An Introduction Post.
Writing this almost feels like a narcissistic exercise, but I'll attempt to be entertaining - or at least compelling.
Life Changes
My life has changed so radically over the last year, I'm still learning who I am.
Aloha!
I grew up in rural North Carolina, at 21 I enlisted in the United States Army and trained and served as an Infantryman. I served in the 10th Mountain Division - located in Upstate New York, it was the coldest place I have ever been - and when I my service ended I jumped on the opportunity to go to Hawaii, and until February of 2023 it was my home. I spent 20 years as a Construction Project Manager and an Environmental Consultant - if you've visited Waikiki or Honolulu in the past decade or so you've probably been inside a building or site that I helped renovate. I loved Hawaii so much I even married a Hawaiian girl.
While I'm not publicly political these days - I spent a few years volunteering for political campaigns, and even traveled to Washington DC as a Delegate to the National Convention. The experience was informative and somewhat disillusioning - I found professional politicians and consultants to be more like each than average people. While there were a few idealist - what I encountered almost uniformly were opportunists and ruthless self promoters - Democrat or Republican are almost sport teams - the logos and the branding is at odds but they are most certainly playing the same game.
Tragedy
In January 2023 of this year - We had a an apartment fire - and we lost everything we owned, my dear father in law, our beloved dogs - and sense of place. Honestly we are still reeling - instinctively every night I still reach for my little dog - who liked to curl up on my pillows with me. Time has made the grief more bearable but is always perched nearby ready to overwhelm me.
Going to North Carolina.
In February 2023 we determined we could not stay in Hawaii, and moved back to the home of my youth in rural North Carolina. The move has been healing for us though we keep things relatively simple. Thankfully my wife and family enjoy each other's company. I've spent the past several months reclaiming part of our property that was overgrown and converting it into a small homestead.
The Homestead
Part of our family property had fallen into disrepair and was overgrown with invasive trees - I spent the better part of a February through April cutting and digging out trees and demolishing a 3,000 square foot barn by hand. As April came in I raced to put in gardens and dug beds by hand.
I practice a form of regenerative gardening where I sequester old wood under the beds - it's labor intensive initially but as the wood decays it builds the soil and makes a reservoir of fertility. This particular bed is now full of strawberry plants, that will be split up and transplanted in the spring.
Life is Simpler these Days
My wife and I work from home and I have an immense amount of flexibility. I don't leave the property most weeks - except for Church or to visit nearby neighbors. In addition to my own projects I rebuilt one of my uncle's barns, and demolished an old chicken coop for my neighbor. Rural neighbors are wonderful if you are lucky - we treat our neighbors like family and they do the same.
My Passions
Almost every day I do a Youtube program, though I'm looking for alternatives to get away from corporatized social media. I read classic stories - while an artist creates illustrations - we are currently performing Tolkien's Lord of the Rings 3 or 4 nights a week - and in the day I'm also reading Redwall - and shorter works like Sherlock Holmes. My artist is a genuine talent - most of the compositions were created traditionally pencil and ink - and typically within an hour.
The artist Elrodimus Flash has given me perpetual permission to use the images that are created in my Youtube Program. I Hope you enjoy his artwork you can contact him here [email protected] for inquiries or purchases.
Why am I on Hive?
I find the idea of decentralized social media compelling and a needful thing. The mechanisms of Hive itself seem to make for more thoughtful communications. I'm still a neophyte and only have a cursory understanding of the mechanisms and etiquette of Hive.
If you've made it this far - God bless you - please say hello, and please do send any pointers, tips, or point me in the right direction.
Aloha
Hey @alohaed It's not narcissistic at all to write an introduction. I am @macchiata from @lovesniper team. I saw that you're actually commenting first before writing an introduction. By the way, just in case you need more communities to check out, when you have the time, You can read some of the communities in this post that you may like : OCD Communities Incubation Program and for all hive communities you can check https://peakd.com/communities.
Some additional information includes :
If you have questions or concerns, you can hop into OCD's Discord server and we'll gladly answer your questions.
~ @macchiata from the @OCD and @lovesniper team bringing you some helpful tips navigating hive.
Welcome to the Hive community @alohaed!
Sorry you had to go through the beginning like this, it is shameful it happens. Hope you stick it out and hang around.
We sincerely hope you find everything you are looking for and have found a new home here.
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I found you because @brittandjosie and @jamerussell from @heyhaveyamet presented and promoted your publication to get more exposure and help you grow faster.
If you find yourself overwhelmed and need some guidance, or if you have any questions, there are informed Hiveans available who can help you; you can click to go to The Terminal in Discord here:
Have fun and happy Hiving!
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Aloha Ed, I enjoyed reading your intro post...heartfelt sincerity goes a long, long way both in life and on Hive. You're going to do great here.
