Bits and Pieces - Every Day Gets More Like a Matrix

News, Rants and Recent Thoughts on Steemit & Happenings

Attempting to get back to where I was before things changed - read on.

First

I am very happy to be in a place where I can return to reading, voting and enjoying the platform again.

I have learned a lot in the three months that I have been here, including round about ways to reward people who follow me, comment and vote on my blog. Thanks for the encouragement in keeping me posting, fighting and surviving. You Rock!

The downvotes have stopped coming, and I can thus stop responding to them. Let's hope those things don't return.

Second

It seems that I fall deeper and deeper out of the Matrix every day. I very rarely plug that probe into the back of my head because it's difficult to think in terms of banks, credit cards, and paper denominated investments.

Today, I went to pay my rent. The owner of the place I am renting is a very good friend who I have known for well over ten years. He is also one of the many who laughed when I first spoke of bitcoin. He lamented when it hit $40.00 and wished he had gotten in early. Since then, he has heard me talk about Dash and more recently Steem, but he never "got in".

Today, I was trying to bring up the subject of moving out, possibly buying a place and so on. He came back with how it's not worth buying a house. He told me that I would be better off putting the money in a CD at the bank. I shook my head and gave up. Depositing paper and ink in order to get a small percentage of paper and ink in return does not even sound a little bit good to me. Besides, FATCA rules mean that two countries would be licking their chops to inspect my bank records to skim their unfair share.

Everyone is fighting for paper! My family, my kids, friends and neighbors. If I were to pull out a stack of bills, their eyes light up. Locked into a paper mentality, they can't think outside the box, or in this analogy, the matrix for even a moment. They all know that living debt free and paying everything with digital coins has changed my life, but their eyes glaze over if I try to get them to invest a little outside the matrix.

I can't even have a conversation with anyone without realizing how much I have left behind. And Good Riddance. I have stopped using corporate owned media except in a very anonymous way, for example @at_thooms on twitter and my non-specific identity here. I will likely keep renting - not owning anything in the matrix has been good to me thus far.

Own Steem not Dollars

Third

When I was a newbie back in April, running around with a ton of voting power, I had a great time doing it. So, I just thought it would be fun to let others do the same, even if it's just for an evening. Continuing with that, I am likely going to run another #takemyvotes evening. It's a give away. Look for the title...

I'm not going to upvote you 🐋 Do it yourself!

This would be the third one. For those who are not familiar with it. I used to offer an evening as a "whale" allowing a selected follower to use my voting power and run wild, voting on friends or favorite bloggers of theirs. My account follows their every vote! It was a blast when I did it before and I hope it will be now. Some participants were @dreemit @theregularguy @ebryans and @digicrypt - a good time was had by all.

I will be choosing someone at random. I'm looking for someone who has more than 50 SP but less than 20,000 and who maintains better than 80% voting power to qualify (you would be voting non-stop for several hours).

So comment! Upvote! Catch my attention and I will catch yours back

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Thanks for taking time to read and resteem! 👍

Cover Image Source: Matrix Lady

Long time 🐟 turned 🐋 to have a voice.

📞 You're invited to steemspeak 📞