How to be homeless

[Buttercat Apocalypse]

Originally Posted by owls8521

There are plenty of things I could worry about. If I get attacked, then that's what happens. There's no point worrying about it ahead of time as long as I'm not being ignorant. I think I'm safe enough. It's difficult to see me under the table.

I'll be sure to write about encouraging people to be safe if they attempt this.

Do you have any martial arts under your belt?

[Ninja]

Nice blog Jay, but I don't think Steve will be able to read it: the colorscheme is not very friendly towards colorblind people. May I suggest changing the color of the links to black?

[owls8521]

Originally Posted by Buttercat Apocalypse

Do you have any martial arts under your belt?

Yes actually, I have a lot of different martial arts experience, but I'm not sure how practical it is. I'm kind of curious about how I would fight. Maybe I will find out! Actually, I hear it's best just to run if someone attacks you. So that's probably what I'd do.

[owls8521]

I just wrote an in-depth article about my experiences sleeping outside. Last night was no fun! Check it out if you're interested.

Being Homeless and Sleeping Outside

[Dan.Linehan]

With some practice you could camp in the trees themselves.

New Tribe store

[Buttercat Apocalypse]

Intresting stuff!

[Dan.Linehan]

Horrifying!

5 found dead near the 405 in Long Beach - Los Angeles Times

[rosegold]

Mr. Pavlina should hold a 30 day wilderness survival trial. Or just homeless trial.

[Buttercat Apocalypse]

Dude, do you know my fascination with homelessness up till now has been in part because of a fear of money; the feeling that it is dirty, etc. I realised this a little while ago. While I'd like to be nomadic, I realise I need a financial base, some sort of security. Maybe this experience will apply to you too.

[Vanderlei]

This thread amazed me. Now I intend to buy a even smaller house, I'm non-materialist and a lover of minimalist houses.

[owls8521]

Originally Posted by Buttercat Apocalypse

Dude, do you know my fascination with homelessness up till now has been in part because of a fear of money; the feeling that it is dirty, etc. I realised this a little while ago. While I'd like to be nomadic, I realise I need a financial base, some sort of security. Maybe this experience will apply to you too.

I've had a lot of problems with my beliefs about money. I don't know if fear is the right way to describe it, but something was wrong. I'm feeling much better about it though, and I'm actually working like crazy to make money now. So I'm glad that's over. It will be nice to be able to buy food and live in my own place once I start getting paid.

Originally Posted by Vanderlei

This thread amazed me. Now I intend to buy a even smaller house, I'm non-materialist and a lover of minimalist houses.

There are some reallly small houses out there. I've thought about this too and probably wouldn't mind living in a tiny house.
Tiny House Blog - Small House Living

It's been a while since I did this little experiment. It was pretty fun and I'm glad I did it. I wrote an article, Ten Lessons from Homelessness, about what I learned.

Also, I'm a filmmaker, and I'm thinking about doing videos on my blog. I'm probably going to do some short documentary films about the homeless experience. I'll post on here if I do.

And thanks everyone for being interested in this. This has been my first time talking on a forum and it's awesome connecting with people who are interested in the same things. I've really enjoyed it and look forward to more connections and interesting conversations.

[theknightwhosaysni-NI]

Great ! thanks for updating, I've been following you since I discovered this thread.

[bluedragon]

Maybe this first scene from the movie Hancock could inspire you. I guess nobody would have dared to attack him would they? It made me consider trying a homeless night myself. But I would need to really be like Hancock to have the courage to sleep on a bench in a city like Cleveland (near which I spent 3 months), or any of the other American cities I visited.

When I visited the US, I always kept wondering, while walking through different cities, how it would be like to be homeless. Maybe because the place where our employer had arranged for us to stay was so boring and far away from the nearest city, Cleveland. Fortunately, in that area, sleeping outside would have been really easy - the best place would have been Cuyahoga National Park - there was a park which extended nearly all the way from Cleveland to Akron, and I used to go for a run every day. It's true that it got really scary at night, with no lights, and you couldn't see literally anything. There were also plenty of squirrels, deers, little mice, and at least 4 spiders walked up and down every single tree. But I don't think it would have been a problem - I read on several official sites about the area and they all stated none of the spiders bite.

I have never tried it, but I am sure it would be an amazing feeling, sleeping outside. Whenever I traveled by bus the whole night to get somewhere, and slept on the bus, the following morning I used to feel very different from sleeping in my own bed - I felt awake and ready for action the moment I woke up, I was fully aware of where I was... It was a different level of self awareness.
I also felt very well the firs time I didn't sleep at all one night - that happened only one time and in the morning I had an altered state of mind - I felt like I was literally living 2 days in one, like my day had lasted 48 hours. I definitely want to try that again, maybe when visiting a new city. But you have to be in pretty good shape to make it without feeling lousy the second day.

[Jay Pavlina]

Just so people in this thread know, I changed my name from owls8521 to Jay Pavlina. I decided to stop using an alias, and I'm going to be more involved in the forums now. At least that's the plan. I'm going to post an introduction in the general form and start participating.

Sorry for the quick hijack there. Now you can resume the homelessness discussion if you wish.