#because then i got to obsessively look up stuff about the atom bomb and its ensuing horror and oh fun they came out with a hydrogen bomb too

[arctic-hands]

I'm sure this is coming from a place of American privilege and Japanese kids prolly learn about nuclear devastation around the same age if not younger but. My first grade teacher reading Sadako to the class definitely Left Its Mark on me. Like it's an important story don't get me wrong and I don't have a "think of the children!" mentality and I'm not saying the book should be banned or anything. And my teacher prolly thought she was doing a good job of explain the A-bomb as gently and bite-sized as possible to a bunch of six- and seven-year-olds and it prolly worked on all my other classmates because literally none of them acted like me after but she Did Not Anticipate having a student who was rapidly developing "early onset" bipolar disorder and. Uh.

[fishoutofcamelot]

Zombie symbolism in media? Body snatchers? That sounds extremely interesting 👀👀👀

OOOOOOOOOOH ARE YOU READY FOR ME TO RANT? CUZ I’M GONNA RANT BABY. YALL WANNA SEE HOW HARD I CAN HYPERFIXATE???

I’ll leave my ramblings under the cut.

The Bodysnatchers thing is a bit quicker to explain so I’ll start with that. Basically, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was released in 1956, about a small town where the people are slowly but surely replaced and replicated by emotionless hivemind pod aliens. It was a pretty obvious metaphor for the red scare and America’s fear of the ‘growing threat of communism’ invading their society. A communist could look like anyone and be anyone, after all.

Naturally, the bodysnatcher concept got rebooted a few times - Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1978), Body Snatchers (1993), and The Invasion (2007), just off the top of my head. You’re all probably very familiar with the core concept: people are slowly being replaced by foreign duplicates. 

But while the monster has remained roughly the same, the theme has not. In earlier renditions, Bodysnatchers symbolized communism. But in later renditions, the narratives shifted to symbolize freedom of expression and individualism - that is, people’s ability to express and think for themselves being taken away. That’s because freedom of thought/individuality is a much more pressing threat on our minds in the current climate. Most people aren’t scared of communists anymore, but we are scared of having our free will taken away from us. 

The best indicator of the era in which a story is created is its villain. Stories written circa 9/11 have villains that are foreign, because foreign terrorism was a big fear in the early 2000s. In the past, villains were black people, because white people were racist (and still are, but more blatantly so in the past). 

Alright, now for the fun part.

ZOMBIES

Although the concept has existed in Haitian voodooism for ages, the first instance of zombies in western fiction was a book called The Magic Island written by William Seabrook in 1929. Basically ol Seabrook took a trip to Haiti and saw all the slaves acting tired and ‘brutish’ and, having learned about the voodoo ‘zombi’, believed the slaves were zombies, and thus put them in his book.

The first zombie story in film was actually an adaptation of Seabrook’s accounts, called White Zombie (1932). It was about a couple who takes a trip to Haiti, only for the woman to be turned into a zombie and enchanted into being a Haitian’s romantic slave. SUPER racist, if you couldn’t tell, but not only does it reflect the state of entertainment of the era - Dracula and Frankenstein had both been released around the same time - but it also reflects American cultural fears. That is, the fear of white people losing their authoritative control over the world. White fright.

Naturally, the box office success of White Zombie inspired a whole bunch of other remakes and spinoffs in the newly minted zombie genre, most of them taking a similar Haitian voodoo approach. Within a decade, zombies had grown from an obscure bit of Haitian lore to a fully integrated part of American pop culture. Movies, songs, books, cocktails, etc. 

But this was also a time for WWII to roll around and, much like the Bodysnatchers, zombie symbolism evolved to fit the times. Now zombies experienced a shift from white fright and ethnic spirituality to something a bit more secular. Now they were a product of foreign science created to perpetuate warmongering schemes. In King of Zombies (1941), a spy uses zombies to try and force a US Admiral to share his secrets. And Steve Sekely’s Revenge of the Zombies (1943) became the first instance of Nazi zombies. 

Then came the atom bomb, and once more zombie symbolism shifted to fears of radiation and communism. The most on-the-nose example of this is Creature With the Atom Brain (1955).

Then came the Vietnam War, and people started fearing an uncontrollable, unconscionable military. In Night of the Living Dead (1968), zombies were caused by radiation from a space probe, combining both nuclear and space-race motifs, as well as a harsh government that would cause you just as much problems as the zombies. One could argue that the zombies in the Living Dead series represent military soldiers, or more likely the military-industrial complex as a whole, which is presented as mindless in its pursuit of violence.

The Living Dead series also introduced a new mainstay to the genre: guns. Military stuff. Fighting. Battle. And that became a major milestone in the evolution of zombie representation in media. This was only exacerbated by the political climate of the time. In the latter half of the 20th century, there were a lot of wars. Vietnam, Korea, Arab Spring, Bay of Pigs, America’s various invasions and attacks on Middle Eastern nations, etc. Naturally the public were concerned by all this fighting, and the nature of zombie fiction very much evolved to match this.

