I will stay behind, to gaze at the sun. The sun is a wondrous body. Like a magnificent father! If only I could be so grossly incandescent!
Table of Contents
- Introduction
i. Past Work/Jobs
ii. University
iii. Hobbies - Witness Intention
i. Full API Intention (US Hosted) - Final Thoughts
Introduction
Hello everyone, my name is Erialos. I've been lurking in the shadows for a little bit now, with a comment here and there. I was recently on a vacation and had planned to write my introduction post prior to leaving, but alas I did not finish.
If you have time to spare, I'd like to share a little bit about myself and how I would like to become involved in the hive community. Before listing some specifics, I'd like to share some details about a recent vacation I just got back from.
You see, I was working on setting up a Witness and API node prior to leaving along with a differently written introduction post. I simply ran out of time in getting everything finished how I wanted and scrapped everything with the plan to pick it back up again after returning from my vacation.
I have been dating my partner for almost a year now and we just recently went on a fairly large trip with her children together. I was afforded the opportunity to go to Disney World for my first time. We also went to Universal Studios. While at Epcot, SpaceX had their civilian shuttle launch and we got to see it. At first, it looked like spotlights in the sky, but at a really high intensity that I'd not ever seen before. I thought it was something Disney was doing but then I overheard some people talk about a shuttle launch. I realized, "Oh yeah I'm in Florida...DUH!" Seeing this was pretty cool, I'm glad my partner's phone has great picture quality.
My real name begins with a J, so hence the goofy picture to 'represent' my goofy ass? :D That was in the Toy Story section in MGM Disney. That's where Star Wars is. That area is really well done. There is so much attention to detail. I'll leave you with a picture of the Millenium Falcon to entice you to be on the lookout for a full vacation blog post with more details and pictures. Harry Potter in Universal Studios was AMAZING! #Hufflepuff
Jobs/Work
IT
Well, I won't bore you with a CV list or resume I promise! :D The last type of work I did is very relevant for my desire in becoming involved with the Hive community. I worked in the IT field, managing backend servers (AD, Email, EMR..) and front-end user desktop issues.
Computers have been a passion of mine since I was a child. I grew up with a 386sx 1MB ram. I remember upgrading my CPU and needing to figure out how to change the dip switches for it to be recognized. But working in IT kind of destroyed that passion I had. I've always enjoyed figuring out how things work or why things are broken. However, the way how I (and a lot of those working in IT) was treated provoked me to quit and find something new.
Military
My other past work worth mentioning is my service to my country. I am a US Marine and I served in the Infantry between 2000 to 2004.
- I was in DC went the Pentagon was hit. We could see it from our barracks.
- My Battalion tore down Saddam's statue. 3rd Battalion 4th Marines.
- Returned again in 2004 with 3rd Battalion 7th Marines Lima co. to a place called Husaybah. Googling is best here if you are interested. The Falluja mess came through us to them to put it shortly.
I tend to be reserved about going into further details of the events above. It's tricky as some will play and weigh more heavily on my mental health than other topics. I just ask that your curiosity, whether it be with me or other veterans, takes this into consideration in any questions you might ever want to ask any veteran.
I tend to stay away from politics and the news concerning governmental things in my later life. It has been a serious stress in my life because of my service and my opinions on a lot of issues currently going on. Fair warning, I can be fairly opinionated about the lot.
I would say that I am left of liberal politically. But I am a mixed bag of sorts. Diversity is the key to life!
University
After I decided to quit my last IT job due to internal drama and how I was being treated, I decided to change gears to try something different. I started using my GIBill and focused on Math and Physics. I was 3 years in my dual degree program before my X-wife got a job in DC. The move was a large hurdle to overcome and eventually got the best of me and I dropped out after I exhausted my GIBill.
I have very few Math requirements left but about 2 semesters worth of Physics left. I would like to return, maybe one day when I have the money to continue I will at least finish my math degree. One of the changes in degree paths at the Univerisity of Utah is there is no more Applied Math Degree path, which is what I was doing. This means I would need to take 'Foundations of Analysis 2' shudders That class is proving multi-dimensional calculus.
I actually have more of a want to instead just go back to tutor in the Math Lab. The math center has a really great tutor center and lab with computers. Many tutors, ranging to even the upper-division classes. Throw up the colored flag for the type of math and someone comes over to help.
My goal for attending University was to go on to Astrophysics and get my Ph.D. to teach and do research. I really enjoyed being a math tutor and I don't mention this to toot my own horn but I was one of the more sought-after tutors. I really felt like I could explain things to people in a way for them to understand. I think this partially came from that I was nearly 30 when I started college for the first time. Being older than most for my college experience gave me a different outlook and perspective on I treated it versus how the kids who were straight out of high school were treating the experience.
Sometime here soon, esp. in the colder months, I'll pull out my telescopes and snap some images of our gas planets and the moon as well. So many beautiful and wondrous things in the night sky!
