Hey Dogefam, I hope you are all feeling pretty good about the our upcoming Moon Mission. I am...and I'm also sad about it. I debated writing this letter because I know what it sounds like, from your perspective I mean. However, I need to get this out there for me....because if I don't, it will eat me up inside. Here's my story, and right up front, thanks for all the love, support and even the negative comments over the years, I appreciate them all.
I am a former jet engine mechanic and Veteran who served onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln from 2000-2005. It was a crazy experience and I'll just leave it at that. After the Navy I moved to Hawaii and went to art school on my GI bill. I learned amazing things and met even more amazing people. One of my favorite things to do was to ride my moped around the island and modify it to go faster. I just loved zooming through the hills on my Honda S with a little iPod shuffle bumpin' MF DOOM, waaaay before anyone even knew who he was. After about two years I got plugged into the local arts scene and made friends within the HipHop community, who btw, are keeping the culture alive to this day. Shout out Big Mox and Woes1. Absolutely love those guys (and girls too).
Out of everyone I made friends with in collage, one guy sticks out in particular...in regards to this story. So it's around 2006ish that we became friends, he was majoring in international studies and had a keen eye on money. Myself, well, I never could keep it long enough to do anything with it. Money always seemed to be to much to learn about and in hindsight was a clear reflection of my ignorance, so I avoided the learning experience which was soon to come. Funny how life works that way.
Anywhos, fast forward a few years and I came into about 8k dollars from a relative. Around that same time I had been impacted greatly by the work of futurist Jaques Fresco and the viral documentary film Zeitgeist. (**side note: I highly recommend that documentary and "Future By Design" they're illuminating) It was the insight Jaques Fresco taught about future and the critical role that technology plays in the betterment of human life, which then led me to invest my newly acquired money into the electric moped business. I could see that at some point EV's were going to be everywhere and I wanted to be in on the action. So I bought 6 mopeds and secured a distribution license for them on the island of Oahu....and I Had Zero clue of what I was doing, lolz. One day, I was visiting a competitors Electric Moped sales floor, to see how they were operating, this guy pulled up in a Lotus...at least that's what I thought it was.
Turns out it was a Tesla, one of the first to ever come off the line and THE first to be on Oahu, 100%. The man who stepped out was Henk Rogers. I had no clue who he was but would soon find out that He was the guy who, when the collapse of the Soviet Union happened, hired some goons, flew to Russia, and ended up buying the rights to Tetris from their version of NASA, for pennies compared to what he made off of it.
This guy was like a Wolf. He had no time for anything I had to say, and in hindsight I was incredibly idealistic back then so I probably would've shut me down too : D . He did however, invite me to his party later that evening, and it was there that I realized an average guy could become a Billionaire. He had the entire Aloha Square rented out, He had Tetris games set up on 50' screens, beautiful people handing out drinks and everything else you could image a billionaire would have going on at his birthday bash. You see, it was up until that point that I had resigned myself to a blue collar, low income life. I had never considered that I could make money any other way than trading hours for dollars. My family never taught me about money and by the time I was 18 I was in the military and they sure as heck don't teach you about personal wealth growth there.
It was that particular moment that a light bulb went off in my head...It was then that my dormant creative mind started spinning and then that I decided I would pursue my dreams instead of a paycheck. I then sold my little fleet of mopeds, which were super nice Taiwanese step-through scooters btw.... however the price point was just too high to be competitive with the cheap Chinese crap. So there I was, free and clear of any debt, I made the leap to leave the island. All I had was a dream of making it big and no Idea how I would get there.
Fast forward a couple more years and I had become a mural artist, living out of my Astrovan and traveling around the country with a rack of spray paint just looking for walls and people who would pay me to paint them. It wasn't glamorous and I didn't make much money, But I was free. Free as a bird, something I learned being trapped in the military was more valuable than anything else.
One day, I was listening to Joe Rogan talk with a guest about bitcoin. This was in 2015 sometime. I forget his name atm, but he's known, lives in Puerto Rico I think...needless to say, but I was intrigued... however I was broke. The price of BTC at that time was around $1,000 if I remember correctly,... and while I thought it was definitely worth paying attention to, I was reluctant to waste my money on a "bubble" or "Ponzi scheme" something the fudsters had been saying frequently. SMH, boy if I could just go back!...but truthfully, I didn't have two pennies to rub together, let alone a couple hundo to gamble with. I had to feed myself and my dog, man I miss that dog. Sad....
I also had to put gas in tank, but this was a Happy Thing because I was going to the biggest Art networking event on the planet, Burning Man. I had scored a low income ticket and hadn't been since 2012. I was super pumped. When I got there I secured a great spot on the outer perimeter which was nice and quiet. When I opened my door in the morning, all I could see was endless desert lakebed and mountains. It was absolutely beautiful.
While there, I painted a mural at center camp which was my way of giving back, and took on a more documentarian role than I had previously done. I can clearly remember people all abuzz, talking about Ethereum and how it was going to be a game changer. This really peaked my interest because the playa has a special way of interacting with you, it's very dreamlike. Now, I'm a sober guy, I don't think down about people who imbibe, I've just learned through hard knocks that it doesn't work for me...so when I say it's dreamlike I'm referring to being on a bunch of drugs and hallucinating....What I'm talking about is the very real, very palpable serendipitous flow of who you meet, what they have to say, and how it impacts you later down the road.
After the burn I went up to Tahoe to chill out, I've got some great little spots hidden out in the hills up there that I park in and camp at, super remote. It's a vibe for sure. It's out in those very same woods where I learned what missing an opportunity really feels like. You all know what talking about. That first big bull market was something else. I watched it climb, Mahhn every daY I watched it climb. I clawed and scraped everything I could to try and get onboard the gravy train but it just wasn't enough money to capitalize on...at least at the time I thought so, so foolish was I.
One day, during its peak, I got word that my collage friend from Hawaii was being featured on a popular YouTube channel. Turns out he had spent part of his student loan money on Bitcoin back in 2012 and never said anything. He somehow had the insight or had been schooled on the future in a way where he could see its potential. When BTC was at its height, around 15-16k he was worth 3 Hundred Million :o . I couldn't believe it, This guy I hung out with, smoked weed with and rode mopeds around with was now talking about buying properties in Costa Rica and installing Bitcoin ATMs around the island. The feeling was Bananas. It was an incredible viewpoint for me to experience at the time. And Once again, I was reminded that it is possible to separate yourself from the financial burden of this world if you simply put your mind to it.
It was from then on that I made cryptocurrency something I would learn about, talk about, and stay on top of. I was determined to never miss out again. I bought and sold all through the bear market, got inspired and ultimately let down by YouTube crypto hype-beasts. I bought shitcoins and read white papers, always holding out hope that one day I would wake up in my van and my financial worry would be behind me...I know now that that's an illusion, however that lesson to learn was still far off for me.
Eventually my travels would bring me back to my folks property in western Maryland, it's up in the Appalachian wilderness and is incredibly beautiful. Shout out to my folks, you did it! They're awesome, they let me park out by the barn in between my journeys around the country. I have nothing but love for those people.
When I came back this time though, I had Crypto on the mind...I saw possibility in the blockchain and was going to be involved in the next bull market, make no mistake. I remember sitting them down and going through the ins and outs of how blockchain technology works, trying my best to inspire in them the very same thing had lit my soul on fire for crypto. In my mind at the time the key to success in crypto was solar and wind powered mining farms. I pitched them the idea that I just needed the investment capital to buy one mining computer and however many solar panels it would take to run the thing. From there, I could estimate with real word data, just how much it would cost to cover the 7 acres of hay field they had which didn't make anyone any money anyways. I told them that we could then use that data to find investors, starting with their friend group and working out to local business people. Their response was a resounding No. In fact, my mom yelled at me for getting involved in a get-rich-quick scheme, and piercingly stated that she "wouldn't be caught dead selling Tupperware to her friends, let alone mother fu(%ing BITCOIN!!"
Defeated and angry I packed up my stuff and got back to it, moving on to bounce from place to place, painting canvasses in my spare time and hunting for mural gigs. I occupied much of time during that 2017 time period trying to day trade on all the popular exchanges...one of which was Bittrex, which would in the future contribute to reason I decided to write this letter. I took day trading seriously, I would write down all my transactions in a banker's book and really made an attempt to make ends meet that way, however, it just never panned out. I would inevitably end up taking a bath, but I kept my spirits up, never letting go of my original dream of financial freedom, that thing that got me to the dance, my Art.
In the summer of 2018 I took a job as a Safety Kayker for a white water outfit. Ohh yeah I forgot to tell yins, I also picked up white water kayaking as a hobby and got pretty Sendy with it which then got me the job for Class V trips out of Idaho Springs, CO. I constantly talked about and defended crypto to all the other guides, who like many during that time, scoffed at the concept. I didn't care. I knew that they didn't have the experiences I had had, learned the things I had learned and seen what I had seen. I knew that what I was, was that guy, who on many occasions in my life, told me something important and who I dismissed out of my ignorance. Sooo, I was good with it. After guiding that season I headed out west and then BOOM, Covid Hit.
The world stopped and people all around the globe suffered. I chose to run to the hills, so to speak. I spent the initial 3-4 months up in the Sierra mountain range, wondering if the virus was going to wipe out half of the country but as information came out and clearer minds prevailed, I followed the wave from California to Austin, TX. I hung out with the comedians and even got up on stage a handful of times. It was fun and it was then that I made the most impactful financial decision I have ever made.
