Net Neutrality is in Danger!

Over the last few months, there has been a lot of buzz about Net Neutrality and the telecom companies trying to get rid of it. I am not going to go into my views and such, mainly due to it would become a full on rant and would not help the situation. Instead, here's a post that Chris Oatley has done that explains it plain and simple way better than I could even do: Our Creative Future is At Risk.

What I am going to say is the possible BIG issues that will come out of losing Net Neutrality for the USA. I am not an expert on business and such. However, I understand how "systems" works from businesses to agriculture to history and many more through what I often research for stories and my own curiosity. This is my opnion, but you could say it's what I have a feeling is USA's worse cast scenrio with how things are right now. It is up for you to decide if you agree with me or not, but I think we all can agree losing Net Neutrality is a very bad thing for the whole world. I know this will effect the rest of the world, but I don't have enough information of what is going on fully with every countries' business models, economic freedom, internet status, and so on and I also want to keep this post short. Hence this mainly focuses on the USA, but with what I give, people in other countries can probably get an idea of what implications they will feel from it like mass immigration and such since this could be the trigger than sends the world back into economic depression, not just the USA as I know for sure we will need to change the Great Depression in later history to the "1st Great Depression" with how the USA is going to begin without this whole mess through personal and research views.

Right now, many job fields are shifting how they do work for the internet we have now which allows even small players to make a living. However, telecom companies have noticed this and want a piece of the pie. Hence wanting to make it possible to do a toll which it forced Netflixs to do hencehow this whole mess got started. They will repeat slowing the internet down for everyone who chooses not to pay the toll and allow people the same current access for those who do now. Television companies do the same thing now for a lot of content and this is why a lot of people are forgot not just cable, but satellite television as well with deciding to either buy the stuff they love in physical form or pay for the streaming or digital versions. Anime and such fans already go for this route with how hard it is to even see our stuff on television here in the US. However, this is where the internet providers and such will end up doing one big mistake.

The main street economic models are and have changed out of what the internet providers still think it is. Instead of focusing on growth like big companies, many small and medium companies are realizing you can't have a healthy system(not just economy) to live in with just growth. Hence they are focusing on sustainably with focusing on great service, staying within their niches, and helping out others in and out of their niches which provides a better, over all ecosystem of business than what's going on in big business. This will survive without the internet since many small towns and more "sustainable focused" mind places all over the world has began setting this up. These guys will be the ones who will probably get us out of this economic mess once the full storm is gone if this happens, but I am not crossing my fingers with my knowledge of history on hand.

The BIG problem comes with losing the internet playing field. This is what is allowing this new economic model to spread across the globe and allowing international collaboration in entrepreneurship and innovation the world currently needs for a whole mess of issues on all levels have made. For artists level, any fans are able to reach to their favorite artists and other content creators through the internet and this allowed fans to also support them where as before this was impossible and often big business and agents took most of the money that would never reach the content creators. With this new system, Patreon.com would probably not as well if the telecom companies slow it down to where it can't be used and this is one of the areas where they really want to slow the internet down for: make it so small, but powerful players unable to compete.

However, this is where it will come back and bit them in the bottom. Many people who are becoming content creators and entrepreneur are those who have lost jobs or are not even being able to get into even the part-time job field due to the "Jobless Recovery" in not just the USA. Other countries has seen this, too, hence the term "NEET" for Not in Education, Employment, or Training. Though some don't share it or try to hide it like the USA does. Many of the still "young" generation are in a high unemployment of 15% in the government reported numbers. Shadowstats.com and Explistats.com show that overall unemployment for all ages is a lot higher than reported and my generation is feeling the bit worse along with the generation below mine. Hence why a lot of us have given up on the traditional route of getting a part-time job or entry level job. We are, instead, focusing on working hard building up our creative career from the ground up with no support or little support compared to past artists who were able to work part-time or get a smaller job to help them keep paying the bills while getting better. Hence, we are launching right into personal projects and other such things like opening our own businesses. We have to MAKE our own jobs and learn the hard ways in doing so instead of just getting the chance to learn from our elders by getting into studios and such where it is easier to make mistake and get back up again. In order to do this, we moved to small towns and states or even back to our home towns where the cost of living is much lower or to get to states where opening a business is possible. This means also internet providers in such areas aren't that good to begin with to open up shop and create a job. Places like California and some Northern states as an example are way too high in cost in living just live as a rich person, let allow artist in my opinion. I seriously don't get an apartment smaller than a normal house going for 1 million in dollars for just rent in some of these cities, and the view for them some of those aren't worth it either.

