Unemployment Rate

Something that keeps many of us in our current city/state is the job that we have. Some of us moved from our hometown to take that one job after college. Some of us have stayed at home, most of the time in our parents basement, for our whole lives and stay there for that job. Some of us have moved to an area first and found a job later.

After looking at these statistics, no matter what your reason for moving was, I think Minnesota is the place for all of you.

In case you are bad with numbers and don't understand what percentages are (they are usually out of 100%, but sometimes people get that wrong too) I created (colored) a map of the united states.




Green State = Minnesota -or- The place you should be
Red States = Some of the unemployed states you live in
Yellow States = Places that have a lower unemployment rate than Minnesota
Numbers = The ranking of some states. The lower the number, the lower the unemployment rate.


You will probably notice there are 12 states ahead of Minnesota. I at least hope you will since I noticed this and highlighted them yellow. If you decide to move to one of them, since many of them are near Minnesota, I will believe it is your way of taking baby steps to live closer to me.

If you don't like the way your state performs in the unemployment race, lets check how cities fair.

In the top 100 Metropolitan areas, Minnesota has 7 cities/areas (including number 2 and 3). Bloomington, Indiana (65) and Cape Girardeau-Jackson, MO-IL (85) are the only Metropolitan area in the top 100 for people reading this blog (assumption is for Indiana, Tennessee, Michigan, Florida, Illinois).

Some more city statistics:

Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI = Number 260 with %10.3 unemployment
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN = Number 210 with %9.0 unemployment
Flint, MI = Number 362 with %16.1 unemployment
Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI = Number 358 with %15.4 unemployment
Indianapolis-Carmel, IN = Number 163 with %8.2 unemployment


If you are ever looking for a new job, wanting to move to an area that has better job opportunities, trying to find a place that has a diversified economy, or simply wanting to get out of the basement, Minnesota may be your place.

*************************
Serious Note:
All tomfoolery aside, I hope nobody really gives up on their cities/states because of unemployment reasons only. There is way more to choosing where you live and I hope you all understand that and know that I understand that. In fact, many times we may wish to do the opposite and move to a place where people are struggling to find work. Maybe it is our passions, maybe it is the non-profit that we work for, maybe it is our desire to live in solidarity with others, maybe we love the area, maybe it feels like home. These are all reasons (and there are many more) to defy moving to an area based on an unemployment rate.

Plus, if everybody moved to Minnesota, there would be a lot more people here looking for jobs, which would negate anything I worked (typed and researched) for.

Serious Note End
*************************

What kind of better than Minnesota unemployment rate does your job seeking state have? Oh wait, I already answered that question.

Zombie Pub Crawl

Do you like to drink alcohol?
Do you like bars/pubs?
Do you like Zombies?

Even if you answer no to all of these questions, I am fairly certain you can like or appreciate the Zombie Pub Crawl.

According to friend testimonies and Wikipedia the Zombie Pub Crawl started in Minneapolis (that is one of the cities in Minnesota if you are just joining us) in 2005. The Crawl has become a well established and well attended event since it started.

Before we analyze this spectacular event let me give you the story of my first run in with the Zombie Pub Crawlers.

The year is 2008 and Totally Harsh (RIP) was playing at the Bedlam (another great post on its own, with great stories). I was somewhat confused that people were at our show dressed up like zombies, but I thought, "oh well, we are a hardcore punk band, there is a huge crust city the Bedlam's mission is "is to produce radical works of theater with a focus on collaboration and a unique blend of professional and community art." Zombies hanging out at shows seem to be part of radical theater. I just enjoyed the images, makeup and costumes and considered it a fluke.

A little later in the evening, before we played our set, Mary, Trev and I (band mates) decided to head to the Triple Rock (not the Baptist Church from Blues Brothers) for food and drink. Walking outside I saw zombies everywhere. I realized then that the plot of Night Of The Living Dead, Shaun Of The Dead, or any other zombie movie was now a reality. Although these zombies weren't trying to eat my brains, they were just looking for a drink, probably after a long day of eating brains.

I was told it was the Zombie Pub Crawl and it made perfect sense that something like this would happen in Minneapolis. We do awesome stuff like this here.

Why is a Zombie Pub Crawl a good thing? Why do I even have to ask that question? Sure zombies have been cool for a long time. They are similar to ninjas, pirates, robots, and dinosaurs. All of these things have their moments of being hip and the cycle always comes back to them, but this seemed to move beyond that.

For once we could have zombies roam areas and get a drink with a human rather than just passing you on the street or eating your brains. Instead of a typical Zombie Walk where you gather a large amount of zombies in one place, the Zombie Pub Crawl participants freely make their way between pubs and interact with the rest of the population like they are a part of it.

If none of this means anything to you, at least admire the costume and makeup creativity and talent that goes into some of these zombie outfits.

Also, if you can't get enough zombie action in one pub crawl a year, feel free to stop by Donny Dirk's Zombie Den in Minneapolis.

