A Summary of Current Primary Needs

1. Employment, and/or a reasonably steady source of income, is an obvious need, and while money isn't the only urgent need of mine, the lack of adequate funds does a lot to explain the existence of the other needs listed and discussed on this blog site. In the near future, I plan to list information which might be relevant to potential employers, so that it will be easy to furnish such possible employers with all they'll need in order to evaluate my applications for employment. Regarding finances, let it be known that I've spent quite a bit of time during the past year, researching ideas for entrepreneurial endeavors which seem to be likely to enable me to not only support myself adequately, but indeed to prosper quite nicely.
2. Regarding the aforementioned entrepreneurial endeavors, I am going to need to find funding for some of the needs related to those endeavors, despite the fact that I've been focusing on business ideas which will not require a whole lot in terms of startup costs, relative to the costs of other, much more expensive businesses a person might conceivably start. I may need to take out an occasional business loan, but I have an aversion to the idea of going deeply into debt. This blog will include information, including links to other documents or external web sites and web pages, related to those entrepreneurial endeavors.
3. Housing, at the moment, is my primary material concern. I still have an income, as of the fall of 2011, since I was fortunately able to persuade the state of Illinois to grant me unemployment insurance benefits. But the payments awarded to me weren't enough to do much more than pay for really basic necessities such as food and monthly bus passes. I have received information frrom IDES (Illinois Department of Employment Security), to the effect that my benefits will expire next spring, so the clock is ticking for me in terms of finding a solution to these issues. More information will be furnished soon, in the form of blog posts, documents (in PDF format, linked to the blog and its posts and articles), etc. And my resume, of course.
4. Food, at the moment, is not a crying need for me, since Bellingham has an excellent "food bank". The main issue in that area is that it really isn't feasible for me to store or cook groceries from the food bank in the house where I'm currently staying, at least not for very long or in very large quantities. Provided that I find the right housing situation, however, it's very unlikely that anyone providing hospitality will need to buy food for me or to cook often for me (although I might need to occasionally borrow cooking appliances and/or utilities for that purpose). In fact, even though I would never claim to be a master chef, I have worked at several restaurants in the somewhat distant past, and I can cook well enough to be able to make some contributions myself in that department. This might be seen as particularly beneficial if I should end up in a home sharing situation with a very busy person for whom cooking is a bit of a hassle, or if I should find myself in a similar situation with an elderly person who finds it difficult to cook for himself or herself.
5. I have been a committed Christian ever since 1969, when I was 13 years old. So it should go without saying that I need the prayers of fellow believers of mine. Prayer plus tangible help is much better than prayer alone,  more often than not, but I would never want to discount the power of prayer.
6. I would also appreciate help in the form of helping to spread the word about the needs which will be (and already have been) discussed in this blog. What one person cannot necessarily do on his own or on her own, can often be done, provided that we stop acting as if we are all islands. A sense of true community is what we are going to need in order to make it through these hard times.