Your Dream City

[EyeSeeCold]

Where would you want to live ideally?

My dream city would have a combination of "rainy noir with a modernist touch and undertones of isolation". Seattle, WA has been my most frequent consideration, mostly because of its characteristic weather. It's been a love/hate thing with New York. Somewhere in North Carolina, Philadelphia/Pennsylvania or Chicago/Illinois might be nice.

 

[nexion]

I think I would actually prefer to not live in a city, but be within reasonable distance from a good one. I just would like to be without the noise, business, and pressures of city life.

NC is meh. Pretty nondescript. Seattle does sound nice though.

 

[cheese]

I really can't understand this tendency to fantasise about ideal worlds/cities/places. it's so far separated from my daily thought life that I just can't get it, I can't get it at all.

I'm definitely not saying it's bad - just that I have next to no experience of it and no way to comprehend it. When I see threads like this, my mind just hits up against this big wall. No imagination.

What do you feel before, during and after you imagine your dream whatever? What compels you to imagine it? Does it make you happy, contented; do you live in your inner world; is it like playing Sims?

*edit
In fact, it's more than lack of comprehension - it's actual irritation, like something grating against my mind/soul/thingy. I don't know if this is because I can't understand it, or if there's something that literally annoys me about physical detail. Makes me want to hit things. Actually, I have always found setting descriptions in novels very tiresome.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I meant real world places, 'ideal' as in 'you could if you wanted'.

 

[cheese]

Yeah, even that.

 

[EvilScientist Trainee]

I would agree with cheese with this one, but i'd be a hypocrite. I have considered many 'ideal places' before, and imagined how would i enjoy living there. But, in the end, for me, that was just a way to get lost of reality.

Doesn't lead anywhere, but makes me feel good for a while.

Now, on the thread: I always felt something for Chicago, there's something classic in there. At the same time is quite modern. It sucks i'm thousands of miles away from the city. Neither have the means to live there. Yet..

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Yeah, even that.

There is the chance of influencing someone to move to or even just visit someplace new.

I know we tend to be critics but how can you criticize what makes us who we are?

EDIT: Are you INFJ?

 

[cheese]

There is the chance of influencing someone to move to or even just visit someplace new.

I know we tend to be critics but how can you criticize what makes us who we are?

EDIT: Are you INFJ?

wat. I already said I'm not being critical, just that I don't understand it. As in I LITERALLY don't understand it; I'm not using that word as some sort of stand-in for a negative judgment. I can't understand the mind-state that leads to that sort of thought. I'm not very dreamy or imaginative.

(And as far as I know, no, I'm not INFJ. Don't see what that has to do with it but nope.)

I'd appreciate it if you answered the questions I asked. (And I'm not saying "I'd appreciate it" in that pseudo-polite but actually hostile tone either. I really just mean I'd like to hear yours and others' thoughts on the matter because I can't seem to get any insight on it myself.)

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Separating any part of my personality, behavior or actions from imagination would be ludicrous. I would go so far as to say I don't even exist in the same world most people do. So there is no 'downtime' after imagining things, it is a continuous phenomenon. As such, I cannot detach myself from these experiences, to do so would terminate my consciousness. In short, yes you could say I live in my inner world, which is really a distorted perception of the same outer one.

Also, I've never played the Sims.

 

[Cavallier]

Top Pot. Best coffee and doughnuts on the planet. (That I've tasted so far.) Try the Raspberry Glazed cake doughnut the next time you go. *drools*

 

[cheese]

Separating any part of my personality, behavior or actions from imagination would be ludicrous. I would go so far as to say I don't even exist in the same world most people do. So there is no 'downtime' after imagining things, it is a continuous phenomenon. As such, I cannot detach myself from these experiences, to do so would terminate my consciousness. In short, yes you could say I live in my inner world, which is really a distorted perception of the same outer one.

Also, I've never played the Sims.

(Neither have I.)

Oh, that makes more sense to me. It's just like living in this world. How are interactions with other people carried out though, if you're not really in this world? Are they fairies/demons/other mythical creatures in your head? Or perhaps you imagine them as distortions of fictional archetypes (like heroes, damselsindistress, etc)?

Or does this distorted perception only hold for places? You experience places through a set of sensations, emotions and particular thought processes associated with that place? (Eg I imagine living somewhere with a 'film noir feel' would conjure up a certain set of mental and emotional tendencies.) And people are just people?

