It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns Q&A 2016 [3rd Anniversary]

How's it going my gumdrops? Today is the day! It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns turns 3, this year! 

After announcing that I would be publishing another Q&A blog for It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' 3rd anniversary, I seriously expected more questions from everyone on here and social media. 

Were you scared? Unsure where to submit your questions? Had no questions to ask? Do you believe you know everything about me (Trust me, you don't!)? OR Do some of you feel extremely indifferent/apathetic about me publishing another Q&A blog?

Lately, I have considered publishing Q&A blogs once a week besides publishing Song Saturday and Cartoon Sunday blogs. 

However, I try keeping Q&A blogs for It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' anniversaries like today. I consider these Q&A's as "intimate fall treats."

Some friends think they know EVERYTHING about me, when they really don't. I have always been a very complex and multi-passionate person. Sometimes it can be really difficult to decide if I should publish blogs about more different topics on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns, or stay with the current topics.

Before this turns into a long-winded blog of my digressions, here is the Q&A for It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' 3rd anniversary.

Donald Clements' Questions: 

1) Within the blogosphere, who are the people you look up to and why? 

2) How big is your current following, and how has it evolved over the years? 

My Answers:

Donald, these are fantastic questions to have asked me. 

1) Marie Forleo and Tim Ferriss are 2 bloggers and authors I suggest checking out.

Watching, reading, and listening to Marie and Tim will be beneficial to you, if you need self-help, want to become a better writer, blogger, etc. Both are really multi-passionate (like MOI except they are more informative, useful, less moody, and snarky).

You can learn so much from them both, especially Marie Forleo. Marie is motivational and entertaining to watch on Marie TV. I always look forward to a good laugh. 

Meanwhile, I believe I have a little more in common with Tim on different levels. The man is an Anime and Metal fan, which makes him awesome when you are a fan of both. 

Tim Ferriss also has personal experience with overcoming adversity such as dealing with being suicidal, years ago. He turned his life into something positive. 

This is all the more reason to commend Tim Ferriss.

2) My current following is gradually regrowing but it is much like a revolving door.  

Having false support from social climbers, open and closet "haters," and opportunistic friends hurts me and my traffic.

If followers TRIED being more interactive, this would definitely help. I ALWAYS respond to comments day and night.

It has been a major struggle these last 3 years. 

The fact that The Xanga Team was divisive by dumping their money issues into our laps at Xanga 1.0 definitely hurt Xangans, including yours truly. 

The Xanga Team REALLY should've taken out a business loan or so rather than beg us for donations, relocate to WordPress as a platform, THEN make it mandatory to pay to blog.

I cannot count, much less remember all the sites I have joined to generate blog traffic and to rebuild my following over these last 3 years. With that being said, my current following is extremely niche and can be temperamental.

The moment I share my opposing views about something, they leave. If I shared my political views, they would NOT be able to handle it. That's why I stay apolitical.

Danni Darkness Questions:

1) What are the logistics of your website? 

2) What was it like working at a radio station?

My Answers: 

Danni, these are 2 more excellent questions! 

1) Readers/visitors must create an account, read my blogs and excerpts to my short stories, comment, and share them on social media or e-mail to friends.

Meanwhile, I am a 1-woman show. In case you have NOT already done so, you should read last week's Cartoon Sunday blog. 

In the preceding blog, I explained the discussions I had with Jonathan Ian Mathers, last week via Facebook.

Whenever I am working on these blogs, most of my time lately is spent on finding the right picture to upload to this site, in order to capture the topic or theme of my blogs. 

Then, I must decide which links, songs, and videos to share. Afterward, I start blogging.

I work on these blogs, while everyone is asleep in bed throughout the night and early morning. Editing anything always takes the most time. Once I am finished editing, I publish these blogs, type and send out e-mail blasts to all my subscribers, share on Facebook and around the Google Plus communities I have joined.

Sharing around Google Plus takes more effort because I must share my blogs to every social circle to generate page views, traffic, feedback, and followers. It would be so much easier and better, if all my subscribers actually commented on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns and shared these blogs around social media. It's not like Xanga and Blogster where everyone is guaranteed to see these blogs.

2) Since 2002, I have always been a 1-woman show. During Fridays at 4-6pm Central, I hosted All Things Frightening. 

This was while attending and living on campus at UW-Parkside and commuting to Carthage College part-time for Japanese. My show originally broadcasted locally in Kenosha, WI and online. 

Due to FCC regulations, everyone at UW-Parkside's 101.7 WIPZ had to censor music live UNLESS they had a pre-censored CD. 

I usually carried my own CD collections to our campus radio station and played extra albums, that were already on campus.

Sometimes I seriously miss hosting my own radio show. I was able to discover other bands and expose listeners to music, that wasn't always played on traditional radio stations.

Hunter Gibson: Do you have a favorite movie and band?

Answer: Yes, I do and my favorites have always been very broad. 

If only I could narrow them down. As everyone knows, I am a Horror fan hence the Horror page I built with excerpts of my latest short stories.

Re-Animator, the original Carrie, The Crow, The Craft, Child's Play, Beetlejuice, and The Omen instantly come to mind. 

I enjoy movies from several other genres and sub-genres, but I always look forward to watching Horror movies from the 1970's to '90s.

During those decades, Hollywood filmmakers were actually more original and did NOT  remake every movie.

Lately, as for bands, I enjoy... 

Alien Vampires (they are actually an EBM duo), Lacuna Coil circa 1999-2002, Type O Negative, other Goth Rock bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie And The Banshees. 

Stone Temple Pilots and KoRn from the 1990's were 2 of my favorite bands. So are White Zombie, Stabbing Westward, Gravity Kills, Fear Factory, Arch Enemy, Slipknot, and lots more.

