My "OMG a Creeper!" face. Yes, I love #Minecraft
Following the lead of many I've seen here, I've decided to get the obligatory introductory post where I must do what I don't enjoy doing...bloviate about myself.
My name is Katrina DeRemee and I am here on Steemit because I think it's a great idea, one which I was searching for and even contemplating the technicalities of after learning of all the censorship going on in the rest of the social media sphere. After listening to a webcast in which the Jeff Berwick (@DollarVigilante for the few who may not know who he is) mentioned Steemit I came to see what it was about and decided to join. I liked the idea of everything being kept in the blockchain so even if Steemit were to censor items out on the site, they would still be available for anyone to view elsewhere via the blockchain.
Living in Santa Barbara County, plenty of oil to go around!
Because we can't meet in person, the following describes what you may notice when first meeting me. Due to my temperament and how I carry myself, and/or my affinity for numerous scientific disciplines, numerous people have compared me to a female Tony Stark, Meredith Vickers, 7 of 9 (or is it Seven of Nine?), the female terminator, and several others.
Meredith Vickers
My family has a been quite involved in the electronics/computing, aerospace, and space sectors, and in fact the first school I attended was called MILA, which stands for "Merritt Island Launch Annex". On a side note, I am related to Thomas Edison via one of his parents. Growing up around aircraft and the Space Shuttle and having a father in the Air Force led me to join the Air Force for two reasons: I enjoyed flying and wanted to have a career flying, and I felt that I had no business exercising the privilege of voting without first "earning" it.
Related to this, my grandfather was an electrical engineer and I spent a lot of time watching him work in the shop he had in his home during my summer stays there. He had everything from ancient vacuum tubes to modern (at the time) microprocessors in his bins of components; I would often sneak parts out when he was working at Kennedy Space Center and try to build my own devices. Until he became tired of it and gave me old electronics to disassemble and books to learn from, my devices always ended in magical blue smoke being released from components. On one occasion I made what was in effect a lightning rod, ran it through a circuit I made, and plugged it into a wall outlet; remember this was in Florida where lightning is rampant.
My grandfather and a group of engineers some time in the 70s I believe
My time in the military was primarily spent flying nuclear command & control aboard an aircraft called the E-4B. I enjoyed the people I flew with, the aircraft, and the job but eventually became increasingly libertarian thanks to Ron Paul. After ten years of military service, I sat at my desk to check my email after a mission and discovered I was to be out of the military in less than a week. It came as a surprise to my commander as well as the base commander, but I wasn't complaining.
E-4B & Air Force One on Sep. 11, 2001; a long day for all of us flying
Since leaving the military, I've become a free-market anarchist and have been working on a number of projects. My specialties are electrical engineering, microprocessor design, solid-state chemistry, and programming, but I dive into petroleum and chemical engineering as well every so often. On the lighter side of things I enjoy writing sci-fi, playing Minecraft/Feed the Beast, krav maga, cars, fashion, and have been getting into photography. I also completed two years of theater and considered the best part to be improv. I absolutely LOVE cats, off-roading, backpacking, Top Gear (UK), and being outdoors in general!
Kitty, being a cat, enjoying the winter sun
One of my creations in Minecraft
My FJ in the desert
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope I didn't bore you too much! :)