Sick of it. If it’s not already become an engrained habit I’m going to put a stop to it and fight to live the life I want.
I guess I never realised I had to fight for it. Weak.
Fuck concerning yourself with the truth of religion or the right and wrong of politics.
Realise your desires.
Git- R- Done.
Just make sure you have enough money to purchase your desires or else your screwed.
You need to try your hand at overcoming your stress and nihilism and give sedentary life a more honest shot. I am a Hobo, a Cynic, but do not approve of people entering into the lifestyle voluntarily the first time by their own accord. The lessons are bound to become the lessons ‘This was fucking stupid and not well thought out’ when it starts raining on you, and you know it won’t stop for over a week, or snowing, or when you run out of money. It’s better to try to figure out why you can’t make it, and focus on living more simply and within your means, developing yourself. If you like exploring, and are in health enough to drift, buy a backback or better, a rucksack, and go out hiking either in your city, suburb, or countryside, or a mixture of the three. If you have back to back days off, camp on them while hiking, and return to home and work. Learn the local biology and geology of your region, and the hidden nook and crannies, and map out the shape of your culture and it’s Ekistics. Visit other churches and temples to get a feel for people’s beliefs. Change up your diet a bit.
I do advocate a honest return at times in your life if your without responsibilities to family to a cynic lifestyle if you were once homeless for more than a night. However, you can’t return to it honesty with hindsight as to how better to live and improve yourself unless you honestly entered into it in the first place. Right now, it sounds as if your escaping something. I strongly recommend you confront it… when on foot, ruck as your religion and the stars as your cathedral, Cynicism is the root we must all return to by default, and running from something is anathema to our ways. We have the honesty to observe without as within, and the knowledge and technical and existential experience to overcome the problems we find confronting us.
If you insist upon leaving, I only ask you take this book with you:
amazon.com/Cynic-Epistles-St … 0891301518
This is the exact one I have. It’s from the greek sources, and has the greek translation along side of it- it’s the main textual evidence we have directly from the cynics from the era they actually existed in. It’s of great use. Most of the letters are pseudonymous, but literally came from that era of ancient, active Cynicism, and are incorporated into many other mainstream texts from antiquity, and appear to be universally accepted cynical doctrine that they themselves espoused. It’s a philosophical gem, and is NOT read anymore because it’s assumed the letters being forged makes it invalid to the wider philosophical audience, but it’s most definitely not the case, these were forged (not all are fake) in ancient times, and quoted by some of the best philosophers of we have from the ancient era, as well as forming the basis to the selections of the lives of philosophers we have, and focus on subjects we no longer much consider in philosophy but are still of great importance. If you undertake this lifestyle against my advice, bring this along with you. It focuses on works from 3BC which are purely pagan to later Jewish-Christian adaptations later on on the Cynical movement.
Best of luck either way. I strongly recommend you reconsider. It’s better to live your life bravely in facing what causes you to look away than to flee from it. What you run from, you chase, and what you chase after you cannot have, but always could of. What’s the nature of our nature when we focus upon the looming multifactorous bias of of our reality, our motivating discontent? Are we a whole person under such circumstances? Will fleeing make us whole again, or just weather us to our bone, leaving us more lost and confused and as deep in the shit as ever? One should never set out on a journey without a understanding of the self, without a impending sense of purpose and what we seek to accomplish. We must always set out as the lion at dawn, and never the shy coyote seeking to feed on scraps in the shadows of life, rejected and rejecting. Seek to set out, to approve, improve, and with paternal understand, as a good father and not as a forlorn son lost in the night. Its the line that divides the philosopher from the lost sheep of the night, and it’s the crucible all philosophy must inevitably pass through in the struggle of the ages.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRT7L3913BU[/youtube]
Ha!
Trevor, what I dislike about humanity is that everyone has an opinion about everything… just sounds like annoying background noise to me 
Contra, I agree with all that and I’d be content drifting if I didn’t have my creative desires tugging me in the opposite direction, and that’s barely a metaphor!
pretty soon you will be saying Fuck realizing your desires.
Very possible but hopefully not.
You picked the wrong month to start this as a novice.
Geeze, okay. Since you ARE doing it…
Mine is the woodland camo one, not the faggot coe fuck me cause I don’t blend into anything ACU one.
