Last Update: 8/29/2017

Finding Purpose After the Bots Make You Redundant

Motomon android robot cooks up a burger and hash browns
AI and robots are comin' for at least half our jobs eventually. What will you do then? How will you find a reason to get up every day? What's gonna fill up your pride and keep ya outta the bottle?

Could be you'll be one of the high rollers with a job. But don't bet on it. What's your Plan B?

?? #Vanlife question? Contact Vanholio! direct !!

Vanholio ain't got no answers, just somethin' I'm codgertatin' on.

Sure, I'm like many who think a Basic Income will be needed to move money from the bot owners to the rest. That'll keep ya in tortillas and peanut butter. But just existin' ain't enough. Just existin' don't make ya happy.

Now, some of ya'll say, "But Vanholio, new jobs we can't imagine will be created." Or, "Vanholio, this is pointless. There'll never be a Basic Income." Maybe you're right, but let's just go on as if …

Say you're in the 50%+ whose labor ain't needed no more to drive the market. Say there ain't really no jobs to retrain for or them jobs got 1,000 applicants for each slot?What then?

Maybe retirees, trust fund babies, and those on disability got the answers. Surely some a them find purpose, even though they can't or don't need to earn. Since forever, Moms've taken pride in raisin' good kids.

If you're religious, will you devote yourself to prayer and good works? If you're creative, will you find purpose in art or scientific study? Maybe you'll work on cleanin' up the environment, one piece a trash at a time? Maybe you'll start a business to earn the extras?

Maybe another thing that'll help is if more people in unpaid occupations join into groups for recognition. It could be kinda like in the military, where part a pride comes from medals and patches. Money ain't the only kinda recognition to boost someone up.

I don't know. This is really a kinda speculation. But the day's comin' fast. Best to not be caught with your pants down.

What's your ideas? What would you do?


This article was originally posted at Steemit.com.
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Last Update: 8/25/2017

Shaving Without Water in the Van

negative image of man dry shaving with old-fashioned straight razor
Water’s at a premium in van life boondocking. That’s why Vanholio dry shaves in the field. Plus it beats playin' with water on a cold mornin'! But it ain’t harsh like it sounds. Let me tell ya how this works.

?? #Vanlife question? Contact Vanholio! direct !!

4 Steps to Dry Shaving


1. Slather on Aloe Vera Gel


That's my van life secret to dry shavin' – aloe vera gel. You could use just about any kinda lotion, but I like the aloe vera. That's because it don't plug up the pores, ya can get it without scents, and it moisturizes and relieves scrapes. Oh, and it’s great to have around if you get sunburn or windburn.

2. Use a Single Blade Razor


The aloe vera gel, or whatever other lotion, goops up in the razor. And ya ain't got no runnin' hot water ta flush it out! Your fancy 4 and 5-blade razors're gonna be useless.

Good news is that single-blade disposable razors is cheap, ‘specially at Walmart! I like the BIC Sensitive Shaver 12 pack. Usually get 4 or so shaves per razor.

If ya wanna, you could likely save more money with an old-fashioned safety razor.

3. Wipe Your Face With a Dry Towel

The aloe vera gel don't stick around too bad. You can wipe it off easy with a paper towel, napkin, towel, or dirty t-shirt. The cut hairs come off with the excess gel. And your face feels nice clean and soft afterwards.

4. Clean the Razor for Reuse


If the razor ain't shot, you'll wanna clean it up for reuse. I can usually wipe out the gel OK with a paper towel and a toothbrush. Sometimes I'll soak the blade in 1/4 C of water to soften the gel, if I've let it dry up.

Alternatives Van Life Shaving Methods?


Obviously, you can use an electric razor dry. And some vandwellers don't mind using a little bowl of water, whatever Vanholio says.

Another thing I do is just wait till I'm at a restroom. I done shaved in many a gas station, Walmart, and grocery store. I just use the hand soap for lotion. Don't feel self-conscious 'bout shavin’ at such places no more.

And a course, you could always grow a beard ...

Not Dry Shaving, But Check Out These Videos!






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Last Update: 8/22/2017

Take Down, Replace ALL Civil War Statues!

