A post for Gratitude. Steem, Steemit, Steemfest, and Beyond. ThankYou
If you live in the USA Thanksgiving is a Big Deal. Now, this holiday is based on a false history, and there are many things about that and the commercialized nature of the holiday season in the States that we can be ungrateful for. However, that's not what this post is about.
Thankfulness
I always wish to be grateful, regardless of my circumstances. I can't say that I'm always good at it. There's so much in the world to be upset about. Every November, we are reminded to give thanks.
Recently I wrote a post Thanking everyone who helped me get to SteemFest. Obrigado. Was that a foreshadowing of my re-remembering to be thankful today?
I have to thank @dan, @ned, and the incredible team of developers that have gathered around their vision. A lot of hard work, dedication, and often thankless, painstaking labor has gone into creating a space that you and I can be productively addicted to and obsessive over! Without these guys, I'd still be doing nothing much besides drinking beers, watching cartoons, begging, and turning the occasional wrench to keep my truck alive. - @inquiringtimes from: SteemFest - Obrigado
Thank you to my Parents, who did their best to raise me not to discriminate against others, and to live a life of faith, and service. Thank you to my Sister, and her family for being wonderful hosts at different points this summer. Thank you to my Dog, who's always waiting patiently for me to stop staring at a computer screen, and never wanders into traffic. Thank you to all of the people and events that shaped my life before Steem, and prepared me for this day. Thank you to Tobacco, Alcohol, and Marijuana, for being reliable companions in life, you always know when to pick me up and when to let me down. Thank you for all of the computer and internet nerds for keeping on, while I took a hiatus, and for picking me back up when I found my way back home.
I'd like to offer a special thanks to all of the Artists out there. Without you, my blogs would be plain, and un-palatable.
On that note, I will thank @yusaymon!!!!!!!!!!
This man is always sharing his art and and giving to the community. He is currently a Venezuelan ex-patriot, living in the Dominican Republic. He is living off of what he makes here on Steem, and typically posts a few times a day in different artistic genres, from Karaoke, to Open Mic, to Watercolours, to Paintings with Dirt Sticks and Leaves :)
Last Month, I kicked off Yusaymon Appreciation Month. I've always appreciated Yu. He's a very generous person, and has created art for myself, and for others for free! I had decided a long time before to do something like this. But my schedule delayed the contest until last month. I found out after starting this contest, that actually Yu was in debt with fines for overstaying his visa in the Dominican Republic, and trying to save up to go back to Venezuela, but first, he must pay $300 in fines. He now has $150 saved up from last month. Because of this contest, Yu got a lot of exposure, and I also encouraged him to submit art to ArtAtSteemFest, featured above. This has helped him quite a bit. The contest was for people to make posts about @yusaymon, featuring his art, or some collaboration of it. Whoever won, would get a 200sp delegation for a month.
Since I ended up at SteemFest, I have been very slow to follow up on the contest. I was thinking that I should just send Yu the delegation for a month, since he really can use all of the help he can get, and is very deserving for adding so much value to this community. So, last night I delegated to him 300sp, to last for a month, or whenever I remember to undelegate, whichever comes later. He wasn't having it though, he thought @vachemorte deserved it for doing such an awesome trailer for him.
So, I decided to Delegate an Additional 300sp to @vachemorte for a month, since I had already thought of him as submitting an exceptional creation for @yusaymon. Also, it's the @yusaymon apprication month, so... who better to judge the contest, than @yusaymon himself!!!!
Now, my "Natural" SP is a little over 1k (I've been powering up), so how was I able to give out 600sp in delegations for a month, when originally 200sp sounded reasonable. I'll give you a hint, I did not purchase a delegation.
@stellabelle decided to start delegating to various members of the community, whom she felt were doing a good job of supporting the platform. I was among those chosen. This is such an honor, and I will do my best to spread those votes around particularly in the comments section of my, and other's posts (and downvote spam when it's really crazy). Now I will offer a......
HU-YUUUUGE THANK YOU To @stellabelle and @fulltimegeek
A result of Stella's generosity, was @fulltimegeek deciding to follow, stella's lead!!!! <3<3<3 All combined, I was delegated 10,000 SP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
People always say that hard work, dedication, and being socially conscientious pays off... but I'm not used to seeing it happen quite like that! Then again, I think Steem(it) is making me a better person. That gives me a huge incentive to stick around, if I didn't have another.
