Saturday, March 2, 2013

Blogging:Therapeutic or Chem.Addictiion Substitute?


I've realized recently that this blog may soon become an alternative/substitute outlet for my incessant and indelible passion and NEED for occupation/employment. That's not good or is it? I mean, it doesn't surprise me at all that I'm able to wake up at 5am, drink coffee and begin working with my Mac (either online or in Photoshop) and stay focused and productive without being lured away by hobo drama/amusement all day long. For now, I suppose its a positive change. Its one more option for me to choose from each day... lemme see...I can either 1) find David Mick and start drinking beer @6am, 2) go out on the median and fly my "please help" sign and make some hobo cash or 3)
go somewhere to get online and stay busy and sober working on this blog and future content.
 
Of course, the local hobos can't quite understand it--they're all sitting up in the crow's nest drinking beer and asking themselves "Have you seen Scott today? Where's Scott? How in the world can a beer drinkin', cigarette smokin', sign flyin',suitcase draggin' hobo, like Scott, mosey up inside that Albertsons grocery store and post up at that little Starbucks kiosk ALL FREAKIN' DAY LONG fiddling 'round on his computer? How in HELL can he sit there less than 75 ft away from all those shiny glass bottles of whiskey,vodka, gin, rum, wine and ALL THAT ICE COLD BEER all day long and then leave up out of there without having even a faint smell of booze on his breath nor any boozein his suitcase? He must be losing his mind...he might have found him a girl friend inside that that grocery store or on the internet...He's been avoiding us that's for sure...Can't quite figure him out anymore."

I can understand their shock and confusion at my sudden and sustained focus on this blog stuff for the past couple of weeks because they've never known any hobos who had developed a set of useful capable hands-on  'hobo skills'  who also have some skills that are current and employable and
who are hell bent upon getting off the streets.

They've all heard me whine and bitch about how much I hate this hobo crap...how boring it is ...
and most of all how absolutely depressing it is to see your life flying by as you' live like an insect or a rodent and measure time and success each day by how big your pile of empty beer cans and cigarette butts is.

They've heard/seen countless hobos meltdown in their moments of remorse, regret and self-loathing and so have I and its pretty sickening to witness, I must admit. And so whenever I erupt into my own pathetic rant/whine, I try seduce my hobo audience into the spirit I'm feeling by preaching in the plural possessive form ("us", "we", "our"). That usually works until one of them gets so immersed into my rant that he needs to drink more to keep from crying. But eventually they all tell me the same thing every time I whine/rant: "If you wanna get your career back on track and leave Hoboville, then go make it happen." And a cynical burst of laughter cuts loose from each hobo signaling the end of my rant (at least for today).

You see, they just don't believe that a thriving, street-wise, able bodied hobo like myself could actually hate this living situation as much as I claim to. But now they're not sure what to believe when they see me spending consecutive entire days alone without drinking nor being chased around by plastic badged security guards all day long.

With this minor distraction set aside for now, let me slide over into a more hearty and systemic issue that I'm saddled with here...It may require at least 2 cans( 24oz.) of Steel Reserve 211 beer for me to get it resolved. My guess is that other blogger folks deal with this all the time. If so I wonder if they have any useful tips/insight to help me out.

The problem: Prioritization of content... I suspect its the most vital and yet most intuitive /risky aspects of being a good News Editor. Do you ever notice when you watch the evening tee vee news, there's usually some guy either pacing around in the back of the studio scratching his bald head or sitting at a desk making a paperclip chain, drumming on the side of his coffee cup or rubbing his eyes while he's on hold on the phone? Who is that guy?

I'll bet he's the Chief News Editor...the one and only top dude who has the final say on what stuff gets reported and in what sequence. His balding head gives him an appearance of that of seasoned, hardened, jaded and decisive news professional (ie. Lou Grant from the Mary Tyler Moore Show). But if you look closely the guy can't be more than 29 yrs old!

(I wanna be careful about what I say about those news professionals...especially since I may wanna job working for one soon. )

With my cache of a couple hundred unedited/uncropped photos, a couple dozen or more short movie/video files of street scenes, hobo escapades and spontaneous/live "interviews" and  chatter with on duty SDPD officers, plus an ever-growing list of narrative topics to write about, my problem is not a lack of interesting content but rather one of prioritizing it.

Its not a problem to simply keep filling the pipe with new content from my stockpile. My problem is that I'm constantly jumping back and forth between processing/editing content from my stockpile and shooting/writing new fresh content that would be considered "news".

For example, if I see Sal, the armed security guard at the B of A, running after Chris White (the crazy violent dangerous hobo) who's escaping the scene on his gangster-styled Harley Davidson/Schwinn bicycle carrying three fat canvas bags marked "MONEY" while dodging bullets from Sal's handgun,
I consider that to be the sort of interesting hobo news that folks will enjoy reading and seeing video of. Its the kind of incident that clearly justifies dropping everything else to try and capture video/photos of. Below is a picture of Sal...he's dangerous! ;)

         

But lets say I'm at Starbucks working on a lengthy article about 'the tactical use of fear mongering by contract security guard companies as a marketing/sales strategy for getting new contracts and making war with hobos their daily mission' and I happen to look outside and see two hobos rolling through the parking lot carrying a 82" flat screen television, I'm  not sure how to react. Its unusual to see a hobo with any kind of new or costly technology, but until I hear a police siren or a cop bullhorn ordering the hobo to stop, or some screaming crying female pleading for help, I'm inclined to keep on working on my story. Priorities,IMO, need to be established and then maintained but so far I don't have any hard fast rules for setting them.

Btw,  here are a few photos I've earmarked  to support upcoming articles I'll be writing soon...

Topic: Logistics...discuss how my hobo living situation poses many challenges to the tasks of blogging while also provides me with some advantages in the logistics of covering local news.



Topic: Discuss/illustrate my promo strategy for my 
blog and hopefully elicit some good feedback/advice.




Topic: In depth interview with hobo David "Man Down" Mick. I need to give this one a higher priority because any day at any hour he's capable (and quite accomplished lately) of getting himself arrested and next time he may do some considerable time. Before he does go away, I'd like to get his story and other stuff published/available to see so he can tell everyone in jail about my blog. ;)






Topic: Dumpsters and HOBONOMICS™...there are many disciplines of science which try to define and explain the phenomenon of the hobo. Perhaps none is more fascinating and more enticing to
spectators  and hobo wanna be's  than HOBONOMICS™. Its the science of hobo principles of finances, revenue generation and allocation, and most interesting of all, hobo accumulation and distribution of assets/chattel and his ritualistic duty of recycling/salvaging  of broken, used, expired crap that can actually add value and utility back into his old useless crap.



Topic: "Homeless is a choice!"...a favorite observation often used as an attack missle
aimed at hobos. Yes, I'll concede that not only is it sometimes a "choice", but I'll  explain how
living outside in the freaking cold, rain, mud, filth is an attractive and more feasible choice to the alternative options available to some hobos.




Topic: A discussion of that one intrinsic and obscure, hard to define, but easy to recognize, 
impossible to replicate, priceless and enviable human talent, ability or
 in-bread propensity commonly known as "hustle".
Its the most vital thing a hobo has or wishes for 
that determines how fat his wallet is!




 





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