In case I don’t make that here’s my script on my feelings toward SOPA and PIPA. Please chime in and let me know your thoughts.

“Hi, I’m Rawrb and I’m an artist. I write, produce, and sing for a comedic metal band called Psychostick. I also draw and maintain a web comic called Alfredo Afro.

I’d like talk about the artist’s perspective (my perspective, at least) on SOPA and PIPA, which have been extremely controversial subjects across the internet, consumers, government officials, and artists alike.

My band Psychostick is a band who I would consider an “internet generation” band. Our popularity and growth didn’t start happening until around 2006 when torrents and file sharing were starting to re-emerge after Napster and other types of file sharing software were banned by the government.

The reason why SOPA and PIPA is on the verge of becoming a reality is because we’ve been a bit irresponsible about how we acquire music, movies, software, and just about anything else that’s downloadable. There’s a line that has been crossed and even blurred out, and I’d like to go back and examine that line.

The internet changed the world. It’s spawned billionaires, created unforgettable sources of entertainment, and it has even helped free countries from tyrannical governments. My band would not be here today if it wasn’t for the internet and I would probably be sitting in a cubicle, working on boring projects that would drive me to insanity.

Thank you, internet.

As Psychostick’s popularity has grown, it’s sales has continued to deteriorate. That doesn’t make any sense, does it?

Our first album, “We Couldn’t Think of a Title,” has sold roughly 50,000 copies since 2006. This is rather astounding due to the declining CD sales we face today.

Since then our numbers have declined, and there can be many variables to this, but I’m almost certain this is related to how available our music is without charge to anyone who knows how to acquire it.

“Sandwich,” our follow up album, is selling around 17,000 copies. And our newest album, “Space Vampires VS Zombie Dinosaurs in 3-D,” is closing in at 6,000 copies.

I am just as guilty as anyone – I’ve utilized torrent websites to snag movies, music, and some software for my own entertainment and benefit. When SOPA and PIPA started gaining momentum, I was quick to oppose those bills due to their extreme reaction to ongoing piracy.

That’s the issue at hand. Giving the government complete control over the internet and who gets to regulate what is a very EXTREME reaction. I don’t know about you, but the government is terrible at regulating just about anything.

Look at how well the war on drugs is going.

Have you seen how well they’ve handled their own finances? What’s the debt at now? It’s a number that is impossible to pay back.

I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want them regulating OUR internet. Rest assured, they’ll screw that up too.

The Solution

Measures have been taken by some companies to adapt to the piracy issue. Apple, for instance, has launched their App Store for OSX Lion. Here you can find and purchase just about any software you want or need with a couple clicks. Since the purchase is completely digital a tremendous amount of manufacturing cost is eliminated, therefore most of that software is reasonably priced.

Steam is another great example of adaptation. They provide to you a gigantic library of video games that you can download and play, all while keeping reasonable prices and maintaining the convenience of simply downloading a game and playing it.

As for music and movies, iTunes and Amazon.com provides access to a massive variety of artists and films all available with a few clicks or taps.

But why bother with any of those when you can find a torrent website and download them for free? Free is nice, isn’t it? You can save your money and purchase other things you can’t download for free like HDTVs, delicious food, and nice clothes.

All of a sudden we feel entitled to find whatever we want for free. Matter of fact, part of the extreme reaction to SOPA was somewhat knee-jerky. While I feel that SOPA was indeed overboard, the intentions are meant to prevent piracy. After all, stealing is bad… right?

… right?

This subject is suddenly extremely touchy. Why do we suddenly feel this entitlement to any bits of music, movies, or software without having to actually pay for it? How did it come to that?

Now we’ve stepped into the realm of morality. Is it wrong for someone to download someone else’s hard work for absolutely free?

This has suddenly become a question most people struggle with. We might want to consider stepping back and taking an introspective look at where we stand on this subject.

Imagine spending months upon months, thousands upon thousands of dollars working on an album, or a project of any kind, that you’ve poured your blood, sweat, and tears into. Imagine if this is your living; how you pay the bills, feed your family, etc.

Would it bother you if you were losing a vast majority of your sales because anyone who knew how torrents work could easily snag your project for absolutely nothing?