That is the model of my sleeping bag, I bought it used and slightly torn and restitched from a military surplus website for 29.99. It needs waterproofer from a camping store or walmart sprayed on it everytime you wash it or it rains hard.
Have three spots you can hide in before accepting staying in a city for more than two nights. Break rule number one if it’s a very large city and has a very large park and have one of those three inside of the park for emergency use only. NEVER get in the habit of staying there.
You top priorities:
A- Food… better get some foodstamps fast if you have no food or job prospect lined up. Some places such as San Francisco it’s three days even without a out of state ID. Others take a month and residency. Get off it the second you can- first regular paycheck in, and it’s canceled ASAP.
B- Bathing… does your city have public restrooms? Fill up three powerade bottles. Sponges DO NOT WORK, not in the long run, just go get a rag, and rag clean in a spot at least 50 feet distant from where you camped. A outdoor public restroom in a park, such as a bathroomstall would do well. Don’t stand there at the sink shaving and brushing your teeth… and especially don’t stand there, brush your teeth for a full minute while making eye contact with 7 other people, opening your mouth so you can thoroughly brush each and every molar. Have some common decency and just hide and do that stuff. People like this deserve the gas chamber. Don’t be like that. If your city has a shore line, chances are it has outdoor showers, some are cold as you can imagine- even here in Hawaii it’s coldish. A high priority once you land a job, or scrounge up enough money, is get a gym membership, one that has a shower. Plus if it has a sauna and a steamroom. I was the cleanest man in town because of that… spent hours soaking underneath it.
Water… always have a bottle of water or Gatorade with you at night. You’ll either get thirsty or need to pee. It’s no fun getting out of a sleeping bag in a storm to pee. Bottle is your friend. Always pay attention to where water is.
Footcare… yes, footcare. I have cankles so I can’t twist my non-existant ankles, but I do have hammer toes from my double wide feet. My pinky toes flatten out, and the tips of the skin from it wedged under the neighboring 4th toe dies, but doesn’t fall off. I have to occasionally cut it off, and the very tough skin growing on my 4th toe that prevents it from curling up. My skin on my feet takes massive beatings, it scabs and thickens here, and rips there. It rains, and I become in danger of jungle rot- once you get it, it never goes away- just looks like it does, then years later when it gets wet… it’s worst. Cold weather can fuck your toes up with frostbite, wearing white socks in black boots can too, making them impossble to sweat, forcing you to drag the broad edge of your knife up and down it, popping the sweat buildup till your feet bleeds sweet and blood. If you got ankles, your going to eventually get hitch hikers ankle, forcing you to walk backwards until you heal. Shin Splints are not uncommon. Learn how to puncture, wash out, clean, and patch up wounds. Learn how to bangade them without bandages, etc.
Shelter… you can’t have it, unless your in a rural area with a deep wilderness. No hobocamps, or leaving your stuff cache somewhere. It will be found eventually. The reason it will be found is because you go back to the same place repeatedly, and the undergrowth adapts in NOT growing where you walk. Your concealment dies if some kid finds your stuff, and calls the cops. They will destroy your belongings, even if your one paycheck away from that rent payment, ruining months of hard work, because the thugs can. Welcome to the world of storage. If your lucky, you’ll have all night storage. Don’t do the P.O. Box deal if they offer it, it tips your hat as to who you are. Also, the number of times you use their restroom, is less than the number of fingers you have on your hand. You can lose your storage quickly if they figure you out. And don’t try to stay overnight. Cops are trained to go and find people hiding from the rain… it’s the easiest time to do a round up.
Do not trust cops, Mayors, or government aid workers. Cops are the worst… do NOT accept living in a Obamaville under their conditions. They are doing it so they have control, and will flip the friendly switch suddenly overnight and will arrest you. Also, stay away from occupy wallstreet encampments UNLESS these conditions are met… they are massive, they have NOT been told to close down camp and are expecting to be all arrested, and are near your storage, or shower, or work. Absolutely NO reason to be with them otherwise. They are pure risk, no benefit . Yes, you can visit them, or hang out… just don’t fall for the trap. They will ALL be arrested several times over. Being arrested makes it very hard to get a job, even a simple stupid one.
