RoamingFrancis' Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

@Dunkelheit: LingQ Premium is certainly a good investment if you are serious about advancing in a language. As for Esperanto, I hardly ever use it. And as for Arabic, my exposure to Syrian culture has been wonderful. My experience has been that Syrians are warm, generous, and honorable people.

Got more practice cooking by attending a potluck at the sustainability group. That group is giving me a ton of yields and opportunities to practice skills.

Academia

In earlier posts I mentioned my dilemma with regards to becoming an academic. After some more thought, I am leaning towards not attending college after all, at least not formally. Planning to become an academic has so many downsides - a hyperspecialized skillset in the face of climate crises, total dependency on being awarded tenure, publish-or-perish culture, opportunity cost when one could be earning money, and a relative lack of flexibility once one is in the program. It is a very long and very narrow path.

And yet, I still want PhD-level insights in the areas that I'm interested in. And in my life now, I have no peers my own age. Unlike most of my peers, I did not walk straight towards the gates of the Academy upon graduating high school, because I suspected the whole university system was bullshit and traveling was a much higher priority. At the time I couldn't give a shit about "the College Experience (TM)." Now, in the wake of Covid, I do want a taste of the student lifestyle, primarily because I want to hang out with hot young people, have a lot of sex, and be in an environment where people are legitimately thinking critically and questioning things. As such, I am considering finding an open-minded professor somewhere who would be cool with me crashing their classes without formally registering as a student. Since what I really want out of the experience is the learning and the social connections, it seems like that would help me obtain the desired yields without the bullshit required of being a real-life formal university student.

If I go this route, it would really require me to start boosting my earning potential. As I mentioned before, the idea would be essentially to ERE my way into independent scholarship. The plan would be to establish a landscaping business as a primary income stream, and continue doing legal translation as a side hustle. I met a new landscaping contact today through the sustainability group.

Renaissance Strategy

Jacob's section on strategy and tactics describes principles that will lead one to become a financially independent Renaissance person. My own goals are very similar, and I've chosen 5 learning areas that most fascinate me: anthropology, meditation, permaculture, martial arts, and music.

Since drawing out my Web of Goals as Jacob explains in the book, I have been better able to see the beauty of the modularity principle - there are many routes I can take to achieve these goals, and I can plan such that if a module fails it will be supported by other modules returning similar yields.

However, I do wonder if I am spreading myself too think in my day-to-day implementation of these pursuits. I wake up most days with a good deal of intrinsic motivation, but there is simply not enough time in the day to pursue everything. As such, I maintain core health and meditation practices, and will switch between other interests depending on the day and my mood. I know very few people who have intentionally decided they would pursue five areas of expertise in their early twenties, so there is certainly a feeling of fumbling around in the dark. I am wondering if there are ways to be more intentional about all this.

Side note: Finding a life partner is also a major goal. I am confident that I do not want children; I have considered a vasectomy but have yet to pull the trigger.

Health, Training, Martial Arts

I have mentioned martial arts a lot recently, but don't actually have the means to pursue this interest right now. As such, the emphasis is more on physical conditioning, with a plan to commit myself to a martial arts discipline in the future. A lot of my fitness planning is based on experimenting and listening to my body; I haven't done much reading into exercise science at all. As such, none of this is prescriptive. It's just me improvising based on what seems to work best.

Last week I started lifting again for the first time since the beginning of Covid. Current weights (in pounds) are as follows:

Squat: 145
Bench Press: 95
Overhead Press: 65
Deadlift: 145

I have been using a modified version of StrongLifts 5x5; I remove the barbell rows because in the years that I used that lift I never seemed to get anything out of it. I'm starting to cobble together a fitness plan based on my own knowledge of my body and what it needs. I am basically thinking lifting on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, with cardio and yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My experience has been that all three components are needed for optimal health. Pre-Covid, my main exercise form was lifting. When the pandemic began, I switched to yoga as my main form of exercise. As a result, I am now capable of licking my toes, which is nice, but I lost nearly all my muscle mass. Even in the week since I've returned to lifting, I've noticed a huge uptick in energy and even creativity.

