Howdy from a Texas Hipster

Hello to the entire Steem community. I figured since I did not have a formal introduction yet, it would be beneficial to follow tradition and make a post to introduce myself.

Who I am

My username and general screen name is @mistakencynic and I hail from the south--Well, Texas, so it's a totally different place from the south. Where I live, in a small town outside of Dallas, it's become the college town of free thought, creativity, and general pleasant hipster tendencies. You can find me around town, around the world or on various social platforms like Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, etc.

I like to think of myself as being a rebel sometimes, but I still subscribe to "the system" as much as the next guy. I love Starbuck's, H&M, and plenty of small businesses. I'm far from being rich, but I like to find places that are more socially responsible than other companies, and I think the places I visit have more sustainable and responsible business models than other places like McDonald's or Wal-Mart.

I found Steem a mere few days ago when I was looking for a new cryptocurrency to pour some of my Christmas money into. I'm already invested in currencies like Monero, Ethereum, and Dash. I recently bought some Lumen (XLM) after reading about their business plan to better distribute wealth. I am fascinated by blockchain technology, but I strongly oppose how it seems to create a new 1% instead of improving the lives of everyone. I'm very interested in "green" blockchain technology that uses less electricity, too.

What I do

Currently, I'm still in school trying to get an education and an IB diploma. But I joined the Steem community to have a platform to share my adventures and opinions. I have traveled to a great majority of states in the US and to ten countries in Europe at before even hitting 18, and I've done so with only a couple hundred dollars at a time. I definitely think I have something to contribute in this sense, in terms of travel advice for common people who aren't rich.

I got my first camera at 15, a Canon T6i DSLR, for Christmas. This was my first foray into photography. I went on my first international trip around this time too when I went on a trip to Iceland for two weeks. During this trip, I took over 3,000 photos. The next summer when I went to Europe for three weeks, I took probably 10,000 photos on my iPhone and DSLR. In addition to that, I take a couple hundred photos a month depending on where I go, and I'm happy to have a platform to share all of that.

Of course, this post is all cheesy selfies and pictures of myself, but it's an Introduce Yourself post, not a "Look at this mountain I climbed because it's obviously as much a part of me as my own face" post...

I have done lots of research on the blockchain and other topics, and I hope to be able to contribute to the platform in general, with thoughtful posts and opinions about the future. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys my introduction and if you want to help me get somewhere else this coming new year, hit the upvote button. Thanks so much!