Greetings folks, the name is Surly Kyle.
I've been reading Steemit posts for the past week and you know what, my interest has been piqued. I think it's about time to start contributing in my own way to the community, and I’m really looking forward to becoming more involved. You can expect a wide variety of posts from me, covering things such as: daily northern living, my travels, art/crafting, poetry, and pretty much anything that interests me.
I go by "Surly Kyle" because I'm known for my dry humour. I can be funny but can also be serious as a heart attack. I'm a flight attendant by day and a creative soul/gamer by night. I am doing my best to have fun while I figure out this game of life.
I live in the land of the midnight sun, in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Our short summers are spectacular, with long hours of daylight, warm weather and nature surrounding us. There's plenty to do in the North if you enjoy outdoor activities and pubs. The Winter is quite the opposite and can be punishing. We don't get a lot of daylight and it's really cold for months on end. Today we’re experiencing a balmy, almost spring like, -21 Degrees Celsius with a wind chill of only -38.
I work as a flight attendant for a local charter company, travelling around the North. We get a very wide variety of work and most of it isn’t as cushy as one would expect. We fly to mining camps and smaller northern communities for the most part. Work has brought me to a lot of interesting places like Iqaluit, Whitehorse, Greenland, and Eureka. If you haven't heard of Eureka don't worry, not many have. It's the third most northern permanent research community in the world. If you've ever watched Alien vs. predator, it's kind of like that ...minus the deadly tunnel.
Living in the north can be a bit of a challenge, there’s decent work to be found and the lowest of wages aren’t terrible. But that’s often countered by the exorbitant cost of living. I live with two room-mates and pay around 1200$ per month just for a place to sleep. Things here are expensive and it only gets worse the further north you go. I was once in a small community in Nunavut where they had an auction for a 12 pack of coke that sold for 112$. Cheap eh?
For all my complaints about the cold, I was born and raised here and love our unique little city. We are surrounded by beautiful lakes, we have the best fishing imaginable, and it's a city with a small town vibe: very welcoming and chill(y).
We get a front row seat to some of the most spectacular northern lights over the winter and there's a lot of unique places to visit such as old town with eclectic artisans and buildings. You'll also spot year round house boats where the residents are able to avoid land tax by floating their homes on the lake. It's quite ingenious and a nice way to "give the finger to the man".
There is also the famous Snowking ice castle which hosts concerts and events every weekend. I'll definitely share some photos when I make it out there later this month.
This here beauty is my ride, she has no heat, and therefore she is more of a "summer ride". In the winter I have to keep the windows open to stop them from freezing which is less than ideal at minus forty. Picture driving while wearing a full face cover, a parka, and thick gloves while using an ice-scraper just to drive down the road to work. Its been a rocky adventure of ingenuity just to get to work. It's actually probably illegal.
I enjoy gaming, I’d like to think my father is the one who started me on the road as a gamer, but the Yellowknife weather has definitely kept me inside long enough to keep it going. Throughout the years I’ve built up a group of friends who share my interests in gaming. Whether it’s a newer system such as a PS4 or an older box like the Atari or N64, we find enjoyment in playing games together while staying warm and comfortable indoors.
Don’t get me wrong here, it’s not like I stay inside all the time, just mostly during the winters because I’ve gotten sick of the frostbite and frozen eyelashes. As I’ve mentioned before, we can get crazy 24x7 days of sunlight. This means summer in Yellowknife is a two month celebration, where everyone crams in as much excitement as possible, before the cold comes back. One of these such celebrations is called “Folk on the Rocks”. It’s a music festival, with performers from all over the world. I’ll do a post later in the year detailing my experiences at this festival, as it’s a much better story when told fresh.
I’m also a bit of an amateur artist and crafter, I find my passions tend to go towards making something new with my hands, or with my words. I spend my days bouncing in and out of a creative mood, which causes my projects to be equally all over the place. I would like to find my niche and become a craftsman, it's the type of work that makes me happiest. I'll be posting some of my projects once they are finished.
Well, that's my life in a nutshell. There are plenty of details that I’ve left out about life in the north, so if you stick around you’re bound to find out what you’re missing. I am in a strange place, by choice, but I don’t regret my decision to be here. There is a whole world outside in the snow, I just have to jump outside to find it. So I hope you’ll all stick with me to see what we can find.
Welcome man, saw walkerland mention you'd joined. Steem on!
Thanks much, that would be my mother haha, she figured I'd have some interesting things to contribute to the community!
Mother know best! :)
Absolutely man, great to see more folks coming on and enriching the community.
Hi, and welcome to the steemit community, this truely is an amaizing platform and can be very rewarding. Here is a short article on the do's and dont's when coming to steemit. Read here, hope you will find it helpful. Good luck on your steemit experience and may all your expectations be met.
Thanks so much, I'll try to use the info here to improve as best I can!
Hey Surly Kyle, Welcome to Steemit Community. Quite a descriptive Info, all I can say is that would surely like to visit your country. #addedtoTravelList. Cheers and have a happy stay!
Thank you very much, it really is beautiful where I live and I hope you get the chance to see it someday.