Growing up, music especially Metal was my entertainment and my catharsis. Most people young and old do NOT  realize, that the 1990's had the most music genres and sub-genres compared to now. Today it seems as if Pop and Rap Music have merged and ONLY 1 music genre exists.

There are too WAY many bands to think of from the top of my head. I was already drawing blanks with your questions because I really had to think much HARDER. 

Great questions! Even though there were not as many questions from most subscribers this year, the few I did receive were excellent questions. 

Hopefully, there will be more questions similar to these next year for It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' 4th anniversary!

What are your thoughts? Did you like this year's Q&A blog? If so, let me know in the comments section below!

Cartoon Sunday: Neurotically Yours Programming Conflict [Chibisode]

How's it going my gumdrops? Towards the end of last week, I had the opportunity to talk with Jonathan Ian Mathers (You know the creator of Neurotically Yours and Foamy The Squirrel?) on Facebook. 

Those of you, who LOVE Foamy The Squirrel as much as I do, probably want to ask:

What was it like talking to Jonathan Ian Mathers (JIM)?

Honestly, I have no complaints. I respect the man for his individuality and his artistic ability. We need more people like Jonathan Ian Mathers more than ever, this second. Encountering more individualists like ourselves is like stumbling upon a unicorn.

Most people have no idea what it's like to create something of their own from nothing or to be more innovative. Take Hollywood now, for instance. 

Before we can blink our eyes, filmmakers announce that they are remaking and/rebooting classic movies, cartoons, and shows, that really DON'T  need remakes.

This is partly why I stopped investing time and money on watching, listening, and buying most entertainment.

Hollywood entertainment has become nothing other than garbage 98% of the time today. Only fools will waste their money on garbage. You may say, "One's trash is another one's treasure." Today that old saying barely applies anymore.

Almost everything sucks ass. This is not including the A to F-list celebutards. Over the last 12-15 years, those same know-it-all, zealots continuously patronize everybody and act like self-righteous, "political activists" about everything known to man.

Truth be told, those same people really don't care about much of anything or anyone. That is unless money, being pretentious, materialistic, and worrying about their own self-image to us lowly peasants are at risk.

Like I was saying, I like AND respect Jonathan Ian Mathers for his individuality and his artwork. Not only do I like and respect JIM, but I can also empathize with him for being mostly solo for these last 15 years.

While we were talking last Thursday and Friday, we discussed how saturated content creation is today. Everything has turned into a competition. 

Even JIM has problems reaching viewers like he was able to do years ago. This is mostly because we live in a world where everybody MUST  be seen and heard 24/7, almost every animal and person are "famous" now without notice, shallow and self-centered, attention whores must be told they are "beautiful" and "winners," and everyone IS a winner, now. 

Let's not forget about those uproarious "safe spaces."

Because someone uploads and posts pictures of themselves, their pets, and kids EVERY damn nano second, they are "stars" regardless of how shallow and vapid they truly are as humans and animals.

Meanwhile, content creators must overcome indifference from shallow and VAPID people. More original content with words or other forms of art and entertainment, which doesn't pander to mainstream audiences, are mostly underappreciated and ignored.

This is something I have been coping with over these last 3-5 years. INDIFFERENCE. You would be amazed at the number of people I have reconnected with over the years, who pretended to care about how my life has been and what I am currently doing.

The moment I mention the slightest accomplishment, they will typically want some favors, try social climbing because they expect me to be "famous," or assume I am close to FAME, since I have met and interacted with celebrities, politicians, and public figures.

Otherwise, those same people may become insecure, distant, feel threatened, jealous, resentful, make snide and backhanded remarks, and/transfer and project their own insecurities on me.

If not the preceding, I have to endure friend collectors on social media sites because they want an increase in their viewership for selfies like shallow, high school girls. People like that, I have no time for and had to dump a few over the last week to 5 years.

If you seriously don't care about long lost family, friends, classmates, exes, etc. do NOT waste OUR time by inviting yourselves back into our lives only because YOU want to say, that you know and remember us, then pretend we do NOT exist to you.

Since we were previously on the topic of content creation, Jonathan Ian Mathers also mentioned that he is not really skilled with self-promotion and that social media and other sites want money to promote our content. I understand exactly what he means. 

I am terrible with self-promotion and I don't have the money for someone to promote my content.

Self-promoting on social media is a royal pain in the ass. When you are surrounded by indifferent people, including "friends" on social media, it exacerbates the problem(s). 

In addition, Jonathan Ian Mathers and other content creators on YouTube now have to deal with censorship.

Since the time I was a teenager, I have always been anti-censorship. 

You know, if MORE average people and Hollywood entertainers desperately want to be "activists," they should go back to protesting censorship like entertainers did in 1984.

Tipper Gore and the helicopter moms from 1984 are to blame for the censorship we have today. 

It is also Slick Willy's fault, that we have the V-chip in our TV's. Notice which smarmy politicians made CENSORSHIP official?

*cough-cough* Clinton/Gore *cough-cough*

This is about as political I will get on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns. I try to stay as apolitical as possible because most really CANNOT  handle other people with opposing views. All this talk about content creation and censorship is only fitting for this blog.

I believe Jonathan Ian Mathers was intentionally pushing the proverbial envelope with these 2 videos. He is actively exercising his rights to freedom of speech on YouTube. 

Those of you with YouTube channels should be doing the same. Anyway, here is today's Cartoon Sunday.

Foamy The Squirrel "R.I.P. Income: YouTube Ad Revenue Crisis" (2016)

Neurotically Yours: "Programming Conflict" [UNCENSORED] (2016)