Secrets of the City

“If youre not going to date anyone, you might as well not date the best.”

So true.

As someone who once had to make decisions like “Should I pay for bus fare so I can go to work, or should I eat this week?”, this blog is definitely relatable. But even if people have never been in that position, it’s still a good read. It’s funny, not overly self-pitying…kudos to cristina for posting about this.

It is a good read but I find it a little suspicious. I’m assuming he’s blogging at the library? He also sounds like he really has it together for being depressed. I have been depressed in the past and the last thing you want to do is go out the library to work on your blog. Is he for real?

There always seem to be several homeless-looking people using the computers in the new Central Library when I walk through @ lunch. Wouldn’t be surprised if Hulles is one of them, maybe even the dude we refer to as Spicoli.

Apparently, he is indeed for real. And I believe he is a computer consultant, so that would explain the tech-savviness. Just because you have skills, doesn’t mean you make money. And I imagine the depression is precisely what keeps him from doing this. I imagine we’ll see very “sporadic” posting if we keep tabs on the blog. I also assume the posting will become problematic during those times when his electricity is cut.

I’m highly suspect of this guy — it reads like a book proposal. And it might make for an interesting book, as he’s a decent writer.

If it is true, he must be greatly exaggerating his plight. If you are depressed and broke to that degree, blogging does seem like it should be pretty low on the list of priorities.

My path to becoming a republican is paved, brick by brick, by the moronic sloth this guy doles out.

I reserve my “bad hand” pity for crack babies.

This guy is white, he speaks English, he lives in the United States, and he lives in Minnesota. That must put him, defacto, in the top 5% of people in the world with a chance. He squanders.

I got a monkey on my back too. It’s this louse sucking value out my tax dollars.

I renege. This guy is a fake. A phony. A no good, lazy, gold-brickin’ ….

And you want to know something else dude? I’ve seen a lot of spinals in my day…

Anyway, this blog is ripe with viral marketing for some other would-be cultural phenomenon. I almost fell for it, but it’s not yet quite attained escape velocity.

Sorry about the above rant – I just finished reading about the FEMA trailers in the NY Times, which got me hotter than a pistol.

Hey! Please don’t make me sorry I posted this. Enjoy it or don’t. But don’t attack the man! Jeez…

This blog is great! It’s better than reading about some hobby stripper or something.

Cheers!

I just finished reading about the FEMA trailers in the NY Times, which got me hotter than a pistol.

Why? Those 10,000 trailers (out of 150,000 that are currently in use) are high and dry in arkansas, waiting in reserve for when they’re needed. If FEMA didn’t have such a reserve, and trailers were needed, the same NYT would be blasting them for being so short-sighted! You should know how the lame stream media game is played by now. Don’t fall for their illogical crap, man. They’ve got an agenda.

there was a homeless girl with a brain injury who kept a livejournal a few years ago in boston. she would use the library computer and it was all sorts of interesting. she also had a bit article in the globe. the last i read, she was put up in her first apartment she’s ever had after being homeless for years. but now she’s made her LJ all friends only, so i guess this was kind of pointless to post. meh.

Yes, yes. ‘Tis so easy to predict appropriate behavior for the supposedly poor and depressed. Some of you think you’re smart because you’re cynical, when really you just look the ignorant fools yourselves. I mean, let’s be honest…no way could poor people have talent, like the ability to write. And no way would a depressed person actually pursue that talent, even though it may be the one thing that gives them a reason to get out of bed in the morning. And all us on here would know that, since we’ve all been there and would never do the injustice of assuming to be experts on someone elses’ life and thoughts.

What does this mean? Amber, do you like cynics or are you making fun of them? It’s kind of unclear. I said I liked the blog. I wouldn’t doubt that it’s for real. I’ve been living in Minneapolis for too long to know that being poor and depressed sucks. Additionally, I would know better not to glamorize it or try to make it sound cool. Closing Palmer’s with the toothless alcoholics isn’t as fun as its cracked up to be. Nor is throwing up blood in the ladies room at the 90’s. Ek, really.

Nope.

I made it all the way to buying gas, coffee, smokes and a beer with $20 before I gave up. Sorry, but I just can’t be interested in a blog by a guy who spends 75 percent of his “desperately needed” gift money on non-essential items under the guise that he is poor.

Gee, I wonder why?

I agree with kwatt.
My heart just doesn’t feel a pull for a guy who spends “desperately needed” gift money on smokes and beer…

Twenty dollars can still buy food that will last a good, long time.
Peanut butter sandwiches may not be great everyday, but they’ll keep you alive if you desire it.

