Tag: blog

Status Update, life and stuff.

I took the site down, I am rebuilding it. The truth is I was trying a new content management software and decided I hated it. I like to be in more control of the look and feel of the websites I put my name on. So I am rebuilding the site using the tools I know how to make it the way I want. Going Broke Media is not a site for the public it is a site, plain and simple, for me to promote myself period. I intend to use it to showcase all the creative works I can because I want to use it to promote my career.

I can’t explain it to people who think money is the only motivator but I don’t want to work a typical job and live a typical life. I am willing to get a realistic job that is suitable for my talents and earn a proper living which is why I am in school, but I am a visionary, an artist, a story teller at heart and I need a venue to share my works. That is what Going Broke Media is. I chose the name because I am flat broke and it sounds better than cliche starting artist or something lame. Also it has a nice ring to it.

No it is not a joke it is the real name of my company, a company that I actually am in the process of building from the ground up. What I want to do is not something I can explain to people I don’t have a career path in mind. I want a degree that gives me the flexibility to move where I want and get into any normal office or business at the entry level, which is why I settled on Business.

My typical go to work job needs to be something where I can have job functions that use my talents of organizing data and problem solving and business is that. I am pretty talented at keep track of information and deciphering what it means, writing reports, and processing that data into tangible arguments and presentations. Consider that my day job, the Bruce Wayne of what my life will be. The other side is the creative person who strives to do whatever I want as long and as much as I can.

Some things not many people know about me but I do like to paint. I have canvases, paints, and an easel all for the purpose of creative paintings. No I don’t want to be a painter it isn’t even a hobby it’s just something to do when I feel like it. Something most people do know is I like to make music, and I also like to create and edit videos. Now I don’t exactly want to make a career in video production, I researched what it takes and it’s not for me.

However in today’s world with our modern technology it is possible to create audio/visual works with little money. As someone who has studied theater, films, cinematography, and mass communication in general, I am fairly confident that I can create videos that are compelling and entertaining. I might not become a big budget film maker, which again that is not my goal, but I will continue to make videos as much as I can. I do it because it’s what I want to do.

I also write short stories for the same reason, I have tried many times to write a novel and realized that was not for me, what I should do is write a story that interests me and instead of trying to get it published in the traditional way to make money, I will just share my works with the world via my new website. The point is I just want to share my works with people because it gives me pleasure doing so, even if they do not fully understand my works.

Not everyone gets A Midnight to Forget, hell it was a sloppy effort for an online film class that I cut together using random footage I had saved up over the years. But see that was the point, when I began shooting random footage over the years it was with the intention to compile it all together at a later date and weave it into a visual story, something I accomplished even if it does need explaining for people to “get it” and those who don’t get it that is fine it isn’t meant to be gotten by everyone. The same is true for my music, I create music with one purpose, for me to listen to when I am in the mood, others are free to enjoy my music if they choose to but the music I create is for me.

So what changed, when did I stop trying to commercialize my works? I didn’t are you not paying attention that is what the website is about, by compiling all my creative works together I am show casing to the world all that I do, giving them a place to see what I have done, what I am working on currently, and what I intend to do down the road.

This opens up the door for me to sell my ideas to those who might be interested or maybe someone approaches me and likes what they see and asks for my help with something. I can afford to be selective because my goal is not to be a famous director or music producer, my goal is simply to do what I enjoy doing and live the life I set out to live. Some think of it as lonely but that is their problem, their weakness not mine.

What about The Spiders Lair? What is that all about you might ask? Well let me put it simply Going Broke Media is my professional side, it showcases all the creative works that I have done or will ever do. The Spiders Lair is a personal website that show cases all the things that inspire me in this world, those things that interest me the most. It is also a place for me to organize my thoughts. Both web sites are currently under construction but since they are basically pretty simple ventures there is not much to do I expect them to be completed shortly.

Some websites I attempted to do before were just overwhelming, these latest two ventures are actually rather simple, they represent me, my professional, creative, artistic side, and my personal side. I do not currently have a time frame on when either site will relaunch, I would hope to get them going this next week or so but realistically it might be this summer before I get them up and running due to school, work, and life in general. Stay Cool.

The Plan: starting a media brand

Alright first off, school was always just a stepping stone to bigger things for me, let’s get that out of the way. I never had any intention of just getting a degree, finding a job and sitting still. My plan was always to start my own media company no matter how small time it turns out to be. This week I came step closer to that dream. I have a new plan one that I think will actually work out for me. All of this is in addition to the regular job I intended to get. Right now I am just sort of bouncing back from a slow period in my life so things are about to speed back up.

The company.

I am creating a new company most likely a sole proprietorship, maybe a limited corporation depending on how things go. Under this new banner I will create a new logo and name for my media projects and file for a proper trademark to make things more legit than previous attempts. I studied some mass media subjects while at school and I am taking lots of business related classes now so I am more prepared to do things the right way than I ever have been before.

