Well it's been so long, I almost feel as though I should write an introduction post for those thinking I have fallen off the face of the Earth.
I haven't although it has felt that way...
Everything was going so well, I was posting often, growing my account, I had just launched the self improvement community then BOOM... Life struck!
Although my blockchain sabbatical was indeed triggered by real life, family issues, health challenges and such, my return was hugely hindered by my tech and particularly my broadband connection conspiring against me.
There was one huge bright spark in the interim though. I was (despite the best efforts of Covid) able to attend the Hive UK meetup. The meetup hosted by the awesome and abfabtastical Hive witness @c0ff33a and I can concur he s a bloody lovely guy and it was a pleasure to get to know him.
'shameless plug incoming' if you have a spare witness vote or are looking for a witness with the best interests of the community at heart I can highly recommend his witness which has a trans-Atlantic flavour as it is run in conjunction with the amazing Wes AKA @derangedvisions
Although the day was somewhat Covid ravaged as we lost a lot of potential attendees in the week or two leading up to the meetup the people I did get to meet were amazing and the day (which just happened to be my 48th birthday) utterly exceeded any expectations I had.
All images in this post have been gratuitously stolen from my fellow meetup attendees as they were not foolish enough to break their phones and lose any memory captures from the day... D'oh!!!
Almost no Brits were harmed in the holding of this meetup and those that were... Probably deserved it!
Left to right, Myself looking sinister, shifty and like I am planning to makeoff with all the coffee, The RoastMaster General himself @c0ff33a, the fabulously friendly and massively helpful @slobberchops and the utterly lovely delight to talk to that is @shanibeer
@c0ff33a and @slobberchops answered a lot of the questions I had relating to Hive and eased much of my confusion and misunderstandings caused by being an overthinking technophobe who could over-complicate a potato!!!
Speaking of @slobberchops who is an urban explorer a @curie curator and also has a great talent for engaging, impressive often humorous fiction, you may be familiar with his amazing @urbex posts or work within the @theinkwell community, in the run up to the meetup he made a comment to one of my posts about online vs offline persona.
..and if your going to the Northern meetup, there will be no more hiding behind the persona. I don't do particularly well at these, so don't expect a lot of me.
Talk about under-promise and over-deliver! Just like @c0ff33a, @slobberchops proved to be an incredibly lovely guy who was wonderfully easy to talk to and I hope that, post covid, (should such a time ever exist) we get the chance to meet again.
Somebody I was lucky enough to meet who defied any and all preconceptions was @shmoogleosukami trust me when I tell you, it is so much easier to call him Ben! He's a fab gamer and streamer who overcame some challenges of his own to be able to attend and I am very glad he did. He is a great dude and we had a few laughs as we instigated a meme war with some of the live-stream viewers watching via the TeamUK Discord. @chris-uk @cadawg & @father2b you know who you are!!! I cannot mention Ben without saying how cool it was to meet his Dad too who was in attendance, we chatted a lot and I hope he has an @ to attach to his name really soon :D
Ben and I being memed to within an inch of our lives, as the CoffeeDude wonders how much those lives are worth, Nathan looks on as if to say "I didn't sign up for this nonsense!"
If you ever wanted to meet someone so pumped full of excitement and enthusiasm about just what Hive and this community is capable of @nathanmars is your man! We spoke a lot about ideas for the future and the events of the past that brought us to this point. If you are familiar with the HiveTwitter movement you could not possibly miss Nathan, feel free to send him a Hive5 if you don't know what that is, you need to check out Nathan's blog. Kudos to him for travelling all the way to Halifax in West Yorkshire from London and then travelling back again after showing solidarity to the TeamUK meetup and supporting the meetup, especially in such challenging times.
You've already met the three of these amazing people above, but this pic includes @nathanmars (second left) looking psyched, enthused and up for the day despite the massive round trip he made, it does not include moi as I did not want the pressure of being the 'eye candy' for every pic, plus I was allowed to take charge of the camera... Anyone who knows my appalling reputation with tech would never make that mistake!!!
Last but not least I was fortunate enough to meet a truly lovely lady at the meetup too who many of you will know and love, she goes by the name @shanibeer if you are familiar with the @needleworkmonday community you will know her I have no doubt. However the most impressive thing that struck me was her absolute passion for helping aspiring writers to fulfill their potential here on Hive and also to help them gain exposure for their works from outside world too. This has the potential to create a solid corner of the blockchain for those wanting to improve their creative writing and writing in general.
@shanibeer and I did not get to talk too much throughout the day which was quite chaotic in a sense with everyone discussing Hive ideas and education and on-boarding topics but we got to chat one on one for quite a while in the latter part of the day and I gotta tell you folks it was well worth waiting for. If you genuinely want to become a better writer and are willing to act on feedback received and follow the writing tips offered you need to join the @theinkwell a hugely exciting community for aspiring writers that I suspect has a BIG future!
My over riding memory of the day will be of people meeting eachother, mostly, for the first time ever and the conversation flowing like we had all known eachother for years. It really was something to behold. The hosting by @c0ff33a which included a huge, safe, welcoming meetup space an excellent buffet and some of the finest fresh coffee I have ever tasted in my entire life was second to none.
@c0ff33a (calling him Robert felt incredibly alien lol) went above and beyond in his hosting duties as he was also my Halifax tour guide and refreshment sourcer on the evening before and the evening after the meetup as I had booked a hotel to make it a 3 day stay so I could be refreshed for the meetup and stay as late as the meet lasted, without worrying about travelling home. He introduced me to some amazing craft beers that really hit the spot too. What a cool way the meetup was to spend my birthday :)
I am disappointed that I wasn't able to post this sooner when events were much fresher in my mind but life will have it's way with us, right?
Life is steadily getting back to normal for me so I am hoping that by the back end of next week I will be posting regularly again and getting back in to the swing of things. How will this affect my goal of becoming a Hive dolphin by Christmas??? Well I am fairly certain my next post will be about just that.
I gotta warn ya though, I don't let go of my goals easily...
Thank YOU for taking the time to read my post and if you're one of those amazing people who like to hit the comments section... Then I doubly thank YOU!
Either way I want you to know that you are appreciated!
Keep taking the time to connect with each-other both here and in the so-called real world and try and look after each-other, because as you already know...
