Whether you are brand new to the community or you've been around awhile, you have probably heard of Hodor, encountered him on Twitter or you've read his blog here on Coil.

A few months ago I had the privilege of interviewing Hodor and letting the Coilsphere in on his role in the community and his future plans. If you haven't read the interview, you can read it here.

In that interview I asked him why he chose to stay anonymous and if that was permanent. To my delight, this was his answer:

I've chosen to use an anonymous avatar for now, not because it shields me from consequences, but because it provides an intangible mental barrier between myself and those that may try to censor me.

In 2013, I observed first-hand the lengths that some Bitcoin maximalists will go to protect Bitcoin's market share; one of them even bribed dozens of social media posters to intentionally spread inaccuracies about XRP and Ripple. This was my introduction to the 'wild west' of crypto, and I knew that to 'fight fire' I'd need to take the gloves off occasionally.

Now I'm more buttoned up, but in 2017, each blockchain project was struggling to get accurate information publicized.

XRP still struggles against inaccuracies, both intentional and unintentional.

That's the long version of this answer;

That interview took place back in August and now less than two months later, on October 12th, Hodor officially announced that he will be shutting down the official Hodor channels, taking a hiatus and returning under his government name.

Although He never officially tweeted this link, it was quickly spread around the Coil/XRP twitterverse. I think the entire community gasped, but I smiled. I've gotten to know Hodor a bit through our interactions on Twitter and our dual-interviews. Although he has done a fantastic job of maintaining his alias, I can tell he has a wonderful heart, especially for this community and I am so excited to see what he accomplishes when he's not behind an alias.

With a community that has long since thrived off of anonymity, but craves a real personality, this is going to be really good for us.

Although most people have welcomed this change with open arms, for those of you who are questioning this move, I'd like to present a way of looking at this.

We love Hodor.

Hodor makes us feel stable and safe.

For the past two years he has provided us with good information, solid opinions and accountability to stay loyal to the community.

In the past 5 months he has helped to boost the launch and exposure of Coil and in my opinion, a huge part of why Coil has been so successful so fast. The business model, although genius, needed a face/very good writer, to lead the charge- Hodor stepped up to the plate.

So why would he step out from his Twitter and Coil “fame”? For the same reason we love him – because he sees the big picture. “Hodor” realizes that the season of censorship, the “underground mentality” and being anonymous is coming to an end. The time to be public about your opinions, sharing how you're helping to shift the internet/currency and the way that the world works is upon us. People are starting to open up their minds to the possibility that there's more than what we've been comfortable with.

That's a huge problem- we've gotten comfortable. I personally think that Hodor's timing is very telling. Just as he has often led the charge in trying new things, he, with his influence, is opening up the door to revealing our identities and welcoming people into our sphere.

Hodor was incredibly welcoming. He was regularly opening the invitation to join the XRP and Coil community. He was very supportive of new creators and educating them and their followers on how to make the best of this community.

Although I am still a bit sad to see the character that we have all grown to know and love say goodbye for a bit, I see what he's doing.

He is leading the charge into the next phase and I encourage you to follow his lead. Now is the time to inviting your friends and family into this world. Start the conversations, invite people to Coil & Cinnamon, welcome them and educate them.

Just because Hodor is “gone” doesn't mean that we can't still follow his example.

Thank you Hodor, for everything you've given us. We appreciate you more than you know and we are extremely excited for the future of your career.

We can't wait to meet you!

Today my husband and I were laying in bed when we received an email from “specialists” that due to the fact that all of my content is not in line with the YouTube Partner Program Policies, I was being denied monetization.

Here's what this means for creators.

✄ If YouTube doesn't agree with everything you post about (aka if you don't agree with vaccinations and try and share your opinion, or you like to talk about guns) they will shut you down and censor you! (They claim that both ideas are dangerous and harmful which leads me to ask- regardless of your political & personal views- why does YouTube get to decide what is dangerous and harmful- specifically when it's not illegal. #shoutouttoCoil'scommunityguidelines)

✄ If YouTube doesn't think you have enough subscribers/views, they will refuse to monetize you, but will and can enable ads that pay out to them and not to you.

✄ YouTube claims that they have their creators in mind, what they fail to mention is that they only have the creators who do exactly what they want, in mind.

YouTube has it's perks- yes. A huge database, a large following, familiarity, easy to use, etc. But when there are platforms like Coil & Cinnamon that are stepping up to the plate, do the pros really outweigh the cons anymore?

No. Not when I can have:

✰ fair compensation for my time & efforts based off the quality that I am putting forth.

✰ creative control over the content I produce.

✰ freedom of speech.