But the late 1900s weren’t just a place of war. They were also a place of increasing economic disparity and inequal wealth distribution. In the 70s and 80s, the wage gap widened astronomically, while consumerism remained steadily on the rise. And so, zombies symbolized something else: late-stage capitalism. Specifically, capitalist consumption - mindless consumption. For example, in Dawn of the Dead (1978), zombies attack a mall, and with it the hedonistic lifestyles of the people taking refuge there. This iteration props up zombies as the consumers, and it is their mindless consumption that causes the fall of the very system they were overindulging in.

Then there was the AIDS scare, and the zombie threat evolved to match something that we can all vibe with here in the time of COVID: contagion. Now the zombie condition was something you could get infected with and turn into. In a video game called Resident Evil (1996), the main antagonist was a pharmaceutical company called the Umbrella Corporation that’s been experimenting with viruses and bio-warfare. In 28 Days Later (2002), viral apes escape a research lab and infect an unsuspecting public.

Nowadays, zombies are a means of expressing our contemporary fears of apocalypse. It’s no secret that the world has been on the brink for a while now, and everyone is waiting with bated breath for the other shoe to drop. Post-apocalypse zombie movies act as simultaneous male power fantasy, expression of contemporary cynicism, an expression of war sentiments, and a product of the zombie’s storied symbolic history. People are no longer able to trust the government, and in many ways people have a hard time trusting each other, and this manifests as an every-man-for-himself survivalist narrative. 

So why have zombies endured for so long, despite changing so much? Why are we so fascinated by them? Well, many say that it’s because zombies are a way for us to express our fears of apocalypse. Communism, radiation, contagion - these are all threats to the country’s wellbeing. Some might even say that zombies represent a threat to conversative America/white nationalism, what with the inclusion of voodooism, foreign entities, and late-stage capitalism being viewed as enemies.

Personally, I might partly agree with the conservative America thing, but I don’t think zombies exist to project our fears onto. That’s just how villains and monsters work in general. In fiction, the conflict’s stakes don’t hit home unless the villain is intimidating. The hero has to fight something scary for us to be invested in their struggles. But the definition of what makes something scary is different for every different generation and social group. Maybe that scary thing is foreign invaders, or illness, or losing a loved one, or a government takeover. As such, the stories of that era mold to fit the fears of that era. It’s why we see so many government conspiracy thrillers right now; it’s because we’re all afraid of the government and what it can do to us.

So if projecting societal fears onto the story’s villain is a commonplace practice, then what makes zombies so special? Why have they lasted so long and so prevalently? I would argue it’s because the concept of a zombie, at its core, plays at a long-standing American ideal: freedom.

Why did people migrate to the New World? Religious freedom. Why did we start the Revolutionary War and become our own country? Freedom from England’s authority. Why was the Civil War a thing? The south wanted freedom from the north - and in a remarkable display of irony, they wanted to use that freedom to oppress black people. Why are we so obsessed with capitalism? Economic freedom.

Look back at each symbolic iteration of the zombie. What’s the common thread? In the 20s/30s, it was about white fright. The fear that black people could rise up against them and take away their perceived ‘freedom’ (which was really just tyrannical authority, but whatever). During WWII, it was about foreign threats coming in and taking over our country. During Vietnam, it became about our military spinning out of control and hecking things up for the rest of us. In the 80s/90s, it was about capitalism turning us into mindless consumers. Then it was about plagues and hiveminds and the collapse of society as a whole, destroying everything we thought we knew and throwing our whole lives into disarray. In just about every symbolic iteration, freedom and power have been major elements under threat.

And even deeper than that, what is a zombie? It’s someone who, for whatever reason, is a mindlessly violent creature that cannot think beyond base animal impulses and a desire to consume flesh. You can no longer think for yourself. Everything that made you who you are is gone.

Becoming a zombie is the ultimate violation of someone’s personal freedom. And that terrifies Americans.

Although an interesting - and concerning - phenomenon is this new wave of wish fulfillment zombie-ism. You know, the gun-toting action movie hero who has the personality of soggy toast and a jaw so chiseled it could decapitate the undead. That violent survivalist notion of living off the grid and being a total badass all the while. It speaks to men who, for whatever reason, feel their masculinity and dominance is under threat. So they project their desires to compensate for their lack of masculine control onto zombie fiction, granting them personal freedom from obligations and expectations (and feminism) to live out their solo macho fantasies by engaging in low- to no-consequence combat. And in doing so, completely disregarding the fact that those same zombies were once people who cruelly had their freedom of self ripped away from them. Gaining their own freedom through the persecution of others (zombies). And if that doesn’t sum up the white conservative experience, I don’t know what does.

So yeah. That’s zombies, y’all.

Thanks for the ask!

