Otaku Links: Black Friday 2016

Otaku Links

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Happy Black Friday! About five years ago I waited in line for an hour at my local Micro Center to do some holiday shopping, and I don’t need to tell you that technology advances have made everything I bought—and the time I spent—useless now. Today I don’t do any Black Friday shopping outside the house! Since I figure you’re shopping too, I wanted to share a few of the deals I’ve spotted today, with an emphasis on anime fandom, of course:

  • Yatta-Tachi now does gift guides, and (like everything Katy does) they’re beautifully designed. This list of 2016 must-haves looks straight out of a magazine.
  • Crunchyroll is selling Christmas sweaters this year with Hime-chan’s face on them! I miss the days of Crunchyroll’s deeply discounted membership offers every Black Friday, but at least their selection of deals is pretty wide.
  • Looking at the slashed box set prices on Funimation and Right Stuf right now, I feel sort of ripped off for buying anime any other day of the year.
  • And of course, there’s Gunpla 101’s new 2016 holiday guide. This year I tried to make it user friendly to the point that if you’re just getting into Gunpla, it should help you narrow down which grade of kit is best for you.

Ball Gundam ornament photographed and customized by Ashe Blitzen. 

5 things I did before quitting my day job

Careers

quit-my-day-job

Today I got up, got dressed, and didn’t go to the office.

After a little over a calendar year, I quit my day job at a political think tank in downtown DC. I didn’t leave any richer (and in fact will be closing out the year with my lowest earnings since starting out on my own) but I got exactly what I wanted out of this year—experience working with a development team and renewed confidence that my tech skills are still marketable.

However, this decision didn’t just happen two weeks ago when I gave my two weeks notice. I’ve been preparing to go back to full time freelance for the better part of six months.

Here is everything I did before I felt ready to quit my day job:

Contacted previous employers

While working part time, I scaled back my freelance to a smaller goal—to earn about 50% about what I earned the year previously, the better to not kill myself with overwork. That meant working less for some clients, and not working at all for others.

It’s a lot easier to pitch somebody who has previously given you money than it is to cold call a stranger. So when I knew I wanted to start freelancing again full time, I went back to the people I already knew. One of the most positive outcomes of this was when I let a client know I was looking for more work right away, and it turned out they immediately had a gig right up my alley!

I would recommend this plan of action to beginning freelancers, too: if you don’t have previous clients, try friends, family and professors. You never know which person might know another person who needs a freelancer with your particular skills.

Doubled my freelance work immediately

As a result of getting in touch with all those clients, these past two weeks have been pretty hectic. Just as I started winding things down at my day job to prepare for my exit, I started revving up the freelance engine again. Projects I might have otherwise said no to, because of the day job? They were suddenly on the table.

The entire goal is to have a steady stream of income without a break. Since freelance tends to pay out slower than the two-week regularity of an office job, that meant starting early. It meant taking on full time freelance while still doing part time work. It meant working until 1 AM a couple of nights. But now that that’s over, I don’t have to worry about empty days and an empty wallet while I scramble together a full time income post-day-job.

Saved an emergency fund

No matter how many precautions you take, freelance is still risky. (I’d argue that a regular job, which means putting all your eggs in one basket, is equally risky, but that’s just me.) If you’ve been reading my last few income reports, you know I’ve been padding an emergency fund.

In my opinion, a good emergency fund includes three month’s worth of living expenses. Being totally unemployed for three months is an unfathomably bad scenario, but I want to be prepared. I added up the cost of rent, groceries, my Internet bill, and other expenses for a month, tripled the number, and kept saving until I reached it. Ideally I will never, ever use this money, but wow do I feel a lot safer just knowing that it’s there.

Set up a daily routine

Last year around this time, I didn’t have a great freelance schedule. I slept in and as a result stayed up too late hurrying to complete the work I didn’t finish earlier. I wasn’t on the same schedule as John, who works a 9 to 5, and I didn’t see him as much as I wanted. The truth is, I was severely lacking in self-employed discipline.

I didn’t want this to happen again. So I thought about all the things I liked about my current set-up—getting up and dressed in the morning, walking to the station with John, talking to other humans on a regular basis—and thought about a routine that would let me keep that. I decided that even though I don’t have to go anywhere, I should keep getting up and dressed in the morning anyway, walk to the station with John, and just walk back after that. The brisk walk helped me ease my brain into the work day. From that morning routine, I set up a schedule of things to do until around 6 PM. To ensure I retain my social skills, I’ve got Skype and Slack with other freelancers during the day, and Japanese class and running club in the evenings.

You’d think work-life balance wouldn’t be a problem when you work from home, but tell that to my first-year-freelancing self, who used to sometimes forget to eat. Making a routine and sticking to it will keep me from regressing into lazy misery.

Made a three-month financial goal schedule

Finally, I laid out the next three months on a spreadsheet. I listed out my clients and projects and my projected earnings from each. As the real earnings come in, I put them in a third column and figure out the difference.

