Another midnight oil post here, Steemians! I still haven’t fallen back in to my typical Minnesotan routine since returning from my shoots and trip to the east coast. I’m a creature of habit, so that’s always stressful. I managed to get “some” work done tonight. @vermillionfox and I ordered a massive [expensive] bundle of “Hour Of Devastation”, the new Magic: The Gathering expansion set. They arrived this afternoon we met with @tarotbyfergus to work out the mechanics. @tarotbyfergus lost, several times…but more on that tomorrow. I’ll be doing a deep dive on “Hour Of Devastation”. I really wanted to make tonight’s post as it’s timely, and should be shared while it’s all still relevant.

When I booked my trip to the east coast, I specifically made sure our flight home was on July 14th. I wanted to make sure we’d be here for @timcliff’s Minneapolis/St. Paul Meetup. @mada held a surprisingly well received Meetup in uptown last November. @anthonyjerrigo famously made a 9 hour bus ride […and brought along his very understanding girlfriend, whom he should absolutely marry] to attend the gathering for all of one hour, before having to get back on a bus for another 9 hour ride back to Chicago! That kind of Steemit spirit is shared by @timcliff, who you’d be hard pressed to find anyone more dedicated to fostering growth and positive energy within our community.

Our @caffetto […yes, I bought the username for our uptown Steemit chapter, thanks to @timcliffs Busy.org SteemConnect tool] incubator met in uptown, and several cars later, made our way to Edina to meet at Davanni’s. About 20 faces, some familiar, some new surrounded the tables. We went around with introductions and heard stories about how we all came to the platform. Lots of laughs, pizza, projections and testimonials of the personal impacts this blockchain has had on our lives. Not just the rewards, but the community aspect, the renewal of creativity and, for many of us […including myself], a foot in the door of decentralized crypto-technologies we otherwise wouldn’t have found.

We made friends with @raizel, @artist1989 @dogguy @roundoar03 @intothewild. Uptown was represented by myself, @vermillionfox @greatdabu @lovejoy @kooks88 @tarotbyfergus @britleigh. Also, so great to see @elderfinancial again! Some one mentioned Facebook and said “…have you ever seen Facebook users get together to do something like this?!”. It really shed light on how unique of a phenomenon Steemit has become. Many of us there expressed our gratefulness for finding out about Steemit while it’s still in it’s infancy. I do hope the spirit of this revolution remains throughout it’s future growth.

https://youtu.be/CAcy-k9rW2Y

The party really picked up when our group left and reconvened at Dave and Buster’s. I don’t like bars, as a rule, but I decided to make an appearance. What I found when I entered was a massive arcade for grown ups. @timcliff graciously set us all up with token cards and then sent our Steemit hoard in to the wild! @vermillionfox will be posting some outstanding videos and GIF’s she shot with her Osmo gimbal, so look out for that. I seriously haven’t had that much fun in ages. It was so welcomed after the disastrous trip to the east coast. Thank you @timcliff for hosting such an incredible Meetup! You do our little corner of the internet justice in your efforts and we appreciate you!

I need to wrap this up to watch Game of Thrones before sometime spoils it for me. Also, this “Hour Of Devastation” post is going to take a fair amount of writing and brainpower. For more photography, art, illustration and insight to a very nerd-centric life, follow me @kommienezuspadt!