Hello. My name is Scott and I am not exactly new here; I am half of @xcountytravelers. My wife Ren and I have been here for a few months talking about travel, photography, and curating with the Hey! Have Ya Met... posts. While I will continue to be involved in our travel blog, I have decided to start my own page where I will focus more on the photography and other interests that don’t fit with the other page as well. The posts that are more travel related will still mostly be on @xcountytravelers.
The Younger Years
I grew up in Arkansas and we moved to Oklahoma when I was 13. I spent as much of my childhood as possible with my nose buried in a book. I was obsessed with Science Fiction and later Science. When my parents kicked me outside I lived my life on a bicycle riding all over the small town I grew up in, and the surrounding countryside. In a small town you can ride all over the place with little supervision, once we moved to Tulsa that was not so acceptable. Never being very good at making new friends, I withdrew more into my books, and became a bit of a loner, at first, till my interest in Astronomy, Science Fiction, and gaming eventually led to new friends.
The Medieval Years
About the time I graduated from High School some friends introduced me to a group Called the Society for Creative Anachronism, (SCA). The SCA falls somewhere between a Medieval Recreation Group and an on going Medieval Theme Party, depending on how seriously the various members take it. I recognized right away that the SCA was where I belonged, and threw myself into it with a will. In many ways it changed my life. I was lost and something of a mess when I found the SCA, and I looked on it as an opportunity to reinvent myself, to create a version of myself that was worthy of the friendship of the many amazing people I met there. Over the next few years that is what I did.
I was painfully shy and insecure, and in order to change that, I became a Bard. A Bard in the SCA is a performer, I sang, told stories, and wrote poetry. Poorly at first, but with practice I became pretty good. I saw that the best people in the group were the ones doing the work necessary to keep things running, so I volunteered, took on offices, taught classes and generally learned how things worked. I learned organization and leadership, and to my surprise I turned out to be good at these as well.
I owe the SCA and the many wonderful people there, for many reasons, not the least of which is that that is where I met my wife. After about thirty years, for various reasons, it stopped being fun anymore. Ren and I moved on to other things.
Playing a Different Tune
From my time as a Bard, I had developed a taste for Folk and Medieval music. We lived in Dallas at the time and it is something of a hot spot for traditional Irish music. I had thoughts of being a musician, and even played the Penny Whistle reasonably well. After attending a class at the North Texas Irish Festival, I made the decision to do something about it. I found a fiddle at a garage sale, and tormented Ran and the dogs with it for a few weeks, before deciding to drag my old guitar out of the closet and learn to play it. Ren promptly sold the fiddle.
The group that runs the North Texas Irish Festival also runs the annual O’Flaherity Irish Music Retreat. They bring in world class musicians from Ireland and the US and teach traditional Irish music. Ren insisted that if I wanted to play then I should attend. I had seven months to learn to play well enough to keep up with the class.
The class was Irish Guitar in the DADGAD tuning. DADGAD being the notes that the strings are tuned to from top to bottom. Since the class was in DADGAD that is what I practiced. I fell in love with it. From time to time I play around with learning standard tuning, but I don’t enjoy it and it never lasts long. I still play regularly, though it’s hard to find live Irish music since we moved back to Tulsa. I’ve attended O’Flaherity three times.
New Adventures
We had a lot of camping gear from when we were in the SCA, and I missed camping, so one weekend we headed to a nearby Texas State Park, where we spent some time hiking and relaxing. We enjoyed it, so a few weeks later we headed out to a different park. Soon we decided that we should try and see all of the Texas State Parks. It turns out that there are over a hundred. Eventually as we traveled all over Texas we decided that we should also visit every county in Texas. We quickly found that we were loving the traveling. Ren and I find that most of our best memories and most of our best conversations, happen when we are traveling. In time our goal became to visit every State Park, National Park, and county in the United States. If you would like to see how that is going, visit our @XCountyTravelers account, or visit our website at http://www.crosscountytravelers.com.
