My 2019: The last 2019 Showcase Weekend - Horror, Honey and Roast Potatoes

This is my entry for @anomadsoul's My 2019: The last 2019 Showcase Weekend contest, sponsored by @blocktrades. If you would like to support blocktrades, and all they do for the community, you can vote for them as Witness here.

In this contest Eric (anomadsoul) asked us to select our best three under rewarded posts as a celebration of all we have achieved on steem in 2019. Just like many others who've joined the challenge, I found it difficult to find any of my best posts that were rewarded under the $4 mark. But after a little searching on steemword, I eventually discovered three posts that flew under the radar that I feel represent some of my best writing.

The first post I would like to highlight is a truly horrific entry into the finish the story fiction writing competition, hosted by @bananafish.

...is a psychological tale of horror and madness. To avoid ruining it for anyone who wishes to follow the link and read the whole short story, I will include only a brief synopsis of the plot.

This piece of fiction is definitely a post on steem which I would categorize as under rewarded with a final payout of $3.99. The amount of time and effort that goes into writing high quality fiction can not be underestimated. This story went through numerous drafts and included a lot of research to truly understand some of the nuances of the plot devices such as how to represent the 'Rorschach's blot' within the context of the story. I also remember spending some time looking at pictures of Romania on google maps to get a feel for the setting and how to describe the environment.

The second post I would like to highlight is a very different kettle of fish... or in this case 'jar of honey'.

...was written in response to a challenge from the @naturalmedicine community to write an article about an instance from your life, where you had effectively used food as medicine.

This post describes an anecdotal story from my past where I cured myself of hay fever by following an old witches remedy using local raw honey. The prescription for this remedy is to take a teaspoon of raw (unprocessed) honey daily that is produced by bees local to where you are living during the three months running up to spring. The idea being that the pollen that is causing your hay fever is the same pollen that is in the honey in minute amounts. By exposing yourself to this pollen in small increments over a long period of time you build up a resistance to it, similar to an inoculation.

There are all sorts of websites on the internet that attempt to debunk this remedy, stating that the tiny amounts of local pollen in the honey isn't enough for your immune system to build up a resistance. I don't know what to say, other than... it worked for me.

This article was definitely one I was a little disappointed with the final reward payout of $2.76, as I had put a lot of time into constructing educated theories as to how this remedy worked, with well sourced references, including medical studies.

...is a comedic poke at Steem Power Up Day. SPUD is an acronym that only a steemian would know about, it's the day when everyone powers up whatever they can afford and has a giant potato related party 😉

This post was kinda like 'a roast' as the yanks would put it. A gentle piss-take of something that us steemians take seriously, but an outsider might look in at and just find nonsensical. It is important not to take yourself too seriously in this life, and I think that goes doubly with something like steem. After all, if you're not enjoying yourself... what is the point? This post is in that spirit; it's a cavalcade of punishing puns, farcical images and many a potato joke... there is even an 'Ode to Mashed Potatoes' which I have included part of below.

To read the final verse... follow this link for some seriously salty spuds!

This post came in with a final reward payout of $1.37, not even enough to buy a bag of spuds here in the UK 😉