Diet is okay. I am of the "Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much." school of thought, and have been cooking for myself fairly regularly. All the time I've invested into mindfulness practice has paid off; I have been getting junk food cravings very rarely, and when I do I can usually keep them under control. An obstacle I've run into is that when we run out of groceries, I'll just eat whatever. The pantry has been low for about two days and I have been subsisting on cereal and pasta, and I can feel my body telling me no. It would be wise to establish a secret backup stash of healthy food for occasions such as these.

Side note: Most of my food is still industrial grocery store food, with a small portion coming from a community garden I volunteer at. I hope to shift this ratio more and more over time.

Dunkelheit
Posts: 71
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:24 pm
Location: Somewhere in Spain

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by Dunkelheit »

I wrote you a PM but I don’t know why it stays in my outbox and is not sent. Is your mail folder maybe full?

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by AxelHeyst »

PM’s show as in your Outbox until they get opened by the recipient.

Dunkelheit
Posts: 71
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:24 pm
Location: Somewhere in Spain

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by Dunkelheit »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:05 pm
PM’s show as in your Outbox until they get opened by the recipient.
Thanks for solving my newbie’s issue :oops:

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Update: I accompanied a friend to an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Denver, and made a spontaneous decision to hitchhike across Colroado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. Currently visiting a friend in San Francisco. Planning to make a last stop in the PNW before staying put a while to work and save money. Might return home, might not, not sure yet. After that I will get started on planning the Latin America trip in more detail. Core goals are to research endangered languages, and learn about the region's plant life and conservation efforts.

Hitchhiking can be a very rewarding experience, but just finding food and shelter end up taking up a HUGE amount of cognitive bandwidth. I'm glad I have the skill to travel like this if necessary, but my recent has been another data point in the direction of DirtbagERE rather than just dirtbagging. Constantly being on the road is also disruptive to my mindfulness and exercise practices, and giving so much bandwidth to food, shelter, and transportation has prevented me from giving energy to skills, intellectual development, writing music, etc. I have strengthened some relationships by dropping in on friends, but as a whole I am reminded that I need some degree of rootedness in place in order to function optimally.

For the Latin America trip, I will most likely select a couple regions and spend at least a month in each one, learning about some aspect or another of botany or anthropology. As of now, candidates are Oaxaca, Chiapas, the Sierra Nevada near Santa Marta, and the Amazon. Maybe Havana, Cusco, or Iquitos if I'm really feeling ambitious.

Trying to figure out how to best structure my future contemplative training. There are several traditions and training modalities that I like, each with their pros and cons. Trying to figure out which mix is best.

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Also: I find myself entering into a de facto low-money lifestyle. I'm not opposed to earning money if it just so happens to be there, but I am prioritizing my Web of Goals, and the minute I have enough money to pursue fully pursue it for a while I will quit whatever employment I have and go for the life that I actually do want. I figure if I live like a post-consumer and do my best to build a better world, the money will be there.

A friend of mine, who hitchhiked from Mexico to Argentina, budgets about $500/mo for travel in Latin America. That means I could stretch my measly $6000 out for a year of travel, likely more if I prioritized staying at Workaway projects. Now, seeing the distinction between dirtbagging and dirtbagERE, I do plan to develop more income streams and use the Income Robustness Score, but the point is that I could get away with it if I chose to. I am toying with the idea of doing a no-spend year or a year of growing and foraging 100% of my food as a challenge to really build post-consumer skills and have the option of going fully moneyless if I chose to. Again, I'm not opposed to earning money if it happens to be there for something I like, but I'm hoping it will be an incidental yield of having an intentional and purposeful life.