✰ ZERO ADS for me & my followers.

Nope. Not in the least.

I'm really not trying to bash YouTube, they've taken us leaps and bounds in comparison to what it used to be. But do I think they're the future of the internet? Not anymore. Not if they continue down the path that they're on. Most creators creative abilities are held back due to the fear of being de-monetized. (Which de-monetization can be terrifying if YouTube is your primary income.) With these new platforms rising to the surface, if they're not careful and intentional to evolve, they won't last forever!

As a comparison, for those of you who are still on the fence- I'd love to show you last month's Coil payout (from the boost program) – which proves just how committed Coil is to their creators.

I posted this on my Instagram story earlier today...

And THIS is what happens when people hear about it...

I got both of these messages (and more since) within 5 minutes of posting it on Instagram.

They want in, because for the first time in the history of the internet- someone cares about the people who are fueling the content and not flooding feeds with ads. People want in + system working how it's supposed to = money for everyone – not just the advertisers. Think- companies will actually have to create decent content to win their customers over. What an idea! 🤯

Do you want to start telling people about Coil & Cinnamon? Check out my guide on inviting people, what to send them & this one on integrating Coil into your social media. Please note I don't have much on Cinnamon yet- but that is coming soon!

ALSO.

If you haven't heard, Cinnamon has officially opened their doors- go take a peek [](https://www.cinnamon.video/) & get that money honey. 😉

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=157807888864118144

This week I've got three incredible artists from three different genres! I am doing my best to mix it up and give you plenty to work with! I'm also trying to advertise a mix of artists popularity wise. Don't forget to submit your favorite “underground” artists or your own music to me on Twitter!

“Defiance” – Cliffs and Caves

https://youtu.be/RfpBHCPCtV4

Genre: Indie-Folk

I met Lindsey from the mother/daughter duo Cliffs and Caves at a Judy Stakee writing retreat. I got a chance to write with her and she was nothing short of amazing! After the retreat I got a chance to follow their journey on social media and quickly realized how incredible her daughter Claire also is. They released their EP “Capsize” earlier this year. “Defiance” is the second track on the record and it is an entrancing ballad of strength and resilience. I encourage you to listen to the whole EP produced by Chris Jacobie- it's a masterpiece.

Follow them on Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram, Facebook & YouTube for more incredible music!

“Just Like You” – Garrett Jacobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-GBO0Y5Xjc

Genre: Country

I stumbled upon Garrett a few weeks ago before this new release and fell in love with his voice! For those of you don't know, country music is my first love. Unfortunately the genre has changed a lot in the past 10 years and not necessarily in a good way. That being said, I absolutely love Garrett's voice, spirit and lyrics. I can tell that he's got strong roots and I'm excited to see where his career takes him!

Follow him on Spotify, Apple Music, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube to listen more!

“Like You Mean It” – Ruelle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmx-rfZejUc

Genre: Alt/Pop

Ruelle's voice is angelic. I listen to a lot of music, but Ruelle immediately caught my attention with her introspective lyrics and gorgeous voice. She is one of the biggest artists I've featured on the radar but I couldn't not introduce you to her! Her entire EP “Earth Glow” is gorgeous, but this was by far one of my favorites.

Follow her on Spotify, Apple Music, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube for more music!

Catch up on all of Riley's Radar!

Week 6

Week 5

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

It has now been six months since my husband, Dustin and I have said “I do.”

It's been an interesting six months to say the least. I’d like to speak on a few of the lessons I’ve learned these past few months, especially getting married so young (I'm 19 and Dustin is 22) and getting married so quickly after we met.

I moved to Nashville, Tennessee in July 2018 to pursue music and experience life outside of Michigan. I was in a year of “zero dating” when I met Dustin in August and that “zero dating” policy I had placed on myself quickly ended only 20 days after we met. Dustin and I dated four months before we got engaged and then we were only engaged for three months. In total we dated just under eight months before we got married. It was a total whirlwind but when you know, you know. 🤷‍♀️

Before I can dive into the lessons that I've learned these past six months, I feel the need to preface with some of the challenges that we’ve faced.

Before we even got married I had to move out of the room I was renting in Nashville which was about 45 minutes from Dustin and his family quite quickly. I had a roommate situation go bad and so I ended up moving into our unfinished-in-the-middle-of-renovations house two months early.

After we got married we had about a month of settling in to our (not completely finished) house that was in the country and did not have wifi or cell reception. It was an interesting transition to say the least.

After about a month of marriage our well ran dry (literally) and we had to temporarily hook up to his parents water about 2 American football fields away. This was JUST the beginning of a whole bunch of craziness.

