Musing 4

Who is your Salt of the Earth Steemian? For me life without #carlgnash's steem donation, early on in my steem career, would not have been possible here.

Dear Sukhasana’s-Eleven

(my average number of voters, whom I naturally assume are my regular readers. What else can I do?)

9.34 am and I take a quick glance through my feed. There is the usual show-casing of old-artworks, new-creations, fresh dawns, old weddings, practice paintings, and as ever, without fail, one or more of sweet zpn’s eternal quotes. The latter brings me to one of the many queries regards the System here I have failed to grasp. I only have myself to blame, I will be the first to admit. I quite simply haven’t had or made the time to look into it and a few tentative inquiries here or there did not result in any clarification.

Our charming (and stunning) Iranian #zpzn, along with #kalemandra are the most consistent posters here. Round of applause. Ok, me included - but no way that profusely. Is it a good thing, is it a bad thing? Fortunately there is no judgment here, at least very little “right judgment” you have to worry yourselves about. But there are statistics. So let’s take a look at what has me so miffed and then call me a Bolshevik.

Aside

Please do, call me something Russian, for I’ve been learning Russian in my sleep last night. I guess someone is trying to tell me something in his native tongue. I was looking for a summary of Macbeth on my Audiobook provider, because I am struggling to recognise the plot in Nesbo’s crime-rewrite set in the Scottish policeforce. Lovely Scottish narrator, but a weird Macbeth I have trouble following in and out of his drug haze. And who’s the lady running the casino supposed to be?

“You will learn many useful action verbs such as TO BE, TO DO, TO GO, TO LISTEN, TO HEAR, TO SEE”
(Wow. Looking forward to learning on so many levels from this amazing Max. Even teaching Cambridge Certificate students the difference between to listen and to hear is a massively tall order.) The course doubles up as a refresher course for English for Russians, by the way, so Bollinger promises. ↑

So anyway, no time like the wee hours of the night to catch up on yet another literary lacuna, therefore, the gods as ever keen to provide, out of the post-midnight-blue, there pops up: “Easy Russian for English Speakers (2)". Due to the kind of wyrd run of “coincidences” that puts an esoteric researcher on alert, I had to press play on this ludicrous misfit placed in between 13 other narrations, dramatisations and a few ebooks giving us all a better or worse rendition of the tragedy. (By the by: Will be writing a disgruntled letter to my public library, who feel they are keeping up with the times with their new audiobook app (that comes with an exclusive membership) but have only gone and put the Libravox audiobook of Macbeth on! One American teen for Lady follows the next dopey Mexican drawl for a Banquo and that has to make do for a cast. Sigh.)

Sooo, anyway, I let this mad, mad language course run on for a bit, because its introduction is hillarious. This dude (with excellent English, and because he has excellent English as taught by the method he now hopes to imitate) promises to teach me (phonetically correct) Russian with the help of readings from Pushkin and Chekov, a speech by the astronaut Yuri Gagarin and readings from Macbeth (?? Yes, now I come to think of it, I learned during my studies of Boris Pasternak - translator of - that Shakespeare was BIG in the USSR). I’ve got to see how this feat can be achieved!! No more getting stuck on the Cyrillic script: just dive in! Language emersion worked for Spanish, after all.

Okay, okay, granted I am missing the prequel two-hour course, so I am expecting difficulties. But we start off easily enough learning about the naming system that has everybody dazzled in Dr. Zhivago, The Idiot and Fathers and Sons. How the middle name is a patronymic, and the endings of the surname are female or male - don't try to be gender neutral in Russia - and o's pronounced as a's etc etc, but fortunately Russian comes from the same family as English, we are reassured, and so we’ll soon catch on. (The word família prooves that: only take care to put the accent on the “i” in pronounciation).

Apparently, - the app informs me - I have finished the training and I may well be able to recite Onegin fluently and “talk about our planet earth in Russian”, but so far, it’s all a bit unconscious for me, yet, since I think I dropped off about 9 minutes into the the course.

I return to my more conscious Steemit query.

Back to Trusty Stats

If we compare #zpzn to #ehr.germany, the former (58), the latter only one-up from that on (59), I tentatively conclude, the one goal I always had in mind to reach (50) before I reached 50, is pretty nonsensical by Steemit statistics. I have learned since making this cute commitment that it is a “reputation” figure but it means nothing - eventhough it makes you more powerful a voter - the little that ever achieves. A more generous donor, perhaps, which is a noble striving in and of itself. Does it also not come with greater (community) responsibilities? I.e. demand new levels of judgment, sponsorship, social inclusion?