Dress like the class in leisure who the police MOST trust. I had to dress business casual for a fucking year. I am perhaps the only hobo in recent history who ever had to wear french cuffs. It’s because I worked in the Union Square area of San Francisco in the high fashion areas- the highest infact. Those people WILL over the course of a year come to know your face. Once I got a place, I stopped wearing the crap and became a slob. Now, I dress fancy again, as much as the climate and custom makes possible.
Do Great Things, Read Great Things, Search Out Greatness, never turn your back on the ugly save for your self preservation, and even then, make sacrifices. I spent my year on the streets in San Francisco studying how San Francisco’s class structure related to it’s city design, trying to figure out how it ended up with slums and it’s perverse alter-ego Oakland. It took me a year to figure this out. I helped alot of guys out, people who didn’t know my own circumstances. Be like the Black Knight from Ivanhoe, and meander, doing good things. Yes, world fucked you, but your not the first, nor shall you be the last. Leave things always better than you found it. Some homeless are injured and couldn’t get medical aid… you can figure that out for them without costing you a dime, perhaps a night waiting up in the emergency room at a university hospital. Someone might have PTSD, or symptoms to a undiagnosed disorder, or they are lost, or runaways. Or it can be a philosophical problem facing someone, or even a community. This can be you at your best. Do great things… your operating at your top biological efficiency as a hobo, step out and prove your ancestors right in striving to make you. For all the things that makes men turn away from the world, never let it be you, yourself, your being, that causes you to sink away because you’ve been labeled so and so, orforced to live as a ancestor long ago lived. We are still men, and we’re at our intellectual best in these moments.
Learn to shut the fuck up. Just get used to quiet. You can make that as Zen as you want it about inner silence… I just mean though shut up… there is little you can say to improve your position, and much that will give you away- especially at night when yapping on the phone.
Have a circuit of restaurants, not just one to recharge your stuff. They don’t have plugs, you don’t eat. Have books, look like a student or a businessman of some sorts. Be clean, and buy enough to be worth it, and never abuse it.
Unless it says 0 percent chance of rain, it will rain. www.accuweather.com will get it wrong every time. Remember this when books and electronics come into play. I’ve seen it rain with it saying 0 percent too, and it never is updated.
Cops are lazy when alone, but will complete their circuit. They are almost always predictable. Remember this when camping, and try not to mimic their wisdom.
A small coke can, a few airholes, cut in half, with rubbing alcohol can turn into a stovetop. 6-7 walmart white pray candles patched together can too. You can use a single egg pan. One leaves a carbon residue, but you can cook eggs and have a egg sandwich. Rice isn’t as easy, and impossible in a cold climate- but with hotsauce can be digested. Sliced hotdogs in olive oil fast. Technically don’t even have to cook them, but after a while, well, it becomes nice. Light will be produced, need to hide it as much as possible.
Maintain several routes of escape, think about what to do if they hit from this direction or that, or try to circle you. Have your shoes ready and very close. Shorts can be off, but inside the bag. I’ve done the running naked thing with bag over sholders, shoes in head, doing accidental somersaults over a hill just to keep hidden when a ranger stumbled near. When it rains, turn your shoes almost upside down, or inside your rucksack. Cops OUTSIDE on the streets like to check dry spots for people, and in parks same… if your in a wet spot, they are most likely not going into the woods 3 in the morning to get needlessly wet. Work uniform if you have one has priority on staying dry.
NO RUCKSACK! Nothing large with support poles. It gives you away, no one goes mountaineerng on their way to work or to the store. Just your daypack, and a change of socks and shirt, and shaving creme. You ditch that in storage before work.
If your going to hitchhike, stick to routes with railroad tracks near by. You can catch the rail if you can’t catch a ride otherwise. Just because your locked out doesn’t mean you can’s sit between the cars, or in a cubbyhole. Never on top though, and don’t just out from the sides. If you see a old hobo sitting in a train yard in the woodline exposed, and not hiding, talk to him. He’ll teach you, might even get you a nice seat with the engineer.
You can disregard half this stuff after a while. Your not there yet. Try it, see what happens after a while. I encourage you to gloat about it too, makes the pain sink all the harder.
Ipod Shuffle lasts forever- 16 hours between charges, and is 47 dollars. You can put audiobooks on it, or vice versa get free ones online… they make hiking a educational experience.
