Some minnows are born with whale hearts.

Since you never know which minnows will grow to become your future benefactors, it's best just to treat all minnows like golden whales.

When the exuberant hatchlings of a thousand dreams of a minnow get released into the consciousness of other people, the minnow begins to grow whale skin. Yes, it’s true. I have witnessed this. Terry is about to reach the lower reaches of the rainbow unicornsphere. But just to make sure, I checked the progress of @surpassinggoogle on https://steemwhales.com/. You can check your own progress on Steemwhales, just put your name in the field in the upper right corner.

Terry wrote a most fantastical post about me recently, and I think it is the most in-depth thing anyone has ever written about me in my entire life. Even if I were to lose everything and the Steem blockchain would go up in smoke, receiving that gift cannot be taken away. It is things like that which make Steem truly valuable to us. The market’s hallucinations rarely take into account such rich memories. In time, perhaps, if the traders will be able to see…..riches of the mind.

I had some time to think about @surpassinggoogle’s rise recently. He joined only a few months after I did. Even though he didn’t get noticed for many months, he was always a whale inside. He never changed. The only thing that changed was him getting noticed.

This is why Steemit will always be a long-term game, not a get-rich-quick scheme.

It took a while for the original whales to take notice of this fact. Ned noticed. I noticed. I went hunting on other sites to find more things written by Terry when I first found him. I was amused by his funny sense of humor…..actually Terry and I have created similar things, independently.

A few years ago I was thinking of the phenomenon of sound mash-ups, where DJ’s combine two seemingly opposite pieces of music into one song. I thought to myself, “Why can’t I do the same with photos of opposite celebrities?”

A new image trend, called Celebrity Mashups was born (inside of one mind):

Justin Bieber + Kim Kardashian =

Lady Gaga + Steven Tyler =

Simon Cowell + Gwen Stefani =

Then I found out that Terry had created a very similar idea, a more refined version of what I had done, independently of me:

(permission from @surpassinggoogle received)

At that time when I first found these odd things in his photo library, I almost felt like I was looking into a parallel mental universe to my own, with slight adjustments.

Steemit is one of those rare online places you can actually discover the beauty of someone’s mind without it being creepy. Sometimes it does feel kind of desperate, like “souls for sale”, but if you dig, you can find some amazing minds.

Creating alliances based on integrity and real passion is one of the most under-appreciated activities on Steemit. Friendships based on true bonds will pay you more than any upvote bot. Every time.

Paid upvote bots are like cocaine.

Sometimes when you feel like you’re an invisible Steem sardine, you just can’t help yourself. You snort the cocaine. Sometimes though, the upvote cocaine cost more than the high. There were no upvote bots when I joined Steemit. There was no cocaine except whale votes.

Speaking of bots, I'll be getting an upvote bot soon, so if you know of some amazing minds, feel free to nominate them in the comments.

If you find yourself in the dumps because you’re not getting votes, it probably means you’re not getting socially connected. At this stage, it would serve you well to do the following things instead of posting every five minutes: find posts that resonate with you and post meaningful comments, find 10 people on Steemit who need cheering up, and cheer them up, join a group: Minnow Support Project or the many Steemit chat channels, create a contest where everyone wins, create a crazy dance video (I’m looking to give 100% upvotes for people who create their own crazy dance videos) or study what community builders do on Steemit……they engage others. That’s the special sauce…..

For all those who seemed concerned by my recent “low point”, there’s no need to worry. I write honestly about whatever is happening, good and bad. There is no eternal unicorn rainbow to float on for every second of life. If there was, I would get sick of it, no doubt. Bad times exist so that we can float up to the sky and touch the rain, on occasion.

You just never know who will be footing the bill of your next rant on Steemit. Best just treat everyone like a golden whale. Whale hearts will be discovered……

Thanks to all my 7020 followers, and that happened pretty fast. I was going to create a “Thank you for all my followers” post, but it happened too fast, and I’ve been too busy.

@empath and I along with @frannyknight are going to put Kansas City on the Steem map, or else die trying.

More epic news soon………

Addicted as ever,
Stellabelle