u/Fit-Rhubarb-7820

I’m trying to understand: why do some of us fail, crash and die, and others weather the storms?

I have an “aero” set up with my 1996 trek mountain bike, it’s a 20L backpack riding the top of the rear rack, and a 40L dry bag with my entire shelter and bedding, it’s not heavy. That sits horizontally, on my wide handlebars (that have Bullhorns and no drop bars.)

I also have a frame bag and 1.5L of water at the bottom.

I find that any weight in front of the pedals, I push. Any weight behind the pedals, I pull.

I biked 8 miles from a campground to the city, and without my gear, which stayed at camp.

I find myself going way faster when I carry that sort of gear, in that set up: maybe because it’s more aero but also because I have more momentum!!!

Anyone tinker with this?

I recently made a friend with this, and I also have a Pisces moon/pisces Saturn.

Seems like she’s a bigger hot mess than me, at my worst.

Yo, she just doesn’t wear shoes?

I am also into the barefoot stuff, my feet are JACKED and strong. I myself appreciate and value DIOGENES THE CYNIC a lot, and she is just… perpetually barefoot.
No socks. No shoes. Nothing.

Can someone ride a bike without shoes??

I’m gonna make her a pair of earth runner sandals and *make her* wear them.

We haven’t talked about this in depth yet

Long story short, I recently met a woman, a bit younger than me. I’ve been homeless for 3 years, and it’s been great: I’m basically a homeless blogger, I make some income, own a small business, and have discipline.

This woman, she has a lot of self doubt, guilt about needing help, and she’s got some simple health issues that are related to inside air quality and undiagnosed asthma or something. It’s circumstantial asthma or something along those lines.

I’ve been there, I’ve been a mess of a person like she is now, at one point. I figured this out, with kindness and courage. I figured this out, being homeless.

Seemingly, she’s at the doorstep of fate, and she’s being dragged along by it. I chose to follow fate, and fate has been kind to me. It’s also helped that I’ve chosen wisdom over hype and intelligence over blind naive trust.

I empathize with her a lot, and I think I could genuinely trust her.

The only concrete solution I can think of, is asking her to be my gf/platonic sub, and be a good Dom. I’ve done this sort of thing already and was good at it: it’s not just the fetish, it’s also the trust bond and solution minded pragmatism, that works for mentorships.

I’m wondering if I should, because her mom doesn’t like her thinking this way: admitting that she’s at the slope that could easily lead to being homeless, though her self doubt and guilt is totally restricting her mind. We have all had this.

Understanding that it could happen, is (maybe) a way to manage it happening. Maybe there’s not a lot one can do to prevent it, right now…

Some of the shoes I’ve tried: vibram 5 toes, Aintap turkey-based barefoot shoe leather boots from Etsy, and the Atlas model of earth runner sandals.

So far, the Atlas 9mm are my favorite. They’re basically like the thong underwear: you don’t really notice them and they’re comfortable, minimal and provide excellent coverage and support.

Close second are the Aintap barefoot leather boots I’ve owned, 2 pairs.

Not sure how I feel about the vibram 5 toes yet.

I think I want to make my own earth runners though, since I found mine in a free box last year.

I’m perpetually hobbying as a BikePacker, but I’m trying to get better at Hiking and sleeping on the ground (as opposed to strictly hammocks) so if anyone has one trekking pole they don’t need or want, let me know!! I’m short and small (5ft) so I need one that can adjust or is for “kids” or something.

Hello, I’m Joe, 31. As a child, I realized that life is how you react, so I chose to bet on myself, instead of betting on the system being fair. I chose right, and it’s paid off: despite being “homeless” now, it’s been great, it’s been easy: and I love my “pata de perro” lifestyle.

I basically use BikePacking style equipment, to live! It’s fun, I get to enjoy nature, free time, etc:

Being a vagabond is better than being a homeless bum.

I have the “Kessel Pot” by a German company called Uberleben. It’s a 1L pot, either in stainless steel or titanium. I cook a lot, so I got the SS version.