Get used to stairing at your inner self stairing at you tairing at you. Your consciousness is going to fracture into a few egos. What pain you had before is only the tip of the iceberg. Resisting it in the long run will be stupid. Use this time to reintegrate what problems you put off in the past. You’ll be taking inner sojourns quite often. Get used to a much higher use of your brain, as well as the body.
If you find yourself doing nothing, your doing something wrong. Study, explore, endeavor, experiment, plot, and strive to succeed.
If she is smiling at you, it’s because you’ve followed my advice, and your giving off healthy caveman vibes. I try to say to myself she’s a prostitute, so it doesn’t hurt knowing you gotta turn away from her and walk off. It’s what I tell myself. SHe’s probably not though… she can’t know about you. You think you can tell her, but you can’t. She’s in it for the money, even when she thinks otherwise… she just won’t accept this. It’s a painful turnoff for them. It hurts them. Don’t be a unnecessary flirt. Rule number 8 sometimes overrides this, and they insist anyway. Indulge them then, but don’t get comfy even if invited in, it’s not your home, and it’s unstable to stay as a live in boyfriend on your end, and she will drag the relationship out longer than otherwise because you have no where to. My saying that she’s a prostitute… well, let’s hope she is, so your not hurting a woman looking at you otherwise when you have to break eye contact and leave.
Eventually you’ll leave homelessness. It’s not going to be the same. House has a different meaning. Not as easy to sleep in a bed, little things are not as important. You neglect your ruck, and don’t have the need to go far and hard. Health deteriorates. You went from being awesome at something to just a guy staring at a wall in a place women wouldn’t be interested in visiting. Class makes more of a concern on your mind, and you know it’s weird and wrong. You’ll bring on steaks or your favorite foods for a while, but then will stabilize into blahness. You’ll hear people complain about how difficult it is to make it in life, about how sad they are it’s going to rain, or this and that concert, or restaurant. Your going home afterwork, sitting down in your chair, with your growing bookshelf, and stairing at yourself in the semi reflection of the mirror and the city scape below… with music playing lowly. The memories will return to you, but not as much. You’ll gain a little weight, and date somewhat, but will increasingly find stuff boring. Extremes of wealth will set you off balance, unable to process it at times. You’ll never be the same again.
This big thing everyone is fighting so hard for, that they’ll win or lose in not acheiving it… you won’t quite grasp it after being homeless as you did before it. That stuff becomes meaningless.
Errr…I think you’ve misunderstood me on a couple of accounts…when I say drifting I don’t mean it in a homeless kind of way. Fuck that.
Still an enjoyable post, Contra.
That kind of drifting is the only kind of drifting, there is no other meaning, unless you have a boat in mind.
How the fuck did you agree with that shit in the first post, and why is this old lady staring at me in the window here. She’s really ugly. Wrong hairdye too. Just wrong. Everything about both these situations wrong.
CN, may I give you some advice on making images of people?
There is more than one way to skin a platypus
The living without purpose or goals kind.
I don’t know…it was quite a long post…maybe I just skimmed through it… 
You mean then… being a housed bum? Or taking a meanial job BUT NOT being a hobo?
I do not agree with the concept of living without purpose or goals, my every moment is dominated by this… I spend my every moment consumed by a overwhelming sense of purpose and my motives are always under analysis. It seems at times I am one of the few who has anything to do. There was once a time when it was the other way around, when Cynics took the route of purposelessness in contradiction to society. However, the stakes are considerably higher now, and people give a damn only as much now as then, back when the only real worry the spartans had was maintaining their food imports from Scythia and making sure the Spartans didn’t break in unexpectedly to cause a ruckus, though by this point it wasn’t like the Spartans could do much of anything. I with I could just lounge around doing nothing. However, that’s the goal of everyone now adays. A body of water without a moon above can never become a ocean, no matter how large it grows. It’s the turbulence and it’s rejuvenating effects that we care to gives it’s name to it. Namarupa… you do not have the capacity to make your own sun, but you can give a part of yourself to make your own moon.
You are no kind of drifter without having first taking to the road with nothing but a walking stick carved from the local brush with a ferocious hate of the world around you. Only then my rookie drifter will you master the ecstasy of random drifting. Go now, and take heed of what I have said!