I’ve spent 1.5 hours on this artwork. The tools involved was just a white pencil on black sketchbook.

This is also an entry for @angelina6688 ‘s drawing competition with the theme ‘Dream’.

Dream is untouchable and utmost unpredictable. Sometimes you have a dream in your sleep and sometimes you don’t. The mixture of illusory and nothingness is what makes the dream interesting to most. Smoke has all the characteristics of what dream possessed. It can form any shapes yet can be disminished in the air completely in a few seconds.

此作品花了一个半小时来完成，用的是白色铅笔于黑画本上作画。这同时也是用于参加由 @angelina6688 所举办的“梦”绘画比赛。

梦是虚无缥缈和捉摸不定的。有时一晚上会经历好几个梦，有时一连几晚一场梦都没有。有时梦境里特别的真实，有时特别荒谬，有时开心，有时悲伤。唯一相同的是，醒过来了一切就烟消云散，发过怎么样的梦都不再重要了。

飘忽不定的烟特别可以诠释梦的特点。来去无踪，上一秒形态万千，极尽其变。下一秒就可以完全消失不见，有趣之极。

突发奇想，把时间定格在任何两个时空之中，都不会找到相同形态的烟。就像从古至今，都不会出现过两个一模一样的梦境。

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Dear fr3eze,
Congratulations on your outstanding performance in Cindicator’s February 2018 competition! You ranked #103 with 1517 points in the crypto markets challenge and #5181 with 0 points in the traditional markets challenge, earning you a total of 0.02104335 ETH across both ratings.

Yep, the result was 0.02104335 ETH (roughly 18 USD) for a #103 rank last month.

They also attached a public google sheet for Cindicator February report, take a look there if you ever took part in predicting. There are over 10,000 predictors in the Crypto market, feels great that I could be ranked at that high!

I know, 0.02 ETH seems too little for the all the efforts, it depends on how you look at it. I spent not more than 5 minutes every day on the prediction and it is not taxing at all. The total prize is only worth of 1.25 BTC for thousand participants to share. Don’t expect a handsome return if you are not in the top 10 list, where they averagely receive 0.3 ETH.

There is some bonus too

By placing #103 in one of the challenges you have also gained access to the Cindicator Bot for one month on the Beginner plan.

I also earn an one-month access to Beginner plan which normally will need a minimum possession of 5,000 CND. Beginner plan allows the user to access some of the processed indicators to both crypto and traditional market so it can be treated as a trading signal as well. This alone could be more valuable than the 0.02 ETH prize money. Except I already entitled to this exact plan. But not bad for a bonus too.

Will I keep predicting in Cindicator?

Why not? But it might not purely for the prize. I found that the satisfaction from predicted something accurately is very rewarding as well. And knowing that I did a pretty good job in market analysis is something I never expected as well.

上次分享的 Cindicator 市场预测二月份成绩终于出炉啦。在超过十千位参与者里很意外的我排名 #103，还真的很好运啊。那么这么高的排名能得到的分红有多少呢？

答案是 0.02104335 ETH (约为 18 USD)。

我知道你心里在说很少，说真的是有点少啦。但从另一个角度出发，我每天画不超过五分钟的时间在上面，实在是玩一场手机游戏花的时间都多过这个。而且除了 0.02 ETH 我还可以免费使用“初级配套” 一个月来查看经过处理的信号，这个通常要有 5000 CND 才可以解锁，当然我是已经有了。对于没有的人来说还是很不错的。

我会继续参与预测，但可能就不是为了钱了，毕竟在这写文的收入来得更容易。当做小游戏来玩把，追求成功预测某些东西的成就感也是很不错的。

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SP delegation is a well-known way to earn some of the best profit out of your SP. This method is especially suitable for those who are lazy to be active in the socializing, lazy to vote for curation reward, lazy to write posts for author reward, and so on. Delegating all the SP away not only can skip all those ‘troubles’ but also make a nice profit out from the delegation.