Western Red Cedar
Posts: 1205
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by Western Red Cedar »

RoamingFrancis wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 1:52 pm
Constantly being on the road is also disruptive to my mindfulness and exercise practices, and giving so much bandwidth to food, shelter, and transportation has prevented me from giving energy to skills, intellectual development, writing music, etc. I have strengthened some relationships by dropping in on friends, but as a whole I am reminded that I need some degree of rootedness in place in order to function optimally.
This is an important insight and something I occasionally overlook having established some pretty serious roots over the last 10 years. Travel is often challenging - especially as you are approaching it - and finding balance is sometimes difficult on the road.
RoamingFrancis wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 2:03 pm
A friend of mine, who hitchhiked from Mexico to Argentina, budgets about $500/mo for travel in Latin America. That means I could stretch my measly $6000 out for a year of travel, likely more if I prioritized staying at Workaway projects. Now, seeing the distinction between dirtbagging and dirtbagERE, I do plan to develop more income streams and use the Income Robustness Score, but the point is that I could get away with it if I chose to.
I think Alastair Humphrey made this amount stretch for a 4 year bike trip around the world if you are looking for a little additional inspiration. :)

https://alastairhumphreys.com/adventures/

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

@WRC Yeah, I seem to work best when I travel but have a regular home to come back to. Thanks for the Alastair Humphreys link; it shows how much is possible with frugality.

Renaissance Report

Music

I have decided to drop music from the Web of Goals. I love of music, but it has consistently been sixth on the priority list. Better to build up my higher priorities and return to music in a number of years. I do want to keep music in my life in an intentional way, and plan to begin a Deep Listening practice.

Usually my music consumption is one song at a time, on YouTube, based on whatever song I feel drawn to in the moment. The idea is to shift towards listening to a whole album at a time, uninterrupted by ads, with high audio quality, and perhaps an oral dose of cannabis. The idea is to deeply appreciate art via mindfulness, and allow myself to marinate in well-made music. In the process I will explore new artists and genres, and hone my taste. For now, my focus goes towards laying the foundations for my future life.

Ecology

It is no longer a question of whether I should buy land somewhere, but of when, where, and how much. I could also be a useful addition to someone else’s land, á la Greenfield. Regardless, having spent a week in a city, I am certain that I never want to live in one. I want a Druid retreat cabin in the woods somewhere.

When is just as important of a question as where. For the time being I would like to be fairly mobile for anthropological endeavors, and income and dating opportunities. But I would like a “home base” to come back to. And I have read that it takes around 8 years for a permaculture system to come to maturity, which incentivizes me to start sooner rather than later.

Income

I have been able to make this trip happen via a high tolerance for discomfort and willingness to hitchhike across several states. I have enough slack to keep going for a while, but will eventually run out of money. There are two main roads I can go down.

1) I find income in deep alignment with my Web of Goals. I have decent earning potential, even without a college degree. In the last year, I have declined two salaryman job offers because I felt they were a waste of life energy. I’d rather take my chances semi-homeless than in a 9-to-5. If I’m lucky, I may find something else that I do feel good about saying yes to.

2) Kick the can down the road. I trim weed for a month, save up enough slack for a year of expenses, and use the time to build up my Web of Goals. In another year, I reassess.

At this point, the idea is to use a “hell yes or no” philosophy towards income, and do “meh” work short-term if I absolutely need to.

Schmachtenberger

I recently listened to the Schmachtenberger interview posted by @AxelHeyst. One of the main points that stuck with me was the importance of building systems of collective intelligence to counteract the world systems that influence us towards suboptimal behavior (for example, we are incentivized to work at the highest-paying job instead of the one that is really best for us and society). I thought of this forum and how journaling here has connected me to a counter-system of positive influences. Now that I have a rudimentary ERE system going, I will be looking for more opportunities to coordinate my system with others in a mutually beneficial manner.

- RF

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

I woke up from a nap and it became apparent to me that my two immediate goals were to spend a year in South America and to spend a year in a rewinding/nature immersion school. Both of which require some degree of money. I am okay with employing the “kick the can down the road” strategy once or twice, but as with anything monetary, that is life energy that I will never get back. I’d rather invest that energy into building a real livelihood, based on my Web of Goals. In other words, I’d rather do DirtbagERE than traditional dirtbagging.

The benefit of knowing about ERE is that my livelihood doesn’t have to become my life. My income has to be [aligned with my Web of Goals, but it doesn’t have to cover my entire web.