Whatever your answer is, there are always different solutions. For example, we’ve made our albums extremely affordable in a digital format to coerce those that prefer to “borrow” our work from the internet.

Louis CK made one of his comedy specials available for five bucks. I bought it because I thought, “Hey, it’s only $5. I’d feel like a douchebag if I stole it and it’s available for so cheap.”

This won’t fix the problem, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Conclusion

There’s a problem with the economic model of “all free, all the time.” Despite what you might think, artists do need some form of currency to survive. Aside from expression and creativity, what sort of motivation does an artist need to create art?

If people aren’t paying for music, movies, or software, how can the creators survive and continue to create the art and tools that we all love?

Let’s be accountable. SOPA and PIPA are in motion because we’ve been irresponsible with our internet.

If you like something, and want to support where it came from, buy it. Donate to it.

Support it.

Isn’t it time for us to grow up?

Thanks for reading. What do you think?

I’m glad to be able to understand children’s stories.

My point is that I am considering merging this blog with my Alfredo Afro blog. I’m simply trying to narrow down my plethora of projects. I don’t see the point in having multiple blogs, especially when I really pour much of my creative energy into something else that is just more entertaining to viewers, funner for me, and a lot less preachy.

Of course I’m always wanting to change shit around, and I own something like 25 domains, so this is nothing new.

I could easily change my mind in 12 or so minutes.

Shock and TERROR.

There was a former bassist from a very famous metal band that I met recently. The dude did several world tours, helped deliver the band he was in to superstardom, and then walked away from it all. Parties, travelling, tour buses, all that stuff – GONE. “How could he do that?” you ask?

I think I understand why.

Getting burnt out can happen to anyone. It almost happened to me right before we recorded “The Digital Appetizer.” I almost stepped back and walked away. I’m obviously very glad I didn’t since we’re making tremendous progress. Sometimes, though, it is tempting. Those late nights where I just want to get away and I can’t, I become tempted. When dramatic nonsense hits the fan, I become tempted. When, as a leader and owner, my decisions get constantly challenged/questioned and I want to punch faces, I become extremely tempted.

Of course, these are things that have to be dealt with. The pros FAR outweigh the cons in the long run.

So what the hell is my problem? I think I just need a break. Luckily in 3 days I’ll be home.

Playing video games. Wonder if I can just let my phone battery die and not touch it for three days? Hmm.

Here are 3 out of the 73 games that are coming out this month that I have to play:

Did all game devs get together and decide to release all their games all at once? NOT NICE.

Of course, SKYRIM is the one I want the most. I preordered it for the PC (Boot Camp in my case) and probably will ignore all other games for a good month. Heh.

I loved Oblivion, but there were several factors about that game that really limited my enjoyability. For starters, there were probably about 10 voice actors for all the different races. Encompass all those voices across hundreds of characters and there’s an issue with monotony.

Worth bitching over? Not at all. The game is a work of art, and it seems with Skyrim they’ve addressed all the little “thingies” that were goofy. So yeah, can’t wait to get my digital hands on that’n.

I’ve got quite a bit to cover here so I’ll make ‘er good.

The new Psychostick design is finished. It’s not active as of this writing since I’ve fixed a few more bugs (the last post ended up being irrelevant after I simplified some CSS), but I’m going to go on record and say that it’s once of the best designs I’ve ever come up with. I took a different approach this time and put everything aside (and I do mean EVERYTHING) and focused on it fully. I didn’t even play video games. After about a month and a week, it’s finished.

I’m launching it Tuesday morning and waiting for any bugs to creep up.

I’ve decided not to be afraid of PNGs anymore. Apparently Internet Explorer 6 and 7 doesn’t render PNG alpha transparency properly, thus many designers are weary of using them. The filesize is larger too.

The advantages of PNGs?

• The awesomeness that is alpha transparency
• It supports millions of colors like JPEGs.
• They just look better than GIFs and JPEGs.

Hopefully within the next year or two fear of PNGs will be completely gone and those who use old versions of IE are banned from the internet somehow.

The new Psychostick design uses PNG files where necessary, and parts of the page take longer to download with slow connections. At this point it’s so much less of an issue; most people have broadband nowadays and don’t use older IE browsers. Those that DO are usually older, less savvy folk who still churn butter by hand.

