Interview With a Vampire
Friday, January 4, 2008
I had mentioned that I met a local homeless man who claims to be a vampire, and promised a video interview with him. Now, I personally do not think he is a vampire...but who knows? At the very least it makes for an interesting story. I shot this video outside, where it was a tad windy so the audio could be much better. As I have said part of this journey is about allowing people to tell their stories.
posted by Cory @ 4:50 PM,
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More Tales from Springfield, IL
Thursday, January 3, 2008
It has been a few days since I have been able to find a free moment to make a much needed site update. I have now got to experience a New Years Eve and Day here in Springfield. I have also had the most strange day labor job ever, and been blessed by even more kind strangers and locals.
I will start with New Years Day. My expectations for this day where not very good. I knew that nearly everything in town would be closed, and that we were in store for bitter cold. That Tuesday morning I awoke to a pleasant surprise however. Due to the bitter cold some people volunteered their day to help keep the Salvation Army shelter open. So instead of being stuck out in the cold we had a warm place to ride out the day. Thank you to Gloria for getting that setup, and a big, big thanks to those who gave their time and energy to make it happen.
Just to show that the holidays can be a dark time for the homeless here are two troubling videos from the New Years holiday. The first is a man being removed from the Salvation Army shelter for standing up to a staff member about a mentally ill girl being kicked out on that cold New Years Day morning. The second is from Wed. night when another man overdosed on pills and booze. Both sad.
On Wednesday I may have done the most odd, day labor job ever. I was tasked to place country of origin stickers on cans of rocks. The rocks are like a 'gag gift' to be used for a paper weight. Apparently the company forgot to have the country of origin placed on the product anywhere, so I was hired to place the stickers on. It was an odd 6 hour gig.
(the second photo is pretty blurry but that 'Made in Thailand' sticker was what I was putting on the cans)
I would like to send a big thank you to Richard in Carbondale, IL for his very, very kind Paypal donation. Also I would like to explain a few things. First the title of the blog.. 'The Homeless Hacker'. The Homeless Computer Geek would have likely made a better title. However it is just not as catchy. I have read some criticism that I do not do any actual 'hacking'. This is very true. I do however try to do the odd geeky tech posts now and then, like that one about getting around the filters and timers many public PCs use. Also I have plans to expand on the 'tech' stuff in the future as I build a full fledged website, using this blog as part of a larger overall product.
Also I have seen some ripping on my spelling and grammar. This is well deserved. The major problem is that I just do not have time to do any proper editing. My time on the Springfield Public Library computers is very limited. I have a hard time getting a post done, checking my emails, and uploading photos and videos in the time allowed. Often I am hitting 'publish post' just as my time expires. At some point I will get a laptop and that will go a long way towards improving the situation. Right now you are getting a very raw, quick, and dirty account of my doings. Its sort of like a personal journal that you just happen to have access to.
Speaking of running out of time, I have to go. Three more days in Springfield then off to St. Louis! Thanks for reading.
-When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.- Abe Lincoln
posted by Cory @ 5:42 PM,
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Happy New Years! Thanks Ellen, and Hello Security Guard Guys
Monday, December 31, 2007
Well as a thick cloud of fluffy white snow falls here on Springfield the town is enjoying the final night of 2007. I want to wish all my readers, both new and those of you who have been following since nearly the beginning a very happy New Year. I hope that this year brings you all the things it is you are wishing and longing for. Also never eat the yellow snow, this is important.
Last post I mentioned Ellen, a Springfield local had offered to donate her copy of "On the Road'' to me. Well not only did she do that but she also treated me to a lovely dinner at a Thai food joint. I enjoyed the fine conversation, and can not thank her enough for her kindness. She also made a nice donation, and provided me with a travel copy of a book that inspires me on my travels.
I would like to say hello to the Security Staff at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. I have had several of them stop me on the streets around the downtown complex to say hello. Apparently a few of them have become followers of the blog. I wish to thank them for their kind words, and wish them continued safety as they battle terrorism, communist plots, and other vile threats against the
Tomorrow will suck, everything is closed. Email me if you want hobo house company for the day :)
Only a few days left in Springfield. I feel ready to move on. St. Louis will be where the adventure really begins.
