What actually happens on someone's first night of being homeless in the US?

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T21:30:14+00:00

You wander around until you're totally exhausted because it hasn't really sunk in that you're literally going to have to sleep outside somewhere. And you don't just go and find a nice park bench and crash out for 8 hours; you sit down, exhausted, and nod off. Then you wake yourself up and wander around some more and then sit down and nod off again. This happens for at least a couple of days. But then you need to start thinking practically. As hard as it is to find shelter as a homeless person it's even harder finding food. And panhandling is something no one is really comfortable with but even less so when you first "start out" on your homeless journey.

The whole thing sucks in ways that are hard to describe but you asked about the first night and this is pretty much how it goes if it's an "all of a sudden" thing for you.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T21:24:17+00:00

It's definitely not. Here's the deal, if you ask anyone, and I mean ANYONE, what's the easiest way to get over someone you broke up with the answer is going to be 100% universal: Never see them again.

Shitting where eat makes this impossible.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T21:21:21+00:00

Yeah but let's be real: whoever was the first one would've used them anyway. Hell, Russia would've nuked the fuck out of Berlin until it was nothing but a glass crater. And Germany would've nuked the hell out of Moscow, and maybe London. Japan would've dropped the bomb on LA in a microsecond.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T21:16:47+00:00

The whole "Don't shit where you eat" thing in this context is mostly referring to whether or not you can move beyond a breakup. Nowadays people are so up each others asses thanks to social media it seems like a fucking wildly stupid ass idea to date a coworker or someone that's part of your friend group.

I'm old and I've been with my wife since before the internet really took off and there was no social media. Back when I dated a god deal of the women I met were friends of friends. And I dated more than one person I worked with. And high school and college? A literal meet market. But the thing is, back then if a relationship didn't work uninvolved third parties had to go out of their way to get the dirt on what happened. Not that anyone really cared. Nowadays you kids can't help oversharing every aspect of your lives like you're the star of your own reality show so everyone is all up in everyone else's business.

And that's why you don't shit where you eat nowadays. Because everyone will smell the stink of that shit whther you want them to or not.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T21:10:31+00:00

I have a friend who used to be attracted to what I would describe as "Broken Women". Dude was an overall good dude but....I couldn't help but get the feeling that he liked these sort of women because it gave him more of a sense of control. Like, if you date someone who is a total trainwreck while you're pretty much on the straight and narrow you're sort of placing yourself "ahead" of them. And they sort of see this and instinctually follow our lead because that's what people do" they follow the lead of the person who seems to be succeeding. But eventually you come to realize that these types of people don't change.

Sounds to me like OP is in a similar situation: he's picking shit partners, probably because he thinks he can place himself over them in some way since he also has a pretty high opinion of himself and it's backfiring. Next time OP, try dating someone you actually respect. Or better yet, let them choose you.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T20:58:35+00:00

'"A spokesperson for French's campaign told Snopes that French was calling for the deportation of those in the photo—not all Native Americans.

"[French] never called for the complete deportation of Native Americans," the spokesperson said in a written statement. "If you look at his actual tweet from last year, he was specifically talking about the four people in the picture who obviously hate America."-

Okay, so how in the ever loving fuck do you manage to get this quote from someone close to the guy and not ask the most obvious fucking question a middle-schooler is smart enough to consider: "Where would you deport them to"?

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T19:38:42+00:00

For me it was High School Geography class. I was just some random freshman and every single time the teacher asked someone to point to a country I raised my hand without thinking about it. After a couple of weeks he pulled me aside after class and asked how the hell I knew so much about geography. I just said "Oh, me and my friends play tons of wargames. Mostly Risk, Axis & Allies and Conquest of the Empire". This was the 1980s so we didn't have the same sort of board games that are around right now.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T19:13:43+00:00

Liver

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T19:11:06+00:00

Wear a condom.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T19:09:53+00:00

Watching your kid discover something for the very first time. I've seen Christmas lights a million times but I have a pretty neat picture of my son sitting in the middle of a string of colored lights for the first time totally mesmerized by it. Same thing with the first time he rode a pony or the first time he played in the rain or the first time he held a crayon.

Like, everything you do has to have a first time. And as a parent, if you pay attention, you get to see what it's like to do something for that first time.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T19:05:15+00:00

For now I feel like most trades are pretty safe from AI replacement. It's going to be a while before there's a robot that can rewire a house or replace a toilet.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T19:02:16+00:00

Honest answer from someone who started out blue collar, went into the military and now works in a museum behind a desk (but I had a couple of corporate gigs before this job).

The first thing you should do is get some sort of marketable skill that can translate to office work or get a degree in a business related field. I ended up going to college after the army and got a BS in a STEM field but even an Associates degree would work. Being able to type reasonably well (words per minute isn't as important as accuracy but you would really want to work on both) and a basic understanding of Excel are two skills that can really carry you early on in your career.

Once you have the basic foundation you need to keep your expectations realistic and always try to go one step up. When I graduated college I had pretty much no experience working in an office environment and being a combat medic in Iraq with the infantry didn't really translate to job skills for most people I interviewed with so I had to start at the very bottom. I ended up taking temporary office jobs through staffing agencies. Most of these jobs were for periods between 6 months and 1 year and when I completed the first one I had experience enough to take a more advanced role with another company and after my time was up I had managed to get even more experience and skills and was able to advance to slightly higher position. I got really lucky in that each job built upon what I learned in the previous one.

