Welcome Steemit Friends today I talk about what Steemit has meant to me after a year.

Image Source: @jeff-kubitz

What Steemit Means To Me After A Year

I am not sure that I should write my one year later now because of what happened when I started here at Steemit, August 2016.

The first thing that happened was I could not figure out the markdown language to make posts. I actually found it very difficult which was a real shock as I know and am more than adept at so many computer languages. I did not do an introduceyourself post until late November 2016. I did not know it exists.

Steemit has changed a lot since then. What I did to fix my problems was I used eSteem on my phone. Once I used the eSteem app, I was able to make my first post with pictures.

Once I was able to compare the eSteem app to the markdown, I figured it out and I was able to make some posts that showed up on platforms or different computers, phones, tablets, and on the billboard at Times Square - just kidding. No, I had cross platform posts.

Now as a writer I had lost the copy of every book I had ever written and some that I had published. My computer, not this one was hacked and destroyed. I had two books on there that I lost, one was the kid's "When Full Body Armor Was Re-Invented and Worn." The other book was the first book of the "Song of Angels" series.

About the time I figured out markdown, I found out that Norton had backed up my two books to their storage site and I did not know it. I found the password in the corner of my top dresser drawer on a piece of green stick it note. I typed the password into the Norton Vault and Voila!

The copies of the books were not exact but they were close enough and I also found my DADADS research, and the healing whirlwind stuff. Again, not all of it but enough that I still had some.

The first thing that I did, after I posted six photos of cactus flowers on my property and my gourmet burrito recipe was I published "When Full Body Armor Was Re-Invented and Worn." I do not remember what the total was on the book I received in Steemit rewards but it was not much. Even so, it was more than enough and it allowed me to poke fun at my personal,
"F/(|<ing Hackers," my pet name for the human trash that destroyed my books and research and I was off and running.

I cannot tell you how wonderful it felt to have myself published and making money even if it was not much.

The first book I had written in 1988 was a Zombie Apocalypse and my ex-wife won the rights to it in the divorce. I did not have a copy of it. The second book I wrote was a how to buy real estate with no money down and it was self published. Well, I lost my house and it is a long horrible story of a series of disastrous events and inside was the Brother Word Processor on which I wrote it and a couple of computers with a myriad of writings on them.

The next time I lost a computer with all my reasearch on it, I was cataloguing spirits speaking into an IBM Voice-Type program on a 486, which was new and top of the line back then. I had hundreds of pages the spirits spoke. Largely, as near as I could figure, it was World War II groups of veterans (Dead, of course) running around purgatory, the spirit world, or the world in between rescuing souls from predicaments in purgatory and taking them to heaven. It was really intense reading. I typed in none of it.

To make a long story short, these types of events have plagued me my entire adult life and Steemit saved me. Now, no matter what is said about me, it is obvious I have published written works and they are here on Steemit and available at online booksellers.

Am I The Success I Want To Be?

Not quite, I think I can do much better but Steemit has been the foundation of "I Told You So!"

That is Steemit has enabled me to publish things to the point to where there is no doubt I ever lied about writing, being an author, and having written books. I had no proof and with Steemit I do.

The other thing that Steemit has done for me. I just bought another windmill for my property where we are settlers or homesteaders and have to generate our own electricity. This windmill will give us another potential 1,600 watts of power and I will be able to write more often.

My next plan is here shortly to buy more solar panels and they will run a thousand dollars. That is great because we only have eight solar panels and it sure would be nice when it is cloudy and windless to have enough electricity to operate the fridge, lights, and the computers and phones to be able to write on Steemit, operate other businesses by computer, trade currencies and so on.

I have grown with Steemit as a person and still have some bad days. I cannot say I totally understand the whole concept but I love it and hope it endures forever.

With the new changes since the last hard fork, I think I have finally figured out how to vote without sending my voting power to ZERO! I kept hitting Zero or 25% and had to wait days before I could vote again. But I think I have it down now, the use of the slider is important.

My attitude is that if I can do it, anyone can do it. It takes patience, effort, and a lot of thought. It also takes breaks or vacations every once in awhile, at least for me it does.

So, Steemit has turned into necessary cash to make our lives better at our house. And, I hope it does at yours too.

Steemit Can Be Hard, Frustrating, and Worth It!

I remember the flag wars were they flagged all my posts and I was supposed to get $50 and instead received $1 for many a post. I wanted to quit. I hung in there and here is my flag wars meme!

This meme is from when @dan walked away and I suspected a hostile corporate takeover.

I remember when they did that fork where the rewards were nothing for a month! It was very frustrating and I hated it. I wanted to quit. I hung in there and you should too! After all, I am used to hard hits and overcoming absolutely impossible difficulties and you can see below.

I am 69 - University of Oregon Duck! This was one of the toughest experiences of my life and I may have to spend awhile in purgatory because of it - the whole four year college thing. There were no sexual diseases back then and so...men were also men and exceedingly drunk and violent. No, it was great and I want to write a masterpiece novel about my times there and what it was like but I am still thinking about it, "Taylor's Tavern". The nightly meetings of the drunken far left.

So, it might be a goal to write about some of that in the near future on Steemit. I am still debating as to whether or not to turn it into fiction or a historical biography of Eugene, Oregon from '78 to '82. There have been enough years without an subsequent brain injuries that my eidetic memory returns. Thankfully there is a spell checker for words like eidetic. I hope you see the humor in that.

Future Goals

I was a Windows Software Developer who owned my own company and I would like to make a couple of apps here shortly. To do that I will probably need an internet connection other than my phone. So, HughesNet or something like that where I have unlimited internet bandwidth like I used to have here.

As for Steemit, what I would like to see?

Steemit has evolved rapidly and is intense. The developers who have worked on it have done a marvelous job. The directions it is being taken in are wonderful, technical, and time consuming. I think I might join them here once I have enough electricity and a new computer. I still think and will probably do Steemit3D. Three dimensional stuff is my forte, especially in web pages. It will probably be a separate ap using the Graphene Blockchain.

There is one thing I would like to see. A bunch of users made enemies with Poloniex. What seems to be happening is that in revenge, Poloniex is turning off the Steem and SBD wallets. I do not know if that is true but it seems like - well maybe Tristan is just helping Steemit to be better by forcing the removal of any bugs. After all, you do not want to piss of the capitalists, especially the ones who are very successful in their fields. Working Steem Wallets in exchanges is important.

As for the advertising, I will do that I guess once the electricity is in here in spades.

Now, one other thing I would like to do is remind myself to keep using my mighty magical finger to protect Steemit and Cause it to rise. I did that yesterday. I am good at what I do. I am real good at it.

The world is still truly a magical place where faith and positive thought can do wonderful things. A lot of hard work by dedicated people really helps too and so it is them I would like to thank. Who knows, maybe someday we will get enough electricity to power an air conditioner. Until then, all the windows are open and it is a hot, sweaty business.

All Images by: @jeff-kubitz

Thanks to you all!

Thanks all my Steemit friends and voters:
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