Introduction - Animator, Programmer, Nerd... mostly nice, to humans and mammals. (Don't be awkward in the title!)

TLDR

Hey I'm Goscha, an animator/programmer/sound guy. I'd like to learn and teach more in the realm of animation, and I'd like to share my journey! To read more about the state of my brain in the last 4 hours, read on!

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This introduction has a kind of free flow non-linear structure, I jump from topic to topic, sorry for that! Also, it was a very grey and dark day here

Okay, this will probably take all day to write...

The Meta-Talk about Introductions

It's a not an easy task to introduce myself. It seems to be important how you frame it. The first impression that people will have of you will stick for a long time potentially. Also I'm not even sure yet if you can edit and delete things here, so it's extra daunting.

Which things to include? Which things to omit?

Do you omit your flaws to be a unreachable role model or do you communicate your fears, anxieties and mistakes to the world to be a relatable, down-to-earth, "hey, this guy is just like me"-kind of guy. I myself prefer to see the latter and not take myself too seriously all the time. But occasionally it's also great to see these otherworldly larger-than-life personalities or artists.

Also I seem to learn each time something new about myself during introductions. It's a time where you actually reflect upon yourself. Your actions, dreams, motivations. What defines you? The real YOU. Not just the WORK you. Or the family you. Or the socially adapted you. It defines how you see yourself, but also how you want to see yourself and how you want others to see yourself.

Every introduction about myself is also very volatile. If I would need to write an introduction one week later from now, it will turn out completely different. Maybe because I still haven't found what I ultimately want to do with my life. I just have some corner stones and principles that guide me. But, there's no endgame. No red path.

Anyway, I like to overthink sometimes. Let's get started.

Hi, I'm justGoscha

Sidenote: My name is pronounced like "Oh my gosh!" + "Aaaah" (here I like to imagine girls screaming like they just saw their favourite boy band star).

About me

I have two hearts beating inside me. One is the analytical, logical and rational side that led me to pursue my official career, with a stable job and stable income as a programmer. Let's call this side, the Problem-Solver, for now.

The other side is the creative, artistic and emotional side, which I mostly live out in personal projects and hobbies. Let's call this side: The Free Spirit.

Whenever there is one side taking control over my life I get grumpy.

I'm most happy when both sides are somehow integrated with each other. That's why I like to program interactive things with sounds, animations and game-like systems. Or just things that are pretty to look at.

As a teen I wanted to be an animator... actually, I still do. 2 years ago I decided to start doing something about it, after watching "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" (a Studio Ghibli movie) and did a "100 days of walkcycles"-challenge. Animating one walk cycle every day. I will probably repost my journey here. I published the story on Medium.

Being and artist, doing creative things and putting them out there is scary. Especially, if you're a perfectionist and your own worst critic. Earning money with the creative things you do is even more scary, that's why this side is often pushed back by the "rational"-side of me. But my ultimate goal at some point is to be independent and just do the projects I want to be doing. But also creating value for the community with them.

Currently I work at a startup that I helped to build from the ground up (at least parts of it). In a startup there's a lot of tasks to do in the beginning, a lot of problems to solve, but a lot of freedom, how to solve them. Since I was in charge of the whole front-end and UX at the beginning, I had a lot of creative freedom there and that satisfied both sides. Now in these advanced stages that we're in, there are more responsibilities that are not specifically aligend with my creative side. So, I need an outlet again.

How did I get here?

I joined this Steemit community a few days ago after spending a night discovering all the cool things that have been already build on blockchains, as distributed Apps and what not. I've known about cryptocurrencies and the blockchain for a long time (like 8 years). I didn't think too much about their application to real applications. I got my mind blown, because I felt that night like I've been living under a rock the past 2 years, with all the ICOs and dapps.

Since I myself studied Computer Science and work in a tech startup myself, it's even a bit nagging at my own self image that I haven't payed close enough attention to it. On the other hand... it's also just a bunch of #fomo on my side. Just jumoping on the bandwagon because you might miss something if you don't, is also not the smartest strategy.

When I stumbled upon steemit it reminded me a bit of the early days of Medium, mixed with Reddit and even Newgrounds with the Steem Power rating systems in place. But it's also something completely new and I want to be part of it somehow.

How I want to contribute here

I want this to be mainly an output for my creative side, especially my animation side. I want to produce more tutorials and resources on how to animate. Learning myself and teaching while I'm doing it. Because teaching is one of the best things to learn. Also I was thinking about creating a community around a daily animation habit, but that idea is not completely formed yet. Stay tuned!

I will probably also post things on UX/UI, programming and startup life, and my successful or unsuccessful attempts of growing into a leadership role.

And since I'm also a games/movies/series and other procrastinating activities fan, I might occasionaly post think pieces on some related matters.

I might also do something with sound...

I have too many interests, don't judge. I'll try to concentrate on the animation part though.

Thanks for reading!

Nice to meet y'all.

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By the way, if you're interested you can find my profiles all around the internet. As justGoscha.
Twitter, Tumblr, Medium and whatnot...

Or my website: www.justgoscha.com
But I didn't update it for a while. Need to take care of it again.