Homeless Diggnation Fan

[fantastopia]

YEAH, I'm homeless atm, not trolling, not lying, was going to send this too diggnationfans@gmail but fuck it

Living in a place which is considered much worse than prison in my state (Queensland, Australia)

There is a drug syndicate being run inside the shelter (I am in no way in hell elaborating)

I try to read thick books I can buy cheap to entertain me, I'm at a net cafe atm, but I can't afford too much time here - problem with reading in my bed (dorm style, no privacy or doors) is that I am continually distracted by other guys 'sniffing deodorant' i shit you not, I know you can sniff glue, but this dude is giving me headaches from second hand... deodorant... its fucked, the sound drives me nuts too

I have to put my phone (my iphone died a while ago before i was homeless, I am using a shitty nokia 5800 - it's the only thing keeping me sane) in my underwear when i goto sleep at night for fear of it being stolen, this was reccomended the instant i took it out infront of another homeless guy who sleeps in a swag a few meters from a trainline (he was kicked out of the shelter)

Question: If you could only afford one device, one single thing to keep your tech mind satisfied what would it be? for under $500AUS it needs to be low profile - so it cant be bulky like a nettop, so essentially anything from a MID to a smart phone

I have been considering buying an ipod nano all the way upto an iphone, to be frank in order to get an iphone i'd have to steal - that's pretty much where my current situation is... its fucked, im paying $50AUS a month on my 3 account for 1GB of data on my phone, so I can do a fair bit with it

anyway

cheers

[trunolimit]

I hope for the love of God that you are lying.

If you are homeless and still have a data plan there is something wrong with you. You should not be looking to buy anything. Screw your Techno lust you have bigger things to worry about.

If I were in your shoes I'd spend as little as possible. Are you employed? I'm assuming not. I'd get my hands on a laptop, do some war walking to find open access points or go to the public library and start pumping out those resumes.

[tokenuser]

Dude, you live in Australia.
The unemployment rate is 5.1%
I have been unemployed for 12 months in a state where it is over10%, and I could only be employed in job the fits my visa category. I am accepting a job on Monday that is actually a little bump over what I did before.

As a self confessed web genius, you should be rolling in it.

When I got laid off we went through our bills and cut back on everything. No cell phone, cheap eats at home, dropped Internet back to basic levels ... All so that we could live on a single salary and not lose the house.

Ditch the data plan.
Put tech purchases on hold.
Get a job ( or a better job ) that will let you afford a shared rent with someone ... And dig yourself out of the hole instead of digging deeper and filling it halfway with cement.

[j4sp3r5]

Wow! I think I have to believe this story....It is was too off-the-wall in narrative and details for it to be fiction.

Are you in a homeless shelter? what is the place where your bedroom is?
It seems you have some money, so why not stay at a hostel in better area?
What are you doing to get out of there? Do you have a job?

You have real opprotunity that others don't...you can do whatever you want...live where ever you want....you have no bills, you have no lease/mortgage, no car, (I assume all this), nothing holding you back.

Never been to Australia, I can only comment on what I would do here in the states. And larger cities have better opportunity to make money, without a "job".... Clean windows, landscape, do deliveries or messaging service, etc. Look for a need and fill it. It doesn't take much to start getting cash. Most important you have to decide what you want to do, otherwise regardless of what you do, you won't succeed until you have a firm hold in your mind what your goal(s) are. (Do you want to travel? Do you want a family? etc) You need short and long term goals...like a ladder, one step at a time.

To get to your question - with the odd wrappings of your life - I would get a laptop/netbook
Yes you gave all the reasons why you can't have it, but it is the key to finding/making opportunities(at least in the States) for the rest of your life.....and you have complete flexibility for all the entertainment and lust reasons....AND....I would NOT buy a new one....there has to be someone selling one, check classifieds, craigslist (doesn't look like it is big in Australia), whatever, look for a deal.

In life we have either time in surplus, or money in surplus, it is EXTREMELY rare to have both (even millionaires/billionaires rarely have a surplus of time typically so busy keeping/managing their money they have less time then when they had less money). Each are very valuable and if you live within your means you can always be successful. With only 1 Dollar or 1 million dollars, it doesn't matter, as long as you use your resources wisely.

Hope this helps!

[early_grayce]

You are in Australia which has one of the best social policies in the world.
The reason he says $500 limit is he is on newstart allowance and planning on getting an advance payment, yes unemployed people can even get interest free loans of up to $500 from the Government that are paid back over a 6 month period.
Newstart Allowance is paid indefinately and is hard to be kicked off of which means he has an income of $470 per fortnight until he finds a job.
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/payments/newstart_rates.htm
Australian housing is overvalued by 50% and there are not enough dwellings for our population so rent is high but if you move out of the city to an outer suburb or into the country you will be able to afford rent.
I am 35, live on a disability pension and receive around $180 more than unemployed people but if I hadn't had the good fortune to have a friend move to Canada and rent me his house for a good rate I would find it hard to afford rent.
Be thankful that you have a place in a shelter for now as there are more homeless than shelter beds in South Australia.

You are with Hutchinson three which has $19 a month data plans for 1GB of data so change your data plan.