I passed the Big 5-0

It's been an amazing 78 days hanging out on this platform. I feel that I have put in a lot of work and effort to climb to a reputation of 50 and I feel that what's paid off the most is engagement, followed by effort and lastly, civility.

There have been a few times that I wanted to respond harshly, but I kept my cool and stayed level headed. You might even be able to find a few edits I've done on the blockchain so that I didn't sound like an idiot. There have even been a few comments I've made that I'd like to retract, but nope. They're forever there. I don't think I came off as too harsh with them, but it's all about impressions.

Impressions

I'm not talking about ads, I mean first impressions. They are important. This is one thing that helps me try to make the best of my comments. Especially when I enter a heated debate or controversial topic.

You have to consider that every comment you make will be read by not just all your followers, but future potential followers as well. This means that any post and/or comment you make will be your first impression on someone! How do you want to be perceived?

I have done my best to be civil and courteous to others. This has really paid off with both followers and responses from people who are seen as aggressive. I write and comment like as if the whole world is looking, whether someone is looking is not a factor when I write. I just hope someone finds what I write or post meaningful!

The Climb

It was a slow and steady climb til about 47. When curie found my snowmobiling article and gave it an upvote followed by the curation trail, it bumped me up to 49. This was it. What felt to me to be the homestretch to completing a milestone that I had completely overlooked. I pleaded with grumpycat to fix his typo in his you've been flagged message and he actually upvoted my comment and that kicked me over to 50! Woohoo!

I finally made it.

Before I could talk about 50, I dinged 51!

I feel pretty good to have gotten an upvote from dan himself just a few hours ago. This gives me some clues and hints about what's coming to Steemit in the near future. So those of you (including me) who think/thought that dan was completely out, think again... he's lurkin! While some of the competitor stuff may be true, healthy competition may not be a bad idea, but that's got nothing to do with what I feel is in store for us Steemians in this amazing Utopia!

I read in the beginning that if you focus on having fun and building your reputation, you'll be rewarded for your efforts in the long run. I feel this is definitely proving to be true. Be Calm, Enjoy the Climb.

Bandwidth Issues (wah-wah)

As you can see, I haven't made any of my agate posts in a few days. It seems that my agate pictures are rather large. Maybe too large. My camera settings are set to high quality, and by default they were at normal. I may have to try normal to see if I can conserve bandwidth. I'm trying to understand when the bandwidth is actually used up. If anyone has an answer to this, it would be greatly appreciated!

It seems that when I get paid for the post, that's when the bandwidth is used. I am not sure. I'm still trying to figure it out, and I'll need to do some searching. I also tried to upload a dtube video last week, but that didn't pan out so much. I think it was too large, which makes me wonder if the size of my videos can't be bigger than the mb in bandwidth I have available to use.

Yikes, talk about bandwidth issues, but at least I can still post.

So if you're wondering where I've gone with my rock posts, currently, my bandwidth is sitting at 180 kb of 4 mb. Not even sure if that means now, or 7 days when todays posts pay out. I can say that this bandwidth stuff is a little confusing, but I'm refraining from posting high quality pictures til it recharges or I find a more definitive answer.

Preserving My New Utopia

So here I am, feeling pretty good about myself, but I can't help but feel that I must tread lightly around here. For the most part, as long as I keep doing what I'm doing, everything is okay. However; it is important for me (as it should also be for you) to help flag abuse on the platform. This abuse can be met with retaliatory flags. I witnessed today someone go from a reputation of (48) to a reputation of (-1) with just a handful of flags from one or two users. It is probably wise to pick your battles.

The flag came to a user for making false allegations about a certain TA. These kinds of things shouldn't be happening on Steemit. We should all be doing our part to preserve the platform and make it better, but stooping to the level of slander should never be someones go-to method when confronting any kind of abuse.

Remember, first impression is everything. Those who can maintain civility will typically come out on top. I remember I accused someone of plagiarism when I first started, only to realize seconds later that my image search brought me to that users personal webpage. I am pretty thankful I caught it in just a few seconds and was able to edit my comment.

Milestones

• I met my 250k vests by the end of January, but I didn't feel like making a post just for that.
• 500 Followers - Possibly by the end of February
• 500 STEEM POWER - End of April
• 500,000 VESTS - End of April
• $1000 account value - End of march
• Reputation of 55? We'll see how fast that takes. If it comes too fast, I'll wait for 60. There's no telling how long that could take though.

What I am looking forward to the most is 1 Million Vests which seems to be around 500 Steem Power. It's my understanding that once I reach that, I will have an upvote slider. This is what I'm looking forward to the most so that I can help spread more votes without draining all my power!

Thanks to everyone who's engaged with me and upvoted my posts/comments to get me where I am! I am truly thankful! I never thought that my thoughts would be worth what they are and this community has really given me the confidence that I needed in my life to be a better person.

I wish everyone success and happiness. God Bless and Steem On!

@bitfiend (Cigarette / Nicotine free since January 2nd 2018)