RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Where are you and where are you going?
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw7nXz8SDRU&t= some ideas for you!

https://youtu.be/_6KvBnQJ-ws - "Sometimes the coolest way, is the jank way"

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Thanks for the kind responses everyone.

@AxelHeyst The winter is definitely my main concern regarding the vanbuild. I am planning to spend the vast majority of my waking hours at the college campus, and really only retire to the van for sleeping. Maybe some sort of system with a sleeping bag and a space heater would suffice?

My area is fairly expensive - most of the apartments I checked are something like $1000 / mo aka too much money.

My intuition tells me that my best option at this point is to leverage social capital - I think I could probably find something cheap with friends or friends of friends. Though one problem with attending a community college in a fairly high-cost area is that just about all the students live at home; I might have to do some digging to find something.

@2B1S Thank you for the videos! I love van videos

jacob
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by jacob »

I presume you've read Walden on Wheels then? Ken Ilgunas (formerly known as Spartan Student) lived in a van on the campus parking lot in North Carolina while getting his degree.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

I have read Walden on Wheels; I really liked it. Ken Ilgunas is a great adventurer.

My main concern with the van is that I live in a much colder climate than North Carolina.

AxelHeyst
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by AxelHeyst »

Oh you know what, I looked up the data on your approximate location, which indicated it doesn't get much below 0F. The lowest lows are typically more in the positive single digits (F). I thought you would have to deal with weather a bit colder than that. ~0F is doable... you're not going to be *comfortable*, but I don't think it's as terrible an idea as I initially thought.

You're going to need some LEGIT warm sleeping gear. If you don't ventilate the van enough, moisture from your breathe will freeze on interior surfaces (this is basically going to be unavoidable to a certain degree, but some ventilation will keep it to a manageable level). Propane space heaters will *add* moisture to the space (and also they're a little dangerous in an enclosed space because gas and oxygen and stuff), so careful with going that route. That was my downfall last winter.

If you can park in a place with shore power (via that social capital magic you were talking about!) you can run an extension cord from a house to your van, and run an electric resistance heater and/or an electric blanket, and you'll be set.

I'm not sure how much juice an electric blanket pulls, you might be able to run it off of something like an 'enhanced' goalzero yeti 400, but I'd be doubtful. (By enhanced I mean, add another 35AH battery to it. I have one of these, plus a 1000w inverter, happy to share info on).

Other strategies: make a bottle of hot water on your camp stove in your van (with the window open!), wrap it in a coozie of some sort, put it in the bottom of your sleeping bag.

Don't do any of this stuff without a CO alarm in your rig. If you have any source of fire, make sure you have a smoke detector as well. I never sleep in any rig without CO and Smoke alarms (you can get combination CO/smoke alarms). If you have a source of propane in your rig, get a propane alarm too. Turns out you can't breathe propane.

One of the reasons I failed out of winter is because I was continually occupying my rig - sleeping, cooking, working, hanging out it in. Constantly pumping moisture in to it. It never dried out. Since you'd mostly only be sleeping in it, it'll get a chance to dry out during the day. Also, it'll mostly be well below 40F, so mold won't grow anyway. :lol:

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Ooh, fun! That's good news!

I've got a high quality sleeping bag somewhere (I believe built for 0F), and I think I can get my hands on the rest of the stuff.

I am not Christian, but I do have a badass priest friend from local volunteer groups and she said I could keep the van in the church parking lot. I'm still gonna keep looking for other spots, but I've got at least one solid find!

If I can find a shared house near the school, that could be a good option too. I definitely want to move out, but I want to take my time and find the best choice.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Personal and Philosophical

I started this nursing degree mainly because I wasn't sure what else to do. Now I feel the need to clarify a deeper purpose. When I ask myself why I'm spending so much energy on this shit, my usual answer is "Why not?". I have a fairly natural propensity for foreign languages, and was definitely a language nerd growing up. Then I totally shifted gears and decided to study nursing instead, mainly because I didn't see many options at the time of the decision. Sometimes I ask myself why I'm not studying languages, which I'm already really good at, instead of trying to stay on pace with everyone else in science classes that I've always struggled with.

I think we are at a unique moment in history in which the worlds of Asian contemplative practice, indigenous entheogenic healing, and rigorous Western science are meeting each other in a way that could quickly improve the quality of life for a lot of people. I think an understanding of medicine, as well as the ability to learn languages and cross cultural barriers, could allow me to have a role in this investigation and live a life of service.