The instant that internet freedom is taken away, the price of the internet will go up pretty quickly on both tiers. Not just the high speed tier as I know all to well from studying history what monopolies will do. Without that advantage to run businesses, many of us will be hit being forced to pay a lot for bad internet or pay a lot for our current internet(there is now high speed lane in my opinion as it depends on your cables and bandwidth mostly when you are in the country side). The places with the best internet will likely be cities and such which even now are too high for artists to just vacation in, let alone live in. This will force the one thing the USA managed to avoid that the European Union has been seeing quite badly: Brain Drain.

Brain Drain is what the European Union calls that many college educated(both young and old) people are leaving their country for places with more economic freedom and better cost of living. The only reason the USA hasn't seen it as badly is due to its internet freedom and it's widely vast economic system across the country allowed people to keep in the country, yet still move to better locations where they can live. Yet, once the internet is gone, only those areas that have established good areas for business and allow even wealth poor entrepreneurs a means to work will be able to keep thriving and the amount of areas where conditions are too bad for even rich to live will rise across the board. It's not my own theory. This is a cycle that his been repeated time and time again throughout history all over the world even before the internet was born. However, this time around, the USA is not prepared to be able to keep all the young ones close to home like in the past. Many other countries have realized the USA's past advantages and have made their countries more suited for entrepreneurs along with trying to improve their internet at the cost of losing a bit of their control over it to do so(though censorship is still a big issue in other countries). Hence why the USA has been dropping in the economic freedom ratings while some areas like Hong Kong have gone up.

The younger generations will move to there from the USA if possible. If not, find where they will best be able to survive in the USA and work with it as we always do in such a situation. Mainly because there is no entry level jobs left in the USA unless you know someone to help you get in. Even studios have began wanting more of artists than just having great drawing skills, though it's easier to get into those studios than some job fields. Many younger people have to make their own jobs to just get into entry level jobs and hence once the internet is no longer an even playing field, they will have to move where that field is better for them to play in. With that, even the telecom companies won't be able to keep up their toll road model as no one but the rich will be able to pay for it and even they would probably not want it with how bad the service is with how some of these companies are like. Innovation will be pushed to offshore or underground(some business are already going underground in the USA due to over-legislation making it impossible to do business legally) and it will take a lot of fixing the economy to bring it back later on. The world, not just the USA, would go into another Depression as it would hit everyone, though those areas already ahead business freedom wise would come out of it better even with feeling the pain. We, in the USA, are still suffering the recession that our government has say is gone. I don't think the world would be very happy for us to bring them down with us with one big Depression which we are already heading for just USA and European Union wise.

So, support Net Neutrality by emailing Tom Wheeler and telling him how you feel about this issue of getting rid of Net Neutrality. Also, sorry if I scare you with this post, but this is actually something actually happening now in the USA as many areas have already collapsed economic wise and people are trying to just survive with stagnate wages and job created and prices ever increasing in this country. I seen it with my own eyes and moved due to the Recession taking out my parent's jobs right when I was about to go to college. We lived a poorly for a time as my dad worked union jobs through the union he stayed with till retirement last year and my mother took a year or two to finally get a job again while my sister and work hard to try and keep our tuition bills low through scholarships and marching and concert band. We had to take out loans starting our junior year in college as our hard work soon became barely able to keep up with rising tuition costs. I know other countries like the European Union and the rest of the world are already paying higher prices compared to the USA. I am not being a whiner about the USA's prices going up as I know quite well others have it worse around the world and it is coming be it we like it or not. I am prepared for that reality.  That is because the USA are becoming like everyone else in the world, both in rights and economy, so it's better to ensure Net Neutrality for when that comes so that we can keep on top of things and keep most of our freedoms we have yet to give away. Because, it might be what also ensures the rights of those elsewhere in the world to the Internet and help them with their own struggles for their rights or ensure we and the rest of the world lose that right all together.

