May 9th, 2024
Becky’s Words of Affection: Reflections on Relationships
Every day, Instagram stories flood with a many motivational quotes and photos featuring concise yet impactful messages. These snippets of wisdom resonate with users, inspiring them to share meaningful content with their followers. The act of sharing these impactful words reflects people's desire to spread positivity and encouragement to others in their social circle. On April 22nd, I found myself exploring the latest app called Threads, casually scrolling to check out who else was using it. Threads is a social media platform; it's owned by Facebook. This means that the app's algorithm tailors the content you see based on your interests and preferences, making your experience more personalized.
Becky Curl caught my attention with her incredible talent in both writing and makeup artistry as I scrolled through my feed. Her captivating writings on her link tree and Facebook page revealed her as a literary wizard, crafting short yet impactful motivational content like what many people share on Instagram stories every day. Becky creates her own motivational memes with a high intellectual insight of her experiences with words that people can relate to. We have been chatting for a couple of weeks now, but Becky is the type of person that will ask you how your day went after you ask her how hers went. She has many makeup tutorials on her YouTube channel that I learned a lot from, which is a new thing for me. She's either a professor or a teacher, depending on the term you prefer, and she instructs in both cosmetics and writing. There are many writings Becky has written online so when I first tried to find one to read, I just jumped in and started with one called “Cemetery Train”. “Cemetery Train” explains the emotional weight of past experiences and relationships, using the imagery of a train ride to explain the struggles of carrying emotional baggage. It explains the challenge of finding closure and moving forward, despite the lingering presence of past ghosts and memories. After reading it and some of her other writings on her linktree, I realized she writes about this subject often. I personally cannot relate to most of them because I haven’t been in that many relationships myself.
She writes about things she has experience in, and from what I have gathered, that is relationships and just overall life events. Her writings are ones that people can connect with and use as a beacon in the dark, to relate and see that someone else has experienced the same thing. Things that I personally have no experience with, so reading Becky’s poems and writings can really be motivating for me as a blogger who types about random stuff. After about a week of getting to know Becky, I mentioned my blog to her, even though most of my writings were gone. I had a few still on my website from before Bitcoin reached its highest point and I stopped writing. Reading Becky’s writings inspired me to start blogging again, even though I didn't feel like I had anything important to write about.
I read Becky’s writing “Coffee After 6 p.m.”, and that was something I could really relate to, with myself giving up caffeine recently. This writing explores feelings of fear and uncertainty, especially regarding identity and purpose. Becky expresses anxiety about being alone and doubts about career direction. Also reflecting on a pattern of waiting to be rejected rather than taking proactive steps, showing the struggle with self-worth and decision-making. When I messaged Becky on Instagram, I didn't expect a reply since we were total strangers. However, her willingness to engage in conversation with someone she didn't know and her friendly attitude reveals her admirable character.
“My Last Night of College” is a writing I found on her blog and is a brave writing about Becky’s struggle with trauma and healing after experiencing a traumatic event in a past relationship. It expresses feelings of shame, regret, and loss of control, and highlights the challenges of moving forward. She reflects on the lasting impact of the trauma on their sense of self and relationships, detailing a desire for healing and self-recovery. Despite the difficulties, she emphasizes the importance of resilience and striving towards a better future. Becky Curl's insightful and relatable writings, combined with her kindness and talent, is an inspiration and encouragement for others to strive for healing and self-improvement.
Tristan's Universe: Music, Discord, and Digital Artistry
I met Tristan through an old forum called "Musicbanter," where people have been gathering for decades to discuss music. We all became close on Musicbanter and shared our knowledge of various music genres. A few years ago, a new forum called "Something Completely Different" was created, as Musicbanter was considered outdated. Many of us switched to this new forum to continue our discussions. Tristan is a genuinely kind individual whom I've recently had the pleasure of getting to know better, particularly after they offered me a moderator position for their Discord Server. Initially, they invited me to join the server, and as time passed, they realized my potential as a moderator, given my frequent activity on Discord. Over the past six months, I've developed a close bond with Tristan, and we've shared numerous experiences on the server, ranging from jamming on the drums to exploring voice chats with various effects and samples. Having dabbled in digital audio creation extensively during my childhood, I can appreciate Tristan's creative powers in this domain. Despite myself being out of practice, I can see Tristan's ability to swiftly craft entire audio albums post-voice chats is truly remarkable.
Tristan resides in North Carolina and actively participates in their Discord Server, as well as two other mutual servers. They also manage a YouTube channel featuring numerous videos, as they are involved in a couple of bands. Even with their busy schedule, Tristan remains highly active on Discord, often spending long hours online. In addition to their musical pursuits, Tristan is skilled in digital art, which has gained popularity online, especially with the rise of NFTs. They frequently create captivating digital art, primarily for album covers, and even incorporated one of my old art pieces into their work, which I crafted during my time in Minnesota.
