Most who have gotten to know me, know all too well that it is not within my nature to discuss things that are personal.
However, there needs to be a first time for everything, even for those like myself who hold things in and simply take care of what needs taking care of, without looking for shoulders to cry on.
So here goes, let’s see if this old bugger can become a typical sook or not.
What shall be the first topic of discussion?
I know, How about Steem. (Don’t panic, not yet at least!)
You know, I don’t hafta say what I am about to say, but it is what it is.
Steem was the place where my life changed.
No BS. It was. That is the truth.
How?
Well, apart from the fact that it was my first outright interaction with crypto and to blockchains. But that is the obvious stuff that just about everyone knows and understands. Now it is 3 years of me reading and constantly learning about blockchain technology, learning how to understand coders when they talk about the inner workings of projects and that list goes on. Sure, that is a huge change, read more now than what I probably did at school. Was one of those kids who reads it once and knows it, but in the blockchain scene, there is constantly something new to read and learn, it is definitely a rabbit hole when a person gets hooked on it.
But, that isn’t what mattered, that is what I grew to really enjoy and see the potential it has to offer the people of this fragile little planet we live on.
What changed my life and got me to actually WANT TO LEARN and in many ways LOVE what I am learning and what am now a part of, were some individuals. Yep, individual people out there who made a real difference to me in ways that I was not accustomed to.
Here comes the feely touchy stuff that I really suck at, but heck, the fact that I am even attempting to write about it is a 180 degree flip for me, so bear with me and put up with it. I am speaking from my inner heart, mind and being here. Well, trying too, without sounding like I’m getting soft as the years go past.
You see, my life has been somewhat colourful, my choices lead me down some paths that were challenging and interesting in their own way. Not something that many choose as it isn’t a very popular lifestyle. So be it, my choices, I’ll answer for them one day when I have to beat St Peter over the head to have any chance of getting through those pearly gates.
What I am trying to say is that the lifestyle I lived, the people I worked with were tougher than me in so many ways and to be able to handle it, I had to adapt, otherwise I would have been dead or crying like a sook somewhere on the dole. Idk. Maybe not, who knows. I managed to hang in there for longer than many and not nearly as much as some others out there. I got married, we have kids and that hit me in ways that no words can describe. Emotions, feelings and priorities started to change big time. Not overnight, it was a process, like with any changes in life. But yeah, my mind, heart and inner being started to think of things that never crossed my patterns of thought before. I had to start figuring out so many things that are “normal” to most people. So my mind had to start assessing things that were never an issue and my actions had to start reflecting those logical conclusions.
Still learning. Don’t and won’t claim to understand, will state though that so far I am beginning to automatically register things in this world and have a load of facts about what is “acceptable and what isn’t” so as to be able to “fit in” and start to understand why some people care about some things in life, which meant nothing to me in the past.
But then came Steem, where some individuals actually cared, accepted me with all my quirks and perks, who actually wanted to help me out in this totally new arena I was in and that was unusual to say the least.
Why unusual?
Well, all that was familiar to me were judgemental assholes who only care about themselves and nobody else. Ignorant assholes to be precise as they looked down on anyone and everyone who is different.
But here, in the cyberspace then on Steem, a few people buggered me over with their actions.
To not drag this mooshy bit out, I’ll just list them and give a very short description of who, what and some of the how:
@sirknight
A fellow Aussie, who actually cared about others. Who went out of his way to help everyone around him. Who gave advice to me in the “differences between what is the norm and how it differs from what was the norm in my lifestyle” and a tonne of other things too. Won’t list them, it will sound like I’m asskissing aka ‘brown nosing’, don’t want to give anyone here a big head, even if they deserve a book about how they affected lives in ways that even they may not be aware of.
Then came a bloke who is high speed in the blockchain side of things, in fact, he is bloody awesome.
It was @ausbitbank , another fellow Aussie, who also took the time to explain things to me. He didn’t “judge” he taught, he went the extra mile to share knowledge and often enough just was a fellow bloke talking to another bloke.
A really great young family man, hats off to him, just as much as to @sirknight , those two young fellas, gave me so much will power to want to learn more and see what it is about all this “crypto, blockchain and then Steem”, because man ohh man, they are nothing like so many people out there. They care about the person, they sincerely want to be good people. I mean, that is rare nowadays. Especially for those of us who don’t necessarily fit into the “norms” of this BS cancel culture society we live in, etc etc etc. The two of them literally put a huge “?” on what it is about this ALT coin scene that got such great people in the same place.
Ohh don’t stress, the list goes on.
There was a young person who literally spoke with me about many things, we differed in way too many ways to list them here, but the one thing that I love about her as an individual is the fact that when she shared her thoughts and views, it wasn’t judgemental, it wasn’t in a way that tried to impose them on me and likewise, she understood that our differences exist and that we can accept each other as equals in so many ways that actually respect our individuality.
Basically, she spoke with me as a fellow human being.
Yep, another fellow Aussie, @ryivhnn .
Another fantastic person that literally adds something that is so lacking in this sick world we live in, she adds HUMANITY, RESPECT & A HUGE HEART.
I mean, she was the one and only person who actually spoke with me, without a single little dose of snobbyness or looking down on me for being too “old school” and different from the “feely touchy” way of things we are surrounded with.
Now as if the three above were not enough to confuse me, there are more.
