Hello World!

My name is Erik, I'm 36 and today is my birthday! I figured this would be a great time to introduce myself and ask for my birthday gift! Add me to your bots! :)

About Me

I live in Rockwall, Texas and I joined Steemit.com about three weeks ago while perusing coinmarketcap.com. I'm super excited to be here during the beta phase! It's not often you get a chance to be part of the early stages of something that is going to be awesome!

You will often find me blogging on topics like #gardening, #funny, #photography, #enlightenment, #pets, #mtg, and #games.

Fun Facts

1. I tried to sell @ned an invisible car.
2. I am 1/3 Native American of the Cocopah Indian in AZ.
3. I like to make games.

My Crypto Journey

In 2010 I got a job working at a marketing firm in Dallas as a front end web developer. I was a bit nervous and anxious about starting this new job but thankfully the guys I got to work with were some of the coolest and smartest people I had ever met.

One day in between coding, nerf wars, and trolling I overheard my coworker Tally trolling one of the new guys. Kyle had been fuming on and on about how he was going to get rich off "bitcoins". At the time I had never heard of bitcoin. It peaked my interest enough that I went over to Kyle's cube and asked, "What is this you say about a 'Bitcoin'? Can I mine it in Minecraft?" Kyle, still frustrated from being ridiculed replied "No, you can't fucking mine it in minecraft."

Realizing Kyle probably thought I was trolling him too, I grabbed my Nerf gun and shot Tally in the face a couple of times to gain Kyle's trust. Moments later Kyle began to open up and share his master plan with me.

(10 Minutes Later)

I began to have a sudden urge to troll Kyle but resisted. All of this seemed way too good to be true.

Mining rig + hashing blocks = Yacht?

My Gold Investments

At the time I had been investing in gold & silver. From 2008 and 2012 I made some great returns of gold. Besides moving 25% of my retirement funds into gold & silver during it's rise, my biggest money maker was my "Cash for Gold" referral site. Yeah, a lot of people scoff at the idea since most of those cash for gold commercials are quite hysterical. But I made some good money with that site. I would send the Cash for Gold sites customers and they would send me a referral check. It was one of the easiest ways I have ever made money in my life. Well, besides selling twinkies. More on that later.

The Gold & Silver of Cryptocurrency

In 2013 I made my first entrance into the digital currency world (Damn it!). I bought some bitcoin during it's all time high thinking "This is it! If I don't buy it now I may never get a chance!" Horrible, horrible, horrible decision. In the early part of 2014 bitcoin took a nose dive. I lost thousands of dollars and was completely disgusted with bitcoin! Man, I was so pissed I didn't know how to react.

Rather than completely bailing out, I held on to my coins and decided that this investment was not for the faint of heart.

The Altcoin Money Makers: Get in early

With time I came to the conclusion that it didn't take a lot to lose a lot very quickly. Everyone hypes up there spin on the block and how it's going to change the internet and it really never goes anywhere.

I began to focus all of my efforts on reading white papers rather than listening to the hype. That's when I found Ethereum. The idea behind the technology was fascinating and I was sold on smart contracts. I bought into ether at ¢0.87 and on a daily basis have been growing it by being bullish with my trades.

STEEM Altcoin

As luck would have it I found STEEM on coinmarketcap.com. I'll admit at first I was very confused about the concepts of POWER UP, POWER DOWN, VEST, and STEEM dollars but after reading a lot of blog post and asking questions I finally was able to get the idea. Boy is it a good one! I've decided to stick around and POWER UP!

I'm a Mining Virgin

Ok ok... I'll admit it. When I came to Steemit.com I was a mining virgin. I have always purchased my cryptocurrency and just like ALWAYS I'm late to the scene and mining for STEEM coins is over... but there is hope! You can still mine blocks and receive STEEM POWER as a reward. Thanks to @tuck-fheman, @joseph, and @pfunk they have written several "How To" articles that are easy to follow so you too can be a miner!

Mining STEEM For Dummies on Ubuntu by @joseph
How-To Mine Steem in Windows by @tuck-fheman
Maximize your mining hashrate in Windows by mining Steem in a VM

Final Thoughts

As promised I have to tell you my story about Twinkies. Back during the Great Twinky Crisis of 2012 I decided that it wasn't a crisis at all. IT WAS AN OPPORTUNITY! I hit up every Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco for Twinkies. I ended up buying about $1,500 worth of Twinkies. Everyone thought I was nuts. The store clerks laughed and my friends joked at how stupid it was to buy so many Twinkies.

I took my Twinkies to the house and I put a listing on eBay that said "NIB - Last Chance! Get your Box of Twinkies before their gone FOREVER!".

Within 24 hours I sold every single box of Twinkies I had for $15-35 a box. Everyone laughed but looks who was laughing now.

Ask my friend Kyle. He knows all about it.
(Except he made way more money with his plan. lol.)

See ya around!

Erik - @hannixx42