Anyway, blah blah blah internet blah blah blah graphics blah blah blah cake.

I’m also able to work on the new album again, plus I can continue my work on Alfredo Afro. I haven’t even touched my yet-to-be-released web comic since I started on Psychostick’s design, and my involvement with the new record had been reduced since then. This is no longer the case. I’m all, back and stuff. It’s time to get these projects DONE so I can get paid. I need a new Mac. :]

I also just snagged one of these. Wacom Intuos 4 Medium. This thing doesn’t just rock, it METALS.

Awesome Wacom.

For a productivity tool, I’ve switched to Omnifocus from Things. In the Mac world, there’s a huge debate going on between these two programs. Often times they’ll be a large drawn-out article comparing the two in extreme detail. In contrast, I can easily deduce for you which one would be better for you.

• If you are a business owner with many, many tasks and can’t afford a secretary to keep track of everything, go with Omnifocus.
• If you are a normal Joe with a day job and are just trying to keep things in order at work and at home, Things is more up you alley.

These two programs are both modeled around the “Getting Things Done” methodology, which is (in my opinion) the most robust way to make yourself productive. So if you feel as if your life, both professional and personal, is cluttered, you should definitely check out Getting Things Done. Read the book and decide for yourself how you prefer to keep organized.

Alrighty, gonna hop back to it. Maybe I’ll try and finish a comic today to snap into the queue.

Not that “gotta-collect-everything-in-Oblivion” busy, but actual busy!

For starters, let’s talk Alfredo Afro. I had to put it on hold last week due to a little Psychostick store launch, but I picked back up on it yesterday and things are moving along. 46% as of this writing, which at 60% means I’m done with the website and it’s ready for beta testing. The remaining 40% are the actual comics themselves. That part will probably take me the longest. Some I can crank out in an hour, and some are far more complicated and take several hours.

Investing time and money into this is becoming more a reality for me. Not in a bad way, but in a “woah, this might actually work” direction. Here’s a little clutter on my desk right now:

Yep. Paper, pencil, rulers - old school. You can see my little Wacom tablet where the blue circle light is.

Of course, many of you are asking, “Can you actually draw worth a damn?” My answer is, “I can draw well enough to get away with LOOKING like I can draw worth a damn.” Does that make sense? It will hopefully before the end of the year. Heh heh.

As of right now I have to finish more of the programming and work on polishing the site. I try to hop from web development to drawing so I don’t burn myself out. So far so good, but the real test lies when I’m cranking out two comics a week consistently. The mid-term lies in actually completing the initial batch of comics. I’ve got something like 30 comic concepts sitting in the queue. More are added regularly.

I try not to get ahead of myself either; usually at this stage with a project I’ve given up. This is definitely a sign that I should see this through to the end. I’ve got a few people genuinely interested in what this is going to turn into. By the time it launches, if all the pieces are in place (and they should be), it should spread like a viral wildfire STD. Hmm… trying to picture that… ouch, eww, and uhh, *barf*

Anyway.

Tomorrow, my stupid band and I will be hashing out some new songs. There’s a ton for us to do there, plus I’ve got to redesign and optimize Psychostick.com as well as a few other things. Oh, let’s not forget the artwork for the new record too.

Busy? Naawhhh…

Oh, I sold my iPad. Crazy, huh? iRawrb selling an Apple product. What’s wrong with me?

Curiosity. Oh yes, it’s that simple.

People always want to know the hidden, secret stuff. Those ridiculous magazines you see when you’re buying groceries is another sample. “Brad and Jen reunion! Angelina shoots heroin!” It’s completely insane but we ALL want to know about it. We’re pulled in because we’re curious and that’s just flat out not gonna change.

This is also true for bands – people all want the inside scoop on the internal workings of the band. They want to know why members leave, who butts heads with who, blah blah blah. From the band’s perspective, keeping the peace and trying to keep all internal problems… well, INTERNAL, is a frustrating struggle that I can’t begin to describe.

A band’s business is their business, not yours. If they choose to share that’s their decision. People ask about Mike and Jimmy all the time; it’s not their business! I’ve got my thoughts on those two but I can’t exactly dump all that to you. Not even in person. Not only is it not your business, but you’re not exactly going to benefit from knowing what’s going on either. Right?

