Get to Know @agmoore

in #writing5 years ago (edited)

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Last week I was nominated by @abigail-dantes to participate in a challenge created by @anomadsoul. The challenge is to look back over our blogs and pick the best, so other Steemians might become acquainted with our work. Thank you, @abigail-dantes. I thought about my journey through Steemit--what my expectations were in the beginning, where these took me and where I hope to go.

I'll start with how I got here. My son told me about Steemit. He explained the concept of decentralization and its overriding character of free speech. Money was part of the attraction, but not the biggest part.

I jumped in and haven't looked back.


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It's been almost ten months now. When I consider my early blogs, I see that I was looking for direction, for a niche. Fortunately, I haven't found that niche. Steemit is still an adventure, an open frontier. Every day I discover someone new and learn something. My retrospective of ten blogs will begin with a blog I wrote about the Korean alphabet, Hangeul. This blog represents so many aspects of posting on Steemit for me. I'm interested in the way language expresses culture, and how it also informs us about history. Understanding how Hangeul came to be helps us to understand Korea's history. And then, an excellent benefit of blogging on Steemit--I got to know @manouche, one of my favorite people here, because I wrote that blog.


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The second blog I'll mention is A Hudson River Pictorial. This blog took me back to the mountains that were such an important part of my childhood. I learned about the geological history of those mountains, and also got to connect with another wonderful Steemian, @effofex. Turns out, she also grew up in the Hudson Valley.


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My third blog took me way back in history, to the land of the Inca and their remarkable system of writing, quipu. I knew nothing about this subject when I started the blog. A newspaper article sparked my curiosity. That's a great benefit of Steemit for me--to explore and learn.

My fourth blog took me to a turning point in my Steemit history, The Curious Relationship Between the Wasp and the Fig. Here I followed my usual pattern of taking on a subject that was totally unfamiliar. I had written a fantasy story once that included a reference to a banyan tree. From that, this long blog about ficus and wasp mutualism grew. This blog offered my first significant payout. A good Steemian friend, @veckinon, recognized my work and curated that for me. I hope @veckinon is OK. Haven't seen him for a while here.


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My next couple of blogs, Rubber: An Exotic, Violent Past and Troubling Future, and Malaria: An Ancient and Deadly Foe were in-depth excursions into science and history. If you want to read some interesting facts about rubber and malaria, these blogs will do it for you:)

About six months ago I wrote The Great Indian Famine of 1876-78: Land Use and Social Policy in Colonial India. This blog sort of grew out of the blog on malaria, but it also reflected my background as a writer of small books. I had written a couple for elementary and middle school children that dealt with colonialism, specifically colonialism in India, so I was quite interested in the topic.

I seemed to go through a microbe phase after that. I see a blog on The Universe of the Intelligent Microbe. And another one on Plague: An Ancient and Present Peril. Both blogs forced me to learn material that was completely new to me. Of course, they also reflected a lifelong interest in biology. It seemed to be one of those subjects in school that attracted my attention even when I found other subjects boring. And, ever since I read Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, the plague has fascinated me as a social and historical event.

My final entry will show my impulsive nature: I can't choose between some stories I've written. One aspect of Steemit that has been particularly rich for me is the invitation to write creatively. Some stories I wrote for @f3nix's finishthestory contest. Then there was the peculiar one I wrote for @raj808's Mashup Challenge. A story in which I took special pleasure was, Anhelo: Ode to Color, which was written for @calluna's tellastorytome contest.


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As I look back over the blogs I've written, I realize my experience on Steemit is much more than writing blogs. It's the comments I've received. The people I've met. The experience of learning and honing my writing skills. There are subjects I've explored, not mentioned here: bees, electricity, worms (that's the blog where I connected with @nonzerosum --an amazing scientist and writer), for example. My Steemit journey has been a period of growth for me.

In order to carry @anomadsoul's challenge forward, I must nominate three very interesting Steemians. It's a pleasure to know each of them, and to learn from them. I nominate @erh.germany, @alexander.alexis, and @samve.

Thank you, @abigail-dantes for thinking my work is worthy of this retrospective. I have learned so much from you. See you next Friday, I hope.

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I read through this and like that you've tackled things you had no knowledge of previously. I'm wondering how I can do something like this for myself. I skimmed some of the posts and like what I saw.

I've not learned much about writing beyond what I happened to pick through my schooling years. I'm slowly learning more.

Glad to get to know you a little better.

Thank you, @tristancarax, I really appreciate that. I think you're a great writer. When I first started big projects (like books), I thought, "Too big!" Then I just broke them down and thought of them as a compilation of small pieces. That works.

Really nice to know you, too. One of the perks of finish the story is the people I meet.

That is a interesting thing to do. I really thought I would be posting all about crypto. I still do that a bit but much much less that just taking part in stuff going on here.

