This week at VOMP Studios - Been back in CA since Monday. Got a wedding for an elementary school buddy in San Luis Obispo, CA tomorrow. Then road tripping back to Texas with my Pops on Monday to move my parents and other brother out to ATX. Time to hit Buc-ee’s!

This week’s riffs for the creative vandals, outlaws, misfits, and pirates of the internet:

• Create Cooler: Tools to get you creating like Salvador Dalí

• Build Better: The Chat GPT of coding

• Earn Easier: How to get people to stop scrolling

• Break The Rules: The flannel, fear, and fame of MrBallen

• The Hit List: Music to turn up and tune out

Creative Apps That’ll Light a Fire Under Your Ass

Let’s face it—creativity doesn’t strike like some magical lightning bolt.

Sometimes, you need a little nudge (or a full-on kick) to get those ideas rolling.

Lucky for you, this riff’s got the goods: a lineup of apps I’ve come across that’ll have you creating like a young, over-caffeinated Salvador Dalí.

DailyArt

Do you wake up every morning feeling like something’s missing from this Rom-Com we call life?

Maybe it’s a dose of culture that your brain's been starved of while you scroll through memes.

Enter DailyArt—your daily hit of "I'm-sophisticated-now".

This app dishes out a fresh piece of art every day with a short story attached, so you can feel like an intellectual without leaving your couch.

It’s like having a museum in your pocket minus the screaming school tours and young activists slinging Campbell’s Soup at another Van Gogh like a pissy Andy Warhol.

(There were some relevant pop culture references there so if you got those, we’d be friends in real life FYI).

The best part? You don’t need to know squat about art to appreciate it.

They’ve got over 600 museums’ worth of goodies, so you’ll never run out of visual awesomeness.

It’s classy, it’s easy, and it’ll make you sound smarter at parties which is always a plus.

Cosmos

Lemme preface this riff by saying I fucking love Cosmos.

If you’ve ever been jealous of that one friend who pulls creative ideas out of thin air like some artsy David Blaine, Cosmos is here to level the playing field.

It’s like Pinterest on steroids for people who take their inspiration seriously but also want to feel like they’re stumbling upon hidden creative gems in the wild.

Create folders with names like “Serena Williams Type Energy,” “Weird AF,” or “Stuff My Brain Likes” and start dumping in everything from photos of weird vinyl stickers to diagrams from your high school physics textbook.

The connections between seemingly random stuff will start slapping you in the face before you know it. Boom. Instant inspiration.

A personal favorite I saw yesterday is the “Paper Garbage” folder—yeah, you heard that right.

It’s a dumping ground for the stuff nobody else would look at twice, but guess what?

That’s where the gold is. Random receipts, crumpled flyers, and old magazine clippings.

You’ll thank me later.

W1D1

Got creative block? W1D1 doesn’t give a shit.

It’s gonna force you to create anyway, whether you’re up for it or not.

With daily challenges that’ll push you across different mediums, from photography to writing, this app is like having your own personal creativity coach…

… Minus the cheesy self-help slogans or the degrading screams from a coach who should probably just give therapy a shot.

I came across this on Twitter (I’m not calling it X) a few weeks ago and now I’m hooked.

One day it’s snapping shadows like a moody Caravaggio, the next it’s whipping up avant-garde poetry like you’re some kind of modern-day Mayakovsky (this dude was kinda the Sergei Federov of Russian poetry).

The challenges are all about thinking outside the box.

And when I say box, I mean the comfortable little creative cage you’ve locked yourself in. Time to break free.

Oh, and the app creator?

Dude’s obsessed with a weird principle called “estrangement” (don’t worry, no one’s breaking up with you).

It’s all about seeing the world in a way that makes everything feel fresh and new, like peeling back layers of familiarity until you hit creative gold.

Kinda rad, huh?

Are.na

Picture this: the love child of Notion and a creative think tank.

That’s Are.na.

It’s like building your own brain playground where you can store all the cool stuff you find online and connect it in ways that spark brand-new ideas.

Curates folders filled with badass ideas from around the web and dive down a rabbit hole of interconnected artwork faster than you can say, “Hold my beer.”

You click on a random piece, and next thing you know, you’ve discovered a whole new corner of the internet filled with more creativity than Doc Brown coming up with the goddamn flux capacitor.

Mobbin

Lil Wayne would love this app.

Instead of ripping off someone’s entire website (seriously, don’t do that), you can use Mobbin to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t.

Let’s say you’re designing a website for a theater.

You could slap together some generic crap and call it a day.

OR, you could dive into Mobbin, pull together inspiration, and create something that screams “This ain’t your grandma’s theater.”

Whatever vibe you’re aiming for, Mobbin will get you “steady-mobbin” like an early 2000s Weezy freestyle during the peak YMCM era.

