Well, well - it has come to this - brother against brother.

@steemmatt (what an unfortunate choice in name) has done an Ask Them Anything and pitted my brother @galenkp against yours truly. We share a last name - but I think that is where the similarities end - oh - and a birthday date - but, that's it. Oh, and Galen was one of my early onboards and he saw what I was doing and figured that decent quality content was valuable on the platform and has kept it up daily for three years .....

I pity the fool.

Right - let's get into it as I have a demanding three year old breathing down my neck and my wife is working all weekend, so time is of the essence - unlike for G-Dog, who gets to walk leisurely wherever he goes, whistling, smelling flowers and patting the heads of his pet butterflies.

1 - Who always followed the rules and who was the rebel?

Galen was definitely more the rebel than I and got caught doing far more things than I ever got caught for. One of the benefits of having three older brothers was, learning how to get away with stuff, it is why younger siblings are so much smarter than the older.

However, I had other reasons for a lack of rebellion as to be a rebel, there had to be an antagonist, something to rebel against. Generally in youth, this would be parents, but by the time I was at that stage, my parents had moved on in their lives which meant - I just did what I wanted. In this way, Galen had different parents than I and there are pros and cons to this. For example, I unfortunately never learned to play an instrument, but I did learn how to cook, clean and generally take care of myself since I was single digits.

For me, rebellion wasn't necessary, for Galen I think that he moved out around 16 or 17 years of age and never looked back. It was a weird time back then and I was just a kid.

2 - What activities do you have fond memories of doing together as kids?

However, this did have pros and while Galen lived a long way away by 7-year old standards, we saw each other relatively often still. However, I do remember some earlier moments that we spent while we all lived under the same roof - namely, pinecone fights.

We had a stand of about 7 very large pine trees and we would spend an hour two building forts out of whatever we could find, branches, pallets, corrugated iron scrap (we had an old farm house with several sheds full of junk), then collect a store of large pine cones - not the girly ones like in Europe. We would then spend the rest of the day pelting pine cones at each other with the only rules being, do not "aim for the head" and no "closed pine cones", the green ones that were like rocks. There were many tears - mostly mine.

There were plenty of other things along the way and it was Galen who gave me my first ride in a racing gokart, took me to a range to shoot competition 22 pistols when I was 12 or so and then a couple years later, 9MMs and a Desert Eagle at another range. With my parents on their own courses, it was also G and his wife who took us (my 4-year younger sister and I) to the Adelaide Royal Show, a yearly fair. We did a lot of things together back then - but the nine year age gap meant that we didn't really grow-up together - almost different generations.

3 - How would you describe your brother's sense of fashion before he got married? The term fashion is used loosely.

"Sense" of fashion? :D Nah, Galen is one of the people who despite his range of activities, carefully considers his clothing choices for the occasion. He has had many jobs in his life and been around many different kinds of people, so he is able to shift from one set of social circumstances to another with ease. I don't think he cares or thinks much about fashion though, as that speaks more of trends. If I had to describe it, Galen dresses classic, clean lines and attention to detail, floor to ceiling.

Though I have to say, there were some pretty greasy hairstyles, but they were inline with the times.

Note: The saddest part of all of the fashion issues was, I got his hand-me-downs...

4 - What was a sport or game you'd always destroy your brother at, and likewise, one he'd always kick your ass at?

Hmmm. Again, because of the age gap we didn't really play sports together like this, it was never a "wrestling" kind of relationship, as he has always been an adult as I have known him. For most of the physical games we played, he would likely destroy me at - digitally, that would be a different scenario - but again, this indicates more the generational gap and upbringing than anything else.

Nowadays, I think that the only thing I could best him in is likely when it comes to more athletic endeavors, I can still jump pretty high :)

5 - Has blockchain helped your relationship grow at all, if you previously had little in common and have been drawing a blank on all of these?

Blockchain definitely has changed our relationship - we didn't speak that much before and now G is all "When we gonna moon mofo?!?!"

Maybe not.

It has been through the writing that I think a lot of gaps have been closed as I left Australia at 23 after moving to the other side of the country at 15. Galen never really knew me as an adult and I think that through our writing and the fact that we talk a lot more on the phone now also, we know about each other's lives at a much greater level.

Since we both write from our own experiences, I know what has catalyzed some of the posts, I know the stories of the past - albeit from a different perspective - mine. When two people tell the same story, you can see how different that view can be, depending on how someone is in the moment of experience. His youth was not my youth, even though there were overlaps in events.

I think that because I write about my daughter a lot too, it has helped him better understand her and how my wife and I are as parents. He has only met my daughter once two years ago (they were meant to be here in July, but Corona will likely kill that), and I think that the writing helps him be part of her life and gives them commonality when they speak together on the phone.

6 - Any embarrassing fact or story about your brother you've been hoping someone would ask you to make public on Hive?