 

[Cognisant]

Tokyo if I spoke Japanese, especially if I could live in one of those old traditional homes scattered around the place or an inner-city penthouse.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Lots of places seem great until you get there, then you find all sorts of things to complain about. It's just the ol' grass is always greener on the other side of the fence syndrome. Your best hope is to just find someplace you can be comfortable in....at least for awhile.

it's actual irritation, like something grating against my mind/soul/thingy.

I'm afraid I can't help you with your mind and soul, but as to your thingy I'd advise against wearing wool underwear.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Or perhaps you imagine them as distortions of fictional archetypes (like heroes, damselsindistress, etc)?

I'd say timeless instead of fictional.

Or does this distorted perception only hold for places?

It's everything, every single object of my perception is attributed to an archetype in order to be understood. This is where my love for categorizing comes in, it's why I asked if you were INFJ.

Jung said it best:

Introverted intuition{Ni} apprehends the images which arise from the a priori, i.e. the inherited foundations of the unconscious mind. These archetypes, whose innermost nature is inaccessible to experience, represent the precipitate of psychic functioning of the whole ancestral line, i.e. the heaped-up, or pooled, experiences of organic existence in general, a million times repeated, and condensed into types. Hence, in these archetypes all experiences are [p. 508] represented which since primeval time have happened on this planet.

 

[cheese]

Eye:
HANG ON! I forgot you were working from a Socionics perspective - what functions are INFJs supposed to have?
INTPs in that system have Ni, right? Because what you said about yourself sounded just like the quote.

IB:
I was waiting for someone to notice. And take a picture, and show it to a doctor cos I'm too shy to see one myself and it's a cold world my eyes see out there IB, a cold world and I need my sheephair over my balls or they'll descend a lot more than they were ever meant to.

 

[Anthile]

You just have to keep in mind that socionics is like an Orwellian version of MBTI.

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
INTP IS INTJ

See? Easy to remember that way.

 

[snafupants]

Love is in the air!

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Eye:
HANG ON! I forgot you were working from a Socionics perspective - what functions are INFJs supposed to have?
INTPs in that system have Ni, right? Because what you said about yourself sounded just like the quote.

I was going from a Jungian perspective.

 

[EvilScientist Trainee]

It's quite interesting that many non typology topics tend to derail to typology. But when you're in greece, you have to speak greek.

On the daydreaming about other places subject. It's an involuntary thing for me, i often am watching/reading/thinking something, and in the next second, i'm imagining my new apartment, going off to buy some food, interacting with my neighbours. They often display ideal characteristics, mostly about being compreensive. But also, it's a once in a time vision. I don't feel like returning to those places just to daydream.

But while i'm out to daydream, real world interactions are set on autopilot. They're still there, they're still the same people, but they must be put on hold until i finish whatever i'm doing. For instance, friday i was watching a behaviour study in rats, until I started to wonder how would it be like if humans were research animals. I envisioned the whole thing, maybe even had a plot for a movie or two. When i finally came back, with a grin on my face, the time for the test had ended, and I noted down some actions that the rat made, but i hadn't really noticed that. Some of them were completely missed, anyways.

 

[cheese]

EyeSeeCold:
Ok, INFJ = NiFeTiSe right? So you knew I didn't understand your experience, talked about yourself seeing everything through the lens of archetypes, quoted a Ni description which said the exact same thing, noted I was different to you, and asked if I was the type with dominant Ni? Huh?

 

[EyeSeeCold]

EyeSeeCold:
Ok, INFJ = NiFeTiSe right? So you knew I didn't understand your experience, talked about yourself seeing everything through the lens of archetypes, quoted a Ni description which said the exact same thing, noted I was different to you, and asked if I was the type with dominant Ni? Huh?

No, I was unsure of your type and I felt the need to categorize you. Anything beyond that is inferred.

 

[cheese]

So there was no reason for you picking INFJ as a possibility?

 

[The Gopher]

INTP and INFJ get mixed up often.

 

[echoplex]

Any place with people/jobs/culture/a soul of some kind/more [insert thing] than churches/cows. Yeah, the grass may always be greener on the other side, but in this case that's not very hard because the grass is rather gray here.