Busy Bee In Writing

Well, finally, got through the first round of my new releasing schedule. And now to get everything prep for next month and trying to get a buffer going. If you are wondering what I mean, I write fanfiction and planning to do possible some webcomics and webfiction as well. I always wrote fanfiction as a hobby and now I am using it as a skill builder while getting my illustrator portfolio up to speed and working slowly on my other personal projects to insure I figure out my limits without another bout of burn out.

So, why focus on fanfiction? Well, I actually restarted some with getting out of college. As I said, it was a hobby I love to do. And now, it's my passion along side illustration and writing. Though, I do admit my mouth cashed a check that I am now trying to fix. This being the doing one chapter and posting it before the next. I did not learn my lesson after college stopped me from posting and now it finally hitting me. However, instead of stopping, I have started a schedule to let myself get a buffer while still posting on a normal schedule after going on a small hiatus. I took the hiatus due to my beta-reader getting overwhelmed with her studies and decided it was best not to add to her work load... Even if she loves beta-reading for me. Hence, part of the reason for the buffer is for when she returns to her studies in Fall classes as I got her for summer.

However, the reason I decided to put my focus into fanfiction is to get drilled into me personal set deadlines and also get a feel for a routine of posting content. Since the worse I would get is nasty reviews if I did badly, fanfiction is actually a pretty safe bet though I try to keep my stories pretty good quality. During the hiatus, I went back and fixed up two stories with finding minor mistakes and once I get a good enough buffer, the other one will start to get another reproofing of earlier chapters though that's later since it's longer than the others.

So, what is my fandom in fanfiction? Well, I like to do Naruto fanfiction, mostly crossovers. I was an early fan of Naruto, though not so much of the current Naruto Shippuden series. I write in this fandom since I am still quite familiar with it. Though, a lot of my crossovers spread out into different areas compared to normal Naruto crossovers like Puella Magi Kazumi Magica, , Log Horizon, and so on.  I even got unique crossovers started like my Monster Hunter Ninja on my old Auto-nin account started the Monster Hunter/Naruto crossovers on Fanfiction.net. Monster Hunter Ninja is up for rewrite, though it has to way till I finish one of my current three fanfiction. I even do multi-crossovers as my Persona: Pallerel Paradox story which is the Persona game series, Naruto, and the whole Puella Magi Madoka Magic universe. I have three stories up right now and three in reserve with I am planning to write like a book instead of my old style I am using for the current three.

If you are curious of my fanfiction, you can check me out at Mahou Shoujo-nin on Fanfiction.net. My posting schedule is set on monthly schedules on Saturdays with Persona: Parrellel Paradox getting it's next update on June 14, Digimon: Sinned Tamers going up the next Saturday, and Log Horizon: Alien Chronicles on the Saturday after that. I also started a Patreon campaign for my fanfiction. Any donations would be great, but I am not expecting any and mainly using it for the fact it's feed you can choose posts to be open to all or Patrons. This makes it a lot more easier to let everyone know what is going on since Fanfiction.net doesn't have means to communicate past PMs to direct fans. Now, to get back to work, though on some illustrations after my writing binge I been on. This includes finally getting to those covers for my fanfiction I been wanting to do.

Managing Life and illolifeRPG

I will admit, I suck at "managing" my life. I used school(all stages of it) to set a schedule for myself... Now with it gone, I been struggling how to get my life together and get things done. The major issue I have is my attention span can be focused some days and other days it is scattered. Also, if I am thrown off one task I am working on to do something else, I can end up forgetting it and end up going straight into something else after finishing the quick task. I been trying to set up a schedule, but I am still working on it as it is harder to set up than one would think for someone who has ADHD. Especially with the rough ride February gave me.

