Hi, I'm Anthony and I emerged victorious from the crazy thing I call my life!!!

First of all, I am extremely excited about Steemit and it's wonderful community. It sounds like a great place to begin my blog and share the exciting tales of my life experiences and my many journeys into so many topics.

I have overcame many adversities, done many exciting things, from computer programming, to US Army Paratrooper, chef, marriage and divorce as well as wealthy business man to bankrupt, from healthy to diabetic and back again. I even got into a little trouble at one point with the law, spending a little over a year in jail.

Steemit makes me feel very thrilled to be able to be part of a group of people who are sharing their lives with other people online in order to enrich all of us in many ways. A short version of my story follows.

To get stated, I was born in March of 1981, which is exciting because I was one of the first generation Y babies, just barely missing generation X by 3 months.

I got to play with personal computers almost from their inception as my grandfather was an engineer and always had a computer around. I was programming Basic commands into the operating system known as DOS when I was three years old which led me through a lifelong passion in computers.

The first program I was introduced to by my Grandpa was simple, it counted to one million which blew my mind. After playing around for a while, my younger sister, Regina and myself started a newspaper we called “Pud News” when I was five years old. “Pud” was my grandparent’s eccentric cockatiel shown here:

I was always about making a buck, so I wanted to charge one nickel for the paper, which caused quite an argument between me and my little four-year-old sister, but when the nickels started rolling in, she no longer complained.

I spent the first half of my childhood inside the family restaurant, “The Chase” which is now a historical landmark in downtown Santa Barbara, California. I loved being around restaurants, and I still do.

Needless to say, time passed very fast and I grew up like all kids do. I made several lifelong friends along the way. We passed most of our time either wrestling or watching WWE. In high school I took computer programming classes and was on the wrestling team. Unfortunately, both years I was on the team, I broke my arm at the worst possible times and was unable to participate in many events.

In my senior year, I became totally engrossed into the US Army. It filled all my thought processes. I worked out almost every day trying to get prepared for basic training, the thought of which thrilled me. I wanted to join mainly because I felt like it would allow me to grow up, I guess I was tired of being a child.

Just 6 weeks after graduating High School, I was off and into the Army. I arrived at Fort Benning, Georgia to a sweltering night which was extremely humid, unlike California, which I was used to. Basic training was very tough, but manageable. I made it through just by allowing myself to be pushed to the limit every day of my life.

After basic training was complete, I went off to computer school. I studied hard, 4 months of in depth training. We were in class twelve hours a day five days a week. There were times I had to do KP duty on the weekends, KP stands for Kitchen Patrol. I actually enjoyed it, as it was an escape into the DFAC, “Dining Facility” which was the closest thing to life in a restaurant, which reminded me of home.

I graduated from computer school and was shipped back to Fort Benning for the US Army Airborne School. We ran four miles every day along with many other exercises. At first, I had a hard time doing the PLF (Parachute Landing Fall) so much so I almost got held back and put into the class behind us. But at the end of the day, I finally passed the test. Finally, after three weeks, I was jumping out of a perfectly good airplane into the unknown. Yes, it was nerve racking, but fun never the less.

I graduated Airborne school and made to the 82nd Airborne Division. After a year there, They sent me off to Kosovo, attached to 1st 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, where I excelled. My first week in Kosovo, I survived a bombing, which happened at a house across the street from where I was standing. Several other exciting events happened, but those are stories for another time. In the middle of my tour, I got to take a short leave and Visit Sofia, Bulgaria. It was a very nice place, but I partied a little too hard. After all said and done, I made it back from Kosovo with an Army Commendation Medal.

Only a few years later, and I separated from service and started my life as a Veteran.

I moved from North Carolina, back to Marin County in Northern California where I went to work for my father’s Point of Sale business. I helped set up computerized cash registers and programmed various menus. The best part of it was all the great food we got for free.

After that, I went to work for a short time afterwards at a computer company doing IT work. It was rather dull from what I was used to. I developed some bad habits, such as using drugs and alcohol, these led me down a path I don’t recommend for anyone.

I quit the job and started an IT company, which was making quite a large sum of money. Then I met my beautiful wife and I thought life could not get any better. She was a wonderful person, and I still miss her to this day.

Unfortunately, I was unable to handle all the money I made, and had a huge gambling habit. This mixed with drugs caused me to spiral out of control. After four years, my Wife left me, and my business was not doing as well as it once did and declared bankruptcy.

I was suffering from PTSD and Bi-Polar disorder and one day, I ran across a drug dealer, who thought I was an easy target. He began attempting to extort me. A few days later, I caught him abusing his girlfriend’s dog severely, and I was about to whoop him, but his friends kept me from doing so.

I found out he was selling drugs to kids as young as twelve years old, and that was the last straw. I had to do something about it. I knew I should have called the cops, but I decided to handle it myself. I assaulted him, and he landed in the hospital.

Next thing you know I am in jail facing some serious charges. I took a deal for 9 years, and I was not at all happy about it, but my lawyer said he might be able to get me out on probation and shorten my sentence. In court, my lawyer announced me as an American hero, and pointed out that I’ve never been in trouble before, as opposed to the drug dealer, who had been in and out of trouble for domestic violence and narcotics trafficking.

Luckily, my judge had sympathy for me, and I only ended up serving 1 year and four months. I saw many crazy things in there, and met very interesting people, again a story best saved for another post.

The most important thing I learned, was to avoid drugs and alcohol and all costs.

Since leaving jail, I have managed to stay clean and sober, for the most part. There have been a few times where I had a little alcohol, but it’s been over a year now and I have managed to stay away from getting wasted, like I did in the past.

I completed my five-year probation without any violations and am happy that I turned my life around.

I am most thankful for my supportive mother, and my super cute and friendly pup, Penny. They are both so nice and sweet!

I started working on computers again, and soon found out about Bitcoins. I started a mining operation which lasted for two years before the electric bill was too high, and I decided to sell everything.

While I was mining bitcoins, I started a charity organization called computers for science, where I mined bitcoins, and also gave away computers to people who could not afford them. I met a really nice guy named "Gator" and I was able to help him out by giving him free computer. Here's Gator:

I quickly realized that I needed to get back into programming so I could start developing applications for the crypto currency market which I did by going back to school to learn computer science. Which leads me up to the present day. I have managed to have a gpa of 3.92 in college which dwarfs my high school gpa of 2.1.

I enjoy writing creatively, and I am writing two fantasy novels, and also a really funny book about Giant glowing Easter bunnies and sentient diamond underpants which are bipolar.

I also started a cooking blog, which was fun for a while, as well as several other programming project, but I am excited because now I am mining coins again and am back involved with cryptocurrency.

I mine Ethereum and Burstcoin. Burstcoin is exciting because it is a green mining technology. You use your empty hard drive space to mine the coins, so I scrounged up a bunch of old hard drives to start the mining.

Most of all, I am super happy I found out about Steemit, a place for me to write and share all kinds of stories about my life, and also some creative pieces. Another thing I would like to do is discuss the development of applications relating to Steemit.

I hope you enjoyed my story, stay tuned as I plan on sharing more detailed accountings of my wild and exciting life!