So as I mentioned in my last update, I have plunged into the oh-so-hot-and-trendy world of NFTs. This is mostly because the whole scene interests me. I must say, however, I'm coming to the conclusion that this is a rather expensive and abstruse hobby. Especially since the fantastical narrative under which I've set up my project requires me to mint my pieces on very specific dates and times, meaning that I am not at liberty to wait for optimal gas prices. If you know anything about Ethereum gas prices (and for God's sake, there's really no reason you should) you'll recognize why this is a pretty serious design flaw. So I guess that's lesson #1: "Don't set up a project that doesn't allow you to wait for optimal gas prices, or you will end up paying whatever exorbitant rate the goddamn Ethereum miners decide to charge in fees at the particular time you need to mint your NFTs."
That's not a particularly helpful learning for most, I suppose. Let me see if I can come up with some others. I probably can't, and this is because most of the problems I've encountered are arising from the fact that I've been off social media for about five hundred years and it's like I don't even remember how it works. For example, after minting my NFTs today (or rather, after minting about 2/3rds of them, because I ran out of ETH and had to scrounge around under the couch cushions for more), I posted them all to Instagram. Cool beans, right? And there's this super handy "crosspost to Twitter" feature. Even cooler beans. Except when you crosspost from Instagram, it only crossposts the link, it doesn't crosspost the image. Which is rather counterproductive if your intention is for people to see your artwork. And furthermore, in crossposting, it doesn't provide any kind of link to the actual place where people might bid on the NFT if they were so inclined.
So lesson #2 is: "Don't leave social media for five hundred years if you someday want to use social media again to publicize a fantastical vanity project which you kind of set up in a dumb way to begin with." Which, I guess is slightly more helpful than lesson #1, but not much.
Let's see, what else. How about lesson #3, "Have a lot of money just lying around that you don't mind throwing into the void like all the gold to Xibalba." ("To Xibalba?" "To Xibalba!") Again. Not a helpful lesson. Did I mention this is an expensive and wasteful hobby? But what the heck. 2020 taught us all a lot of lessons. What it taught me was, "who the fuck cares?"
OK, I guess that's it for now. I just felt like blogging, and I don't have a blog over on the cryptochaotica site (because I'm trying to keep it all vague and mysterious-like) and so I thought I'd toddle on over here. And it's also an excuse to post my pretty pictures. Which, I must say, I'm rather proud of overall.
I suppose I'll do another little writeup next month, or whenever the mood strikes me. I've been feeling rather chatty lately. I guess being part of the hip hot happening NFT scene is going to my head.
(P.S. If you're reading this--and I have absolutely no expectation anyone actually is--and you're feeling like throwing me an absolutely free and gratis bone, I sure would love to have more than one follower on my cryptochaotica Twitter and Instagram accounts, and that follower being another version of myself. Or actually, I guess my daughter follows my Instagram accounts. Small steps, Mary. Small steps.)
(P.P.S. Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to buy anything.)