wowowowow! Congratulations! I liked your entry a lot and I am happy for you! Guess what I just figured this out yesterday. i could still be wrong but yes you can only get Steem Power by powering up.

I learned yesterday that you need 200 Steem Power before your vote goes up to just .02!

I have used all the searches I can think of and the question you ask seems to be one of the hardest ones to answer clearly.

From what I can tell so far.. but take with grain of salt: the smart thing to do for us Minnows seems to be to grow both Steem and Steem Power somewhat equally maybe. Once it is converted to Steem Power you have to power down to get it back and that takes I think 13 weeks. So if you want some funds available its good to keep Steem. Then, when we make it to like Dolphin status, we might want to change strategies, I am not sure.

This is the part i am still confused on is the comparative value of Steem vs SBD. Since you got 120 Steem , doesnt that mean when you convert it to USD you have like $300 ? Or at least thats what it says on http://steemdollar.com/...