@minnowbooster and @smartsteem are two biggest reliable platforms for SP delegation as far as I experienced, though they implementing different mechanism. The former using leasing contract method with a fixed delegation days while the latter allows the delegation lasts as long as the user wishes.

Math time to compare revenue

There is a Calculate Revenue button at the site which is very handy in calculating profit for SP delegation. Type in any amount of SP and it will tell you the estimated revenue in 3 forms: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Profit.

While minnowbooster site clearly shows the specification of each Lease Request in a table view. Leasers can easily choose to fill whatever offer they like.

For easier comparison, we only compare the revenue generated on monthly basis. Current exchange rate for SBD/STEEM will be used for rate conversion, 1 SBD = 1.053 STEEM.

Comparison 1

This is 4 weeks lease request on Minnowbooster where the user request for 102 SP while leaser can receive an effective payment of 2.52 STEEM.

Input 102 in the ‘Steempower’ column on the Startsteem revenue calculator, we can tell that the monthly revenue is 3.246 SBD. 3.246*1.053 = 3.418 STEEM.

3.418 STEEM from Smartsteem and 2.52 STEEM from Minnowbooster.

Round 1, Smartsteem wins!

Comparison 2

4-week lease request of 973 SP with payment of 24 STEEM from Minnowbooster.

In Smartsteem we could get 30.961 SBD for the same amount of delegation. 30.961*1.053 = 32.602 STEEM.

32.602 STEEM vs 24 STEEM. That is as much as 33% bonus! Smartsteem wins again.

Comparison 3

Now let’s take a look at larger SP delegation request which is 4865 SP for the price of 150 STEEM from Minnowbooster.

We got 154.806 SBD from the Smartsteem. 154.806*1.053 = 163.011 STEEM. You would earn extra 13 STEEM here.

Smartsteem still got the victory in the end!

Conclusion

@smartsteem is obviously the best choice now from the revenue perspective for SP delegation.

Although it was mainly based on the advantage of paying SBD, which is hugely strayed away from the USD pegging mechanism for very long time. However judging from the SBD past behavior, receiving payment in SBD could be very rewarding as well if you look at their potential to skyrocket to last ATH at 14 USD, which was once 1 SDB = 9 STEEM.

Hope this could make your life easier in choosing which platform to delegate your SP. If you know some other better sites, let me know in the comment.

Please use my referral link to sign up Smartsteem if you found this article useful: https://smartsteem.com?r=fr3eze

_{Previous posts about Smartsteem：
Another great platform to promote content, Smartsteem
Smartsteem whitelist is a touchstone for your content’s quality}

SP 委托代理是懒人在 Steem 赚钱的最佳方法，@minnowbooster 和 @smartsteem 是目前最大也是我使用过的平台，它们都接受 SP 代理然后付费给代理者。那么哪家的回酬更高呢？

经过上面一系列的比较，显而易见 Smartsteem 是更好的选择！平均收入要比 minnowbooster 高出起码 10%！

如果想注册 Smartsteem 来出租 SP， 可以通过我的链接注册：
https://smartsteem.com?r=fr3eze

_{之前写过关于 Smartsteem 的文章：
Another great platform to promote content, Smartsteem 推广内容好平台
Smartsteem whitelist is a touchstone for your content’s quality 创作品质的试金石}

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Artwork above was created using marker pens, absolutely fabulous isn’t it? Previous post I’ve shared one of the best art supplies shop in Osaka and let me show you my booty.

The best thing that excited me the most is this drawing guidance book released by Copic itself. It showcases everything about the amazing markers and the way to use them professionally in the way that I could never imagine. The first picture is one of the samples and I did not expect simple markers could achieve such a stunning result. The book costs 1800 Yen and that is the first physical book I bought in the past 10 years, it will worth every penny if I able to learn as much as possible from it.

