GOLDEN

After days of playing, I finally reached gold tier III. This is actually the second time I'm reaching this milestone. The first was quite easy, to be honest. I thought I was going to reach it a lot faster given the quality of some of the cards I bought but I was in for a surprise.

For the past 3-4 days, after playing over a 100 games I still stuck around 1600-1700 point (silver tier I). I actually got frustrated and thought the algorithm was against me in some way. Maybe it was because I was playing too much because there were matches I thought I should have won but lost.

Out of frustration and my drive to win, I decided to boost my deck by renting some cards. To my greatest surprise, they were really cheap. So cheap that I rented a lot of gold cards and have made half of what I rented them from playing (thanks to @newageinv for the tip). Yeah, when I tell you guys that splinterlands is the best thing on this blockchain right now don't doubt me. Funny enough, the average steem monster or splinterland gamer isn't really worried about the hardfork 21 or any of this stuff you guys talk about every day. From my point of view, hardfork or no hardfork; free or paid downvotes; whatever the hot topic on here right is, it doesn't really affect me. Maybe my dtube earnings might reduce but one thing I won't be doing is writing all day to earn a dollar or two when I simply earn that playing steemmonster. The more people being to realize this the lesser the drive or motivation to post. I'm a very pragmatic person and I like to utilize my time and personally speaking, playing steemmonster and investing in the platform is worth my time and money (long and short term). Might even power down and buy some more cards. It just seems like the most rational thing to do at this moment because I anticipate that at some point next year, as the splinterland ecosystem continues to expand, leasing will be a big deal. Renting cards won't be as cheap as it is now. Some of these cards I own might increase in value. For the most part, people are buying them--there is demand.

Putting my money where my mouth is.

I think the hardfork is scheduled for today. Some of your greatest fears might become your reality from today. Or it might just be a case of everyone adapting to the new changes like nothing happened. Think about the implementation of resource credit. It was a big deal after hardfork20 but hardly does anyone talk about it. For me, it seems like a completely useless thing I have in abundance that I can never exhaust. I hope someday I will be able to lease that to people who actually need it because honestly, I hate wastage. Every discussion I have listened to about resource credit seem to be futuristic in terms of its usefulness.

So yesterday I started using steempeak and I'm impressed. For once I can actually mute certain accounts. I'm tired of seeing all these worthless posts about how steem is going to die. I wish I could spend time addressing them but I have come to understand that these people are not here to learn but offend, so there isn't any point reading their posts or even flagging them, it's just a total waste of time. And by the way, I'm spending less time reading and writing (which is ironic because I'm always here, somehow) so the lesser my chance of stumbling upon such posts.

So back to steemmonsters. I'm looking at purchasing more gold cards and increasing my investment to around $500 before the year runs out. Not really a lot for some of you guys. My God, I saw an account worth $14k and I was freaking out. I never believed anyone could put that much into a gaming app. I think I spoke about this the last time. This is one of the reasons why I'm very confident in putting my steem and fiat there. If people are actually confident enough to put that much in a gaming app then who am i really not to partake in this opportunity, even on a small scale. No one selling me the idea of powering up and hoping my stake value increases in the long run. Basically, I'm just playing for fun and to compete--making money in the process.

Happy hardforking.

I know a lot you guys think it's the end of the world but it isn't. Really it's just another opportunity. Think about the opportunity. Some of you have some much already to be worried about earning. Money begets money; steem begets steem. Invest not passively. Like I will always say the passive investment is for people with large capital. You have no business powering up all your steem when they can actively work for you actively. I saw one of my followers asking for help but when I looked at his account he has over 5,000 that's enough to start a business that will give him over 60%-70% return in 6months. It's really a no brainer. He can invest in the transport industry or...men! There are a lot of things really. I haven't powered down in like 3-4weeks that's because my small business is catering for my expenses. What I earn here in liquid steem in two weeks is what my business earns in a week. This allows steem to be what it should be for me--an investment. Probably when I hit 5k steem I will take another loan, invest in a smaller venture and pay back little by little and in a matter of time, I will be financially free. And not only that I will be in a better position to invest more here. I know people are skeptical about debt financing but it is the cheapest way of doing business.

I don't want to be nosey that's why I haven't approached this friend of mine. Maybe he has better plans for his steem. I just believe he has enough to better his life now if he is willing. There are certain things i actually hate and that's been dependent on people. Right now i don't care if this post gets upvoted or not (i don't mind) or if i get flagged or not. That for me is power. At some point, i couldn't live without steem but it's an option now. The good thing about that is it allows me to be a better stakeholder and content creator. For the first time, i have a schedule for posting. It's not a necessity anymore. And when people don't do things out of obligation or for money, they tend to be the best version of themselves.

Maybe i sound this way because I'm privileged not to be in the position i was when i first got here. But hey, if you're complaining about earning that means you're earning. It might seem strange but that's not the reality of a lot of people here and that's why many left.

In a nutshell, try to look for opportunities. Change is inevitable, it is not something we can resist and win. So it's in our best interest to adapt to these changes.