My Steemit Introduction From mrclean0325 aka Leonard
An introduction? What will I write about? To introduce yourself means I know the myriad, multifaceted being I am. How to compress an entire life into a few words on a page? How can I put into words all the stuff that makes me… well me, and share it…which part of me do I share?
Which part of a person do you share to everyone? Which mask do I wear and show? What can I share that people won’t kill me for sharing? What if I write the wrong thing? What if nobody likes me? What will they think about me talking to myself....
What if they think I am weird or crazy…validation I guess.
What about the truth?
They can’t handle the truth!
Do I share how my personal relationship with Jesus changed my life?
Do I write about my work side and how I have chosen to freelance on the Internet so I can stay home and take care of my wife? How we’ve managed to survive and be blessed at times with just what we need when we need it? How I am working to reinvent myself, yet again, to figure out how to convert offline successes into online successes?
Hmmm, what do I want to be when I grow up?
Do I tell about how I have been married to the same woman for over 22 years? How we were married a little over 3 months after our first date? How she is the light of my life, true love, and soul mate?
Should I tell them about what a miraculous woman she is? How she was crushed by a car when she was seven and told she would never walk or have children? How she is a cancer survivor having a benign tumor the size of a baby’s head removed from her adrenal gland? How she is facing another large benign fibroid tumor removed from her uterus? Hmm, might make people feel sorry for her and that is the last thing she wants. (Don’t kill me in my sleep honey…love you…)
Hmm…thinking, thinking…this hurts my brain.
How about the struggles we had raising a large family? Having 5 children with 4 at home? Being the only one able to work a job to support the family? To also support my oldest son from a previous marriage too? Working 2 to 3 jobs at a time at some points, odd jobs, and side businesses.
Maybe about wishing my mom didn’t give me the “mothers curse” and say she hoped I had children like me? That my children are just as hardheaded and stubborn as my wife and I? All of them are adults now and making their own way in the world with fear and trembling? To lament the fact I was too busy chasing a career while they were growing up to really spend time with them the way I wanted to? How having grandchildren is a great blessing and joy? Makes me too teary eyed….
This is really hard to figure out, like being on a runaway bus.
What will you do? What will you do?
Do I say something about my artistic side? How I write, draw, paint, and just create things? How I let those things slide when I was too busy chasing a career?
Should I tell them about my years of insanity thinking a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) would be the answer to all of life’s problems? Tell about how my “career” took me hours away from home and the rest of my family to secure a “better life”? How I missed my father and mothers last years since I was too far away to visit often?
How about when I was injured at work. When I stupidly thought everyone had my best interest in mind and to find out contrary? To tell how my life was forever changed in an instant in time? How the system I thought would take care of me let me down? About how screwed up the medical industry is in this country and hope they never get sick or injured to find out how bad it is? Maybe too depressing…
Do I write about my childhood and starting working at age 7 doing a paper route to help my family? How in those lean years a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was dinner? How I learned from my parents to never give up and never surrender?
About being a geek in school and then being bitten by a radioactive spi….oh, sorry…wrong story!
How about my geekiness? About making robots and all sorts of electronic gadgets while in grade school? About building my first commercial computer from a kit? Soldering it all up and programming by hand? Even though I am a geek - I am not cryptocurrency savvy….yet.
About my love for video games since I first played Pong (when it was first out)? How I have had just about every game system made since? How I now use my PS4 to keep in touch with family around the country while we game together? I am sure their eyes will roll back in their head at this point…
Do I tell about my multifaceted work history? Electrician, plumber, carpenter, salesman, consumer electronics tech, computer tech, network guy, cable splicer, fiber splicer, CATV engineer, helping to design and build the first all digital CATV system in the USA? Yeah, that and five bucks will get me a Starbucks…
Ooh, maybe a picture of me and the missus checking off a bucket list item going to Atlantic City and seeing the Atlantic ocean? It was wintertime and the city was pretty dead. Not really exciting enough; I didn’t have much choice in the time of year as I was on a training trip and snuck her along….Shhh!
Do you think I would bore them to tears yet?
Maybe I should talk about the weather here, weather is safe right? How we get a LOT of snow here and temps can get down to 40 below at times? A picture of our normal winter snowfall maybe? (yes, this was one snowfall, from bare ground to this overnight, then plowing in the early morning, and more snow. This is in North Eastern PA, USA)
Do I tell about my sense of humor being a little off….oh, I guess they should be able to figure that out. ;)
Should I write about our plan to sell most of our stuff and travel? To get a small RV or do a “Van Abode” to make memories and see things we both want to see while we can? To share time together like we want to? To discover all the places we have read about?
How we are budding minimalists finding we have a big house full of stuff and have no idea what to do with it all? About our collection of stuff: our children’s stuff, passed friends and relatives stuff, along with some of our personal treasures?
How we got to this place by chasing the “American Dream”? To make more money to buy more things, then a place to put them, and pay for keeping them? To how insane that all is, yet everyone does it.