A goal for myself: I turned 20 a couple days ago. By the time I am 30, I want to have spent a year on silent meditation retreat. 10 days down, 355 to go!

Random Tidbit

I wonder to what extent circadian rhythms are ingrained into an individual. I, for example, tend to be a night owl, but I'd love the ability to wake up at 4:30 am as if it were easy. Is this just a habit pattern like any other, or are there deeper physiological principles at play?

Review of Getting Things Done, Part 1

This afternoon I read Part 1 of David Allen's Getting Things Done. Part 1 outlines guiding principles, and later parts add details. I am a Wheaton Level 0 in the GTD world. As such, I skimmed some parts, and reflected on others more deeply. I also noticed some connections to mnemonics and meditation in the book.

GTD is written from a "salary man's" point of view. It is aimed at the corporate world, but the concepts seem more broadly applicable. The core insight revolves around "open loops," aka distractive psychological gunk. The rest of the book talks about building an external system to unclog them.

Since learning that many Greeks viewed writing to be a handicap to the memory, I have felt shame using paper to keep track of things. I could feel Socrates' ghost looking over my shoulder and wagging his finger in disdain :D However, now I think that memorization is better reserved for deeply valuable information, such as memorizing the Dhammapada or foreign vocabulary. An external system is just fine for my deadlines!

Allen breaks productivity down into horizontal and vertical productivity.

Horizontal is essentially juggling different tasks. I suck at this and have no comments yet.

Vertical productivity is efficiency on a specific project. There is one concept I find particularly interesting - outcome visioning. Allen discusses an interesting bit of cognitive science. We notice what matches our preexisting beliefs and identified contexts. Carpenters notice buildings; dentists notice teeth. We can add and modify identified contexts through focused attention. Focusing on the color red will lead to deeper noticing of the color red in the future. Clarifying outcomes through focused attention can make it clearer how to get there.

This explains why loving-kindness meditation makes people nicer, and why practicing equanimity with a leg pain during mindfulness practice makes it easier to keep your cool when anger arises elsewhere in life. This has powerful implications for improving quality of life, and I'd love to dig into the nitty-gritty research of it! Focused attention can lead to long-term changes in cognition.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

I'd like to make a couple notes, mostly to clarify my own recent thought processes.

Recently I have felt myself slipping to some extremely low Wheaton levels in terms of my own mindset. This is mainly because I'm sticking with this nursing pathway, so I'm putting a lot of energy into figuring out how to be an effective salaryman. The other factor has been the slimy tentacles of American consumerism invading my own psyche.

Since I'm not working much, it's hard for me to see myself advancing towards ERE. I need to find some more creative ways to climb to higher Wheaton levels while still a student. The most recent idea in my moving out project is building a tiny house in a church parking lot. Maybe a permaculture garden down the line. I'll post updates about it here XD

jacob
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by jacob »

Since you're a student/beginning of your career, I recommend focusing on the minimalist/extreme experiments rather than accumulating anchor points like tiny houses or gardens that are heterotelic to the nursing pathway. Possible experiments might include "buy nothing year", "only owning 100 items", or "learning to cook".

AxelHeyst
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by AxelHeyst »

My biggest regret from my college experience was not joining any clubs, of which my alma matter had a bunch of cools ones that build off-grid houses, hybrid vehicles, wind turbines, you name it. I'm guessing your average community college doesn't have as robust a "build stuff' club ecosystem, but you could DIY that by finding and joining volunteer clubs/orgs doing cool stuff. This is a great way to build skill and grow networks and meet people. Perhaps there are people doing tiny house or natural building projects and have volunteer days. etc.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

@jacob That is a good point. Something about how you phrased that made it click that some of my goals are heterotelic and I should do a deeper analysis of my web of goals. That said, I would still like to figure out some sort of tiny house or van situation.

@AxelHeyst I am involved in a lot of clubs, community organizations, etc. I've been helping out with a local permaculture project recently and been keeping my eye out for other DIY opportunities.

Honestly, I think I would learn more at school if I didn't take any classes and was just heavily involved in a bunch of different clubs XD

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Reformulating the Web of Goals

Recently I have been feeling pulled towards a thousand different projects, so it's time to regroup and think about my web of goals. Jacob pointed that some of the things I am currently drawn to (building a tiny house, gardening, etc) are heterotelic to my main goal of getting through nursing school.

Maintaining good physical and mental health are obviously essential; this comes first.

