Michael J McCluskey

Boon-docking

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Attributed to Mark Twain

Do these words stir a fire deep within you, awakening a spirit of wanderlust and travel? Maybe you were a gypsy, vagabond, or hobo in a past life, but you think you could never afford to live the life of freedom you long for? It could be you are a survivalist, or just want to drop out of society but don’t know how. Perhaps you are just sick of the rat race and want to simplify your life. Or possibly the bad economy of the last few years has left you with no choice but move into a car, van, or RV?

We have good news for you, you can, and this site is here to show you how! The key is eliminating the single highest expense most of us have, our housing. We will do that by moving into our vehicle and “boon-docking.” By that I mean living in your vehicle without paying for a campsite.

“You’ve got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice”. ~Steven D. Woodhull

People say to me all the time, “But how can I afford to live in a van and travel all the time?” My answer is aways, “How can you afford not to?!” Let me prove to you right off the bat that you can live the free life. Here is a budget showing just how little money you need to live and travel full time. One column is for a $500 a month and the other is for $1,000 a month.

Of course, at $500 per month this is a sparse life, but I am just showing you that it can be done. In fact, I personally know dozens of people who live in their vans and make much less than $1,000 per month, so I know for a fact that it can, and is, being done right now. That still leaves us with the question, where will the money come from? Let me show you some simple strategies for living the cheap RV lifestyle.

1) Move Into Your Vehicle and Save your Rent/House Payment

You are probably working at a job right now and paying for an apartment or house. The first thing you do is decide what type of vehicle you want to live in and purchase it. Then you have a garage sale and sell as much of your excess stuff as you can and give the rest away. Then you move into your vehicle. Now this is very important, you open a savings account and the money you used to pay to your landlord for your apartment or house payment (including the utilities) you start paying to yourself instead by putting the payments into the savings account instead. Now you alone are the LORD of your life! The hardest part is that it will soon turn into a lot of money, and you will be tempted to spend it. Don’t do it!Leave it there unless it is a total emergency. If you are currently paying $600 a month for rent and utilities, then at the end of the year you will have saved $7,200. Now you can travel for the next 7-14 months without working. Or if you work intermittently, you can extend that even further.

2) Alternate Work and Travel

So, we take our $7200 and leave on our new life of freedom until we need more money. Then, we choose a place we want to be for a while, stop there, and get a job paying as much as we can, but at least $7 per hour. For that month we take home about $1000. We spend half of that to live on, and now have $500 in savings. We should have more since we won’t be driving much (some of us will ride our bike, scooter, or motorcycle which we are carrying on a bike rack or trailer). So, we can take that $500 and are off again. Or we can spend several months at one place and then travel several months. Maybe you like to ski so you spend three months at a ski resort working and skiing on the weekends. Then you have the next three months off to do whatever and go wherever you want. When you need to work again, you drive up to Glacier National Park and get a job there doing dishes at the resort. You spend your summer weekends hiking and taking pictures. Three months later, you are free again. Or maybe you are a history buff. So you drive to Gettysburg and get a job there. You spend your weekends exploring the Amish country and Philadelphia. You then go to New England to photograph the fall colors and spend a month exploring Washington DC. When you need to work again you drive to Orlando or Miami, get a job, and explore Florida. If you are adventurous, you can work your way down to a beach resort in Mexico where you work for the next three months and surf, fish, and snorkel on your weekends. Working in the tourist industry you probably double your wage in tips and living in Mexico is very cheap, so you save even more than usual. Now you can take the next six months off in the U.S., or maybe nine months off in Mexico. You keep doing this to your heart’s content!

3) Live on a Pension

Or maybe you are like me. I took early retirement with a pension of about $1100 per month and I don’t have to work at all unless I want to for whatever reason. I am young and healthy, so I am working as a campground host in some beautiful places. That way I can build more of a savings account or spend more as I want. Many people have social security or disability checks they live on.

