I spent a little time on Hive today as always and while reading and responding to posts and comments a thought struck me; I would know or interact with none of these people were it not for the Hive blockchain. Other than my brother who uses the Hive blockchain also you'd all be complete and total strangers; I'd know nothing about you and you'd not know I exist either.
For a non-social-media oriented person it sometimes feels odd that I can reach across the world and into your lives and that you can do the same with me, it's not unwelcome though, and because I filter the information I release here it's not uncomfortable. I assume you do the same, not everything belongs on the blockchain or any other form of social media, but somewhere in there is a connection and here we all are spanning cultures, countries, age, gender, ideologies, opinions and other things together. It's kind of weird, but also feels right at times, when there's a genuine connection there.
I'm pretty sure, if you saw me on the street, you'd not walk over and say, "hi there, do you fancy a coffee and a chat with me?"
Who does that with a complete stranger? Ok, some maybe, but few of us I think, and I wonder what we might be missing out on by not doing so, who we might be missing out on, because we do not do that.
Would I say yes though? If you came up to me and said that, would I say, "sure thing, let's go and talk about our personal lives, thoughts and opinions over a cup of coffee despite being total strangers." Probably not.
With the omission of the coffee, that's what we're doing here though, over the interwebs and those interweb-carrying cables that span between countries and the space-contraptions that we upload and download our connection with. Is that connection any less meaningful? Aren't friendships formed here as they are in the real face-to-face world? Of course they are.
You don't know everything about me, no one does despite the fact some think they do, and I don't know everything about you either, but we know something and are learning more about each other the more we interact, those who choose to do so with depth, validity, character and personality I mean. The others, meh, they're just superfluous I guess, random people who come and go unremarked and unremembered, although that doesn't mean that deeper connection may not come with those in the future right?
All these things were spinning in my mind, along with the thought that none of us truly know how the other feels at any given point, something that can be very difficult to know from a distance.
People here see a comment, post or reaction in their own way, perceive it based only on what they know, or think they know, but is that the reality? Maybe, maybe not; we're connected but also disconnected by the interwebs. We can't read body language, the movements our bodies and faces make when we communicate verbally, and the keyboard doesn't always tell the whole story right? But we make do, and even though there's often miscommunication it's often worked out one way or the other between those with a more solid connection.
I've got some questions for you.
Would you want to have coffee and a chat with me in the real world based on what you know from the blockchain? Do you think it would feel awkward and what do you think we'd talk about? Would the conversation flow or be disjointed considering there's no screen in between us to filter the words and body-language triggers? Maybe you'd just like to meet me so you can punch me in the face, that'd make for an interesting meeting. Is there someone you find interesting and engaging in the real world and think you'd like to have coffee and a chat with them but haven't? Why not?
Feel free to comment about these things or any topic-related comment (or non-topic-related if you like) as I'm keen to hear from you and to interact.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default; tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind - galenkp
[All original and proudly AI free.]
Any images in this post are my own - yep, that's my hand in all its glory.
I do believe the relationships, of a sort, are real online, even when you know you may never actually meet face to face.
I agree that I'd most likely not agree to coffee and a chat with a random stranger on the street, but it has to do with comfort zones and cautions in the nature of a lot of today's world and the perceived physical safety zone of the net that is not afforded in my real world.
I've met a good number of folks online over time that I would be comfortable meeting for coffee in the real if we were close enough in distance to do so.
I agree, I think viable connection can be made. I guess the difficult part is knowing if the truth is being told, parts of it or any at all. It's easy to say something with a keyboard, but that doesn't make it so.
Did you know I'm actually Elvis? That's right, he never left, just went to Australia.
Ok, that's not true, but is it?
Ok, I'm not Elvis at all, but you get my point. The truth is often unclear and that makes online relationships a little more difficult, fraught with some element of danger. I hate being lied to by people I care about, I mean I hate it with a passion. It still happens face to face of course, but it's easier to spot.
