Thursday Ramble Through Steemit -- Notes on My Favourite Reads Sept 8th

I’m late getting up and around this morning. I was awake for an hour during the night and went back to sleep. I’m surprised Dawn let me sleep until 7, she’s normally pretty prompt at demanding attention at 5am. 

Today is my next elder brother’s birthday. Since he’s not in contact with his siblings by his own choice. I’ll give him some thought today but leave it at that. We make our choices in life and we live with the results. 

I strolled back through the Steem Chat channels for my first reading queue. Then I looked through my feed and the new posts. That gives me 35 open links to start with. 

I’m rather enjoying doing these rambles. Reading and taking notes reminds me of when I was a youngster. I was too old to go to the children’s activity class during church so I had to sit with my parents during church. The sermons were boring and I would get restless which would really tick my parents off. Finally, my mother suggested I take notes on the sermon. The act of taking notes made me listen more and the sermons were not so boring. 

Now, I’m not saying that what I’m reading on Steemit is boring. I’m saying that when I’m taking notes, I am more attentive to wanting to catch the essence of not only what the writer has written but what I take from the writing. 

Entrepreneurship: Follow Your Dreams And Work For Yourself

@doitvoluntarily writes about entrepreneurship, a growing trend in some ways. Not everyone is cutout for self-employment for various reasons. Some have great ideas but are too frightened by the thought of unstable income to ever try to make them happen. I’ve never really done well in traditional employment arrangements so, self-employment has been my survival mode. 

Let these awesome ANIMATED images play with our mind (art by Yoni Alter)

@sebastien has shared some animated gifs of what appears to be just random colour spots until they move. A neat set of pictures. And yes @sebastien, I saw the 2 :) 

Buddhist Philosophy for Beginners: Understanding Emptiness

@aaronkoenig has written an excellent piece on the basics of Buddhism. He makes the connection between some of the Buddhist beliefs and science which I’d never known before. Years ago I had a friend who collected anything Buddha, he looked a little like him, I guess that was the draw. He was a great friend too, so I’ve always been a bit partial towards Buddha. 

Steemprentice: Steemit Mentoring Group - Launch Announcement

There are some really great initiatives underway on Steemit which help to foster community through helping others. @sykochica has started an effort to mentor new Steemians on how to navigate through the initial growth on the site. It’s pretty easy when you start to become discouraged when your posts go unnoticed and no upvotes on them. Kudos to @sykochica and those who join in to help out. 

I spoke to @sykochica briefly in the steemprentice channel today. He made this comment “some time is being spent looking for 'frustrated/giving up/leaving steemit' type posts as well as very new user (usually unconnected here) posts so we can actively reach out to them”. So, if you see posts like this.. Help out by leaving a comment on the post to direct them to the channel. 

Apple is adding a Bitcoin Wallet to iMessage

@spartanza writes on the news that Apple is adding a Bitcoin wallet to iMessage. Couple that with the news yesterday of Microsoft’s interest in the blockchain tech, it’s becoming real clear that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are entering the mainstream. Wont matter if we understand it, we’ll likely be needing to figure out how to navigate it. For those guarding their privacy closely, Apple’s news will be interesting but they will be unlikely to be rushing to embrace Apple’s contribution. 

5 Things I've Managed To Improve, Achieve And Do During My 2 Months On Steemit.

@hitmeasap is one of the first I started following when I arrived on Steemit a month ago. I was stumbling around the place and trying to sort out how it worked. I happened to read one of his posts and saw the comment about following and went “how do I do that?”, explored and found how to do so. 

Since then it seems I keep stumbling across his posts and enjoying them. Other than when I’m selecting posts to read from my feed, I don’t stick to writers I follow, nor do I choose posts based on who I’m familiar with. If a post catches my eye, I look at it. 

@hitmeasap writes a very honest post here about his time on Steemit and how he feels it has benefited him. Was interesting to see in the comments, others feel the same. They have experienced positive improvements in their own lives. Must be something to a site focusing more on original quality content then posting a lot of already used material. 

#22KILL 22 Push-ups for 22 Days - Raising awareness for Veteran Suicide through Steemit [Day 5]

I did say I was going to keep on supporting this initiative. @senseiteekay is making donations in multiples of $22 and currently needs $18.50 to make the next donation. Let’s upvote and help that along. 

