12:08. Make a wish.
I wish, I wish to be that b****.
Oh, wait… I AM!
Hahahhahaha, ahhhhhh! Not this miniature rebrand, this lil’ brand refresh got me feeling myself.
I honestly opened this blog draft as my computer screen said 12:08 in the top right-hand corner. And it was right after I finished a morning of editing this here personal blog website, formally branded as aroundLAwithTK, now AROUND with TK.
Oh, if you don’t know, my mama happened to pop me out her coochie on a December 8th twenty-something years ago. Any Barbs in the building? I share a birthday with Nicki Minaj. Thee only person’s fan club I’m in is my grandmother’s. I will say, my birthday twin, Nicki Minaj, is very talented. That’s undeniable.
Related writing: My Grandmother's Laughter, and Other Things That Make Me Really Happy
I don’t really care for people having what’s mine. I like to share when it’s my choice. I didn’t choose for this super famous a** b**** to be born and celebrated on the same day that Tiny would have me years later. What a whore, stealing my shine. I’m kidding… now. Back in school, it used to really grind my gears that people would be posting this random a** b**** on MY birthday!
Gossip, celebrity news, simple-minded pop culture, and all accounts of the like are blocked from my personal page. In addition, I’ve also a long list of “don’t show me posts containing these words,” that include Kardashians, Beyonce, and NBA Youngboy, just to name a few. It’s to avoid getting sucked into business that ain’t mine and doesn’t matter in the grander scheme of things and writing a 3-paragraph essay in somebody’s comment section. In turn, it actually made me forget that I share a birthday with Nicki Minaj, until I thought about it as I was typing just now — and today’s the 12th, my our birthday was 5 days ago.
Yes, yes, 5 days ago, I started my new year. That’s why I’m here, writing this blog post about content creation, updates and improvements.
Whew, how is the time already saying 12:44 and I haven’t even said what I got on here to say?!
LA⚜️L.A.🌴
a life in motion
leaving written traces
— aroundwithTK Instagram bio
AROUND with TK: Written Traces
How I chose my new name, what it means, and why I’m stepping into a more intentional chapter of my storytelling as I enter this new year of life.
[inserts watery-eyed emoji] AROUND with TK: Written Traces is my new website title.
AHH! I adore it! And because it’d be fair for a complete stranger to assume, “you could love everything you do,” let me be clear. I hate most of what I do. I really hate myself. Let me stop playing, I don’t hate myself, however, I am highly critical of myself. I’m exponentially more critical of myself than I am of others and I’m pretty darn critical of others.
Okay, my mind jumped and I wrote the end/second half of this journal entry, now I’m back towards the top trying to say what I originally came on here to say… explaining my (kinda) new name and brand refresh!
It’s twenty minutes for two now. I haven’t left the house. Ouuuu, I think I’ll go get a lox bagel from a jewish bakery. Authentic Jewish bakeries have the best bagels, oh my goodness!
Anyway, I’m going to let ChatGPT, yes, I know, shame on me, being lazy… but this is already… [slides finger on touchpad to highlight all text blog draft box] [copy] [paste]… 1255 words! Yeah, y’all bouta get this insert from ChatGPT, it’s sickening, but that freaking system gets it.
Aaaaaand I’m trying to track down payments from two different marketing/event agencies? [inserts dis tew much gif]
AROUND with TK: Written Traces
Piece by piece.
“AROUND with TK”
This is the name people already associate with my movement, my curiosity, and the way I document my life. Around isn’t just a location-based word — it’s a rhythm. It’s pacing, wandering, exploring, circling back, starting again. It mirrors the way I live: never stagnant, always discovering, always in motion.
It also nods to the original aroundLAwithTK, but now stretches past a geographical boundary. It’s not only about Los Angeles anymore — it’s about the way I move through the world.
“Written Traces”
This phrase has a deliberate double meaning.
Traces as in footprints, marks, faint lines — the subtle impressions a person leaves behind while moving through his or her life.
Written as in the act of capturing those impressions. Not polished memoirs, not perfect essays — just the traces. Moments. Thoughts. Observations. The things I’d normally scribble in a notebook, now shaped into something readable.
The pairing suggests that what you see on my site isn’t the whole story — it’s the imprint of a life lived fast, deeply, and intentionally. These are the marks my movement leaves behind.
Why the title works together
“AROUND” reflects my physical motion.
“Written Traces” reflects the artistic residue of that motion.
Together, they describe my life and my creative process: I move, and then I write what the movement reveals.
stories from a life in motion
The tagline explained.
This tagline anchors everything. It’s simple, but it holds the full philosophy of how I create.
“stories” — I’m not just reporting events; I’m narrating them, interpreting them, finding meaning in them.
“from a life” — personal, lived, not theoretical. Real experiences, real moments, real changes.
“in motion” — the most essential part. I’m someone who thinks better while moving, who feels most alive when I’m active, who thrives in transition rather than stillness. Movement is my clarity, my creativity, and my grounding force.
The tagline reflects the shift I’m making:
not just event recaps, not just lifestyle vignettes, not just journal entries — but an ongoing story shaped by momentum.
The connection to your brand refresh
This new combination signals maturity, authorship, and intention. It says:
I’m documenting my life with clarity, not chaos.