These days, walking up to someone and saying, hey do you want to get a coffee with me, isn't much of a thing. Were I to do that to a woman she's more likely to start screaming and calling me out for harassing her...I find that sad as I grew up in a world where it was possible to do that, and that's how relationships formed. (Ok, maybe not always with a total stranger, but you know what I mean I think.)
I've been to Hive meet-ups here and they seemed ok, and I'd do it again with a few. I'd like to meet @meesterboom and his family actually, I think he's top-notch and we communicate a lot off-Hive. I think @dswigle would be good to meet up with too, she owes me Devonshire Tea actually, and there's a few others, @coinjoe, @bertrayo, yourself...people I feel are like-minded, funny and interesting. There's a few others but don't want to tag them all.
F-ing Elvis! Who would have known. This whole time I was conversing online with The King himself. If your Elvis, then who is marrying all those drunk dumbasses in Vegas?🤣
Lol, I know right? I guess, I ain't nothing but a
houndg-dog. 😂I cloned myself. Even Elvis needs a little income now and then.
Wait! I think I liked it better when I thought you might be Elvis! Take that back!
I have gone to coffee with perfect strangers. I met them on a sidewalk in NYC waiting for tickets. It was spur of the moment and just went across the street to a cafe. Interesting and fun. We still text each other now and then, usually, something to do with travel. I remember what caught my attention that day. We was carrying a violin case. Not a common sight. She played for the symphony and it was then that I found out that life on the run like that is fascinating, but, truly can be a nightmare... anyway, I don't feel as weird about it, I must have a sign on my back saying, will talk for coffee.
Ok... not to everyone, but, it has happened.
Devonshire Tea, with clotted cream!
Haha, well I know that would have brought peace of mind to so many, but I'm just not Elvis unfortunately, I'll say hello to him when I see him though, on behalf of the living. Unless he went to heaven that is, I'll be going to the other place I think.
I have too Swigs, mostly when travelling. I've met people on train platforms, airports and hotel lobby's and sometimes it ends up being coffee, a scotch, dinner...or breakfast sometimes. I think it's the common ground found through being travellers. It's pretty cool really. I can be a little distrustful of people right up front, I'm friendly and personable, but don't trust easily, but sometimes it feels ok, I'm pretty good at the intuition thing, and so stranger-coffees have happened.
I met an American couple at the Salzburg train station once. They were totally confused and unsure whilst waiting for an overnight train to Paris and asked me some questions. I didn't know much more than them but we started chatting and whilst waiting we had a coffee. Nice people. We stayed in contact since, twelve years now.
There's been many others, but none lured me in with Devonshire tea!
See?? If only the knew the secret handshake!!
Travel and odd meet ups just go together. I keep in contactvwith a few and some fade into the background, but many dont and I have met one couple again. On purpose this time. I was passing through, but it was kind of cool.
People are fascinating.
Well, it's not quite as secret as the Freemason's handshakes, but it's a reasonably closely guarded secret nonetheless and something that has to be demonstrated rather then described. Maybe one day Swigs.
Wow, I haven't heard the term "Freemason" in over 30 years. My dad belonged to a local lodge. Try my best, I could not get him to take me to a meeting. I'd be full of questions when he returned.
He did, however, break the rule and teach me one of the handshakes, but swore me to secrecy for life.
Thanks for some wonderful memories just now. Appreciate it. Take care.
!ALIVE
As I take a few minutes here at 6am to L👀k at a few postings of those Hivians you speak of here in this posting.
I am appreciative of having virtually met you. You have made my limited time here very enjoyable. I am a better man due to the interaction we have had here and on 3MA.
I also do not do much social media. Hive to me does not feel like SM so that makes it easier to interact. Even if for only a few minutes before going back to the 3D world outside this window where three seperate piles of debris are burning and I just seen the loggers pulling in with their pick up trucks at the north end of the tree farm. They should be finishing the harvest in the next few days...
Best wishes to You and Yours.
