Lily, in her natural habitat, attempting to write this article, not without difficulty.
Having lived off the grid on and off for the last 2 years, John and I have gotten used to going without luxuries we've grown accustomed to, like unabated access to technology and internet. Due to lack of funds, here in Mexico we are still without internet as we've been doing what we can to make ends meet and support ourselves with nothing. As many know, when we crossed the border we only had 50 dollars US in our pocket, so what we've managed to accomplish is pretty amazing despite the circumstances. We may not have internet, but we do have one of the best views in the world, and many great friends which definately counts for something. Despite our technology struggles, we've managed to make about 300 dollars US off of our Steemit.
Both John and I were proficient internet and technology users in our time before our off grid living experiences. John started a computer company when he was a child and considers himself to be at least partially raised by the internet, so for him going without as much as he has has been an interesting experience. Until we were robbed in Detroit, John was always someone who had a hand built computer with a large screen at it's face. I actually did a drawing of John early in our relationship that depicts him sitting in front of said giant screen hitting a bong, something that would still be a common sight if his LED TV had not been stolen. When we moved off the grid in Cleveland, he bought a LED screen that used less power and sold his LCD screen to pay for it.
For me, I've had my own computer consistently for years until I had been robbed of it in Detroit. While I'm not quite the computer guru John is, I am proficient enough to be able to maintain my technology with no outside help. As you can tell, while we can go without it if we have to, technology is still really important to us. We may look like hippies, but we are not the go back to the Earth without technology type. We've both stated on many occasions that our preferred way of doing things includes both off grid living and technology and internet.
We make our Steemit blog happen on surprisingly little, honestly. Our friends often forget this, asking if we've watched a video or interview they've posted, always ending us reminding them that we don't have internet access, despite our activity on Facebook. We are sporting a 2 in one tablet with a broken cell phone we acquired in Mexico for a camera and internet connection. For just 200 pesos, we get 1.2 gigs of data, and with 100 pesos we can get 350 mgs of data, something we've had to do more recently due to lack of funds. The crazy thing is we aren't even getting the best prices on phone service at this point. We also get unlimited texts, calls, and Facebook access, the unabated Facebook access being something new to us here in Mexico. This seems to be a feature offered by most providers.
Our main hangup for not having internet is lack of funds, as we have been struggling to eat and pay rent, let alone have the luxuries. Since being here we've started businesses that have somewhat helped in our financial struggles, but have not taken them away. This was our main motivation for getting on Steemit, as we were already looking to share our story and were hoping to make ends meet with it, at the very least.
To write, we use a nextbook Ares 11, which is an 11.6 inch 2 in one tablet. It has a detachable keyboard, which makes it versatile in many ways but not necessarily the important ones. We got this in the states before we left on our journey, as we had been warned of high electronics prices in Mexico. The intention then was to get two of these devices to take with us, but we couldn't as our funds couldn't support that. Our backup plan was to spange enough, that is beg for enough money in California to be able to purchase another before leaving the country. Considering we didn't even make enough to get over the border, this didn't work out. The tablet runs Android and has only one gig of DDR3 system memory, which means that it doesn't quite run things like it should. We aren't able to multitask with it in the ways we'd like to, for example we can't listen to music and browse the internet at the same time without crashing the tablet.
We use the Office Suite app to write our posts which is often buggy at best. What's funny is that it happened to have a glitch at this point in the article, deleting the paragraph we originally wrote on this topic. The main issue we have with it is sometimes when writing or editing, the screen goes blank and acts as if all the text has been deleted. John's theory, which is probably correct, is that the tablet does not have enough RAM to support use of the app, causing the problem. Pressing any key can remedy this, but it can make writing a bit annoying. I'll say it scared the hell out of me the first time it happened, as I had just spent a few hours typing something that seemingly disappeared in one second.
We paid about 200US for the tablet, and for what it is it really isn't bad. It has a decent size high resolution screen coupled with a backlit detachable keyboard, which makes it a bit more like a computer and a bit less like a tablet. The screen is a touch screen, which is a feature both of us like and have grown accustomed to. It can make using other laptops a bit funny though, as we have to stop ourselves from poking other people's screens when using their computers. It has 64 gigs of onboard memory, something John struggles with as he is used to terrabites, not gigabites. He has now purchased 2 32 gig flash drives as offboard storage, as we've been downloading lots of glassblowing videos using a friends internet connection to watch later at home. The built in removable keyboard is nice because it provides us with real USB ports, making it so we don't have to acquire special cords to use our usb devices on the tablet. Still, despite these perks, it's not a computer and without real internet connection, it definately makes our job generating steem here on Steemit harder.
We are using a cheap smart phone we got here for about 1400 pesos, or about 70 dollars US. The phone is made by a company called verykool, one I've only ever seen in Mexico despite advertising that they are a San Diego company. It only has 3g capabilities, something that has handicapped us despite our direct line of sight to Acapulco's cell phone towers. Most low end phones in the states at this point are 4g, even the 30 dollar smartphones you can pick up from places like MetroPCS. It only has a 5 megapixel camera, which is why our sunset photos don't look nearly as gorgeous as the real thing, or even as an 8mp camera. A cool feature about this phone and Mexican phones in general is the dual sim card feature, allowing you to switch back and forth between providers or lines. This is something I've never encountered in the states, probably due to government regulation.
We currently rock this phone, with a severely broken screen and our tablet to make all the posts we make here on Steemit. Until a week ago, half our cell phone screen was not functional at all, making communication interesting to say the least. It randomly resolved itself, but we are doing our best to replace it before it happens again. I never realized how dependant I was on using the letter A until I didn't have access to it. To post, John turns on the wifi hotspot(something included in most cell phone plans with data here) and we chug along to add photos and to post.
Often times, our efforts are in vain due to our painfully slow internet connection. Steemit seems to use a lot of data in our experience, and we've found ourselves out of data in the middle of posting quite a few times. Adding more data requires visiting one of the many Oxxo convenient stores and paying pesos, but we don't always have those pesos to pay. Adding pictures can be tough as most of them are saved on photobucket, which seems to be having major issues with ads and malware right now. We are forced to use an adware blocking browser, which causes things to go even slower than they usually do. We've had to redo our posts often, as the lack of fast internet connection makes it so our posts appear to post but actually do not. This happened to us yesterday in fact, when trying to post Hard Times, with Hot Glass.
As people who make it happen on very little, we are here to share that it really doesn't take much to make it happen on Steemit. If you're able to write at all and have something interesting to talk about, all you need is a cellphone internet connection to make it happen, although keep in mind that it's not going to be nearly as smooth as a normal internet connection would be. We would much rather have the reliable internet connection, but we understand that we can make it happen without if we need to. Regardless of having internet, we are still limited in ways by our technology that we currently posses due to the fact that we are basically using a glorified giant smart phone as a computer. Despite our challenges, we are now over 102 followers and if things continue, we will soon be able to pay our bills with the money we are making here on Steemit, just sharing our story and some information about our lives here in Mexico. Soon, we hope to use Steemit to help replace these devices with something a bit more able to handle our needs, so we can make our posts here better, if not at least easier for us to produce.