This offers some structure to my career. It shows where I thought I’d be at this point, where I really am, and whether I’m exceeding or falling short of what I need to make to pay my bills. If I’m right, awesome, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. If I’m wrong, I have a wake-up call right away that I need to be doing something different and taking on more work. It also shows me how much space I have to work on new business ideas, which won’t pay off immediately, and when I’m better off devoting time to client work, which will pay off much sooner.

I was never a numbers person before I started freelancing, but now I am by necessity. Math still isn’t my favorite thing, but knowing I have numbers to back up my decisions definitely makes me feel a lot better.

Do you have any questions about going from office work to freelance work? I’ll do my best to answer them in the comments.

How to not share fake news online

Uncategorized

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It’s been almost a week since my Twitter feed transformed from jokes about anime to political news, links, and anecdotes. Trump’s victory in the United States has blindsided me and stunned much of my social community, whether they live here or abroad.

This kind of topic isn’t my wheelhouse. But even if we carve out a niche for ourselves, we are still not immune to the mainstream world around us. I guess what I’m saying is, it’s time for the Otaku Journalist to talk about political journalism for a minute.

I am not a political journalist. But my journalism education was very much a political one. I was at President Obama’s inauguration with a press badge, shivering my butt off, covering the event for my very first journalism internship, the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. I got my Masters degree in journalism at American University in Washington DC and my assignments included reporting on hearings on Capitol Hill and round tables with the Surgeon General. I knew which (wildly different, irreverent) niche I wanted to fill, but my environment and my education made sure that politics were at the very forefront of the reporting skills I have today.

What I’m saying is, this isn’t how I chose to use my degree, but I do have these skills. And now more than ever, it’s important for us to be able to observe and analyze our political media, which unfortunately means that we need to be prepared to tell the true stories from the fake ones.

The Internet is what has allowed me to choose a niche to write about and stick with it. It’s allowed for the democratization of media, a surging number of blogs and outlets, and the promise that anybody can become a reporter by sharing their story online. But it’s also led to a large number of people who take advantage of that system in exchange for clicks. How do I know this? I’ve actually reported and published fake news.

In my first book, Otaku Journalism, I shared the embarrassing story of a time I was fooled into publishing fake news. I asked the source for screenshots that validated his claims, and he delivered them—only later did I learn they were Photoshopped. As my story rocketed in popularity, the source asked me to take the story down. “I didn’t know it would be so easy to trick a journalist,” he said, crushing my self-esteem for the rest of that calendar year. Even though I ended up writing an apology, people still share my first article as fact.

Since then, I’ve corrected to the extreme, and I am extremely skeptical of everything I hear online. Even when primary sources share anecdotes, I wonder if they’re lying. And I am uncomfortably aware that during events of great political momentum, our precautionary smell tests often go out the window. We’re more likely to share things that fit the narrative of our political viewpoint, and unfortunately there are people who take advantage of that.

Already I’ve seen a lot of fake or questionable news circulating. A doctored photo of the KKK celebrating Trump’s victory. A Twitter feed full of difficult-or-impossible-to-verify personal hate crime anecdotes. This opinion article that claims Obama protected Planned Parenthood, permanently, stop worrying everyone. Also: probably anything you’ve seen on Facebook. In a shockingly out-of-touch claim, Mark Zuckerberg said it’s “crazy” that fake news on Facebook influenced the election. All I know is that Facebook is my number one source of fake news.

Fine Zuck, let’s just ignore the problem. We’re probably going to see more fake news instead of less. So let’s have a spectacularly out-of-the-Otaku-Journalist-wheelhouse discussion about how to recognize the fake stuff:

1) Who’s the source?

That article may seem plausible, but who published it? If you haven’t heard of it, it might not be true. Take this article: Donald Trump Tell Blacks “Kiss Your Section 8, Welfare & Medicaid Goodbye.” Beyond the highly provocative and grammatically incorrect title, you may instantly observe that you’ve never heard of this website, Fammtv. Snopes has already debunked the crap out of it multiple times, and this is just the latest fake story it’s published. Also look for sources you know to be false—be careful you’re not sharing an Onion story at face value.

2) What’s the date?

Sometimes super old stuff gets shared under the guise of being currently relevant. For example, a lot of people on my Facebook feed have been sharing this New York Times article: Donald Trump Says He’d ‘Absolutely’ Require Muslims to Register. OK, that’s a legitimate news source, so we can trust it, right? Wrong—this was written in November 2015, and Trump has since changed his stance (maybe to something worse, who knows!). Always check the date, and consider that if it’s old, this particular piece of ragebait may have already been resolved.

3) Does it pass the Google test?

When you see a political article, image, or meme that instantly gets you riled up, it only takes 30 seconds to Google it before you share. A quick search can tell you a lot of things right away—is this “fact” only coming from one site, and not a reputable one? Does a debunk immediately show up? If it’s an image, do you see multiple versions of it on Image Search, indicating that this version may have been Photoshopped? Any of these indicators should raise your suspicions.

What happens if, after all this, you share something fake anyway? I would suggest just deleting it—writing a follow-up post isn’t enough when people have already seen it. People might just keep sharing it forever, and never see the follow-up.

