"My ultimate hobo dream has been a suit, which is comfortable to wear at all times and which protects you from any kind of environment. You wont need a tent or a home."
One of my eternal pub discussions has been about an Urban Mobility Suit which looked like a business suit, but was actually designed for backcountry hiking. Plus a briefcase actually containing ultralight and compact camping gear. To really confuse people in the outdoors. Then as you overtake anyone on the trail, say things like "Excuse me, running late for my 10am."
There was a time in my life where I was feeding the cement mixer and building walls wearing a pair of expensive kenzo shoes and a business suit. I was convinced that cynicism was the only possible ethos. Now that I don't work anymore in the field I don't even wear suits.
I wouldn't call him a hobo in any way, but if you really like a calming way of wandering around North America, I recommend checking out: Foresty Forest YouTube channel.
He lives in a van with a dog. And he will summit random mountains across Canada, go on hikes, cook some food in his van. There is a weird comfort that I think might echo with people who have a fascination with nomadic lifestyle.
Here’s a video that happened to come up on my YouTube feed today. It’s by someone doing what I’ve always thought of as the quintessential hobo activity: hopping a freight train. Beautiful scenery.
I suggest to look up his trip up from Mexico, following the migrant route. For a different view of the same trip, his travelling companion (automous something) has his own channel.
RanOutOnARail isn't really a hobo though ... I think he's a software engineer in Texas somewhere.
Hobo Shoestring has an interesting channel also, albeit with a home base. You'll learn a lot about trains, and hobos' most hated adversaries, the 'homebums'. :D
And of course, there's a 10x hobo, in stobe-the-hobo (RIP), well worth watching all his videos.
Love Shiey and he also goes on quite a few trips with this guy (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8iPVSFr42KUFf8DKsmnvSw) who is very well educated and more philosophical and artistic than Shiey. Like them both a lot, but they're different flavors of the same genre.
Haven't watched him in a while but in the earlier days, his production values were quite charming. He's at a great intersection of vanlife+summiting+pressure-cooking. Not much pretence or glamour.
I took a very long break as well, but I started re-watching again. For some reason, I have become very fond of the idea of finding comfort in routine. He posts a video and the format is pretty much the same, so I just play his videos as I go to sleep.
Sleeping bag kimono, tent that looks like a car (and is "parked" next to a real car). The Finns' subtle sense of humor always makes me smile. Totally love it. Warmest greetings from Estonia!
Also, look at the wear and tear of his HP100LX (main portable computer for 20 years). It's been a close relationship for sure: https://github.com/timonoko/HP100LX
Which is he?
He looks broke/hobo.
But some pics seem like there is apartment, and that he travels some.
So does he have some money and is nomad? (some nest egg? he doesn't look like millionaire).
$40k USD is a fine amount of live off of is you are living in Carbondale, IL. But less so Chicago.
It's a pretty decent way to live in Belize or Costa Rica. Good luck in the UK. Germany, probably not, but Czech Republic may well be fine.
It depends on where you want to live. One of the factors which makes a huge difference is how old you are - the older you are the better healthcare you're going to need. Some of those low cost destinations don't have that great of healthcare - but some do!
Indeed,but it's easy for a person to move around the globe these days. It's conceivable and even common for people to work their careers in a high cost part of the world and then retire in a low cost part. I.E. the entire state of Florida
Calling people names is not really the style of this site. And without actually knowing more about him, I suspect you can't know enough to make that highly judgemental call.
Aside: I associate with a wide variety of people, some of which would be labelled bludgers by folk ignorant of those people's social value or circumstances. Their actual value to society varies tremendously. Note that welfare benefits are more accessible in New Zealand compared with many other countries. I also know plenty of working people I might personally think of as taking undue advantage of wider society.
"In the 1980s under the chief executive officer (CEO) Kari Kairamo, Nokia expanded, mostly through acquisitions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, Nokia corporation experienced financial difficulties. Losses were made in the television manufacturing division. In 1988, Nokian Tyres became a separate entity. Nokia's paper division was sold in 1989. In 1990, Nokian Footwear was a separate entity. During the rest of the 1990s, Nokia divested itself of all other businesses.
In 1988, Kairamo committed suicide. Following his death, Simo Vuorilehto became Nokia's chairman and CEO. From 1990 to 1993, Finland was in recession.
Vuorilehto made major changes to the Nokia corporation. The telecommunications division was stream-lined. The television and personal computing divisions were sold."
So they were laying off a lot of people, and Timo had worked there for 6 years at that point. What really happened may be unknown, but given the time period it appears that a large amount of corporate restructuring was going on ...
a blast from the hackernews past, when obscure hacker's personal home pages made it to the front page. timonoko is a hacker's hacker, but then it's kind of hard to figure that out without attentively going over his website, something there's no motivation to do without some kind of pitch.
Interesting page.. but some stuff is pure wtf material:
"Sol emits indeed Nukular Particles and solar panels thus have tendency to produce Nukular Energy, but the accumulation of these particles can be avoided by using "Green" batteries. NiMH-batteries are more "Green" than NiCd-batteries -- and usually labeled as such.."
One of my eternal pub discussions has been about an Urban Mobility Suit which looked like a business suit, but was actually designed for backcountry hiking. Plus a briefcase actually containing ultralight and compact camping gear. To really confuse people in the outdoors. Then as you overtake anyone on the trail, say things like "Excuse me, running late for my 10am."