[wanderingfan]

To Anyone Invested in the Current Pewdiepie Drama I Have Some Things to Say

I Have a Horrid Confession to Make...I was one of those kids that watched peediepie religiously. (yes I misspelled his name and no I won’t change it)

Don’t get me wrong. I stopped watching him in like my second year of high school. But it’s not because I realized he was a awful glob of wood glue right then and there.  This was almost a decade ago, before his antics made even gaming new sites, and while I was aware he made some awful jokes (namely ones about periods and that one Ao Oni video that I sincerely hope has been deleted by now) it didn’t stop me from simply moving on to the next video.  Sadly what stopped me was just that I got bored of him.  I, unaware of myself, quietly grew out of that phase of my life where I loved when he’d mentioned barrels and looked at deviantart to see how people depicted a pig and a golden statue from Amnesia. 

I was one of those embarrassing commenters who’d talk about the bro army and how we should be mad at barrels instead of each other and yes I deleted my entire account because I had the same one for five years and Youtube wouldn’t let me delete all my comments at once.  I did similarly embarrassing things for the Nostalgia Critic and MatPat too.  And like Pewdiepie, I grew out of that phase before their crap caught up with them.  I didn’t have the ability to reflect on my watching habit until my third year of college, and that’s because I was a closeted white girl who didn’t know I was closeted, who didn’t have a tumblr account until I turned 18, and had a high school history teacher that compared Pearl Harbor to the Atomic Bomb that was given the Best Teacher Award every year (she was fired eventually but it was long after I graduated.)

I think the name Wandering Fan suits me because while I fixate of certain sources of entertainment I move on fast.  When its good it can pull me back to series I loved (Undertale dont at me, Fruits Basket, The Last Airbender, ect.) but oftentimes when I look back on the stuff I used to obsess about I’m mortified (Ib, Twilight and Host, that one film about the two headed dragon that wore an Elvis outfit, god I can’t believe I told my family about Vampire Knight, ect.)

And I think as a wandering consumer I’ve gotten lucky to not put all my eggs in the wrong basket, but don’t think I’m fooling myself or that I think I’m above the people who are still in that eggs-in-one-basket phase.  If Pewdiepie did his anti-semite antics and his “oh i didn’t MEAN to promote a neo-nazi” spiel back when I was in middle school I absolutely would have been one of his defenders who thought his critics were just a little too mean to him.  Because I was part of the “bro army.”  Because I invested myself to watching his videos daily, even at the expense of the numerous things I could have done to improve myself, like actually reading the assigned books or practicing music.  I couldn’t have wasted my time watching him.  He was “important” to me.

But now I’m 23 years old.  I’m not the teenage girl who was encouraged to be kind and understanding to the worst kinds of people anymore.  I’m not the very smart very intellectual young lady who tried debating sexist boys younger than me when the new hip new thing to say was “not all men” and “sjws hate all men” and every girl who complained about character designs.  So when I learn that the people I currently follow and look up to do a bad, I can move on pretty easily.

Here’s the thing though.  While I naturally grow out of phases, I still had to actively learn to change how I view people and what it really takes to be observant.  I can still be nice, but I can also refuse to play polite when I know people are being malicious, unawares or not.  People have to actively learn to do better and be better for others, even if that means stepping on a few toes and letting go of the people you like.  Pewdiepie is 29.  As far as I know he never had to learn to do better, so he won’t be better.  There’s no incentive for him to.  There will always be young fans who will always watch him, because even if these fans move on there’ll always be younger fans to take their place.

All of this to say if you’re a 13-16 year-old mad at people being mean to Pewdiepie, you’re not an awful human being because the person you enjoy is in trouble and you want to defend them.  But he’s not worth it, and you’re going to grow out of him.  Pewdiepie is not the hill you’re going to die on.  People do not die on the hills they’ve claimed to be ready to die on, because eventually they’ll forget why they’re there and climb back down.  They’ll move on to other hills to die on, or they realize they can’t die on this hill, and will just enjoy the view for what it is.  But the people around them also don’t forget how they’ve been hurt, and threatened, and scared because of people who’ll die on the hill at the expense of everyone else’s safety and well-being.

But while Pewdiepie’s the hill you plan to die on I’m going to give you a bit of advice: next time you go on Youtube, search for something random, it could be about a game you’re interested in, or an animal you like, or a Simpson’s clip you heard referenced tons of times but never actually saw firsthand, or that vine where a guy high-fived a bumble-bee.  Do about three searches for different topics, then pick a video out from the suggestions page from an uploader you’ve never watched before.  Then go back to a Pewdiepie video.  You might realize you forgot about Pewdiepie for awhile, and maybe, just maybe, you’re interest in him will slowly but surely fade out of you’re mind.

And maybe a few years down the line you’ll be a little more ready to reflect on the people you looked up to and what you did in the time.  Look at your old comments and/or videos defending Pewdiepie and saying what he did wasn’t as bad and didn’t really hurt anyone, and anyone criticizing him is just an overreacting pc sjw.  Look at the people you might have hurt along the way and ask if they deserved it.

Self-reflection isn’t an ability that can grow without your awareness, like your nails or your hair.  Its like puberty.  It feels gross, and uncomfortable, and it’ll make you feel like a rotten apple a lot of times.  It’ll hurt.  It will make you feel bad, and you will not want to do it, and there’s a lot of people online who won’t make the attempt until they hit their twenties like me.  But the earlier you do it the easier it’ll be to avoid being fixated on people like Pewdiepie.  You don’t have to force yourself to hate Pewdiepie.  You just have to realize he’s not going to do better, but you can do better than him, and you no longer need him in your life.

Sorry for impromptu Ted Talk/ You’re-Not-Even-A-Mom-Stop-Acting-Like-One Lecture I just remembered my really embarrassing bro army comments from way back when and the fact that I deleted my account and had to resubscribe to like 200 channels ADD A DELETE ALL COMMENTS OPTION YOUTUBE PLS THX. 

[tocoworks]

💰💦💪How To Make More $$$ With These Freelancer Apps + Websites w/ 208 Monkeys' Damian Alpizar

Episode Sponsors below** Damian Alpizar is a director, producer, writer, photographer, editor, podcast host of The Wrap Party, and owner of 208 Monkeys, a video, film and animation production company in Ybor City, Tampa, FL.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT VIA DRAGON DICTATE

 Yes now you see the red light damage rely guys right I feel and get himself I like doing this little tease music and beginning now just before you really start to get a vibe going you know like foreplay if when are you today that yeah you play the role of my wife in a sitcom study that that set up just got done talking on them and let her we just got done talking about but we may have to get an apartment together because were nerdy out so much because were working so hard yeah yeah that's it but let's do no support the sponsors that support the show right back of like this if you like this podcast were trying to give you the pragmatic advice we stumbled upon via conversation or interview and so why not when I have a business line you know when I have a good app that is your business line not not don't go to Verizon go hey I need a second line added here's why did you get confused when it was on call it love it when idiots like that come in right in your call be like you do the joke I like to do you say no limit studios you know that's a funny answer quote unquote when someone when someone calls my personal line but now my business line so when people call business line we have say talk about your consulting no or we share the business line yeah you have the app you have the same line I do it's scalable so let's get some grasshopper action going on the virtual phone system you need to get for your business to eight monkeys.com let's get creative but our listeners get $50 off if they get a trygrasshopper.com/sweat let's TryGrasshopper.com/sweat and that's… Like Nelly Furtado in your favorite dude I don't remix like I'm not a good DJ but I am good at telling about good abs grasshopper the entrepreneurs phone Ray get this thing going and my dad is the thank you grasshopper hello we'll talk later a minute and a three and a two and a body chatty you love that love it I love it I love it why because I hated you I do I got there David yeah hey got new this thing will come in handy liberty do many episode today we've got some in the hopper coming up because I listen to a lot of podcasts and I hate when they just take the holidays office I do bake couple episodes so I was on my friend Krishna readies just tube which is science with a comedic kind of taste on it little approach to that Sweden's first one in here so it look very similar this set up when you see it if you want to watch a video and then we gotta do to two freebie shout outs to come to sponsors John Jacobs comedian buddy of our our program of cigar city comedy in this the Tampa Bay area he's got an album out called some Summers Southside we got a huge argument last night if you look up on iTunes I said he had to redo his album art because it has McDonald's logos as the atoms of what was the argument yeah it's like he doesn't want to change it so I was shot often to vehicles look at Jacobs do like this not an argument you have to do it he's here claiming parity law I said parity laws fine but Bill do a cease-and-desist and then by the time you figure it out it will be here at least that those that become like great marketing then because he's got like this to make it talk about so negative I will be to do that so I said if you have an organic audience and then you make it a big shade about it then yes that would be fine he doesn't have that you have a big enough audience for that to create like a crazy fervor on Twitter or whatever and then on the other side he does have the money for PRT and really execute that it's one of the other would come back from it so yeah just like because I feel like some of these PR like spats the really kinda calculated you know you were to do this on Tuesday morning because that's gonna be the album he dropped album on a Sunday Lord's day every album comes out on a Tuesday so I like that still exist yeah me anything about got drop bombs on Tuesday so you do on a Tuesday same it I think some people don't but same logic with movies so they did it on Fridays because you want the box office for the weekend they kept creeping back you want to get the midnight showing's accounts towards your first weekend all that stuff Tuesdays you do it so it has like a ripple effect throughout the week so a bunch of people bide on to say the big fans and then that'll have like a snowball fight for more people to hear about it more people to buy it Tuesday seem to be that's going to go away doesn't seem to me is that you still standard the right yeah but you know him say like it's not that you look at the physical CD copy but he does have some funny he does have some funny stuff and that's another interview we have banked that were to put on I go through Facebook I do like the music it's funny it's good it's really funny I I thought it was gonna be like really esoteric garbage and he did what I want to I don't like giving the confidence you do love you do love the very Tim and Eric that would be so yeah I would love to be Simon Rex turning into dirt nasty work be a rapper as a big show in a bisexual and right if this is what you know he is he is yeah sure no legislation so the other one hour another shot I will give is another comedian buddy Nick Cortes now will now check it out on Amazon and in iTunes as well give let give us a five star review give them a five star review all that should really help sets a cheat code like creep creep up the rankings so now that's out of the way yeah and half my body I used to tour with a love you know him and I will meet we get a lot of arguments but I still love him like a brother and he's opening for Foxworthy and Larry the cable guy over the country and cool which is cool but that is I see them big names but say what you I know I don't know say what you will about the those flavor of comedians by you know those guys have a crazy work ethic and you don't really get that good by being unfunny I think they chose a path of what yeah exactly latest decided they can just go right down that narrow little Foxworthy used to work at IBM smart noon that's Larry the cable guy from this area yeah yeah Hilda now cable guy surprises what yet when his accents