How do I tell about who and what I am? This stuff doesn’t even scratch the surface of what it is to be me.
Hmm, OK, I got it now! I know what to write for my introduction!
Hi! I am Leonard aka mrclean0325. I want to say hi to Steemit and hope to share some cool stuff here from my many life adventures, struggles, and experiences. Maybe share one or two of my short stories along the way and discover other neat and unusual things here.
That’s it??
Yep.
Hello and welcome to Steemit!
This introduction post has been nominated for the @projectnewbie incentive where we try and get new and verified users more visibility on their first post to make it easier to connect to other users!
If you have any questions about it, this is the Announcement Post. Have fun Steeming! :)
Thank you so much and I consider it an honor to be nominated.
#projectnewbie is looking for curators. It would be pocket change, but every little bit counts. If you want to try it out without making any commitment, look through the #introduceyourself and other places where people might have made their first official introductory post. It has to be between 30mins and 30hrs old and it has to have verification such as someone holding a piece of paper with their name and Steemit and the date etc. You copy the link and paste it into the projectnewbie chat channel, if it isn't there yet. The first person to add each new post is awarded a finders fee at the end of the week. Because this is calculated as a percentage of total rewards, it will vary. Anyone can do this.
If you think you'd like to really get involved and post as #projectnewbie etc, reply here and I'll connect you with @acidyo. Or you can private message him on chat.
I was just reading about doing a selfie with the date and stuff. I should have put it in my introduction, do I just make a new post with with one? I can't get back into the intro to add it.
It's not required. If you want to anyway, just include the photo in a post with "verification" in the title. People who post lots of photos of themselves earn trust easily. Just now, there's some debate over how and how much members should be required to share about themselves. I doubt anyone will ask you to verify further. If they do, it's easy. :)
This is an amazing story. Welcome to Steemit! I spent a year and a half "hobosteading" in 2013-14. I shed everything and lived in a Cabella's tent in the woods by the beach on property owned by a friend of mine. I found work in the nearby pottery studio and walked to work on the beach. It was the most magical and vacation-like time of my life. I can't recommend it highly enough. But put your stuff in storage, the sentimental stuff. I hear being a host at a state park is a good way to start out because the facilities are vacation-like and you pay for your rent by doing chores. But any-hoo.
That was an impressive introduction. If you have questions, try Steemit chat which is available via the menu in the top right hand corner. Steem on!
Thanks for the warm welcome! We had thought about a tent actually, but my wife's machine for her sleep apnea needs electric so an RV or van with an inverter were in order. We have actually looked into bumming around the country by working from one park to another. We are in the process of sorting the "trash" from the treasure to go into storage. We are amazed at how much crap we accumulated. Thanks for the tip, I am still working my way around, but think I will like it here. ;)
I'd definitely recommend an RV. With slide-outs. The feel is so roomy! I 'm really crossing fingers that you have a wonderful experience. It'll still be an adventure, but it's amazing how things can just fall into place with a little faith and a sense of humor. It seems like you've got those things down. :)
Let me know if you have any questions about Steemit. You are the type of person who could really benefit from online income, though I would start by reading the white paper and keeping expectations low about how much early posts will make. Feel free to look at other people's blogs and you'll see there's typically a lot of variance in what each post earns. Something I think makes a difference is including photos of yourself in mosts posts, just like your beautiful intro photo. A lot of people do it as a footer and include an intro. I'm aiming to get there. Sometimes I take my sweet time.
I really do hope you like it at Steemit and that it makes a difference for your sense of security. Clearly you can write and already figured out how to add photos and video. Way ahead of where I was when I start a little over a month ago. :)
We are still in the "prep and planning" stage right now. I had hoped to get to a warmer climate before winter, it is supposed to be a bad one. I make a little online here and there. This was to share some stuff as I REALLY don't like Facebook and if I make a little...that is a side benefit. I have had other blogs and other online venues in the past, but never really got much of any response. I wasn't expecting anyone to notice it so this is a nice refreshing change. So far I like it here and there is SO much to learn about all of this...I like the challenge! ;)
Ahh, an experienced blogger. That makes sense. I am new to blogging and still trying to figure out what I am even writing about. I started a wordpress blog that was going to be organizing tips for paper and eventually a retail webstore of my favorite products. But I found Steemit and directed all my attention here instead. It's perfect for learning. The exposure here is so good that it just makes sense, even without a lot of high-earning posts. The attitude of embracing the challenge is perfect. I have also turned my back on Facebook except as an address book. People are just so much nicer here.
My tip for winter in an RV is to buy a good electric blanket or two for couch and desk and only heat the bedroom. An electric heater with a fan is better than a fancy catalytic gas heater because those produce water and water is your enemy. My first winter we had only a catalytic heater and it rained in the cabinets. If possible, park under cover at first. If not, expect to find a leak and have aluminum tape to patch it quickly from the outside. I'm full of unrequested advice, but I mean well. :)