I always knew about the band No Curfew Kids from seeing their posts on Instagram and forums, along with another band called Hootenanny. You can find more information about these bands and their art on Tristan's website, which displays a timeline of their work. Tristan's website serves as a comprehensive resume of their accomplishments and contributions. They also have a butterfly tattoo on their hand, which I think is cool. Overall, Tristan is a highly intelligent individual who has become my online friend. Their Discord server has introduced me to many new people, expanding my social circle. Tristan runs Walk-In Closet Records, a music label that frequently releases new music. You can find them on social media and show your support by following and liking their posts. Tristan showcases many captivating drawn art pieces in Discord Servers, characterized by a distinct abstract style sometimes used for album covers. They shared on April 11th, 2024, about being interviewed by Order of Celestial Integration, that was interesting and explained their experience learning AutoCAD, a topic I found relatable as I too honed my skills in high school. It's nice to see individuals mastering various skills and channeling them into innovative expressions of creativity.
Tristan explains in the intro on their website about how they began putting their music on the Bandcamp website back in 2015. They kept using Bandcamp until October 2023 when they heard that Bandcamp was sold to Epic Games, then later to a company called SongTradr. When they found out that Epic Games fired more of their union members, Tristan felt they couldn’t support the platform anymore, so they started taking down most of their music from there. Instead, they began putting their music on various websites across the internet and made a website to show off all their work.
Larisa's Latest Venture: Transforming TikTok Fame into a Tech Startup
Larisa, someone I befriended on TikTok, has recently changed her entire content approach a few times since my last blog post. Despite our brief online friendship, her latest project has caught my attention because of its intriguing potential. She's started something new—a networking group chat online, like paid Discord Servers, but simpler: just a Google group chat. Larisa devised a clever plan: a $50, one-time fee for an invite link. This makes it exclusive yet accessible. It's an interesting way to connect with others and share ideas, showing Larisa's creativity and entrepreneurial spirit in the digital world. The Google Spaces group originally started as a WhatsApp chat with mostly people Larisa met from Pakistan online. In that group, Larisa talked about her tech startup plans. It's going to be a website where you can find services like website design, NFT collection development, social media marketing, coaching, video editing, and programming courses. She also wants to add a social media part to the site and a feature where you can make your own website without needing to know any programming experience. It sounds like a big project that will need a lot of coding! Larisa teamed up with an engineer from India, that she has followed on Instagram ever since I found her on TikTok.
Larisa often talks about branding on her live streams, emphasizing how social media is where personal brands start. I get it—I experienced it first hand back in high school with my online username and the website I ran, purelyhiphop.com. When I was in high school, I worked constantly to grow the forum day and night! When I started dropshipping "Shhon's Stuff", I had the similar motivation Larisa has now, before changing my website to just a blog. Larisa didn't know me during that time, and I eventually stopped dropshipping because it seemed like you needed advanced SEO skills. I focused on learning Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram advertising, thinking I was doing my best, but it just wasn't enough in the end. The Google Spaces group chat and Larisa's tech startup are two different projects. The tech startup is a large online marketplace, while the group chat in Google Spaces is aimed at networking. In the Google Space group chat, there are features for sharing files and a way to give tasks, which can be helpful.
Attention has become one of society's most valuable resources, especially with the widespread use of social media apps. Gary Vaynerchuk, a leading expert in social media, is releasing a new book on this topic. "The Matrix" is a movie that has had a significant impact on me, even though I first watched it as a child. When I rewatched it as an adult, I gained a whole new perspective on life. Larisa, who streams live on TikTok, is trying to grab everyone's attention, much like the woman in the red dress who distracts Neo in the movie. Some friends in a Discord Server tried to explain this concept to me in a profound way that really stuck with me. I have come to understand that Larisa is doing what she loves, being on TikTok streaming, posting content, commenting in other lives, and reposting TikToks to her account. Her being a content creator, you are in the business of attention, triggering people into comments and getting people coming back for more content. Larisa’s content style switches up every week it seems, but she works hard on TikTok at harvesting attention!
Larisa is knowledgeable about global politics and conflicts, evident from her significant TikTok following, especially from Nigeria. She often discusses Nigerian politics and its connections to Russia. Despite being from Ukraine, Larisa dreams of becoming the queen of Russia. During a livestream, she once shared an interesting childhood dream of starting her own school during kindergarten. Larisa aims to become a billionaire and purchase a sizable piece of land in Greece. There, she intends to establish her own community, which may explain her ambitious goals with her tech startup. It is still unknown if her boyfriend will be part of her Greek community dream.
Be a nice human.
In the land of clicks and likes, three tales unfold,
Becky's words of love, Tristan's music bold. Larisa, the TikTok queen, dreams wide and far, Becky's kindness shines through words she writes, Tristan's artistry paints digital delights. Larisa's venture, a tech dream bright, From Google Spaces to fame's spotlight. In the matrix of screens, attention's the game, Each journey unique, with dreams to reclaim. In this cyber world, where stories thrive, Becky, Tristan, Larisa, keep dreams alive.
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