Hobbies
Some of these hobbies I've stopped due to a few reasons, loss of interest, injuries, or just on hold until I have time to return. :D I no longer brew beer but miss doing so. My shoulder injuries are preventing me from continuing to jump since I've dislocated my right shoulder twice in freefall. My shoulder injuries prevent a lot of things, rock climbing being another.
Some past and present hobbies include:
- Beer Brewing from grain
- Sky Diving (~80 jumps) Fun jumping, not military-related
- Star Gazing
- Rock Climbing
- DIY projects (I was going to make my own telescope but stopped partway though)
- Model Projects - Recently did a Metal Earth model of the Black Pearl
- Programing / 3D Modeling / Unity game engine work
- Green Thumb for growing plants
- Backyard Farming
- Weight Lifting
- Gamer and ex-YouTube Gaming Streamer
I plan on writing up some how-to blogs on some of the above stuff. I think it would be fun to do a brewing session and go through it step by step for anyone interested. I personally don't drink much at all anymore because of how it affects my mental health, but I could easily sell what I brew to my neighbors. :D
I use to run a business where I made and sold Indoor grow lights. I'd love to share some of my knowledge there as well.
In fact, a few of these hobbies will be subjects I would like to set up to talk about frequently on a scheduled posting basis. For example, since I am going to share how I workout and all that jazz, I think it would be fun to do some sort of giveaway based on a goal. It could be the biggest gains for a particular excise in count or weight increased over a time period, or the biggest loser for most weight lost. This idea is definitely in its infant stages and requires more planning and thought. I am however mentioning in case there's interest and feedback on the subject.
I only play games on my PS4 now. I use to mostly play PC games, esp. when I streamed. I love Dark Souls and the genre, as I am sure you could already tell. I'm currently messing around in Borderlands 3. I've been thinking about picking up Diablo 2 and experience some diablo nostalgia.
I use to really be into Overwatch, but decided to give it a break because I stopped having fun and was complaining about teams too much. Ever since then, I really have worked to cut my time spent gaming to a minimum.
Witness Intention
I am currently an 8GPU Miner for a blockchain Cortex. It boasts a unique ability to do AI Computations on-chain. I ran into some issues attempting to do AI computations on chain but have yet to hear back about my Github issues. It put my brain into the mentality to start looking elsewhere. This is when I ran into Splinterlands and eventually the Hive Community.
Given my prior IT background, I feel more than confident and capable of running a witness node.
Prior to my vacation, I had been working on setting up a witness node using the HIAB script by @someguy123(Thank you for the initial go help, it was much appreciated). I eventually got both the API and Witness syncing, I did have to restart the sync a few times, but at the point, I was at they would finish while I was gone and I wasn't going to be in a position to monitor them. I also wanted to enjoy my vacation and not worry about a new server I had just set up. I had my notes electronically documented on everything custom with the steps to take and commands to issue, so I decided to scrap the server instance.
The setup was using docker and running a witness, full api, nginx on a server with 20 CPU's, 96GB RAM, and SSD Storage spaces individually set for each application.
My initial plan was to run Docker in 'rootless' mode. This is a mode offered by docker. This proved to be difficult to set up and I ran into a snag that I didn't think I could easily fix. I decided that running docker in rootless for a hive witness/api node probably wouldn't work given the required permissions for various things.
The new plan is to continue where I last left off which was using ngnix to instead use sockets for the reverse proxy rather than the TCP/IP stack. Socket communication is faster and since ngnix is (or equivalent) is required to properly secure http and ws communications via a reverse proxy, getting ngnix to use sockets instead should see better performance. It is possibly more 'secure' using sockets as well.
Full API Intention
In all honesty, my first interest in this whole endeavor came from wanting to know how to make an API node first. I had been playing @Splinterlands and there was a moment when the increase in users was so much that it caused issues playing. I noticed that the publicly listed API's are all EU or further based away from the US, which is where I am located. Because I was enjoying Splinterlands so much, I started looking into if and how rewards worked for running nodes for the blockchain. After falling down that rabbit hole and learning how the process works on a better level than 'excited boot', it got me thinking about what I'd need to do to get involved. I wanted to create an API node to help with US-based Splinterland call requests.
I first thought I'd scrap my Cortex miner, repurpose it as a hive server but with regard as to why I want to host an API server, it seems best left to be a hosted option with the proper bandwidth scale and size. I've since decided to keep the miner and repurpose the funds generated for it.
Final Thoughts
I'd love to hear thoughts from any #Splinterlands players that are in the US in regards to my API/Witness intention. Would running a US-based API server persuade you to vote for me as a witness? If anyone from the Splinterlands team runs into this, what are your thoughts on my intentions? Is it something you would find valuable for the community? Maybe the issue stems from other issues, so do you think that if a US-based API was added would it be beneficial? I'd enjoy hearing anyone's perspective on this as well, not just the addressed.
I hope you enjoyed reading and getting to know me a little more. I'm looking forward to the personal change of crypto spaces, from Cortex to Hive. It feels good, exciting, and the right change for me to make and invest my time into!