Welcome to the +Vibe Merchant. My name is Kyle Hayhurst and I am excited to join a social media community that rewards the individuals who contribute to its platform. This is truly a revolution for the “little guy”!

Stumbling Upon Steemit

In the beginning of January 2018, a very close friend of mine, Jim, began getting interested in Cryptos. Subsequently, that drove me to start researching them, and become interested myself. I made a few small investments in the process of learning how to get involved in the space. Of course, I did not yet know about the historical January crash or the regulation issues in China and Korea that would eventually tank the market. So, needless to say, I am sitting on a couple bags at the moment. That’s OK though, I still believe in the projects I invested in, and the future use of the blockchain, so I intend to long term “HODL”. Since then, I have conducted hundreds of hours of research into understanding the space. That is how I found out about Steemit! Over the course of January, I started discussing my passion for cryptos with a co-worker @donroberts. Don is a family man with 6 kids and a 7th on the way. While he is not currently holding any cryptos, he is very interested in technology and the future. I mentioned Steemit to him because he currently has a successful family blog, and has been involved with Youtube and Udemy as well. Once he looked into it, he couldn’t believe the potential of such a project. In fact, he got his profile up and running a week ago, beating me to the punch. Don also turned me onto a long time Steemit user @jerrybanfield. I want to give a shout out to him as well for his expertise in the space and detailed advice on getting involved!

Alright, back to me

For most of my working career, I have worked for an extremely successful Convenience Store chain: QuikTrip. For those of you who know the name, it probably needs no introduction. For those that don’t, Quiktrip offers some of the fastest and friendliest service in the industry, not to mention some of the cleanest facilities. When I started looking at places to work when I was 16 years old, most of the jobs available were in fast food. And while I have nothing against the industry, I didn’t really want to work in it. That left me with little options. That’s when, a friend of mine, the same friend that got me into Cryptos less than a month ago, said that I should apply at QuikTrip. Already a customer of theirs, I truly admired their business practices and rarely stopped elsewhere unless absolutely necessary. So, I decided to give it a go. 15 years later, I am still employed there. While I have to admit, I think my run with them is nearly over, they have given me an opportunity to succeed, and I am very grateful.

My Passions

Disc Golf

One day in college, a friend, Duke, asked if I’d like to play some Frisbee/Disc Golf. At the time, I had no idea what frisbee golf was, so i told him it sounded interesting and asked him to explain. He told me that I should just go with him and witness it with my own eyes. So, I did. As we drove to the course, I couldn’t help but try to imagine the combination of frisbees and golf. I truly didn’t know what to expect. When we arrived at the little 9 holer, I simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I didn’t even have to get out of the car, and I was already addicted. To this day, if I have some free time, decent weather, and a few available friends, I’ll be out on the Disc Golf Course.

Music

It’s hard to know definitively, but I think I’ve been addicted to music from the womb. I even have pictures of myself as a baby wearing my dad’s headphones and rocking out. As I believe it is with most people, my taste in music has changed dramatically over the years. When I was really young, I tended to listen to whatever my father put on: REM, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Billy Idol, Bob Marley, U2, Yes, Counting Crows, Dave Matthews, Nirvana, among many others. As I grew into adolescence and began developing my own tastes, I was really into alternative and some Metal: 311, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deftones, System of a Down, Metallica, etc. In my high school years I was hot on Punk/Ska: Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, NOFX, Goldfinger, Blink 182, etc. In college, I expanded my punk phase to screamo. These days, I’m really into Edm: Deadmau5, Ivy Lab, G Jones, Bassnectar, etc. I am currently learning to make this kind of music as well and hope to have some original music out in the future!

Art

10 years ago or so, i was at home on Christmas break from college. I don't know why, but i had the notion that i wanted to paint something. At this point in time, i had not painted something artistic since kindergarten. So, i went down to my local Michaels and picked up a few paints and canvases. Since then, it has truly become a passion of mine that has grown over time. I mainly paint Abstract using acrylics. Here is some of my work:

Philosophy

I may not have studied Philosophy traditionally, but, I have always been a thinker and observer. I’m always trying to understand myself, others, and the universe. I tend to over-analyze things, which can get me into trouble, or keep me from moving forward sometimes. All in all though, I’d say its a blessing. I tend to think things through and come to a well informed conclusion this way.

Cryptos

As I mentioned above, I just recently got in Crypto in the beginning of January 2018. I must say, what a crappy time to get into the space. Since then, I have done hours of research and have learned a lot about the market. I am dedicating much of my time, recently, to this space and I have to say, i've learned a lot. Look forward to my findings in future posts!

In Conclusion

If you’ve followed me this far, I want to thank you! Introducing yourself in such a detailed way is something seldom seen on other social media platforms, but helps to get the community associated with who you are and what you are about. I look forward to engaging with this community and beginning something truly special. To start things off, I plan on creating a daily post containing lyrics to a song and my thoughts on them. I hope for this experience to be interactive for the community and look forward to hearing your comments. In the future, I plan to add other posts about music, cryptos, philosophy, and my artwork. Stay tuned and follow my blog if any of this interests you!

A skanking, philosophical frolfer, right on!! Welcome to the platform, I am very glad to have caught your post, your content is very much in line with my interests. I love the figurative language utilized in lyrics and find few people attempt to understand the messages that they memorize and belt out in their cars. SOAD's lyrics were one of the only reasons that had me at all interested in U.S. politics at a younger age.

I, too, am soaking up information about the blockchain and potential applications and the resulting effects on the global society...exciting times, man. The STEEM blockchain was so exciting to find, especially so early on in its lifespan; the potential for removing the barriers to innovation caused by "protections" like patents by creating a system that monetizes ideas that are contributed to the project via the community that will benefit from the project. Exciting that our global cyberpunks have helped drag us simpletons into realms of capitalism that we never thought that we could transcend to, after being bogged down in bureaucracies. What will this landscape look like in another decade?!

An Intro to the +VibeMerchant