Lately, every asshole’s got a fuckin’ opinion on takin’ down Civil War statues. Specifically Confederate statues. Vanholio says take ‘em all down, Confederate AND Union. Here’s why …

It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sommbitch or another. — Mal, Firefly

?? #Vanlife question? Contact Vanholio! direct !!

Vanholio says Mal called it right. Fuck all them generals and politicians. They didn’t do the dyin’ and bleedin’! They caused the war! They don’t deserve no fuckin’ statues of ‘em!

The Civil War Was a Leadership Fuckup


Accordin’ to the Civil War Trust, “Approximately 620,000 soldiers died from combat, accident, starvation, and disease during the Civil War.” That don’t even count the civilians dead or starvin’, or the horses, dogs, and other critters killed.

Why!? What was that fuckin’ war about? I know, I know — endin’ slavery, states rights, preservin’ the Union — take your pick. All worthy on paper, for both sides. But fact is, they shoulda worked all that out through talk, not murder.

And after all them dead, was it worth it!? Blacks got free, sorta. Until Jim Crow. Still an improvement, no doubt. (I sure as hell wouldn’t wanna be no chattel slave!) Overall, though, poor folk, the ones who did the bleedin’, Black and White, didn’t get no richer nor more powerful.

But the bigshot politicians and generals who pushed the whole fuckin’ thing stayed in charge mostly — on both sides. Some a them made fortunes!

Replace the Civil War Statues With Somethin’ Worthy


So here’s what Vanholio proposes: Take all them statues down, Northern and Southern. Yes, even Lincoln! And put them in a new DC museum, The National Museum of Will and Folly.

Then if towns need somethin’ in their places, how about this:

A statue with two brothers, one Confederate and one Union, dead and embracing. The artist should make it unclear whether they’re huggin' or if they killed each other fightin’ hand-to-hand and died that way. And kneeling beside them is their mother, her hands coverin' her face in sorrow and shame.

That’s the only fuckin’ statue worthy of the Civil War. If God is just and loving, it’d be the only statue not an idolatrous abomination to Him. Unlike the shit worship of warmongerin', murderous sommbitches we got now. Might as well be statues of Cain!


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Last Update: 8/18/2017

'Nomadland' – Book on the Dark Side of Vandwelling and US Capitalism

vans and rvs lined up in Quartzsite, AZ, mountains in back. Men in foreground getting water from public spigots.
Journalist Jessica Bruder's new book, "Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century," is all about the ugly side of van life. She gets into how people takes to it 'cause they're strugglin' to get by.

Now, Vanholio loves van life. But if ya think it's about sexy yoga poses afront of your pimped out classic vanagon, think again. It ain't that way for most. Lots a nomads take up the life 'cause the system fucked them over. Worst stories is retirees who can't get by on Social Security. That shit just ain't fair!

?? #Vanlife question? Contact Vanholio! direct !!

Some a them same people love van life. I met 'em, an' they told me. Life gave 'em lemons, and they made some fuckin' sweet lemonade. But that don't change the fact that folks is gettin' lemons while the 1% is gettin' fatter'n prize hogs.

book cover of Nomadland
Click to buy at Amazon.com
Vanholio ain't read "Nomadland" yet. But van life blogger Alan Christensen at The Rolling Steel Tent has. Al has high praise for Bruder and her book.

I did read Bruder's article on Harper's, "The End of Retirement: When You Can’t Afford to Stop Working." Damn good shit! The book's an expansion of the article. I'm gonna read that book soon as I get my hands on it!

'Nomadland' Blurb Off Amazon.com


From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves “workampers.” 
On frequently traveled routes between seasonal jobs, Jessica Bruder meets people from all walks of life: a former professor, a McDonald’s vice president, a minister, a college administrator, and a motorcycle cop, among many others―including her irrepressible protagonist, a onetime cocktail waitress, Home Depot clerk, and general contractor named Linda May.
In a secondhand vehicle she christens “Van Halen,” Bruder hits the road to get to know her subjects more intimately. Accompanying Linda May and others from campground toilet cleaning to warehouse product scanning to desert reunions, then moving on to the dangerous work of beet harvesting, Bruder tells a compelling, eye-opening tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy―one that foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time, she celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these quintessential Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive. Like Linda May, who dreams of finding land on which to build her own sustainable “Earthship” home, they have not given up hope.  

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