I looked at each module I listed in my WoG, and was immediately able to rule out several categories as income options. No to meditation - Dharma is too fucking precious to pay for and I refuse to be part of the yoga-industrial complex. No to anthropology - making a career out of this would mean a long and narrow path through academia, and I believe I can accomplish my endangered language work without a PhD. And no to becoming a relationship guru; I’ll let Esther Perel do that.

That leaves fitness and permaculture for my remaining categories. I’m starting to read up on how to start a profitable permaculture business, which is my preferred option. I’ll look into personal trainer credentials as well, which is another option.

My strategy’s slightly different now. It can be summed up as, “Kick the can down the road if necessary; use the bought time to lay the foundations of a permaculture business.”

- RF

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

I spent my teenage years as a full-time anarchist. Not the skateboarding kind. The zine-publishing, protest-planning, folk-song-singing, geek-out-over-Marx-and-Kropotkin kind.

In more recent years I’ve felt increasingly alienated from the left, both in person and online. I often feel that there is groupthink, dogmatism, and a Leftist Thought Police that makes sure you’re toeing the party line. And it seems that many are more interested in wallowing, moping, and complaining than they are in finding helpful solutions and making a better world. There is a focus on compensatory injustice rather than justice. And if you disagree with someone, Lord help you. For these reasons and more, I haven’t been much of an activist recently. Even writing the word activist holds a negative connotation for me now - it brings to mind images of angry and pissed-off people doing little bit complain about the system.

And yet, the other day, I did an exercise where I was reflecting on my core values. And right at the top of the list, I watched my hand write the word Justice.

The core values that originally drew me to activism are still there. I give a shit about protecting the planet, healing racial and gender trauma, and letting everyone have an opportunity at a good life. I give a shit. I care. But I can’t stand when grown-ass men and women act like infants once they enter political circles. A lot of it comes from unhealed trauma, I’m sure. But if the world after the revolution is as juvenile as some of the people I’ve met in activist circles, the new boss will be just the same as the old boss.

As I said, I give a shit. I care about the well-being of people and society. But if I have a political ideology at this point, it’s to seek helpful solutions for the myriad of problems that plague the world. And to celebrate when people disagree with me, and think orthogonally to politics.

So there you go. I’m trying to integrate the value I place on Justice with my alienation from politics.

Rant over.

——————————————————————————————

I’ve spent July and August vagabonding around the US and Canada, seeing friends and staying at permaculture projects. I’ll be heading home soon, as I’m running low on money.

Action points for when I return:
- Reach out to my old immigrant support group, see if there’s anything I can do to make it less dysfunctional
- Research practical and actionable solutions for police violence in the United States, connect to a mentor in the black community
- Generate income. The law office, landscaping projects, and coffee shops are good places to start.

——————————————————————————————

Web of Goals Update
Relationships
Earlier the subnodes of this category were romantic partners, family, and friends. This has shifted to sexuality, family, and community.

One of my major areas of healing has to do with major sexual shame I absorbed from growing up in a religious environment. I’ve made a lot of progress thanks to my contemplative practice, but it’s definitely an area to watch out for.

I’ve been rather allergic to the word community for a long time, as I agreed with Jacob’s critique of clinging on to a community and ignoring personal competence or development. But recently I had a conversation with a friend, a Zen practitioner of 20-odd years, asking her how she stayed inspired to maintain a practice over years and decades. My first retreat gave me enough juice to launch me into three years of solid practice and study, but I was feeling like I was running out of steam. She observed my practice was largely solitary, and the momentum of a regular practice group bolsters you through uninspiring times.

I’m an extroverted person that thrives in relationship to other people. Over the past couple years it’s been less common to find people that I really resonate with, but when I do, it’s really wonderful.

Community is really fucking hard for individualistic Westerners to do well, which explains the failed hippie experiments in the sixties, but the fact is that I’m better off when I feel part of a healthy community, and dammit, online forums aren’t going to suffice if a forest fire burns down my house. The question I am now exploring is “What does a healthy community look like?”

I’ve also come to realize that THE most efficient way for me to learn something is with a good teacher. I can learn on my own, but a good teacher opens doors for me that are difficult to get to alone, and pushes me past laziness when things become difficult. I’m a social learner, and need to embrace that I just tick differently from Jacob, who seems capable of digesting massive textbooks alone in his room. I am considering paying for permaculture and business tutoring when I return home, as I see these as investments that will hone my skills.

