A Proper Introduction : Mike Gilmer (Galactic Stone), Collector and Curator of the Curious

Introducing myself, MikeG (Galactic Stone) :

When I first got on Steemit, I did a brief introduction post, but I didn't use the right tags and I didn't have any followers yet, so basically nobody saw it. So, I thought I would do a new introduction with a little more detail. It's been about a month since I joined Steemit, and now I am more comfortable with the interface. I like the potential this platform has and I have some ideas that I will bounce off the developer team if they are open to unsolicited suggestions - new features, bug fixes, etc.

Back to the introduction. First, I will give a link to my first brief intro post. I won't rehash everything I said there - https://steemit.com/science/@galacticstone/introduction-galactic-stone

My name is Michael Gilmer. I live in south Florida with my wife and near our family and grandson. I am 48 years old physically and about 25 in maturity terms. I have been a lifelong computer geek since the pre-internet days, and I used to be the sysop of a few 300bps dialup BBS setups in the 1980's. Started out on BASIC, then DOS, then some Pascal and early machine language. Stayed on Windows until last year and then made the jump to Linux freedom. I've been curious about blockchain and cryptocurrency for a while, but I am not a speculator or investor type, so I generally avoided it. After growing tired of the big social media sites (and their corporate bullscat), I started looking for alternatives and stumbled across Steemit thanks to a mutual 3-way connection on Facebook to another Steemit user who happens to be a professional astronomer in Australia.

I've been a lifelong science geek and self-taught, advanced-amateur astronomer. About 12 years ago, I discovered meteorites and that ignited an obsession in me for space rocks. I have since become a major collector and dealer of meteorites who has branched out into fossils, minerals, amber, artifacts, and other rare natural collectibles. I have a large collection that I maintain using scientific curation protocols. I list "curator or curation" usually in my profiles, but I avoid doing that here on Steemit to avoid confusion with the Steemit Curators (the term means something a little different here on Steemit than it does with minerals and meteorites).

I started blogging back in the earliest days of the internet - back before it was called "blogging". This was back in about 1992 to 1994. I was writing science fiction, poetry, music, and generally following a wandering literary muse. I shifted into non-fiction, science-related writing sometime around 1998 or 1999 and have continued to this day. My writing comes and goes in spurts, according to how much free time I might have and whether my muse is there. Some of what I will be posting here is older material that has been published in other venues. Some is older material that is unpublished before now. And lately, I have been feeling the muse and writing some new material that will be posted here exclusively - Mark Zuck isn't getting any more of my content from here on out.... Sorry Facebook.

I am here on Steemit to discuss hard factual science, futurist theory, optics, spaceflight, meteorites, and anything related to the space sciences. I hope to spread my knowledge and help new collectors of rocks, minerals, meteorites, and natural materials that I have some expertise and experience with. I also hope to learn some new things or expand my knowledge of current passions by networking with new connections in the sciences.

I also advocate rationalism, reason, intellectualism, and secular progressive thought. I avoid politics and religion and view those as poisons that retard the positive potential of mankind. As an extension of that, I have zero tolerance for anti-science attitudes, pseudo-science, and quackery. I will not post that kind of stuff and will try to talk sense into people who believe in things that fly directly in the face of reality and proven science. This doesn't mean I am a troll or dick about it - heck, my wife practices New Age witchy stuff, so I do have an open mind. But, I will speak out against those who abuse or tarnish the good name of real science - this means, don't come at me and tell me something like climate change is a conspiracy. I have zero phucks to give about pseudoscience, so keep it away from me - no contrails, no crisis-actor fake shootings, no faked Moon Landings, etc.

I have a website that serves as a clearinghouse for the articles I write, and a venue to sell specimens from my collection. The website is called Galactic Stone & Ironworks (www.galactic-stone.com) and you can find a listing of the meteorite-related articles I have written at this link - http://galactic-stone.com/learn-about-meteorites/

Photo credits : photos shown various displays and specimens from the Galactic Stone Collection. Some might be for sale, and some are not. The stuff that is available is listed on my website. Some specimens shown are in my private stash and are not available. I am always interested in trades with other collectors, so if you collect interesting minerals, rocks, fossils, meteorites, etc, then send me an email or message to inquire about trades.

You can find me on other social media sites using the same name "GalacticStone". I am on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Ello, Reddit, and others. But I am tapering off my time on those other venues and I am spending more time here on Steemit. I have turned "anti-Facebook" and will be greatly reducing my presence there from here on out.

Thanks for taking to time to read this and if you have any questions about meteorites or telescopes (my two obsessions), feel free to ask and I will talk your ear off. LOL.

MikeG

PS - coming up in the next couple of days : I will be posting photos and videos from my recent fossil-hunting expeditions in the rivers and swamps of the Bone Valley formation in Florida (photo below)