The End Of The Daily Pick Of Hidden Gems (featuring @dragonslayer109 as author)

While this post is on @gavvet’s account my comments here are a shoutout to @dragonslayer109 and his work on the Daily Pick of Hidden Gems he did. With this post he’s moving on to something else. Will be watching to see what it is. 

When I first came on to Steemit, in the material I read I learned the site would reward you for ‘curation’. I found that really interesting as I’d just been doing some research on how to properly curate material on the web. It didn’t take me long to realize that the way it was setup on here was more a race to be the first to upvote posts. 

Then I came across @dragonslayer109 Daily Pick of Hidden Gems and started watching for them. I found some neat people to follow through those links and I guess that is part of my hope in sharing my notes on the reading I do as I ramble through Steemit each day. That you'll find some neat people to follow. 

Thank you for your efforts @dragonslayer109

If It Were Mine To Change: My answer to @stellabelle and why

One of the hotly discussed topics on Steemit is how to change and grow the system from where it is. There is no shortage of opinions and rants posted on the subject. I often read them, I don’t often feel inclined to say much about them. I think @clevecross has some good points about people being able to not only personalize their accounts but for a system which rewards them for their participation in the community. 

#DolphinSchool 13 Tips on Audience building, a backup image tool and more!

Yesterday I introduced you to @markrmorrisjr’s fiction. Today, I found he’d published another Dolphin School post. I really like these posts. They are full of really good content and ideas on how to grow and prosper here at Steemit. I have a couple of them bookmarked so I can go back and review them. 

I’m thinking about starting a page on my non-Steemit blog with links to helpful posts here for newbies. Dolphin School posts would be a candidate for that if I do it. 

My thirst for knowledge is what drives me

I can really relate to this post of @mlialen, I believe that is why I have never lost interest in reading and never spent a lot of time reading fiction. There is just too much to learn in the world. Having said that, fiction can teach a lot. No writer can write good quality fiction without having understood and researched the real world aspects of the writing. 

Flash Fiction: Recollection

Flash fiction is often an under appreciated art form. Takes skill to paint a word picture and tell a brief story in very few words. I think @steemitpatina is done admirably here. 

11 cat photos are taken at the right time , looks COOL!!!

If you’ve been reading any of my rambles you’ll know by now I’m owned by a couple of cats. So, no surprise that a post with cat pictures would catch my attention. Like most photography, just that right moment is the difference between an okay picture and a cool one. @odyprabowo has found an assortment of cool ones and there are more in the comment section. Enjoy. 

Chocolate Production, From Beans to Chocolate Bars

@pakganern has done a great job of describing the process that brings us chocolate. Some great pictures in the post. Well worth looking at if you enjoy chocolate. 

Echoes from the past, made to last

@oaldamster writes a touching reflection on life, those we live our life with and our thoughts on losing them triggered by a picture from the past. Well worth the read. I think most of us will relate to parts or all of what he’s written. 

Delicious Pinto Beans - How to Make Pinto Beans

I don’t normally bother looking at recipes on there because I’m aware that a lot of them are copied from elsewhere without the author putting any original content into them. 

This one caught my eye. Winter is coming on and I tend to eat more legumes in the winter. @micheletrainer has written a good recipe write-up here and I got a kick out of her creative display promoting her friends at the end. 

Revamping Curation Is The Way To Increase Steem Power Demand

@calaber24p has written an interesting piece here on how the approach to curation rewards can be utilized to stimulate an increase in Steem Power demand. Some interesting points of thought there. 

Why aren’t the Whales Voting? - Steem Smart Podcast Ep. 9c

Being a reader more than a listener, I don’t usually bother with podcasts. This one caught my attention and I decided to listen in. It was interesting. I liked the style of the hosts, Stephen Polsky ( @shneakysquirrel ), Renee Nouveau ( @reneenouveau ) and George Donnelly ( @georgedonnelly ). I may take the time to listen to the other episodes which are listed on the post. Or, I can subscribe on my ipad and listen while I’m reading. 

That's A Wrap for Day 6

That’s a wrap of the 6th day of my 30 day challenge to share notes about my reading on Steemit. I’m glad today was one that I was mostly able to be on Steemit and not interrupted by real world duty. 

I read about 40 links by the time I was done and just a quick check I think I made notes on 18 of them. Lots of good stuff on here. Please visit the links to upvote and comment, especially if you agree with my thoughts on the posts. 

If you like this, please follow me and upvote the post. 

If you’d like to see the other days I’ve posted, just visit my profile 

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