Hi @surlykyle ! Great post, i like it, i just upvoted it ! PS: you may like to follow me ... @legsnheels
Thanks much, I really appreciate it
I can't wait for you to put up more posts! Welcome to Steemit!
Thanks much! There should be some interesting things coming in the future so keep an eye out :)
Hi @surlykyle! welcome to Steemit.
That's an excellent introduction post!
With your range of interests and your passion, I'm sure you have plenty to bring to this platform and to your fellow Steemians. And given the quality of this post, we can assume that you will continue to create high-quality posts full of useful and significant content.
Best of luck, and Look forward to seeing some more content!
Greetings from Philippines!
Greetings as well, I appreciate the comment, I hope to come up with some more excellent posts in the future!
welcome! Im glad youve decided to joined the party!
Long live and prosper.
Thanks so much, it feels good to be a part of the community.
I just want to say welcome to Steemit, I'm sure as the community knows you will encounter a bunch on interesting people on this platform. Do not be saturated to work through every input available and get paid according to your work.
I also want to introduce you another way to earn money or crytocurrency for you. There is a new Ethereum game AETHIA, this game follows the same concept as the crypto kittens and will be launching very soon. This means, that early adopters will have the opportunity to make huge profits. If you are interested, please view the following post for the earning introduction.
https://steemit.com/money/@ronluilh/new-ethereum-game-aethia-opportunity-to-make-money-in-ethereum
Otherwise, you could also enter the site here.
You are also welcome to follow me. I am an architecture student and a part time graphic designer. I do design on world famous landscape and buildings. You can check here for my introducing post.
Thanks for the welcome and the info, I'll be sure to check everything out! cheers
Very nice photography Kyle. Very well thought out, and put together post. My prediction: your future is bright. Welcome to Steemit.
Thank you so much, the photo of both myself and the northern lights were taken by @walkerland so I can't take full credit here! It's great to be part of the team
@surlykyle I think you earned full credit for the northern lights photo ...I wouldn't have been able to take them without your help. You wandered out into the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, in the freezing cold so I could take photos. :)
Great work nonetheless! I hope Everything goes smoothly for you. If you run into roadblocks, feel free to join the discord server I host. We're all about helping out new members.
Hi there @surlykyle!
on behalf of the newly established steemit community here in General Santos CIty Philippines.
We welcome you our fellow new comer!
Thank you for the very warm welcome! I'd love to make my way to the Philippines some day, many of my friends say it's gorgeous!
Hi @surleykyle! Welcome to Steemit 😊
Wishing you a great experience here. I look forward to seeing your ongoing posts about life. I have been to Yelliwknife twice. Only in the summer! Your Long Beach is awesome! And, Prelude Lake is really nice too. My neices were born and are being raised there! My sister had always wanted to live in the north. She found a great guy to do it with!! They have been there over 10 years now. He's a teacher, she's a Nurse Practitioner. Life in the north is not for the faint of heart! Do you also have a snowmobile and/ or a quad to drive!!?Crazy things you see in the north ❄🌻
Stay warm!! It was great to meet you!!
Hey! great to meet others who have some ties to the north. Unfortunately I'm still pretty young and would like to save my money so a skidoo/quad are out of the picture for now!
You crack me up kid.
Welcome! I live in Alaska and share a lot of the same climate with you, so I get the winter time blues. I even made a post about being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like you got a lot of adventures to talk about, I would love to know more. We are gamers too, but not as hard core as we use to be. It’s +30°F here today, hoodie weather. I will be following 😊✌️
Oh I'd love a little hoodie weather right about now, I just walked to the grocery store and it was -30°C before the wind!
I appreciate the follow, hopefully you'll find the rest of my material just as interesting!
Yeah -20°F is not cool with a breeze, burns. The winds should shift your way soon. For the last week we have had warm winds and snow.
Stay warm ✌️
Your life way up north sounds so interesting! I don't think I could handle living up there. I despise the cold, I struggle with the snow we get here in Colorado, and that's nowhere near what you just described.
It's a unique lifestyle for sure, and it's not for everyone; we get many people who move here and either love it or hate it. You either leave quickly or you stay for life haha. The snow is the easy part because most of winter it just gets too cold to snow, so we only get a handful of heavy snow days.
Nice to meet you brother. I Also write poetry /philosophy/ short stories and more. I'm all for sticking it to the man and avoiding his monetary ways as best I can. So I live on the road traveling and writing in a mini bus. I am at the opposite end of the world to you in Australia and unlike you. I have never seen the snow in my lifetime. Not yet anyway. But I can tell you about working in the desert at 48 degrees in the sun where the roads melt and you can't go near them or the ambiant temperatures coming from it will kill you. It's not for everyone but I love it and the diversity of this land.
Great to meet'ya as well. I've never been able to handle the heat too well, but I'm dying to make it over to your part of the world, it's a thing I've always got in the back of my mind. And your lifestyle seems very interesting and unique as well, I look forward to seeing more from you man.
cheers.
If you do. Look me up. I could be anywhere but if im close I'll show you round.