There I was, a lone sponge...
There I was, a lone sponge in store window with a bunch of stuffed toys. When would somebody get me out of here?!?!?!
Flashback - before I was a sponge.
Let me take you back to a time somewhere in the 2013 range. The real me had already been living in Buenos Aires for over a decade. I settled down, had a career, a home, two wonderful children, and all the empenadas you could want.
In addition to my full-time job, I had tried many things. I taught English, I rented out rooms to tourists, and I got involved with bitcoin. I bought some high-end video cards and mother boards to start 'mining' digital currency. I found myself obsessed with pushing the "monster machine", as my kids called it, to generate one more mega-hash/second.
I had mined bitcoin for 2 years at that point, my friends calling me thee shades of crazy for spending tons on video cards without even using them for games. I watched as the little payments came in - 0.014, 0.018, 0.011 bitcoins, each one coming in hours after the last. Naturally, I would talk about this "new money" with my friends. A typical conversation would go like this.
"So, how much are you making?"
- "About two bitcoins per day."
"... and how much is that in dollars?"
- "... about six dollars."
"... and how much is your electric bill?"
- "... about fifteen hundred dollars."
"...Well, you can't live on that!"
until you can...
I had not thought about bitcoin that much on a day to day basis, with work and all. I was still maintaining my miners, but I was getting less and less return. It didn't help when I finally got my ASIC's - they were worthless out of the box (Butterfly Labs). Either way, I was involved in promoting coins - I traded, invested, donated and saved bitcoins as I watched the price go to $10, then drop - $40, then drop - broke $100 and seemed to stick there in late 2013, which is when I made my spongy decision.
I didn't decide to take this route because bitcoin was at $100. I was actually stuck in a rut, working Monday to Friday, then the weekend - rinse and repeat. I would have never changed anything if I weren't forced to stop in late 2013.
I hit a hi-cough in October, meaning the IRS tried to reach deep into South America to fish for funds they thought I owed from 2008, and I needed to take time off work to show them their error. I dug around for trading records and receipts, all the time getting more and more flustered with banks, brokers, tax returns, work, deadlines, etc. - I was actually sick of the whole system. At the same time, I was hearing all this talk about the NSA spying on us - not to stop terrorism, but to collect and save our communications. I had heard it all before, but now there are documents. As if raided without a warrant, I felt betrayed. Even the buses started to remind me of the NSA.
Anyway, I had paused my job as an Executive Recruiter to gather data from years back for the Feds. It only took a few days to clear my name in Kansas, but I was now pissed off at my country of origin. I have always paid my taxes, filed on time, both here and in the U.S., but why pay them anything when I can just stop earning dollars, stop earning pesos - just stop.
Thus the sponge
I spent 30 days thinking about my job - going back to work or not. After all, I had only taken leave to handle a problem with the bean counters. But now, I began to dread the rat race. Decision time. Headaches vs. freedom. Time with my kids vs. time doing endless interviews to get people $200k jobs. Banks vs. bitcoins. Being in the system or being in sync with only myself. I decided to leave my job and let go of all my highly public Google+, facebook, Skype, and countless other accounts. My direct business connections on LinkedIn gave me access to 26 million potential clients/candidates worldwide, but I ditched it all.
I was not sure if I could live on bitcoin or not, but I was sure that I did not want the to be recorded, listed, tracked, or taxed. The solution? Don't own anything - no tax on assets. Don't make anything - no tax on income. Don't show anything - on line or otherwise - stop existing.
New computers, new youtube and twitter accounts, new IP, new home address, and it all belongs to my pal Sponge-Bob ! Here you see him installing Qubes-OS - a version of Linux for system isolation. (I helped)
I am still me, but Sponge-Bob is the one with the computer, internet connection and public profile. He has encrypted email accounts, but otherwise is pretty public with my opinions, criticism, tweets, videos and posts.
It has been three years since I decided to live life free of all else. I found a service that delivers paper rectangles to my door in trade for bitcoins - they also accept bitcoins for paying bills like gas, electric, water, and internet service. I will not mention the site because their fees are scandalous. I use diamondcard.com for SIP service to maintain my phone number in the U.S. - also accepting bitcoin. Done! My job awaits me if I want to go back, but I am not headed that direction. Sponge-Bob lets me use his computer for news and alt-coin trading, as well as Steemit. So, I am at ease.
Other things about me...
I cook a lot, making things from scratch that don't exist here, including my own version of Reeses peanut butter cups, chocolate chip cookies, corn tortillas, corned beef (yes I have meat sitting for three weeks in a salt solution to achieve that), and Claussen type pickles - mine actually turn out better than the real thing.
I do some programming and experiment with open source software / operating systems. I also trade about 30 alt-coins though not daily - mostly large fluctuations.
Guitar and piano are on my agenda daily as well as studying biblical Hebrew on my own as a third language. I may post songs in a few different languages if I am able to continue posting content.
Steemit was very appealing to me from the first glance I took. After a month here, the income looks like what I had been making when I first started mining bitcoin. I am hoping for the best as time goes on!
Hats off to all who are producing world class tools for us new Steemians to play with too!
A vote...
I know I have been lagging on content, but I have been concentrating more on learning the ins and outs of voting. The coming update has lit a fire under my chair to get an introduction post out there while people still have 40 votes to play with.
I have gotten to know some of you on the lurk - now you know a bit more about me.
You may see my boys in some photos, but I am pretty camera shy. I will stay in the shadows with my sponge-bob stuffy as my avatar.
*all photos and screenshots were taken by me of my accounts / neighborhood / experiences.