NEAR Moving Foward
One step at a time, one punch at a time, one round at a time. — Rocky Balboa
Ok, my breath is returning. Heart rate calming, the tide that had nearly suffocated me beneath it seems to be on the decline for the foreseeable future. So…. What now? “What do you mean? Now we can actually play the game…” Oh yeah. Thanks for the reminder. I was playing the game before all of it came crashing down, wasn’t I? What’s the game? Well depends on who you ask; if I’m being frank, it could even depend on when you ask me in the day. I’m someone who has been known to actively reference “the game” as a stand-in for many tangible and intangible concepts, many that are not Games.
What games am I part of? The crypto one, naturally. Have been for I guess a few years now to some capacity or another. Not to any levels of proficiency I’d crow about, I’m more middling in my knowledge and ability to utilize the tools. Web3 is a newer dimension, despite it being nearly overlapping in everyday use. I knew what blockchain did, not necessarily all of what it could do. That is to say… knowing an NFT was a photo is one thing, knowing NFTs could also be digital documentation of a piece of the natural world was far flung from what I expected. I can honestly say that’s one of the central reasons behind my interest in the topics I have been exposed to over the course of my limited time in NEAR. Reading about the common use case in social media and popular online publications, then comparing that to what some projects I’ve been tuned into via Twitter spaces are attempting, really showed me the breadth of distance in potential there is.
The Green is getting into the steam of things, with an upcoming set of events we are being hosted to. I’ve been party to more than a handful of these by now, at first it was merely to absorb as much as possible to fill what I lacked in learning. Later on it became the means by which I showed my support, gathering people I knew if possible to hear the good word… so to speak. As I told you recently, I’ve been dipping my toes in again so as to sharpen what I think I know. I wish to be more prepared; to be able to share the message without needing anyone in between filling the gaps, or to have them watch an hour long link of media because I’m ill equipped to speak. I imagine this means that the opportunities to update the archive I’ve built in my mind will present in due time. Good thing too, I had not been party to one in quite a while.
One thing I can tell for certain is that I want to be part of the writing game too, much to my displeasure. Why? I’m not good enough for it. Not really. I’m no Oscar Wilde, I’m barely even a second rate Michael Bay in my opinion (yeah, I said it). It’s not humility or low self esteem doing the talking; I tend to have a healthy estimation of what I’m capable of, most days. The issue here is more that I know how good I am expected to be in order to gain the notoriety and listener-base for the success to live on it with reliable ease. Boy, is that a skill floor I’m not sure I can even see from this far down the pecking order. Every time I write, everything I’ve ever written has been unworthy of reading. At least that was the conclusion to me as soon as I finished typing(or writing).
My publishing crew has been back to chatting it up, I.E. I watch them talk while I drop a meme or two meant to reflect my thoughts on the topic. The usual. More personal business, not NEAR associated ones. Though our west coast center certainly seems to crank out material despite what time of year it is. It’s truly impressive to see honestly, I sometimes wonder if they’re up to anything after a relative radio silence from our contacts(from what I’ve seen) within W3. That isn’t to say that we haven’t opted to stick together and with the process, also just my personal speculation. I’m for it; I don’t see a reason why we would cease to communicate now, after all we seem to have shared about ourselves to one another.
But at this moment I will. I Youtube. A lot. Ironically enough, I didn’t always. When I first heard of the site, because it wasn’t an app, I thought it rather silly. I was also 17 and didn’t have reliable (or sometimes even usable) internet, that likely factored in. At the time, it was presented to me as a place where people could save their videos of things digitally. I am not big on recording things, therefore didn’t see the appeal. About 6 months later or so I encountered the name again at a friend’s house. He informed me that a lot of the anime he wanted to see which were gaining popularity in the States could be found there, reliably, for free. “You have my attention.” I still couldn’t log onto the web much, or with any kind of real power. when I did I def jumped into what quickly became my new favorite page.
I’d search for disparate episodes, sometimes not even provided by the same creator. I hardly minded at all; given that I came from a time where my friends who had cable would sometimes record their shows in VHS for me to not miss, this was gold. It still is. Not so much anime anymore, as modern streaming and legal issues have moved them past it. But in its stead something greater emerged: Youtube itself. The fan-subbed Naruto was gone, in its wake was audiobook narrations, Creepypasta channels, how-tos, and more! I spent that first year where everything that could be banned through copyright was so screeching at the temerity of the channel to not give me the full liberty I was accustomed to. Presently I have so many channel subscriptions for unrelated forms of entertainment I could spend all day on just that one application without being bored. In fact, it’s likely enriched my learning more than any other, short of Google and Wikipedia.
Youtube is also the sanctum by which I came across some of the familiar faces I now speak to (or for) on a regular basis. I met at least 3 of my favorite people in Web3 from 4nts and their segment, Rise-n-Grind. More than 3 others have their own respective channels, in which they conduct interviews and give their two cents regarding their view of the crypto world. I myself have also done the same, all on the wonderful website I underestimated and dismissed prematurely. We have both come a long way haven’t we, old friend? Here’s to the next decade and change together!
I owe a lot of things to the internet and a lot more to Youtube and the content creators. They’ve kept me entertained, informed, educated, and more importantly… engaged. My susceptibility to boredom seems to dwindle while streaming Game or Film Theory, when I need a book more often than not it’s there too. Hell there are even battles recorded, for hours on end, of Warhammer 40k fanatics playing mock wars at every tier of the hobby. Thank you Youtube. For me, for all of us.
Signed,
Woodward Forest-Lich