4) Work While You Travel

With a little creativity you can find ways to make money while you travel. The possibilities here are endless, only limited by your abilities and imagination. With access to the Internet, many traditional jobs can be done remotely as you travel. Here are some possibilities but they are just to jump-start your thinking. There are many books and websites with a huge selection of ideas:

Work Camp as a campground host
Make crafts and sell them
Buy and sell on E bay
Create works of art and sell them
Handyman services
House painting
Animal grooming
Auto detailing
Knife Sharpening
Web Site creation and maintenance
Photography
Sewing
Accounting

Vandwelling is like the birth of a new day and a new life.

This life can be for you if you want it! We have shown that you can live on very little, and four ways to make the little money you do need. So what is holding you back? For most of us it is fear. Let’s address that and show you a simple strategy to overcome your fears.

Overcoming Your Fears.

“I will not die an un-lived life.
I will not live-in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible;
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.” Dawna Markova

This is a tough one. Many of us live lives of quiet desperation, hating our jobs, and just enduring our life. We meet our obligations and conform to societies dictates. On the surface, all looks good. But on the inside is a desperate but muffled cry for a life of passion, adventure, and travel. Summed up in one word it is a cry for FREEDOM!! This is probably overstating it, but if you look at your life, you can probably find some element of it in there. What holds us back? Why can’t we break out of our rut into a new and exciting life? For most of us it is fear. We have an unconscious fear that “An unpleasant but acceptable present is better than an unknown and dangerous future.”So, how do you overcome your fears? Allow me to lead you through an exercise to overcome a fear.

The first and hardest step is to take an unflinching look at ourselves and identify the fears that hold us back. I’m going to list a few possibilities, but remember this is just a starting place, you must do the hard work of finding your own fears.

Fear of going broke and being homeless and penniless.
Fear of being alone and lonely.
Fear for my physical safety
Fear of failure.
Fear that I’m not good enough.
Fear of what others will think.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear that I’m Too Young

After you have identified your fears, accept them, even embrace them; they are an instinct given to us to keep us safe and from taking stupid risks. They are a good thing unless we let them paralyze us. When that feeling of fear and panic starts to well up from your gut, take a deep breath and literally thank it for the wise warning it’s offering you. Then assure it you will consider the warning very seriously. This may seem very “new-age” but try it any way.

Next, address the fears and find solutions. There are solutions to every problem! On this page we have presented a solution to one of our biggest fears: that we will run out of money and be indigent. We’ve seen just how little we need live on and how to make the money we need.

But reading about it won’t ally your fears, you must take steps so start right now doing your homework:

Record all your expenses so you know where your money is going.
Decide what is important and spend your money only on those things.
Write up a detailed budget and follow it or do something simple like at the beginning of every month put cash in envelopes for each category of spending.
Start researching new ways to make money
Increase your work skills and gather the necessary tools for an on-the-road job.

Now, when that fear wells up again, gratefully embrace it and say, “Thank you for the warning, but this is a safe risk. Look at my budget. Here is my savings account for emergencies. This is how I will make more money. Everything will be alright,” You may have to do this many times, but eventually your fear will turn to hope as it embraces your new life. Then, come, and join us as we travel the road of carefree destiny.

Cupcake

This one I wanted to have a little fun with.

Cuddly creatures frolic and roam,
Unicorns graze under clear blue skies,
Purple pansies paint pastries,
Colorful clovers cover cliff-sides,
Angels dance and fairies flutter,
Keeping watch on one another,
Evermore is where they call home.

Cold Words

Cold words,
Runs from a cold soul,
Flow through a cold heart,
Reside in a cold mind.

Cold words,
Penetrate a warm mind,
Cut a warm heart,
Break a warm soul,

Cold Words,
Chased away,
By His soul, His heart,
By warm words from His mind,

Cold words cut deep,
These wounds may never heal,
Replayed in the mind on repeat,
No physical scars, but pain is still real.