Business

I’ve accepted that thinking about business, investments, marketing, etc is useful and that I can do it without compromising my values. It’s not the MOST interesting thing in the world to me, so I still draw it as a supporting leg on my WoG, but I am beginning to have an intrinsic interest. Best to figure it out, use it to my advantage, and FI.

Nature

This category has been a bit of a mess in my mind between ethnobotany, wilderness survival, permaculture, and the environmental ethics of ERE, which are distinct but related fields. Of these, permaculture seems the most practical but ethnobotany has the most stoke behind it. I hope to get more clarity in how to move forward in the next couple days.

Keeping my eye out for a copy of Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin

Meditation

As I mentioned before, I had felt like my practice was losing steam, and at the recommendation of my Zen friend, did some exercises to really get a good sense for WHY I’m doing this practice.

My two big WHYs are to be optimally Happy and optimally effective in my Life’s Work.

Here I use Happiness as a technical term, consisting of the Happiness dimensional analysis of Shinzen Young. The five Happiness components are defined as:
- Relief from suffering
- Increase in fulfillment
- Self-understanding at all levels
- Skillful action in the World and positive behavior change
- Service to others, working for the liberation of all sentient beings

My working definition of my Life’s Work is the protection of the biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity of the Planet Earth. This definition may evolve over time - I may reword it to integrate the value I place on Justice.

I think a solid practice will positively affect all areas of my Web of Goals, including relationships, health, and music, but this are the two BIG WHYs that surfaced when I asked the question. The conversation also prompted me to do some exercises around ethics and core values, which lead to the political rant above. My ethical framework is okay, for now. When I wrote it out I noticed it could be better thought out.

Health

My main health exercise since the pandemic began has been yoga and hiking, and as a result I am very flexible, but could be doing better on strength and cardio. I am going to plan on having restricted gym access frequently over the next several years and learn how to get good at body weight exercises. I’m using Jacob’s post “How to Get in Shape Without Paying a Dime” as a starting point.

I am eager to connect with a competent martial arts teacher. I’ve gotten really into Bruce Lee - his martial arts philosophy is just really fucking cool. I love the idea of creating my own unique fighting style. Beginning components are the philosophy of aikido, practicality of BJJ, and sheer awesomeness of capoeira.

Music

I’ve now written three songs, which I plan to record when I get back home. I’m going to try to connect to a music teacher when I get back. I have someone in mind - he is black and one of the wiser and more reasonable social justice voices I know, so I may be able to make this HoMeOtElIc.

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by mooretrees »

Sounds like you're really honing what you need for a good life and how to build that good life. I'd love to hear about your big vagabonding adventures.

I'm with you in being a social learner. I've also thought of doing a permaculture course and even found one that was remote last year. It would be so much better in person though. One place that is interesting is Possibility Alliance in Maine. They don't use electricity or fossil fuels but they do workshops for all sorts of permaculture living with a big activist bent. I've listened to a few podcasts featuring one of the founders, he's really amazing. Here's an article about them:https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/ ... story.html

Looking forward to hearing!

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by AxelHeyst »

Awesome update, good to hear about it all!

For your Nature category, are you doing any of the Druid nature contemplation practices? e.g. the AODA initiate year’s “twenty minutes a week of narrow or scattervision focus in Nature”? And if so does that fit in to this category in your mind?

I know you’ve been spending a lot of time in the woods (or hellscape of the desert, sorry bout that :P ) in the last few months, as have I, but I find it’s easy for me to not actually spend “quality time” with nature when I’m constantly surrounded by it and can kind of take it for granted. The few times I’ve done focused nature contemplation, I sensed there was a lot there for me in terms of peace (duh) but also in terms of opening myself to receive a certain kind of wisdom or even mentorship maybe. Curious on your thoughts/experiences here.

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Thanks everyone. @mooretrees I’ll check out that link, thank you. And I’d be happy to talk more about vagabonding, either here or in PMs or in Oregon or whatever.