Later that month we found out we were pregnant, only to find out a week later that I was miscarrying the baby.

Two weeks later, our brother-in-law was in the hospital, followed by Dustin’s grandfather who passed away only a few weeks later.

Only a few days after the funeral we moved into his grandparents house to help take care of his grandmother.

And that, is where we are in the story.

Woo. It’s a lot, right? These past few months have been ROUGH. Not only emotionally, but physically, mentally and it’s been very hard on our marriage.

Mentally, I’ve struggled, a lot. I’ve gone through severe bouts of anxiety and depression which, although aren’t new to me, hit a bit harder this time. I’ve been very down feeling uprooted, misplaced, in mourning and unsure about the future. In some moments I felt like our marriage was cursed. How in only the first six months could we have had such terrible luck?

I tell you all of this not because I want pity or I want recognition for what we’ve been through. It’s a lot, but it’s life. Would we have liked it to be a bit more stretched out? Yes, but, when I stumbled across a question recently asking “why do people think marriage is hard?” I realized that everything that’s happened these past few months hasn’t happened “to” us. They’ve happened “for” us.

♡ They’ve happened so we could grow as individuals and together.

♡ They’ve happened so we could strengthen our relationship in the beginning.

♡ They’ve happened so our relationship could learn how to handle the storms.

♡ They’ve happened to strengthen our patience, endurance, trust and love for each other.

In every single one of those “bad” situations, there was a hidden blessing and a lesson that we were taught.

In the midst of them and even now, I felt defeated. I felt as if though nothing good was ever going to happen to me again. So much so that I forgot the good that was right in front of me. I’ve had a bit of a wake up call these past few days within the midst of another trial. Was I going to sit and take every hit? Was I go to let every little thing get me down? Or was I going to stand up, take the hit and keep moving forward? Was I going to fight back so I didn’t get knocked down again?

Real strength is not one that works to overpower others, but it is a quiet strength. One that only speaks when it has something constructive to say. One that does not tear others down or expose the people that has hurt them. Rather it walks confidently, it turns the other cheek, it is silent when broken and mighty when it’s time to step up to the plate.

Sometimes it feels like Dustin is working against me, sometimes he is, but most of the time I am just not trying to see where he’s coming from and vice versa. When things got hard, rather than looking at the problem as a whole and looking at each other like we were a team, we’d attack each other as if it was the other persons fault that we were faced with the overarching problem. We’re not always perfect in this area, but it’s eye-opening to see how things work in our favor when we work together to find solutions.

I get angry very easily and when I get angry I start to yell. This isn’t something I’m proud of and it’s definitely not something I’ve fixed, but I’m working on it. When I feel like I am losing control or that I’m not being understand, rather than trying to explain it patiently or in another manner, I quickly turn to yelling and crying. Yikes. This does not do well for Dustin’s mental health and it usually turns into an all out brawl, which never ends well. Thankfully we are the couple that works things out quickly and we are usually laughing by evening, but it’s definitely not an ideal way to live. I find though, that when I speak with kindness, respect and gentleness, he is much more likely to understand me and want to meet my needs. When I notice he is silent or pushing himself away from me, it’s usually the result of one of my rampages.

There have been quite a few more lessons that I’ve learned over these 6 months, but these are definitely my top three. This article was not easy to write, admitting my faults and all, but I felt like I had to. If I am going to push myself to live an unusual and extraordinary life, I need to hold myself accountable to improving my relationships, my mental health and my marriage.

I encourage you, if you’re experiencing what seems to be like one hard hit after another, take a step back and allow yourself to see the blessings in disguise and look in the mirror, you will see your struggle characterized in a way that you can receive them, change them and be better. No shame, no same- this simply means, don’t carry the weight of where you messed up, but don’t allow yourself to stay stuck in those toxic patterns.

I think that learning about different cultures is a key part of an education and there's no better way to do that then to hear it from the people who live in it! Yesterday I wrote about how there are users from all over the world who don't know a lot about American culture. I've already done an article about what I miss about living in the “suburbs/city” in Michigan (Northern United States) and now that I've been living in “country/rural” Tennessee with my husband's family (Southern United States) I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to reflect on what I've learned since moving to a new place. The South is VERY different from the North and the culture down here is definitely an acquired taste, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

1. There is more time in a day than you'd think.

People up north rush and rush and rush throughout their day. We drive fast, talk fast, eat fast and rarely take a moment to “sit and stay awhile.” I quickly learned after to moving to Tennessee that people don't really care where you have to be next, as long as they tell you about the best chess pie that their Aunt Margie made and how Tommy down the road is in the hospital. My point, if you come down south, plan for an extra 30 minutes everywhere you go otherwise keep your head down and just keep walking.