School is my next priority. Online school sucks but I need to keep up good grades.

I am determined to move out. I live with my parents and a large family, and I am confident that having my own space would facilitate all the other things in my web. The current best option I can see is building a tiny house in a church parking lot where I'm friends with the pastor. This would give me space for DIY projects, space to have friends in without worrying about other people in the house, the ability to come and go as I pleased, better access to some local groups I work with, etc.

The last couple of things on my mind are work and the recent Black Lives Matter protests. I've heard there are places near me fast-tracking CNAs; I should try to get that done as soon as possible to get more real-life clinical experience. With regards to the protests, black people in this country have never reached true equality, and I want to help the movement in whatever way I can.

All right, now let's try to think of ways to address these to mutually reinforce each other.

The common thread running through all of these is the necessity to gain more clinical experience and hone my craft. I intuit that getting CNA experience is the most important thing I can do right now. This would provide some real-life context to my dry anatomy memorization, thus reinforcing the educational module. Additionally, I could probably greater experience to volunteer as a medic at a protest, or to help provide clinical services to the needy through my theoretical church tiny house.

If I could run a part-time clinic out of a church parking lot, it would help me be an overall positive on the place, and so my housing, educational, and social capital modules would all reinforce each other. And now that I think about it, there's a smaller African-American congregation that meets in the same building at a different time, so maybe this could allow for my desire to help with the Black Lives Matter work to intersect with all the other modules of my life. Not really sure, I'm just allowing my imagination to run wild here.

Jacob mentioned the development of culinary skills and a buy nothing year as potential good projects for me. I will keep these in mind, but I think the important thing to do now is to get the CNA certification ASAP. That'll give me a little more leverage in all those other areas.

What do y'all think?

GTD Updates

I got the GTD book. The philosophy seems solid but I am struggling with implementation. I'm doing better than before, as before I had no trusted system at all. Now I have a system, but I have very little trust in it. Planning to finish the book soon.

classical_Liberal
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by classical_Liberal »

Generally:
I think the best thing a young person can do for themself is to learn who they are. By that I don't mean in the fufu, new agey, what's my purpose way. Rather, I mean learn your strengths and weaknesses as a human. We all have them. Some are mutable and some are more inherently personality based. This will serve you in a whole host of ways through your life, and probably requires you to challenge yourself in ways your peers may not. For example, based on your journal, you seem to be a big picture person, with less attention to details. You also seem to be the type of person who loves starting something, but may be less inclined to finishing it. When you know this type of stuff about yourself, you are able to place checks and balances in your life to help you reach your goals. For reference, I was in my 30's before I even began to truly understand myself in this way.

I also think getting out of your parents place is a great idea. If you can do so in a reasonable and financially stable way. No doubt it is anti-ERE in the spending sense. However, the "adulting" that comes along with living on your own is priceless learning. I tend to think this is best done while young enough to still have some parental fall-back if needed. Like, if you move out for a six month apartment lease with roommates, and if it's not working well, you can go back after to regroup.

Specifically:
Getting your CNA is great for nursing experience, and to learn what the job is like first hand. However, it's not going to teach you what you want to know to be a volunteer medic. It's more about safe handling of patients in common healthcare settings. If you really want to learn some field techniques, you'd be better served becoming an EMT. This will provide you with the type of knowledge needed in more emergency care type settings. But it's very specified to that setting and will not get you the broad based experience a hospital CNA could. I know several CNA's who are also EMT's, so it's not mutually exclusive. As a matter of fact, there is enough overlap to make it much easier to do one, once you know the other. With either route you are going to learn a lot about scope of practice, and this will benefit you in that you won't go outside your bounds and scope of knowledge. Like setting up a clinic in a parking lot :P .

I also think that you can gear up and prepare yourself for nursing practice that helps minority communities, if this is a very strong value for you. These are often hard jobs, and many times there are fringe benefits like student loan repayment, or advanced practice degree payment associated with committing to such jobs for a period of time out of school. Keep your eye open as those types of positions might fit really well into your web-of-goals in the next few years.

Vaikeasti
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by Vaikeasti »

RoamingFrancis wrote:School is my next priority. Online school sucks but I need to keep up good grades.
This struck out to me because I'm fighting with this too.
Do you Really need good grades? Are they vital to your future employment or just a thing you feel is important.
(Of course this might be country/occupation specific.)
In my experience the diploma is the key to employment and the work experience + contacts through practice is the important one.
After your first job is anyone going to look at your grades?
Maybe there's a thing to ease up a little on. You have enough stress as it is.

