Click on image to view each story

I’m wrecked. Flat out spun! Most of the day I have been on a high thinking about my crazy adventure going up north to make new homeless friends. This afternoon I received two calls from different people who want me to visit. Both calls made it feel like the right thing to do. I mean, for some time I’ve been thinking about visiting the tent cities in Sacramento. It’s a powerful story that needs to be told by the people themselves – not reporters. But making this journey right now is a huge risk because I don’t have an income and I am also trying to survive this economic crisis. What’s life without a few risks so around noon today I decided I’m going!

After hours of excitement and thinking about the risk I sat down to write this post. There has been lots of press on the tent cities including, New York Times, NPR, and a few great posts from my much loved editor and amazingly cool blogger Shannon Moriarty. (read Tag, You’re Homeless) But my all time favorite has been Schwarzenegger Opens ‘Obamaville’ for Homeless!

Then I saw this page full of powerful pictures and I started to feel their pain. All of a sudden I was slammed with the seriousness of the issue. I wanted to write a happy post about a happy adventure but homelessness is not happy. Yes, I will have some fun and meet some amazing people but I need to stay conscious as to why I am taking this risk and why I’m making this journey. I need to remind myself that the sole purpose of this trip is to give real people a medium to tell their real stories uncontaminated by anyone. Raw, unedited and very real! Their story told in their own words!

I’m speaking at a Hollywood business luncheon this Wednesday and the plan right now is to leave that afternoon. First stop will be The Prado Day Center in San Luis Obispo. They started to follow me on twitter and asked me to visit. San Luis Obispo is a relatively affluent city and it may make a great story showing homelessness is everywhere. Then on Friday Justin McRoberts asked me to speak at the Justice League located near East San Francisco Bay Area. Hopefully I will be able to get a little tour of San Francisco and yes of course meet some homeless peeps.

I tried to get up north last week for San Francisco’s Homeless Connect Day but my New York Dream Center trip was delayed. I’ve made friends with the program manager and I’ll try to connect for at least coffee. Speaking of connecting for coffee have you seen the movie Lord Save Us From Your Followers? Too me, Timmy Ryan (aka Sister Mary Timothy Simplicity) is a rock star. He made that movie for me and I have lots of respect for him. Through Facebook we’ve connected and if schedules permit we are hooking up for coffee. He’s also offered to help me meet some homeless peeps. Woohoo that part of this trip is going to be AWESOME! I’ve written about this before. Too me, the church can learn so much from different lifestyles. Mostly how to genuinely accept and love those different from ourselves! I know as a homeless person there are not very many churches that I would have walked into and felt welcomed. We need to wake up.

After that I am headed over to Sacramento. Dave Ingland has been kind enough to connect me with a reporter who gave me some information. But most of that stage of the journey has yet to be planned. My one and only goal is to make some new homeless friends. When that is done I am headed back to Hollywood!

I hope you all ride along with me on this journey. Primarily I will be updating on twitter @hardlynormal. Twitpic is unreliable so I started to post photos on posterous hardlynormal.com/view. I have been using BrightKite when I want to share my location. For this trip I am going to give Whrrl a test drive. It looks like a great storytelling tool but I’m not sure if it works for sharing linear stories in real-time. The company does have great customer service that is beyond impressive and they honestly listen. I believe I can edit the stories after I return so I am not sure if I’ll broadcast, oops, a dinosaur word just popped out. What I meant to say is I don’t know if I’ll share along the way or wait until it’s polished. We’ll see what fits.

If you would like to help contribute to this tour I’ve set up a PayPal donation page. The places I’m visiting have been gracious enough to offer food and maybe a little help with gas. The rest I have to pull out of savings that I’m guarding to pay next month’s rent. Yes, to a normal person taking this risk right now is insane but we weren’t born to be normal. I honestly feel this short tour around Southern California capturing real stories from real people is something I must do. Besides, I continue to look for work and every day I continue to have a mailbox/inbox filled with rejection letters. Point is I could just sit here and still be in the same crisis. Too me not taking action is always the dumb move!

As more details get finalized I’ll do my best to update this post. For real-time updates catch me on twitter!

I really wish I paid a little more attention in English so I could accurately write about how cool the The 12for12k Challenge is. I’ve worked in marketing and donor development for a long time and 12for12k is flat out AWESOME!

One of the many uses of twitter is finding knowledge quickly. When I want to learn something I follow the experts. I have written a few press releases but I am not an expert in the field of public relations. Personally I strongly believe a good PR person is worth every penny and then some. Because I’m a one man band here and have very limited resources I started to follow Danny Brown, Lizz Harmon and Jason Kintzler to learn from their bag-o-tricks. All of them PR experts and as it turns out all great people with huge hearts.

Now here is the part where I wish I knew how to put into writing what is in my head and in my heart. A few months back Danny started The 12for12k Challenge. Too me it’s the most genuine, creative and viral marketing/fundraising campaign I’ve ever seen. From his choice of charities right down to changing people’s avatars this is an amazing campaign. Pure genius!

Taken from the about page:

The 12for12k Challenge is the combination of social media and fund-raising that aims to change the lives of millions worldwide.

Its aim is to raise a minimum of $144,000 for 12 charities over the course of 2009, with a new charity being supported every month. All proceeds raised go directly to the chosen charities.

The concept is simple:

• 12 months of the year
• 12 charities, a different charity each month
• $12,000 per charity

How will we do this? By using the power and outreach of social media to spread the word. From Twitter to Facebook, blogs to social media newsrooms and more, the 12for12k Challenge will be helping our chosen charities connect with as wide an audience as possible.

If you can please help Danny help others. Please also know that I’m not asking you to do something that I haven’t done myself. I’m late (please forgive me Danny) in writing this post to help support. But even in my state of crisis and right from the very start I supported 12for12k Challenge with MONEY! You should, too!

In closing I just have to say how refreshing it is to see people genuinely helping others. The 12for12k Challenge ROCKS! And so does Danny Brown!

I started invisiblepeople.tv with only $45, a laptop that cannot edit video and a cheap camera. On top of that right now I am living without an income. Thanks to a few generous hearts I make it day by day. I don’t say that as a bad thing although I am in a personal crisis and have been for some time. The point I want you to get out of my disclosure is GO make something happen no matter what your resources are.

Jenzabar Foundation nominated invisiblepeople.tv which is a huge honor all by itself. The grant is for $3,000 and I can sure use it. Believe me, every penny will be used to help my screaming about poverty get louder and more effective.

How it works is the nominee who receives the most comments moves on to the finals. Please take a moment and go to Jenzabar Foundation Social Media Leadership Award and leave a comment. Already I am overwhelmed by all the great comments. Even if I don’t win the grant your comments will keep me going.

Thanks so much,

Mark