I’m talking about #steemit. I’m talking about #blogging, I’m talking about #curating, #delegating, #trailing, assisting in #blockchain initiatives, #supporting fellow steemians, both #new and seasoned, documenting our #travel #adventure(s), all of it—I’m talking about all of the #hashtags both Pura Vida and I are actively doing on a consistent basis.

If you haven’t met my wife, you’re missing out. She’s @puravidaville on here and she’s a gangster in the kitchen, she typically competes in two weekly cooking challenges: #foodfightfriday and #fruitsandveggiesmonday where she shows off her original recipes and kitchen skills and combines them both with her writing talent(s). She’s funny, she’ll either say something or link something (or both) in every.single.one of her posts that will make you laugh out loud at least once. She’s valuable to our blockchain and everything to me. A few things you don’t know about her is she’s an alumni, double major and Summa Cum Laude in a sought after University in San Francisco, California. She’s studied law, philosophy, communications, psychology, she passed the 49% success rate State of California Real Estate Licensing Exam on her first try—she was the first student to complete her test that day, too. She teaches English as a foreign language and, my personal favorite, she adores me every day.

I don’t have the quite the same honors as she does—mine are worded slightly different. I excelled, just not upward. The categories I was most likely to be mentioned in, during my adolescence, were: detention, absences, defiance, things of that nature. I wasn’t troubled, I was just a young and understandably stupid kid who lacked guidance and a compass—thank God I made it to where I’m at!

I was 16 years old when I graduated from high school. Not because I excelled beyond my peers academically but because I was expelled from the school district I attended before my senior year began, forcing me to attend a continuation school where I completed my senior year in five weeks. Before receiving my diploma, I began an 18 month vocational school for drafting and architecture. I completed the program a few months after my 18th birthday and earned an associates degree in AutoCAD. Realistically, an associates degree means the same thing as ‘not enough.’ What I ultimately learned during those 18 months is I had no interest whatsoever in a career in drafting.

For the next year I did a couple of different things; I delivered pizzas, worked at a couple of different truss yards, I helped frame a few houses, all the while my Grandfather would drop subtle hints about the IBEW. My Grandfather was a Union electrician, my uncle is a retired Union electrician, so is his brother and their father was also a Union electrician. I have cousins who are IBEW, they have in-laws in the Union and now their own kids are joining the apprenticeship program. The IBEW runs deep where I’m from—I’m third generation. I hung garage doors for a few months that summer, too, I even stocked the shelves at a local convenience store for a couple of weeks, my Grandfather would still drop subtle hints whenever I would see him.

One day I went to his house for whatever reason, most likely just to hang out and play chess, he and I did that regularly. I’d be lying if I told you I remember exactly how I worded it but I said something like; “I think I just need to do what all of you did, it’s worked out well for everyone else.” The next thing I remember is I’m being introduced to the business agent at the Union Hall about 60 miles away. I hardly remember my Grandfather saying anything and I don’t remember the drive. He wasn’t around five years later when I completed the apprenticeship earning another degree equivalent to an associates in mathematics and electrical theory.

I remember orientation for the apprenticeship when the director, Cerry T., said: “All you need, to draw a full pension is, 37,500 hours. Those of you sitting in this classroom right now who are under 20 years old can work 19 - 2,000 hour years and retire before your 40th birthday.” From that moment on I had a mission—retire before I’m 40! For the next 22 years I worked as often and anywhere I could and, although I didn’t pull it off before I turned 40, I got pretty close. Fully retired at age 41—I don’t know anyone else in the same work boots.

I’ve actually heard, on several occasions, from new acquaintances but mostly long-time friends, something to the extent of “how much more would you make if you worked until you’re 55?” When I say ‘I don’t know,’ I’m met with “you’re so young, I would’ve wanted to know how much more I could make if I worked until I was 55 or 60.” At that point, my response sounds something like this: “When they told me 37,500 hours, that’s what they got. Not 36,999 and not 37,501.”

The largest project I ran during those two decades was Ivanpah Solar Power Facility on the California / Nevada border. I had my hands on many projects in the Western United States since 1995, such as; City Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Apple Park in Cupertino, California, Intel in Santa Clara, Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara, California and many publicly traded corporations that require a high level of security screening to gain access. Panasonic, Boeing, the largest municipal Utility Local in the United States are some of the first entities that to come to mind.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, for starters, the first tag on this article says ‘introduce yourself.’ Another reason is because my wife and I have a lot to offer this community—I hope you agree. The third reason, because they always come in three’s, I’m a Princess! Think I’m kidding? Feel free to plug in your only child stereotypes. When I was nicknamed “Princess,” I ate it up! This is the inside of my tool box I carried with me to each of those projects I just told you about, plus many more, for 22 years. My grandfather worked out of the same toolbox way back in the day when he was on the job, it’s a Crafstman—the only toolbox I have.

_{Because they always come in three’s}

Tantrum No.

What’s the point of upvoting comments on a blog to a value worth substantially more than the post it’s commenting on? A comment that took a few minutes to compose, verses a post, which required several hours to compose, and the comment is worth more than the post? If comments are in the $1 - $2 range, shouldn’t the actual post itself, the original article posted by the author be worth a minimum of $1 - $2? I’m thankful I have somewhere like Steemit to vent share whatever creativity I’m made aware I’m capable of performing—that hasn’t changed. What has changed is waking up excited and eager to see what a recent post did, only to see the value remains at 30 cents and one or more of the comments are worth $1 - $2. Is that supposed to be encouraging?

