Introductions are in order, I suppose?

The @SteemitTalk crew has been telling me for a while now that I need to get on board here already, so I finally made my account and have been browsing (lurking) this last week or so, getting my bearings. "We talk about you on the show all the time!" says @giftedgaia. "You gotta make an introduction post at least!" says @WinstonWolfe. "I AM A *#&$^@%! GOD AMONGST NEWBIE STEEMIANS!" says @SykoChica.

(not really, but jeez...)

"Today's the day", I think, "I'm gonna finally do that 'Introduce Yourself' post. I'll get up super early in the morning, before the kiddo wakes up, and just knock it out in 5 minutes".

Hahaha... Right...

"Daddy what are you doing?" she asks, wiping sleep out of her eyes. It's 6:05am and I haven't even had a full cup of coffee yet.

"Taking pictures for my friends on the internet!" I say.

"Fwiends on the in-ta-net? I can help?" and here we are.

(she took this one herself)

So hi, I'm Rhys (pronounced like Reese's Pieces). When I was 14 I was playing basketball with some friends after watching the original Star Wars trilogy, and my cousin's friend told me I looked like Chewbacca, so everyone started calling me Chewy, and it stuck like a barnacle on a glue factory. If you're on here and you know me in person, chances are you were introduced to me as Chewy. I also DJ as Scot Free, and have a dumb username that's a reference to an even dumber joke from a now defunct webcomic. That's a lot of monikers. Really, I don't care what you call me.

About Me

"So just talk about yourself", they say. "Talk about your kids, your pets, what you do for a living".

Well I guess I'll start with recent-ish history. My wife @mysnomer and I moved to the Portland area about 4 years ago, and Donna came along shortly after that. Here's a picture of all 3 of us taken around last Christmas, since apparently we're not all 3 in the same photo very often:

Portland is fantastic, and I'm sure you'll see many more blog posts on that topic as we go. Especially contrasted with the buckle of the bible belt where I grew up, it's just a fantastic environment. Plus it's gorgeous. Here's a grainy cell phone picture of the city at sunset that does it NO justice whatsoever:

Career-wise, I worked for the world's largest online travel company back in Missouri (yep that one), and since I've been out here I've had several hit-and-miss jobs come along, finally getting picked up by a really great company called Ruby, where I'm a virtual receptionist. Really, Ruby should be a post in itself; the environment is incredible. Some light Googling will show you alllllllll the "greatest places to work" lists we're on, or just check us out at http://callruby.com.

Here's another grainy cell-phone picture from work of a t-rex dance-battling a camel:

Pets? Aside from the daughter who randomly turns into a puppy or kitty, I have 3 actual cats. From left to right we have:

Chaos, the grumpy old man (just turned 15 and is in impeccable health),
Newk (short for "New Kitty"), the spoiled princess, and
Sweet Pea... basically feral. Wife took her in from outside, but is the only one she'll allow to pet her.

My kid is stinking adorable. Her name is Donna Rose and she'll be 4 this October. I am remarkably ok with exploiting her cuteness for upvotes. I mean, just look at this face:

Don't let the cuteness deceive you though, she's basically a full time job all by herself. I guess that brings us to

What the hell am I doing here?

What do I hope to accomplish via Steemit? Well, I don't know much about your block-chaining crypto-currency-ing ways, but I plan to learn as I go. You'd think I would have picked more up from all my friends constanly talking about it, but I'm remarkably good at tuning things out (as are most people who have a 3 year old, I would imagine). So aside from the predictable cute-kid posts, family/work/food posts, and meme posts, there's another big reason I'm here now.

Back in Misouri I was part of a somewhat popular DJ act called This Guy That Guy, and operated a weekly DJ night called Fresh Mode that didn't always completely suck. Here's me playing some tunes:

Here's me with @Sykochica playing bongos:

Here's me with @giftedgaia and @winstonwolfe and a known felon:

Good times for sure. When I moved, I hung up the headphones, thinking there would be no more time for the DJ life with kid and family obligations. Add to that a clique-y music scene where I basically knew nobody, and you get what I figured was basically the end of the road for ol' Scot Free. Just when I was making peace with giving up the life, along comes

SUBDUCTION AUDIO

Go figure, I move 3000 miles away and end up working with 3 guys from Missouri. Here's the full crew promo photo:

Up top is Kyle "Zealot", from Columbia, MO, and who I somehow never met until moving here despite running in the same circles and attending some of the same shows. Next to him is Jesse "Chancellor Tre" from St. Louis and Shane "Mr. Solve" from Kansas City, but who I knew from forever ago when he lived in Springfield, and who moved to Portland about 2 years after me. Bottom row is us newer members, Ahnikah "Ahnique", originally from California, Harold "STEMI", originally from NYC, and myself.

I don't want to brag, but especially contrasted with the other groups doing Drum and Bass shows in Portland, I think Subduction is absolutely #1. Our debut show was Foreign Concept, followed by Enei a month later, then Current Value just last week (you may not know much about the world of Drum and Bass, but trust, me, these are huge shows). We cross promote and try to play nice with all the other DnB folks, we put out free promo mixes seasonally, we have plans to continue bringing the finest acts we possibly can, and we do it all with a caliber of professionalism that's unmatched in this city. It's like everything I used to love about doing Fresh Mode but on steroids; higher highs, lower lows, and way more on the line than I ever had to worry about running a weekly back in Springfield.

Anyway, it's a tremendously exciting time for me, especially coming "out of retirement" like I did. So far I've only done one show and one promo with this crazy talented group of wonderful people, but there's LOTS more on the horizon. I honestly think the stuff I'm doing now is some of the best I've ever recorded, and I can't wait to share the journey with you all.

(apparently I only have one shirt I wear when I DJ)

It's now just about time for bed, and I realize my goal of "banging out that post in 5 minutes" was a little unrealistic. I have several ideas for posts to come in the next few weeks, and I'm sure I'll dial in my personal style as I go. I'll try not to be too annoying with the music stuff but frankly you're gonna see a LOT of it. If you're a friend from Missouri, come by and say hello. If we haven't met before and you wanna chat, ask me a question or let's have a discussion. Hell, if you're in the area (or plan to be sometime soon), lets grab a beer or something. I need to get out more often.