The Structures of My Cranium

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

E3 2013

Hey everyone,

I will not be posting a Motivating and Wacky post this week.

I will be back next week with some of my favorite picks from this year's E3 conference.

For up to the minute updates on E3 2013 check out Rev3Games and IGN.

-Travis

Monday, June 3, 2013

Motivating Monday Week 47

Harmonix has confirmed that it will announce its new project tomorrow, and "it’s not Rock Band or Dance Central."

Harmonix Announcing New Game Tomorrow - IGN

It looks like Harmonix is planning a new game series for the next generation of systems!

I have always been a huge fan of Harmonix....the plastic Rock Band fad may have come and gone, but I still respect them as a very talented company.

I look forward to seeing what they have planed.

-Travis

Saturday, June 1, 2013

5 Reasons Why You SHOULDN'T be Self-Employed (Self-Employed Saturday #4)

1. You have no self-discipline

This is huge! Anyone that doesn't have self-disciplining skills should stay far away from freelancing. At an office job you may be able to get away with goofing around on social media or playing games and still get paid, but at home you don't work...you don't get paid. Freedom is a wonderful thing, but if you can't keep yourself focused on the work when work needs to be done, then prepare to have unhappy clients. If you can't disciple yourself then you would be best sticking with a job in an office.

2. You are an introvert.

If you want to freelance you have to talk to clients. For someone in the field of say web design, a lot of your clients may come from the internet. This means a majority of your conversations will be through email. With that said there is still a high chance you will have local clients who want to meet in person, and if you don't know how to handle yourself around people IRL you will be in for a rude awakening. You shouldn't look at freelancing as a way to get away from human interaction, in fact it is the complete opposite.

3. You are a workaholic

This may seem like a positive reason to be self-employed. Being a workaholic means more work, which means more hours, which means more money. This sounds great on the outside, but you forget the side effects that come with working nonstop. If you don't limit your work time you are limiting your time with family, friends, and recuperating from hard work which will lead to burnout. Being a freelancer means being able to "shut down" the company when the work day is over, and not extending into overtime every night. If you are freelancing and you find that you have to over work every night, then it might mean it is time for you to start outsourcing your work to other freelancers.

4. You dislike social media

Like it or not, if you want to succeed as a freelance artist you are going to need to be active on social media. If you don't like being followed on Twitter, updating your status on Facebook, or posting portfolio work on a blog, then you will have a hard time with being self-employed. Social media may not be required to grow your business, but it sure will help loads if you use it correctly. A lot of the work I get is through someone seeing my work on Facebook, or because I was following someone on Twitter. You need to be a fan of social media to fully strive in freelancing.

5. You want paid vacations and benefits.

This can be the biggest deal breaker for many. As nice as it is to have freedom to take a vacation whenever you want, that vacation will not be covered by an employer. You must really work to earn that time off, because unless you have employees working for you, the time you take off is time you are losing income. Don't forget about health and insurance benefits. Most full time jobs will offer some type of package for benefits. Since you won't be receiving anything like this, you need to make sure you are making enough so if an accidents does happen, you have the income to take care of it. This isn't a huge lost...you may be able to find an insurance plan that is better than anything a company would give you, or you could be married and sharing a plan that your significant other has. If you are a single freelancer that doesn't have a large income flow, then I would say tread lightly when it comes to being self - employed.

Do you feel like these reasons don't apply to you? Then check out my blog on 5 reasons why you should be self employed: LINK

If you like the content that I am providing PLEASE share this blog with other people in your networks!

Check back next month when we talk about our friend the "#"

-TRAVIS

Monday, May 27, 2013

Motivating Monday Week 46

I just recently picked up a Sony a99 and have loved it so far!

A few weeks ago I was able to use it on the music video I am currently working on 2-Far. (Which still has not wrapped up shooting) and I slowly started to really dig the camera. After doing more than enough research, I finally caved in and invested into the camera.

Previously I was shooting with Sony's first DSLR with video features, the a33. I decided to compare the two camera's video quality, as well as see how each holds us as far as ISO.

I plan to run the a99 through more in depth test, but for now check out this video as well as my new Flickr account which will cater towards test with the a99

New Flickr

Till next time.....

-Travis