Change

Twisted Roots-Forbidden Fruits
Twisted Lies-Forbidden Eyes
Twisted Grins-Forbidden Sins
Twisted Minds-Forbidden Kinds

Stand in line-wait your turn
Pay a fine-wait to burn

Twisted Sobriety-Forbidden Variate
Twisted Homes-Forbidden Poems
Twisted Laughs-Forbidden Paths
Twisted Pain-Forbidden Plane

Horrid nursery rhymes
Scrawled on the walls
Child like chimes.
Echo through the halls

Bigger Picture

Don’t forget about the everyday miracles;

tasty food, good music, cozy blanket

fun day long adventures, midnight conversations.

The bigger picture doesn’t matter

if you can’t appreciate the little pieces.

Beautiful

The sunrise over the new morning mist.

A clear, star filled night sky.

A baby’s laughter

The clear blue sky one summer afternoon.

Your first love’s kiss.

A proud mother’s warm embrace.

Beautiful…

Your face by candlelight.

The way you skin feel when I run my fingers over it.

The way your hand fits in mine.

The feel of your tough, your embrace.

The way you smile at me.

The way your inner beauty accentuates your outer beauty.

Beautiful…

Are you done?

Holding on to that grudge?

Blaming me for what happened?

Throwing up what I did in my face?

Hating me?

Feeling like you’re better?

Feeling stupid for trusting me?

Feeling used?

Feeling deceived?

Feeling regret?

Feeling that you wasted your time?

Crying over it?

Wishing you never met me?

No?

Then carry on

I’m not expecting your forgiveness

I’m living the right way

So that I never have to be forgiven again.

Can Religion Be an Addiction?

We throw the word addiction around too casually sometimes. When a woman claims she is addicted to shoes, or an athlete says running is addictive, are these statements true? The idea of behavioral, or process, addictions is gaining ground in the addiction community. And, yes, it is possible for one’s obsession with buying shoes or working out to become harmful to the extent that some experts would use the word addiction. What about religion? Is being devoted to God and going to services regularly something that can turn into a process addiction? It is possible to become so dedicated to worship that it overtakes everything else. Like any other behavioral addiction, this obsession is related to emotions and to the brain and shares signs and symptoms with substance addictions. And, like other addictions, it can be treated with a dedication to quality therapy

Religion and the Process of Addiction

A process addiction is one that involves an activity or behavior, rather than a chemical substance like alcohol or heroin. Experts in the field of psychiatry have already officially recognized problem gambling as an addictive disorder. The recognition is based on the scientific evidence, provided by researchers, that compulsive gambling shares many characteristics with substance addictions. Although no other behaviors have been officially included in the addiction category, there is evidence that just about any activity can become an obsession. From there it is a short road to something very similar to addiction. As with chemical addictions, process addictions can lead to destroyed relationships and finances, feelings of withdrawal, and even changes to chemical pathways in the brain related to rewards and the experience of pleasure.

Signs of Religious Addiction

How can you tell when someone has crossed the line from fulfilling and healthy religious worship to harmful obsession? Here are some signs that religious beliefs have gone beyond normal and helpful and have become something like an addiction:

Avoiding responsibilities— When worship gets in the way of going to work, taking care of family duties and maintaining relationships, and any other type of responsibility, it may be a problem.
Obsession with rules— Religions typically set out guidelines and rules to live by. Someone with a dangerous relationship with religion begins to follow these rules strictly, regardless of the consequences. He does not stop to question them, but simply adheres to the rules with a single-minded obsession. He may also spend hours thinking about the interpretation of rules and what is considered to be a sin.
Financial problems— Someone with an unhealthy devotion to church may begin tithing beyond her means. She may spend money that she cannot afford on religious charities or on spiritual retreats.
Detachment from the real world— Being spiritual involves some sense of detachment from material goods, but for a religious addict, this may go to the extreme. Someone obsessing over religious beliefs may give up all his things and devote himself entirely to spiritual well-being.
Mood swings— If someone is addicted to religion, she may feel wildly happy and upbeat while in prayer or attending a service. On the other hand, if she cannot get to a service, her mood may swing down and she may mope and feel bad about herself.

What Causes a Religion Addiction?

What causes an individual to develop any kind of obsession or addiction is variable, but there are some common threads. There are genetic factors, but addictive behaviors can also be triggered by trauma, such as abuse experienced as a child. Stress, low self-esteem, and other negative feelings can contribute as well. In some cases, an addiction to religion may be transferred from another addiction. Sometimes when drug addicts or alcoholics are in recovery, they switch their compulsive behaviors from substance abuse to something more healthful, like religion. This can turn into an addiction in itself, however. Some people turn to religion for the feeling of togetherness that they experience in a community. Becoming a part of that group may be a healthy answer to loneliness and the search for meaning, but it can also turn into an obsession. In the case of a cult, the consequences can be severe. Regardless of the motivation for seeking out comfort in religion, if worship becomes an addiction, there are ways to get help. As with any type of process addiction, a trained therapist can help the addict learn how to control his impulses and obsessions. With regular counseling and support from loved ones, there is such a thing as recovery from religious addiction.

How to Balance Personal Life and Gaming

Die-hard gamers often spend a lot of time at their gaming console or in their mobile gaming worlds fighting zombies and building empires. This can come at the expense of getting enough exercise, completing household duties, and being a good partner/roommate.

You might be having more fun fighting in a dystopian world or perfecting your latest Magic or Pokemon game deck than dealing with real life issues. It is a common problem for gamers to get wrapped up in a campaign or a journey, and not snap out of it when it is time to return to real life. Some gamers even forget to take a time out for the people in their life that matter or to take breaks for their own physical and mental well-being.

If you keep living in the fantasy world and letting things slide in the real world, it will become a problem that no magical spell, power boost, or army of elves can help you defend against. I was there once myself, and I failed at balancing my personal life with my gaming. However, you don’t have to learn the hard way like I did on how to balance life with your gaming. Here are some idea hacks on how to balance your gaming life with your real life.

Start with reducing your consumption

Start reducing how much you expose yourself to your games and what surrounds them. If you are playing more than 3 hours a day, you may need to look at your time management to make sure you are not neglecting your real life responsibilities. Also, studies are now showing that the negative effects of playing more than 21 hours a week outweigh any positive affirmations you might receive from socialization within games such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games, also called MMORPGs or MMOs. At this cutoff point, you are more likely to be withdrawn from real life, to suffer from depression and anxiety, or to become obese from all the junk food that goes with those late night dungeon raids.

Cut down on game time

This may be more difficult if you are into mobile gaming because you can take the games with you anywhere. If you can’t get through a family meal without playing your game at the same time, you may want to consider cutting back. Consider choosing games that you can play and put down in a shorter time span, so that you can still take care of your dirty laundry or pay attention when you are out and about with friends.

Set aside a scheduled time slot a couple of times a week to play a game

For example, schedule your game time for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Place it in your calendar as you are busy during that time. That way you know how to plan your personal life while not giving up on your desired games. Remember, this time is not locked in stone and can be moved as real life obligations come up. Is the baby crying or is your child needing help with homework? Choose to put down your mobile gaming device and come back to it when you are not needed. This give and take will help you with balancing life with the virtual world.

Take inspiration from your game into real life

If your favorite character is a hand combat specialist, consider learning those sweet Judo moves in real life by taking a class. Consider joining a local Live Action Role Playing group and see what it is like to actually swing a sword while making new friends. There are also apps available that let you kill zombies as you meet your workout goals.

This article was previously published by Online Gamer Club.

Cryptocurrency, what is it?

What Is Cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

Understanding Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies underpinned by cryptographic systems which enable secure online payments without the use of third-party intermediaries. “Crypto” refers to the various encryption algorithms and cryptographic techniques safeguarding entries such as elliptical curve encryption, public-private key pairs, and hashing functions.