So while I do appreciate the concern you have for the band members you admired that are no longer with us, please respect the internal private workings of our stupid band and we’ll call it even. Cool?

Cool.

Despite ALL my hard work and efforts, ALL my honesty, ALL of my evidence, ALL the reassuring, there are times when it’s just not enough. I exhaust all approaches and methods I can think of to rectify problems and tough situation between myself and others. I do all I can think of, and I get nowhere.

Where do I go wrong? These are strange situations. I’m not used to being the “bad guy.” I’ve always been able to make things work. I’m a problem solver by nature (must be why I like programming so much), so when something goes unsolved it drives me crazy. I’m having an extremely hard time just letting things go. I just want to understand so I can move forward, but at times I can’t even communicate with the person(s) in question. They’ll cut all ties and I refuse to resort to childish methods that I feel would harm my personal ethics. Plus I’m not a child.

Does that make me stubborn? Refusal to try childish methods that might get me answers? I think it shows a tremendous amount of integrity; standing by my morals and being confident in my position. Those who observe my actions and dealing with those that are butting heads with me can easily tell that I do everything in my power to create common interest. I don’t feel I was ever lacking in my communication to those who refused to truly open up and discuss the issues at hand. “If you want to talk about it, come talk to me about it!”

“I’m here if you want to talk.”

“Call me if you need anything.”

I can’t tell you how many times I say this. Do I have some sort of hard-to-deal-with nature? Why do I give off that vibe when I intend the opposite?

Ugh. Such a frustrating situation. Even though I try to dismiss any hope of actually resolving the situation, DESPITE my efforts, I feel rather misunderstood and disturbed that the other side of the coin never took the time to understand my side (to avoid hypocrisy, I have rationalized the other side of my coin, and things still don’t make sense to me). I guess some folks out there are literally ALL about themselves and nothing more.

Disappointing. What did I learn?

• It’s absolutely impossible to please everyone. This is why we still have the two retarded political parties.
• People will likely NEVER pull you aside and actually confront you if they have a problem. They’ll be passive. You’re going to have to almost beat the truth out of ‘em.
• If you attempt to confront others, 90% of the time you won’t get the whole truth.
• Emotion will always overrule rationality, EVEN WHEN ALL CARDS ARE ON THE TABLE AND THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY YOU ARE WRONG.
• People will almost always blame someone or something else when they are threatened to look within for problems.

Make all the assumptions you want, this blog is about my general experience with people and not any single situation. Just thought you should know.

Ahem. Anyway, I had a question come in, and it took me a while to get to it. Sorry ’bout that.

Name: Simon

Subject:  Blarg. I think advice is needed.

Question: Pluh Rawrb-ski

I got a problem with my band

Basically theres me, a keyboardist and a bassist. We are an industrial metal band and stuff, inspired by many bands including the ‘stick, and yeah.

Anyway, we can’t find any decent guitarists/drummers and I could do with some tips.

Plus we had to change our bandname after some copyright thingiemajigabie and we’ve ran out of ideyarrs. Anyhelp?

PLUUUHHH FROM UK

Wheeelp, I don’t know how publication works over there in the UK, but start hitting up newspapers and online networking to get some recruitment going. Go to local shows, talk to other bands, make buddies. Ask ‘em if they know anyone who’s free and looking to join up a band. You’ll almost always find someone to join up. That’s how we found Alex – Phoenix New Times. RAWR! The band name thing is just gonna have to be you constantly thinking of ideas. Toss ideas around with your bandmates. No matter what, once you’ve told yourself you need to think of a band name, you mind will always be working on it. I thought of the Psychostick band name half-asleep at 2:00 AM.

AND… that’s all. I got a couple web jobs lined up (WOOHOO), so I’ll be able to make my move sooner than later. I’ve missed my Xbox. Plus Jarsh gets here in a few days – hooray for songwriting!

People want to succeed – they do. Inherently, of course. Doing whatever it takes to move forward is another story, and that – it seems – is where most fall short and seriously start to lack real accountability for their actions. Better yet, accountability for their LACK of action.

