The collected online writings of Joshua Scott Hotchkin.
I began this website in late 2017 in order to collect my writings from my other other websites, which were costing me too much to upkeep while generating zero revenue from them. Those websites were:
advancedape.com
dankspace.com
unicornworld.org
I also used to be an editor and lead contributor at CopBlock.org (spring 2015-2017) and Beyond the Badge, and you can find the material I felt worth salvaging at Abolish the Police.
I also was editor and lead contributor at the now mostly defunct sprout.news, a marijuana themed media project.
I was also a contributor to the now defunct disinfo.com – one of the world wide web’s original counterculture websites.
The following are websites that I still maintain, to varying degrees:
Also check out my podcast – Incredibly Strange Views – where I convert much of the content at this site into spoken word.
I have also contributed to other websites and magazines over the years as a writer and artist, as well as being a solo musician and member of some memorable bands.
I was born in Iowa City, Iowa, which is where I also currently reside. Unfortunately. Colorado is where I want to be. However my hometown was Newton, Iowa where I lived until my father died when I was eight. From there I moved to Craig, then Florence, Colorado with my mom and brothers to live with my aunt and uncle, who both were siblings of one of my parents. After moving back to Newton shortly I then spent the next several years shuffling around Iowa, Colorado and predominately Wyoming. Then my freshman year of high school I returned to Newton and finished high school, it having been my thirteenth school to attend in my 15 transfers since preschool. I feel blessed to have led such an abnormal childhood and to have increased my experiences and perceptions early by necessity of these and other childhood circumstances.
I stuck around Newton for a few years after high school and was almost married before a crushing rejection, which sent me spiraling to the city of my birth where most of my friends had already relocated to. Iowa City was a blast for a few years, but then I headed off to spend ten months in Seattle and another three in Portland before economic realities forced me back to Iowa City. Once again I found a happy living here, but in my late twenties my infatuation faded and I went to live on a farm near Williamsburg, Iowa, and then later in that town itself. During this time I started playing music with one of my oldest friends and we started The Shitty Wizards, which is still basically a thing. However I left Williamsburg suddenly to join my friend in Newton after they had recently relocated back there, and spent a few months back there before returning to Iowa City in December 2006, where I have been stuck since.
By the way, some of these periods are (and will continue to be) detailed in my Memoirs.
Find out more about Katy and place an order at Limitless Life.
I took my first job at age thirteen in a small cafe in a tiny mining town in Wyoming after an interview that consisted of asking me if I could wash dishes, then pointing me in the direction of where to get started. Since then I have worked in every food service position from host, server, cook, bartender, display manager, etc. I have also worked as a mental health assistant, a special needs assistant, a mechanic, head shop employee/manager/owner, punk rock club bouncer/loading, tattoo assistant, printer at a standard testing company, office supply worker, hotel maintenance and clerk, paid editor/writer/photographer/graphic artist and currently work at one of the worlds greatest independent bookstores. I probably missed a few things in there. I also went to school to become a high school art teacher, but became disillusioned during my tenure as a student teacher, and have become even more critical of compulsive education than the reasons that led me to want to make a difference in the first place.
I grew up a very lax Christian and became a Discordian in my early twenties, adopting numerous other religious and philosophical models along the way. I was suspicious of authority from the time I was about 6 or 7 years of age and was a self-described anarchist by high school. I have been an anarcho-socialist and anarcho-capitalist, but now reject even those labels. I am philosophically idealist, which is in many ways similar to Eastern philosophy, but not entirely.
I am in a long term relationship with a woman who is more understanding, supportive and loving than I can comprehend deserving. We have a cat named Gaspard who reminds me how to be more human all of the time. I am a bit of am introvert and hermit, but besides creative endeavors I do enjoy plenty of outdoor time during the warmer months. As I am writing this it is the middle of winter and I wish I was anywhere but Iowa right now. One cannot even explain that ineffable yet miserable quality of an Iowa winter.
Update 11/8/2019
In August of 2018 we finally escaped Iowa and made our way to Las Vegas, New Mexico. You can read my thoughts about living there HERE.
