Some things in life are Unforgettable!
Today, it was exactly 10 years ago that my best friend Peter, with tears in his eyes came out of the bedroom yelling:
Since then ...
we've never been to Thailand again ...
Although maybe a strange way to start a post like this, I did so anyway, because I think that about 80-90% of the posts I've made sofar, have a "humour-signature", so to say.
Always accompanied by some funny pics to cheer up things and, if possible, a funny twist at the end.
Now, before answering the question 'how Steem has impacted my life', first I want to tell you briefly a bit about my background. Every now and then I do this. Not too much, Just parts, when I feel like. You can also look at it as a supplement to the brief 'introduceyourself' post I've once made.
At rather young age I already became daddy. Those of you who follow me know that I have a son (Dennis), who lives in Sweden. I now also have two grandkids, a boy, age 5 and a girl of 3,5.
Anyway, when Dennis was 2,5 years old I got divorced. I won't go into details, but I got custody and raised him alone for some 3,5 years. About that time I got to know a nice woman, with whom I lived together with for 17 years. Obviously she also had an important part in raising Dennis and make things a bit easier for me.
Once Dennis being old enough to live on his own me and my girlfriend gave up our work in the Netherlands and moved to France to live there like "God and Goddess in France" (as they say).
Up until that moment I have had a 22 year career in HRM (the last 7 of those 22 years I was self-employed).
Nevertheless, working with my hands, making things, DIY, renovating houses has always been a great passion of me. And that's what I've done for 12 years in France. I know, indeed completely different than HRM.
Had a great time there. Would go back living there tomorrow if circumstances allowed me to.
A lot has happened also in those 12 years, especially the last 3 years of them. And not because it's too painful or full of drama (a bit though), but just don't feel like talking about that anymore.
Once made a decision I never look back.
I'm back now for 4,5 years in the Netherlands, still self-employed and continued working in construction.
Humour is (and always has been) a very important thing in my life. Every day I meet and speak a lot of people. Am quite outgoing and make contact with other persons, male as well as female, very easily. In person that is.
Always have preferred eye-to-eye contact above telephone or writing. Probably also the reason why you'll hardly see me on discord etc.
Now, up untill the beginning of May 2017 I've put my funny (or at least an attempt to) stuff always on Facebook.
At the same time I watched the daily (stockmarket) videos of 
He told a bit about Steemit and said you could get paid for that.
Ofcourse that triggered me, did a bit of reading and checking out and I subscribed. Dammit, all those things I already had put on Facebook for some years, without getting anything!
Just like wagonloads of other people who got an account here, I had never heard of blockchain, not even to speak of crypto.
I started to read and absorb everything I could find about blockchain, crypto's and especially how the Steemplatform worked.
Did my first post.
'Shoooooow me the money'! (not the title of that 1st post, btw)
Guess it's no surprise to you that from my first payout I couldn't even buy one chewing gum.
Took me some time to figure out what got me the attention I was hoping for.
Did some "my 7 best of" posts with music from bands I like and some other random stuff in dutch language. Not really a hit!
Replying on the comments I got, that was an important thing I found out (and still do, as much as possible).
Then, after a couple of months, all of a sudden I got a rather big upvote from 
Started to buy some Steem.
Bought some more.
Could give away higher upvotes.
Got higher ones back.
Had I found the "right formula"? Kind of, maybe.
Slowly, my posts got more and more attention, getting more and more comments and ... a bit higher upvotes.
Not spectacular, but in line with what I posted back then I guess.
Moving forward to today.
Since my start here, on average I've made about 3 posts a week.
I do work a lot lately. And not always having motivation to post, nor the time when I get home.
I nevertheless try to connect at least every day for some time to comment and upvoting. And also to make sure I use enough daily available voting power.
Have about 24 steemians put on autovote (just one 1 vote daily p/p). The rest I do manual.
Autovote is not my favorite thing to use but still a convenient solution to get higher curation rewards. Like the great (dutch) soccerplayer Johan Cruijff once said: 'I don't want to be a thief of my own wallet'
Did quite some Steembuying last couple of months. With a current Effective total SP of 61740 and Curation- and Author SP of totally 5130 ... well, do the math yourself. The difference between the two is what I've bought.
Quite an impact if you ask me. And at the same time, a token of my strong belief in the potential of Steem.
Thanks for reading,
take care
and above all ...
