PixelHunterSam - Introduction Post

Hello to all the busy bees here on Hive! I hope you are having a great day and vibing wherever you may be.

The time has come for me to make my first post here and tell you more about who I am. I'll do my best to make it sound more interesting than it probably is. Hopefully, you'll stick around and learn something you didn't know about me. And if I manage to make you smile at any point, I'll consider this post successful!

What's In a Name?
My legal name is Samantha Landman. No second or middle names, just a first name and surname. Before marriage, my surname was Taljaardt. I have dug quite a bit into the Taljaardt family tree to when they first came to South Africa in 1749. Though, the surname looked a little different back then. It was Taillard, and he came from Belgium.

Family tree research was quite interesting. It can give you a new perspective. Especially when you learn that some of your ancestors were knights. Imagine the giddy feeling of a history buff, such as myself, on learning cool things like that.

PixelHunterSam
Now you are probably wondering about my username. It has its own background story. The first part, Pixel, comes from two different places. I have been a gamer since I was five or six years old. Given my age, (which as a lady, I will not specify) those games were largely pixel graphics. Games such as Adventure Island and Super Mario Bros were some of the first I enjoyed. The second part of Pixel, comes from the fact that I am a digital artist creating and moving pixels around on a screen to form pictures.

The Hunter part of the name also has two parts. It mainly comes from the fact that I am a huge Supernatural fan. I started watching Supernatural when it first started airing in South Africa around 2005/2006. It is a show that will always remain close to my heart, but more about that later. The second part is again around my digital art. I sometimes spend far too much time hunting stray pixels, in an attempt to make sure everything is perfect.

The last part of my username should be obvious. Sam is short of Samantha. It also is another little nod to Supernatural, where one of the main characters also goes by Sam.

Location
If you hadn't already figured it out, I live in South Africa. In Centurion to be precise. I have lived in many different places in South Africa growing up. I have lived in four of South Africa's nine provinces. I have also been lucky enough to travel around our beautiful country. I hope that in future I get to do a lot more travelling. That said, I do very much love my home town. I have met wonderful people here, making several close friends, which feel more like family.

A few of our wedding photos from 2013

Better Half
If you read about my name, you have no doubt realised that I am married. My husband and I met online around 16 years ago. While meeting online is probably not an unusual thing today, it was back then. Cell phones had only just begun to have internet connectivity. Social media platforms did not yet exist. It all came down to a chance encounter in a small chatroom.

When we first began talking to each other online, I wasn't looking for a relationship. We did, however, become fast friends very quickly. We lived in different towns, a three-hour drive from each other. Yet those words on a tiny cell phone screen to a friend evolved into so much more.
Long story short, 16 years on we are still as close as ever. In 2013 we took the plunge and made things official by getting married. To this day, he is still my best friend and my soulmate. I could not picture my life without him.

Children
Though my husband and I have no human children, we do have three family members that we consider our 'children' in a way. Their names are Ricky, Winston and Lily. Ricky is our eldest, a Jack Russell Terrier. Winston is a Yorkshire Terrier. And Lily, the only other female in the household besides myself, is a Bearded Dragon.

Many people see pets as just that, animals we keep around. But to my husband and I, they are individuals and very much like our children. They bring joy, and yes, sometimes frustration as well. But we love them regardless. Not to mention, they make good heat sharing buddies in the wintertime, hehe.

Winston, Ricky and Lily, our fur (and scale) kids.

My Crazy Brain
So I will not try to explain the inner workings of my mind because even I don't understand them. The best that I can do is provide a glimpse.
I was always a slightly 'strange' child. I hated making eye contact (still do), didn't enjoy playing 'girly' games and would rather play with building blocks on my own. Overall I wasn't really social. Part of me suspects now that I may actually be on the Autistic Spectrum.

When I got to Grade One and started learning how to write, I did so with my left hand. Yet my teacher literally forced me to switch and train to write with my right hand. I also remember my parents being called in and told they needed to get me to the library, as I had already read every book available on their premises at least three times.

The library was like heaven to me. I was a voracious reader throughout my school career. I would very often spend break time with my nose in a book. I openly (and sadly) admit that I don't spend as much time reading anymore. Adult life can be a bit sucky like that.

After I graduated high school, my parents could not afford to send me to university or college. But, the stubborn person that I am, I decided I would get a degree somehow regardless. So I enrolled in a distance university, completing a BSc degree while working. Working, however, meant I could only manage to study part-time, so it took me six years to complete my degree instead of the usual three years. But in the end, I did it, officially graduating in 2009 with majors in Botany and Microbiology.

A different university invited me to enrol with them and work on a river monitoring project while completing my honours and masters. Unfortunately, I did not have the funds to support myself while doing that. And by this time, my relationship with my then-boyfriend (now husband) was getting pretty serious. In the end, I landed a job as an Environmental Consultant near Centurion where my boyfriend lived. We got engaged not long after.

I worked as an Environmental Consultant for a few years. It was a job I enjoyed. In the end, political situations and some less than honest people who wanted me to 'bend' scientific reports made me leave that field of work.

I worked a myriad of different jobs in different fields since then, admin, real estate, retail. But my real passion has always been creating art. A path my parents discouraged me from taking, as they always said it was not financially viable. But that was many years ago before the internet came along. Things have changed a lot. Perhaps now, I will be able to garner a form of income from my passion after all.

Some of the crafted items I have made, a shelf from cardboard, snitches, t-shirt with my art printed, Perler beads Squirtle, and a goblin shack for tabletop war-gaming from Popsicle sticks.

My Interests, Hobbies and Creativity
I have a lot of interests and hobbies. I often think I spread myself too thin sometimes, haha. If you have read everything up to this point, you will know that digital art is one of them, if not the main one. Reading and occasionally writing are something I also enjoy.

I also really enjoy sewing. I do not consider myself a professional in this, but it is a lot of fun. I've sewn several things, most of them for my own use, like a costume for the medieval fayre. It's also a pretty useful skill to have when your favourite item of clothing needs a bit of repair TLC.

I do partake in tabletop RPGs and text RPing. I am still a gamer and play a lot of different games on my PC. I occasionally will break out my Nintendo 3DS for nostalgia.

I used to do martial arts, Karate while in school, and later in life Aikido. For fun, I would sometimes train a little with my husband, who, at that stage, was doing Muay Thai and MMA. Unfortunately, though, I tore the meniscus in my knee. It isn't the kind of injury that heals on its own and requires surgery. But the surgery doesn't guarantee it will be fixed or improve the situation. So I opted not to do it. I was told that continuing with martial arts, and certain other physical activities will risk worsening the tear. So I sadly gave it up martial arts.

I dabble in a lot of DIY crafts and especially enjoy recycling material that others would consider trash into something awesome or useful.

The Future
I am very excited about being involved in this new platform. A big thank you to @zakludick for getting me started and answering my many many questions. And a thank you to @lex-zaiya for telling me about it.

I hope to be posting art and perhaps some stories and crafts as well. I look forward to being active and involved in this lovely community. Thank you to everyone that stopped by and took the time to read my introductory ramblings! I hope you are having a fabulous day!

Credits

• All photos with the exception of the wedding photos taken by myself.
• Wedding photos by Brendan Stewart, his website bfotografie.
• Photo collages created on Canva