I am still left mystified on other fronts. For example, how did we get to be so powerful? Are we valid members of the community? If so, how so? By time? By engagement? By wealth? By popularity? None of the above factor in convincingly.

Let us examine how not by comparing the aforementioned dear friends.

After all, what else do these two have in common to guarantee the value of a reputation? (I love comparing these two if only for my penchant for the Russian-Iranian theme, which is so significant to me, as the ones in the know know - and only marginally applies for these two.)

Erika Reglin-Hormann has posted 2292 times to date. Zpzn: 4246 (me: 2304, not including this one: joined same time as zpzn). Wait, let me pull up a chair and give you a table. (There has to be a first for everything here.) Note, Erika joined 3 months prior to us.

Steemians	erh	zpzn	sukhasana
Posts	2292	4246	2304
Followers	784	985	428
Rep	59	58	54
Value	5212	676	728

The dollars don’t lie. But what does the value of your account really tell us? That you've "earned it", without a doubt. There has to be a financial model for this explaining everything in marvellous pies or hills, or whatever pretty shapes charts come in, but for me, right now, nothing is taking shape. I presume that for half the world of simple posters it isn't either. But who cares. Do you understand your own tax bill?

Was I hoping for a job descripiton? Possibly, since I tend to avoid crushes (see previous post), and therefore assumed this was not a social media site, where you come as you are to show off your latest party dress. For a while I thought it might lead to something like #adsactly proposes to be (useful. But I have proven the expertise available there to be limited as yet: there seem to be no rock lovers on board, yet, see post before previous post).

How does the system interlock into an organic whole, a cosmic unit? Looking but not seeing. Listening but not hearing. Or hearing that there is nothing to listen to…..

Clearly there is no equal footing to be had on consistent posting alone. On content little can be said. We are not editors of the TLS. We like what we like, but by what criteria? Mine, to be honest, and it is no secret anymore, have had to plummet to a level of emotional affection. It is otherwise impossible to vote. The advice from the All Mighty Steem System Leaders to upvote Great Quality in line with your personal preferences will never promote or encourage a new social construct. In my eyes, and I know in those of the academic, scientific and political (i.e. ruling) world in general it is farcical. Meh, it keeps the plebs happy, so we let it ride. Why do you think the goverment doesn't give a hoot about what goes no here! (And Venezuelans and Iranians can come on here...) Mabye they'll come round to squeezing a little tax juice of of us somehow yet, but for the rest... it's not a fat cow. Just a golden calf.

. . . and why do we over-contrast our photos? Is this maybe the vote-puller?

We Vote With Our Hearts

As such an etheric mesh lies loosely around some people who happen to be on Steemit, forming a very, very faint etheric constellation. For me, therefore it was quintessential to pin-point souls around the world to study how we as people are still at all in sync with the World Ether.

I vote for #zpzn because she is in Iran, as I vote for #gabyoraa because she is in Venezuela, but #magdasierra because there is also something other (eventhough we don't socialise) and the same goes for #sina-aventure (who happens to be Iranian, $27, rep (41), joined 2 months ago), with whom I've had more exchanges. Eventhough he is (groan) another photographer, he seems adventurous in a creative way (for a photographer and avid biker) and intelligent enough - no Pulitzer prize winner, but with an English I have to admire: I so wonder which course he fell asleep on to arrive at this fluent level.

If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't vote for another photographer again.

There might be exceptions.
#sriz, the Indian in Finland just tickles my fancy for the combination of the most colourful of the east and the purest (climate) of the west in a most down-to-earth person (allowing for the socks) he is. He keeps me in touch with the Baltic.
The same can be said for #livinadream, a Lithuanian in Ireland, who has made some exceptional photos on his travels around the world. But now he's back "home", being a responsible father, the posts are few and far between, and generally aimes to attract the professional photo scene. So, that's me back out of the picture. (Once bitten, twice shy!)
#bookpacker are my faves. All their photos make me want to go to India - and I am no fan of travel.

#vtravels is a Welshwoman who presents herself predominantly within her professional capacity of wedding photographer, but in the nicest possible way with her people-person quality always to the fore. #adamo is a Polish photographer, also with a human face, but also staying very close to his professional niche. Do we have a duty of care to upvote good people? After all, there is no denying their pictures are good. But are they good Steemit content? It takes us back to the age old question: what is your motivation for being here?

And so we come back to the tiny circle of people who are connected to eachother by intangible forces, which can partially be attributed to similar backgrounds, degrees of education, special interests and experiences in common, and partially less easily be grasped.