"..men have become tools of their tools." - Thoreau
posted by Cory @ 4:20 PM,
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Local Media Coverage
Friday, December 28, 2007
Hello guys and gals. Dave Bakee over at the State Journal Register was nice enough to run a small article about me and my travels today. I wanted to respond to some of the feedback I have got. Rather then try to do it via the comments section there I figured I could do it here.
I know its the nature of life that no matter what you do some people are going to disagree with you or think your in the wrong. I could be running a store that gives free puppies to one armed Hurricane Katrina survivor orphans, and some people would find a reason to take me to task. Starting this trip back in late November I had no doubts that some people would find was I was doing offensive, wrong, and a waste.
First I would like to thank Kimberly for the kind donation of the Flickr premium account! Would like to thank Ellen for the donation offer of 'On The Road', and Kiyoshi for the offer of a domain donation. The kindness of strangers always blows my mind.
First thing. There was a miscommunication someplace (my end, and/or my cellphones crappy reception no doubt) between Dave and I about the Breadline being closed on x-mas. I was trying to convey that it was the only thing open for the homeless during the holiday. Places like the Washington Street Mission, and public library where time is often spend where closed. However it was only opened for a very limited portion of the day. Leaving a lot of time for the homeless to hang out at the train station, or wonder the streets.
Now to respond to some comments.
Friend of the State wrote - "Travel to exotic places and meet interesting people. Join the military! This act would help you accomplish your goals."
No thanks. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran are not on my list of places to see.
One reader wrote - "The positives of Cory's trek is that he gives a first hand account of what it's like to be homeless. I was surprised to learn that the Bread Line was closed on Christmas, and the homeless had nowhere to go but the Amtrak station. I was pleased to learn that food services for the Spfld homeless appeared to be better than those in Bloomington. The negatives are that Cory states on his blog that he has an Illinois Link card. The Link card provides assistance for the needy, and is paid for by Illinois taxpayers. Cory is on an adventure, not a truly needy person. He states on his blog that he was able to stay three nights at the Student Library in Bloomington/Normal, while posing as a student cramming for finals. That concerns me. Plus he solicits funds on his blog using Paypal. It's a different generation, I suppose."
Well I can see your where your coming from with some of your worries. If you read the whole post about the Link card you can see what kind of things I am doing with it though. I am not going to link to the post but if you want you can dig though the blog and see what I was doing in that post I mentioned the Link card. I do not make a post every time I use it for good like that but that is pretty much what it is for. I also wanted to see what the process was for getting one when your homeless and how hard it was to get. I did not lie about my income or living situation and did not know if I would be approved or not..I was.
Some things just in general. Some people seem to have a real problem with me asking for PayPal donations. Maybe you have not spent much time on the web, but many, many websites and blogs that get a fair amount of traffic (37,940 page impressions so far) ask for donations. Its not uncommon at all. If you do not like it you simply do not have to donate, no worries one way or the other.
When I get to warmer areas I will use shelters much less. I will camp, and stay other cheap places. It is very cold in Illinois right now not leaving me many choices that I can afford. Even with the 10 or so negative comments the feedback over all has been very good. Sleeping in the Salvation SOS shelter some night (not done it every night I have been in Springfield) does not put anyone else out. It is an 'over flow' shelter that is taking pretty much everyone who shows up at the right time and follows the rules. It maybe a hallway or corner someplace but they find a place to stick you. People sleeping outside in Springfield right now are doing so by their own choice not because I took the last open bed.
I also do not want Springfield to think that I do not like the town. There are many nice things about it. From a 'homeless' standpoint the Salvation Army is a godsend here, and so many other places. Helping Hands seems to have a good little operation although I did not spend much time with them. The Bread Line..I can not even begin to say enough good things about what you do. There is also the Washington Street Mission doing what they can to help chip away at the problem. Where are you lacking? Springfield needs something like The Compassion Center in Bloomington. It provides a place for the homeless to go during the day when the shelter is closed. (Besides the library!) Job placement, showers, laundry, and other much needed services are offered there. The Washington Street Mission comes close, but does not quite go far enough. Something I have noticed here is that there are many more people on the streets with serious mental health issues than in Bloomington.
