Steemfest: Hopes, Dreams, & Realities

Hey guys! Rubellite💖Fae here. I want to give you a bit of a personal update.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind! Thanks to the good folks at #steemprentice I was able to hit the ground running with a sweet $9.57 on my first post! Wow! I was hooked. I starting making a list of the things I want to write about. It grows more quickly than I can tackle. As @sykochica says, "A week on SteemIt feels like a month."

Soon after that first post, I started helping out others in #steemprentice. As Bill Nye says, "Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't." So, I offered what little knowledge I had gained, but just as frequently I asked questions or asked for advice on improving my articles. If you don't already know about it, check out #steemprentice in steemit.chat. Its purpose is to help freshly spawned minnows reach their potential as quickly as possible.

Then, I found out about SteemIt.City by @faddat & @menta! Oh. My. God. This is exactly the kind of thing I've been wanting to get involved with since I moved back to the US!! For those of you who don't know, SteemIt.City is what I would call a hybrid intentional community and tech incubator. In one sense the group is like a very small intentional community or housing co-op. Shared resources include 50~100Mbps ISP, collaboration space, 24/7 chef, solar power, consolidated expenses, etc. In another sense it's more like a tech incubator since you can pay your bill with steem, members are encouraged to follow any passions—technical or artistic—that lead to innovation, they are providing a cloud-based dev environment, and members are encouraged to brainstorm and play off of each other's ideas. I'm so excited about this opportunity. But, we'll talk more about that later. 😘

Then I decided to create SteemIt Japan with @iyuta. The goal of SteemIt Japan is twofold. Eventually, we will be a full-fledged curation account. But, it will take some time to build up enough wealth for that. For now, we curate as much Japanese language content as we can. Our other main function is to promote our "curation roundup" posts on external social media sites. It took some time for Facebook & Twitter to take the Japanese market share from Mixi. But we think, with SteemIt's innovative payment model, once we can get steem or $Ð accepted at Japanese conbini—basically a convenience store that doesn't sell gasoline—SteemIt will be huge in Japan. You see, conbini aren't just where you get junk food. Japanese people pay their rent & utility bills there. They buy required neighbourhood-specific trashbags there. They buy manga there. Most importantly, the Japanese have been using electronic money via mobile NFC wallets since at least 2005, particularly at conbini.

So!!! In the two weeks since I started actively posting I've somehow stumbled into moderatorship of the #steemprentice channel, co-control of @steemitjapan, and have been given posting access to @steemitcity. So yeah, crazy whirlwind. I'm so freaking stoked for all these opportunities. Then, last night, I was told of another opportunity. menta> We got a 20 minute presentation on the (steemfest) main day. Wanna come @RubelliteFae ? So, wow. Just wow. 😱 What an amazing opportunity to meet & discuss ideas with with such important people in the community!!

―❦―

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;

An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

—Apparently, not Winston Churchill
And now the dilemma. A plane ticket alone will cost me $1,200 if I buy it today. Who knows a week from now. I need to scrap together some money fast. ^{I'm not used to asking for things, so this feels totally unnatural.} But, here's the call to action. I'm hoping that you, the SteemIt community, will band together to help me find ways to finance this trip. I have so much to learn, but I also have so much to offer.

I want to do what I can to promote #steemprentice, @steemitcity, and @steemitjapan. And of course, I'll make frequent posts through #steemfest weekend, so you all can better feel involved in the festivities! Also, if anyone reading this lives in Amsterdam and has an extra couch… I can like, cook for you or something. 😅

I'll be putting out follow-up posts to report on progress or setbacks toward finding my way to #steemfest. Bots, please don't flag me if I copy my own stuff.

Recent articles:
How to Wordwrap Your Images Like a Boss
Boring: Founding Docs; Exciting: Tropical Photos!!! Accepting Input on Both
Streeming: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: First Assault ONLINE
My entry for this week's #positivity contest.

Edit: Wow! What a thing to wake up to! Thank you so much for the outpouring of love, guys. I'm so excited!!!
Special thanks go out to @thecryptofiend.

Attributions:

• SteemIt.City logo:
• This work was created for use by SteemIt.City. I'll let you know what the usage rights are when I find out. We're busy working on more important stuff.
• All other images created by me, RubelliteFae.
• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
•