Now back to it. Before that Huge glowing orb if Radioactivity and Heat clears the horizon making it almost unbearable to do physical labor such as chainsawing. 🤣😁🤣
It's nice to have met you also. I can't recall how soon into your journey here we met, but it must have been soon after you got involved I guess.
I am Cuban and in my culture it is very common to start a conversation anywhere with a complete stranger and do it as if you had known each other for a lifetime. We can have a coffee, a beer, a dinner, or a whole day with someone we just met. I know that in many cultures this is not the case, but for us it is very comfortable and easy to go for a coffee and talk for long hours. I accept that coffee!
I've said many times I would love to visit Cuba sometime, I've heard the people are open and friendly and it's a nice and interesting place. And with coffee chats with strangers...well, I think that sound great! One of the best parts of travelling is the people-meeting aspect.
Thanks for your comment.
Welcome ! Now Cuba is going through a deep crisis, but I hope it will pass soon. We will have a coffee with the Cuban community in Hive !!!🎊🎉🎊
It'll be the biggest party Havana has ever had!
yes, I know there's some issues there, other places too, and it's such a pity it has to occur; human beings have a lot to answer for in my opinion.
I hope you're well, have a nice week.
🙏❤️
Haha, the question is a great hook @galenkp.
So yeah, knowing you from the blockchain, I would totally go an share a beverage with you and chat.
I don't think the conversation would be disjointed. If you speak like you write, with some confidence then I think everything would work fine. I had several conversations with strangers yesterday evening at a pre-performance meet-up where my wife and her stage partner met at the house of the presenter/fellow musician.
So I got to mingle with a bunch of people that I do not ordinarily interact with and how else to pass the time than to just chat it out?
In that way you and I probably have more in common than those folks. Who knows? We'd need to chat to find out!
Cheers
I'm quite at ease with conversation with pretty-much anyone; any age, socio-economic demographic and so on. I'd not go as far as saying I'm the life of the party, I am actually quite shy in situations like that, but I know how to converse, know a little about a lot, and am generally considered reasonable company. I'm just myself I guess, although know how to adapt to the situation at hand.
I don't mind meeting new people either, although I'm quite careful about what I say, I'm not one to divulge too much to strangers. Information is power.
Indeed. The idea is always to be able to converse with someone on a human level without giving so much information that they could use it to your detriment.
Exactly, and I think it's a bit of an art, especially with people like me as I'm pretty good at getting information out of people if I want it. I don't always mean waterboarding and electrocution techniques either. 😁
🤣🤣🤣
I'm joking of course...but am I?
Who knows right?
...until it is too late!
About me, now, I can tell you that I came to Pinar del Río for a little while. You can look for a map and see how many kilometres I travelled from Havana to here. 😉😁 If you're not too lazy, of course.
Before that, I went through Candelaria, the place where my parents live.
Tomorrow I'm going back to Havana.
I don't say much more because I'm exhausted, Galenkp.
I think we connect with others through these screens because we recognise ourselves in their layers of thoughts.
;)
I'm the antithesis of lazy. (That means the direct opposite of lazy.) Pinar del Río looks to be about 125km south-west of Havana...Considered a very short drive in Australia, but still a fair hike considering the roads and speed limits might be somewhat different.
This is a really nice way of saying it. ✅
😉 thank you! Have a nice day.
There is a big difference between communicating with strangers online and face-to-face. We also have an instinct, which helps us easily identify the characteristic of a stranger. So if given a chance to meet you galenkp personally, why not have a cup of coffee while conversing? I am into it. I like to know more people, with different personalities.
For me, Meeting and knowing diverse people allows us to understand more about the meaning of life.
Well then, it's on...if the chance ever presents itself. I think meeting different people, those from different walks of life and countries, can be empowering and so valuable in a person's life.
I think we'd have a nice little chat, It'd flow quite seamlessly too, I bet.
