FULL STEEM AHEAD
The first time I had password 'issues' and got locked out of my account. I can see it. It's just sitting there, happily gaining Steem on a month's worth of work (ten hours a day perhaps?). I can't get to it. I'm locked out.
Aggravating really. I still have no idea what went wrong.One dark and dreary night, after I had been Steeming on for, oh, about twelve hours straight. The computer started acting wonky and I got kicked off line...
I had my password saved in three different places (still do). I compared them all to each other. They matched. I compared them to the one I was trying to use. They matched. I tried to get online.
Well.
Which I did. It's just as well that I did. I've done better, faster, the second time around.
I'm finally building up steem. I received my first curation award the other day. I've been checking the Pay me in Steem box and posting two to four parts from my book every day. I spend a lot of time re-reading what I wrote (about a year ago), proofreading and finding images that to with the story on pixabay. I've been using markup as much as I can and I'm slowly learning it. (I learn slow)
I've noticed Steemit Chat ,Squeekand Peerhub(I've got books for sale on PeerHub...buy my books)
Other than serializing my book(s). I've been trying to do a techno article every day. Advanced Technology is a primary interest of mine.
I'm not rich enough to DO a lot of stuff, or buy the toyz, but I can read about it., and report on it.
I also try to do a silly post (like this one ) every day too.
It's fun, and gives me practice. (and it's amazing what some of them pay. More so , sometimes, than articles that I've worked on for HOURS)
Speaking of which...I have a three part story.
I've been on FaceBook for a decade, maybe more, and most of the time I just share.(although I got into my share of flame wars, see above) I surf the net constantly and share what I find that I consider to be interesting. I'm fully aware of the maxim If you're not paying for a product then you ARE the product which is obviously true. The users on FaceBook have made some people rich.
I heard about ADbuzz , a social network that paid you to share. I dunno about that. I went there, signed up...and got nowhere. I couldn't figure it out.
Which leads me to Steem. One of the bigwigs at ADbuzz wrote an article comparing Adbuzz to Steem. Unfavorably for Steem, he thought. He probably didn't intend to recommend Steemit...but here I are.
I like it.
I'm NOT the product here. I have to work (fairly hard),
albeit doing what I would do anyway, to produce an acceptable product. How do I know it's acceptable? By votes. If I get 'em it is. If I don't, it's not. If I do get the votes I get Steem Dollars and SteemPower. Right now I'm re-investing everything I make. I intend to cash in on the power of compound interest down the line.
Right now if I were to power down I'd receive about a half dollar every week for two years. That's for a month's worth of work. I'm confident that I can do better than that.
We'll see.
Come see me 
_remember. Authors live for upvotes. No matter from who or how small, every vote counts and is appreciated. Except for down votes. I don't appreciate them so much. If you don't like what I say un-follow or mute. That's what I do.
The Flag is the NUKE. Flagging is the Nuclear option. It's tough on the eco-system. Use it as the absolute last resort.
One more thing.
Use it or Lose it.
by which I mean votes. If your vote pow wah ever reaches %100 for any length of time it means you have vote powr spilling out and going to waste.
Bare it and we'll all share it About twenty to forty votes a day is about right. That will keep the level of vote power below one hundred percent. Otherwise it spills, evaporates and no one benefits.