RE: A Geek in Prison - A Life Series by Charlie Shrem (Preamble)
I spent a year in prison in Bulgaria a related 'offense'. Namely, I was operating, quite unsuccessfully, a vendor account at The Silk Road. I have still not yet made a post about the subject but you certainly could encourage me to do so ;)
I am pretty sure I am the only person who has ever been caught in this business in Bulgaria, and probably some people might think I am mad for sticking to the decision I made before I got into trouble, that I want to make this funny little country my long term home. I have also by chance bumped into very interesting theories about this part of the world relating to the old Bible story of the Flood, which as you may know is a story that has found its' way into many other cultures' legends.
The short version of the theory is that the flood was in fact caused by a long period of heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of the Black Sea that saw it rise so much that it became possible to navigate from it into the Mediterranean.
Bulgaria is the main neighbour to the contentious nation of Turkey, which also was the centre of the Roman Empire in its late stages, and in modern Bulgaria, the revolution that saw Bulgaria become independent from the Ottoman Empire still today is a major subject of discussion and hundreds of historic locations and memorials throughout the country.
Bulgaria; Turkey type countries, I understand some people live in those places their entire lives. I understand also that some non native people choose to visit those countries...
Planter Earth is a BIG place; why would average type people choose to go to such places?
I never adventure to anywhere I cannot speak the language, cannot eat the food or I would want to carry a gun. People who visit such countries should get five years in jail just for being so personally irresponsible.
Did you know it is illegal to visit North Korea, Iran or Syria; that list should include at least 97 other countries. Fools visit these countries and then expect their overseas government officials to help them resolve their local difficulties.
In fact it is a common practice in South East Asian countries to 'arrest' Westerners just to "drop all charges" once fines have been paid...
After all people have to make money right ? : )
/ hugz ;)
It's nowhere near as bad here like that as other places, I would never visit Turkey, for example, that place is a hellhole. I fucked up royally to get myself into that shitty situation, invested way too much in low demand items, spent too much money on what really amounted to silly chemistry experiments, and then I topped it off by letting a complete stranger in on it, and getting him to got shop my lagging inventory around on the local market. I couldn't have been more stupid.
But because this country has such a low cost of living, if you can find some other, perhaps safer way of making money, you can start small and move up quickly. This is partly why I am so excited about Steem. It potentially could be an avenue for me to do this. I have always wanted to be able to spend my time on developing interesting software, and if I do that here, for Steem, then naturally I will get a share of the investment yields as such additions help boost the investment in Steem.
Firstly I always say to people if you know another language please use that language to stand out from the English speaking crowd within the steemuniverse.
I think my biggest complaint is the vastly different types of cultures that can cause problems when people travel a bit. Some people are semi-professional travelers and over time I suspect they get very adept at knowing what to do, where not to wander and how to communicate and when further information should be referenced.
Speaking for myself I set my personal goals at a more realistic level such as I am usually subconsciously pleased when I manage to put my pants on in the correct way without always being consciously aware of it...
Somehow I suspect that is why I like steemland so much, I can author an incredibly inappropriate rant about why the Constitution should be alters to make ex-politicians mandatory army live firing range target holders; the next might be a different type of post.
Regardless I can hide out herein anonymously and the worst I risk is some trolls and a flame war, whereas to mess up in a foreign country. That creates a whole new set of unknown variables and problems to be encountered. . .
A friend of mine got appendicitis when in Italy; now such a situation should not become tragic but her situation was far more complicated simply by communication problems and cultural differences. Thankfully she had nothing more than a routine surgery and a minor horror story due to differing opinions and expectations.
My advice try and stick to the things your comfortable with, act conservatively and always suspect the worst while hoping for the best...
/ hugz ;)
Aз mога да говоря български, но уменията ми не са толкова добри, но аз се опитвам да се подобри, когато мога.
i also am not fully familiar with the ways of writing it better, also because of no practice at doing so. almost every bulgarian I speak to IRL or online just reverts to english, because they have good english.
Because I have spent a year inside in this country, I was forced to learn a lot more and now that I am free, after 9 months back in the country, I can get by quite well when my counterparty does not know english well.
It is a great adventure and I do my best to pay attention and improve what I know, whenever the opportunity presents.
желая, че повече хора от българия идва тук. аз съм сигурен че с време повече българи ще идва.
I have little trouble writing half decent, broken bulgarian with a pen or pencil, but on a computer, it is harder. even in this very country, small as it is, there is a lot of disagreement between people about what is the correct way to latinise, there is about 4 different systems used online, and even on signs erected by the fucking government, are all kinds of grammatical and spelling errors. Depending on which canon of bulgarian language you talk about. It's pretty funny, really.
Here is the preamble, and story of the first minutes of my arrest:
https://steemit.com/story/@l0k1/life-in-prison-in-bulgaria-what-you-need-to-know-if-you-are-as-stupid-as-i-was-part-1
I will continue it in a second one. There is so much background information I got a bit lost. But I hope you enjoy :)