However, I found at least a little helper, illolifeRPG. illolifeRPG is a role playing group, but the game is your life. You track your progress and earn experience by completing quests which are things you do in life. Basically, you turn things like finding landing freelance gigs and completing paintings into quests and reward yourselves with experience to level up. Turning life into a video game is fun. This is very important for someone like me, where my brain is not wired like normal people. The reason I became an artist is because it was fun for me and I love doing it. The management part, not so much unless I spice it up a bit. You can check the group out here on Facebook. It was created by Chris Conlon and its now has over 500 members in it. I have my current character sheet at the bottom of this post. Now, for people with similar issues with managing their life be it trying to manage time or a budget, I have some advice that might help you out:

Everyone does not work with the same method.  Just because one method works for everyone means it works for you. In fact, "your" method may not even be a solid method out there yet, but  mixture of several people's way of managing themselves. For example, I found I can "sort" of work with a typed up schedule, but I need to fix it up to make it easier for me look at and keep a schedule everyday. At best, I work great with dividing the day into two to three hour periods for working on things and my issues is trying to do shorter times like eating times and such without throwing my groove of the two-three hour deal off. The same with budgeting as I tried a budget, but I had trouble keeping up with my expenses. But, then again, with how fast everything is nowadays and people wanting me to move out of the way when I try to make a quick note of something, it is kind of hard for someone who likes to be a bit slower to catch details to do so. However, I am very good at keeping track of my income and accounts, so if I switch to planning where the money goes once I get the income, it might work better for me.  

Don't get frustrated. If things are not working exactly as you plan when you are trying to set up a schedule or budget, do not let it upset you. Just like learning and mastering art or learning to play an instrument, it takes time to learn how to properly do a schedule or budget. You are going to struggle with getting the schedule or other management things down at first. But, as you get more used to it and fixing the kinks in the system, it becomes easier and easier. For some, like myself, this is also a great patience exercise as it takes a lot longer to get down since there is a lot of kinks to work out. But, upside, it's starting to work as I got at least now down my sleep schedule set to go to bed at the same time roughly everyday. Usually, that happens after you get the rest of the schedule set.

 Do it in smaller steps, not one big one. This is one thing I learned in middle school when trying to deal with my ADHD without meds. I have to take things in smaller steps or else I am overwhelmed. Which is probably why I am not a big social media person as it is usually just all thrown right into your face to learn it. However, this is really helpful for artists and normal people. By breaking down deadlines and other big projects into smaller parts always makes thing so much easier. The same can be done with starting a schedule or budget and is how I managed to find the parts the work for me and what parts I need to figure out.

 Last, do what feels right and keep on track even if it gets bad for a bit. Just because someone has this "neat, clean method" that is "sure" to work and get you managing your life like a conductor controlling a symphony, does not mean it will work for you if you follow it to the finest detail. Some people can't work with a really strict schedule while others can't work with a really loose schedule. Then, there is people who can't work with either a really strict schedule or a really loose schedule. Everyone has to fine tune their way of managing their life and it's going to take a lot of sour note hitting to find that eureka moment where everything works. I'm still in my tuning process, but I am getting closer to it. Just like an instrument, the worse it sounds, the closer you are getting it to being in tune. Seriously, a note just off by a little bit from where it should be is a lot worse sounding than a note really off. Hence why musicians are so focused on making sure the note is right on. But, it also goes with many life managing issues and many other things including art. Right when people are really close to figuring out how to do it, they will often give up because it seems so bad and wrong when they in fact so close to the "Aha!" moment. That very moment that can push someone through that rough area and actually turning that mess into something so much better.  So, just because it seem wrong, stick with your guns and keep at it till you figure out your right tuning to your life management.

Well, I hope this was helpful to someone. Sorry for going on the music analogies. I been in concert and marching bands all the way from middle school to my junior year in college and it's sometimes is my muse for art. I am even planning once I get my life a bit more stable to possibly join a community band as I love playing my clarinet. Though, for me, it's a hobby while art is my real passion. But, music and it's organizations helped me set some of my life management habits together and now I am just refining them to get them to work for me instead of against me in a mess. Everyone has their way to work through the mess that is life, hence how you manage the things in life is also just as different.