Hey y'all :)
My name is Sam, but my friends call me Patches.
It's been really great to lurk around Steemit for the last week. This community seems supportive, intelligent, interesting, and diverse. Nice Combo! :) I've been wondering what to write for my introductory post for a few days now, but instead of being ready and polished, I've decided to just jump in and be me.
I think I heard about Steemit on @Crypt0 's News! Shoutout Omar B! I’m one of those guys that discovered bitcoin back when it was first coming out, annnnnd played WOW instead. REGRET! Then, October 2016, I downloaded coinbase and didn't invest. Moar REGRET!.. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I experienced a moment of clarity and got deeply into cryptocurrency. Better late than never I suppose. Obviously I wish I had invested the first time, but I suppose it's a good reminder that money is not the most important thing. More poor usage of money, mo problems!
Actually, I've never been responsible with money. Grew up in LA a spoiled but loved only child, smart and antiauthoritarian but without a solid focus. Bike messenged in Century City and Beverly Hills which was great fun. Left the nest road trip to Florida. I dumb lucked directly into a nice server job and waited tables 25 hours a week for my 20s; working the bare minimum to afford an internet connection, food, a room, and a bicycle. I was goofy, oafish, and short sighted, and focused my free braincells on ableton, hacky sack, and gettin stoned. Had a lot of good times, but, unfortunately, no money was saved.
I craigslisted through many a state, job, and even a few people (Craigslusted haha). I lived on both coasts and in the middle, and eventually moved to the Pacific NW. In Portlandia I got heavily into Fire Spinning and Circus Arts which has been very psychedelic and enjoyable :)
The dreamlike culture of art and community experienced with the rainbow tribe oregon country fair hippies was so good for my soul. It was an honor to perform with the OCF Fire Dancers!
I feel very fulfilled from those experiences and I have some crazy stories which I will share later on :)
Now, I am 34. I cold turkeyed the day jobs to pursue my dreams of being a successful artisan. I practice sewing, wire wrapping, and leathercraft to make wearable art. Money is scarse but luckily I have all my tools of the trade and craft materials for dayyyyyyys. Despite having much less dough than when I was slangin grub, I feel happier now. Each success I achieve as an artisan increases my self generated income. This is very RPG! Difficulty level VERY HIGH! Detail level: EPIC!
My buddies and I guerilla vended all last summer. This is Jonny Appleseed, one of my finest wire wrapping students (he is an epic master now) and I am taking the photo of our table. This was at Last Thursday Art Walk in Portland, OR. There was a drive by shooting later that day half a block away from us!
I have since invested in a booth setup for indoor and outdoor markets. I have paired down most of my possessions and play life like an MMO. I ditched the EDM setup and am learning to beatbox which is SOO FUN! I recently started working out again after a couple years off. I feel like I have the right ideas, now I just need to stick to the plan.
My biggest struggle is with my self confidence, which I believe stems from my lack of discipline. I'm hoping that the more I stick to my plan and develop healthy habits, the more comfortable I will feel, being around other humans, and hanging out with myself.
Thank you for giving me a comfortable place to express myself. I don’t run a blog or write these kinds of posts on faebo. On Steemit, I plan to share jam sessions and tutorials about juggling, poi, beatboxing and crafting. This is my first time so I'll aim for once a week and see how it goes from there. I hope through this process to become more self confident, make friendships, connect with clients and patrons. I look forward the future of Steemit, cryptocurrency, a decentralized internet and maybe even a more robust and visionary society.
I leave you with a first take beatbox freestyle. It's… pretty rough LOL but I love beatboxing so much and will practice it for the rest of my life. I hope to get much better as the years go by.
This last pic is almost a year old and I've since shaved but this is me in one of my favorite places on Mt. Hood. Where I decided to live my dreams.
Thanks again for reading and stay healthy,
Sam King “Patches”
http://laughingleather.com
BTC Donations: 1JbZUw2KzMRpnfUn9x9sgnYseeswLnRGzB
Paypal: quantumbalance@gmail.com