Really like your journal by the way!

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Hey everyone, thanks for the kind responses. I'll respond to each point in turn.

@C_L:

You are spot-on with your analysis of my weaknesses. I have tested as an ENFP and a 7 on the eneagram, if anyone here thinks those are useful models for understanding personality.

My greatest general strengths are probably social skills and emotional intelligence. I can talk to people, do public speaking, and maintain a network of helpful acquaintances that I can reach out to if I need help. I'm not bad at conflict resolution either, though I would like to get better. I use some of Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication techniques when communicating - I'm generally pretty good at expressing my own emotions nonviolently, but I could use more training in defusing a person who's actively being aggressive towards me.

As I said, you are spot-on in pointing out my weaknesses. I am much more interested in starting a new project than finishing a current one, and I tend to omit details. Other weaknesses of mine include organization/time management and a tendency to take too many things on at once and not make progress on any of them.

With regard to the CNA, it's required for my degree anyways, and I have a chance to get it faster thanks to COVID, so I'm going to start there. Setting up a clinic in a parking lot is a great example of me going big picture and skipping over details in my thinking XD

@bigato:

Thank you for your points about the tiny house; I am not ready to take on a project of that size. It looks like van/RV is the way to go. Since I'll be mostly stationary and living in it for the foreseeable future (at least until I'm done with my degree), it'd be nice to get something with more space inside.

I'll take C_L's advice and focus on some of the details more. XD I've got verbal permission to park in the church parking lot. There's a nice spot in the back that's blocked from street view, and I could probably use the bathroom and maybe kitchen in the rectory. Alternatively, I could get an RV with some bathroom space or just plain ol' shit in a bucket. Showering shouldn't be much of an issue - I've got family and friends nearby, and if school's open I could just use the gym there. I could get a portion of food from gardens in the area - otherwise it would just be grocery store stuff. If I remember correctly a 1 JAFI monthly food budget should be somewhere around $300 - could someone comment on this?

It's cold during the winter, which I've discussed with @AxelHeyst. I think I'll be okay, provided I've got good insulation. Of course, this is something I'll want to be SURE of before I make any final decisions.

I believe the last remaining issue is what kind of vehicle to get. I've got about $10,000 saved up, so I might have to work more before purchasing. The idea is that this thing will be my home for several years and will be relatively stationary, so I'd like to get something bigger if I can afford it. Maybe like a medium-sized RV? It'd be nice to have some space for guests, be able to stand up fully, and have a little kitchen area and desk. Call me out if this too luxurious for ERE XD!

@Vaikeasti I'm glad you like my journal; I hope it's of some value to you :)

With regard to the grades, I should clarify that I'm finishing prerequisites for nursing; I'm still not technically in nursing school proper. I'll have to get a certain score on a test to officially get in, and my grades play a role in determining my score. So yes, they are still important for now.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

P.S.

I've decided to do an intermittent fasting experiment. I'll be fasting every Monday until July 6. So my first day will be June 15.

AxelHeyst
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by AxelHeyst »

$300/mo/per food is probably considered luxurious around here, ~$150 being quite doable, <$100 being about as good as it gets if you don't get a large portion of your calories from a garden. I'm in the neighborhood of $300, after an initial push to get it down from.... uh, something higher... and I'll be doing another push to get it closer to $200 soon.

A couple thoughts on van/RF life, with the caveat that my experience is out in the woods, not the city:
I doubt you'll be doing much entertaining in your rig. If it's nice out, it'd be better to hang out outside. If it's not nice out, no group of people will want to come over and "hang out" in your rig. Ask me how I know. :lol: So getting a rig with the idea that you need to be able to comfortably seat 4-5 people, probably a waste of space and effort. I do recommend thinking through a rig and layout that will be comfortable enough for one other person, who might share some meals and bed space and hang out occasionally. You don't have to get too luxurious with this, but: two bowls, two spoons, two cups, a bed wide enough for two people to snuggle and be able to sleep on, a place one person can hang out and read on (the bed?) while the other works (the desk?).

"Having guests" you can entertain inside is more of a 35' diesel pusher thing.

