$5 and no distribution control? I bought it.

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Recently Louis CK uploaded his latest stand-up video at the Beacon Theater to his website. You could download it for $5 and you have the opportunity to stream the video twice and download it up to three times. There is no distribution control on the video so if you wanted to you could easily upload the video to a torrent site or burn it to a DVD.

Louis CK paid for the production of the video himself, so the $5 you pay would go directly to him. The video has been up less than a week. He was able to make a profit on the video in less than 12 hours and he has already made over $500,000 (therefore over 100,000 people have downloaded the video.) This is a great example of a new experiement many artists are testing. Give your material directly to the consumer with no middle man. There are also no sharing restraints, so it is possible to illegally pirate the material, but the artist charges a low fee (or allows the consumer to chose their own price, like Radiohead for example) in hopes that most people will chose to pay for the product instead of pirating the content.

I am one of the 100,000 people who have paid $5 for Louis CK’s new video. I did this for several reasons, the primary one being I think Louis CK is really funny and I wanted to watch his stand-up. But I also love this idea of paying a small fee directly to the artist themselves. And I think this is a really great idea for artists that would like to see some revenue. It has worked for Louis CK and Radiohead, so why wouldn’t it work for others as well?

People like to support an artist. They do not like paying $1.29 per song on itunes (or whatever it costs) and then be unable to put that song on a thumbdrive and hand it to their friend to have. I do not like that I cannot upload a song to tumblr if it is an mp4… meaning I cannot upload a song that was from a CD I purchased. Pirated music is typically in mp3 format, so if you want to upload that you could get away with it easily on tumblr.(i know, I’m not even supposed to be uploading copyrighted music to begin with, but you know people do it…)

When people purchase music they do it because they want to support the artist. And now technology has made it less expensive than ever to produce your own video or record your own music with professional quality sound. The years of Album artwork are over. The years of huge studios are coming to a close also. It is getting to the point that we do not have to pay $14.99 for a CD/DVD to support the artist (mabye like $2), production company ($3), studio ($2), cover designer ($1), etc, etc. We can just pay $5 (which is more than the artist would have received before) to get our product in digital form(which is cheaper to produce). That is how many people want their stuff these days anyway. If I want a CD I’ll burn one myself. I’ll buy the music online and then do what I want with it and give it to who I want. (Think about books; we have always handed books to our friends after we finished reading them, nobody thinks that is illegal!) The artist is happy because their art is getting out and they are making more money per purchase than they were before with hard copy media.

I know a lot of people that obviously still want hard copy media, and many artists that would still rather work with a production company than do their own stuff. This is the beginning of the future for videos and music. A lot of people are outraged at other people that pirate content illegally. But here’s the thing: you can safeguard it all you want, people are going to do that anyway. But if you still want to make a profit off of those of us that like your stuff and want to support you, lower the price, and just give us the content directly. Yes, some people are going to still listen to your stuff for free, but there are going to be a lot of us that want to help you out and chip in the $5 to support your art.

Confidence

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If I look back on my life to this point I’m pretty happy with the things that I’ve done and the experiences I’ve had. I’m happy to say I don’t have many regrets. But one thing I do regret is my lack of confidence. In high school I was shy and I embarrassed easily. Unlike the typical stereotype of American High Schools, my school was a pretty easy going place. If I had felt more confident I could have easily had more friends, participated in more things, and been all around more successful. The only thing that was holding me back was my lack of confidence, and that voice in my head saying “it’s better just not to do this in case something embarrassing comes out of it!”

Luckily almost all of us look back on high school and think “wow, what was I thinking?” And in college I was actually rather confident in myself. Because of it I made a lot of friends, actively participated in my classes, joined clubs, and eventually was able to teach about 200 students ages 13-15 daily for three months. (If you are a nervous public speaker, try teaching. You will either quickly get over it, or quickly have your self-esteem stoned to death by the students. Either way the process is quick!)  I was able to step out of my comfort zone and risk doing something embarrassing… but generally things worked out and it felt great!

