It's been a while since I last did this, so...

Kaksi koivua / Two birches

Hello! Happy to meet y'all!

This is my second official #introduceyourself post. I wanted to make another because I think there may be many new people who don't yet know me, and have just recently started following me.

Another reason for making this post is to notify and teach those among my own audience who are not sure what this Steem business is about, that it is mainly about being real authentic human being without pretense. (As opposed to something that can't even pass the Turing test.)

If you can do this, be genuine about it, you'll be much more likely to get recognition from me.

First of all, I'm a Finn (no matter what you may think seeing the Canada beanie, I got it from a Secret Santa from Canada). You might or might not know that about me by now. ;D I am however quite vocal about being one, so I guess the former...

Myllylampi panorama, Tikkakoski

You might already know that I'm an avid photographer, and that I specialize in landscapes, low-light photography both in and outside the confines of our flat, close-up photos of flowers, mushrooms and plants. I love photographing trees!

I also play Go. Some years back I watched an anime called Hikaru no Go, and then watched it again, and then read the manga, twice. After our boys came into picture, I've already watched the anime together with both of them and simultaneously translated it to them while playing it. Oh, and I translated/fansubbed the first episode into Finnish just for the fun of it!

Okay it goes without saying I'm also addicted to Go. So much so, that I founded a local Go club Saarto, and kept it alive by hosting it for about 6 years.

I am a father of two amazing boys. Leo is turning 12 in April, and his kid brother Miro is 7 since September. They are both very creative and always find new ways to both make me proud, but can often cause quite a ruckus by fighting among each other. Parenting is actually very challenging, and it does have a habit of draining the juices out of me. I often wonder how so many people can run both a family and a successful career at the same time.

Which brings me to the embarrassing bit. I am unemployed, or at least was unemployed, for the last 11 years, before the December of 2017 and Steem Dollar blowing up all the place. Before that I was nothing but a measly hobbyist photoblogger who had to resort to unemployment benefits. I was at times feeling I was not fit to be a father, or a husband, and I suffered from a somewhat difficult depression during those years.

I ended up not sleeping and stressing out, and in the end I was so tired, the school and kindergarten officials notified child services when I had overslept my "naps" for the second time when I should have been picking up Miro from kindergarten. The end result was I was put into a rehabilitation course early last year, which later turned into rehab work after last Summer, and I've been doing that ever since.

Things are looking a bit different today though...

Since Steem-Dollar got a boost, my rewards last year jumped from 3-4 euros per post, to a whopping 50 to 100 euros per post, for a short while. I took deliberate advantage from the situation and ended the at-the-time defunct delegation to @minnowbooster and used all my SP to boost my posts, and in the second part of December I grew a huge sum of SBD in a short while. It was the best Christmas ever! (I rewarded myself and redeemed the balance only after the year was over, for obvious tax reasons.)

I am unsure if I'm anymore qualified for the rehab, as it is designed mainly for unemployed people. I don't know if I'm unemployed, or if what i'm getting from Steem can be considered "return of investment", after all I have heavily invested into the blockchain too. I need to talk to the officials about this...

My other interests: Reading (Science Fiction, Fantasy and Political Thrillers), Music (singing, playing, listening... mainly classical, but also synth pop, ambient, various artists; Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Mike Oldfield, J.M.Jarre, etc.)

I have also produced a few photography, Go and game related videos on Youtube, and am thinking of moving or copying them onto DTube. Not sure about it yet, because I do have a couple of channels on YT and only one on DTube. I don't have a clue do I have to create new accounts for new channels or what.

Anyhoo, that's who I am. Can't think of much else... But hey the introduction couldn't be complete if I didn't tell you guys about my wife Vera! She's an exceptional baker, here are some of her creations:

Oh, and my brother was in the 2007 Finnish Idol competition, "Idols" and I think that was awesome! :) I'm proud.

I'll be posting mainly photography related stuff, and of course some Go posts too, and occasional rant about the modern culture wars and identity politics, maybe some gaming videos and of course there can be some surprises along the way. I haven't quite decided what to do if and when my "One photo every day" -project gets finished.

Btw. You may notice my voting behaviour has been evolving. I will now happily flag those comments that are evolutionary dead ends, as in don't pass the Turing test. And I will skip upvoting those who blatantly upvote their own comments as they clearly don't want my votes. I will however keep rewarding comments of insight, sense and wit, and also punishing copy-paste bots and spammers. If you think that is unfair, think again.

This concludes my second #introducemyself post. I hope you found it enlightening, and educational! :)

If you have any more questions, ask them here during the week, and I'll answer them and revise the details of this post. When we are done, I will link the post in my coming articles so that it will act as a future one-stop info page on me and my art.

Steem On!

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