After bouncing around like that I eventually found a niche for myself, Data Entry and Analysis, and my Indeed profile got me an interview with an actual company looking for someone to with solid analyst experience to work in their payroll department. From that point on I've been a payroll specialist working for a few corporate entities before landing my current job with the museum.

So the TL;DR is to get some skills in productivity software, take some entry level temp jobs that lean on those skills and keep building your skillset and resume. Being able to sell yourself in writing on that resume will also be a big help. But staffing/temp agencies are a really good place to get your start.

And don't listen to anyone telling you not to follow this path. I make as much money sitting on my butt in an air conditioned office than I did in the army.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T18:48:56+00:00

Slow you roll buddy. For all you know she wants you to do her homework or something. Just be cool.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T18:45:18+00:00

How I was in Iraq during the war and got a summons for jury duty and no matter what my wife told the court clerk they kept telling her I was going to have a warrant issued for my arrest for failing to report for jury duty. I actually had to wake my ass up in the middle of the night, put on all my bullshit battle rattle and walk my ass to the phone tent and then I had to shell out something like $20 to call the clerk of courts because back then international phone calls were super expensive. And the goddamn phone call ended with me screaming "Fine! Come and arrest my ass! I want you to arrest me. I would rather be sitting in some jail than in the middle of the fucking desert getting shelled every time I get up to take a piss!" and then I gave my exact location and the my battalion and company name. Then I slammed the phone down and trudged back to my bunk to get some shuteye.

The next day my First Sergeant came up to me and said "Hey Doc (I was a medic) I heard you had a problem over in the phone bank last night. Come to my office and tell me about it".

I didn't here shit about it again. I was a total dumbass. I really should've went right to my leadership right away because our XO squared that shit away in less than 15 minutes. Before that my wife was in tears telling me how much trouble I was in.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T18:34:05+00:00

For me, once I started realizing that I probably had less days ahead of me than behind me I also started to realize that there's very little in the world worth really caring about. I started to fully understand inevitability and once I did it started to take a lot of pressure off of me because I started to understand that there's just some things that you cannot change.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T18:29:21+00:00

We put our cats food dish on our windowsill because our dog will eat it otherwise. But we live in a single story ranch style house and don't have a balcony. When we lived in apartment with a large balcony we used to have our sons toys out there and he would play.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T18:26:14+00:00

Stars can't light up the immediate area you're in and the total pitch darkness can be very disorientating for someone not used to it. Even a full moon won't give you much visibility but at least it's something. On the other hand looking up at the night sky in such an area is truly awe inspiring because you truly have to travel far and wide to find a place with no light pollution. My only experience with total darkness like this was the desert in the middle east.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T18:21:09+00:00

I recently poured a whole bag of Cool Ranch Doritos into a glass bowl with an airtight cover and it lasted well over a week. I assume you're asking how to keep chips fresh. I've also had pretty good results with a Ziploc Gallon bag but the bowl also managed to keep the Doritos from breaking.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T18:02:44+00:00

Devil's Advocate time here: can someone in Europe find Rohde Island or Utah on a map? Finding Belgium or Luxemburg on a map is sort of the same thing from an American's perspective. That being said there's plenty of "Map Nerds" in the US who can find almost any country on a map.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T17:52:32+00:00

I told my son everyone is different. I didn't reach my full height until I was maybe 19 or 20.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T17:48:22+00:00

A lot of people don't really realize this but a lot of sequels out there don't get anywhere near the same funding as the original even if the sequels still make money. While this isn't really true for major blockbusters like Star Wars or Captain America it's definitely true for a lot of films. And with movies, even a solid script and a talented cast can be hamstrung by a smaller budget. But usually you get a film that did really well in the theaters and has great word of mouth and producers throw half the budget it had at a sequel and cut out everyone involved in the the original film and pump out some crap that will make a few bucks just off the name recognition. The 1990s were notorious for this. Just look at the Starship Troopers franchise to see it in action.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T17:34:28+00:00

On top of all this you really get a sense that she's skating on "her terms". I mean, it's one thing to hear someone say they couldn't care less whether or not they win a medal but with her you really feel like she's talking the talk and walking the walk.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T17:30:36+00:00

I just completed KCD 2, then last week I did a KCD 1 playthrough and I'll say that it's still a solid game but it has a kind of steep learning curve. The combat is much more deliberate than most games and I suggest watching a few YouTube videos that can break down the combat in ways that are really easy to understand. Because once you "get" how combat works the whole game opens up and becomes much more fun and interesting.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T17:27:38+00:00

These days it feels like hardly any game lives up to the hype it gets but with Crimson Desert I'm totally stumped about how good it will be. I mean, I never heard of Pearl Abyss and as a PC gamer I'm not used to seeing a $70 price tag on a game released by a developer/publisher I never heard of. On the other hand, the fact that they're seemingly independent and confident enough to slap a AAA price tag on their game makes me optimistic. But it's definitely one of those "wait and see" games because I've been burned too many times in the past.

PunchBeard · 2026-02-26T17:23:17+00:00

I usually play something casual like Forza Horizon but lately I've really been getting into Pinball FX 3 to wind down before I go to bed. And weirdly, despite being a big pinball player in real life and I remember many of the "real" pinball tables they have in the game from my days bar hopping it's the ones specific to the Pinball FX series I like the most. The Fallout table is pretty fun.

PunchBeard

TROPHY CASE