Actually, my dream would be to keep moving because I think I need the experience. The very idea of having a stable home is not very interesting, though it's always nice to have that too. It would be cool to compare various major cities as well as small towns. I'd be curious how different they really are from eachother.

 

[Gather_Wanderer]

I've noticed quite a few nods to Chicago. It is truly a great city and would like to recommend it, but I'm just wondering if my having been born and raised here could affect my perception of it, or how it is affecting it. It is a world-class city by typical standards, but I don't think I would live here the rest of my life. Actually, I'm not and have been thinking about where I would want to go.

My dream city would have a combination of "rainy noir with a modernist touch and undertones of isolation"

Could not have been said any better.

If I do decide to progress through life mainly independent from others, I will be looking for a city like this. Thing is, I'm not sure about how I will move forward from here. I've just met a fantastic girl in school this semester (Extremely complimentary. She does everything right.) and, though I'm fighting any temptation to even think about planning anything with her, it does make me wonder about future hypothetical situations. I upset my family frequently with how easily can I just venture off without a word to anyone as to where I am going, primarily upsetting them because I don't immediately notice that other people are thinking about where I've gone, and/or actually care about my well-being. I have one friend on particular that I have, before, upset for "disappearing".
Went off topic a bit, but I'm being pushed by loved ones to consider my personal impact on their lives and be a part, when I've long waited for the days I could start picking up and heading off to wherever I was thinking of going at the moment.

The last 2-3 years or so, I've been drawn towards Minnesota, outside of Minneapolis for some reason. I'm a nighttime creature and consensus from associates of mine says that I would enjoy it there, though I'm not sure they look for the same things I do. Isolation is key, and I've imagined on many occasions myself having a cabin in a wooded area somewhere out there, probably within a reasonable, accessible distance from the city. Something about the cold of night, that sort of atmosphere. It's appealing right now.
I've already made plans to finish school there....well my bachelor's anyway. I can't say that it's my most ideal city, but it fits the picture of where my mind is right now. That dark, cold, loneliness may seem depressing to some but it is actually not at all to me.

 

[Spungo Mungo]

Gothenburg, Sweden. It's just lurvely.

 

[zxc]

Isolation is key, and I've imagined on many occasions myself having a cabin in a wooded area somewhere out there, probably within a reasonable, accessible distance from the city. Something about the cold of night, that sort of atmosphere. It's appealing right now. That dark, cold, loneliness may seem depressing to some but it is actually not at all to me.

Hell yeah, anything that fits that description will do the trick

 

[Fiddling Lass]

Cardiff, Wales, or Castlegar, Canada. Or Toronto.
I also second Gothenburg.

 

[Anchorite]

Well, having lived my entire life in the area and experiencing so much of the city (yet still so little) I'm completely in love with Chicago, and while I love the idea of traveling the world, this is almost certainly home-base for life.
That being said, I've been fascinated with Tokyo for a good 3 years now and would love to experience that kind of urbanity on such a scale.
Rome is probably 3rd on the list of cities I think fit me best, with all history, beautiful architecture and laid-back liberalism that comes with a large European city.
If ever there was a perfect city I think it would definitely be a combination of those three.

 

[gruesomebrat]

Cardiff, Wales, or Castlegar, Canada. Or Toronto.
I also second Gothenburg.

Toronto's not that great... Perhaps just because I've lived my entire life within 200km of the 'big city', but it doesn't strike me as that great a place to be. To each their own, though, I suppose.

Personally, the idea of being in a city surrounded by skyscrapers is repulsive to me. Much rather the countryside, where I can actually go out and breathe. Has to be in relatively close proximity to a population center, if only to supply my basic needs (Internet, food, some human contact...)

 

[Nocturne]

Hmmm... my dream city would have a moderate temperature so it won't get too cold or boiling. Kinda' like Greece or the Mediterannean Sea- area. It would have lots of old architecture and beautiful buildings. Also, there would be many parks where I can take a walk. lol. Hopefully, there wouldn't be too many people dwelling in the city, because it just makes the city too busy and rushed. Hmmm... This is it

 

[JarNew]

Havn't been to or scene many cities.

I'd like something that has some kind of common theme or a constant sky color.

I was thinking about Eugene Oregon for a while but now I'm thinking it's too rainy. The greenery is awesome though, tough choice

It reminds me a lot of the City in Pokemon ruby/saphire/emerald where everyone lives in trees and it's always raining.

I also hear there are many bums