Steemit has not all been fun and games for me. For about the past month and a half, I’ve been spending a lot of time on steemit. Often, I now spend several hours a day just working on posts. It has certainly been a fun and exciting time, and I’ve even made some good friends and money along the way.

However, there have also been many “job hazards” that I have encountered along the way. Thankfully, I’ve made it through mostly unharmed and have not yet died in the process. Here a just a few of the hazards that I have encountered along the way.

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JOB HAZARD #1 – MISIDENTIFICATION

Early on in my steemit adventure, I began a series called THE EDIBLE OUTDOORS. So far, I have made 17 posts in that series, and I think that it is doing quite well. One of the rules for the series was that if I featured a plant in a series, I would eat the plant that I photographed prior to posting, so that I could personally vouch for the edibility of the plant.

Though I laid down the foundation that I am not an expert, but just a man on an adventure who is sharing, and that none of what I post should ever be interpreted as medical or professional advice, I still want to make sure that I am being as credible and honest in my posts as I can be. Though I have never misidentified featured plant in my posts, I did make a comment about Wood Sorrel and Purslane in my Dandelion post.

While I was working, I noticed some weeds growing outside and ate them after taking some pictures. Those pictures and that experience wound up in the Dandelion post. Afterwards though, I realized that the pictures plant which I claimed to be Purslane was actually Spurge. Yes, I had ingested a poisonous plant! I had thought that there various kinds of Purslane, and was mistaken!

Now, of course I’m fine, and I didn’t even notice any negative effects after eating it, but who really knows. When I made the actual post on Purslane I made sure to point out this error. Thankfully, the @papa-pepper show goes on.

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JOB HAZARD #2 – VENOMOUS SNAKES

In my line of work on steemit, I spend a lot of time outdoors. This certainly gives me some great opportunities to take some wonderful pictures and have some adventure, but it can also be dangerous. For the Steemit Photo Challenge Shadow Contest, I produced the gem below. This, of course brought me in contact with the Pygmy Rattlesnake used in the photo.

That wasn’t the most dangerous part, though. Since I try to verify my work with a “proof” at the end of most of my posts, I had to somehow get my face, the word “steemit” and the rattlesnake in the same shot.

Obviously, it worked… but still. Then, sometime later when we were done enjoying the dessert I made for the recent Steemit Food Challenge, I almost stepped on another Pygmy Rattlesnake.

Interestingly enough, the title of that specific contest was “Desserts to Die For”. Once again, thankfully, I didn’t

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JOB HAZARD #3 – SLEEP DEPREVATION

Though I only work on steemit in my “spare time”, I am still working a normal job away from home. Doing both of these takes a lot of my time. Since I still work all day many days of the week, working on posts for a few hours after that doesn’t leave much left for sleeping. Two nights ago I went to bed at about 1:30 am and awoke at 5 am. Last night I got to be a little earlier, about 1:00 am, and didn’t wake up until 6:30 am, so that was a little better.

I know that some of you might sleep even less, but personally, I’d prefer to sleep a little more than that. Every once in a while, I can handle it, but this has kind of been going on for weeks now.

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JOB HAZARD #4 – POISON IVY

This is another occupational hazard that I encounter while working on posts for steemit. If I’m out in the woods searching for wild edibles to use in an EDIBLE OUTDOORS post or as an ingredient for a recipe I’m posting, encountering such hazards as Poison Ivy are almost inevitable.

Thankfully, I’ve only gotten one small patch on the back of my arm so far in my time on steemit. As I consider it, perhaps steemit is actually preventing me from encountering more Poison Ivy, since I now spend so much more time on the computer. Usually, I’m kind of covered in Poison Ivy for most of the summer.

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JOB HAZARD #5 – FLAG WARS

Though I have personally never flagged anyone’s comments or posts and I have never been flagged myself that I am aware of, I realize that a real threat does exist. It seems that flagging can lead to vengeance flagging, which can quickly spin out of control.

Since I can choose what I look at and what I do not, I do not consider flagging a post or comment a valid response if I do not appreciate it. I have certainly seen posts that I disagreed with, but I chose just to overlook them and not upvote them. Periodically, people have replied with comments to my posts that I did not appreciate, but it seems that others quickly flag them and “make them disappear” by having them fade into the background.

It is perhaps a good thing to have the option to flag plagiarized and stolen material, but thankfully I haven’t had to. The occupational hazard of flag wars exists for every user, and I’m glad that I haven’t been affected by it yet.

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JOB HAZARD #6 - SCORPIONS

Since we continue to be in a struggle to get noticed and keep our followers "fed," periodically we have to step up our game. When I encountered a Scorpion recently, I remembered that they glow under a black light, and immediately knew that I had a post on my hands.

This of course meant that I had to handle a scorpion and convince it to cooperate for some photos. We even took a few with it in my hand and then I made a video about how I pick them up. Of course for this post, I just put it on my tongue, which was a brand new experience for me, not to mention the scorpion. No stings yet, though that could make a great post too!

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CONCLUSION

Obviously some of the occupational hazards that I mentioned are more specific to @papa-pepper, but the other ones can affect us all (like sleep deprivation and flag wars). We should all strive to be aware of the potential hazardous situations around us, and do our best to stay safe!

Thanks for your time.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:

proof-job-hazards-haven't-phased-me-yet

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Awesome Handcrafted @papa-pepper logo kindly donated by @vlad - Thank you!