My guess, if you write blog posts about your homestead and garden and what youre up to they'll be interesting and well received.
Welcome. !LUV
@alohaed, @crrdlx(1/3) sent LUV. | connect | community | HiveWiki | NFT | <>< daily
! help(no space) to get help on Hive. InfoThank you! Sorry for the late reply but today got busy! Hive is an interesting place so far. From just scratching the surface - it looks like I've barely scratched the surface of mechanics here, I've found it all immensely compelling and interesting to learn!
Looks like your reply there is intended for the comment of @crrdlx who is the creator of the !LUV (and HBIT) token! 🤗
@alohaed, @savvytester(6/10) sent LUV. | connect | community | HiveWiki | NFT | <>< daily
! help(no space) to get help on Hive. InfoI'll delegate some resources credits so you can post and comment more often while you get started. Spam prevention is also a restriction for newbies.
Consider adding the #introduceyourself and #introducemyself tags to your post. You can edit it if you have the credits, you just can't change the very first tag.
Thank you Jacob! I figured out how to transfer assets to Hive and powered up some today!
Dude.
Mahalo for sharing this stuff.
Love hearing your story, what you're up to with your land as well as what you're doing creatively and performatively.
Checkout https://3speak.tv/ for a decentralized alternative to youtube and https://www.vimm.tv/ for a hive powered livestreaming platform (though they're down at the current moment).
Would love links to what you're doing with the reading/art - that sounds awesome :)
!LUV !ALIVE !PIZZA
Thank you for taking the time to read! I'm still figuring out @threespeak - when I have the time I may record some exclusive content for it.
This was our performance of Lord of the Rings this past Sunday night. Each episode is approximately one chapter. If you are familiar with the Two Towers - this is right after the defense of Helm's Deep. Elrod drew this illustration of Gimli and Legolas in a bit over and hour - pencil and ink.
@alohaed, @iviaxpow3r(1/10) sent LUV. | connect | community | HiveWiki | NFT | <>< daily
! help(no space) to get help on Hive. Info@alohaed! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @ iviaxpow3r. (1/10)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want, plus you can win Hive Power (2x 50 HP) and Alive Power (2x 500 AP) delegations (4 weeks), and Ecency Points (4x 50 EP), in our chat every day.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@bhattg(2/10) tipped @alohaed
iviaxpow3r tipped alohaed
Welcome to Hive! Hug from Brasil
Hello.
Welcome to Hive.
To confirm your authorship of the content, could you please add the link to your Hive blog to your well-established social media account like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (which has not been recently created).
After you add the link, please respond to this comment with the URL link to that website.
You can remove this mention, once we confirm the authorship.
Thank you.
Mas Info: Introducing Identity/Content Verification Reporting & Lookup -
Thank you for the note @hivewatchers I took a moment and added a link to my Twitter Bio and made a post on Twitter - here
Thank you.
The account is now verified:
https://hivewatchers.com/verifications?utf8=%E2%9C%93&verification%5Busername_search%5D=alohaed
Welcome to this hive full of opportunities for everyone! It is important that you learn how to use tags, the endless number of communities where you can share your content, the use of photographic sources, in case they are not your own, and that you make community by commenting or voting the content you like.
For our part, I take this opportunity to introduce you to our community on tattooing and body modifications, to which you are welcome if you have material on the subject that you want to share with us.
If you have any doubt about the internal management of hive, you can ask us if you want.
Thank you for the greeting! I'm still learning the appropriate tags. I suspect I'll be Hive "newbie" for another year or so.
!giphy welcome
!PIZZA
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Welcome to the HIVE blockchain and THE TERMINAL in Discord! 🙂
Thank you!
Thank you I'll definitely take a look!
Welcome aboard!
@alohaed some of those limbs/logs in the garden bed look like pieces of black locust. If you are counting on the logs rotting in the garden bed... do not use black locust unless it is very small green branches, leaves or green pulp wood.
The woods there are probably full of those trees. They make a great replacement for pressure-treated material and tend to outlast it as well.
Cheers!
I was worried about that alo but from the ones I've dug up in other locations they seem to be steadily breaking down. For the ones that break down a bit slower they still help to create that reservoir of water. I think I only watered my strawberry patch 3 or 4 times this summer.
Yeah, they can sure be handy for places where you do not want them breaking down.
That is awesome on the strawberry patch.
Thanks! I'm going to propagate the Strawberries and get several other patches going in the Spring - I go through quarts of them when they are in season so I'm trying to be more self sufficient. Strawberries have an interesting phytochemical - "fisetin" which seems to promote beneficial autophagy.
What a story. Thank you for sharing. And I'm so sorry for your loss. 💔😢 Welcome to Hive. It's a great place to be.
Thank you - it's been a heck of a year - I just keep pressing forward.
Welcome. Sorry to hear about the house fire. Glad you are finding ways to live simple and move forward!