While I was there I was introduced to the world of background acting, as New Mexico has a thriving film industry. I have already worked in several films and television shows, and plan to continue to do so, and perhaps seek more opportunities in the film industry.
In September of 2019 we moved to Rio Rancho, New Mexico – which is a suburb northwest of Albuquerque. For the first time in a very long while I feel like I am somewhere I can appreciate calling my home.
That was a pretty big improvement for almost a year, until New Mexico itself became a safety-prison state.
In July 2021 I will be relocating to Tulsa, OK to start all new adventures and projects with some good friends in a place with a sizably greater respect for individual liberties. (This was true of Covid policy, but quickly turned out to be false when the state took a draconian stance against SOBAPA [Self Ownership, Bodily Autonomy and Personal Agency] in the form of theocratic abortion prohibitions.)
Update 2/21/2024
For ten months I took on the very unlikely career of instructing children in the sport of parkour, learning it myself along the way, and creating a lot of great memories and painful injuries. In my opinion I excelled in this endeavor. I was able top break through to a lot of kids who had physical, mental and emotional difficulties – and help them to break out of their shell and blossom. However I worked with a legit narcissistic sociopath who was in all likelihood having an affair with the boss, and when my success threatened her, she arranged for my dismissal.
I then took some courses in basic bookkeeping and began doing that at a very part time level, returned to writing for a headshop magazine for a few months, and took on as an apprentice to produce sporting broadcasts – but mostly ended up being at a camera operator at minor league football games and one MMA event.
Prior to moving to Tulsa I had some friends there, and one of them was a drummer with whom I began a project. The songs I was writing were very inspired by the obstacle courses we did in parkour training. They moved quickly from one part to the next, had little repetition and a lot of flowing changes. We added a few new members, called ourself Apocaloops, and played a few open mics – before things fell apart. I then recorded many of those songs and a few new ones under the name Flux Disrupt.
The highlight of Tulsa was the time I got to spend with my buddy Trey, who I met on Facebook in 2010, and his family and circle of friends. However by the beginning of 2023 we felt we had run out of luck in Oklahoma, and grew antsy for our next move.
In October 2023 Amy took a job in Wilmington, Delaware – and so we packed it all up again and moved. This also gave us an opportunity to live close to Amy’s parents, whom she had not lived close to in a few decades. And it gave me a chance to explore the East coast, which I had previously denied would ever happen. My initial reaction was of shock, but I pretty quickly came to enjoy the area and the people.
At the end of 2023 I picked up my brushes and began painting again regularly for the first time since high school, and found that I was most interested in abstract art, not just because of the imagery, but because of its connection to the philosophical ideas I share in this blog.
2024 has been pretty rough so far. I began dealing seriously with my dental issues and have been getting teeth pulled and preparing for replacements. I was involved in a minor car wreck that was a problem of numerous bad circumstances colliding, and learned a lesson in all of the way insurance has corrupted the modern world when the auto body repair shop took our car from minor cosmetic damage to totaled. But worst of all was losing our best friend, Gaspard, who passed away from a sudden onset of illness (likely cancer) on 2/2/2024. It was by far the most heartbreaking experience I have ever had. He was fifteen years old, but I had lived with him for the past twelve, and spent more time with him than any other living being in my life. He made me a better person and taught me to be more loving and patient. I will spend every day for the rest of my life remembering him with loving gratitude.
I don’t know what the rest of the year will bring but I hope it gets better. And who knows where I will be and what new experiences and learning I will have when I decide to update this page again!
If you read all of that and still somehow care to know more, well either read my work or reach out to me using the contact options at the bottom.
Here are some other places you can find me on the web.
Lots of music on My Soundcloud Channel.
Lots of videos & music on My YouTube Channel.
Keep up on My Facebook Page.
My work as an non-materialist is important to me, and here is my Facebook group dedicated to that topic – Beyond Materialism, Realism and Positivism.
Follow me on Twitter.
If you want to discuss the ideas I explore in my writings then I would love to hear from you. You can use the contact form below or email me at:
ImmaculusVonNorton@gmail.com
The Dungherder 