What kind of zombie traditions has your non-undead city started?

Ice Skating Rinks

Since the Winter Olympics are starting very soon, I felt like explaining something cool about the winter and Minnesota.

Scattered throughout the Twin Cities metro are Ice Skating/Hockey(with boards)/Broomball rinks, outside, in many parks. The best part of this is they are free (and maintained) for people to use. In your city, you may have ice rinks or ice arenas inside large buildings (eyesores) for you to escape your boring, non-winter reality; these are places you have to pay to enter. Well not in Minnesota. We believe that ice skating is a natural human right, or something like that.

I understand you can argue that we pay taxes to keep these ice rinks around. I cannot deny that, but here is why it is better than paying your 5-10 dollar admission to skate in your arenas.

1. We pay taxes for the awesome parks (which we have in abundance and I can post on that later) already, so the land is already there. You could say we are making sure we use the park year round, by flooding it with water and letting nature turn it into a winter wonderland or frozen tundra (whichever you prefer).

2. Skating outside and seeing the beautiful parks, neighborhoods and busy streets is more exciting, tranquil and captivating than being inside.

3. It is free for everybody. Some people cannot afford to pay your ridiculous admission rates for themselves or for a family. Here they can skate free as often as they want.

All of this doesn't even include all of the lakes spread throughout the state, both inside of populated city areas and sparse rural areas. The incredible number of lakes in this area should be another post.

If you still like to skate inside, we have places like that too, especially something exciting like the Depot in Minneapolis.
The Depot, Minneapolis

If you live in Québec or any of the Canadian places listed here that have superior ice rinks and trails, disregard everything I said, but still move here.
Outdoor Ice Skating Rinks & Trails in US and Canada

What kind of outdoor winter options does your boring city offer?

Mystery Science Theater 3000

All the cities that we live in have a history associated with them and some people have said that our history defines us. If this is true, and it is going to be true for my argument today, then we should take a long look into where we live and see if your city has something this great in its past.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K for the cool kids) is a show that ran from 1988 to 1999 and taught us all how to love life and to laugh once again. Every episode we visited our friends Joel, Mike, Crow, Tom Servo, Gypsy, Cambot, The Forrester's, Brain Guy, Bobo, the beloved TV's Frank, Trumpy, and so many more. These friends taught us one of the most important life lessons of all; it is good to laugh, not only to laugh, but laugh at the world around us. If you were sitting in a boring high school/college class, what better way to get through the class then to crack jokes (either silent or out loud if you had the courage). Was work incredibly boring, annoying, or tiring? How about bringing some of that old MST3K charm into your life and workplace, it can make every dull moment count. Were you sick of people trying to show you the "coolest" movie, band, piece of art, or birthday cake when you knew it sucked? You would embrace every moment that wasn't enjoyable if you learned anything for this little show.

Reasons why MST3K was important and why you missed out if you never gave it a chance. (If you did watch the show and did not like it, I feel sad and someday I hope your heart and mind will be open to the laughs and the life lessons).

1. It taught us to see the folly in our life and the life around us.
2. You slowly become a more positive person. Never again will you say, "I hate hanging out with XXXXXX", you will find something to keep you entertained.
3. If the last point sounds mean, understand that if you no longer spend your time being upset, you are free to appreciate things you never noticed before.
4. The more you know, the more enjoyable the show is. This is kind of like Jeopardy or quiz bowl. More jokes make sense when you understand history, random facts and pop culture better. You can watch the same episode over and over throughout the years and still laugh at something new.

You may be asking yourself, "Russell, what does this have to do with Minnesota and history?" I'm glad you asked that.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 started and was based in the Twin Cities (also cool kids know the Twin Cities as Minnesota's Minneapolis/Saint Paul and the surrounding suburbs).

So, come to Minnesota where the roots of laughter and new outlooks on life are plentiful and historical.

Also, I have hosted a wonderful MST3K night with good friends, good food, and good laughs and I plan to have many more in the future.

Feel free to tell me about the life changing shows has your crappy city has created.

Hopeless

I decided to start a blog, attempting to convince my friends to move to Minnesota. All of you from Detroit/Flint/Indianapolis/Nashville/elsewhere, you know who you are and why you apparently hate me because you don't live near me.

I understand that most, probably all, of you will stay where you are or move to another non-Minnesota location someday. Because of this, my blog will hopefully serve one of two purposes:

1. Convince you to move to Minnesota. This is a small and hopeless possibility, but it won't stop me from trying.

2. Make everybody who doesn't move here feel very guilty for neglecting me and all that is Minnesota.


When the topic is brought up, every one of you gives a single excuse for not moving here. "It is cold!" Think of this blog as a pros/cons list of reasons to move to Minnesota. So far you only have one con, the weather. I understand people don't want to live in below 0 (Kelvin) temperatures, but hopefully you will be won over by the pros that I present.

Today's reason to move to Minnesota:
I live here (hopefully that is not a reason for you to not move here).