Then graduation rolled around and college was over. I was forced to go and apply for jobs. This was fine at first, online applications are simple enough, my resume is decent, I am a competent 22 year old human being. But then after filling out dozens of applications without a single response (neither positive or negative) my self-esteem started to waiver. And then came the phone interviews. “Why are you interested in this position?” “What makes you a great candidate for this position?” “What is your philosophy of Education?” I wasn’t ready. I wanted to be brutally honest and cynical and make jokes like I typically do in my day-to-day life. And I wanted to do this because I did not feel comfortable. These questions somehow automatically made me feel like I wasn’t worthy of any of these positions, I was inexperienced and I was undereducated.

Now I’m looking back to my regrets from high school and realizing I cannot continue to have poor confidence. I may be slightly inexperienced, but I can’t sell myself short. I have many valuable attributes. And most importantly I am an adult, and I need to learn to suck up this nervousness and just be professional. So lately I’ve been trying to be more confident in myself. Yesterday I had an interview for an internship and I came in much less nervous and more open than I have been in the past. At the end of the process I still felt that “who knows!” feeling that (I assume) many of you have had before, but it was in a good way, not a bad one. I did alright, I didn’t sell myself short, and I didn’t act like a shy 17 year old girl.

There is a quote/comment I saw recently (I wish I could remember where) and someone mentioned that for the longest time he thought his co-workers were all smarter than him. But after a while he began to realize they were simply more confident and self-assured than he was. Confidence is really important. We naturally tend to trust a confident, self-assured person. From now on I’m going to stop selling myself short and build up that confidence.

The Future of Education

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Yesterday, after waking up and selling some Brighton handbags in the morning, I took a trip down to the city for a Meetup event discussing The Future of Education. The panel of speakers included San Kim, co-founder of ShowMe, Jen Medbery, founder of Kickboard, Brian Tobal, co-founder of Veri, and Danya Cheskis-Gold, Community Manager of Skillshare. I’ve been meaning to attend a Meetup for a while, and this just seemed like something I didn’t want to miss. These are the types of companies I hope to one day become involved with. I’ve played around with ShowMe (great idea) and Veri, and I’ve taken a few Skillshare courses. (I love Skillshare!) The only company I wasn’t familiar with was Kickboard, which is a tool used in schools that allows teachers to efficiently record data on student work and achievements.

I had never been to Dogpatch Labs before… that was a cool experience in itself to see several different start-ups all working in their respective areas around one large studio. Bryan Birsic moderated the event. It was nice to hear these four people discuss their respective company and the plans they see in the future for both their company and education in general. Each of these companies has a very different goal in the education sector. Veri and ShowMe can be used as tools for self-learning, or they can be used to make in-class lessons more engaging. Kickboard was really created to help school teachers become more efficient, while Skillshare is trying to reinvent our idea of post-secondary education, making its easy and affordable to take classes on anything you’re are interested in. Because of these differences it was occasionally difficult for some of the panelists to address each issue, but there were certainly a few common themes.

I think the most fascinating parts of the discussion were in regards to our accreditation and College/University system we now have in the United States.  When hiring for a position, many companies in this country still look to make sure a person has a Bachelors Degree before they even consider moving a candidate along in the hiring process. You would assume college graduates typically show heightened responsibility and self-motivation, but a college education may not provide the exact skills needed for many jobs out there. We already see instances when a company hires someone without a college diploma that has experience in the field instead of hiring a college graduate. In a start-up community, where engineers are worth their weight in gold, if the company was given the choice between a college drop-out that codes like a god and a mediocre coder with a Graduate degree, it obviously would make more sense to hire the guy with god-like coding abilities.

Jen Medbery made a good point that although this is the case in certain industries, (start-up companies being a big one) a Bachelors Degree is still a common requirement when applying to many different job.  Also, unlike coding, where you are given opportunities to show off your skills at hackathons, GitHub or your own personal site, there are a lot of professions out there where it is almost impossible to prove that you can do the job before you actually start doing it.

