Victory Is upon You

I'm entering the last stage of the website!  I'm actually far closer to finishing than I imagined I would be a few months ago.  Not sure exactly when it will be totally ready, but I am way too close to be disappointed any longer.  Doing a lot of the final design touches myself and it's looking pretty awesome.

I finally had to insist that my designer show me some basics so I could refine the content without bugging him too much.  It worked.  I've been doing well and the site is looking good enough to compete with some of the bigger labels of this field--whatever they are.  ,'-)  Considering the type of sub sub sub sub genres this label will carry, I'm not exactly sure if we will be associated with any field in particular.

I want to thank those particular friends-and-fans who have shown undying support and sympathy during this label relaunch, and the painstaking development of it's website this year.  I will never forget that.  The people I speak of didn't chastise me one bit for being negative, they just thanked me for sharing everything.  For that, you have my truest appreciation.

My opinion on the topic: they say you don't have to love the artist, just the art; but if more people expected less perfection from the lives and behavior of their heroes, and remembered that most of those heroes are fellow human beings, I think they would probably love them far more often and honestly.  There would be far less disillusionment in the world.

So, anyway, I'm very glad that things are well on the way, but it has still been a hard year's endeavor.  On top of all of the logistical online obstacles, I've had to maintain a certain pace with the music projects themselves, sometimes to their detriment.  I even had a falling out with my latest band over a radio gig misunderstanding, partly occurring because the stress makes it difficult for me to focus and communicate.  So sure, I will take some of the blame for things, but no matter.  I go through projects and ensembles like hot cakes because that's what you have to do to grow and survive as an artist.  No stranger to it.

However, I do think the news I just got last week is where seeming hardship goes from being considered a learning experience strait into comedy.   ,'-)   As I got ready to enter the finishing stages of the website, last week my older-aunt Henny became deathly ill, and I also found out that we have to move from our present living quarters.

My aunt Henny: we'll see what happens.  She's in the hospital now, so I'm helping slightly with her affairs.  Wish I could afford more time, but I'm trying to save my own life just like everyone else on this planet.

The move: long story, but we don't have long, and it will be a major downgrade, so that will interrupt production this year.  Also, a few weeks ago I had planned a two week vacation in Europe with my girlfriend (because I've been working on this so much that we've only seen each other like 4 days out of a two month period), and we basically bought the plane tickets before news of the move. So that will cut the move time down even more.  Onward with the relaunch saga/struggle...

But I'm okay.  I had an initial emotional reaction to everything last week, but I'm past it, and still laughing somewhat.

It's interesting watching the many emotional phases of a hard-work project.  First you have the beginning, which is always exciting and inspirational; then you have the processes, which make you very focused; then you have the big obstacles, which make you very serious, sometimes for far too long; but then, on rare occasions, you have the bottom dropping out at the end before you can finish, which becomes shear entertainment and makes you laugh at the impossibility of it.  That's where I was at early last week.

My overall thought: I actually took this year off from my road project so I could have a break.  LOL!!!!

You can't write this stuff.  Knowing all of the details of this story makes me the biggest and loudest laughing audience member in the front row sometimes.   ,'-)

But also, I find that many of these processes are very hard for people to understand who have not undergone tackling their own large projects.  It gets to the point where you basically have to tell them to try doing something big themselves, and they always take offense to that.  Honestly, there is no other way to put it when you get to the breaking point, and I've gained more sympathy for directors and celebrities who are world famous for being jerks.   ,'-)    Some sympathy anyway.

The relaunch: but yeah, regardless, things are looking up somehow.  As originally planned, and aside from the musicians involved, I have now successfully formed a small visual-artist collective for Fateless Flows Records.  It was a lot of internet communication to make that happen, but it has happened, and this will help the overall aesthetic direction of our company and website.  Not only that, but in order to get some of these artists interested, I had to show them some good material so that they could justify being involved; so I had to step up my own visual work to win them over.  My own visual art has improved ten fold because of that, and I will now fit in well as one of the artists in the collective.  Again, it was a lot of work to juggle with the website, but it obviously needed to get done before the website could get done.

Also, and even more importantly, I now have some truly incredible music artists who are on board to be a part of Fateless Flows Records as soon as it is launched.  They were a little bit of work to secure, too, but I'm very grateful to have them now.  If there is any reason for me to feel at all serious about everything unfolding, and/or our obstacles, it's simply that I don't want to let any of these recording artists down.  I think I might have done that too much in the past, and I want to turn over a new leaf.  I don't want to disappoint artists ; they are all great at what they do and they believe in me.  Honoring them is basically the drive in back of my mind more than ever before, which was already pretty high.

But whatever, right?  Onward.  I've got nowhere else to go--but forward.

Also, I'd like to thank my web designer, JB Web Builders, for sticking it through with me and making up for my poor experiences with freelance designers before him.  JB is the MAN/MEN!!!!

I think this should do it for now on this blog.  Will probably move back over to the Travels Rendered blog for a while because it's far overdue for updating and reflecting.  I did a lot with that project so far, so I will be filling in those blanks soon.

Dean

By the way: if you see the Fateless Flows site posted up, don't be too excited.  That is the beta/prototype that we've been using to get a few artists involved who needed to see something.

FFRec Homeland, Coming Along

Finally moving along with the Fateless Flows website enough to feel like it will get done soon.  This new designer is very responsive compared to the other two, and, for the most part, is actually doing his job.

Newer, smaller obstacles: because of my exhausted resources from the last two designer shams, I've only been able to offer this designer a micro fee, resulting in his inability to offer enough time to go faster than I'm going and/or do as much work as I'm doing.  Considering what we've both gone through so far, and how demanding I am - based on how high my standards are - I don't blame him one bit for that.

