Hi

                                           

      I would like to introduce myself to the steem community. I've made a few posts already, enough to test the waters and decide this is something I want to invest my time and effort in. I think it's great and has a lot of potential. In 2011 or so I came up with an idea similar to steem  called "witcoin" which I had a developer working on. It has long since gone away because of reasons I wont go into here, mostly because I am not a developer but the dream of paying content creators continues. Im glad someone executed the idea successfully!  

      Originally I discovered bitcoin on the free talk live forum in the states. At the time I was still working in the timber industry which is a totally left of field thing to bitcoin. It definitely sparked a passion I still carry to this day and to which I devote a fair amount of time when I have the opportunity. These days I am disabled from debilitating arthritis caused by physical labouring for decades. What do you do when your physical labour is your only way to make a living? This is something I have been trying to figure out and struggle with every day. Im hoping my posts on steem get some support so that is less of an issue for me. 

     I would like to thank the steem developers for providing such a great project and a community to share some thoughts from my chaotic mind as I have lots of spare time to create things.  I have self published a few small poetry books on Amazon and this is what I will be posting over the next few months. Hopefully people enjoy it. Occasionally I become obsessed by writing things and I have to keep a pen and paper beside my bed at all times to jot down my thoughts. Many writers probably feel the same way! If I am not expressing myself by writing I create videos and memes and people seem to like them. Or I post dad jokes on facebook. Except no one likes those. 

     I have been interested in bitcoin since 2009. I had some time away recently to focus on local community work but my interest in bitcoin never disappeared. Now I am here with my weird sense of humour to amuse the bitcoin world and sometimes make them go "wtf is this guy thinking". You may know me as the mad scientist behind @bitcoinpoet on twitter. I have never really posted about myself in the bitcoin community before because I like to keep a relatively low profile. Surprisingly I don't have that many bitcoins considering how long Ive been involved. I guess real life expenses came first to keep us from living on the streets. It has been a wild ride especially the early days. We used to throw around bitcoin like it was confetti. I still remember the ten thousand bitcoin pizza. Back then it was only $50 worth of btc!

      I don't think I am  involved in bitcoin to make the bankers happy. Im sure the Winklevii twins and their ilk probably don't like me making vine videos about Snoop Dogg and weed or anything else I come up with. But I don't care. I don't do this stuff for the money aspect, but it would be nice to help my family who have to put up with my creative outbursts and horrible dad jokes I torment them with! 

      Along with writing strange poetry I am also interested in  community development and Im a bit of an activist. Most of my friends are "rabble rousers" and creative people are who I tend to hang out with. People who "get" bitcoin are rare in my town but there is a thriving community in Melbourne. I guess my interest in bitcoin comes from an activism perspective rather than a technical one. In 2014 my community went through a huge disaster when the hazelwood mine fire burnt for 45 days and this caused a lot of issues. I helped organise a community response to the disaster and we formed the advocacy group Voices Of The Valley ( http://www.votv.org.au/ )  which still continues seeking justice. This event contributed somewhat to my physical condition deteriorating and it affected many others far worse.  

    

   At other times when not obsessing about bitcoin or sharing local news stories or attending community events and meetings  I also run the Morwell Free Store in Gippsland with the help of the Morwell Neighbourhood House and volunteers.  This is a community recycling event where we get donations of clothes and household stuff and people who need it can come along and take it. 

  In summing up I might not be involved in developing  crypto code but I think I have something to contribute in other areas. I am more interested in the creative side of the project as I have learnt it is better to steer clear of development work because hackers are much better than I will ever be! I am hesitant to hit the post button as I am not normally vocal about the stuff I do. Thanks for taking the time to read this if you got this far.