7 months ago, I moved this site over to Hugo after using Ghost to make the site way faster and to have more control over what I could post. That became known as the “Inky Abyss” update continuing my practice of naming updates for no real reason.

Fast forward to now and I’ve changed so much but haven’t made a single post about the website either here, on Steem, or social media. It’s time to change that as today I want to discuss all the big (and small) changes made since then, especially the massive ones made just in the past day!

I’ve noticed a lot here recently in the DTube Discord server that I’m having to explain this new concept called an STU. So let’s simplify my life (and yours) by explaining what the actual heck is an STU and how you can easily calculate it.

What is an STU?

When you look at your Steemit post, there’s a number there for how much your post is worth. For the longest time people didn’t know if that was USD, Steem, Steem Backed Dollars (SBD), or something else entirely. Thanks to the hard work of @dragosroua, @geekorner, and @penguinpablo, we now know that this value is based on the underlying VESTS that Steem uses for Storage value. To make this a bit easier, they came up with a term to more easily describe this payout value dubbed a Steem Token Units or STU.

Welcome to the new BrandonGiesing.com! The ‘Inky Abyss’ Update

Welcome to the brand-new website! Now way faster and simplier than before!

Some things will be a bit rough around the edges while I migrate. If you see any issues, contact me on Twitter.

If you can’t find something from the old site, an Outdated copy of old Ghost site is up on GitHub just in case.

Just like last time (The Nepdate), I’m continuing the tradition of naming major updates in reference to fandoms (Hyperdimension Neptunia). This time is The “Inky Abyss” Update which is in reference to Bendy and the Ink Machine, a really good horror game that unlike others doesn’t just overload with jumpscares. I chose the reference based on the new look being way darker as if the site was coated in the Black Ink used for old-timey cartoons like Bendy is based around.

Thank you guys so much for the support of the #Minnows4Harvey charity post I did a week ago! I raised $9.05, $7.09 of which went to me for donations. The other $1.95 went to Curators who aren’t required to but it would be nice for them to donate their earnings also.

Final Amounts

I received 3.546 SBD and 2.459 STEEM POWER from the post so not all of the $7.09 will be able to go to charity sadly cause some of it is in Steem Power which will take too long to power down. This means a total of around $3.50 to donate.

In case you missed it, Texas in the US has been wrecked by Hurricane Harvey and many people have lost homes and died.

#Minnows4Harvey

All money raised via this post or sent to me with the memo #Minnows4Harvey will be donated to one of the charities below to help support Hurricane Harvey relief!

Anybody who comments #Minnows4Harvey that either upvoted or shares proof they donated via the below methods will get an upvote from me.

Time for more updates! This one focuses a bit less on the website for once and more on other various projects!

Steem

I’m now on this blogging platform called Steem which you get paid to post. If that sounds familar, you might remember multiple platforms in the past that promised the same (Tsu, Rabadaba, etc.) but this one is quite a bit different!

Unlike those, Steem is not only a blog but a full blown platform consisting of their own Crypto Currency (think Bitcoin), a blockchain (also like Bitcoin, allows everything to be verifible and distributed), and multiple apps (some official and some unofficial) based on said Blockchain and currency:

My name is Brandon Giesing, I run a YouTube/Vidme channel called CosiCast where I make edits/mashups of various things from anime to games. I also do a lot of stuff in the Beermoney and Bitcoin communities so when I found out about this, I just had to join. (Special Thanks to @GamerPool / @btcvenom for telling me about this on the /r/Beermoney Discord, go check them out!)

I hope to be sharing a lot of stuff here (including videos from CosiCast over on DTube!) in the future so if you like anime, games, money, bitcoin, and technology, you’ll find stuff about all of those here. In the meanwhile, you can also check me out at my website (where I have a Beermoney guide), CosiCast, Twitter, Tumblr, and many more.

Funny titles aside, welcome to a new year with a new redesign for the site! Keep reading to learn about the changes or skip to the bottom for a tl;dr changelog.

What’s New

Theme

The theme is changed from Caffeine by Kelvin Nguyen to Mapache by GodoFredo. Both themes are good but I liked the more modern style and easier customization of Mapache.

Example: Caffeine required code editing to change Social links and logo while Mapache does it with Ghost’s simple Code injection making it easier to update.