This talk made me churn a few thoughts over in my head. I mentioned in a post several days ago that I do see great value in a college education, but in many instances it probably won’t fully prepare you for your eventual career. But what I find more annoying is this: after 3.5 years of working for good grades and an entire semester of student teaching, all I have to show for my efforts is a Diploma, several History papers, and 2 flashdrives filled with powerpoints, worksheets and lesson plans I created for my students. As thrilling as that might sound to you, I’m not sure that is the type of stuff I should bring on my next interview. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if at the end of your college career your university forced you to compile your best work into an online portfolio? If from the first day of school you weren’t just working towards graduation, you were actually creating a tangible item that demonstrated your growth and development over the course of college? If our Career Resource Centers stopped teaching us how to write the “perfect” resume, and helped us develop a comprehensive compilation of our skills.

I know there are a few colleges out there that already do this type of thing. But not all of them do, and college is expensive and comes with false hope that there is a job waiting on the other side. Considering the time and expense the average college graduate devotes to their education, I think it only makes sense the students walk away with more tangible items than a diploma.

That last bit was a tangent, but I’m happy I was able to attend the event and I really plan to go to more in the future. Just like in Skillshare classes, it is great to get together with a group of like minded individuals, I talked to some very cool people last night. I also really enjoyed being around people involved with innovative education companies. It refreshed my desire to eventually become a part of that industry.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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The concept of Thanksgiving was probably one of America’s best ideas. Hopefully most of us give thanks throughout the year, but having a specific day dedicated to appreciating what you have is very helpful your your mind and your mood.

A few months ago I had a poor mindset. I was stressed out about my future and I felt like I was on my way to failing while I watched all of my friends succeed. Luckily, my mindset has really improved over the past two months and I have realized how fortunate I truly am.

I have the most supportive family you could ask for and I am surrounded by good, trustworthy, honest friends. Even though the economy is difficult right now, USA is still a country that is filled with opportunities and good fortune. And I live an hour away from one of the most exciting cities in the world.

I wish you a great Thanksgiving day, regardless of where you live or where you are and I hope you remember what you are thankful for today. I know I am thankful that you have taken the time to read my blog!

The Importance of a College Education (changing your mind set)

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Recently I have seen a lot of articles that address the question of whether or not it is worth it for recent high school graduates to receive a college education today. All of the authors bring up different points for why a college education may not be the best choice for many prospective students. Here are some of the most common points that have been addressed.

  • 4 million college graduates are currently preforming jobs that do not require a college education. (I am one of them!)
  • The average college student will leave college with $20,000 in student loan debt. (Luckily I am not one of them.)
  • There is an ongoing debate over whether or not a college education directly prepares someone for the workforce.

We also know that there are thousands of college graduates that are currently not employed at all. So If 4 million college graduates have a job that they did not even need a degree to obtain, why would so many students put themselves into debt that will take years to pay off in order to go to school?

I also agree that college is not the right choice for many high school graduates. And considering only 28% of the country has a Bachelors Degree or higher, it appears many people in this country have also realized college is not for them. But I think that we should change our mindset on what a college education is supposed to do for you, especially in undergrad. I think that if the general population had a better attitude about what college actually is, we would see that college would begin to offer us more opportunities than we realize. A lot of people have misconceptions about what a college education is supposed to provide, and these ideas just aren’t true. Because of this, many people invest a lot more than they should in college, thinking they will get more out of it than they actually do. And becuase of this we wind up reading articles about whether or not college is really worth it.

These are some of the misconceptions (in my opinion) I commonly see about college:

  • You go to college because it will make it much easier to find a job.
  • You go to college because it will directly prepare you for the workforce and your future job, as long as you major in the field you plan to work for.
  • College education= Career, not job. $$$, not $.

