Hey Steemit!

I'm an oldschool kind of internet user, pre-AOL infestation (ok actually not much before, using a friend's Prodigy account and a local dialup BBS internet gateway in the early days). This means I'm still wary of connecting online identity with a meatspace name and other details. Being pseudonymous is freeing. So my name's PFunk, after a rather funky band led by a very funky fellow, decapitalized to involuntarily conform to Steem naming rules.

What interests me

As Hive account@cryptogee flatteringly pointed out, my interests are eclectic. I like a wide range of music from new electric indie pop to old rock and roll, funk, punk, rap, and just about everything in between. I have on-and-off periods of photography, for most of my "serious" photos I've shot on film with a Nikon FA. I've been off for a bit but I have a whole bag of old color film that I want to shoot and get developed just to see how the aged film develops images, if it does at all. I like history, and I think it's important for anyone who thinks they know something to learn and understand. History in specific fields is also important to learn so you have foundational context to the development of the field. Space, science, food, and cars are cool too.

I play computer/video games here and there. Right now I am playing Overwatch, and after playing TF2 for a shitload of hours from its release up until 2012 or so, it's a decent spiritual successor. I still have all the old consoles back to the Atari 2600 and a couple Pong clones but not one newer than the first Xbox.

^{6 silver switches for maximum fun}

Lastly, since getting a family (but it was totally mine) computer for Christmas when I was 7 or 8, I've liked riding the wave of the personal computer revolution. During my lifetime they've enabled unbelievable multiplayer games, widespread access to global communication and knowledge, plus blockchains and what they enable, like what you're reading right now. And of course now I can say I've seen more boobs than billions of people that came before me, combined.

Finding Steemit

I've been posting on Steemit since it was a baby, when pretty much every post was about Steem or Steemit. Now only 50% of posts are like that, quite an improvement. ;) I came to Steem, without knowing what Steemit was, when STEEM tokens were still mineable. Someone in a crypto chatroom told me about Steem and how it was being kept under wraps but promising. He couldn't have been more right. Unfortunately I had some stumbling blocks with mining, and I put it on the shelf until just 2 days before the mining period ended. I managed to mine a small handful of tokens which I powered up, before the switch to the current system.

Shortly after that I came to know what Steem was actually for! Steemit was a fascinating concept at first and became more fascinating as I went over the details of the white paper. This system was well thought out and could actually work. Very early Steemit was practically a blank canvass, and undefined. Prompted by the similarity to Reddit's name I figured I'd try to get the site going by posting some links and content, Reddit style. Over time it became clear that rewards would flow more to original blog postings and creative works.

Expression

One night I came across an interesting image of a pyramid of German pickelhaubes and decided to post it to Steemit. Curious about the story, I searched but found scant details about it. I realized I could make a blog post containing some research from original sources, collect all the images I could find of this peculiar construction and associated event, and possibly get decently rewarded for it. So I did: Victory Way: A pyramid of captured German Pickelhaubes from World War I in front of Grand Central Station, New York City, 1919. I think it's the best blog article out there on the subject.

I had often thought about writing a blog article about this or that, but never got over the hump of actually creating one. I figured nobody would read, and if I tried to monetize it, it would be a difficult affair. After seeing a big reward (since shrunk, but that was expected) for that first original blog-style post, I found the motivation for more. You can see the original posts I'm most proud of by browsing the tag #pfunkblog

I've also decided to post some photos I've taken, which I didn't plan to share on the internet until Steemit came along. You can browse these by the tag #pfunkphotos

Steem on

^{Where we wrap this up and flatter Steemit with honest thoughts}
I'm also a part-time Steem witness, miner, and frequenter of the Steem slack chat. Come by and say hello.

I really think Steemit has something good going for it. Steem has taken the next leap in killer apps for blockchains. I'm glad to be a part of it in its early days and plan on being here for its long journey. Thank you for reading and being a part of this community.