Apart from the homeless related issues, Springfield is mostly a nice town. There are a lot more abandoned buildings and houses then I expected. Downtown is very pretty in places, but beyond the tourist areas this seems to drop off some. I just kind of get an overall negative vibe from this place. That being said I have met some wonderful people here. I look forward to spending my last week here seeing a few last things and meeting a few new people.
Also check out the Blog I helped Earl a local homeless man launch. He has much, much more to say about being homeless here in Springfield then one who is passing through like myself. He has been here since before I came and will be here when I am gone. I can not say I agree with everything he feels and thinks but he is a smart cat who is very passionate about the homeless plight here in Springfield. I will be doing a video interview with him today or tomorrow and will be posting it to my YouTube channel.
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Plato
posted by Cory @ 1:45 PM,
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Springfield: The Tourist Traps
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Well in the last week or so I have managed to see the three major tourist traps here in Springfield, IL. Due to me being a lazy hobo, half the free world being closed for the holidays, and cheap wine I have not yet got around to publishing anything much about my visits to these fine locations. So without anymore pointless buildup or fluff here it is.
I'll start with the Lincoln Tomb, the final resting place of our 16th president. For a reason that escapes me at the moment one of the things I added to my 'list' was seeing the grave sites of all our dead presidents. Lincoln earns the honor of being the first to get crossed off my list (quicker then you can say Ford Theater!). I could go into some history of the tomb, but if thats what your after just click the Wikipedia link I have provided as they have done a much better job then this scribe is capable of doing. I had seen this once before on a field trip when I was a young kid. Visiting it as an adult (or at least a man child masquerading as one) the monument and tomb seemed much smaller then I remembered it. The large statue of Lincolns face with the worn nose was what I remembered most clearly. Somewhere over the years people have decided that rubbing it brings good luck. Maybe this is what stuck with me because I adapted the idea for a Jesus head back in my parents home. Anyway, the inner tomb has a very somber feel to, that I think is fitting for what many say Lincolns personality was. Here are two videos I took at the tomb.
Shot in the tomb, very dark.
Shot outside, on top of the tomb.
More pictures on my Flickr Account.
Next up the Abe Lincoln home in Springfield. They have a whole block restored and preserved the way it was in Lincolns day. I recorded nearly the whole tour. So enjoy if thats your thing, also a few pictures, with more at the before mentioned Flickr Account.
Lincoln Home Tour Video 1 of 4
Lincoln Home Tour Video 2 of 4
Lincoln Home Tour Video 3 of 4
Lincoln Home Tour Video 4 of 4
An old home just is not the most thrilling thing on earth. However, the tour guide did a great job and really knew his stuff.
And last but not least in any way The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. This is without a doubt the crown jewel of the Lincoln tourist traps in Springfield. This cost five dollars for students and seven dollars for non students. The day I had free to go see this I had 1 dollar of disposable income to my name. I knew this was not going to get me into the Museum, so I instead spent in on a black marker. I made this sign and tried my hand at panhandling my way in. It took me about 15 minutes to get in. Despite a security guard running me off the property and calling the police on me (apparently panhandling is not legal in Springfield) I was able to get in pretty easy. The man who ended up paying for the remaining portion of my ticket was very helpful and willing to help out once he realized I actually wanted in the Museum and was not trying to get booze on his nickel.
To make a long story shorter, this Museum rocks. It uses a lot of cutting edge technology in its two theater exhibits. I think most younger people would really enjoy it. I am really not giving justice to how cool it was, and how great of a time I had (Been up since around 3am and its now 5pm so I am one tired hobo). I think it is well worth the admission price and if I had to name the one must see thing for a tourist in Springfield, this is it.
I have quite a few good pictures and a lot of poorly recorded video of this place. The video is poor quality but I had to shoot much of it on the downlow as shooting was not allowed in all the cool areas. Here are the videos if you would like to see them.
And the rest. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
2-6 Are all pretty much 'bootlegs' of copyrights material, so I get some 'hax0r' points for that even if the quality of the video is horrid.
Here are some of the pictures with more, once again at my Flickr Page.