All of these ideas have some truth to them for sure. But they are not the whole truth. I think this is the reality:

College is a very important part of your resume. And a good school will offer you a better education. But college is just one step (a large step for sure) on the staircase to getting a job in your dream career field. Just going to college won’t do you much good. While you are there you must go the extra step. Become involved in something, anything, and work on that while in school. Become involved in activities that correlate to your eventual career of choice. Join a campus organization or volunteer your time at a non-profit. Create a blog to post your creative writing and photographs, edit a video on an interesting topic. Internship in a field that interests you. Take something you enjoy and work very hard to show how much it means to you. These activities will mean a great deal more to your future employer than your college transcript. (Assuming your didn’t fail every class.)

If everyone had this mindset, I don’t think we would see as many students with $100,000 in student loan debt (how does that even happen?) and many people would have a difficult time justifying the $50,000 per year tuition bills some of these universities are charging. The price of higher education in this country is something that just doesn’t sit right with me at all. I actually think it is the key reason many people are discussing whether or not college is “worth it.” I went to a state school, and my final tuition bill after 4 years was less than or equal to one year at a private institution. Although I might have missed out on a few connections or benefits, I think you would have difficulty arguing that those students benefited 75% more than me and my classmates.

So even though I may have just insulted higher education and explained that I do not consider college a clear path to gaining a job, I still think that college is a very valuable experience for a lot of people. These are some positive aspects about college that I think are pretty universal:

  • You learn to move outside of your comfort zone and live and with people outside of your immediate family.
  • You learn how to manage between the extreme freedoms that college provides and demands and work that it requires. (Time management skills, hangover management skills…)
  • You discover who you truly are outside of the life that your family and friends created for you.
  • For many college is the first time that you realize that education can be empowering and engaging.

These aspects are a lot more abstract then the misconceptions I listed above. I think the honest truth is college is a gamble for many people. College is a time to grow, a time to fail, and a time to succeed before the pressure of “real life.” It teaches you how to make mistakes and create good things before you actually hit the workforce. In essence, I think the college experience is what you are paying for when you send a child to school. It doesn’t guarantee a job, it doesn’t guarantee success. At such high tuition prices these days, this is not what many parents and students with hefty loans want to hear. But although the benefits of college may not be as clear and tangible as many think, I believe a college education is tremendously valuable just the same.

Retail and Savings

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Although I don’t want this blog turning into an online diary, I thought a life update might be in order for today. You may have noticed this by now, but my plans I’ve created for myself and my future can sometimes change on a day to day basis. However, I have had a consistent plan for about 2.5 weeks now, perhaps the longest plan streak I’ve had since I graduated this May.

I am now the newest “Sales Partner” and the Brighton Collectibles Outlet at Woodbury Common. I work about 20+ hours per week and I got some free jewelery to wear! Honestly, it is nice to be out of the house meeting new people and making some money for savings. I am the youngest employee, so unlike most retail jobs, my coworkers are actually very friendly, mature and responsible women and the environment is rather enjoyable.

After Thanksgiving I am going to call my local school district about substitute teaching after the Holidays. Although it will be slightly embarrassing, I feel like being a sub is a right of passage for all unemployed teachers these days.

I am applying to the Teachers College and CUNY Hunter for graduate school. I want to focus on something education related, but I would get an MA instead of an MEd, and I wouldn’t go back to school for teaching. These days I feel like it might be good to step away from teaching. I can always come back to it later in life if I am interested, and right now the economy is just too rough and teaching jobs are almost non-existent. While I’m in the city I can work on bolstering up some connections and there will be so many opportunities for me to become involved in things I’m interested in now that I can’t do while living in upstate (I hate to call it that, it’s rather downstate) New York. I’ve got my recommendations prepared and my personal statements should be finished by next week. Then I’ll let you know in March sometime how that all turned out.

And finally my last goal: The reason I am planning on working retail and substitute teaching this year is not only because I may be paying for graduate school/ NYC rent next year (ouch!) but I also need a new laptop and I really want Adobe Creative Suite. I know the basics of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but I really want to start using these programs comfortably on a daily basis.