Instagram

Yeah, yeah, we all know Instagram isn’t some elite creativity app, but don’t sleep on it.

A well-curated feed can be just as inspiring as anything else.

Seriously - the suggested feed algorithm on IG is one of the most powerfully-relevant creative treasure chests I’ve ever found.

Obviously though, right? It’s curated from your user history.

So why the absolute fuck wouldn’t you use the stuff suggested to you from the algorithm that has (maybe, but probably) the most data of shit you like!?

Just don’t lose six hours to a random reel marathon and forget what you were supposed to be doing.

Set those screen time limits, and you’ll be good.

Because, can confirm, it’s always cake.

Oh…

Wait, is your doom scroll feed different than mine?

Cursor: Your New Coding BFF That Builds Apps While You Sip Coffee

Move over GitHub Copilot, there's a new AI sheriff in town, and it goes by the name Cursor.

Imagine having a coding genie in your pocket that takes your half-baked app ideas and turns them into actual working code faster than you can say "the next Facebook."

Cursor is here to make that happen, and it’s making waves faster than your last failed attempt at learning JavaScript.

Let’s dive into how Cursor—part AI development environment, part chatbot on coding steroids—is turning wannabe coders into app-building wizards.

Spoiler alert: It basically does all the hard stuff for you.

What the Hell Is Cursor?

Cursor is like the love child of Microsoft Visual Studio Code and your favorite AI model.

This bad boy uses Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o (yeah, fancy) to turn your vague app ideas into actual code.

It's not like GitHub Copilot, which holds your hand.

No, Cursor does all the work.

You give it an idea, and it slaps down the code in minutes—no sweat, no tears, no broken keyboards.

Seriously: There are 50+ viral videos of children learning to code using Cursor online.

Since launching in 2022, this AI-first code editor has raised a casual $400 million (chump change, right?), and it’s already got 30,000 people on board.

That’s not just a couple of hobbyists tinkering around—folks from Perplexity, Midjourney, and even OpenAI are paying to use this thing.

What’s the Catch?

CEO Michael Truell calls Cursor “Google Docs for programmers.”

Bold claim, right? Especially with the idea of how simple Google Docs UX is and how historically difficult AI has been to approach.

But it checks out.

It’s a super-simple code editor with AI models baked in, so instead of tearing your hair out and figuring out how to write 200 lines of code, you just type, “Hey Cursor, build me a habit tracker app” and watch the magic happen.

Truell's vision?

Cursor should do 95% of an engineer's job so coders can focus on the fun part—aka the creative stuff, not the grunt work.

So, in the future, one nerdy coder can pump out more complex systems than a whole team of caffeinated engineers.

Sounds like science fiction, but nah, it’s real.

For those of you who flunked your intro to coding class, Cursor also makes it stupid easy for non-coders to whip up the tools they need by typing a few lines of text.

Need an app? Boom. Cursor’s got your back.

Give It A Rip

Look, if you’re completely non-technical—like, if “HTML” sounds more like a disease than a language—Cursor might still be a bit much for you.

But if you know even the tiniest smidgen of code, like that time you made a Shopify headline bold (yeah, we remember), then you’re golden.

Cursor lets you build apps without writing code, but it helps if you at least know what code looks like.

If not, no worries—Cursor’s there to babysit your errors and fix them.

Just be aware, sometimes things get messy, and Cursor won’t always label the screw-ups clearly.

The free plan gives you a two-week Pro trial, and after that, you get just enough AI magic to get some basic code going.

The Pro plan is a cool $20/month, about the same as ChatGPT or Claude, and it comes with unlimited requests.

So, whether you’re a seasoned coder or just dabbling, Cursor’s your new coding BFF.

5 Ways Visual Hooks To Stop The Scroll

Let’s call a spade a spade here, folks.

If your video doesn’t grab attention in the first few seconds, it’s dead in the water.

And no, your “cool product” or “witty banter” won’t save you (trust me on that one).

Without a killer hook, your video’s like a soggy piece of toast—completely forgettable.

You need visual hooks. Why?

Because people’s brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

That’s right—60,000.

If you’re not using visuals to punch people in the face (figuratively, of course), you’re already losing.

Here are five ways to make sure your video slaps harder than a pissed off Will Smith:

1. Use Imagery That Feels Real

Stop showing your audience off-brand artsy shit that only makes sense after a shot of espresso or a garden gummy if you remember the Nutter Butter Tik Tok account.

Use images that are relatable.

People’s brains like familiar things—it’s easier, and it keeps them watching.

Take the the news article trend on social media for example.

Creators throw trending news articles right in the background of their videos. People immediately recognize it and go, “Oh hey, I know that!”

Then, boom—they hit you with the product. Or try writing your text on a Post-it instead of some boring overlay.

