Achv. 1, Introduction: My name’s Grégory and I’m a 30-year-old Graphic Designer from Belgium who’s still hoping to change the world!

Introduction

Hi, Steemit / Newcomers’ Community. I’m new around here and figured (after hopping through numerous links and posts) that introducing myself would be a great way to familiarize myself with the platform.

That’s my butt (and my beloved Nikon FE2) in Dinard, Brittany, France.

My name’s Grégory and I’m a 30-year-old Graphic Designer from Belgium who’s still hoping to change the world, somehow. I studied Graphic Design & Advertising Communication in college and focus on both print and digital media. I design packagings for worldwide distribution, web content, photos, images, animations, videos, etc. and do a lot of heavy-lifting in the fields of email design and social media – which is ironic considering how spooked I am of social media and its implications regarding privacy and mental health.

Whilst I’m not too fond of the industry I’m currently in, I still have to pay the bills. I started a side-project on the side that lets me focus a lot more on things that are dear to my heart: helping local businesses (especially during a pandemic), helping out refugees in a nearby “camp” and enforcing human-centered design and accessibility principles in my projects, i.e. not through my employer who couldn’t care less about any of these topics.

Personal life and beliefs

I’m happily married to an expat’ I met at a concert (she’s from Croatia). We’re firmly child-free (vasectomy is booked, yay!) and share our life with a very kind and loving dog (Miles). We don’t want children for many reasons, which seems a bit controversial. But did you know that having one fewer (or no child) is the best thing you could do to offset your carbon footprint? [Seth Wynes and Kimberly A. Nicholas, 2017, Environ. Res. Lett. 12 074024]

Miles turned 6 in May, he’s sometimes called “Lord Fatty McFluffy”.

I happen to be vegetarian and I’d say that I grew into it the way dogs grow into their ears. I simply didn’t really like meat and slowly stopped consuming it during college. This and other concurring factors led me to a more active vegetarian lifestyle, taking into account animal rights and my environmental impact. Cheese is my Achilles’ heel and despite trying, I don’t think veganism is something I could achieve.

Hobbies and passions

In the past five years or so I grew fond of analogue things. I always enjoyed the texture of paper and the craftsmanship behind woodworking. But this disillusionment regarding the world, the way progress is being made and people being played by governments and corporations led to enjoy more down-to-earth things. Or maybe I’m just a hipster millennial. I enjoy vinyl records from folk and indie artists I care to supports, I enjoy the light scraping of ink on paper (Lamy Studio All-black EF + Diamine Eclipse), long emails or penpals, shooting with my old Nikon FE2 (favourite film being Tri-X, currently looking for a restored Nikon FM2n), and paper books. I read a decent amount and try to alternate between non-fiction (design, ethics, equality/equity, depression/suicide, etc.) and fiction and am working my way through the “highest-rated books” in history, old and new. I am currently going through Caroline Criado Perez’s Invisible Women. It’s a tough one to finish but enlightening nonetheless.

Lamy Studio Lx All-black (Special Edition) & Diamine Eclipse.

Crypto– what?

In contrast with the previous section of this post, I am genuinely curious about crypto and the blockchain. I am familiar with the theory but only now decided to dive into it, feet first (I did some reading, mind you). I’m a bit ambivalent on the subject, however. Yes, I see this as the future of the Internet, banking and the IoT, but in its current state, I still see it as a convenient way for people to launder dirty money. Scammers, hackers, criminals, etc. Can it help freedom of speech and help fund oppressed people? Sure. But the first posts I was hit with when joining Steemit was a lot –a lot!– of conspiracy theories and videos trending.

I guess that what I’m trying to say is: after leaving conventional platforms like Reddit or Twitter, I am looking for Steemit to prove me wrong on that second part. I have a cynical, sceptical view of Society, to the point of battling depression and anxiety just hearing about our current state of affairs. P.S. I find it funny to see platforms advertising games based on digital assets (or “houses”) to collect and own when I can’t afford a place to live. What’s your secret?

Content consumption

I am looking forward to the Steemit community “providing” me with rich content to snack on. Say what you will about Reddit, but there were hidden gems and communities doing good around them, and I appreciated that part. The way I understand Steemit, I am hoping for fewer shitposts or streams of embedded comments repeating the same old things. I appreciate many things in life (believe it or not!) and healthy conversations about those things. If I can debate vaccination with my barber whilst he has an old-timey razor under my neck, it’s safe to say I don’t mind debating ideas.

I like the way Steemit is being built. It is confusing, yes; but the incentive seems like a decent way to trim down content and push content creators forward. I am hoping the platform is not about making 10’ videos for ad revenues or getting paid per claps for the sake of it. I am also hoping to see some European people around; not in the sense of being racist and selective, but hoping the platform’s content isn’t uniquely American- or Indian-centric by sheer numbers.

Content creation

I enjoy writing and have been told I am half-decent at it. Whilst looking up communities, I noticed that a few of my interests of areas of knowledge weren’t being explored too much on the platform. Both the Belgian and French-speaking communities seem completely dead, and I have yet to delve much deeper into my interest-based communities. Scraping the surface didn’t make me want to engage just yet, but I am still overwhelmed by the number of things I have yet to learn about the platform.

I am, however, looking for like-minded individuals with whom to change the world. I would be looking forward to writing content on various subjects, from the mundane to the more sensitive. Coffee (!), books, (analogue) photography, graphic design, packaging design, print and book design, printing processes and colour management, art, music (mostly folk and indie), accessibility in print and on the web, equity, vegetarianism, animal rights, the way European companies bend over when doing business with the People’s Republic of China, etc. Yeah, did you know that it’s ok to write “Made in P.R.C.” when selling products in the E.U. because people are less likely to freak out than when they read that than “Made in China”? I digress.

I am currently enjoying “Il Magistrale: Gorilla”, a rich espresso blend from Brasil, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Colombia, and India.

I am involved with two local non-profits (and registered as a volunteer with the Red Cross) and am helping out with the integration of refugees here in my area. I collect school supplies for children in need, do sports activities with residents (we don’t call “them” refugees) and diverse animations to try and bridge the cultural gap. It’s a struggle to sometimes get some people to socialize, especially isolated women or children from suspicious families (suspicious as in they don’t like their children to socialise too much). I’d love to talk about that or share our progress (when progress is being made), but also about the clean-ups I join to clean my neighbourhood or nearby forests and trailheads. I don’t know just yet, but I am willing to write about all that stuff as soon as I figure out what people might find interesting to hear about.

Where’s Steemit?

I found Steemit whilst researching privacy, the blockchain, and why in God’s name (not a believer btw) can’t people stop selling VPN services to people with such false claims?! I do a fair bit of questionable tracking and retargeting in my day job and have always tried at least be aware of the dangers that surround such practices. I try –to the best of my ability– to make sure my Corporate Overlords don’t exploit grey areas and respect people’s privacy. Researching those questions and witnessing how much data one can collect on people landed me on Steemit, with the promise of a better place, a different platform that wouldn’t fall short.

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Verification

I have a feeling this post might be a tad long, but it might be a good test to see how people react to longer content. I promise to edit myself and keep future posts at a more manageable character count. Here’s a photo showing off the beautiful Lamy Studio and Diamine Eclipse combo, dated from today. It’s hot and I’m half-naked, so pardon me for not holding the paper to my sweaty chest with a wink!

Verification photo from today, June 3rd, around 9PM CEST.

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TL;DR

I’m new, I like a lot of stuff and am a bit of an ambivert. I’m here for something better than conventional social media and blogging and would love to be proven that the blockchain is used for good, rather than to launder criminal money. I’m looking forward to discussing easy or tough topics with everyone, regardless of gender (identity), race, sexual orientation, religion, etc.

Thank you very much for your time.

Edits: added an “introduceyourself” tag, a header photo and some photo captions for clarity.