Awareness

Guest post written by Brentley Carr

My daughter just got her tonsils out about a week or so ago and now she can finally eat solid food. So I thought that I would fix her something really special now that she can eat normally. She really loves breakfast food and loves it when I cook breakfast food for dinner, which is good because breakfast food is pretty easy to fix.

I went on the get.wildblue.com to look for recipes on a really special breakfast food that I could fix for her and came up with all kinds of stuff. I thought about fixing some pancakes with chocolate chips or other things like that covered with whipped cream. But I decided to do something differently.

Then I got the idea to make some homemade cinnamon rolls. I’ve made them so many times with those rolls of frozen dough and she always loves them. Well, she did love my final result of the homemade cinnamon rolls. I was careful not to burn them and made some extra icing, which is her favorite part. It was a bit of trouble so I wouldnÕt do it everyday, but the recipeÕs perfect for special ocassions.

Guest post written by Mike Shaver

Sometimes it’s nicer to be a younger sibling because you can kind of learn from your older sibling’s mistakes. But you can also learn from their successes. When it comes to my older brother who has kind of been a golden boy, or what it seems like anyway, he’s had a lot of successes. Normally I don’t really care about it, but when I was home from college for my first winter break these past weeks I asked him for some tips about how to do some serious studying in college. I clearly didn’t get it last semester.

I also followed up with him a few days ago when he was already back at his college and I was up at mine. Then he sent over another list of tips besides the ones that he already told me with his Clear TV Bundle and I printed them out to put at my desk in my dorm room as a reminder and motivation.

These study tips seem really helpful and they include some stuff that I haven’t been doing, like studying in a place that’s similar to where you’ll be taking your test.

There is no doubt, for good or bad, that I can get so much more for my money if I shop on the Internet, rather than in “brick and mortar” stores. The problem is that there are so many different vendors and stores on the Internet it’s hard to find the best deals. Also, it’s important that I get the information that I need to make informed decisions about my purchases. That’s why I’m grateful for Become.com.

Become.com is a search engine geared for shopping. Let me tell you, it’s far superior to Google’s product search feature. Which is kind of a sad thing to write, I love and use Google for just about everything, but Become.com is simply a better system. For example, I was visiting my grandmother and she said that she wanted to order some Tiki Torches for her backyard. We went to Become.com and received exactly the results we were looking for and were able to further filter the results by choosing what type and the material of the Tiki Torch. We could even choose which online stores to search. It was very convenient.

Since I am living out of my car, I don’t get to eat a hot meal unless I go to a restaurant (which is getting expensive) or eat at a friend’s house (not that often). So, I was looking for a camping grill, that way could just find a safe spot to park and I could cook. It’s like camping! However, my search was more successful than I could have imagined. My concern was about how much space the grill would take up inside my car, it’s pretty full as it is. Well, I ended up finding on Become.com a “Notebook” grill that folds up to 11 ½” x 11 ½” x 2 ½”. It fits so easily! Become.com found this grill at HomeWetBar.com, a site I never would have considered. I think that was a great find, and it’s not too expensive.

As I continue down this path of voluntary homelessness, it’s good to know that I have  good resources, like Become.com, to help me find the products I need at a price I can afford.

I was going to wait awhile to talk about this, but now seems like a good time. I’ve decided to be homeless. Well, it wasn’t one hundred percent my idea, I’ve been out of work for over two years, excepting the occasional writing gig. For the last few months, I’ve been staying with friends, but, over time, that has become less and less comfortable for all of us. It’s not natural for an unrelated, single adult to join a household with a family with children. So, I moved out.

I had considered this option before, many years ago when I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you’ve ever lived in The City, you know how expensive rents can be. I had a good paying job and still had a hard time paying bills every month. I figured, hey, I’ve got a gym membership (for showers) and a car, I could be homeless and do all right. That ended up not happening, the idea of living on the streets or even in my car in Bay Area was too scary. I’m sure I would not have survived. That was over fourteen years ago, but the thought never left me.

I am now living in the California Central Valley, a much kinder, gentler place to stay in general. Also cheaper. Spring is right around the corner, so I figured if I was ever going to test my ‘homeless is awesome’ theory, now would be the time.

Now, I am lucky and blessed that I am not, yet, in the same financial position as most of the homeless people I’ve met. I receive Student Financial Aid – I am taking a full load of classes online. It’s not a lot of money, certainly not enough for rent and utilities, but it’s enough to get me through until I can find a part-time job or land some more writing and/or web design gigs. I also have some things in storage that I can sell if I get desperate, but I hope it doesn’t go that far.