I’ve been trying to make a caldera cone for it, but lack a work space: and even a desk (and a home) so I’d really prefer to simply BUY one, but none of the makers have a caldera cone for this particular stove pot, apparently!!!

I’ve been trying to make one, but the Captain-Chaos calculator on Zen Stoves is broken. I can’t use that. Did anyone back that up?

I’ve been trying to follow a few tutorials, but I have no work space, so trying to make it elsewhere is proving to be difficult.

Does anyone have suggestions on where I can ask a Maker to make one for a custom stove and just buy one?

Or if anyone backed up the calculator/similar tech?

It’s not that hard, I understand, but I lack a work space.

Long story short, I traded 4 bottles of vodka for a friend, with a Locked iPhone that they couldn’t unlock. I wanted it for the sake of the camera, to vlog, nothing more. Then, my trustee android phone’s screen cracked. The spare android I had laying around was total cheap end garbage, where as I couldn’t do a lick of computational work, without freezing it, and the battery wasn’t easy to charge. I ditched it, and have tried using the iPhone for a month now.

First world problems? Sure. Relevant? Yes: I can’t just charge and sync my phone overnight, and I need a phone that can also work computationally, not just for AESTHETICS, to do my job: as a small business owner.

I frankly hate the iPhone. Oh, I absolutely need to use a cloud server to upload anything? I can’t just use a cable?! It won’t work with anything other than some cloud server and other apple products? I can’t get some of the SLIGHTLY MORE THAN BASIC features on their free apps without paying more?! Maybe it’s just those apps. Either way, it’s stupid.

I absolutely hate it. It’s been frustrating to use, but hey, the OLED what ever screen looks cool with the Liquid Glass iOS 26.4 version!!! -_____-

It’s just hot garbage. It’s a rental, iPhones aren’t owned. There’s no SD card slot, which (for the broken android to the spare) I can switch between phones: if they have an sd card slot. I absolutely hate this, so much.

It’s just ridiculous. I HAVE TO use WiFi and the cloud to get anything and then it’s still a god damn pain. I can’t just use a cable, my laptop or even a little on-the-go USB with type-C/type A.

Literally, anything and everything type-C port is superior to this IPhone crap. I really hate it.

Back in my early 20’s, I had a loving healthy mutually exclusive relationship with a woman, with the Dom/Sub dynamic. She and I genuinely loved each other, we wanted to get married, have kids. We were (literally) each other’s best friend, giggling children together. Both of us come from good families and our families liked each other. She made an effort to learn my parents language, I made the effort to work at her family’s businesses and lands: we were both team players. Eventually, life broke us apart and that IS life’s simple tragedy.

Though, I bring it up because we had a dom/sub sort of rhetoric in our relationship.

She loved giving me the reigns of our management, and she worked her best with our shared goals: by herself, she recognized that she floundered and easily became lost. Her style of love was acts of service and kindness. I’ve always been great at being kind, reciprocative, disciplined and loving, because I see and empathize. We both mutually complimented each other, and I managed us both, our shared goals, aspirations and money. She literally submitted to my leadership, and I made sure to actually LOVE her in the ways she outlined/shared with me, to make her feel seen, appreciated and cared for. This also spelled out poetry in the bedroom, but I digress.

Is this common? A lot of hype spells out that this is abusive, horrible and I should be harmed for being this way: that she’s oppressed by the patriarchy, etc.

Now: I met a woman (she’s open to this!) who is a lost sub and I want to pitch to her this sort of relationship: I don’t want to sleep with her until she earns my trust (in mutual exclusivity and care) because I strongly prefer doing that only after several weeks of mutually dating each other: I like to take it slow!
I have had time to re evaluate this previous serious venture in love, that I had a decade ago. I can’t think of why it’s bad: unless I’m the typical low-effort man that would simply abuse someone.

It is said that “one cannot be a good master, unless someone is a good servant” and it’s a bit degrading, with the language. How ever, as David Greaber, anthropologist author of “Debt, the first 5,000 years” pointed out: Can we ever walk away from the metaphors of the market, in language?