In June of 2015, Ren was out of town, and I decided I missed seeing the stars. I had been interested in astronomy for as long as I could remember, but hadn’t been stargazing in a long time. You really need to get out away from the cities in order to properly appreciate the stars. Fortunately, living in Texas, that is not that difficult. Texas has plenty of areas that are dark enough to appreciate the night sky. I headed out to Copper Breaks State Park near the beginning of the Texas Panhandle.
This was one of the darkest places I had ever been, and the skies were amazing. It was also the peak of firefly season and the valley was filled with fireflies. I was hooked again and decided I never wanted to go so long without seeing proper stars again. I tried to get a photo with my cell phone, but it was just not up to the task. When I got back home I told Ren that I wanted a proper camera. She was supportive and called up a fried of our named Peter, who is a photographer, and asked him if he could help me get started. He loaned me an older camera and a tripod, and I was on my way. While I had started with a desire to do astrophotography, I soon found a love of landscape and travel photography. Ren got me my own camera for Christmas that year, and I have been in love with photography ever since.
Thank you for reading my introduction post, I hope you have enjoyed this brief history. I anticipate that this blog will be mostly about photography, but I may get into poetry, history, or whatever else strikes my fancy. I look forward to seeing how this develops. I hope you will join me.
Gracias por unirte a Steemit donde podrás compartir conmigo y con muchas personas más.
Hi @scottf! Welcome to this wonderful community! You'll meet interesting people here... Write freely and keep steeming :)
Thank you.
Posted using Partiko Android
You have very interesting life Scott! I also like mediaval music. We have a stilts walking show with old costumes and stories for example devil chase. It is funny and the public like it. Where I live in Miskolc here is a nice castle. www.diosgyorivar.hu If you travel in Europe Visit me and play music with my stilts comedians company! Is it okay? :-)
Posted using Partiko iOS
Thank you.
We certainly hope to travel Europe one day. If we get to that area We will let you know. The castle looks interesting.
Scott
Welcome to Steemit scott,
I saw your #introduceyourself and its nice to meet you. 8 hourshere and enjoying yourself 😬
Blogging is what its all about on this blockchain. The best part is that you could earn money.
I have been here for a while and love it!
But be carefull with all your passwords, Never give those up !! They are yours.
For safety tips visit the white paper.
The Steemify App I use is also great, it is available in the Appstore and free, you can See Whats happening in your account. https://steemit.com/busy/@exyle/using-steemify-to-stay-up-to-date-about-the-blockchain-like-project-destiny-please-consider-blockbrothers-for-your-witness-vote
Also Partiko and Steepshot are handy and Free. I wish you good luck steeming and I Will See you around🍀
Your value and input is appreciated and if you have questions let me know.
I am here everyday !
Greetings from Brittandjosie from the Netherlands XOXO
Thanks for the tips.
scott i knew but thought let see if ren answers hahahaha, great that you do this account too, and together is so much more fun. gonna follow you offcourse and what about that beautiful soul of a wife of yours with the steem terminal what a great initiative.
love Britt
That's funny. @scottf answered with the xcounty account! bwahahahahahahahaha! Yeah, he's gonna have to watch out with that one! Once the @heyhaveyamet account gets going and the server is good, I will be starting up my personal blog @rubberduckiemom.
Normally you can tell when it is me on the xcounty account when I put my name at the bottom.
Ren
If I reply from Partico, even if I double check that I am logged into the Scottf account, it posts as Xcountytravelers.
Not sure what to do with that.
Scott
Posted using Partiko Android
hahahahahaha! Make sure you put "Scott" at the end. Goober husband. I love you so much.
Ren
Welcome to Steem @scottf.
Do read A thumb rule for steemit minnows - 50:100:200:25 for starter tips.
Spend time reading Steem Blue Paper to know how Steem blockchain works and if you still have any queries ask them on our Ask me anything about Steemit post and we will try to answer that.
All the Best!!!
Welcome to Steemit @scottf!
I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.
Here are some links you might find useful.