除了美食美景，去日本最大的收获就是这三剑客。首先是 Copic 出品的马克笔绘画教程，真的有让我大开眼界之感，大叹原来马克绘画还能如此神！本文第一张就是全用 Copic 马克笔画的，很厉害吧？它绝对能让我的绘画技术更上一层楼！

第二养东西就是 36 色的 Copic 马克笔，同时也是在日本买到最贵的单品，价值十一千日元。还好 72 色的套装断货了，不然我还可能会花双倍的价格入手，真替荷包君捏了一把冷汗。

最后就是专门为马克笔而设计的画本，有着颜色不会渗透纸张的优点，我想这样的话还可以节省一些墨水吧。

这些家伙应该都足够让我忙碌好长一阵子了。 期待和你们分享用它们创作的第一幅作品！

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在大马和新加坡有个很普遍又有点诡异的现象，那就是人们都非常热衷于投注博彩游戏，这种现象在老年人中尤其明显。不幸地，我老妈就是其中一份子。

据我估计，她作为博彩公司的忠实顾客起码有二十年之长，每个月都定时的把好几百令吉的钞票双手奉上给遍布各地的博彩投注站。好几家博彩公司比如著名的 Sports TOTO，大马彩，到邻国的新加坡大彩的买法，何时开彩，一个星期有几期等五花八门的相关资讯，她可都是了如指掌，无一不精。这些公司可以成立至今屹立不倒，我老妈这位金主可是居功不小。

好啦，比起那些恨不得把身家拿来下注的疯狂赌客，她算是小小鱼了，生活也不至于因为这件事有什么影响。

玩博彩不是问题，好赌成瘾也不是问题，问题是这根本是赢不了的游戏。在这里博彩又称‘万字票’，万字万字，哪有那么容易中奖？而事实就是这些年来，她中奖的次数两只手数的过来吧，都是些鸡毛蒜皮的小奖，在她所贡献出去的彩金面前根本就是大巫见小巫。玩一个根本没有胜算的游戏，我实在想不通乐趣到底在哪。

最讽刺的就是，她也很清楚这是个注定输的游戏，也时常向我们说：“买完这次就不买了！”，“我真的决定戒了！”。这些言辞在每一期开奖吃白果后尤其会说得斩钉截铁，咬牙切齿。然而这一说，就说了几十年。标准的博彩深度成瘾者，鉴定完毕。

不能再这样下去了

昨天不知怎么的又和老妈谈起这件事，莫名其妙的我忽然觉得这破事是该接近尾声了。于是便有了以下的提议：

从今儿起的一年内，只要她想去买彩票的时候就把手上的现金丢进一个箱子里，我回家时会收集然后帮她投资在加密货币。

老实说，我也不确定她玩博彩中大奖的几率有多大，一直这样买下去理性的说实在是存在一定的可能性。要是真的发生了，她不但可以拿回这么多年来所付出的赌本，还可连本带利的有一大笔钱足够让她安逸的退休都过下半辈子。然而我可以肯定的是，任何一个 TOP 100 的加密货币爆发起来的可能性要比中大博彩高得多得多，即使是随便蒙一个货币。

为了让我的提议更进一步的无法抗拒，我甚至提供了一个‘必胜’的条件。那就是无论一年后该投资的回报率如何，她起码可以得到 50% 的红利和本金。就是说，要是投资总数为 $5000，连本带利拿回的至少会是 $7500，即使该加密货币归零，在这里大力祈祷千万不要发生。当然，要是其投资翻上十倍了她也会如数取回。

简单的说，就是在我这里的投资起码提供了 1.5 倍的回报。继续买彩票（烧钱）下去还是接受我的提议，这样的送分题小孩子都会吧？这稳赚不赔的 proposal 当然是当场被接纳了啊！

那么问题来了，我该买些什么货币呢？

我不想帮她买很多种货币，因为那会很麻烦也会很难维护。第一个浮现脑中的当然是我伟大的 Steem 啦！老妈虽然不懂这些区块链货币东东为何物，但是却很支持她儿子我在这里创作，也以阅读我的文章为乐。要是用她的投资来买 Steem 再 Power up 我的户口，那不是更加实在的支持吗？

当然老用户们也都很清楚，这样的操作本人也会受益无穷。即使一年后需要把所有属于她的 SP 兑现返利，这一年里我可是会有许多额外的 SP 加持啊。每天的 SP 分红，点赞力度变大，高 SP 吸引更多关注，等等无尽的好处。