We would talk about Hive and crypto, share our thoughts about writing and the type of content we share on here. Maybe even go for a little debate or two, about a certain thing or topic. We could talk all day about cars, that's for sure, since we have a thing for old classic muscle.
I'd also like to know about your gun collection, maybe even check them out if possible. I've only handled one or two real guns in real life, but that was a long time ago.
I agree completely. And a good laugh too!
Yep, and go drive some. I have access to some pretty nice machinery.
Maybe we'd go and shoot some huh?
That'd be a dream come true. The latest and greatest cars are all available here in this country of ours, but proper muscle cars way too rare, especially the oldies.
So, I'd really love to see how it feels behind the wheels of a proper 60s/70s muscle car. I can bet that those cars won't be easy to maneuver; even when I'm watching a video I can just feel the raw power through the sound of my speakers lol.
I'd love to shoot a compact pistol and check my aim. I've only shot an air rifle a few times, but I was about 12/13 years old back then, so I didn't know shit about guns haha. That rifle belonged to my father, and I used to hear stories from him and my uncles, about how they'd use that thing to hunt wild ducks in the countryside.
Wild duck hunting with an air rifle? Wow, ok. That's against the law here, considered inhumane. I guess different laws govern different places.
I think you'd be very surprised about the forces involved with handguns. It's not like in the movies at all.
I don't know how it goes here now, but all the duck hunting was done almost 30 years ago. For the last two decades or so the rifle has mostly been sitting in one corner of the house, like a showpiece.
The first few kicks of recoil will surely hit hard, that's for sure.
All of them will, not just the first few, the recoil doesn't diminish.
Of course the recoil won't go away, but I'm pretty sure the first few shots will be a bit too abrupt, no matter how prepared I am. As I get closer to emptying the mag, find a little rhythm, it then shouldn't be as sudden and "hard" as the first few shots.
Definitely yes, or who knows.... mate too.
It would be very interesting, because of the exchange of points of view, I think it would be a very pleasant chat (I should take some English lessons beforehand🤣).
The little I know about you, has many points of similarity with me, so there would be several topics to talk about, but more important is to learn. I could ask you a lot of questions about weapons, hive, nature, food, etc.
Punch you in the face? No!
But it's true that in today's society it would be difficult to accept an invitation from a stranger I've never seen, who just appears to me in the street. In another era it would have been different... there were no dangers or fears.
In hive, if there are more people I would have a coffee with, the reason why I haven't done it is the distance... In real life, it doesn't occur to me, because I have gone for coffee and chatted with several people. It's easier when there are similar interests.
I can imagine myself having coffee there haha how cool!
Yeah, you'll have to learn some words. I know some swear words to teach you but I reckon you'll need a few other ones to go with them. :)
It may be that the bad words are known to🤣
What I don't know are the good ones😂
I reckon you probably do know the bad ones...but I have a way of putting them together to make them sound...well, better...and badder. 🫣
I only say bad words inside my house hahaha Argentinians have some bad ones too hahaha
How's that for a way to get them together ....🤣
An Argentinia/Australian bad word mashup huh? It's called, Argenstralian.
I'll tell you one... but you have to learn it in Argentinian.
It's not such a bad word, it depends on the tone with which you say it:
If I say hola boludo, it's not the same as sos un boludo, the latter is offensive, the former is a greeting.
What am I doing here at this hour? hahaha that's what I asked myself, I started to listen to my favourite music and I stayed.... and to rest. See you tomorrow!
A sensitive thought, Sir! But very possible, if someone had the opportunity to go to a place where there is someone we know there.
I agree with you that we are not exaggerating everything about our personal lives here; everyone has their own limits.
I see a lot of people genuinely building interactions with other people they don't know at all, and they don't even know who a person really is except for things they have shared on the blockchain or other social media platforms.
Genuine interaction will "look" real in every interaction and will last for a long time, as long as they are willing to be with each other.
That's the question I've been waiting for from someone I've never met in real life.
