It's about time I introduce myself
My name is Marvin and I live in Los Angeles where I was born and raised. I am Systems/Network administrator for a business intelligence research company. I have a fiancee’ SahirahLA beat me to posting an introduction. My hobbies are pretty much crypto, bowling and bike-riding.
I’ve always been curious about how things works. I was the kid who would take apart stuff and sometimes get them back together. Of course my parents knowing this still got me a computer. I was around 11 or 12 years old. It was Commodore 64 and changed my life. I will save that for another post. Suffice it to say it set me on the path I’m on today with computers and technology.
I went to college and got a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I thought I wanted to be an automotive engineer for a car company like my father and uncle did but while in college this thing called the Internet came a long and I knew that I would be doing something computer related. While in college I helped setup and run a computer lab for the campus housing. I remember using the Netscape browser and going to Yahoo (and Tucows for those who really remember) . So after graduating I started working as web designer. This lead to a job with a dotcom startup. There I became the network administrator because after getting hired I realized they didn’t have one. That lasted a good 3 years before blowing up. Didn’t get any stock options, but got some nice trips to Hawaii, Cancun and some decent computer hardware instead of my final paycheck. I will write more on that whole implosion another day too.
After the startup job I wanted something nice and stable so I got a job as a network administrator at an aerospace manufacturing company. A year later 9/11 happened and got “layed off”. I put that in quotes because what actually happened is I become and independent contractor with that company. On Friday I was an employee. I came back Monday as a contractor at same desk, same responsibilities , more pay and no benefits so it worked out. I did that for a few years until they got bought out by a large international company. They began cutting back my hours and so I left for my current position about 5 years ago.
So that’s some of my back story, but I how did I get here? Well back in 2012 I was the Starbucks I like to visit and this older gentlemen asked me about Bitcoin. Most of people there knew I worked in the computer field and I had seen him before. I didn’t know what it was at the time but I told I would check it out and let him know. Somehow I totally missed the whitepaper and downloaded and installed the wallet/miner. I remember it was not easy at least for me. I eventually got it working a let it run for a day or two. I don’t remember how many I mined but it was worth few a pennies and didn't seem worth it. This was with a CPU. So I told the guy when I say him that it doesn’t seem worth but I may be wrong. I may have seen him once or twice after that but never spoke to him.
A few months later I wanted to upgrade my computer’s graphic card. I knew I wanted an AMD card. They must have been popular because they were always sold out. When the next model came out I went to store to buy one. They were still sold out. I remember another guy was there and told me people were buying them to mine Bitcoin because they were better than nvidia. I went home and did a full deep dive into Bitcoin. I realized I was too late to mine so I bought some off Localbitcoins. This was when the price was in around $70. I did mine some litecoin since they were still CPU friendly at the time. I begin trading on sites. Started leverage trading. I had over 50 bitcoins then BOOM! The silk-road bust crashed the Bitcoin price. Lost most of them. Was upset but didn’t worry because the lost in actual dollars was not that bad. So I kept buying and trading the rise to $1000 and then I again lost a bunch making stupid trades. I salvage some of it then invested in some cloud mining. That ended up being a loser too. Another lesson learned.
So by the end of 2013 of started looking at alt coins and bought some and eventually came across Bitshares. I thought it was a good coin and agreed with whole wastefulness of mining. I just missed being able to became a founder but jumped into being angel with AGS and they rest is history.
It very nice to hear more about you. Thank you for the introduction!
Great to have you here Marvin. I look forward to seeing your value added!
Hi Marvin, welcome to Steemit!
Sounds like you have had an interesting past with both technology and crypto currency. I hope you have a chance to write about those topics soon!
Read your professional history and how you learned about bitcoin. I learned about bitcoin from my younger brother several years ago. When will you and your fiance get married? I've been married for 1 1/2 years now. Been with my husband for 6 years in October! Looking forward to celebrating by going back to my hometown where we met!
cool man face it and like a man...
Got some mad balls admitting having anything near Silk Road.. :P
Great post ! We have a lot in common regarding early in life and tech.
Great to have you in the community!