Ask Cooper Anything 5: Where to Live

"If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why? Assume for the purposes of this question that the people you want to live close to would also be there, and that you would be able to find a job."
- Erik C.

To come up with this answer, I had to start be eliminating the places I wouldn't live, coming at this from a practical point of view.

For starters, and this may seem incredibly lame to some people, I'm going to go ahead and disqualify a massive percentage of the world.  I actually wouldn't really have any desire to live outside of this country.  There are places around the world I think would be neat to visit (New Zealand, England, Egypt), but this country is my home and I don't ever see myself living away from it.

Next, however much I love the ocean, I don't want to live next to it.  Especially in Florida, or any place where hurricanes are a real possibility.  That's just something I would never want to deal with.  While places like California eliminate themselves due to the ocean, I also wouldn't want to live anywhere that has a good chance for earthquakes.

I don't want to be too far south, as I'm not a fan of scorching heat, and I really do enjoy being able to experience all four seasons.  Geographically, Alaska is my favorite state, because of the mountains and the ocean.  I'd be more likely to live near the ocean in Alaska than in Florida, but the high temperature in southern Alaska is maybe 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, so the window for enjoying the outside during that time is fairly small, and I want to be able to play softball and do other such outdoor activities for a good amount of the year.  So no to Alaska.

Oddly enough, my current state of Minnesota fits everything pretty well so far.  The one thing that it is missing is my favorite geographical feature: mountains.  So, I would probably choose somewhere with a similar climate to Minnesota, but more mountainous.  This puts me a little farther west or southwest, ending up in western Montana, or perhaps somewhere in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, or Colorado.  I do like having access to the big city, and yet I'd be just as happy being in the middle of nowhere, though preferably with some kind of city within reasonable driving distance.  I'd love a large amount of (low maintenance) land, where I can't see any neighbors.  As long as I can have access to high speed Internet.

I'd probably end up picking somewhere in western Montana.  That probably is quite a pathetic answer to some people, but it seems pretty nice to me.

Ask Cooper Anything 3: Color and Sadness

"Well Erik and Tim asked complicated questions. So I'll ask - what is your favorite color?  and what makes you sad? You are always happy."
- Gina C.

My favorite color is green.  Specifically, forest green - a nice dark color.  After we recently had water coming in through the egress window in my office in the basement, the wall needed to be repainted.  I could have painted the whole office, but instead I opted to paint just that one wall.  So now my office has a dark green accent wall.  Which is pretty neat.

I do sometimes consider switching my favorite color to black.  It's an exceptionally close second.  Green has held on thus far to retain the crown.  The color I would choose for different things depends on the circumstance, though.  For instance, I think black, dark grey, or silver cars look the best.

Oddly enough, my favorite color used to be blue.  Back a long time ago.  I think I switched it some time in my early teens, maybe.

Concerning sadness: I don't particularly enjoy being sad.  Not that anyone does, of course, but when I become sad, I tend to maneuver my mind to focus on something else instead.  Sitting around focusing on whatever is making you sad doesn't really help much.

That being said, one of the main things that makes me sad is something I've written about a few times on these blogs: my own shortcomings and failures.  I hate it when I'm working on something, or playing something, and make a silly mistake that I shouldn't make, or I am unable to do something I think I should be able to do.  Things that happen that cause me to doubt my own abilities, my own competence, or my own intelligence.  Especially when other people see me do it, and then I start to assume that they're now also doubting my abilities, competence, and intelligence.  It makes me sad when I fail.

Other saddening things include all the suffering in the world.  I know that I have been incredibly blessed in my life, more so than I could ever deserve, but there are many people who have been born into situations that I can't even fathom.  I find it sad when people endure terrible hardships that were not of their own making.  Mostly, I find it saddest that there are so many people completely oblivious that there is a God that loves them, or they simply reject God.  Either way, they are living their lives without a savior, whether or not they know they need one.