There is always a desire to meet in person and face-to-face with someone we already know through cyberspace. I hope one day I can sit at a table and enjoy a cup of coffee with you.
What I already know about you from your writings is the gateway to our face-to-face conversations.
I've met several people I know in cyberspace; we did ground coffee and chatted as if we had known each other for a long time. Even though many people refused to meet, that was a normal thing as a sign that there was no sincerity in the connection.
Awkward, in my opinion, is when a person is not himself when meeting someone for the first time.
Have a nice weekend
Despite withholding aspects of one's life and information too, I believe a connection of sorts is possible here, I guess it depends on the individuals involved; some will connect better than others and some not at all.
I do not believe social media and online methods of communication to be the best form of it, I'm a face to face guy, preferring to read the body language and enjoy the connection that can bring: Facial expressions, hand and body movement and other things, the way the sunlight and breeze catches a girls' hair for instance. That's not possible via social media. Having said that, I know connections can be made...and broken too. It's easier to lie over the internet, in real life not so easy.
On the awkwardness in a first meeting...I think that depends on the people and how compatible they are, how natural the connection is. I've had awkward meetings with people and some that have gone really well...as you say, being oneself is the key. We can't be anyone else so might as well own being ourselves.
Great blog - as always. I recently met someone from HIVE and I'm sure over time will meet more. Through my music too - one day walking at the Marina this guy came up to me and said "Hey Eggsta" I was really surprised. We exchanged numbers and we have since had many coffees together - and drinks. He has become a very good friend. He recognised me from Instagram - and I have written some blogs including him
Thanks Eden, I try to put something interesting together as much as possible, I succeed from time to time I hope.
Some of the best relationships and friendships can begin by happenstance, a chance meeting. I'm not into social media but I've sometimes run into a person by total chance and for some reason lingered long enough to form some sort of connection. I think that's the nice part about being human, we can connect despite differences and all.
Thanks for commenting and sharing a little of your marina-guy story.
Honestly speaking I want to have coffee and I also want to chat with you. I think I can complete my this wish because I will come to Australia in may be three years. But let suppose if you appear in street here and I saw you having coffee then i would be little shy to ask any question because I am in middle of introvert and extrovert.
I'm probably not the most approachable person going by my looks I guess, I am grotesquely ugly, sort of like Quasimodo was, but for those who see past their own false-perception and pre-judgement...well then, maybe I'm not what, at first, they see.
I remember one of your very old contests, which was about meeting you in person.(I was scrolling hive and i see that one).
And I was waiting for something like that again on which I could respond.
I will love to meet you in person because on Web we can't show our true selves to each other and this often causes misunderstandings between us(not only us every two persons engaging on web)
I cant understand your personality till now. I think you are a very private person who won't allow any one to interrupt his personal life.
I think no other person can see into your personal things unless you want it.
And these things just make me curious and I often think of meeting sir @galenkp in real life.
And for that line "maybe you'd just like to meet me so you can punch me in the face"
Nah man I will never think about it after reading that you have many firearms. And you also kill things(lol I was joking).
And really liked this post.
Communication between different cultures, languages, religions, ideologies, political alliances and so on can be very difficult. People see me here in their own way but that doesn't make it accurate, good or bad, and the real me...well, I only allow my inner-sanctum friends see that and there's so few I don't need the fingers on one hand to to count those people.
Well, there's probably some who might want to...but they'd probably get more than they bargained for I guess. Victor Hugo said those words below...I've stood up for many things in my life and would/will do so again.
"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."
Roger.
Wow! That’s a lovely post, I guess you are right with your pint of view. I think hive blockchain brings us together even when we don’t know each other or seen each other, I guess I might not able to walk to a stranger and ask to have a coffee unless I have something to discuss or to ask, and I think having coffee to have such discussion will be a great idea, Thanks for sharing this content with us.
That's for paraphrasing some of my post.
Really? I find this very strange as it would be considered quote confronting in most of the countries I've been to.