The Official Hello and Why I Am Here Post, Baby

I started writing on Steemit about two weeks ago and was so uninformed I did not know how to properly introduce myself. I had an incredibly successful day yesterday thanks to some folks who stepped up and decided to give me a helping hand. I am very grateful. So I figured it was time to tell folks who I am. Sorry but I look like Dr. Evil today, hence the "baby."

Steemit Baby! Should have done my Dr. Evil pose.

THE QUICK AND DIRTY BIOGRAPHY

Okay for those of you not interested in the longer story (below) here are “just the facts.”

• Married to a lovely lady
• Two adult sons
• One beautiful granddaughter
• Two dogs, Kate (Doberman) and Doc (Sheltie)
• Son of two German parents, raised in the mid-Atlantic region
• Retired US Coast Guard Senior Chief
• Ten-year inner-city schoolteacher
• Perpetual student
• Love motorcycles, music, movies, classic cars, gardening, firearms, disc golf, photography, travel, the ocean, the mountains, writing, philosophy, and history and economics.
• Quickly becoming a Christian anarchist, just have a few more issues to resolve in my mind
• Hoping my debut album is released in the next two months
• Music composer, mostly progressive metal
• Avid reader
• Cannot figure out what I want to be when I grow up

THE MORE IN DEPTH BIOGRAPHY

Okay, I will do my best to keep this short, but I have been on earth half a century, I have lived a lot of life. So it this bores you, there is the quick and dirty biography above.

Germans Who Don’t Speak German?

My paternal grandfather in the Bavarian Calvary, I think the uniform color is wrong.

I am Mike K. (going to be a bit cagey, I’ll explain why I promise), the eldest son of two German parents. As I tell folks, I was conceived there (Germany) and born here (USA). German was spoken in our house from time to time, but regrettably the children were not allowed to answer in German. I suppose my Dad’s experience with coming from a German speaking home in the USA (his family immigrated here in the 30s) during WWII was not one he wanted his children to have. But we kept most of the German customs in our home. So culturally I am more German than American, but I don’t speak German, it sucks. I have five siblings, 4 brothers and 1 sister (BGBBBB birth order). Needless to say it was an interesting experience.

I grew up in what was largely a lower middle-income home. My mom stayed home and kept the house, while my Dad was always working. Mom was 17 when she had me, and 22 when child number three was born. I understand now a lot of our economic condition was self-imposed. But to give my parents all the credit in the world, they sacrificed a lot to give me (and my five siblings) a great parochial school education and they took us out to eat at a sit down restaurant every Friday. It was a way to teach us manners. The rest of the week was grilled cheese and tomato soup or macaroni and cheese, but I think their priorities benefitted my growth. My Mom did not believe in television, so I listened to the radio and read books. Every meal in my house was at the dining room table and you were expected to participate in conversation. All in all it was a pretty cool way to grow up.

So You Wanna Be A Rock and Roll Star

13 year old me

In my mid-teens I decided I wanted to be a rock star and quit school. I was writing music, trying to master my ax, and putting together many different bands that came and went on a regular basis. Unfortunately my talent was not as great as my heart and at 17 I joined the military (this was in 1980, an era before plentiful student loans). After four years I bailed and tried to go to college. I came out of the military with a wife and we had competing ideals about where we were headed, but being hardheaded it took me 20 years to figure that out. I worked avionics after I was out and made pretty good money. After two years my eldest son was born. I worked swing shift in the evening so I could take care of him during the day. A year later my (now) ex-wife packed up and took my son home to her parents. I quit my job and followed them (I know, dumb***). In two months I was back in the military.

The Military

The boys

Now I am not complaining about the military, the Coast Guard was very good to me. I got an education (I received my B.S. while in), they sent me to a lot of technical schools including Computer Systems Management, and I promoted pretty regularly. I retired after twenty years of active duty as a Senior Chief (E-8). During my time in the CG I had multiple deployments, worked Search and Rescue, drug interdiction ops, border patrol, and received combat pay a few times (I belong to the VFW). I also had a chance to do some side work when I was on shore duty. I worked in a CD shop, did a lot of computer consulting, worked security for the World Bank, and did commercial electrical work. I also had the opportunity to read a lot of books. I read everything from fiction to history, economics, and philosophy. My politics were changing from “Goldwater Republican” to libertarian. I even got involved in Libertarian Party politics and campaigned for Ron Paul in 1988. I guess I never saw the disconnect between my job and my politics.

School Teacher

Grandpa and K at the Grand Canyon

I retired in 2003, divorced with two sons and not quite sure what I was going to do. I knew I was going into education, but not sure at what level. I ended up substitute teaching and to make a long story short (I know too late) was offered a position in an inner-city school. I have already written about that elsewhere, but I will say I met the love of my life there and she and I have been together for 12 years now. After a ten year career in the classroom, I took a sabbatical to write my Doctoral Dissertation, I defend it in two weeks. What tomorrow holds for me, I am not so sure.

Why am I being cagey?

Simply put, to protect the identity of my former students. I am sure it would not be hard to figure it out, but I do not want to make it too easy.

So What About Steemit?

I think I have a story to tell. I want to talk about teaching, my political philosophy, and maybe some fun things too. I will pepper my own photographs into my writing and I will even do some travel blogging. So thank you for reading this far and I hope I can keep you all entertained. This has been a very interesting roller-coaster ride the last two weeks and I am sure it has just begun.

M.

Photo credits: My wife took the first shot, 2-3-4 are from my personal collection but I don't know who took them, 5 my eldest son took and 6 my youngest son took.

If you like these entries or have any questions please post a comment or hit the upvote button, while making money is not really my concern I would like to know that I am not shouting into an empty canyon.

Hello! I am Mike K. I am an educator, lifelong student, military vet and wannabe musician. I have a love of history, economics, philosophy and motorcycles. I am quickly moving from minarchy to Christian anarchy philosophically and want people to stop meddling. My debut CD should be out soon!