Hello, hello, hello, hello!
The very excellent, super exciting and super new Katelyn called me out in her 10 things post, and while I'm usually not excited to do such thingamigos, I feel like I've made a ton of new Steemy friends recently so it might be a good time to re-re-introduce myself.
Old hats/SteemBesties might already know some of these things... but if you could refrain from commenting "This is so borzo, be new already!" that'd be fantastic.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure what the 10 things are going to be... I'm not confident this won't be the steem blockchain equivalent of this:
Anyways, let's say some words!
1.) Got big moves!
My partner and I lived our entire lives in Melbourne, Australia... and then sold up everything and moved across the world.
When people ask, I joke that it's because all our friends started having babies, so we had to leave... but really it was because all our friends are so incredibly multi-cultural.. everyone was from somewhere else, and it just reminded me on a daily basis that there is a world out there to be explored.
2.) USA freakin' loves us
Surprisingly the USA was the easiest for us visa-wise. It's such a weird concept trying to figure out where you're going to move to... we both have jobs that'd be super hard to attempt in another language... also we'd need to be allowed to work...
We totally imagined ourselves in Europe, and I interviewed for some jobs in the middle of the night, but the US ticked all our boxes, even though I hadn't really thought of moving there before, y'know, we moved. I'd never even visited before.
I won't lie... the first year was rough... it was a hard transition, so many rules and new systems and processes to try and work through... I can't even imagine moving to a place where I don't speak the language now. I honestly think computerized systems made the move much harder... getting a non-pre-paid mobile phone was super hard, for example, because we didn't have a credit score, and none of our IDs fit in their systems. Everyone kept saying that when it was all paper forms, it was so easy.
3.) Got big goals.
Before we moved internationally, I was playing indoor soccer 3 or 4 times a week, and loving it. I was terrible, but I loved my teams, the competitive side of it and the social side of it. I had an amazing time...
Whereas almost every school in Melbourne would have Indoor Soccer/Futsal leagues in their gym afterhours... the US pretty much has the same system, but for basketball. I've moved to Portland, Oregon, which really only has one Indoor Soccer place... and everyone is so amazingly good... so I was pretty intimidated.
That's when my partner decided that I was going to compete on:
I've since competed on Australian Ninja Warrior, but the American version is really where my heart is set.
4.) Training is going horribly.
I honestly haven't trained for 3 months or more... and I'm super struggling with that.
I've developed a weird overuse injury in my right elbow. I've been managing tendonitis for 7 or so years, but this is very different... whereas my tendonitis would develop as I'm working on something, ie, it would kick in after 50 minutes of rock climbing, resulting in my arms being useless for 3 days... whatever this injury is, affects me immediately.
I can pick up a bottle of water, or a towel, and pain shoots through 1 of 3 spots in my right elbow. I'm working with a physio on it... but it's a super slow process... book an appointment, 3 weeks later they can see you... they need an MRI... so 3 weeks to see a doctor for a referral, 4 weeks to schedule the MRI, weeks to get the result... weeks then to book another physio appointment... you get my drift.
The physio thinks it's super crazy mega extreme minute swelling in the tendons... but it's been 3 or 4 months since I did a pull up and it's just as painful as ever... so I'm honestly not sure.
Oh... I just realized that it was this post that started the pain... dammmmnn 6 months of blurgh.
5.) I might be an unemployed bum soon
My US visa is tied to my work... and my work at a consulting company is tied to a project at another company.... and that project is finished.
Weirdly I'm still there though... my team lead just keeps on hanging on. I expected to be out late-August, and I've been extended to the end of the year... and I might be extended past that. I'm not sure. My team lead wants to keep me, but it's a whole budget thing.
I've technically been replaced by an Accenture Outsourced thingamigy… ie, there is a team of dudes in India that are doing my work... but they haven't been great, and my team lead wants to give them the flick and keep me instead... but the arrangement is company-wide, so we'll see.
If my team-lead can't keep me, then my consulting company will fire me in 2 seconds. No doubt. I'm too expensive, too annoying, and they're based in the Midwest... and I am not. I'm not worried, it's just hard to plan life when I have no idea what my life will look like in a few months.
6.) Steem got me back into photography.