Your stats on SteemNow
Your stats on SteemWorld
Your stats on SteemD
How does Steemit actually work?
Oh yea, I have upvoted you and followed you. Many blessings!
Welcome scottf!
eSteem is the application that improves your experience here. We have Mobile application for Android and iOS users. We also have developed Surfer Desktop application that helps you to gain new followers and stay connected with your friends, unique features - notifications, bookmarks, favorites, drafts, and more.
We reward our users with encouragement upvotes as well as monthly giveaways rewarding Spotlight top users and active Discord users.
Learn more: https://esteem.app
Join our discord: https://discord.gg/8eHupPq
Welcome .. :-)
I am also new here and I already like your adventures.
Good luck.
Well, welcome to Steem! Tell us a little bit about yourself. Here's a few tips to help you get around this community. You can view that post HERE
Thanks Welcome to Steem.
I took a look at your introduction post. Very interesting. I hope we get a chance to visit Croatia sometime. Of Course I hope to visit everywhere sometime.
I became a fan of Klapa music a few years back and read up on Croatia a bit when learning about it.
Scott
Welcome to Steem scottf! Partiko is officially the fastest and most popular mobile app for Steem. Unlike other Steem apps, we take 0% cut of your earnings! You can also be rewarded with Partiko Points while using Partiko and exchange Partiko Points for upvotes!
Partiko for Android can be downloaded here on Google Play and the iOS version is available here on the App Store.
If you have more questions, feel free to join our Discord channel and ask @crypto.talk, we're always here to help!
Thank you so much for your interest!
Welcome to Steemit ! This is such a wonderful introduction post !!! It really captures you and your journey so far very well :D Wishing you a lot of success and a lot of meaningful connections here on Steemit <3
Thanks. And thanks for the upvote.
Scott
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
Thank You!
Welcome @scottf 👍
Posted using Partiko iOS
Thank You
Scott
Hello Scott, Its nice having you here with us, Im wishing you Good luck with your new start!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Thank you.
Posted using Partiko Android
Congratulations @scottf! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP"Have we Met" 😉 Hi @scottf hope you knows me too...good to know you in detail ....now it help me to know who is the one behind the common name. ....steem on followed you
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you.
Hello Scott, very welcome to the community. Great introduction post. Like tour photo work. Best wishes for the future with Steemit.
Thank You.
Posted using Partiko Android
Congratulations @scottf! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations @scottf! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPI like your photos, I think there is always time to reinvent ourselves no matter how old we are.
Thank You.
I've done it a few times n my life. It's never easy, but I've always been glad that I did it.
Hi @scottf,
Great intro post..
What a life you have led.. A definite renaissance man..
Look forward to seeing the pics.. Sounds like the travelling is suiting you guys..
Onward!!
Congratulations @scottf!
Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade for newcomers in the following category:
I also upvoted your post to increase its reward
If you like my work to promote newcomers and give them more visibility on the Steem blockchain, consider to vote for my witness!
You are awesome, my middle name is Scott. I play guitar. I love your New York style hat. I love to take photos, too. Welcome to Steemit.
Thank you.
Posted using Partiko Android
some REALLY gorgeous shots
hey... welcome to you Scott! hehehehehe i loved the Medieval shots hehehe and will we get to see you playing these instruments in dtube? have I already missed some?? (and go get that fiddle back and torment Ren some more cuz i wanna hear you hahahaha)
:)
Thanks.
I had a habit of collecting instruments I didn't know how to play. When we moved into the RV I got rid of MOST of those. I can sorta play my banjo. I can play on the bagpipe chanter for a minute or two but then I have to stop or I pass out.
If I got another fiddle, I'd have to listen to me practicing too.
Scott
Posted using Partiko Android
We hear from your lovely wife often, and it is great to find you putting some personal info out there now, too! Fabulous! 😊
Hello @scottf,
Currently I’m supporting for the Planktons by our small upvote. You may like it, check my support here.
Wish you luck & success with Steemit!