Hi, my name's Erik and I just found steemit through my alt coin trading. While not being involved with the IT community I've been around PC's since I was a kid playing with Vic 20's, Commodore 64's, TRS-80's, Macs etc. I've watched from the sidelines as technology has transformed our world since the early 80's never quite being able to fit into it though, unlike my older brother who's been programming since those early days.
I was living in SF during the tech bubble of the 90's, but my passion was DJing, drum and bass and house music. I didn't much care for or understand what the internet was doing even though I loved tech. DJing led me to Tokyo where I had a club night, residencies and promotion group with a few other friends. Those were great times, but they never last do they? Fortunately while there I met my wife Fumiko and we have been married for 14 years with 3 kids.
In 2011 my daughter introduced my wife and I to our passion, gems and minerals. She came home from school one day begging me to take her and my son to Trona, CA for the Gem-O-Rama an annual gem and mineral show put on by the Searles Lake Gem and Mineral Society. Being adventurous we were off early the next morning for a life changing experience. Not only is it a gem and mineral show, but you also have the opportunity to take field trips onto the lake bed and collect world class specimens of pink halite, hanksite, sulfohalite, thenardite and more. We became hooked after that trip and have been collecting minerals all over California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Japan since. We offer the minerals we find in our online shops in Japan and the US which can be found through our portal www.rt395minerals.com. 
In March 2017 my brother called me up while I was in Tokyo and told me to get a BTC wallet cause the internet and finance was about to explode again. It's now May, I've found my way here to Steemit via my alt coin trading and I'm ready to explore, incorporate blockchain and alt coins into our mineral business and most importantly enjoy the ride.
welcome :)
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Thank you.
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Welcome Eric
upvoted and followed
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Thank you. Followed you back.
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Welcome. I'm a gem and mineral person, too. I live in Tucson and the city hosts one of the biggest gem and mineral shows in the world. It's cool that your daughter is the one who got you into minerals. It may sound cliche, but we learn more form our children than we could ever teach them. Love crypto currency, too! Again, welcome and I look forward to following you and reading your posts.
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Weq, thank you. Yes, of course I know of the Tuscon show. Never been, but I managed to make it to Quartzite this year and 2 years before that. I'm shooting for Tuscon next year if my $STEEM hit's $5! Followed back and looking forward to hear your stories as well. Cheers.
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I hope you make it to next year's show. Thank you.
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Welcome to Steemit! I hope you'll enjoy your stay :-)
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Thank you. As do I. Still trying to get the hang of it.
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Great that you have found your way to cryptos again. I think you made a good choice to join Steemit. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.
You have a follower. See you around! :-)
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Ya, first time around I had young kids and was busy with work, so didn't really have the time to dive in. I may still have my old bitcoin files on a backup drive somewhere. Probably be worth spending a day sorting through them all. I back up a lot, across too may drives...
STEEM is a fascinating and exciting concept. It takes a little getting use to, but now that I'm here I'm getting the hang of it. I've been blogging on my own sites regarding minerals for years so I might start to cross post some of that content here as long as it's not too dated.
Thanks for the welcome. See ya around.
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I'm curious to hear about how you turn these minerals into a living. I saw you visited Itoigawa recently. I don't live near there, but I live in the same prefecture. Do you find these stones yourself, or do you work with traders?
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Hi Box, there is good demand here in Japan for the minerals we collect, buy and sell. I'm talking about some of the rarest gems in the world, benitoite, red beryl, etc., but we also deal in semi-precious gems & minerals as well, turquoise, ocean jasper, tourmaline etc. It's a full time job for my wife, but not for me yet. Almost there.
Itoigawa was a kind of research trip to see if collecting there was worth it for us. The jury is still out on that as I wasn't prepared to collect jadeite. It's a very hard mineral to identify unless you are an expert in it. However, the locality is rich with other minerals so another trip is probably necessary.
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Sounds like an interesting field to be in. I've been teaching English for a long time and always have my ears open for new opportunities.
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Been there. Taught English to kids here a long time ago. Hated it. How is your Japanese and your crypto? Have something I'm working on, but don't want to talk about it on a public forum. My line ID is rt395minerals.
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I couldn't get you on Line for some reason, so I contacted you in chat.
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Sorry, had the contact me by ID turned off. Just turned it on so it should work now.
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