I think that we have been pretty open in most of what we have brought to the blockchain and if people ask, we generally tell. I have the feeling that both of us aren't embarrassed by our pasts, nor are we remorseful for what we have done, as it has all lead to who we are today. I don't really have any embarrassing stories that come to mind about Galen, although he did break his nose after fulfilling a dare from our oldest brother, where he rode his bike off the meter-high veranda and didn't quite nail the landing.

However, I do believe that that is not really embarrassing and if push came to shove, I would suggest that he has a lot more stories on me than him, so I best be careful. One of the generational changes is that - there are a lot more photos out there now - and I have likely been caught in some compromising fashion myself ;D

7 - What's your secret for each of your wives being so cool with all your time on Hive? This is the most important question.

Money. Well - that is not true, because I (nor he) have ever used anything we have earned, it is all powered up or stored, with both of us having bought in over the last couple years. It is the potential of money! :) Well, my wife used to maintain an account here and she has recently started reading my blogs again (often with tears in her eyes) as she gets to see a different side of me, the side I generally don't speak aloud.

While at times it frustrates her, she knows that I am doing something that I love and care about, as well as something that could possibly help us both out in the future if we need it. She is very tired of hearing "SOON", but at the same time - she knows that a hobby doesn't need to return anything more than the enjoyment of the process.

She is the only person who really knows how much effort I have put into this place and how much I care about it. People can think what they want, she knows the truth. As she should.

8 - Who does it better: cook, sing, dance?

Cook: Galen - I think that in general, all of the males in the family are decent cooks, but Galen is definitely better than I and especially now, where I have almost zero time to even reheat a frozen pizza. I think that cooking requires attention to detail and Galen definitely pays attention.

Sing: Neither - I would predict that just like me - he is a ratshit singer.

Dance: Me - I have been dancing for years and have continued on whenever I get the chance. Though, Galen did dance a lot as a kid, but perhaps he can talk about that himself.

9 - Could you PLEASE share a funny childhood picture?

I don't have many pictures of us together - I don't have many pictures at all from those times. After leaving Australia with a suitcase 17 years ago, I don't have much here. One day I will get some stuff delivered. However -

here is a picture of us together and by the looks of the chair I am sitting on, i think it was taken at our Aunt's place - I am wearing flaired overalls - this was the early 80s.

And here I am looking more like me - a thousand yard stare - the object of women's desire.... That stroller is from the 60s and was bought for my oldest brother and was used for my little sister too. Back then, these things weren't fashion accessories - neither were babies. Though, I am sure that my mother heard, "cute baby, where'd you get it?" often enough. Back then, we stood out of the crowd a little.

10 - If you could go back in time to spend one day with anyone who's ever existed, and be fluent in their language, who would it be?

There are several on my list for this perhaps, for various different reasons - Leonardo Da Vinci comes to mind as he himself as the quintessential renaissance man, a person who crossed many skills and one of the greatest thinkers in existence. I wouldn't mind spending time with him and just watching how his mind operated, to see if he was focused or a disjointed collection of thoughts that occasionally combined into brilliance. If I can't be a brilliant thinker myself, I can at least improve my process and learning from others has value.

Individual Bonus Round:

Taraz: Does clearly having the best beard offer enough consolation for not being able to go shooting with your big bro?

You have an old picture, I am generally clean-shaven the last year or so, though I do have a bit of a "Covid-19 growth" at the moment, but I am also wearing track pants with holes in the crotch seam and a tan shirt - it ain't a pretty ensemble.

I wouldn't mind going range shooting with Galen, but I am still unsure if I could shoot an animal. I think that I am far too shaky overall to be a distance shooter though and would perhaps prefer the tactical pistol ranges.

Galen: If you and Taraz had a best-of-5 paintball battle in wooden terrain, how many rounds would he win?

I am going to answer this one too - I'd win ALL of them! :D Surprisingly, I rock at paintball in combat - but the balls don't fly as fast or as straight as bullets. I am an all-rounder - I can snipe from the trees and run-n-gun. The thing is, paintball is not much like shooting in real life and the sense of "life or death" isn't there - though it can hurt like hell. I have played against soldiers and while good, their training errs on the side of caution - fantastic on the field of battle - not necessarily for paintball.

Okay, this was a bit of fun and I wasn't planning on writing so much in the answers, but this ended up being almost 2500 words. I wonder how this is going to line up with what Galen says, and I wonder if he is going to be broadcasting embarrassing pictures of me that I am "pretty sure" he has copies of. If he does, I guess I can flag him, though he has been buying quite a bit of HIVE himself of late.

While there are overlaps, we are quite different in nature and have a fair amount of diversity in our outlooks on life. But, we each bring something different to the table when we talk together and probably, when we post onto Hive. Many people who follow us both, don't actually know that we are brothers as we often cover quite different types of ares in our writing.

Between the two of us, we probably have 10% of all the text on the blockchain :D

Thanks @steemmatt for the prompt and hopefully this fulfills your curiosity.

My question for you is:

Did you (or do you) ever feel embarrassed walking the streets and going through other people's trash?

If anyone else has some additional questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I will do my best to answer them - if I want. As said, I am not a rebel, but I do as I please :)

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]