2. There's always a leaky faucet, you'll find one quickly.

Soon after I moved out of Nashville into the more rural part of Tennessee, I learned that having information is the key to living in a small community. I've noticed that the more nosey you are, the more valuable you are. Remember how Tommy was in the hospital? Jamie heard it from James and James heard it from Lizzy and Lizzy heard it from... well you get the point. How do you stay in the loop? Find your own leaky faucet- she'll be sure to give you the inside scoop.

3. You will never go hungry.

*walks in the door*

“Sit down and have a piece of pie!”

*sits down*

“Here's a glass of tea too.”

*drinks tea*

“You hungry? Let me get you a sandwich.”

*eats sandwich because you don't say no down here*

“You must be thirsty, here's some more tea.”

*drinks more tea*

“Want another slice of pie?”

4. You don't mess with family, church or sweet tea.

Like I said before, I thought all of the stereotypes were just from Hollywood, boy was I wrong. There is nothing more important to a lot of folks down here than their family, church and their sweet tea. Down here, especially once you get out of the city limits, you don't drive one mile without seeing a church. Sundays, everyone is in church, whether you'd like to be or not. People down here have very strong alliances with their church and do not take kindly to those who try and convince them otherwise.

They also have very deep rooted family ties and you'll find them at family gatherings every chance they get. That's another thing- they stick together and it's not rare to find that they live within a few miles of each other. If you need them, they're there. If you want 'em, they're there. If you don't want 'em, they're there.

Don't even get me started on their sweet tea. 🙄 If you're from anywhere other than down here, you don't even know sweet tea unless you've been down here. They like it SWEET and if they ask you who made it, don't take it as a compliment- they want to know who messed it up! I've quickly learned that you leave sweet tea to the professionals, you never ask for unsweet and if prompted- you always take a glass.

5. You will never understand them.

Most (not all) of them have got deeeeep unintelligible accents and they make up their own words for everything! They'll ask you for a buggy at the grocery store, all carbonated beverages are called coke, tell you to use the hose pipe to water the flowers and tell you to put your shirt in a chester drawers. Don't even get me started on meal times! They'll tell you to show up for dinner and you'll be 4 hours late because “dinner” is lunch here and “supper” is dinner. I have made that mistake. 😑

Southerners can be strange and nosey but they will always wave, they're VERY good cooks and they've always got your back!

https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=157807888864118144

You can stream “No Turning Round” on all major platforms !

I look forward to writing this segment every week. It's seriously one of my favorites because I get to listen to new artists and really dive deep to find non-mainstream artists. A lot of my picks come from my own music community and friends of mine who are releasing fire! If they're not in my own community I'm usually connected with them through a mutual friend. The music industry isn't as big as you think it is and it's really important to make connections wherever you can!

“Innocence” – Avery

https://youtu.be/ewqFf-fGDYk

Genre: Pop

I met Jordan (one half of Avery) at a performing arts training program. The program ended up being a joke but I came out of it with a few very good friends, Jordan being one of them. I got to sit down and have coffee with her when she was in Nashville a few months ago and she told me about the journey behind the project they're working on. If you only knew- what matters is that they are creating very special music and you need to be listening. “Innocence” is the first track off of the record they are working on. Immerse yourself in these beautiful progressions, Jordan's smooth vocals and Gabe's guitar magic!

Follow them on Spotify, Apple Music, & Instagram to keep listening!

“Call It What You Want” – rum.gold

https://youtu.be/ROQP3K8qR4M

Genre: R&B/Soul

rum.gold is one of my newer finds. I've been listening to “Where There's Smoke” which is his single from 2018 but I just realized he had a new release in August. This song is absolutely beautiful. All of his songs are beautiful but this one especially captures my heart. It's a stunning addition to my fall playlist as I can close my eyes and see falling leaves when I listen. His smooth tones and entrancing progressions make my heart flutter. I'd probably categorize his style as an indie/r&b/soul hybrid.

Follow him on Spotify, Apple Music, Twitter & Instagram to keep listening!

“Green Eyes” – Joseph

https://youtu.be/HFkOQsQQHAc

Genre: Alternative

My best friend introduced me to Joseph a few weeks ago right after their new album came out. This is one of the most popular songs on the album and one of my favorites. This female trio is freaking killing it and I couldn't not include them on at least one radar! Beautiful harmonies, relatable lyrics and powerful vocals makes Joseph a blast to listen to.

Follow them on Spotify, Apple Music, Twitter & Instagram to keep listening!

That's all for this week, I'll see you next Wednesday!

Catch up on past weeks:

Week 5

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1