Here's the story of why I got out.. and Steem is threatening to throw me right back in. I've mainly just been taking photos of the wandering wildlife around our little foresty retreat, but I think if I became funemployed, I'd take up photographer properly, and then create content on the process for Steem. We'll see.
I'm both excited and daunted by the prospect.
P.S) ---> that is a photo I took, not a photo I am in.
7.) Sleepless near Seattle.
It seriously took us 8 or 9 mattresses before I could sleep in America. We literally purchased and returned all those mattresses.. it took so long... most won't let you return it before you've had it 90 days... and some have a narrow return window that we missed.
So... the US has this law that all mattresses need to be flame retardant.
As of 2007, all mattresses are required to contain enough Fire Retardant Chemicals to withstand a 2-foot wide blowtorch open flame for 70 seconds.
Probs not a reputable source
The problem is that a lot of these chemicals and outlawed in Europe and Australia... and it turns out... this super tough ninja guy, totally allergic.
My partner, absolutely no problem, whereas I was waking up feeling sick every morning... and by about mid-morning I was feeling completely fine. It took me maybe 9 months to figure out it was the mattress... because, you know, we had changed literally everything; diet, altitude, brand new building, stress, etc. I eventually figured it out because I was totally fine when I stayed in a hotel, and then sick again back at home.
I didn't know the problem was off-gassing though, I thought I was allergic to a particular material... and it wasn't until the 7th or 8th mattress until I learned about the chemicals that were in all new mattresses. Hotel mattresses are often pre-2007. Eventually I had to get a special doctors certificate to get around the off-gassing thing (which was super easy by the way, the doctor didn't even question it) and we had a pure natural latex mattress made up. It's super comfortable, it's a pure slab of rubber that is impossible to move. I love him.
8.) My steembots are driving everyone crazy!
I created these guys:
| Dicebots | Action |
|---|---|
@rollthedice | 6 sided die |
@rolltwodice | two 6 sided dice |
@rolld20 | 20 sided die |
@gobbo | a jerk who rolls for you |
@attackdice | advantaged 6 sided die |
which are supposed to do this:
but instead, have been doing this:
I'm really proud of how popular they've become... I had to stop the @GINAbot notifications because so many people we using them for their games on the Steem blockchain.
These bots have been running for something like 241 days without an issue, but during the hardfork I paused them because they ran out of Resource Credits super quickly. That was a big mistake. I should have just let them go. In the last 241 days, the service I use Zeit have added another datacenter. So... when I started my bots again, the service puts them on both datacenters... which means I have two instances (ie, two servers) of these bots running at all times. I tried running them on just one datacenter and they disappeared in a couple of hours. I'm sure the secret is setting the exact correct parameters... but no idea what those are.
I'm sure I'll figure it out... but I also know I'm using Zeit not exactly how it was intended... so documentation is sparse.
9.) Married for all the wrong reasons!
So, ah... how do I put this.... I'm married entirely for visa-reasons.
I totally don't really super think marriage should be a thing... or more specifically, I think like hardly anyone should get married. It's just such a weird arrangement. There's literally nothing else you would sign up for life for...
I know it doesn't sound like it... but I do think I'm a bit of a romantic... and relationships are absolutely something that you need to constantly work on... just like you need to constantly be good at your job, or constantly train for a sport. When my partner and I had been together for a few years, and family and friends were hassling us to get hitched so they could party... we gave them what they wanted.
A massive fancy dress not-wedding!
It was amazing. The theme was trashy celebrity weddings, and it was kind of a combined birthday party despite our birthdays being 8 months apart. Everyone got right into the spirit... we even had a fake ceremony where everyone interrupted with their own dramas. We hired some paparazzi to hassle everyone, it was just the most fun night, and people bought us way too many presents.... and no one asked us again.
A month before we left... we invited everyone to a birthday/farewell party, and got surprise married... there were many tears of aunts and mums. We had to get married because the US doesn't recognize defacto relationships like Australia does. In Australia we were treated the exact same way as a married couple. In the US, if only one of us got a job, and the other didn't, then the non-jobbo one would have to leave.
10.) I'm going to play with Steem Bounty on this post
I really like the concept of it... but I'm not super sure how it all works. I think if you leave a comment underneath, then you might win some steem or similar. Let's explore together.
Thanks for reading if you got this far.
Nominating people is a bit mean, but I'm going to do it anyway. 