Welcome to the very first edition of 'Curating the Lounge'!

Unknown to many, in a dim, cozy corner of Discord, a humble Brit who goes by @freedomexists, gathers a handful of dedicated and talented Steemians from around the globe, to get on the mic, and present a post to a live audience!

I've been attending the 'Promote Your Post Live Show' for months now, and there are many others who have been as well! We've all grown to know each other fairly well through the content we share with one another. It's a whole new level of engagement that I would love everyone to witness, participate in, and receive themselves!

To show my dedication to this weekly gathering, and the Whaleshares community as a whole, I want to start sharing with everyone some of my favorite posts from each Sunday night's show. Beyond helping some great content creators receive a little extra attention, I'll also be rewarding everyone I curate using the post rewards for this series!

I'll talk a little more about that later, but for now, let's cut right into the meat and potatoes!

I want to start with a post from someone fairly new to the whaleshares community.

@elbrujo expresses his deepest emotions through music. This evening, he presented a post that reminds him of better days gone by. In his piece titled 'Nostalgia', you can hear the sadness nearly every note. A rhythm reminiscent of a heartbeat starts up, and emotion can be felt with every kick. I hope you'll listen along as you continue to read, and consider leaving @elbrujo a kind word or two, and let him know how his music makes you feel.

Nostalgia

@thekittygirl's presentation this evening certainly brought back memories from my younger days...

How many times have you looked up into the night sky? What do you see? Spots? Stars? Or do you see the plethora of worlds that are just out of reach, but so close you can see them with nothing more than what nature put in your skull? Does your brain start to connect those specks of light into phantasmal shapes as they slowly glide through the heavens?

@thekittygirl explains how much fun the night sky can be, and some of the wonders there are to behold. I personally remember spending long nights just staring at those lights, imagining all the things that could be happening at each. She brought her A game with this one, so show @thatkittygirl some love, and let you know what you think about having

Fun Under the Night Sky

While some people have fun stargazing, others are having a different sort of fun under the night sky...

Nearly everywhere you go, people are excited about the World Cup. I'm personally not a "sports guy", but I understand the appeal. Very often, where you find sports, you'll find alcohol, and where you find alcohol, you'll find hilarious, brash decisions, that could end up having permanent... side effects.

Enter @jackjohanneshemp.

While out one night having some fun, jack is thinking about how Belgium could actually win The World Cup. Long story short, in his alcohol fueled, not-thinking-clearly state, he made a wager with a friend...

The bet?

If Belgium does indeed go on to win The World Cup this year, the image you see to the right will be permanently tattooed on a somewhat... sensitive... area of his body. Now because of his wager, he isn't sure any longer whether he wants his team to win! His presentation had everyone laughing, and in his post, he explains why you should probably

Never take out a bet if you are drunk!

So how do we prevent our decisions from having negative outcomes?

@pangoli had us all thinking tonight with his thoughts on taking control. He starts the whole thing off with the truest statement I've heard in quite some time;

"Doing life isn't all that easy, at least not for everyone."

He talks about how taking control of your life doesn't mean having a "perfect" life. It's about living your life the way you want to, rather than the way you think you have to. This post really resonated with me, and I connect with so many of these statements. Life is hard, but it shouldn't, and doesn't, have to be that way.

Take control of your own destiny, take responsibility for your actions and decisions, and live life according to your own rules, not those imposed by others. I very much enjoyed reading this post, and I think it could inspire many others to pull themselves out of a rut, and do something to better themselves, for themselves.

A few Thoughts on Taking Control

And when life's many stresses become too much to think about, you can always play games, right?

Have you heard about Steem Monsters? If you've been on Steemit for longer than 24 hours, odds are you have. It's the new craze taking over the Steem-chain, and it promises to offer tons of entertainment and earning opportunities for those who take part!

@crystalpacheco30 loves Steem Monsters, and she also loves running easy contests, and giving away tons of prizes. She's lately been combining all of that, and giving away Steem Monsters cards in the 'Comment Challenges' she regularly conducts!

This week, all you have to do is let Crystal know who your favorite digital artist here on Steemit is, and boom! You're entered to win a Steem Monster, and, she's so crazy generous, that you're guaranteed to get Hairshares tokens from her if you provide your Bitshares username!

Do you know of a talented digital artist on Steemit? Let @crystalpacheco30 know about them in this week's

Hairshares Giveaway Comment Challenge

Great stuff, right?

That doesn't even scratch the surface of all the content that gets shared in this awesome two hour show, and to hear Steemians present their content with such enthusiasm is something you'll have to experience for yourself!

I mentioned earlier rewarding those who's posts I had chosen for this article. Well, everyone chosen tonight will receive 10% of the liquid reward for this post, deposited to their Bitshares wallet via the new EasyDEX STEEM & SBD Bridges! Many of us here at Whaleshares are trying to stack the community token, in anticipation for something fantastic, and this will be a good way to allow them to easily grab a few more!

Want to know the big secret, and learn more about the Whaleshares community and the amazing things they have planned? Click the image below to visit their information hub, and learn all about this community built on support and encouragement!

To participate in this live curation show, join the Whaleshares Discord Server, and tune in to 'The Curation Lounge' text and voice channels, every Sunday evening at 7pm est, and be sure to check out the other live events and various fun to be had around the Whaleshares server!

Thanks for reading!

I hope you enjoyed some of the content I've shared with you this evening, and hope even more that you like it enough to support the creators. We all know that every little bit counts, and the value of a genuine comment can far outweigh other forms of support.

^{The 'Whaleshares Flourish' page divider used in this post is my own work, and is free to use in any post related to Whaleshares! The post thumbnail and follow banner below are also my own work, using stock images from Canva. Any other images come from the posts selected for this article.}