fake to people it's an act I know that but I don't think everybody else does dude I was told some last night 1/3 of the country doesn't care about jokes feeling like no most the countries I am care but what's funny and so are just as like the other guys that is creative that's that's the property you know all that kind of stuff what what we want to get into we had some I told you to Cork until we started deeming outputs are what the net neutrality others mean there's that mean that that's a big thing right now especially a man much on a harp and be like oh no net neutrality is completely horrible I mean I understand why some corporations like hey look we need to you know what is it for about wondering what okay will net neutrality and and and and and I'm trying to existing not skip and jump all over the place I'm also directing over here because it's got some with me was got some weird angles that is trying to jump to the wife it is had to do it yourself well you know how it would please the showoffs yes director heads it's like picking want to keep talking people's heads it now it's the Meebo's fault now you claim in the I am or what I am I am you had I am totally annoyed by no no no you didn't I see nothing episodes and he just get head chopped off quite a bit so no so one of things what net neutrality in an in layman's terms is that originally the Internet was supposed to be like the information as long as you're going through an ISP it was all treated equally no matter what band with you so if you are going with streaming nine porn videos at one time if you streaming nine porn videos at one time or if you're just putting up some text you got equal pager you paid your ISP you got through it you you you you pay for your band with and you can use have been with as as needed the analogy that I saw on Forbes I believe was shelving on in a supermarket where you know you people in retail they pay for in a preferred shelving and pervert space in the supermarket to consumer preferences and consumer preferences pay more its dynamic pricing you pay more to be on the in At a grocery store I'm kind of obsessed with I like a lot of that stuff like will the serial killer existing to pay a lot more to be on the in because you impulsively get Cocoa crispies or whatever they remember the commercial where the guy was walking squatted down and there's trying to sell that bag cereal on the bottom of the shelf whole gimmick was that he was walking real short and that's alien pay extra for literary people don't want to bend over so that the loan literally they don't exist at all know that serial anywhere you and then a new answer and then they do the reverse one now were people now know to go down to the lower floor so this like the pen ultimate the one that's just off that I noticed that the other day the frosted flakes like on the bottom like the that will be going on on the bottom if there was a printed Lord of the frosted flakes on the bottom because kids can reach and grab it and put in the car they want to put those were dry it can grab it like I did grab the process of the worst box sometimes is the not the bottom but right above that and then ultimate the top because most people can't grab the stuff on the top so so you just cook is like I do that sometimes my I don't have I got like T Rex arms like the you know when you do this you do your wingspan does and how tall it mine site I be like a midget is essentially really worth excuse me little little human could to sell yourself short arms how much shorter are the now I don't know not much but it's alligator arms measure that and I always do the debate like I get someone from Publix over here now just get the thing I don't want to try to there house been what is never seen convenience be such a big part of business dynamics now because it used to be used to be price or uniqueness right does work on it right here and now convenience, in the middle of that yet convenience time time is to be the big thing but now it's now convenient as it is another big factor that's all was basically happening is that but you see stores have limited space they have square walls they have an area that they have to stay within so you can charge more for premium space and things of that nature but when you come to the Internet which doesn't have any limitations as to realistically does have a notation it and you can't say that oh you're running out of space on the Internet or speed on the Internet really you're not so what is happening is that now the ISPs can say hey you know what Netflix you've got a whole lot of people using your stuff were going to charge you more to access and push through intern human Netflix obviously being a corporation is going to just eat that cost are going to raise their price and that consumers will not have to for Netflix get more but here's the problem is that let's say Disney is getting ready to do their streaming service right and they strike a deal you already know the disease try to strike a deal by Fox what if they struck a deal with Verizon and say guess what will make sure that all of our streaming services only go through Verizon network so if you're on the spectrum or another network of any type now you can get the Disney streams of youth the log on to their that particular ISP provider to get that because now does he like okay well you can go with you guys versus because you guys giving us the better deal for the band with you giving us your giving us a better deal for Ben with will go you guys that that the blocks out the other guys now Netflix is only available in one versus it being neutral were all of them are treated the same and anyone and as a consumer we can pick and choose and just let the free market that neutrality I thought it was reverse of what you think it is by the name you want net neutrality want not want all you want to want to be neutral yet you want you want all the ISPs to treat all of the providers equally no matter how much popularity and that their business doing great you don't want them to say hey by the way you got a great service right to charge more for now the rock is a problem with that is that everybody says all man net neutrality site will note that the the law against it whatever that so that the problem is that whoever branded this did a really good job yeah fuses me every time I listen to it I hear it my lizard brain goes what should be neutral and then I think I don't know like what you want and I want it over the Internet will be free market and then like and I have to remember that it's not admit it's not at first blush what you think it is and if you like work in this world a little bit or a lot I'd say I feel like the generation older than us supercomputer I'm sure there's so many complaint letters that went in that said get rid of