So my future consists of two jobs, a new laptop, and maybe grad school! Although I typically just find it stressful to have no idea what the future holds, it is also kind of exhilarating at the same time.

Weekend in Las Vegas

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This Veteran’s Day weekend I headed to Las Vegas to visit my mom who has been living and teaching out there for the past 2 years. She’s been really frustrated that she cannot find a teaching job in New York (understandably so, she has a masters degree and 10+ years of teaching under her belt) so in the fall of 2010 she moved out there to teach high school English. She experienced the same job problem this summer so she’s back out there for her second, but probably final year.

I mostly like going out there just to visit my mom since she misses the family so much while she’s out there. But she does live in one of America’s largest cities for tourism, so when I go out there we always try to visit the strip and go to a casino or two. Las Vegas isn’t my type of city. The first problem is I don’t gamble, and that is really what Las Vegas is all about. But Las Vegas has a kind of sleazy feel about it. People are awake at all hours of the day, the casino’s are poorly lit and people smoke indoors. Not to mention all the Casino’s on the strip are so bizarre, there is New York, New York with a fake Empire State Building and Paris with a fake Eiffel Tower. It just accentuates how fake Las Vegas is. I mean, the entire city should be a desert not fit for human living, but modern technology has made it possible for half a million people to live there.

But there are some good things about Vegas. You can’t deny looking at The Strip at night isn’t amusing.


This is a picture of Harrah’s and a little bit of Palazzo. I should have used my DerManDar app to get longer landscape photo.

The highlight of the Trip was seeing The Beatles “Love” Cirque De Soleil show at The Mirage. It is rumored to be one of the best shows in Vegas and although it’s the only one I’ve seen, I don’t doubt it. It was a colorful show that played most of the songs from The Beatles “Love” Album that was put out a few years ago. There were dancers, acrobats, amazing roller skaters and many, many more really talented people performing in this show. It is definitely a good show to chose if you are thinking of seeing a performance while in Vegas.

I was only in Las Vegas for three days, so of course I got a stomach bug on Saturday and was bed-ridden for the entire day. But on Sunday we were able to head on over the the Hoover Dam which was a cool sight to see.

After the Hoover Dam we hit this “Fantastic” Flea Market type thing, which consisted of dozens of different shops and booths selling all sorts of things. Anything from $1 jewelry to embroidering, clothes and garden statues.

This was my second trip to Las Vegas and I always feel like I do things much differently than most people that go there. (I didn’t play a single slot machine this visit.) But it was nice to see my mom and we were able to do a few cool things even though I did get sick on the trip.

My Goals

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Just the other day I went to bed and starting thinking about what I actually wanted to do with my life. I realized it is not helpful to pick a profession you want to have, instead you need to create a list of things you want to be able to do in the career you chose. This is my list.

  • I want to have a social job where I spend a lot of time collaborating with other people, talking and listening.
  • I want to be able organize and create something I care about.
  • I want my work/finished product to help other people out in some way.

Bonus points are added to my dream career if it involves:

  • Art, Graphic Design, Music, creative things!!
  • Technology
  • Fun events and meet-ups
  • Productive yet still fun and easy-going environment.

That’s all! This was actually a very liberating experience creating this list. Figuring out what you want to do is half of the battle when it comes to finding a career. I think actually obtaining that career is going to be a much longer, harder, more frustrating battle, but I’m ready.

Too Old

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Do you remember the first moment you realized you were too old to do something? As a 22 year old, you might be wondering why on earth I’m talking about being “too old”, but I actually vividly remember the first time I had this realization.

I was sitting at home watching the Winter Olympics, probably the 2006 games? And I was watching figure skating. At this time I was 16 years old and it hit me… I will never be an Olympic figure skater, I was simply too old. The oldest female skaters were probably 23 but most of them had already been to at least one Olympic game before that.