Up until a few weeks ago I would look forward to the curation statistics provided by @boddhisattva—thank you, boddhistattva! We’ve all seen my wallet balance so to even be mentioned amongst quality curators is comforting—it’s nice to know I’m doing as much as feasibly possible with my curating. I’m accustom to seeing my name in the #140 - #160 range out of the platform’s top 200 curators that encourage discussion. 150’ish—I’ll take it! I’ve been bumped back recently and I’m barely making the cut, if you click on the link I pasted a moment ago and scroll all the way down to the bottom, you’ll see I’m barely hanging on at #195.

I scrolled through the names around me to see if I recognized anyone and, although I do recognize quite a few of the curators I’m pleased to be mentioned with, a new one stood out—46 times to be exact. That explains why I got bumped back those 46 places. That’s a lot of curation rewards for one person. 46 out of 200 anything are great odds! The person is... a robot? The same fulltimebots that are bumping up the value of comments to be worth substantially more than the original articles themselves—why is that?

@fulltimegeek. Wouldn’t it be more rewarding for the community if you sent all of your robots to upvote all of your favorite commenters’ original articles instead? Are you already doing that and, at this point, you just strongly feel they’re underpaid? I don’t understand the logic behind discouraging authors to post original content they spent hours upon hours to articulate, edit, punctuate, attach images and external links to, etc. if they’re not going to be appreciated even half as much as one comment that took a fraction of the time to post?

I just began noticing this morning, those same commenters, the beneficiaries of fulltimebots are now feeling the repercussions of much larger wallets than their own who are, apparently, opposed to fulltimebots. Those same commenters are now being downvoted and silenced by anti-fulltimebots to the point that their comments are being blurred out, pushed to the back, and say “hidden due to low ratings.” That isn’t going to encourage anybody—can’t we all just get along?

This is not an attempt at being offensive or argumentative, fulltimegeek, I’m actually curious, what’s your logic? I’ve heard rumors about flag wars here and there and, I’m not going to lie, the political drama on Steemit between you and @berniesanders is deafening at times but, I assure you, I don’t know many people who care less about politics than myself. I’ve never voted for a president, I’ve never attended a political rally and the catch-phrase “government shut down” means the same thing to me as “State Of The Union.” I’m actually in a foreign country as I type this article right now, we’ve been here since the beginning of the year and I haven’t even attempted to locate the US embassy yet—that’s how important politics are to me. All of you whales just keep on doing whatever it is whales do as long as it doesn’t consist of powering down. I care about producing original content (like this), curating (like this), making friendships (yeah, regardless how it comes to light), developing communities and things of that nature on Steemit (like this). Thank you for reading!

Tantrum No.

The same two people I introduced you to in the beginning of this article; puravidaville and myself, the same married couple that’s doing it all the time, well, we’re being rewarded with flags for our efforts these days (again). Pura Vida just began attracting flags, I’ve been receiving 100% downvotes since I started this platform in September, 2017—my record number of flags for one week is seven 100% downvotes. Seven flags on three articles and the majority of them were on a poem I wrote to my wife! I used to take pictures of them but I realized photos don’t make them go away. They haven’t gone away at all, in fact, they’re frequenting more often but now they’re flagging Pura Vida regularly and for what?! Motivation plus 100% downvotes equals zero.

Is it because she dedicates multiple hours each day to the kitchen where she creates original recipes, documents the events and techniques with images before posting them on Steemit for everyone’s entertainment—is that why? Is it because she shows off her college educated writing talents, along with her original recipes, what is it?? What warrants 100% downvotes on an author who dedicates a good portion of their time toward the same platform you and I enjoy for the entertainment of virtual strangers? I don’t understand the rationale behind that one, someone enlighten me—thank you for reading!

Tantrum No.

_{(Because they always come in three’s)}

Anyone who holds stocks, annuities, Roth IRA’s, mutual funds, bonds, etc. will fire their financial advisor if their portfolio has been on a steady decline for two years. Anyone who’s in it to make a profit anyway. I, personally, am a crypto enthusiast who understands the difference between this market and traditional markets, I’m in it for the long haul—always have been. I understand my profits are destined to return. I put my eyes on coinmarketcap daily, I see Bitcoin going up and down, mostly down with an occasional sideways run, that’s not what this tantrum is about.

The same two people I’ve been introducing you to throughout this article, combined, hold stake in over 11,000 Steem Power. A minor figure compared to our witnesses but still a figure we’re proud of—it shows our dedication. If the same market that shows Bitcoin running sideways shows Steem mirroring Bitcoin and running sideways, why are our wallets on a steady decline? Is that what the “reward pool” is all about? What exactly is the reward pool then—how does it work? That’s my third tantrum, someone explain the reward pool to me, dumb it down, though, please! Pretend I’m a German Shepherd, eerily intelligent dogs, right? You just have to talk....... real........ slloooooooooww.

Someone explain to me how the reward pool works because my wallet isn’t mirroring Steem on coinmarketcap. I know what a market looks like when investors pull out substantial dividends, some even at a loss, just when things are appearing to smoothen out. I see a lot of powering down going on lately, does that mean the big wallets that are powering down are not controlling the reward pool and they’re losing just like I’m losing, only in larger volumes? How does it work? Do the big wallets know something I don’t, are they running for higher ground? If that’s the case, then what’s #steemit, a learning curve?

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