Allow myself to introduce... myself.

Hello there Steemians! My name is J but you can call me jjShibbycray, for short...
That's me below getting creative with the account verification scrawling my user name in a sketchbook. You may not be able to read it as I wrote graffiti for a long time and old habits die hard. Oh, and that's my shadow/sidekick Bella. She always has to be in the mix. The other side of the page I used was previously a color test with some markers. Used it just to liven things up. Color is good!

Here's a video, 'cuz videos are fun!

Recording your own hand while writing is trickier than I thought.

So, a little about me.

I hail from a dusty oil field town in the deserts of west Texas...

...where sand storms cause major accidents on highways due to extremely low visibility. (*photo above is the only one here that isn't mine)

Took the pic below long ago. To the right are are tanker cars on the railroad just to the side of the highway hidden in the storm. It gets much worse than this. Think, "The Mummy" with Brendan Fraser.

I left the area when I was 18 to head to Dallas where I lived for 15 years. Now I reside in the most happening spot in the state: The Capitol City, Austin. At age 9 I told my parents I was moving to Austin when I got older. It took longer than expected, but I made it and I absolutely love it here! Here's my lady(@sophistik80) posing atop some parking garage near downtown.

I've been drawing since I was 3 and have spent most of my life producing art on some level. I went to art school in Dallas to focus on two of my favorite subjects, art and computers, then graduated with a degree in Computer Animation.

I've worked as a digital artist/graphic designer and illustrator.

I've been commissioned to do paintings and murals and still enjoy painting for fun. These days I've gotten away from it as my day job but have freelanced off and on for years. I prefer creating art on my own terms these days yet as of late I've focused my time on other activities such as parenting(I have an 8 year old son), working/adulting and other hobbies, etc. My plan is to dedicate more time to creating art so look forward to seeing new works here. I'll likely be posting some of my older stuff as well since I've got a new community to share it with.

I've probably had 50 jobs in my lifetime and consider myself to be fairly well rounded and down to earth. I am blessed in my present role working with one of the largest IT companies on the planet. In the past I've worked on projects with companies such as Google.

I've broken my back(figuratively) in the oil fields of west Texas.
I didn't break this crane but I did drive it all over the place, including to this location.

I've helped wrangle and transport bulls.

I've built things with my hands and worked on some amazing projects as a carpenter and cabinet maker doing additions, renovations and remodels.

I've literally shoveled sh*# to make ends meet so as you can image, I truly appreciate where I'm at now. I've traveled to the other side of the world and back soaking in others ways of life and consider myself cultured. I'm looking forward to more travels in the future and hope I get the chance to share!

I've now been on Steemit for about a month and only just created my first post last week. I've spent the past few weeks slowly looking around, reading up on how it all works trying to determine how I'll be contributing. It's all a bit hazy still but I figure I'll just get started, figure it out as I go and we'll see where it takes us. I'm looking forward to becoming part of a community where the social media giants don't get to post what they want you to see ahead of what and who you choose, etc.

This site has given me a new hope for the future of social media and I'm looking forward to helping reshape the internet!

Bringing it back full circle, here is a shot of my user name from the video.

As for the meaning behind the screen name, it's 2018 and things are crazy. So this is just a run together phrase some friends and I use when joking around that can be applied to pretty much anything.

In the uplifting words of Nicholas Hexum, "Stay positive and love your life."
Cheers!