I completely ignored the fact that I get sick of ice skating after about 45 minutes, or the fact that I probably lost the chance of being an Olympic competitor by the age of 10 when I had show zero interest in the profession my entire life. I wasn’t bothered by the fact that I wouldn’t be a professional figure skater in my life, I could have told you that at age 5, I just was bothered by the fact that my age was now playing a role in the reason I could never achieve that goal.

Now I am 22, and I watch people like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift… people have reached success at a much younger age than me. Teen pop stars are probably a bad example, but I also look at people like Mark Zuckerberg, he had already developed Facebook by 22, geez he’s still only 27.

I went to college thinking I would become a teacher. You can still be considered a “young” teacher at 40, so I was never very concerned about my age or the path I was taking in school to reach my goals. Now that I am out of school and without a teaching job, I have been considering steering towards other professions, specifically careers that may focus on technology, an ever-changing fast paced field, and I worry, did I get involved too late?

I know the answer to this is no. I am still in the “feeling it out” stages of becoming involved in tech. I was fortunate enough to have a 2 month internship at foursquare, so that definitely helped me understand start-ups and web companies faster than if I had just sat at home all day reading blogs and watching videos. But there are kids in high school right now, 16 year olds, that eat tech up like its candy. They are probably hacking away creating cool new programs and already budding their entrepreneur wings, if that makes any sense.  These are the types of kids that Peter Thiel is paying not to go to college.

I will not be an early bloomer. I will not have billions by the time I’m 28. (Let’s be honest… I’ll never have billions!) But I am excited to start showing interests in something new. I might be a little late to the game, but at 22 I know that I still have plenty of time to figure out who I want to be and how I can become that person.

As long as that person isn’t an Olympic figure skater… or Justin Bieber.

Book Review: Unbearable Lightness

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I had no idea who Portia de Rossi was until she started dating and eventually marrying Ellen Degeneres. I had never watched Ally McBeal (I’m a little young for that) and I never watched Arrested Development until a couple weeks ago (all the episodes are on Netflix  on demand if you are interested)

Anyway, I saw an interview Ellen had on her show with Portia from last year as Portia discussed her new book. Unbearable Lightness is the story of Portia’s struggle with weight and eating disorders that she faced throughout most of her life. Portia began modeling at age 12, and shortly after began to worry so much about her weight gain that she became bulimic. This continued until her mid-twenties when Portia became part of the cast of Ally McBeal. The fame and publicity that came with the show forced her to feel even more pressure to become thin. She eventually became so obsessed with diet and exercise that she suffered from anorexia and eventually was hospitalized.

I have never suffered from an eating disorder, but I can easily see how some girls have.  At 130 pounds, a very healthy and thin weight for someone of Portia’s height, she felt much too large for the acting/ modeling industry. The sad part was she actually experienced several situations where people did make her feel as though she was too heavy for her career. At one clothing fitting Portia was unable to fit into a sample size pant suit. After an hour of trying on sizes the stylist finally shouted out in a disgusted tone, “Nobody told me she was a size 8!” As Portia began to diet uncontrollably, instead of voicing concern about Portia’s health, models and stylists praised her for her impressive devotion to dieting. It wasn’t until her family and friends began to see her that she started to hear negative feedback from dieting, and by that point she was unwilling to listen to anyone who told her to gain more weight.

Ten years later Portia lives a healthy lifestyle and has conquered her eating disorders. However I can tell, even by the ending of the novel, that Portia still struggles with her self-confidence and appreciation for her body. I assume that is something most eating disorder victims will always suffer from. A great thing about this book is that Portia is likable and easy to relate to throughout the entire story, even when she is discussing some of her darkest and most terrible moments.  Often times books that have to do with a destructive lifestyle bother me because I just don’t understand why these people decide to make such poor life decisions. Because Portia was so genuine in the novel, it actually helped me understand eating disorders more clearly. These disorders really do take over your mind and lifestyle and you have such a warped sense of body image and what a healthy person (specifically women) is supposed to look like.

If this story sounds interesting to you I would recommend this book. It is an easy read and very engaging.