Instant personality upgrade.

And don’t sleep on brandjacking.

Mozi Wash starts their videos with a shot of Tide detergent. Riding on someone else’s fame? Genius.

2. Flash Weird Shit to Make People Stop Scrolling

If you really want to mess with people's heads, throw in something totally unexpected—a bizarre gadget, a color combo that looks like it belongs in a circus, or a random object that makes them go, “Wait, what?”

Your video should make people stop mid-scroll just to figure out what the hell they’re looking at.

Curiosity equals engagement.

3. Create WTF Moments

Pattern interrupt. Sounds fancy, right? It’s not.

Just take something normal and make it weird AF.

Like J.Crew—they took a normal girl with a shopping bag and then made the bag so massive it looked like it was eating her alive.

Or how Jacquemus used real boats to spell out their brand name on the freaking ocean.

It’s jarring in the best way possible.

4. Oddly Satisfying = Oddly Addictive 

Everyone’s low-key addicted to slime videos or those mesmerizing hydraulic press clips.

It’s like visual ASMR for your brain—people just can’t look away.

Start with something satisfying—slime, sand, whatever—and then transition into your message.

You’ll have people hypnotized before they even realize you’re selling them something.

5. Keep It Moving—Literally 

Here’s the truth: attention spans are trash.

You need to keep changing things up—new angles, new backgrounds, new shots.

Every few seconds, give your audience something fresh to look at, or they’ll be gone faster than your last bad Tinder date.

Keep hitting them with new visuals and they’ll stick around just to see what’s next.

Bottom Line? 

If your video isn’t making people stop and say, “WTF did I just see?” you’re doing it wrong.

Get bold. Get weird.

And for the love of all things viral, don’t be boring.

MrBallen: Flannel, Fables, and Facing Demons

John Allen, aka MrBallen, is the guy who makes storytelling look like an effortless, flannel-clad, backwards-cap-wearing joyride.

With millions hanging on his every word on YouTube and his Podcast, he’s now adding author to his resume with his first graphic novel, “MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.”

Spoiler alert: it’s full of eerie, unsettling tales, just like the ones that made him famous.

The book, written with novelist Robert Venditti and illustrated by Andrea Mutti, is jam-packed with nine deliciously creepy stories.

Think of it as your campfire horror tales, but on paper—better yet, in graphic novel form.

From Navy SEAL to Shakespeare

Before MrBallen became the internet’s favorite spooky storyteller, he was a Navy SEAL.

And guess what his buddies called him? Shakespeare.

Not because he was busting out sonnets in the field, but because the man couldn't stop yapping.

It all started in the Navy, where his storytelling skills were born—especially when his stories got dark and disturbing.

That’s when he noticed, "the scarier, the better."

Now he's turned those late-night, unsettling chats into a brand with over 9 million YouTube subscribers, a TikTok army of 8 million, and a podcast exclusive deal with Amazon.

Not too shabby for a guy who once just wanted to survive Navy boot camp.

The Birth of MrBallen

You know those moments when the internet misreads your name and changes your life? Me either but, yeah, that’s how MrBallen was born.

He started social media by helping aspiring sailors, and someone accidentally called him “Mr. Ballen.”

Boom!

A legend was born—no marketing plan, no brainstorming session, just an internet oopsie that worked out. Classic.

The "Dark and Twisty" Art of Storytelling

MrBallen’s storytelling isn’t just about shock and awe; he actually gives a damn about the people behind the stories.

It’s not about blood and gore for him.

It’s about making the audience feel the weight of the tragedy.

“If I’m going to tell a story about something horrible, I treat it like the victim’s family is watching,” he says.

Bold, but with a touch of empathy.

You won’t walk away remembering the gore; you’ll remember the victim’s story.

The Family Business

MrBallen isn’t the only storyteller in his family—he’s just the loudest.

His sister, Evan, is an investigative reporter who won a freaking Pulitzer Prize in 2021, and his dad, Scott, was an editor at the Boston Globe.

Even his mom, Jessie, helped him craft some of his early podcast episodes, proving the apple doesn't fall far from the narrative tree.

Mental Health and Sobriety

Behind the flannel and the spooky stories, MrBallen is real about his struggles.

He's talked openly about feeling lost after leaving the military, dealing with substance abuse, and why therapy is crucial.

In May, he revealed he’s been sober, admitting he was spiraling and needed to get his life back on track.

But in true MrBallen fashion, he’s using his struggles to connect with his audience, helping others who are going through the same thing.

So, MrBallen's more than just a guy who tells creepy stories—he’s a guy who’s survived his own.

And if that doesn’t make for one hell of a story, I don’t know what does.

Different creative pursuits call for different music to jam to. Here’s what I jammed to this week on The Vomp Playlist: