A couple of days ago the mayor of California spent the night in a cardboard box to get a better understanding of homeless.

Did Leo's few pennies help? Yes. Did the mayor's one night help? Of course it did.

Out on the internet, the story of "the homeless coder" will rise and fall but to us--this small but strong community of 70,000--it's about the struggle to change your life from nothing. This struggle is not a story, but a series of hundreds of painful, muddy, heavy steps. Out on the internet, I fear that the masses will use this story as a way to quiet that voice inside of all of us urging us to help those in need. The masses will quickly use this as a hammer to dismiss, ignore, and to accept the way things are walking by the homeless. You are here in this heartfelt community because you are not the rest of the internet.

1. I promise to write more updates, if you do not know you cannot help. Please believe me when I say, it is very hard to carry these messages.

2. Leo is a good man, good men are rare. I will stand by him because this and that he has done nothing wrong. Our mission was never to throw a roof over his head and say "done". There is never going to be a "role credits", it's just two guys trying to make life better. Right now, is terrified of getting a bank account and when he is ready, he is ready. I will help however I can and take full responsibility for whatever he has or has not done.

3. Today as you go through your life, do not forget to see others for what they really are. Trust your gut. Help when your heart asks, and even more so when your head suggests otherwise. Don't reason your way out of compassion, for founding principle of this community; compassion strengthened through education, that is us. It is you.

I love you all,
Patrick