Pooping in a bucket is great, I recommend it. A cupful of dirt and a handful of shredded paper works to keep the smell nonexistent. But you need a place to dump the bucket. Dumping it in a dumpster is kind of not cool. Humanure composting bins is what I do, but it's illegal everywhere. When I'm out in the woods, I bury it in a deep cathole, which I'm pretty sure is legal... but you're in a city with (I'm guessing) limited access to wilderness forest. The RV toilet that you can properly dump at a dump station might be the right thing to do (even though I hate them), or the standard vanperson thing of not having a toilet but e.g. using the church one.

RV's aren't stealth. Not saying you shouldn't get one, just saying you shouldn't get one if stealth is important.

I think it comes down to doing it barebones (empty van, add features as you decide you need them) or comfy (just bite the bullet and get an RV). Honestly I'd lean towards getting a barebones van that has good resale / low depreciation value. Low-cost way of learning a lot. Remember your first rig doesn't have to be the rig you have forever, and there's a lot you will learn (and that no one can tell you) in the first few months of having it.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by RoamingFrancis »

With regard to food, I'll set myself a maximum limit of $150 / mo and try my best to keep it underneath that.

Good point about my guests :lol: Point Taken. Maybe enough space for two people to share a meal, make love, etc. :lol: You are right about having little access to wilderness. Using the church toilet would probably be best.

If I got a barebones van, I would want a bed, a desk, a cooking area, a bike rack on the back, and storage space for clothes, food, etc. The cooking area could possibly be optional if I can use the rectory stove. I'd have to insulate the hell out of it of course. How much time/effort would this take? I could probably get 2-3 friends to dedicate a good chunk of time to this. The allure of the luxurious RV is tempting, and my relative lack of DIY experience makes the barebones build a bit intimidating, but I think I'd learn more and get more ERE points if I did it XD.

I imagine there are a lot of known unknowns in a project like this. I know there are vanlife things that I can't be prepared for, but that will come up anyways. I'll have to be mentally prepared to deal with unforeseen delays and problems. Oh well, can't be too much harder than hitchhiking :lol:

Some background regarding the church: I am not Christian, nor do am I particularly fond of organized religion, but I started teaching Spanish to the pastor a while back; she's super cool and is on board with the van idea. She claims Jesus wasn't particularly fond of organized religion either :lol: So I'm comfortable being around church folks.

Anywho, I'll do some more research and try to decide on the barebones/RV debate. Peace!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

If you don't have to move the vehicle at all, a beat up RV that has no leaks would be ideal. You can get it towed there. It could become an eye sore or you may have another issue with keeping it there long term, so have a plan B.

If you won't drive it much/at all then paying insurance and maintenance costs for a van seems wasteful. Sitting is the worst thing for a roadworthy vehicle. When I was in Portugal I saw countless people living in distressed motorhomes/rvs that were sitting on cinderblocks with inprovised warerproofing (think tarps).

For food, you can get by on $5/day easily if you are creative. Since refrigeration will come at a cost anyway, you can save money by eating lots of fresh fruit/veggies/sprouted grain/and buying meat/dairy when needed. What are your local grocery options?

As a side note, after following the tiny house movement very closely for the past 6-7 years and watching almost every video on the Living Big In A Tiny House/Exploring Alternatived channels (where he asks about cost of each build), it's silly to say that a tiny house will have to cost $50-100k usd and take an additional 2,500+ man hours to build when there are so many examples of it costing a tiny fraction (in capital and time).

AxelHeyst
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Re: RoamingFrancis' Path to ERE

Post by AxelHeyst »

Cheaprvliving is a good site for ideas on affordable mobile lifestyles, both RVs and vans as well as custom builds. Its mostly retirees who had their portfolios nuked by ‘08 crisis and/or divorce. It’s where I got the idea to convert a cargo trailer.

Barebones van build:
Bed is also seat for desk, which is some boards on top of wooden boxes, which hold clothes and things. Kitchen is a single or double burner stove which sits on top of the desk boards (move laptop/books when time to cook). One pot and one pan. Water is a 2-5 gallon jug with spigot, sink is a bucket. You won’t need a fridge in winter haha.

Insulation: put down thick rugs on the floor, several. Get thick wool blankets or down blankets and hang them like curtains to form a ‘box’ inside the van, blocking out the driving area. Think those old school midieval beds with four posts and heavy curtains all around. Affix reflectix to the ceiling and cover with bedsheet material for aesthetics. This might be better performing than if you attempted to insulate inside the cavities of the van, honestly.

This gets you living in your rig with basics of human needs without much time or money spent. Upgrade as you like from there, or abandon the whole thing as insane. :)

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