The company will be mostly virtual I might look for a small space to rent where I can set up a small studio but for now that is optional the first thing I need to do is get the website up and running. The new website will be different than anything I have done before. I took a professional web design class in school and I am taking some other design and art related classes so my web making skills are much improved from before.

The focus will be the media of course. Divided into categories. First up is a new blog, this one here will still keep going on the side but the new blog will be dedicated to my company. I am creating several new screen names and writing persona’s for this venture. Each entry will be divided into categories and sorted into their proper place making it easier to find what is relevant. The blog will not be entirely random but it will be broad focused.

I am returning to pod casting. I finally have proper professional grade studio quality recording equipment and over a decade of experience to draw on. I am doing this right. The podcast will be divided into different topics and themes. I have three already in mind, the first up is a video game/technology centered discussion. The other two I am still developing, there might be a return of the rat in there some where, a new politically themed show tentatively called “The Radical Republican.”

I am also creating a new web comic that I will be writing, drawing and publishing myself on the site. This is a side venture on the scale I originally envision for Bim-Dizzle, a project that never go off the ground due to being too complicated. I have scaled back on what I intend to do, to something more manageable.

Short stories, themes, essay, I will publish different written works to the site as well. These will be short stories that I wrote or write in my spare time. I have a few saved up that once I edit them I will start releasing as time permits. I will also have an area for fanfics and other stuff.

Short films, movies, music videos, and more. I have different video projects in mind, there are two stop-motion short films I am working on, one live-action short that will feature some primitive special effects, and a couple of other mini-shows that I will try to get set up as I have time. Music videos are also a new part of this venture. I have three full length albums worth of music that I created over the years, and a brand new one that I am in the process of developing now.

Not all of these warrant music videos but I will make some for the ones that are more important to me or those that justify the effort. I already have some ideas in mind and none of this will happen over night. I will make DVD’s available of all video projects as they accumulate. I will be hosting my videos someplace outside of Youtube so don’t expect that same Youtube vibe or experience as before. I am not sure how I will handle web hosting but I am certain Youtube will NOT be in the picture.

I have scrapped the idea of trying to do a full comic book instead I will try to do a web based mini comic that will be published sporadically.

The books are dead. I tried several times to write a novel, I got pretty far this last attempt but the story got away from me and then I got distracted by life events and suddenly forgot where I was going and lost all interest. Instead I will break these things down into short stories, or maybe serials if that is easier, and publish them to the website.

The Adventurers lives on, Candy can just deal with it. I always pictured it as a more serialized story than a massive novel anyways so this works out better for me. Also I am taking it back to its roots, I created it with a specific vision in mind, I can’t let that vision be warped into something unrecognizable. The characters are too important to me to let them die so I have a new plan that will launch with this new venture.

Other than that I will keep things lose. I have a plan and this is more organized than ever before so I intend to stick with it. I don’t have an end game in mind, I will work till I die, so I will write until I die. The goal is to be as creative as possible. I hope to make money sure, but not at the expense of creative freedom. That is all for now, more details to come latter as things get finalized. The pod cast will begin first so keep an eye out for that. Stay Cool.

The Journey so far

When I sat out to return to college and seek a degree it was one of those moves made out of desperation more than a seriously long hard look at where I was going. Before I ended up returning to college I was still running around trying to figure out what I was doing with my life and what I should be doing with my life. The problem is I was trying to do too much and not focusing on the things that were really important to me. I left Nevada partly because the economy was on the decline, the part time job I had only gave me usually 16 hours a week, and the signs were there that things were not getting better at least for where I was at. Some of my family had returned to Nebraska to start over and in the process I ended up where they were thinking I too would start over.

It isn’t so much that once I got here I had no idea what to do is that once I got here there just wasn’t much to do. We moved to a very rural area of the state were lets just say the jobs were beyond scarce and we were forced to try to start up our own businesses each of us. None of us were particularly successful and only one of my sisters husbands was able to land a full time job the rest of us were doing our internet stuff or trying to get some thing going out of nothing. I was working off what I had at the time, I had previously invested a lot of money into video production and editing equipment as part of a website I started with some friends as well as an extension of my music since I wanted to do some music videos also.

I had created a Youtube channel and was starting to really enjoy making video projects. For this reason and because I had some experience in computer repair and in web design I started a business doing those things for people, PC repair, making web sites, offering to convert old video tapes to digital files and put them onto DVD, things of that sort. It was a little rough going but I did manage to get a few decent paying jobs and was able to limp along for a brief period, before the money ran out and the market well dried up since there were just not that much demand for what I was offering.