that neutrality and they think they're wanting one thing when there now well then yeah that means probably get it had to happen to his I hear it all the time and and and it could be confusing because you have to look at it and say okay why do I want all of my providers to be treated equally will you want them to be treated equally so that when it's up to their service to you that's going to determine how successful they are you want to be a matter of that they made a deal in the back in with somebody and now all of a sudden because they made a deal they blocked out competition and that's the problem that you're running into situation were now corporations are deciding what can be the better service for you to have and your internets can go out so we are to go up it's weird that in all, revolves around corporate consolidation because I do not feel so that John Oliver piece couple weeks ago is great iconic explain like every big business in the United States is all corporate consolidation like so therefore ISP there's a for Internet people you can choose from basically Google fiber tried to get in the market it you literally have to lay fiber down like there's fiber that goes from from the East Coast United States across to Europe like there's little I know it's crazy that's so crazy sitting on the ocean floor there's good Michael Lewis I was called flash boys about how these guys manipulated the market because they could get I have second faster from the Chicago trade to where the servers were so that Chicago's marketplace Star Trek stock marketplace Jesus Christ to New Jersey that so it's all about this guy like train the pipeline through Pennsylvania Mountains and stuff to get 1/2 second faster made boot two dollars because their Internet connections faster essentially airlines right it's all it's all an oligopoly I get a lecture from my good buddies because I went on a rant couple years goes like it's all godly man like preach price fix how many airlines are there the four right Southwest Delta American United maybe I think we only fly spirit because my wife is cheap that doesn't really count as that's like Greyhound that people bring on like Phil and Joe Stelzer L no not wearing shoes and chickens flying around inside then they charge you for like headphones that you brought so like what happens is with the net neutrality stuff this year for providers right it's like a double flock of us think about it so you only have for you we have most places you have one or two to pick from the United States Internet wise right and then from there now were seen the Disney fox probable no acquisition of Fox which they'll take Julio and it will be a juggernaut against Netflix both are huge sucks on on Internet bandwidth and then they now have their own kind of bottleneck on the entertainment stuff that everybody wants see I okay so these this could be a good thing just like your mom say yeah my mom would find a silver lining is so will you get every movie ever I don't remember what 20 but is there's a city that's they're gonna start treating broadband Internet like a utility where the city's organist start developing their own broadband system somehow and then providing it from there and then you also got I don't know if that's a good idea it's an option are more options I mean what we can only choose one electric provider right now I don't think that's a great great thing is manna because they bring our options because they lobby to block solar energy for long time which means were worth talking laggard state always here we also just go to make a get to the point where Elon musk puts all his Wi-Fi balloons in the space and then we all have Wi-Fi for free forever it will write our I'm trying to think of how this affects most people really on the ground level because while we can you know is it it's like the tax stuff that everybody's pitch about maybe seven days ago already forgot that's what's crazy about all the new cycle is like it is so ADD out that like I can want to write down what people are already in hysterics like put it on the wall remember that if we can go talk a month later bola and we look like were very thoughtful yeah well this is that I mean unfortunately it's it's you know people very forgetful and I think that definitely there and as it were in a teenage were all that was so tweeted you know five minutes ago but it will affect people long run there's a mic and harp on Amicus at them like oh no you all rise and and and they got people that are fighting against it there's going to be the must center actually sent me a letter saying sorry that that got those kind of messed up energy that are lower than ours online sorry RR Sen. right I didn't get anything well which Sen. Utah yeah other public figure usually Hoosiers not going to LaRose on most are you on the inside no way I read the thing is failure rather will have two senators already sorry I rep about this but let's let's dovetail this into some Moroccan out looking at because I'm certain of the tax stuff and that was affecting a lot of freelancers right because I've got 15 minutes until I got to get out here and that that affects on freelancer's of what they're some of the tax code that there is a change you can't get nearly the write-offs that you do now that was to be the big overall thing and what's crazy about that is you now you see New York City if your independent contractor now they kinda have laws to protect them a little bit like minimums and like and things things that higher rate people that are hired and freelancers have to do now which is good and bad at the same time with it for like it's good but it kind of defeats the purpose after while that gets to restrictive well the thing is with freelance in particular like for example and in our industry which is primarily the foreman and movie industry freelancers are essential to me they are the ones that projects are spaced out and so in order for you to if you are going to commit yourself to one particular job that's a sound guy and you got equipment and even all these things that you have to rewrite often the travel there's a lot of things that right that are involved with freelance work that should be expensed nicer restricting some of that and you start give making it so that it different more difficult for these independent workers to find work because let's face it it's not like videos being shot every day they have to go where the work is and throughout the state of Florida's perceived nonunion so you run into the situation where they have to get equipment update their stuff keep up with the gas to all the stuff you certainly start restricting some of those things that are in that our tax write offs and now they are in a position that it hurts them at the end of year this is good already have a cheat sheet