Onboarding Myself - Creating an Alt Account: @emperornorton

I've finally done it! After long deliberation I have taken the step to onboard myself (after all, nobody else wanted to take me up on my offer), and I finally made an alternative Hive account for myself. And following the example of my primary one, it is also based on an interesting historical character.

Meet Emperor Norton

Born as Joshua Abraham Norton he later became known as Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, though officially he hardly made it to be more than an eccentric socialite in the weird world of mid 19th century San Francisco.

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Starting out as a moderately successful businessman around the time of the gold rush, he actually lost his entire fortune in an investment gone sour. When he heard the rumor of a famine in China due to a failed rice harvest, he immediately tried to corner the San Francisco market by buying up all the rice available. Little did he know that only a few days later a boat from Peru would arrive, loaded with rice, announcing several other shipments of the same cargo. So as the price of the commodity plummeted, it also took the bankrupt investor's mental stability with it.

Fortunately for his surroundings, Norton's feeble mind didn't turn him into a raving lunatic. As much as he may have lost in financial assets, he always preserved his dignity, courtesy, and most of all his respect for intrinsic human values. Sure, he may have publicly declared himself an emperor, and styled himself in outrageous amounts of brass, feathers, and ribbons, but he always treated all his subjects with the utmost kindness and decency. As a result, he was a welcome guest at the city's restaurants, theaters, concerts, churches, and civic gatherings. Some institutions even gladly accepted his imperial checks, and newspapers printed his proclamations, such as the one calling for the construction of a Bay Bridge.

Though Emperor Norton never actually protected Mexico, in spite of his title, he did in fact manage to disband an angry lynch mob that was about to set Chinatown on fire. He positioned himself between the mob and the Chinese quarter, and proceeded reciting the Lord's Prayer until one by one the mob disbanded. All these tidbits of weirdness and eccentricity got me to like this strange historical figure so much, that I decided to print his photo on a T-shirt: in it he proves himself to be an early promoter of San Francisco bicycle culture. And now, I dedicated my alt account to him!

What I Want an Alt Account For?

First of all, I thought it would be a useful safety feature to use an alternative account as a backup option. Sure, you can pick a friend for that, and hope they are available when you need them to help you restore your account, in case it gets hacked. But then again, you may as well be that friend for yourself. So far I have not been able to change my recovery account, either for this one, or the @emperornorton one, due to some weird error, but I hope I can do it eventually.

The other reason for an alt account was Splinterlands. Yes, the game that seems to be in everyone's mouth again, as the new Rebellion has arrived. To be perfectly honest, my interest in that game has faded to such low levels, that I haven't even bothered to rent out my cards for months now. Doing it via Peakmonsters has proven to generate so little, for so much (fees, yo!) that I didn't think it was worth it. The other option was doing it through splex.gg, which would require giving them my posting key, so again I was a bit reluctant. However, that's where an alt account comes in very handy. To know more about the how-to details, just follow this post by @costanza .

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So, is @emperornorton going to become as great as @stortebeker ? I highly doubt it. However, I am confident he will find his place, his use, and his niche in this wide and complex Hive ecosystem. Let's see how things will unfold.