I became a member of the local Chamber of Commerce and began attending development meetings and along the way I was hired to do a marketing video for the Chamber focusing on the local businesses and attractions that they would post online to their website, Face Book, Youtube, and show at the movie theater before the shows. Since they were a historic theater and were a non profit that showed movies for much less than others, they had an untapped market of people coming to town to see cheap films they could show case their video to and show off all the other attractions the town had to offer. Truth is the project eventually fell a part due to a lack of cooperation with the local business owners, and a lot of miscommunication on every end, so the project was scrapped and I was left again with nothing to do to make me any money.

This was shortly after the government changed the rules on how to apply for and qualify for student loans and since I had been rejected in the past for one stupid thing or another, I was reluctant to even bother signing up. Turns out it was a good idea as not only was I approved but I did get accepted into the school as a non-traditional student and from there I was in. This was great because it meant I had four years of basically free money to live off and a safe environment to plan my life.

I started out right away in the Broadcasting Major because well that was where I was at during that point in my life. I will skip over the part where I went through major changes during school and get right to the end. My last semester, which was my junior year meaning I had completed three years already and was only a year away from finishing up, due to a serious of events I won’t get into I was suspended from the school and kicked out of my apartment.

Up to that point I had kept my area of studies in the same general focus, mass communication, mass media. I moved around from Broadcasting to Content Development, Multimedia, Theater, Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations, Computer Science, and even changing to English Major at once point. The theme was the say, I wanted to do something in the mass media field mostly video production or maybe writing, but I was just finalizing my plans. A year ago I made a major change that threw everything into a big mess which ended up leading to my end at the University.

Not wanting to give all that up again out of pure desperation I immediately transferred for the next semester into the local community college and began taking classes right away in the area I wanted to be in, except I ran into problems, they wanted me to relocate to a town thirty miles away, then denied me the student loans I was going to need to move and live on, and to top it off I was not able to get a job to supplement my lack of income. So I made a quick change to the plan, I moved my major out of Mass media and into Business Administration, something I had been struggling with for a long time at the University. Why do this?

Well partly because I could do business classes online, which is the main reason, but also because I had previously completed an online diploma in business management a few years before so I already had the basic knowledge and being three years into a Bachelors meant transferring to an Associates all my general studies work was already completed and it put me a little closer to graduating. Still I felt like this was not the path I started out on and so I went into a panic and began doing what I always do, making quick changes without doing much thinking, I applied for a full time job at this factory that paid pretty good and decided I would just give up on school and go into that line of work, this proved to be a mistake I couldn’t shake off my conscience so I ended up finding some relief when they offered me a different job for slightly less money but better hours so I could continue to work on school.

Needless to say I was still facing other things that were getting in the way of me being able to enjoy or at least accept where I was at and so I went into a real panic, I sold all my belongings, packed up my van and took off for LA. As moms tend to do mine interfered and talked me into stopping off with her brother in Arizona. See the thing was he was just too close to LA for me to not run over and at least check it out so I did just that, and on the way as my money was running out and I was realizing the gravity of the situation I got a phone call from the company I was trying to get on and they offered my a full time position that would pay enough to live and go to school and gave me weekends off so I could still do my studies and things started to look like maybe they would work out after all. With just enough money to get me home I turned the van around and headed back, leaving California behind and that silly dream that somehow I was going to make it out there in the big city. Did I say big city I mean mega city and well let’s just leave it at that, that place was not for me.

Still looking back the reason I went into such a major panic was I didn’t want to throw away the last three years of my life and go back to what I was doing with no education no experience and skills that without education and experience weren’t worth much, I was doomed to return to bouncing around from one meaningless job to another. Well After taking a nice vacation/road trip I was able to clear my head and refocus on what is important to me. I am most likely not going to be truly happy with this job, there is no doubt about that. But it is the kind of job unlike most previous jobs that I can see my self sticking with at least for the time being.

My intention is to just do this for now, finish up my school, and see where I go from there. I don’t want to make plans too far into the future because one thing I have learned is plans change, they hardly ever go the way you expect them to anyways so it is best to stick with the short term and not worry about the future. So here I am now back on track but a little slightly off from where I was. At least I didn’t throw it all away and I have been keeping up with my school work, the best part of taking online classes is you can do them from any internet connection so far that has been very helpful for me. I am considering what my options are and as I look at the world, the job postings, and attending job fairs, I think that once I complete this degree I will be in a better position to at least look for better jobs than those I have been stuck doing in the past. It isn’t even so much about finding a job I will love as it is finding a job I won’t hate. Now that I at least have one of those, even if it is temporary, it is better than doing what I was doing before. I usually tend to remain optimistic in all things but lately it has been even harder than usual to do so. I think that with my head cleared and my new plans being something I can actually look forward to I am in a better place, even if very little has actually changed. Sometimes you just have to know what you are doing is the right thing for you and right now I can say that at least I am right where I should be right now. Stay Cool.