@AxelHeyst I’ve been doing a bit of a great practice I pulled from Bill Plotkin’s interview on Men, This Way. It’s called Praising the Non-Human World.

1) Stand at a threshold/entry point into a special place in nature.
2) Take a few deep breaths and cross the threshold.
3) Find an aspect of nature that you particularly appreciate. Praise it out loud. Be specific. Tell the rocks or trees how they inspire you.

I had a great experience when I tried it out. It felt like the trees were talking to me :)

I’m about halfway through the introductory OBOD course. May switch to AODA afterwards, or I may just selectively do the pets of their curriculum that interest me without joining.

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

After several months of vagabonding, I've returned home. It'll be good to sleep in a bed for consecutive nights.

I'm pretty damn satisfied with where I'm at in life. On my trip I got to meet with some ethnobotanists and one of my favorite writers, and now I just want to keep walking the path I'm on. It was, in a sense, the maiden voyage of contemplative ethnoecology :) I'll plan to stay with my folks through Christmas, and prepare to go to Mexico afterwards to study endangered languages.

But for now I need to put the whole project down and focus on other areas of life. I've made huge progress over the past year - and the completion of this trip is a major milestone - but for now I feel the need to relax, put it on the backburner, and focus on other areas of life.

I've been doing a lot of important weird experiments over the past three years, but I have been relatively isolated from a peer group. I want to let myself fuck around, have fun, and just be 21 for a little while. As such, my attention will land as follows:

Music

Audit a composition course at the community college, for the hell of it and to become a better artist.

Relationships

As I said, I've been relatively isolated from a peer group. I'll use this time to really examine and become conscious of the relationships in my life, and deepen friendships.

Additionally, I will be continuing my process of healing from Catholic sexual shame, and getting fucking laid. This will be a major priority of the next several months. My music and fitness endeavors should be good places to meet hot girls, as should a friend I'm connected to with wider social circles.

Health

I have been wanting to do martial arts for a long time, but it occurred to me that signing up for a yoga class may be more homeotelic with my other goal of getting laid. Again, my best bet here would be auditing a community college course.

Femininity

I have nurtured and developed a lot of traditionally "masculine virtues" over the past year - grit, determination, courage, discipline, etc. I've noticed I'm a bit off-balance and need to nurture my feminine side now - warmth, kindness, humility, softness, receptivity.

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Next Move Design Criteria

1) Economic Independence from Parents
  • Living at home is not feasible long-term. I'll need a LCOL place where I can get a job in a cool coffee shop. Barista FIRE ftw.
2) Social life
  • I've neglected this area in the past few years of adventures and community college. Ideally a college town, with an eco and meditation scene
3) Place that's good for pursuing music

Places to investigate. Haven't looked super deeply, but it's a start:

Boulder, Champaign, Bellingham, Gulfport, others

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

* House sitting is not a bad idea

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1125
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by mountainFrugal »

To aid in your quest for college towns you might broaden your search to land grant university towns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land-grant_university . I think that Champaign would be included in that list which made me think of this. These Universities were founded to be the "Agriculture" universities of each state and in general are where most of the agriculture extension offices are run out of. My guess is that there would be a decent ag/eco/permaculture scene because of university overflow. Also, if the universities are large, a diversity of spiritual traditions within the town. Sounds like a fun quest! Good luck!

HanaSolo
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2021 6:24 pm

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by HanaSolo »

I'm very much enjoying your journal. Looking forward to hearing your idea of "fucking around and being 21". Missoula sounds up your alley (particularly if you consider Boulder LCOL!).

RoamingFrancis
Posts: 593
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:43 am

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Thanks for the feedback!

@HanaSolo I actually have no clue what Boulder COL is; I put it on there because that's where Naropa University is and it's close to nature as far as cities go. Idk if it's feasible at this point in time.

I've begun your journal; seems interesting. You'll hear more from me soon!

Western Red Cedar
Posts: 1205
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by Western Red Cedar »

I'd add New Orleans to your list based on your criteria. What regions/areas are you thinking about in Mexico?

Post Reply