But the next name well, let me simply say, I didn’t want to join a certain community out there, although I did love to see the daily posts from them being listed and all the stuff that to me was crystal clear, even the stuff I didn’t know anything about. It was enjoyable to see and read it all. To the point where I contacted the bloke managing those daily updates and posts sharing other peoples posts. Told him, that idk if I should join the community, told him where I was in the past and outright said that ‘I don’t want to talk about it’. He was all cool, understood what I said and even said that he knew a few other blokes who were in the same places and who don’t want to talk about it.
Over time, I found that he can handle the shit flinging, the shit stiring and out right fucking around with each other, without him going home to mummy and cry about it all.
NORMALLLLLL YES!!!!
OK, normal to me in my crazy brain, not normal in this PC cancel culture, burn anyone who disagrees with you at the stake type of society.
Yeah that is @guiltyparties , won’t say any more, it may ruin his image as the softie that he comes across as to so many people.
Don’t want that now do we!
(I expect a FU from him for this, don’t anyone think that if it happens, that it is anything “personal”).
Soon afterwards, I crossed paths with @snook and @inthenow.
Two totally different people, each adding to the whole “new experience” on Steem.
Snook cares, she is a real friend to and with the people she hangs out with. Now that word “friend” I rarely throw around, so yeah, you read it here and take it as meaning a lot more than what any dictionary can define. As people who are sincere friends today are rare. Always were, so yeah, and getting a package deal with her and then via that friendship add @inthenow to that list. I mean, damn, that guy makes me feel like I’m a young fella. He is a bloody relic, belongs in a museum, how old he is.
Yep, another FU coming my way. Again, don’t stress, it isn’t personal. He too knows how to take it and dish it right back.
Then came @enginewitty, another bloke that is unique, somewhat a mix of what was normal to me in the past and what is normal in society of today.
He’s one of the lucky ones, his grandfather was not among the 60 million slaughtered in Nth America. First Native American person I actually got to know. But that doesn’t mean much to me, he is cool when you get to know him, he is overly energetic, has more hyperactive cells in his body than what Carl Lewis had in him while he was on steroids or whatever other nut shrinking drugs he was on.
& the one other person I really have to mention is a person that literally follows every bloody thing on the chain. I mean, seriously, he makes all those detectives from the novels look like amateurs. The guys user name is @thehive , and yes, he had that name from way back in the Steem days. First time I heard him speak my reaction was typical me, saying it as it is “Who is this guy? Where is he from? I didn’t understand a single word he said.” Funny part was, he was allegedly speaking English. Man, I felt like a bloody yank who can’t understand English spoken in a non nth American accent. I was the bloody yank in this case. This guys Irish accent, took almost 33 and a third months time for me to understand anything he was saying. (note: have him say 33 and a third in his Irish accent, you will die laughing!!!!)
Seriously, the bloke has some way out of the box ideas, which all hit on real life needs and how crypto can be incorporated. I won’t talk about the economics, but I will say he is on the right track. People need the ability to have options in life and to be independent. Plus, I need to hear the latest and greatest about what all is happening on Hive, especially in the community. All those news outlets have nothing on this guy. Bugger them all, worthless old news. I think that @thehive should sell news to them, as he seems to know it all well before anyone else does. Don’t care how he does it, all that matters is that he does it.
So yeah, all this happened on Steem, I won’t say on Hive, because it was Steem back then.
But now comes the part that is solely dedicated to Hive.
You see, when the fork happened, by this time I had already learned a thing or two. I understood others when they talked about the chain, but I still found it hard to relay what I had to say in the field. Guess that is the next phase in the process.
What happened with the Hive fork is something that should be in text books, it was literally unbelievable. The sheer execution was perfect.
The fact that I was there, I guess that in some ways I was a very small part of it all, along with so many other former Steemians, it was AMAZING.
That event has left an impression on me that no words can describe.
The dedication, the professionalism, the expediency and man, idk what all not to add to it.
All those BTC plastics, mudcrabs, glass etc so called forks are NOTHING in comparison to what was done with Hive.
& you know what, I’m not going to mention any names here, as tbh, I seriously don’t want anyone to think that I am brown nosing. Bugger that. It is all on the chain, actions speak louder than words. That is all I can and will say on that.
But the fact is, we now have a real opportunity to put all the crap from Steem where it belongs; in the past.
We have some individuals who can see well beyond the here and now.
We can make Hive everything that it can be and even more.
No BS.
The opportunity is there to make it all happen, to get Hive utilized for more than what any other blockchain out there can do. For our two native currencies to finally be utilized all over the internet in 1,001 different markets, no matter how small or big they may be. Literally achieving what so many people only ever talk about.
We can get off our rear ends and start working to make it all happen.
Ignore the neg heads and toxic remnants from Steem, they will all fade away as things progress on Hive.
The positivity and reality of what is in front of us is so powerful that it will blow away not only the “competition”, but also anyone who can’t adapt to the long term visions and dynamics that are coming our way.
That is something that is worth living and working for.
It is happening and every one of us can be a part of it, or fade away and talk about “how I could have done this or that, but life sucked”.
I choose life, I choose the challenge, I choose the possibility to contribute to what can and shall be more than what anyone in the past on Steem ever imagined.
Let’s make it happen.
Yours truly
Jack Miller
Source: https://jackmiller.info
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