Another thing that sets me apart from many of the other people on the street is that I have friends and family that I can stay with if I choose. So, this homeless thing is, ultimately, my choice.

I’ve taken a few steps to make this easy on myself. One thing that I’ve rented a storage space so I don’t have to keep everything in my car (not that I could). I also have a gym membership, so I can take showers everyday, which is very important if I want to find and keep a job. Last, but certainly not least, I got mobile 4G broadband Internet service from Clear Wireless. This is important for my sanity. I’ve gotten used to working in Starbucks and bookstores to utilize their WiFi service, but often I want to work alone. When I’m not working on school or other writing/web projects, I like to relax and watch shows and movies on Hulu and NetFlix. So, yeah, I need Internet.

I also have a power inverter laying around, so I can plug my laptop into my car’s power supply. Watching Internet TV as I fall asleep has helped deal me deal with the loneliness and fear of sleeping in my car.

Another positive of this experience is that since I go to the gym everyday to shower, I might as well work out. Since I started this journey, I’ve worked out at least one hour everyday. This is very good news since I am about 80 to 100 pounds overweight. I expect that before long, I’ll be under 200 pounds.

It’s not all roses, though. For one thing, it’s very lonely. I can’t exactly invite someone over to hang out. Not to mention that I just came from a home that was full of people. The quietness is hard to deal with. Like I said, TV helps.

Worse than the quietness is the noise. There are a lot of scary noises on the street at night and I feel very vulnerable knowing that people can just look in my windows and see me sleeping. I also worry about the police waking me up and questioning me. I deal with this by parking in fairly active parking lots of places that are open all night, like the gym. I’ve also parked in front of my old church. It’s not necessarily such a safe neighborhood, but it makes me feel safe.

Another pressing issue is the price of gas. It’s currently @$4.00/gallon. I have to be very careful about my movements throughout the day. If I stay in one place for very long, I risk being exposed as being a vagrant and asked to leave or, worse, entered into the “system”. This will become less of an issue once I get a part-time job or a few paying writing/web gigs.

Honestly, sleeping in my car isn’t as bad as it may seem, but it’s not very comfortable, either. So far, I’m dealing with it okay. Working out everyday helps. We’ll see how it works long-term.

My plan is to do this for forty days, until Easter. It vaguely corresponds with Lent, but I am not Catholic and I picked my own forty days. If I adapt well to this situation, it may well become my lifestyle for the foreseeable future. My imagination keeps leaping to the thought of how much I can save and pay off my debts if I got a good paying full-time job and didn’t have to pay rent for a few years.

I’m hoping that at some point I can get a pickup truck with a camper shell. That would be the life!

Please stay tuned to this space as I will be writing about my journey as well as writing general blog-type stuff. Because, you know, what else am I going to do?

Apple will start selling the iPad 2 on Friday and I want one, of course, but I can’t really afford it. They start at $500, just like the 1st Gen iPad did. The problem is, the more I look at my life and how I work, I realized that I *need* one. Maybe not an iPad 2, with all it’s sexiness, but an iPad for sure.

I work out of coffee houses and bookstores, any place that has WiFi, so that I am not stuck at home all day. Well lugging around my laptop, along with my books and notepads, is really taking a toll on my body. Plus, I occasionally have issues finding an electrical outlet. My laptop is over two years old, so I don’t get the greatest battery life.

I was looking at the various devices out there, netbooks and the such, but nothing really touches the iPad when it comes to the features I need. The ten hour battery life is the main selling point. I can write all day, anywhere I want, even in the park, and not have to worry about plugging in. It’s thin and light, even the 1st Gen is only .5 inch thick and weighs 1.5 pounds.

The main barrier is price. However, Apple is selling their stock of 1st Gen iPads for $100 off, plus they are offering factory refurbs for even less than that. I’m thinking, that as long as I stay within my actual educational and business needs, along with some church stuff, the 16GB WiFi only model will work just fine for me. I can get that from Apple for $350 – $400, about the price of a netbook that has only about a third of the battery life.

My guess is that I’m going to buy one when my financial aid comes in, I’ve been thinking about it too much. I just need to get a part time job, or something, for the rest of the semester and then, hopefully, get either a full time job this summer, or start landing some good writing and web design gigs.

I wonder what I’ll end up getting. My nature is not very inclined to waiting, so if the iPad 2 is not immediately available, it will make it easier for me to just get a 1st Gen, which, again, is really all I need. I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t need all of the new features on the iPad 2, as much as might want them. If I was bringing in a lot more money, then of course I would go for the best one, but right now that just isn’t responsible.