I’ve been a good servant, and that made me a good master. This previous woman I was engaged with, also understood this: I learned it by submitting to the communist matriarchy of my family, and serving my elders and fathers. Funny enough, she also learned this from the same sort of thing, in her family: this is also outlined as part of the people-economy of communal communism: outlined in the book I mentioned, Debt, the first 5,000 years/ David Greaber.

In closing, I think about this a lot because i have tried dating and it’s an absolute fucking mess, mostly (as it would seem to me) because people
Only want to submit to God/Money/Mammon/Greed: not community and hierarchy, not to natural law and consequence-based reality.

Live fast, think cash. This seems to be ruining society, especially dating.

Last night, I got to my friends house late (9:30) after working hard all day, on a hot day. They were making a big dinner so they both invited me to eat with them and our mutual friend :’)

So then I loaded my bike, just with the essentials, and went up that great big hill. What’s going on???

This is the 2nd night I’ve seen this person: someone just sleeping in the dew strewn sloping grass of the park area, not much shelter or layers. There’s no flat ground on a hill. It’s harder to get to, and there’s usually a micro climate.

I got to my stealth spot like a silent owl, and set up my bed. 1am and I was in bed! Exhausted… I slept warm, my body was strong in the morning, a good sign of my vitality. I slept in a bit, got up, dressed, and set away my stealth kit. I bike down silently, and see the same person, on the grass, in the same spot. They haven’t moved and it’s 8am by then, I must have passed them around 12:30am. It didn’t get too cold, like 48•f, not much wind. But the micro climate!!! Conductive heat loss and the cool dew filled grass, the slope: and you have evaporative cooling from the flowing air, the cold moist ground, uneven ground, etc.

I seek out hills and mountains because I can. Its safety. Everyone wants to find a flat spot, which is rare outside of urbanized areas. I decided to not even require that!

I hate that God IS money, and we are being sent to Hell because the debt collector needed an excuse to enslave us, and some of us said No. Some of us said Yes and were still enslaved. The Normies don’t understand!!!

I might try to offer them help, but that’s very subjective to where they might be.

My rig: 1996 trek mountain track 830 with a dry bag <40L, a single backpack riding seat <20L and a frame bag 4L, a Shimano dynamo front hub: a Sine wave revolution converter thingy majig with an output of 5v, 1a.

Electronics:
-Newboler 4-in-1 10,000mAh battery pack/ light, -another battery pack (one of these three: 10,000/8,000/5,000mAh)
-extra head light
-two back lights/one doubles as a Red head light
-Supernote A6X e-ink journal
-iPhone 13 (can I play with the settings to maximize battery life? I’m new to iPhone)
-simple earphones
-maybe the Smooth4 camera gimbal

Questions:
-Is a 10w charger decent enough, do you all suppose?
-any recommendations for a “minimalist charging brick with enough wattage”?
-is 20,000mAh a decent amount?
-are solar chargers worth getting into?
-is there a way to get a rear-wheel dynamo hub?!

I don’t charge my phone overnight (not an option, 80% of the time) so I’m wondering: are low wattage charging rate phones available?

The spare android phone I have, it uses a whopping 15w to charge. My broken android uses 10w to charge.

Hey, it’s Joe again: I run that business picking up dog poop. (USA based)

I was reading 3 books:
A:“The $100 start up” by Dave guillebea
B:“Debt, the first 5,000 years” by David Greaber
C:I can’t mention the third book, but it’s about legal precedent for being an independent contractor.

I can’t just apply for a job: and everyone tells me constantly, how hard it is to land a job right now. I don’t even try to land a job!!!!! Because I can’t have a job. I can’t be employed. The difference between being an employee and an independent contractor is this: management. The former is stuck with a manager breathing down your neck, the latter free to fuck off and do the work.

