Homeless in Central Texas : An FAQ

So this weekend I got a chance to be homeless for 48 hours and be guided around by my street shepard Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. I know I have a ton of nerds and geeks that read this blog so I thought I would throw up a Homeless/Street Retreat FAQ since so many of you have questions.

1) Where do you live? “Live” is a interesting word for the working poor and homeless. Mostly we walked. From downtown Austin to Threadgills to listen to music over the fence. From 5th street we caught a bus to Sunken Gardens and Barton Springs. The best part of that? You can’t tell the homeless from the hippies at Barton Springs! You live where you are. Whether that’s in an alley behind Fox7 or sleeping in a parking lot behind the old county courthouse. At night we slept under the stars on a parking lot.

2) Where do you eat? If you have your wits about you, you can always find a meal here in Austin. The problem is that all the meals are provided by churches and non profits. Where the heck is the city of Austin or the State of Texas in this? Big time Fail on that. These are people not animals. The trick is to know where to be and when. Such and such church at 8:30am breakfast and 5:30pm at Woolridge park for Mobile Loaves and Fishes trucks, etc. We picked this up by talking to other homeless people on the streets. Also if you go outside Veggie Heaven and hold one finger up they will bring you a meal. I love them even more now.

3) Where do you get water or use the bathroom? This was the “easy” part for us. Second floor of Whole Foods. Cold water and ice. Also the Public Library, HEB by the bathrooms, most buildings at UT. Same goes for Bathrooms. Want to take a shower? Find a river or use the sink in a bathroom.

4) What do you own? Homeless people and the working poor have some interesting stuff. Cell Phones. Ipods. Old broken laptops. Shoes. Shirts. Shopping Carts. Cardboard to sleep on (like I did). Watches. It all depends. That like asking what I own versus what the readers of this blog own. It all depends. The thing that brings them together is that they are poor and don’t have houses/apts of their own.

5) How do you get money? You panhandle, do odd jobs, hang with the day workers. Asking complete strangers for money was not hard for me. I am a trained actor. I simply put myself into a character and had at it. BUT the rejection was hard. The way people look at you, treat you, simply loathe you for asking was something I have never experienced. It made me sick to my stomach to be treated that way. DON’T EVER IGNORE ANOTHER HOMELESS BROTHER AND SISTER AGAIN. If you are in your car give them a pair of socks. Or that crappy old high tech/startup.com AMD/DELL shirt you got for free. Don’t have money? Don’t want to give them money? Tell them that. Just don’t ignore another human being.

6) Were they nice to you? The simple answer is yes. They were very inclusive and friendly. We talked to a ton of people who had been their from a year to a week. People who weren’t all there to people who choose to live life like this. It was an amazing eye opening experience.

7) How can I help? STAY TUNED. In the meantime check out this sustainable plan for getting the Homeless lifted off the streets and into a better life. It’s worth your time. Habitat on Wheels.

I'm Homeless : Social Media for Social Good

I helped coin the term Social Media for Social Good awhile back and this weekend I am making it happen again. Fellow Social Media guy Mike Chapman and I will be joining a street retreat put on by Mobile Loaves and Fishes.

No cell phone. No watch. No bed. No car. No wallet. No blankets. No money. No A/C. Just us and the streets. Starting at 4pm today they will drive us to downtown Austin and drop us off. I’m going to try and smuggle in my flip cam and hopefully will have some video for you later in the week. I know Mike is going to try and smuggle his phone along as well so he can tweet.

Why are we doing this? To show the social media people out there that this medium can be used for good and to let you know what it’s like to be homeless. We are going to tell our tale through Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Video. Hopefully it will inspire you to think twice the next time you tell a homeless person to “go get a job” once you see how tough their lives really are here in Central Texas.

What the heck is a CryptoZoo? And how does it help my heart?

Run with the cryptids, and you may run faster and weirder than you ever thought possible. It’s all part of a new game called CryptoZoo.

CryptoZoo, commissioned by the American Heart Association, is a free, non-commercial game that combines real-world physical activity with gaming and social media. The idea is to make physical activity fun so more people will participate.

“People obey the principle of inertia; a body at rest tends to remain at rest, and a body in motion (starting to exercise) often stays with it,” said Dr. Barry Franklin, AHA Spokesperson and Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise Laboratories at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. “That’s the beauty of CryptoZoo, it gets people moving, and many will continue the habit.”

CryptoZoo is currently in the proof-of-concept stage and will be demonstrated in several cities. For now, the intent is to let the game gain popularity through viral means. A formal launch of CryptoZoo will be held at a later date, once the game has been tested, evaluated and updated as needed.

To play this game, a player will enter a secret world of strange, fast-moving creatures and follow a set of strange animal tracks, either as an individual or part of a pack. Players use energy and strategy in tracking and in the process learn how to run with the most mysterious array of creatures on the planet. During the chase they bounce like springboras, crouch-run like ninja rabbits, spin like swingdogs and much more. Thirteen species have been identified so far.

Players can meet up with other packs and challenge them to out-chase the cryptids. Participants can become a cryptid spotter and add cryptid discoveries to the online network. They can even organize a CryptoZoo chase in their own city.

CryptoZoo was created for the American Heart Association by game designer Jane McGonigal.

“Games – especially when they get you moving in the real world – can be good for you.” said McGonigal. “The more we play together, the better.”

For more information, go to www.cryptozoo.heart.org.

Lights. Camera. Help is coming along…

Just wanted to give you a little heads up on what’s going on with the Non Profit Film Festival I am starting up this year. All in all we are getting some great Films in the PO Box. Including this one:

The most recent film received was Prostition: Beyond the Myths. This is a 30-minute documentary examining new solutions to the world’s oldest profession and features the stories of former prostitutes, along with the Minneapolis judiciary, law enforcement, and a research study currently being conducted in North Minneapolis.May 2009

You should read the whole article here: http://www.lightscamerahelp.com/?p=172