What’s happening?
Aliens are real…. ok say what now? 👽 So some ex military dudes went to congress and testified the existence of non-human beings aka aliens and UFOs that are apparently being held at some government location. Project Blue Beam is looking more and more likely.
I reckon the scariest thing we’ll find out is that they look like humans and have been amongst us for decades. Why scary? Because out whole perception of aliens will be flipped on its head. Some will have positioned themselves as leaders, others have integrated and blended with human families. After chatting to my conspiracy theory loving Dad, he suggested that I watch the Body Snatchers film 😅 In an ideal world all aliens would look like Baby Yoda. What do you think of this whole situation? 👽
It seems that each month I unintentionally drop a bombshell of some kind. This month I announced that I was quitting streaming and it’s a decision I’m happy with.
ADHD is fun. I literally stood up to take a break from writing this blog post, as my Apple Watch told me to stand and I ended up painting my kitchen and bathroom doorframes. 😂 To be fair I had a tiny pot of off-white chalk paint sitting there for months and just zooming round I’ve managed to use most of it up. I’m still working on my decluttering project so I feel like this was a step toward that haha.
Social Media
So we always have a little section on here about social media and each month I get more and more sick of talking about it. 😆 We just need one app that updates all the other apps so we don’t have to be updating 5+ apps a day with the same thing. As a social media manager I need to stay up to date, so I’ll give you the cliff notes. As a creator I’m happy here with my blog and youtube channel, because of my knowledge of content marketing, my blog is very visible in search engines, the top in google!
Hanging by a Thread
Earlier in July when Twitter was broken and we were all stuck reading the same 3 tweets, Meta released their new Threads app. Most people were hyped for it as it was the latest shiny new thing and you could claim your Instagram handle on there. Threads didn’t release in Europe (and still hasn’t) because of data protection issues and the sensitive information that Threads requires from its users such as health info. Many people questioned it, others were happy to give full access no questions asked. Some tried it then decided to delete it only to find if you delete your Threads account, it also deletes your Instagram!! Several online friends in Europe picked up a dodgy Threads APK and got it that way, but as a social media manager with all the accounts linked in Meta account center I couldn’t risk it. So yeah I’m not on there haha.
X Gonna Give it to Ya!
Here we are on the last day of July, Twitter is now X and Space Karen has announced that there’s “Something special coming soon“. As we speak I am preparing my X-it from what is an even worse dumpster fire than when I left in October. So the new Twitter owner wants X to be the everything app. I’m just not sold at all. I did look into WeChat a little bit (which is also an everything app) and I really don’t want to be linking my financial data with what was a microblogging and news app.
I can already sense there’s going to be some weird NFT / crypto integration and I’m just not interested at all. As I sit here deleting my tweets (or is it xeets now?) one by one, yes that is a big pain in the ass but, short story long, now anyone can view your X feed even if they aren’t logged in on mobile or browser.
The posts that show, aren’t chronological but are picked by the X algorithm so even your pinned tweet won’t show up when someone is checking out your profile. With this in mind and me leaving (aka logging out and not using it again, can’t deactivate as bots are already after my name) then I want people to see my one main tweet about my blog with links on where to find me, I don’t want some random Spongebob meme of mine that went viral. 🤪
After some reflection and a reminder from a family member about what’s truly important in life, I would rather spend times with/text and phone family than sit writing witty replies to people on an app I feel bullied into using to feel relevant.
GAMING
I have officially quit streaming!
Streaming is no longer for me, for several reasons, time zones, it’s a popularity contest, it’s clicky and I don’t have the right look physically or setup wise. I will still be making YouTube videos, vlogs and gameplay in fact I figured out an easier way of making gameplay videos so this a good thing.
- XBOX made a hot pink Barbie console and a bunch of controllers to go with it! They have the cutest marketing collabs. Barbie PlayStation when?!!
- Kind of regretting not recording my SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom gameplay but I’m swearing so much, jellyfish have been called all kinds
- Monkey Island now on mobile devices
- Hello Kitty ios game is out but only on Apple Arcade. This would be an instant purchase if it was on the Switch.
- Pokémon Sleep was released
- I really hope they make a new Barbie video game after all the hype for the film!
READING
So now I’m back into some kind of reading flow I was thinking about purchasing some books online. I was late to the party in learning that Book Depository is no more. How sad. It was a really great option for those of us in Europe, they would include shipping and usually included some cute bookmarks with the delivery. More importantly they actually shipped to the Canary Islands.
Amazon is not an option as it’s hit and miss, so I’m going to build my Stephen King book collection up from hotel book swaps and charity shops. I’m on the lookout for The Dead Zone as I’ve had it recommended to me. I did find Lisey’s Story in the supermarket but I heard it takes about 200 pages to get started and it was in Spanish my second language, I’m not sure I’d do so well with it. I started reading The Stand at one point and only got 13% into it…. I got overwhelmed. It’s a HUGE book!
- The Shining by Stephen King – I FINALLY FINISHED READING IT! In the end it was a pure rollercoaster, I took the book with me to coffee shops, lay on the floor reading it in siesta and was completely absorbed. I got some major Pennywise vibes at the end of the book!
- Pet Sematary by Stephen King – onto my next read this summer! I’m still at the beginning of this book and it really paints a picture, but I did a quick google search on Maine, USA and now have an idea of the town that this is set in so I’m good to go. I will probably watch the movie after I read this one. Hopefully I can finish reading it this August.
Quotes I enjoyed from this month:
- “Hard to be hungry if you’re fed” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Watching
- After reading The Shining I watched the Stanley Kubrick movie version. WHAT A MASTERPIECE!!! I was pleased that the ending was different, so although I had some closure it was also a nice surprise. The way I imagined the hotel and scenes in my head while reading the book were very similar to the film and it was really nice to see the characters come alive including the hotel. I’ll be watching Dr Sleep next, I think I’ll skip the book for now as I haven’t been able to find it.
- I arrived a little late to the Encanto party (Disney+) but I enjoyed it so much! The animation is absolutely incredible and a lovely story about community and being there for your family no matter what. Bruno was my favourite and the Spanish version of We Don’t Talk About Bruno (No Se Habla de Bruno) was even better. After that I watched the live performance by the cast at
- I Feel Pretty (Netflix) –
- Patrick (Prime) – cute film about a dog (the dog doesn’t die)
- Arnold (Netflix)
Listening
Spotify has been my best bud this summer. With BBQ inspired playlists and throwbacks with plenty of Fleetwood Mac for morning walks and podcasts on my solo coffee dates, I feel like I really get the most out of the app. Honestly if I had to choose between Spotify and Netflix I would choose Spotify.
- The GaryVee Audio Experience podcast- It’s so interesting when Gary interviews someone whether they are well known or not. The real life stories, struggle and wins of different people are so intriguing.
- Making The Brand with Brianne Fleming podcast is on my radar after a killer episode featuring Moshe Isaacian where they chatted about Marketing in a Barbie World. A must listen if you are interested in marketing and pop culture.
Questions for you: If X updated and Elon announces it’s now a paid app but there will be ‘benefits’, will you pay to be on there? Do you believe in aliens? What do they look like?
Let me know in the comments. 😄
That’s all for now, I had hoped to get this post out at the end of July but here we are late August. I will have another Geek Life Lately for you shortly with a recap on August. I’d like to bring back my Grateful Bytes series and have so much content to work on in the form of video and blog posts. Plus I’m working with a toy brand on something cool in the next few weeks! More info to come.
Thanks for reading,
Vikki 💖