for this because I wrote this down I was going to do a blog posting and I was five I broke this long I was on a flight route this like is towards my standup comedian brother and that I don't like when they pitch about life they can't make enough money because they can clearly do something on the side and this is good is appropriate for a podcast because it's a lot of people that might want to do their own thing or not doing it because they need a little bit more cash flow or while they're doing it they need to add some other income coming in and I will always tell the comedians of my you could be content writers you know you could be you write all the time you to be social media marketers to since I get to the side gig yeah why not abort the kick at current answer is just work harder not not to that but I'm saying like the it's kind of a separate thought are turning old white man you know will I feel like a low-sodium fire suit straddling and get your ship but I do feel like you can that can be a self fulfilling prophecy that it defeated some kind of attitude were you go let me I'm already doing this you know like I yeah like I've had three gigs going at all times for 10 years and yeah a little crazy but it's made me so good and send so many different ways that were doing meetings I'm not nervous to talk about certain the law stuff will I think I mean freelancers and again I'm only speaking about in particular in my industry freelancers in mind she can sometimes moonlight in other positions rats okay but when you're let's say you're in contracted guys right right your to like production stuff is like your contracted for months right I'm talking about like I was directing this more towards people who say they want to do something I wanted to start this but the goat man I don't have I have a job and you know like you like okay we have let's just break it down if you have a 50 hour week job call at all that put people on the on the defense of the cool want to prickle that down but way too busy to even do that right wool coat let's call it 9 to 5 job I don't know including like an hour like get there get back you know whenever Scott 50 hours right and then 60 just be conservative you got 20 other hours a week probably right depends if you have family kids mail it all depends what I say I know that's a really nice letter yes right but the yes here's a list of sites you can go on and you can do freelance work in this gig economy right so it's I think that's what it's coined as the gig economy you can go on up work with the lance and O desk merge together it's the biggest freelancer website this is also good for project manager to people that need other people to it that's probably the best marketplace for the soft skill stuff programmers graphic designers animators video editors I think I haven't done it on there but we need to get our agency account back up because the more you do on their you knocking started a high dollar per hour at first because you don't have any reviews yet you haven't done anything so what with all this stuff online decide to him to give out you going to start a low dollar per hour in the news creep it up the more jobs you do the more five-star reviews you have the better right so up work there's guru that's a 1.5 million freelancers on that with the time tracking system freelancer.com fiver which is kind one of my favorites yeah it in and then just because fiber don't think that you start off at five dollars and you can now offer a five dollars service but their people are starting off their you might hire Ira five Ron Tosh .0 when they used to pay five bucks for people to do silly stuff around the world and then I looked at it because I would do it for like a joke for fantasy football get some someone you don't know like that's worth five bucks yeah I said something and it's fun it's funny to me it's worth five dollars S what what I see Eric now going on five or me like I want people to snow just to silly stuff for me in Uganda is like that can go to fark is that YouTube guy puny pie he tried to do it any try to do like I Hitler joker some basically took him out of Disney's favor ruined up so don't hurt too far with your Hitler jokes is as a house if so fiber is a good one if you need like little things done you know I need to get the background out of this photo can you take that out in vector that out were can you do a jingle for me or voiceover sometimes those like little things that can just prolonged projects that you need sometimes you get that done pretty quickly let's see I you got a menu got over left you see a lot of that going on the rideshare stuff yeah you can do for each grub hub delivery all that were the other sets of that task rabbit in some cities for writers online writing jobs.com daily posts text broker journalism jobs.com and pinch me.org those are all good writer no losses he doesn't really prepare these pockets but he seems awfully prepared thank you for the ship this hope this was for this was for a blog post and research for nap for one of our clients had it I have in my Evernote ready to go and we start on about tax codons like yeah yeah yeah yeah visual exclude visual arts jobs you can put your creative's on be Hanse.net which I like because that's were like the kind of the best graphic designers are the Hants the Hanseatic that the heart part of Adobe now I figured is kind of prepping me for when you tell me to hit the bricks know so you listen to the podcast schedule… Talking with you as I write to give the fungi of the flipside of this is a second because it's not it people think that's easy like it's easy to screw over get freelancers a lot of what we do here is switchboard operator flock load of freelancers right yeah so you need you need good operating contracts independent contractor operating agreements need legal that's the other part say they say you get a logo made by graphic designer they just copy it from someone don't get the license don't tell you about it and then you pass it on company uses it now your indemnification just like the McDonald's and Jacobs iTunes art I told him I was like your signed contract from it help you because if I put ads out and it leads to iTunes album cover that has a McDonald's logo on it I can be I can control tubes can have a hard time making the song taken a big Mac big time for charities yeah what a mean-spirited I think I hear you say what everyone is like is a whole album about McDonald's is no title to food okay will when I made it home if it is a movie that pretty much bashed McDonald's entire times I'm pretty sure the king when the founder no no not not not not the founder that's good movies I like that the founder they you know McFadden's oversizing supersize me yeah so soon what were those chains were supersize out of it so so