There are the community maters ( #violetmed and #jayna) and the fast growing number of art-dealers/gallery owners and selling artists and their extensive communities of independent thinkers. To my great surprise I have yet to come across a more arrogant and insecure bunch of people unless it's the pedantic Christians and the self-righeous New Ageies. I reall mustn't generalise, but I do. And cannot single out any examples, for on their own they are all quite fine again. I realise the artists have a lot of real-life invested in their presence here. Mind the toes that barely tip the earth. Above all, always leave the philosopher to see it their way (the greatest birth I take is around that tag).

Finally, in today's list of honoroble mentions are the stream of writers. Free, constrained or on an island of their own making, the fiction gushes forth here on Steemit. I suppose some of the higher quality, shorter anecdotal or story writing makes for the office or commuter snack, and there might be a (small) market for it. Most of it though is probably only interesting for the writer who wants to meet his crafting strength... The last time I really looked into this (on #busy #felt-buzz was on a roll with character-limited writing. It's another discipline one could be getting on with, but I can't help translating all this writing into reams of paper stuffed into bottom drawers, that one day need to end up somwhere....

A very different vote goes out to #elementm (who resides in Trinidad, I discovered very recently) who caught my eye early on as a particularly gifted wordsmith and highly sensitive, deep, creative-thinker without any nonsense, pretense, or complications.

Clear or not, may it indicate that I have been unable to find any other good and systematic reasons to vote with a single pure and simple sympathy.

All Steemians are equal only some Steemians are more equal than others.

The conclusions drawn from the statistics leave most of my questions unposed (why do some hold onto steem? How does someone with an average of 9 votes collect 465 followers? Hoe does one save? [$4!] Can you grow without Discord interaction? Must you sign up for a string of financers? How is this a non-profit corporation? Why is there a pyramid structure of growth as if there is a career to be had here?)

← Show us how you really feel! Get yourself a pair of cartoon eyes. More available here.

All these questions, I'm not even sure I am seeking answers to this late in the day, tell me that there is no hope for the prospector in me and more of a socialist in me than I ever had recognised before. I cannot put my finger on the (social) corruption here, but I recognise it’s the same as it is anywhere. Or #kimberlylane and #malloryblythe would be trending. And the stop-start #blankcanvas86 would be more motivated to develop her potential to surpass them all. I even wonder whether the one most likely to please a larger audience and reach greater heights, the already relatively successful #riverflows - (56), $915 only here since March! - could ever live off their posts. Not to mention all those nomads, campers, farmers and #trucklife-family people who are looking for a social network. I suppose the income proper is reserved for the madhouse-conference goers who go-go-go with carboncle eyes.

In sum my conclusions based on my flair with statistics:

• Posting lots of sweet little not-much-of-anythings is not a road paved with gold, but it does rake in the followers.
  And/Or,
• Earning (by votes) is not dependent on followers or commensurate to reputation (or I would be at least half as rich as erh).
  And/Or,
• There are no correlations on Steemit, relationships are illusional, afer all.

Anyway. It’s all good fun.
So much so that Erika is back, full steem ahead, if slightly on a new, daring track of writing fiction in a foreign language. If you are into something a little “blue”(part 1), or love animals (part 2) or are into anthropology (part 3) then check out her latest novelist aspirations.

So much so that there is no stopping Zpzn! As long as there be quotes there will be this lovely Steemian. (Besides she has started to share her artistic side and occasional reads).

So much so I put on my stripey tights yesterday.

And in that spirit of good fun I launch a competition called:

Let’s take a look out of the kitchen window.

What do you think that white blob is, outside in my garden?

Guaranteed to bring in the punters: a quiz, a contest, or a competition. No? What about my legs then? Steemit debauches!

Have fun submitting your entries before 31st May!

Winners will receive something from the tombola, life's great wheel of fortune.

P.S. Whose brilliant idea was it to tie a rabbit and a monkey to a wheel and send them spinning in an endless loop!? On behalf of all these good souls, we protest and are not amused. We strongly feel that this discriminates against people born in the following years: 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016. and 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, limiting their faith in the future and we request that you consider changing the design of your Tarot card to be less restrictive to us.

This instead of my reaction to a comment in a post - somewhere - which raised a vehement objection to the use of the offensive "Chinese Whispers", proposing instead the non-racist determiner of the same game: "telephone". I think half of us would no longer know what the game is trying to achieve, but never mind. We don't want to upset the delicate Chinese, now, do we. (A Chinese-Dutchman I consulted doesn't see the problem, but feels his native tongue is insulted by the term Double-Dutch.) I hope the challenge (which indeed altered its name in response to the critique) is going well. Just so you know, dear commenter, I am hoping for an Indian summer.