So...Hi, y'all!

Introductions, finally!

I hang out on Google+ with a bunch of gamer friends and one of them discovered Steem and in August, pointed a few of us over here. I created an account and started poking around and reading the whitepaper and figuring out what's what. I noticed right up front that there's this #introduceyourself tag and people do that, but I didn't really know what to say. And then, I started trying to get involved in a few things and eventually it felt weird to introduce myself as a newbie when I'd been here for several weeks. But I've decided that's silly.

So hi, I'm Chris!

You can see from the picture that I attached to my user account when I first got started, that I have long hair. I'm not actually a long-hair guy over my adult history. I typically just buzz my head once or twice per year when my hair gets annoying, but since I'm starting to grey, I decided this was my last chance to grown a full head of blonde "viking" hair so I let it go for three years. But just last night, I chopped it all off!

I live in Minnesota, USA (near, but outside the Twin Cities) and we're heading into winter here (it gets pretty cold), so this was maybe premature, but I was tired of caring for it and what's done is done.

There's obviously a ton of interest in crypto-currency here, so I'll talk about my own relevant background a little. In the very early 90s, I read the Extropians and Cypherpunks listserves for a while and so was somewhat aware of the surrounding ideas before blockchains even became an actual thing. But I was never hardcore about these subjects. And then years later, and coincidentally, I was playing an MMO called A Tale in the Desert when the lead dev, Andrew Tepper, announced that he'd accept bitcoins as payment for the game. So I started mining. You have to understand, this is really early and it was all a lark. The three machines I put on it extracted 1050 bitcoins before the difficulty no longer justified the wear and tear. I started trading on mtgox, increased my wealth, cashed out something like US$3000 to buy toys, and then lost most of my holdings when mtgox was hacked and closed up shop. I do regret not being a millionaire, but what can you do?

Anyway, I'm pretty deeply interested in games and I assumed that's what I'd write about over here. It's been more miss than hit. The platform doesn't encourage discussion, so it's just essay-publishing and I'm not sure how to work that, or if I want to. When I started checking Steemit every day, I thought a population of the gamers with whom I interact other places would be coming too and maybe we'd form a stable base from which to integrate and build something, but most of those other people didn't do much.

On the other hand, I'm also interested in art/craft and food/drink, and so I've been having fun participating in those spaces. My first "big hit" post (as measured by system rewards) was an interesting experience. It was fun watching all the votes come in and it's nice getting rewards. But also a little alarming -- I'm not really convinced that being rewarded is a universally good thing.

OK, what else does one say in an introduction?

My favorite drink is green chartreuse. Strong beers and bourbon are nice too.

My current craft is spinning and knitting. I've also thrown pottery, carved spoons, worked a lathe, done collage, made cards, etc, etc.

I'm 47 years old. I've lived in two countries and five US states (both coasts and the center). I have visited 47 of the US states (outside airports), but only slept a night in 40 of them.

I'm philosophically anarchist but also pragmatic about the world we live in. I joke sometimes that I'm a socialist libertarian, but it isn't really a joke.

I currently keep two cats and a rabbit as pets. I've almost literally always had cats, but the rabbit is new a few years ago. He's pretty cool. He's an angora and his fur was supposed to feed into my spinning, but we're bad about keeping him brushed so a lot of it felts, has to be snipped off and goes to waste.

I have a grown son who got married a couple of years ago and a daughter in high school. My son has recently given me a granddaughter! As you can see to the right, my daughter loves being an aunt!

I'm one of these people who're into fermentation! I ferment kimchi, kraut, kombucha, misozuke, kasuzuke, wine (including cider and mead), miso, pepper sauce, nukazuke, yogurt, cheese, honey-pickles, and anything else I can think to. :)

I guess finally, I write software for a living. I'm working in the .NET space, writing applications to smooth the manufacturing process for my employer and provide better metrics to feed smart decision-making at the executive level. I'm good at what I do, but I'm not a brilliant hacker. My abilities to communicate and provide cogent business analysis are probably as valuable as my l33t coding skills.

Anyway, learning my way around Steem has been interesting and it looks like I'm sticking around for a while. There are a lot of great people swimming around here. And I adore the idea of a system that automatically pays content-creators. While I think this particular implementation of that ideal is flawed, it's nice to see that things can change and continue to iterate toward a positive end-goal. I have high hopes!