Here are my thoughts on how to take the right steps towards success and happiness.

• Accept criticism from your peers and superiors. If people are taking enough time to talk to you to help you “see the light” or whatever, listen with an open mind. Take notes. Don’t fight or make excuses, just listen. If justification for your behavior makes sense, plead your case, but don’t make excuses. People will always see you in a different light than you see yourself. If someone has been doing what you want to do long than you have, and possibly better, they have wisdom to share. BASK IN IT. Many times you will simply not like what you hear, and you may even disagree, but you can learn and grow from it. (Note: This does not mean “roll with the punches.”)
• Keep the lines of communication open. This one baffles me. I am presently in a situation where I simply need to talk to a person for a few minutes, but I’m getting the silent treatment due to some irrationality. If you keep your ears and eyes open, take a phone call, respond to an e-mail/text, you are at the very least facing the right direction for progress.
• Be accountable. Know when you messed up. Learn from it.
• Think big. Simply focusing on the little, day-to-day dramatics will not get you any closer towards the big payday. You do have to deal with the little stuff, of course, but don’t get swept away by it. It’s good to ask yourself, “Is this what I truly want to be doing? How is this getting me closer to my dreams?”
• Be happy. Sound stupid, right? It’s not. If you’re not happy, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Even if you have to make huge changes in your life that affect others, you deserve to be happy.
• Do, or do not. There is no try. Yoda is brilliant. Do something, or don’t. Don’t say you will and don’t. Don’t say you will and make a lame attempt. Do it, or go home.
• Accept your feelings. Sometimes you’re down. Sometimes you’re depressed. FEEL those emotions, let them pass through you. Resisting them is letting them persist even more. After you feel them, ask yourself, “Now what?” Solutions will always present themselves.
• Don’t take financial advice from broke people. This is a broader statement than you think. It simply means if you want to succeed in something, seek out others that have succeeded, and pick their brains and follow your path.

I could go on and on here, but let me be plain about something: nothing lasts forever. Your job, relationships, friendships, life, food, etc. Change is a constant in this universe, no matter what your beliefs are. It’s coming, and if you don’t adapt, you will lose your footing and get swept away.

There’s your Rawrbness for today. Pass it along, or die trying!

FUCK.

Hey, Firefox (and all browsers while we’re making this a point), REMOVE BACKSPACE FROM YOUR SHORTCUT KEYS. That’s really annoying.

Um, so yeah – the blog was about how to spot bullshitters and dismiss them from your business and your life in general. It’s pretty easy if you’ve got your guard up. Just watch out for sappy, emotional words like “close, personal” and such. We ARE emotional creatures and easily get caught up in all that nonsense if our guard is down. If you feel they’re exaggerating the truth or going through a ton of unnessesary tangents, you’re probably being bullshitted. Just make sure you ask for legitimate proof of their services, more than 3 testimonials that you can follow up on (and make sure you follow up on them), and a trial run of whatever they’re offering to see if it actually works. If these three things cannot be provided in some way, you’re being bullshitted and need to put a big question mark over their legitimacy. (Politicians are MASTERS of bullshit, heh heh)

Of course you’ll have to adjust that last paragraph to whatever situation you’re in. Bottom line: draw the line and if someone crosses it, dismiss ‘em.

That’s all from me for now. New Psychostick site design coming soon. I recently picked up a book called “Sexy Web Design.” Holy crap – I finally have a little guidance with design. I’ve always been a self-taught developer without any real guidance from someone genuine. Believe it or not – most web developers that I’ve dealt with personally that are good at their trade often tend to be closed off, pompus, and arrogant. Weird eh?

But this book – hell yeah. Check it out if you’re a web designer and need some pointers. It helped me tremendously.

Another GREAT book for marketing is Buyology. You will be surprised at what works and what doesn’t on a neuroscientific level.

Awesomeness.

On another note, we’re going to tour with Pennywise for 3 dates. Hell yes.

If we can pull this off consistently (which is the REAL trick), I think it’d be a hit. Who knows.

(Crap – I’m not allowed to talk shit about booking agents, am I? Well nevermind.)

On another note, I’ve found an interesting video on how to connect your Xbox Live through your Macbook. Ooh.