Minnow of The Week + Introduction and Goals

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Hi fellow Steemians, my name is Mark and I live in a small town of around 13,000 people in New Zealand called Oamaru. Although my name is Mark my wife, her family and my close friends call me Jack. Hence the photo of me standing outside a place called “Outback Jacks”.
When I first met my wife she decided that I looked more like a Jack than a Mark so she started introducing me to her family and friends as Jack and it kinda stuck.

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When I first started out on Steemit, I thought I would showcase Oamaru and all the interesting things about it. Being the birthplace of the Steampunk Movement and Steampunk Capital of the World, Oamaru is filled with Steampunk Art so I thought it would be a great idea to showcase it. Here is an example.

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Steampunk Train

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And here’s another example

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Kaleidoscope Machine

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We also have great architecture in Oamaru and there is a whole area called the Victorian Precinct.

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The Criterion Hotel

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And here’s another example of the Victorian Precinct

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Harbour Street

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But then after a few days of being on Steemit I decided it would be a great place to showcase some of my Oamaru Stone Sculptures and also some of my Poetry.
Here are some examples of some of my work. Further explanation can be found on my blog as some of these sculptures also have a function.

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My goals are to get as many people in Oamaru onto the Steemit platform but it is proving difficult as so far the people I have spoken to are all avid Facebook users and Steemit can be hard to get your head around and hard to get rewards in the beginning so some may lose interest after only a few days.

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If I had more Steemit power it would be a lot easier to get them interested as my upvotes would have more weight and it may serve to keep them interest if they see they are getting good rewards when I upvote them rather than just 1 cent.

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There are some good photographers where I work and I know they have some great photography to share. I aspire to be a whale one day and to also buy some Steem to also increase my power which would also help to reward the people I introduce. I would of course also like my sculptures, poetry and photos to gain more attention but am finding this very difficult indeed. And although my posts have earned over $2 in the past week, nothing is showing in my author rewards or curation rewards. They are a big fat zero. My wallet has even dropped from when I first signed up which I don’t understand and it’s showing I that I have gained no SP since I started which is very disappointing. Where oh where have my rewards and SP gone.

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Anyhow, that’s a bit about me and my blog and my goals for this year and any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I believe I have honourable goals and try to post quality content and winning this contest would help me to spread the word about Steemit and help others to get started and stay engaged with the Steemit Community.