you can't and you can't tell freelancers as someone hiring when you can't tell him hey I need to be online this dated this the of these hours or I need you to do I need to be in office like you know 95 it doesn't work like that you have to give them due dates for everything so it is a pain in the ass to hire freelancers the beginning if you haven't really done it and you try do a lot of them to save money week on occult money bawling the best like teams best groups of people together because now everything so segmented out for the online world let us talk about that like there's 40 different kind of programmers there's 40 different styles of graphic design yeah things will we do more valuable oh right so why not pluck the best specialists out when they have time and you need a specialist to know you know because you can't just be like hell, to start a company and I don't anything about the sums going to go ahead and you know pulling a much freelancing traffic I need this you still need to vet those guys and look at their work and say yes worth it and yet not not worth it and so that takes professional life so that that is what we as switchboard operators would still need to operate in an in a show our expertise in that sense and the other went on to throughout there because I'll have a few minutes before I get a heart out is is LinkedIn's legit if you're looking I we was gonna save you bring up a can link to click and heat how do I don't understand the wording I will eventually sponsor the show hello it right now you do so for you for instance because you just got your profile on we need to add a bunch of stuff on there you've worked on a bunch of stuff in the last nine months so I need to write a recommendation for you so you need to go out and request some from people all he is so setting you up for for moving on into freelance world no online resume thing away into the make here is it all helps because your under our company account it says you you work here at took about a consulting so the better your profile the better our profile as a whole but at the same time all the connections are better to so the more user profile the better I can reach out to people to it just it built that social capital is a call it a dishy term but Pro finder you should be on LinkedIn Pro finder there's no reason both yell should be on their it's free to sign up I was at a meeting last night happy are just having beers on site just do this while you're sitting here it takes three minutes to fill out an application no you have thought that much and I've gotten for really high quality leads for proposals just from that and I haven't done anything it just like a Angie's list of business professionals essentially but it it just use your profile so people can look at it and I had like all over the board, thing like had some that were print consulting price consultant which I don't really push out there that much but I guess someone to put it in my skills endorsements I think prices are saying that I was like yeah I we can deftly help you that that is that is that it that's what this podcast for the time yet so look that's my advice those are the list of sites on it were to Dragon dictate this out and hopefully I don't have to do too much editing but will all the links of the places I just said should be in the transcript on our site will replace the blog post so real quick before you head up so we can wrap this up holiday in holiday planning special holiday plans are you yoga first why get this music going fine art no now like the end like not even trying out a family are you seeing anything, knowing that while my wife probably is I have no idea my in-laws are coming over think spending the night waiting for Santa and then that's it also do you have any kind like a holiday tradition that you normally do if you started a huddled under Francis I mean I think Christmas has enough traditions only to be make up my own well-known on on my talk about slaughter pressure will know sorry life example will are are were trying to start like my family had their holiday tradition and then were trying to start like me and my wife are trying to start a kind of a neurologist right now are the only thing we got so far is keeping each Christmas tree from each year to the to make an art piece out of it later on but I'm just saying like the only thing we thought it was like a reporter changing credit to reclaim what I was asked to go to the dump why don't we just save these every year until the we have enough until I decide to smooth a lot more work to save a minute if the people who had ratified I would've prefer to throw more but I see the man is behind the art and the history behind it so I understand what you're Cuban to do the notes what is it the no show the rail note of when I let you do you deny that she go to hang on a spit we don't especially since we had a pet pig for a long time so we don't put the guns but we do Panini but we don't ask to put the pig on a spit and there's a Tampa Bay times writer that was looking for someone to write an article so if you want to do what you got going on just ugly ugly Christmas where parties can have actually went because of my recent life changes wedding and now home possibly yours to buy my house can't take that back I said possibly you were actually doing will try to keep it easy for everybody and not worry about get the change just have a good gathering food in an ugly sweater party of the onesie party to look as good intentions will seal that plays out we get we wish you for that but we don't do it I haven't I don't think I've ever left for Christmas ever my family is one of the rare families it's been in Tampa for like four generations or something mind to witness they're all here yeah so it it kinda sucks when it's really hot to doesn't feel like Christmas on a night like Christmas 80° right now but you were three days is hang out I'm excited to see our little boy is about you mean your kids are right and the best age that well yet evident Tom Iverson so close five and five and 217 FF know you're the one great improper notice yes and yes and I have other kids that other different ages I know I said 70 but they it's a good age for them yet for sure there that's the best age the right there in the suites but I'm pretty sure my daughters onto it like she's not in ugliness and a ship next year she is already get to the bottom of things do show or cramp us I was looking that up the other day I think a pretty good movie yeah I thought I better highlights its name from you if it's a comedy horror it's actually really good movies as far as holiday movies are concerned and since I'm the movie guy here grandpa's jacket off yeah all right will let's let's play it out thanks for hanging out yeah man hey LLC guys between now and then I