Cryptocurrencies can be mined or purchased from cryptocurrency exchanges. Not all e-commerce sites allow purchases using cryptocurrencies. In fact, cryptocurrencies, even popular ones like Bitcoin, are hardly used for retail transactions. However, the skyrocketing value of cryptocurrencies has made them popular as trading instruments and to a limited extent, ideal currencies for cross-border transfers.

Blockchain

Central to the appeal and functionality of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is blockchain technology. As its name indicates, blockchain is essentially a set of connected blocks or an online ledger. Each block contains a set of transactions that have been independently verified by each member of the network. Every new block generated must be verified by each node before being confirmed, making it almost impossible to forge transaction histories

Experts say that blockchain technology can be used in multiple industries and processes like online voting and crowdfunding. Financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) are testing the use of blockchain technology to lower transaction costs by streamlining payment processing.

Types of Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is the most popular and valuable cryptocurrency. It was invented by an anonymous person called Satoshi Nakamoto and was introduced to the world via a white paper in 2008. There are now thousands of cryptocurrencies present in the market today.

Each cryptocurrency claims to have a different function and specification. For example, Ethereum’s ether markets itself as gas for the underlying smart contract platform. Ripple’s XRP is used by banks to facilitate transfers between different geographies.

Bitcoin, which was made available to the public in 2009, remains the most widely-traded and covered cryptocurrency. As of November 2021, there were over 18.8 million bitcoins in circulation with a total market cap of around $1.2 trillion. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist.

In the wake of Bitcoin’s success, many other cryptocurrencies, known as “altcoins,” have been launched. Some of these are clones or forks of Bitcoin, while others are new currencies that were built from scratch. They include Solana, Litecoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and EOS. By November 2021, the aggregate value of all the cryptocurrencies in existence had reached over $2.1 trillion—Bitcoin represented approximately 41% of the total value.

Are Cryptocurrencies Legal?

Fiat currencies derive their authority as a medium of transaction from the government or monetary authorities. For example, each dollar bill is backstopped by the Federal Reserve.

But cryptocurrencies are not backed by any public or private entities. Therefore, it has been difficult to make a case for their legal status in different financial jurisdictions of the world. It doesn’t help matters that cryptocurrencies have largely functioned outside most existing financial infrastructure. The legal status of cryptocurrencies has implications for their use in daily transactions and trading. In June 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommended that wire transfers of cryptocurrencies should be subject to the requirements of Travel Rule, which requires AML(Anti-Money Laundering) compliance.

As of December 2021, El Salvador was the only country in the world to allow Bitcoin as legal tender for monetary transactions. In the rest of the world, cryptocurrency regulation varies by jurisdiction.

Japan’s Payment Services Act defines Bitcoin as legal property. Cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country are subject to collect information about the customer and details relating to the wire transfer. China has banned cryptocurrency exchanges and mining within its borders. India was reported to be formulating a framework for cryptocurrencies in December.

Cryptocurrencies are legal in the European Union. Derivatives and other products that use cryptocurrencies will need to qualify as “financial instruments.” In June 2021, the Commission released the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation that sets safeguards for regulation and establishes rules for companies or vendors providing financial services using cryptocurrencies. Within the United States, the biggest and most sophisticated financial market in the world, crypto derivatives like Bitcoin Futures are available at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies were introduced with the intent to revolutionize financial infrastructure. As with every revolution, however, there are tradeoffs involved. At the current stage of development for cryptocurrencies, there are many differences between the theoretical ideal of a decentralized system with cryptocurrencies and its practical implementation.

Here are some advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrencies.

