What in the HECK is going on with InquiringTimes? Cracked Block Blues, Welcoming Contest, etc.

When I got back from Lisbon I had a few things on my agenda.

In no particular order:

• Write about SteemFest
• Start heading South for the Winter
• Pay off previous bills, and debts from SteemFest
• Keep the ball rolling with #newsteem
• Finish creating this EPIC Welcoming contest

(from: pixabay.com - OpenClipart)

When it rains it pours.

Now of course there are more projects and plans in a day than there are hours, so that much is to be expected. My "deep coverage" of the livestream is very time intensive. My engine cracked open from a hard freeze while I was in the air, on the way back from Steemfest...

wait, what?

Yeah, that last one has taken me for a spin.

So instead of being on the road, catching some seasonal work and continuing with business as usual on Steem, I've been looking for a new engine, a mechanic who will do the work in a timely manner (an hopefully not super expensive), as we meander deeper into the winter months. This has all been pretty stressful, and expensive in money I don't actually have. So... I've said all I really want to say about that. The "new" engine is installed, and I'm going to pick up the truck later today, and hope that everything works the way it's supposed to. Getting an engine replaced, in a pinch, on a budget, at the beginning of winter is not fun, stressful, and there are many questions I won't have the answers to until I make some miles and test it out. I don't really want to dwell on this, as it's taken up a lot of my emotional energy already.

Aaaanyways

Since I've been developing this "Welcoming Contest" for almost 3 months now, I decided that some other things could wait, like this has.

(wikipedia)

Basically, what we are talking about here is a contest that is designed to incentivize all of the activities which surround welcoming new users to the Steem platform.

There will be 8 rounds, of individual contests, over the course of 5 weeks, which currently has 700 Steem dedicated to it by our generous sponsors.

We will be searching out the best helpful guides, creating new guides, all sorts of fun activities that will improve the New User Experience, and improve retention rates. I'm sure we'll all make a few new friends in the process as well.

(from: publicdomainpictures.net)

Somewhere in all of this I'll be unveiling a new discord server that I've been slowly putting together called "The Welcoming Committee". The idea is to make a place where we can focus hands on attention to new users, and help them to grow. This will include realtime editing, mentorships, connecting people with the information, and other communities on Steem that will help them to grow.

All of this is just a teaser to whet your appetite for the contest, and mentoring, and to get me mentally and spiritually prepared to dedicate an entire 5 weeks to doing nothing else but focusing on these welcoming activities.

Thanks for stopping by!

p.s. @steemitbc recently interviewed me (my first interview on Steemit, or maybe ever). Check it out if you want to know a little more about who I am:

Meet The Blogger Central Steemian: @inquiringtimes