Well this whole post should have been a bit more in depth. However I just do not have the energy to properly describe it all for my hoards (or at least a few hundred) readers. If I ever get a laptop these post will be much easier. In fact my clicking on the link below you could help me with that effort by donating a dollar or two!
posted by Cory @ 4:21 PM,
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Hobo X-mas, Congrats Kelly & Sam, and Lack of Updates
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Happy Holidays Hobo addicts, family, friends, comic book guy, and all other strange people who find this humble hobo blog worth reading. Not much in the way of updates over the last week or so. I'll just do a quick crash course of everything for now with much more detailed posts to come later.
First of to take care of some person matters. Congratulations Kelly and Sam! Kelly is my dear sister. Sam, a fine young lad asked for her hand in marriage on x-mas eve. I hope you both continue to find happiness with each other and wish you a long and happy marriage. Sam take care of her, and treat her well :)
Now back to the hobo stuff.. Was doing Day Labor at the local Hospital right before the Holiday, and caught a flu bug. May have caught it someplace else or at the Hospital. Doesn't really matter, as it sucked in any case. That put me down and out of commission the last day the Public Library was open before x-mas, and I couldn't find the energy to do a post. It really only lasted 24 hours though and then I was back up and running on all gears.
Last week I begged my way into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum with this sign. I got quite a few pictures and videos. Those are already uploaded to my YouTube and Flickr accounts if you can't wait to see them. Other wise I'll be doing a nice post about the visit in the next day or so. That same day I also visited the Lincoln Home. I took a nice series of video's documenting pretty much the whole tour. A post about that will also be coming soon.Also I did some squatting over the last week or so. Shelter life only holds so much for one to learn about and see. So I'll have a post about my squatting/sleeping in an ATM booth, Behind a Dollar General, and in an old abandon cargo van coming soon to. Hope to get quite a bit of stuff done today as I must day labor the next few days to earn some money to get home on this weekend. Plan to see the Lincoln Tomb today. That will pretty much be the last thing that I 'have to do' here in Springfield. Well hope this post holds everyone over for now.
posted by Cory @ 10:15 AM,
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'The List' Rought Draft One
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Well I've mentioned that I have a 'list' of things I want to do before going home. A lot of people have asked to see it. Although this is just an early rough draft I figured I'll post it just to quite up the masses if nothing else. I'm sure I'll add some other things and maybe drop one or two of the silly things for the final version. Here it is. In the final version everything listed will be a hyperlink link to a page telling more about the item and an update on the status of the thing.
#1 - Visit, Live in, and blog from all 48 contiguous state capitals.
#2 - See, Swim in, and sleep for at least one night on the beach of, The Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico.
#3 - Stay at least one night in a homeless shelter in all 48 contiguous states, and compare how the homeless are treated in different states and different cities.
#4 - Visit a museum, and a zoo in all 48 contiguous states.
#5 - Visit the grave site of all the dead American presidents and do a video blog post about them from the site.
#6 - See the Grand Canyon.
#7 - See Niagara Falls.
#8 - See the St. Louis Arch.
#9 - See the Liberty Bell.
#10 - Go Sky Diving
#11 - Go Scuba Diving.
#12 - Ride Americas top 10 Roller Coastes.
#13 - Visit and sleep outside in America's 10 biggest cities.
#14 - See a space shuttle launch.
#15 - Help a 'Homeless Person' setup a blog in all 48 contiguous states.
#16 - See Ground Zero
#17 - See the ball drop in Time Square.
#18 - Mardi Gras
#19 - Visit, Live in, and Blog from DC
#20 - See 'Old Faithful'
#21 - Attend a live Diggnation Taping
#22 - See the Golden Gate Bridge
#23 - See the Space Needle
#24 - Attend a protest rally in all 48 contiguous states.
#25 - See a play in all 48 contiguous states.
#26 - Cut down a cherry tree
#27 - Live off the land someplace (rual/wooded) for one month
#28 - Illegally invade/sneak into Canada and plant an American flag.
#29 - See Mt. Rushmore
#30 - See the Hollywood sign.
As I said its a very rough list... feed back welcome! I'm sure there will be more stuff added. When its done, I'll settle down and go back to real life.
posted by Cory @ 4:42 PM,
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