Advantages

Cryptocurrencies represent a new, decentralized paradigm for money. In this system, centralized intermediaries, such as banks and monetary institutions, are not necessary to enforce trust and police transactions between two parties. Thus, a system with cryptocurrencies eliminates the possibility of a single point of failure, like a large bank, setting off a cascade of crises around the world, such as the one that was triggered in 2008 by the failure of institutions in the United States.
Cryptocurrencies promise to make it easier to transfer funds directly between two parties, without the need for a trusted third party like a bank or a credit card company. Such decentralized transfers are secured by the use of public keys and private keys and different forms of incentive systems, like Proof of Work or Proof of Stake.
Because they do not use third-party intermediaries, cryptocurrency transfers between two transacting parties are faster as compared to standard money transfers. An example of such decentralized transfers are flash loans in decentralized finance. These loans, which are processed without backing collateral, can be executed within seconds and are used in exchange trading.
Cryptocurrency investments can be used to generate profits. Cryptocurrency markets have skyrocketed in value, reaching almost $2 trillion at one point of time, in the past decade. As of Dec. 20, 2021, Bitcoin was valued at more than $862 billion in crypto markets.
One of the most prominent use cases of cryptocurrencies is being tested in the remittance economy. Currently, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are used as intermediate currencies to streamline money transfers across borders. Thus, a fiat currency is converted to bitcoin (or other cryptocurrency) and transferred across borders and, subsequently, converted to the destination fiat currency. This method streamlines the money transfer process and makes it cheaper.

Disadvantages

While they claim to be an anonymous form of transaction, cryptocurrencies are actually pseudonymous. They leave a digital trail that can be deciphered by agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This opens up possibilities of governments or federal authorities tracking the financial transactions of ordinary citizens.
Cryptocurrencies have become a popular tool with criminals for nefarious activities such as money laundering and illicit purchases. The case of Dread Pirate Roberts, who ran a marketplace to sell drugs on the Dark Web, is already well known. Cryptocurrencies have also become a favorite with hackers who use them for ransomware activities.
In theory, cryptocurrencies are meant to be decentralized, their wealth distributed between many parties on a blockchain. In reality, ownership is highly concentrated. For example, an MIT study found that roughly 45% of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency whose value has surged in recent times, is held by just 11,000 investors.
One of the conceits of cryptocurrencies is that they can be mined by anyone using a computer with an internet connection. However, mining popular cryptocurrencies requires considerable energy, sometimes as much as that consumed by entire countries. The expensive energy costs, coupled with the unpredictability of mining, has concentrated mining among large firms whose revenues run into billions of dollars. According to an MIT study, 10% of miners account for 90% of Bitcoin’s mining capacity.
While cryptocurrency blockchains are highly secure, other crypto repositories, such as exchanges and wallets, can be hacked. Many cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets have been hacked over the years, sometimes with millions of dollars worth of “coins” stolen.
Cryptocurrencies traded in public markets suffer from price volatility. Bitcoin has experienced rapid surges and crashes in its value, climbing to as high as $17,738 in December 2017 before dropping to $7,575 in the following months. Cryptocurrencies are thus considered by some economists to be a short-lived fad or speculative investments.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Cryptocurrency in Simple Words?

Cryptocurrencies are digitals assets with decentralized systems that allow for secure online payments.

How Do You Get Cryptocurrency?

Any investor can purchase cryptocurrency from popular crypto exchanges like Coinbase, apps like Cash app, or through brokers. Another popular way to invest in cryptocurrencies is through financial derivatives, such as CME’s Bitcoin futures, or through other instruments, such as Bitcoin Trusts and Bitcoin ETFs.

What Is the Point of Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrencies are a new paradigm for money. Their promise is to streamline existing financial architecture to make it faster and cheaper. Their technology and architecture decentralize existing monetary systems and makes it possible for transacting parties to exchange value and money without the use of intermediary institutions like banks.

Can You Generate Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrencies are generated by mining. For example, Bitcoin is generated using Bitcoin mining. The process involves downloading software that contains a partial or full history of transactions that have occurred in its network. While anyone with a computer and an internet connection can mine cryptocurrency, the energy- and resource-intensive nature of mining means that the industry is dominated by large firms.

What Are the Most Popular Cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin is by far the most popular cryptocurrency, followed by other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Binance Coin, Solana, and Cardano.

Are Cryptocurrencies Securities?

The SEC has said that Bitcoin and Ethereum, the top two cryptocurrencies by market cap, are not securities. It has not commented on the status of other cryptocurrencies.