But you’re assuming they are, indeed, non-essential items…

Or.. determining, rather…

.. and you can only determine that for yourself.

Not according to Maslow.

The only beer that is on my hierarchy of needs is Schell’s. Zommerfest. Yummy!!!!!

True (as usual), Max. But Maslow himself wondered if he was perhaps a bit psychotic.

when i’m most depressed, no one is able to tell. i am able to hide it pretty well. it’s quite easy to come off as well-adjusted and “normal” (i use that term loosely) if you don’t want anyone to know how sad you are. it takes years of practice, but it can be accomplished. trust me. i’ve been doing it for years.

You goota be kinda nutty to make a pryamid of needs.

Amber, do you have any idea how annoying you are?

According to Maslow’s pyramid of annoyingness, Amber is less infuriating than people who post personal attacks anonymously on the Internet.

That guy’s blog would be far more interesting if there was more fookin’ and fightin’. As is, his blog is boring.

of course people blog when they’re depressed or suicidal.
indeed, maybe instead of doing something more productive.
here’s a video.

If this guy is the age he claims to be and as poor as he claims to be he is either on Food Stamps or someone should get him on them.

If he is on them, that makes more sense that he spends the actual cash he gets on cigarettes, gas money, beer, ect. You can’t buy those things with Food Stamps.

Of course, with Food Stamps, he should do less grumbling about being hungry…

This is more evidence that blogging is the great equalizer. Whether you’re a computer programmer, homeless, a stripper, a business executive, or a cat freak… you can have your little corner of the internets and say what you want.

He says his daughter is named Cristina. Is this our Cristina?

i call total bs on this guy. if he was such an expert on being poor he wouldn’t waste money on lattes and mcdonalds. occasionaly broke? sure. “extreme poverty”? nope.

Hmmm…. Interesting possibility. Not exactly right, but there’s always a bit of truth in everything.

I didn’t really find this that interesting but then I grew bored with Bukowski after a couple of books too and this is not really breaking new ground.

i call total bs on this guy. if he was such an expert on being poor he wouldn’t waste money on lattes and mcdonalds. occasionaly broke? sure. “extreme poverty”? nope.

After working for many years with the poor I have become completely desensitized to how the poor choose to spend their money. What those of us with money see as bad choices are often the choices made by the poor. They buy presents for family, a beer at the bar, a latte, get a car that hasn’t worked in months fixed, etc. We all buy ourselves things we don’t need, so do the poor, they just have less wiggle room. It makes us feel good to splurge once in a while.

You can always get a free meal in this town, but you can’t get a free latte.

Yeah, I agree with Social Service Lady . In my experience with certain lower income people, part of why they are lower income is that they do not know how to manage money or save. They live for today, and many of them are very proud of that. Some come from generations of financial struggle and were never taught to save and learn to hold off on wants for needs.

In addition, if he’s self-confessed depressed and not treating the illness then his spending decisions can’t be held to the bar of “makes sense to me.” If going to the bar and buying a beer to sip will be the one thing that makes you feel like a member of society this week, then the $3.00 will be worth it.

You can call it stupid and say the money should be saved for a haircut, bus fare, gas, or an interview suit, yes. However it is ignorance of depression and poverty to call that consumer decision proof of wealth.

yeah, yeah…i know all about it SSL. i’m just saying sounds like he spends money like a broke college kid, not someone mired in abject poverty…and therefore i don’t believe his story. ehh, i don’t really care, actually.

he wants his blog to encourage other people to get help for depression the disease but I wonder why he doesn’t seem to be getting help for his own? Or maybe writing the blog is his cry for help? But he seems so “out” about being depressed, it’s sad that his friends or family don’t intervene.

I think he’s funny, though I don’t like jokes about setting the cat on fire. I feel quite sorry for the cat, who has no choice over whether or not she gets to eat that day.

I think you’ve got it there, Jerad. Exactly! In the end we each do whatever we need to just to feel human. Judge it if you must, but bad choice or not, sometimes it’s all we’ve got…

A. If people could make rational and efficient financial choices, they wouldn’t be poor. To make that complaint about this guy is like saying if starving people would just eat, they wouldn’t . . . you know . . . starve.

B. Bigger issue: what is it that is “quintessentially Minnesotan” about being poor and depressed? (I mean, aside from the impression the Star Tribune wants to give us about all of our fellow ’sotans?)

Are you kidding me? This is the land of 10,000 clinical definitions…

“Hmmm…. Interesting possibility. Not exactly right, but there’s always a bit of truth in everything.”

Not a dad of christina. A child of cristina’s brain.

Nay… not that. No truth in that one, I’m glad to say.

hey, thanks for posting that video, chuck.