I’m creating from experience, not aesthetics alone.
I’m stepping into the identity of a writer and storyteller, not “just a content creator.”
It also gently separates TK, the online personality from Te’Keya Krystal, the author. Your full name at the end gives the project credibility and announces that this is a creative body of work — not just postings.
[Okay, here’s where my untouched pen picks up again.]
I’m sorry, I fck with ChatGPT heavily. I am very human. I am the human and I pour plenty of the human me into these postings. This could be a bad thing, but I also pour a lot of the human me into ChatGPT, which is what allows the system to formulate what I tell it to formulate. I’ve given it very specific instructions and explained precisely the idea. Due to my molding, I already know what’s in between those lines is accurate, before even reading it.
In addition to artificial intelligence doing what I tell it to do more quickly than me, it also puts a little computer system with my human element. What’s the Internet and its queries, what’s search engine optimization, what’s Google’s website crawlers and rankings? They’re computer systems.
Google defines an algorithm as “a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer,” and what runs the world wide web in this decade with no sign of changing? Algorithms.
I’m so human and I write in such a human (and create in such a chaotic) way that the website crawlers have difficulty catching me. Inserting a bit of text from a computer system occassionally could help computer systems better read my content. And why is that important? Because without website indexing, AROUND with TK can’t show up on a search engine for sh*t! And reaching somebody on social media these days that’s not that one attentive family member without pleasing the algorithm?? Forget about it.
Do I like it? Fck no. But what is the age-old saying about things we can’t change? Gotta get over it.
stories from a life in motion
by Te’Keya Krystal
I’ve always felt as though I couldn’t call myself a writer. Okay, maybe I don’t have to publish a book with a publishing house to call myself a writer. And maybe I don’t have to be a writer for the LA Times to call myself a writer. Surely I don’t have to be in the Writers Guild of America to call myself a writer. But I do have to be writing to call myself a writer — somewhere for something, I have to be writing.
Originally, I was seeking external validation of landing a job in writing or being published by an established platform. Then, I would’ve been able to call myself a writer.
I pictured seeing my name in bylines and what name of my many that I would use as my writer name.
If I’m completely honest, I’ll still feel more comfortable calling myself a writer once I’m published somewhere, but for now this byline will do.
This post is really to serve the purpose of proof.
Ever since that B.Simone girl that isn’t even funny stole from real writers with small followings to write her book and contribute to her making her first million dollars, I’ve been paranoid. I have a screenshot saved in my phone, or posted within an Instagram carousel post that says, “I avoid drama because I’m not okay in the head.” Baby, when I tell you, I was go’on have to bat the piss outta B. Simone if she’d stolen my intellectual property and I couldn’t prove it.
From following a couple of comedians that I’m cool with offline, I’ve heard that comics stealing jokes is a running joke, and I believe it. People are not original. People imitate. People copy. People want to create, but they may not have what it takes, so they take it… from someone else. And the Internet is a prime place for poaching. Folks get up there and post and repost and don’t tag the original creator, and most of the time, it’s harmless, it’s often what pushes engagement forward with trends and the algorithm wanting to see the same thing over and over again. Yeah, cool.
Instagram posts are one thing, plagiarism is another.
Plagiarizing me will get the piss bat outcha. Let’s be very, very clear. That’s why I’m putting this here. I’ve searched and I’ve asked AI servers, my word choice in my branding refresh is that of my own — Written Traces | Stories of a Life in Motion, it is not out there elsewhere.
When I was on Twitter in high school, I came up with this witty handle and accompanying bio and this freaking girl at a rival high school copied it completely, inserting her name in place of mine. And we followed each other on Twitter. Then, more and more people, someone that followed her, then someone that knew that person, started changing their Twitter handles and bios to what I KNEW had first. I think I may have even said something to her and she said, all cool, “yeah, I liked it [so I used it]”. I was pissed.
That was miniscule and meaningless, but this?! My personal blog that I’ve been picking up and putting down for years?! My personal brand that I’m finally ready to stop hiding and build?! Naw, baby, naw, be done caught A ROUND with TK tryna bite off AROUND with TK.
(While we’re giving credit to creators, I was on set for a background extra gig when this quirky white guy asked me for my Instagram and said “oh, do you box?”. Confused, I ask him what would make him think that I’m a boxer. He does a small punching gesture with a head tilt as he says, “a… round.” He continues, as I’ve gotten more times than I can count on my fingers and toes, “is TK short for TKO?” I told him that just for that, I may do a series on Instagram where I’m having a round with folks or ideas. It would be a round of debate. I be damned if I put myself in a position to get hit. Hell nah, I got beat enough as a child.)
What if… Nah.
Damn, it’s 3:04, and I ain’t a h03… maybe I should be though, then I wouldn’t worry about creating a strong personal brand that could one day become profitable because my p*ssy is paving the way.
I play too much. For the rare soul that may stumble across this that doesn’t know me from the man on the moon, I don’t care how hard life gets, I’m never selling p*ssy. And even if I do, by chance, end up with a provider man, where the only financial responsibility that I have is saying “thank you,” I STILL WOULD MAKE SOMETHING OF MYSELF!
So yeah, AROUND with TK is here to stay.
Now, if a man comes along that makes it easier for me to focus on my craft…
Later, y’all.