I want to offer a HUGE THANK YOU to @roelandp, @firepower, and the SteemFest Crew for putting together such an amazing event. I'll continue to do the deep coverage of the LiveStreams after ThanksGiving, in appreciation for the free ticket to SteemFest, so that everyone can have a deeper look into all of the amazing knowledge and beauty that was shared during that time.
The above linked video by @timsaid is an amazing piece of art that captures a bit of the magic that happened at @steemfest. I hope that you'll take a moment to watch it, you will not be disappointed!
Much love and thanks to the many guides, tutors, mentors, colleagues... all of you amazing Steemians, without which my life would be less.
I'm grateful that the recent downvote activity has made the rewards pool stronger, even if I don't always agree with the individual votes, I believe it's a net positive. Even the people who got downvoted have seen a lot of exposure for their work. I believe I'm seeing all of the real amazing steemians who recieved downvotes surrounded with love from the rest of the community, and the efforts of everyone to support these people is something to be grateful for!
Thank you Life, Thank You Steem! Thank You ALL!!!!
Here are some other posts of Gratitude from the Steem Community!
- @alexrickard86 - Thank You Steemit
- @roelandp - Thank You Thank You Thank You (right after SteemFest1)
Still open to Payout Gratitude posts
- @carrieallen - Thank You - Random Gratitude Post
- @hiroyamagishi - Thank You Fellow Steemians
- @ericvancwalton
- @ericvancwalton - Gratitude
References
- Thank You to Everyone who Helped me get to SteemFest - Obrigado
- @yusaymon - @torico original drawing
- @yusaymon - ArtAtSteemFest Submission
- Talking to Carl Sagan's Artificial Brain on Twitter Today
- @timsaid - SteemFest AfterMovie
I'm so glad you kicked off yusaymon appreciation month! We will do whatever we can to support him until he has enough saved :) thanks for doing the good work you do too!
What a wonderful inspiring post! The spirit of this community is hard to beat. Thanks for being part of it!
Congrats! I see the law of attraction at work here :)
Hello @inquiringtimes,
I'm outside USA but I really appreciate your attitude and being grateful it's something I'm still learning, I want to practice it more. I'll just take this time and say Thank you, your support to me on Steemit and Discord servers is being fantastic and quite helpful.
Keep going with the great job, upvoted and resteemed
May The Force be with you!
@davidfumo
What a great way to pay it forward. Your friend @yusomon is new to me. His art is very unusual and a little playful. His plight does seem to be a worthy cause. Then to not take the steem, passing it to his friend. Well that kind of person is rare indeed. So thank you for your cycle of giving you and @stellabelle for reminding me of the kindness of strangers! It is why I joined steem to begin with.
Great stuff as always. I'm pretty happy you reached out to introduce yourself to me during the radio shows. As others have already stated, you are great for the platform.
You are an awesome, genuine, helpful person. Despite my initial confusion about the blame Shane stuff, I've never been disappointed when I had a chance to chat with you, or catch your shows on the radio! Glad to have you as witness, and friend!
@inquiringtimes, I came here to read this post after reading your latest post about the downvotes you received. I added my three cents, which unfortunately don't do much, but they come from a good heart. I love this post, you have a great way with words and I love how genuine you are in all you do. What you see is what you get, skirt and all 😉. You rock!
Love to you, friend! Steem on, to steemfest3!!! This year is gonna rock!
Congrats and best stunning blog @inquiringtimes. You`ve attracted my heart from these. Best abilities. Go ahead and west wishes.
Resteemed.
awesome post on appreciation! Was really good meeting you at steemfest! I might even do a steemit thankful gratefulness post myself ^_^
Good to see you here on the block chain, friend. Lisbon was like a dream, I never wanted to leave, but if we stayed there and kept the party going it'd be hard to keep doing the thing that brought us all together. Steem on to steemfest3
Yeah great to connect with you again; Wish it was as strong of a feeling as IRL. I agree, haha yeah I guess that is true. We might have found a way to do both though. Scheduling blogging time and partying time! See you at steemfest 3 bro.
Wonderful post and yes there is so much to be grateful for.
Thank you for helping people and for you being you:)