NEARly Influenced

It’s the hope that kills you… — Mae Green, “Ted Lasso”

Belief, faith, conviction. All words for a concept I have a contentious relationship with, historically speaking. Like many youths, I was classically an idealist. Grand assumptions, story-book expectations, wrapped in a firm mindset that with the way the world and technology was progressing my generation would inherit a lovely future indeed. The world wasn’t perfect or we’d have all been happy, I thought, yet it was only a matter of time though from what I could see. My thinking and vision did not improve with the years; unfortunately for all involved, I still don’t see a shade of the picture pondered in the formative years. The least impressive aspect of it is that if I paid enough attention anywhere, I’d find it’s not a national or unique problem. Things were not trending up, at least not in any long term positive or sustainable way.

I wasn’t immediately jaded, though as can be expected of the younger teen years I grew what I thought was a sharp edge. Hot takes and cynical commentary abounded, using it to demonstrate a false apathy to the less pretty nature of the world we live in. This was initially a shield, a way to dismiss the “truth” of things I at that moment wouldn’t be capable of changing. The years would progress and id deliberate abstract problems and apply naive solutions hypothetically to remedy them. It all seemed so simple, it was only befuddling to wonder why those before me had reduced themselves to taking so long to reach my conclusions. Were we really going to let ourselves become a poor parody of my most beloved books or media, when we could easily and readily course correct back to what I believed was a planet we would all like to see?

Guess.

The world will only go where it seems to be steering, I conceded during my collegiate education. Mildly bitter and even then a less than conscious bibliophile, I couldn’t help but dive into subjects I liked. To the mild neglect of tasks I should have devoted more time to given they were for a grade, history and literature always called me during bursts of inspiration. It is possible I turned to the past and fictionalized future to validate my inflated sense of certainty in the inevitable decline of all things as I perceived them, but that’s another journal entry. The perfection I envisioned became a Russian nesting doll of ironies that continued to jest when I had a moment free of outside stimuli.

Here we are now, a more silent cynic than previously. Though with my facial disposition it’s hard not to peg the title on me. Not beaten down, or demoralized, not totally at least. More accurately, I resigned. Letting go isn’t giving up. Surrender is not defeat, other similar sayings. I became a proponent of being grounded in realism and set to learning to mind my business. When doing so proved odiously irritating, I’d retreat to social studies and nerd culture as per the norm. When I did, I began to wonder if the only reason I clung to some of them was because they delivered somewhat positive endings. Not that it matters, but it’s a thought. Optimism living on in my hobbies, as they didn’t seem to live anywhere else.

But enough about that, hello again Nemo. Been a bit. A long bit it feels, though I’m not certain how long or brief, I stopped being able to keep track of those things. I only can certainly attest that the fact that I’m behind on these posts has not escaped me. I thought after the first month(has it even been a month? Someone tell me…) I was done, over what I thought was some major facet of my journey that necessitated the existence of these entries. Wrong on both counts. I suppose you can say I’ve been busy. In my day to day, less so on the channels you expect from me. That said, after what feels like a season of absence… I can surmise you’ve missed a lot. Here we go…

OFP has been a fixture of my time, when I’m not making my wages in the non-digital world. In the time I’ve been away from here, I’ve picked up a few hats while juggling the others I already wore. It was not anything outlandish; I was more than capable of suitably attending to the tasks presented for the needs of the Green to be met. Content galore, all written and edited and presented as often as the opportunities knocked. I was absent to some of the meetings as the work schedule dictated, though my desire was to remain as present remotely as I could manage to not leave anyone aware. The goal was to be inconvenienced by my circumstances but never to have my peers notice a change. The first absolutely occurred but not to the degree anticipated, the second was smooth but with an asterisk. I would slip and fall behind. Pobody’s Nerfect.

NxP. Remember them? Me too, constantly. They’re not just colleagues, to some degree they are one of the few online-only friends I’ve made which I’ve opted into sticking by. I say that to demonstrate that I’ve not been as in touch with the crew as I’d like, this is an attempt at a first step in course correction. I haven’t reached out in earnest, I think this might be the Bat-Signal to alert the DAO I’m trying to be back to some degree. I stopped writing for them, stopped writing to them, stopped writing almost entirely. It felt low priority on the totem pole; when faced with a week of bills and no means to pay them, outside of laboring far removed from a monitor or keyboard. It still does frankly. Home and “adulting” have sucked up the daylight for me, though where I live there’s enough sun to toast me all the same. So here I sit, typing away for the chance to have my tagline once again joined with theirs… hey guys, hope you’re all well. We should catch up soon.

NEAR in general has been so far from my purview it makes sense I missed out on a few things. Evidently my wallet isn’t going to be valid soon, if it hasn’t happened already. I logged in weeks ago to find a giant red sign “Soon NEAR wallet (wallet.near.org) will no longer be supported.” whatever that means. It told me to take my private keys and prepare to transition to the next wallet app. Fair enough, I can do that- technically I already had. In an attempt to procure some free NFTs from the ecosystem, I was visiting an online-based biometric decentralized authentication and verification system. Simply put, it stores an NFT featuring data proving you have demonstrated you are who you claim. This NFT becomes a digital keycard used to verify future activity within the sphere in which it is requested, providing quicker verification and security in a one time process. From there I collected another NFT that was seen as a thank you gift for my next topic.

In between my last post and now I signed up for a small AI art free workshop, much to my surprise. While I myself am a pathetic excuse for any kind of artist, I postulated that using tech might make up for my lack of applied talent. I downloaded the software and prepared myself or anything. Not knowing anything about the paradigm in general, I had no idea what to expect. Initially I was flooded with humorous self-deprecating lines about “selling out to Skynet” or letting the Matrix get one step closer to reality. Once the meetings were under way I realized two facts. One- producing the right design is more complex than first believed, and two- it would seem that certain facets of it played to my strengths. A lot of the applications I used had a text box front and center of the GUI, which was quite unexpected. The interface allowed me to verbally describe what I wanted to be shown by the system, along with other methods such as inputting sample art or photos as a basis. Not wanting to use those options, I chose to play to my present talents to see how much words alone could yield. My love for Game of Thrones, Warhammer, and comics shined through. I was not disappointed by the outcomes, though I was mildly amused by the results. My armor-clad shield maiden with a direwolf was lovely though the beast seemed more akin to bears. My sample description of a space marine was more of a well armored green knight, than a Dark Angel with a power sword. The AI did however resemble and portray certain aspects of a Green Lantern I scripted… down to the glowing aura and power emanating from his hand outward. It’s not a world I tamper with frequently but it’s comforting to know I COULD make things that are visibly appealing with only my imagination and few choice sentences or phrases.

Polygon, the scaling project from the Ethereum ecosystem has occupied a large portion of my free time away. Deep inspection followed and intriguing concepts explained themselves in my digging. In order to assist in Eth maximizing their transactions per second, several developers have offered their solutions both on and off chain. Optimistic and zkRollups, were the two primary vectors by which I based my research. I spent quite some time learning what it means (rollups, the two major types of them, etc), while also engaging side quests through those who were building using them. Once the competition was examined, I scoured for the strengths and flaws of the teams. Along with a few apps and coins that accompany these platforms, I built quite the deep understanding of these builds… if only at the 101 level. I’ll keep you posted on the minutiae of it as time progresses, I’m aspiring to have a deeper expertise as my thirst for knowledge satiates.

Me? Well, it’s dragged on quite a bit so you’ll have to wait for the next installment. Assuming there is one at all after this and I don’t give up altogether of course. Catch you on the flip, maybe…

Signed,

Woodward Forest-Lich