I was reading book A, and realized that I don’t know how money works: I’m poor, legitimately oppressed by the full force of the USA gov, and I don’t have a line of credit. Then I heard of book B, and I read it as fast as I could, without skimming it. At the end, I walked away with the poetic understanding that God is money, Mammon is His name, and He is the Lord of greed, the minstrel of despair, the harbinger of shame, and the menace of humanity. The priest is the debt collector. That’s my thinking, not the author of Book B. What is money, even? It could be anything. It’s simply a meter stick.

Anyway, reading book C made me feel hopeful: I am a success story (unworthy) of book A, on a small scale, and book C pointed out that I could be an independent contractor, and only have clients pay me 49.90 per month, or 50 minus app fees… that’s 599 or something, per fiscal year…. Which is just under 600: the amount you need to disclose for income and federal tax. How funny, I stumbled into that on my own. I don’t make just under 600 a year: this is for any singular client. Cash is king though.

My point is this: debt has always been used against communities, and that’s basically why we are all homeless. Th governments do not deserve our support, because they have failed us: we haven’t failed our society. The issue is: we are being robbed at gun point, but we don’t know if the gun is loaded. We only find out when we stop playing with money, and then it’s swift violence on behalf of the governmental goon squad.

We can’t even rob the cash economy anymore, because it’s gone.

We only have ourselves, each other, and our capacity to think of a better tomorrow.

I woke up fine, had bad instant coffee and ran out of fuel (denatured alcohol) for my stove (trangia spirit burning stove) for my soup breakfast. The coffee gave me too much pep, and I put away my bed in my 40-Liter dry bag, and carefully hid that away where I have been staying for a month. It’s a stealth hammock spot, on a flanking hillside, on a little known and seldom used hiking trail. I’m incredibly stealthy sneaking in.

So I had a good day, and I am heading back. I take the scenic way, and sneak into the hidden trail. I do not use lights, and have amazing night vision. I get to the area right before my spot, and someone’s already there :/

It’s some random man, also with a bike, but no sleeping equipment. I ask him why he’s there, and he asks me the same. I reply that we are both here for the same reason: to sleep safely. He refuses to engage in conversation, which I’m trying to use to make him understand I will be leaving immediately: I just need him to move so I can get my stuff, which is literally next to him, and he didn’t even notice or find it.

He moves and goes farther along the trail. I get my hidden bag (40L dry bag) as well as my backpack/pannier bag (20L) and literally carry my bike down the hill at a steep and muddy “trail” in total darkness. I trust my feet, they know the way down.

Moral is: carry light, be fast, prepare to fight, hope you don’t, and make a peace offering: he owed me the debt of moving and letting me get away, if he accepted the loaf of bread I gave him.

Long story short, I exist in the peculiar place of being super smart, unable to make use of this in the current way our American society works, and I’m incredibly talented. Being homeless has been relatively easy, because I took the incredibly Long-Term view, and betted on myself. I won that bet! I’m still looking at poverty, exile, and a peculiar freedom while being homeless, at best…

At worse? I’m going to be an enslaved person, etc.

So what’s the book? It’s a book about…. DEBT!!

“Debt, the first 5,000 years” by David Greaber. He goes over a lot of literature, info and no speculation, on the Hellish side of money, why the road to Hell feels like heaven, and (at the end) to remain optimistic: because we are all in this, together.

I’m the man who picks up dog poop, and makes a lot of money. “The 100$ startup” by Dave Guillebea is also a great book. I started this one, realized I know nothing of money (because it’s a fantasy) and had this book (Greaber) in my e-journal.

When I read it, it reminded me of what I noticed when I was a child: and how I chose to be a philosopher: and gambled my life to being an anomaly: even if it’s made me man, beast, or worse…

I would encourage as many of you to read both books, because we are homeless because of how the system works against us as individuals: by design, yes: so what can we do for ourselves?

Life isn’t what happens to you, those things are neither good nor bad: they can/do happen to anyone/everyone, and all the time. Life is how you react to what happens to you… and reading this book (Greaber ) has given me the tools to think of this in a new way: one that is curious, because to bet on certainty, is delusion: certainly lies in uncertainty!