha. The most popular TV viewing habits there: Fox News and the 700 Club.

Nebraska enforces the Evangelical Christian equivalent of Sharia law. Bathroom laws, no abortions even for rape and incest, you name it. Their governor, Pete Ricketts, is one of Trump's biggest supporters. The state makes Alabama look like a progressive utopia.

You find some of that in Omaha.

But there are also decent types, too. Regular people.

Lincoln, Nebraska is a university town, and is the capital of Nebraska. There's probably more "liberal" people there.

Unfortunately I have completely snapped. I have been saying hurtful things to conservative Trump supporters online, in retaliation for all the hurtful things they've said to LGBT people.

Just remember: it's only online. And you know that you've sort of gone "too far."

Usually, nobody takes vengeance on anybody just for expressing an opinion.

The quantity of idiots on the Internet is less than people imagine.

I have calmed down, but still feel completely hopeless.

With both the friend and job search, I am never anybody's first choice. I am the guy people settle for when they're really desperate.

And unless secular humanism is forced and shoved down the throats of every American, especially the Deep South and Great Plains, I am doomed.