You do seem to know a lot about crypto. Isn't wonderful how we get drawn into other things, when our minds are open? Give it another year--who knows what we'll discover about ourselves :)

It's great to see how your posts progressed (although I wasn't aware of your existence from the beginning) and how you experienced the ride. Thanks for the nomination! I'll definitely have a look at it one of the following days! :D

I discovered you through @geopolis, then realized you also have your own blog. Every time I read your blog I learn something. And, of course, @geopolis gives visibility to great posts.

I think your retrospective will be fascinating, when you get it together. It's been nice to get to know you through Steemit. :)

This is a very good guide for me to slowly begin to explore your blog! :) It was your post Crypto or Fiat Currency: It's All About Trust that seduced me and caused me to fall in love with your work here on the platform! Then, I discovered your fiction writing. 😍

Thank you so much for accepting this challenge. I read with great interest your insight into your journey on Steemit, and found your appreciation for not having found a niche a quite revealing one :)

My time here has also been one of great development, and undoubtedly the greatest contributors to this are the people who I have encountered and in a way have become part of my life, with you being one I hold particularity special and dear.

Thanks so much for the challenge! As I went through the posts it was like looking through an old family album--the experience of writing and researching came back. It was hard to pick my favorites so I just picked the first that came to mind.

Not finding a niche probably defines my life perspective as much as anything else...intellectually, anyway. Socially, I'm a homebody. Family and pets do it for me.

As for growth on Steemit, so glad I found your blog. I'm not sure how that happened. But that's what's great about Steemit. It's a series of connections, constant opportunity for discovery. Can't tell you how many times your words come back to me as I go about routine activities. An opportunity to reflect and perhaps behave with more insight.

So happy to have you as my Steemit friend. Makes my life, on and off Steemit, richer :)

You have given us some great posts to look through.

The second blog I'll mention is A Hudson River Pictorial. This blog took me back to the mountains that were such an important part of my childhood.

@agmoore You have intrigued me with the image of the Quipu Meyers Konversationlexicon

Thank you! One thing I realized as I went through the blogs was how often I returned to the subject of language, in one form or another. I'm glad you were drawn to the blog about quipu--kind of shakes up our traditional notions about language, doesn't it :)

A great challenge to handle inspiring each others work.

Yes, thank you. The best part of Steemit is the connections we make with other people, I think.

Great post @agmoore. I love the way we see a cross section of your work here.

Anhelo, Ode to Color has to be my favorite. Keep on steeming :-)

Hi @raj808, thanks for stopping by. Anhelo, Ode to Color is one that came from the heart. I have to say, your writing on Steemit sort of gave me permission to follow that creative urge. You set an example for all of us that there is a place for creative writing on the platform. Also, you were one of the early, encouraging voices on the platform for me. I remember each of those voices, and remain grateful.

Hi agmoore. Thanks for those kind words.

Also, you were one of the early, encouraging voices on the platform for me. I remember each of those voices, and remain grateful.

I am happy to have been one of those people. You may not know this, but I feel exactly the same about yourself and a few other high level writers on steemit who still comment on my posts. The encouragement factor can't be underestimated. Things are super quiet on here for creative writing at the moment. Mainly because a high percentage of the quality fiction/poetry writers have gone. This is a direct result of confidence in the platform and earning potential. But I think they're looking too short term with steemit. Anyway, I miss the comments more than anything, now that @isleofwrite has gone so quiet. I used to get people from there commenting on my posts with interesting 'technique' oriented commentary. Also, I think the writers block is quiet as well but I know less about them as one of there more arrogant admins kicked me out last year. Anyway, your insightful comments, especially on my fiction, encourage me to continue.

You set an example for all of us that there is a place for creative writing on the platform.

With steemfest in a few days, I'm going to explore my writcoin idea and see if it's viable to build a community/SMT to bridge the gap between blockchain and publishing which would bring a flood of creative writing to steemit. Fingers crossed.

P.s I need to mention @f3nix in this comment too as someone, like yourself, who's comments have literally made the difference at times between me staying or leaving steemit. Plus the 'finish the story' comp kick-started my fiction writing, & comments from many people in that community kept that momentum going. I'm putting my regular entry in on Monday :)

Looking forward to reading that piece tomorrow.
I agree, @f3nix has created a rare environment here. I come back when I don't really get the "beginning" of a story, out of loyalty. The community is a crucible for writers and would-be writers. No way to lose--everybody wins by just being part of the exercise.
Thanks for finding my comments valuable--sometimes I miss your posts on Steemit. (Life is distracting) But when I catch them, I'm always rewarded.

Have fun at Steemfest. You can't know how happy I am that you are going. Happy for you, happy for the creative writing community on Steemit.

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