This is an extremely volatile time. No doubt the best thing we can do is be there for each other. But the second best thing we can do is remain informed of the facts, and not become part of the problem by spreading news that probably isn’t true.

P.S. Otaku Journalist is 7 years old today! Here’s what I wrote on its 6th birthday. Whether you’ve been here one year or seven, thanks so much for visiting this little corner of the internet.

Otaku Links: Life goes on

Uncategorized

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I think it’s weird when bloggers completely omit current events because it’s like, “Are you living in a different world that is completely untouched by the things that are affecting my life?” So let’s talk about it. As you might have guessed, I voted for Secretary Clinton and I’m definitely upset my preferred candidate didn’t win. I’m especially saddened that my exact demographic, white women, had such a major role in preventing us from electing the first female president.

A lot of my life plans are up in the air now that I have no idea what’s going to happen next, but one thing I’ll definitely be doing is donating to some pro-women, pro-immigrant, anti-bigotry causes—ideally in my Trump-voting relatives’ names, as their Christmas gifts. And if you’re equally upset, I suggest you make a plan to do something that helps you take control over the situation, even if that plan is to numb your feelings with an anime marathon all weekend.

In the meantime, here are some links to take your mind off of it all:

  • I just got two panels accepted at Katsucon—37 Years of Gundam Anime and He Is A Char: A Tribute to Gundam’s Most Memorable Masked Man—and one waitlisted—Gunpla is Freedom. If you’ll be at Katsucon this year, you should come watch me being a total Gundam geek, and tell me if you’re doing any panels there, too!
  • They sure talk up the pork cutlet bowl in Yuri!!! on Ice. Now Crunchyroll’s Emily Bushman shows you how to make katsudon at home in the latest installment of her anime cooking column.
  • My reviews of DAYS were fairly lukewarm but one thing I always gave high marks to was Tsukushi Tsukamoto’s flawless characterization, which always made him likeable without being too goody-goody. In this old column I’ve been meaning to post, Peter Fobian delves into what makes Tsukamoto tick.
  • Unfortunately, the Playing Grounded Kickstarter I shared last month didn’t make its goal, so I can’t get their forest altar jigsaw puzzle (though I can pre-order and hope that enough other people do, too). Still, I love how they spoke about their experience transparently and with a sense of humor. It’s easy to talk about a successful project and much harder to talk about what happens after you fail. I’ve been trying to follow this when my income reports don’t match my expectations.

Illustration by Fuzichoco for Playing Grounded Puzzles.

October 2016 Monthly Income Report

Careers, Income Reports

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Welcome to the fifth month of sharing my monthly income with the world as much as I feel comfortable with! Only, I’m not sure who I’m doing this for anymore. I haven’t been getting any comments on these posts, and I’m wondering if maybe they’re not helpful. Unless I hear otherwise, I’ll be concluding this series after six months.

oct-total

First off—overall income. I’m getting a stair-step effect, but it’s deceptive, as usual. I worked a lot this month, and I don’t include the money I am expecting to get paid, which usually comes 30 days after I bill. Right now I’m owed several thousand. So probably November will be a better month regardless of how much work I do in it.

oct-income

In other words, when you look at a chart like this and see freelance work taking up the smallest piece of the pie, it’s not that it’s taking up the smallest part of my time spent working. Instead, this chart shows what I’ve been paid for. And man, my part time job was weird this month. A billing error (yes, the second in two months!) meant I got paid double my regular rate. To make up for it, they’ll take it out of a later paycheck.

oct-compare

But that dark teal part of the chart is about to go away – entirely. I just gave my two weeks notice at my job, which means I’ll have worked about exactly a calendar year since my starting date on November 16, 2015. I’ll write more about that decision in a future blog post, but for now, I need to think about how it affects my finances. Basically, it was some padding against the ups and downs of self-employment, so now I’ll need to work harder on ways to ensure a stable, similar income every month.

Amazon is definitely going to help with that. October marked the beginning of my most profitable time of the year—the holidays. I’m hoping to break $1,000 for the first time this month.

oct-profit

I spent a little more than usual this month, because it was time to renew my Leadpages account. I use Leadpages to capture emails for my mailing lists and produce webinars but I haven’t been taking advantage of it well, lately. I’m hoping that after I quit my day job I’ll have more time to set up systems that make Leadpages work for me.

How did I do on my October financial goals? Badly on one, better on the other two. I had more freelance work than I’d predicted, so I did not spend 40 hours on my new project; it was more like 10. I posted three times, not four, on Gunpla 101, though I did post twice on Candle Fandom, which is quickly growing into its earning potential. If only I could pay the rent with free candles people send me, I’d be set! Somehow, I did meet my aggressive savings goal, too.

My November financial goals are:

  • Complete my Gunpla 101 holiday shopping guide. This is the most lucrative time of the year, but only if I work at it!
  • Try again to work 40 hours on my new business venture. Now I’ll have more time and fewer excuses.
  • Set up better systems with my newsletters to make that Leadpages account worth it.

I’ll refrain from being a broken record and asking you to comment. But if you find these income reports useful, let me know on social media, email, or whatever is most comfortable for you.

Previously: