^{@NoNamesLeftToUse The Writer/Artist Himself here at the keys once again.}

I've been keeping this a secret,

^{for a very long time.}

I've kept this to myself. Nobody knows about this. This has been bothering me for years. This just won't go away and I really need to talk about this.

I can't handle keeping this to myself anymore. The title said this best though.

I need to get this off my chest.

^{And it's true. This is very important.}

I first noticed this one day while I was at the lake.

As you can see, it was just a normal day. Nothing out of the ordinary^{(Yes, I'm aware of the crashed plane. Totally normal.)}I was just trying to get the perfect selfie for Facebook. You know how it is.This just kept showing up though.This would not go away, no matter what I tried.This was really starting to bother me.Why was this on my chest?I could not figure this out.Finally, after many more attempts at taking the perfect selfie,I just said to hell with this.

I Thought About This

^{And I thought about this some more.}

This is on every picture I take now.

At first I thought this was just a problem with my camera. I tried everything to take a photo without having the burden of having this on my chest. There was nothing I could do about this.

That night I found myself thinking about this. I went into the bathroom to have a look in the mirror. This was there, in my reflection.

I became incredibly worried about this. I wanted to talk to a doctor about this, but I didn't think they would believe this so I kept this to myself.

It's been like this now for a few years. This actually got worse and I started noticing changes. It seemed like this was giving me some sort of superhuman strength. I didn't mind this at that point.

It's a hard life though, keeping this a secret. That's why I'm here today to talk about this. This is the truth. This needs to be known.

I hope you're ready for this...

Everyone.

You may want to be sitting down for this.

This is no joke.

Are you ready for this?

I...

Have become...

...and damn this feels good!

---

---

Did you enjoy this?

^{This Man is officially two years old.}

That was originally published here, back in early December of 2016.

This Man started out as a dumb idea I had one day while trying to think of something funny to write and then share here for you folks to enjoy.

I continued to use the character of This Man in my publications for some time after. Dig deep enough into my blog history here and you might find about twenty This Man related articles. Sometimes I'd combine the character with fiction, other times I'd use the character to tell embarrassing true stories from my past.

_{I once tried to greet new members while in character as This Man. I probably freaked them out. I never once received a response, so I stopped doing that.}

This Man hasn't made too many appearances this year. The writing style was often misunderstood; some didn't even realize it was a fictional character and the humor included was somehow taken seriously. Instead of saying 'I', This Man would always say, "This Man," so, some concluded I must be a caveman with poor grammar skills and access to a laptop.

It's not unusual for a writer to develop characters, then step inside those shoes, and write as that character. One famous example of this is Raoul Duke, played by Hunter S. Thompson. For some strange reason, many people expected to meet Raoul Duke, the character, when they met Hunter S. Thompson in person.

Hunter himself once said he didn't know who to be, in public, when meeting fans of his work. Something along those lines, anyway.

Eventually

^{I'd like to resurrect the character of This Man.}

We'll see how it goes, I guess.

I still write in this fashion, using characters. Some know that, some don't. Some think it's strange, others know it's normal, but not so normal in a social blogging environment, aside from the generic public figure persona character many bloggers and vloggers use these days.

This platform gave many of us the freedom to try new things; the freedom to reinvent blogging. A few of us succeeded and this new approach to blogging was nearly 100% unique to this platform. Couldn't find this new form of entertainment anywhere else on the internet. We were doing something different.

Recently I — as of just now, as I write this — banked my 25000th STEEM; all of which was earned by being a combination of writer and artist.

My writing is art and my pictures are worth thousands of words.

^{I just thought it would be cool to say that.}

I started with nothing, didn't know anyone here, and came from a time when talent competed for eyes and attention. We couldn't bribe anyone for a place on the trending or hot pages, we had to earn it.

The place was vibrant then, plenty of genuine and down to earth people brought a strong work ethic with them, even when the value of the token was lower than today; but something got lost along the way.

These days a no-talent hack can pretend to be popular, while the rest of the truly talented individuals get swept under the rug. Figuratively speaking, true talent is forced to stop at a checkpoint so they can get shaken down by vote dealers running a tollbooth. If the talent doesn't like it, they have two options. Pay the toll, or turn around and go home; leave.

_{One cannot advance without paying the toll, and those asking for money don't even own the road.}

They created a problem and offer a bogus solution, for a fee, of course.

It's kind of like how, when the city of Los Angeles provided the homeless people living in skid row with public bathrooms so they could shit in a toilet instead of the street, the little thugs and gangbangers took control of the door to the outhouse and charged anyone who wanted to take a shit, a fee. If they couldn't pay the thugs, they had to shit in the street. Thugs are making money, streets are still full of shit.

Have a look at the trending page. Thugs are making money and the street is full of shit.

I've lost almost all motivation.

^{Yet I'm still here.}

I feel like I'm one of the last people who wants to see this place thrive. A lot of folks will say positive things but they refuse to tackle the issues, fearing facing reality because they might sound "negative" in front of their peers.

That's how that positivity cult operates though. Strike fear into people by using smiles as weapons. I touched on some of the dangers that divisive positive/negative mentality brings about in a previous post.

The darkness disguised as light will ensure all problems go unsolved.

Politicians kiss babies.

^{Not because they like babies. Because they want you to think they like babies.}

How could someone who kisses a baby possibly want to kill millions to help fulfill a contract that involves selling weapons...

So what if I choose to live and see the world for what it actually is instead of falling for smoke and mirrors. That doesn't make me a bad guy, unless you're the one trying to manipulate me. I'm not surprised to see charlatans selling votes, making a mess, then advertising their services as something good; promoting their posts jammed with fake positive vibes, never mentioning the downsides.

That's how the world works. Fast food joints won't advertise how unhealthy their product is. Everyone is smiling while they lap up those fries and milkshakes; some stopped using plastic and promote the idea as "saving the environment." Of course that makes them sound good on paper (instead of plastic). They still throw out something like 2.1 billion pounds of food every year; and spent millions advertising how they cut down on plastic instead of millions on feeding the hungry. Sure, plastic is messy, but it can be picked up, it lasts forever; starving people don't last forever but come on people! They're not using plastic, so they must be angels sent here from heaven.

There's no profit in feeding the hungry unless they pay, much like there's no profit in supporting true talent around here unless they pay.

I was born at night.

^{But it wasn't last night.}

Let's say I was offered two contracts to paint a house. One contract said I'd earn $1000, the other said I'd earn $1000 but only receive $100 if I was lucky, it might be less, the other 90% or more goes to someone else I don't know, for doing nothing, and the only way they can receive that 90% or more of the $1000 is if I accept the contract and finish the task.

Of course I'm going to accept the contract that states I receive the full $1000. It would be idiotic to accept option two and shortchange myself 90% or more. If $1000 is exchanging hands because of something I do, that's my money, because I did the work. Governments don't even ask for 90% income tax; so if I purchased votes here, I'd be accepting the second offer of maybe 10% if I'm lucky, the other 90% or more goes to a few people for doing nothing, and the only way they can see that money in their wallet is if I say, "Duh, yeah, okay, sounds like a good deal to me."

Kiss all the babies you want to kiss. Promise everyone nice things like the lie of fame and fortune.

No

^{Thank you.}

I'm not buying it.

I see right through it, so fuck your check stops, fuck the tollbooth, and fuck these thugs attempting to shake me down; I'll just drive around. What are you going to do? Pull me over? Arrest me? Charge me for noncompliance, throw me in a cage? Jump for joy that my work will never have a chance to shine under the limelight because I am such a terrible guy who refuses to say happy things while getting raped up the ass?

Anyway

^{I just wanted to celebrate a milestone.}

I'm quite happy with what I've accomplished here. 25K, without training wheels; I think that's pretty damn good.

I set a goal to reach 25K Steem Power by the end of this year. So that's done. I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do with it now but at least I have it, right?

Back when I started, this would have been a big deal. Most won't even find out this is possible now unless I pay a toll, so that's kind of sad. This place could use a few real superheroes, like This Man, to help shed light on what was once a golden opportunity. Much like life though, we'll just have to leave it up to those baby kissing tax collectors to guide the way. Of course we can trust those types. They haven't failed us yet.

Have a nice day.

Credits:All art and images seen here were produced digitally, by me.
^{"This Man was here."}

^{© 2018 @NoNamesLeftToUse.  All rights reserved.}