In Dec of 2019 I spent my monthly food and gas allotment on DOGECOIN. I think I bought something like 120k DOGE for 1000 dollars, give or take, the price was around .002. This was way before Elon got onboard, before all the hype and scams too. I clearly remember being at a laundromat in South Austin, sitting in the van, waiting for the minimum confirmations to go through and for Coinbase to register that the purchase was a success. it seemed to take forever that day. I remember I got a phone call from my mother while I was waiting and she asked how I was doing. I told her and I'll never forget it, I said, "I feel really good about this investment I've made today, its just a funny coin but it's different than all the rest"
....And Dogecoin truly is... although it was something different and magical back then... That's because back then it was just us Dreaming Dogs, telling each other 1 Doge = 1 Doge and other silly things. That's why I stuck around, why I made that sacrifice, and why my life would change drastically in about 6 months. It's this reddit sub right here that made me a believer. I just knew this was something special.
So then the day came. I woke up in April of the next year in a Denver parking lot, still a couple months before the whitewater season was about to begin. I remember it was snowing lightly and still grey from the night before, but that the sun was starting burn off the clouds. I got up, popped in the drivers seat and turned on the van. I put my phone in the holder, was going to play some music when I decided to check the my wallet balance on coinbase, something we all do without thinking. I had to wipe my eyes when I first saw it. I think it said something like 24 or 25 thousand dollars!!!!! the night before I had a hundred bucks, if that. The feeling that washed over me was euphoric. It made me feel happy but more than that, it made me feel smart, something I hadn't felt in quite sometime.
The truth is, as a nomadic artist living in a van, a former veteran and a recovering addict, I have to deal with a ton of mental baggage...and I do the work, don't get me wrong. I know I'm my own worst enemy, that the world don't owe me nuthin' and that most of the difficulties I suffer through are of my own making, I know that....but there's also the very real psychological grind that accompanies trying to make it on your own steam. I've been broke more times than I can count and I've spent a decade living below the poverty line. It's easy to get down on yourself under those conditions but what's hard is to forgive your shortcomings and adjust your perspective...and for a while my perspective was trash. I really beat myself up over all kinds of little things. It was like I had this jerk in my head constantly telling me how dumb I was, all the time.
...And all that went away in an instant when I saw that balance. It was like a giant weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I knew Dogecoin was special, not because some YouTuber told me, but because I had been watching the crypto market and interacting with the community for long enough to see the trends. I saw how Memes were a powerful commodity and something that made DOGE unique from the rest. I knew the community was unlike any other crypto community because I was a part of it. Needless to say but That summer, That summer was amazing.
I had, at one point, 70k at my fingertips. I remember being in a Jaquzzi once, just refreshing my wallet as the snow was falling. It was incredible....until it wasn't.
As the price came down my insistence that we had only seen the beginning of the BIG ONE and that the market "would turn around any day now" kept me from selling. I also was and still am, a BIG believer in "Practice what you preach" and "Actions speak Louder than words", so when I posted on here that I had Diamond Hands, I meant it. I didn't even pay off my maxed out credit cards during that bull run. I was HODL for life! and felt like unless we hit a Dollar I was betraying the community by selling. So I held. I held for three and half long years.... until one Redditor commented on a post describing how you should always take profits and I broke.
Maybe it was the mental beatdown of 3 years at ~7 cents that did it to me, or the hype of the Halving, Idk, but whatever it was, when we hit .25 cents over the summer I sold. Not all, but most. I chose to invest in myself and signed a lease on a 2500 sqft' Art Studio in a sleepy Appalachia town. It's a place where I can park my van out back and nobody gives me the stink eye when they come into work in the morning and I'm pulling out of their parking lot. Which is a daily experience when you're living the Vanlife, working folks don't think it's cool, and I get that, it's no worries. I also paid off my credit cards, picked up a nice lil' daily driver and got to work building out my new creative space. While huge and perfect in location and atmosphere, the space is unfinished. It's stud bare and with the winter coming up, insulation is next major hurdle.
At the time of writing this I still have a small amount of DOGE left, probably enough to buy the insulation and some paint...but man, it's killing me inside. For YEARS I knew the time would come when the stars would align for Doge, but never in my wildest dreams would I think they'd literally be tossing around the idea of a Department Of Government Efficiency!!! To top it off, Elon now has everything in place to legitimately roll out DOGE on X and is free of all his legal troubles concerning crypto. For YEARS I told myself I just need to hang on and it'll all be worth it. The future couldn't be brighter for Doge and I just didn't hold on long enough. I was MONTHS away AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! The icing on the cake was discovering the buried Bittrex emails yesterday , going back through my records, determining I did have a nice little chunk of BTC on their exchange just to learn that I was literally days late to claim it.
Ahh well, Perhaps it is a sign that I should just stick to art or that the entire experience is a greater lesson for the future which I haven't figured out yet. Whatever this experience is, whatever it means, I know deep in my little Shiba heart that Doing Good Every Day got me this far and will continue to carry me through this life.
I'll link my instagram account in the comments, I'd love it if you came by and checked out my art. Thanks for being such a cool part of my journey. MOON SHIBES, MOON!