什么？你说要是 Steem 归零我有何面目见山东老母？第一，我依然会依照诺言连本带利还给她 1.5 倍，当作孝敬母亲有何不可。第二，在我这里的投资归零不就是和她拿去买彩票一样，大家都是归零啊！与其拿钱捐给博彩公司，还不如死在我手上，哼。

何况目前加密货币市场正值低迷之期，正是入手好时机。就此打住吧，一年后我会再度报告这份 赌博彩不如赌 Steem 计划的成绩的，看看老妈这次做的选择是否明智。

如果你问我，那肯定是大大的 YES ！

This is the Chinese version of previous post “Made my mom quit gambling by offering an irresistible deal” dedicating to my mom who can’t read English.
老妈子，这长篇大论可是为你而写的，好好读完它啊！

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If you are familiar enough with South East Asia countries especially like Malaysia and Singapore, you shall observe how obsessed they are the people into lottery and jackpot betting. These games are often found to be one of the main entertainments for the older generation folks. Unfortunately, my mom is one of them.

_{Image source}

She has been a loyal customer for lottery company like TOTO, Damacai, and whatever 4D, 5D, 6D shit, for more than 20 years. Although she is not as desperate as those serious lottery gamblers, she would constantly contribute a couple of hundreds of Malaysia Ringgit to the lottery company every month. Those number could add up to a handsome sum. Ironically, she knows she stands a slim chance of getting back the betting capital, let alone winning a huge Jackpot. But still, she couldn’t leave the losing game while keep telling us that she is going to give it up ‘soon’ for the last ten years. Pathetically funny.

_{Image source}

This has to be changed

We’ve talked about this topic yesterday and somehow I just felt like I’ve had enough of her lottery addiction that I make a suggestion:

From now on, whenever you feel like going to buy the lottery tickets, drop those cash in a box. I will collect and use it to invest in crypto on your behalf.

I’m not sure if one day she would hit a big jackpot to not only cover all lost bets over the decades but winning a huge lump sum of money which is more than enough to retire herself. There is only one thing I’m really certain, and that is the chances of any top 100 cryptocurrencies skyrocketing is much likely to happen than she hitting that big jackpot.

Furthermore, I added some irresistible clauses in the one-year deal. That is regardless how the crypto investment is doing after one year, I will pay her investment back with at least 50% gaining out of my pocket. Meaning if she invested a total of $5000 then she will at least get back a sum of $7500 no matter what. If market decides that she will gain 10 times of her capital, that is what she will be received too.

The deal is on, of course.

The next question is, in what coin should I invest for my mom? I’m not intended to diversify her portfolio as that would be too troublesome for me to maintain. Wait, she is very interested in my articles in Steem and would read it every day despite having no idea what all these crypto and blockchain tech is about. My mom is definitely one of my biggest supporters to create content on Steem. Then why not I use her money to regularly buy in Steem and power my account up? Brilliant idea indeed!

Some will say that crypto is a high-risk investment, I should not put all the eggs in one basket. Maybe. But rather than letting the money completely ‘donated’ to lottery company with almost zero chance to get back any of it, betting it with crypto sounds a lot wiser to me.

By making this deal with my lottery-addicted mom…

• She can finally give up the addiction which is almost as same as throwing coins in the sea.
• She is already in a 100% winning position as I personally guaranteed her ROI no matter how is the crypto investment’s performance.
• She can now support my work on Steem both spiritually and financially.
• I can grow my SP over the course by her regular investment.
• Even if I got to pay cash out all her Steem after one year, I will still be benefited a lot by the additional SP.
• Lastly, if Steem fails and drops to zero she is not losing anyhow. As this will be the same result as betting in lottery.

She already handed me her first investment fund that would otherwise spend on the lottery. And I shall convert it all to Steem as this is one of the best time to buy in when the whole market is on the falling side. I should make a conclusion post after one year to see if she made a wise deal this time.

Certainly a big YES if you ask me.

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