So most of the work on this new site has been mine, and will continue to be.  I'm doing aesthetic layout, information architecture, logo design and most of the graphic design--the most demanding part.  Because of this, over the last month and a half I've had hardly any time to make music or stay in touch with people in my life.  No life--right now.  No Summer either.  I've just been a lab-rat scientist sweating in the heat for a science that isn't even my own profession.

There are benefits to the isolation, such as avoiding over-exposure to the sun, but what compounds the paradox is the hassle of constantly self generating more workload here in the "lab."  For instance,  I consider it extremely important to compare the quality of one's website (not style, just the quality) with top-notch rival sites in order to be able to compete in the same market.  I am constantly cross-checking my own layout and graphics with these other sites, and this naturally creates more work for me as I go along.  Lots more.  If something about my layout looks too inefficient, or something about my graphics looks too cheesy compared to any of these other sites, it won't matter how much work I've already put into it, I'll have to start over and do it again.

However, I think that's fine.  What else am I supposed to do?  Link everyone to my Facebook page and call that my label?  Nope.  And you may ask: why is it so important to do all of this?  Why is it so important to eliminate most of the cheese-factors and to optimize the efficiency of the site and to have an overabundance of content on there?  Why?  Quite simply because this is not going to be some website for just myself, to promote and market my own music (the way I did before).  No, this time the site is going to represent a company, with plenty of other people involved.  That is far more responsibility than I've had to deal with in the past.  When I was helping to run The Fateless Flows Collective, years ago, other people in the collective would take care of stuff like this.  That's what they did because they were a collective.  This is a company, my company, which means the bulk of the workload and responsibility falls on me.

Plus, the momentum and expectation that I've unintentionally built around this launch over the last few years will bite me in the ass if I don't do it right.  I look bad enough already for having taken as long as I've taken to get this far.   ,'-)

But not to throw this experience under the bus--at all.  It's been a workload, but there are aspects of this work that have been extremely redeeming and, quite frankly, a lot of fun.  I've created some of my best still artwork over the last week and a half, and I've started to form a small community of still artists whom I'm also inspired by.  This is definitely leading somewhere intriguing.  I've also learned a lot more about web design, and Wordpress.

Not to mention the additional music producers I've been forming alliances with over the past months.  There is some serious music waiting to be exposed, and serious enough for me to be unfailingly excited.

...I'm suddenly getting strong flashbacks from my weird-and-profane dream last night...  I better go before I unintentionally write something on here that scares away all of the non-electronic-music lovers.

Dean

Recalling: Swindled Again In A World Gone Mad

FATELESS PROGRESS REPORT:


(In a Southern drawl) It's been good and bad times at the Fateless homestead, as always.  Recently took a small time-out for friends and beer.  Felt pretty good.  Work months leading up to that? 'Ell, let's just say they were same as any work week ya'll gotta' deal with: always cleaning up everyone else's mess.  (voice ends)

Seriously though, it got really bad for a minute there after getting ripped on by a web designer for way too much money, so my girlfriend advised me not to post my original pissed-off-and-apocalyptic entry.  She doesn't seem to think negative feelings should be expressed and/or shared with the world, whether the world is at fault or not.  Not sure if I fully agree with that philosophy, but I took her up on it--at that time.

So now here I am after the storm has begun to lift.  We'll see if it keeps lifting.  That break I recently took was well needed, regardless.

I did write a good chunk in that original entry while experiencing such bad depths, so I suppose it probably was better that I wait. This way you can see that I am once again sane before you read anymore, and you can see how before this was hopefully more like a bad dream.

However, I don't want to completely ignore and dishonor the proverbial Hell I was put through last month, so I'm pasting the OG-gansta' entry below.

As you read it, try to remember that I'm doing okay now because I took a good break, and I've been making good music, and most importantly, I have a new web designer who's actually doing his job and is cheaper than the previous-nightmares were.  Looks like the Fateless Flows site will finally be done sooner than later.  Prototype is even up already (not for viewing).  (And the designer's company is JB Web-builders.)

As for the rest of this, just take note: for any freelance web-designers who read my original entry (pasted below), if you know that you are a good person and a good worker then please don't take offense to it.  Under that circumstance, the entry will not apply to you.  Also, make no mistake, I recognize that a great many of you really are good workers, but there is something going on with tons of your co-workers that is fairly unsatisfactory to society right now.  I just wanted to warn you about that part of the entry before you see it.  I was in quite a state when I wrote it, as justified as that state was.

Without further adieu, here is the original entry (from over a month ago) that you've been hearing so many bad things about:

I'm going to let you in on what's been happening with the label over the last few months, but as you read it, I want you to remember that I'm okay and that, as always, I'm taking necessary measures to correct the following issues and barriers.  I prefer expressing and sharing my trials and tribulations in an attempt to make everyone aware of how meeting these goals is never easy--and to vent a little.  But yeah, this kind of thing is never a walk in the park.

Again, no need to think of me as apocalyptic, even though I may sound that way sometimes.  

Onward to say... 

Amazing.  Totally and utterly amazing.  It is now official.  For a second time over the last year I have been ripped off by a web designer.  And this one really takes the cake because the guy took me for a whole one thousand dollars.  I know.  I really didn't think it could happen.  After all of my life-experience and confidence and the other rip-offs that happened recently, I didn't in my wildest dreams imagine that I would ever again be conned into giving away money.  But yep, it happened, in a big way.

Relaunching my record label has now protruded into a record-breaking personal hurdle, one that is still being juggled with other equivalent hurdles.  This is probably part of the reason I allowed myself to be conned in the first place--there's just too much on my mind.  And wow... does this whole thing boggle the mind.

The reason I couldn't hire a company to design the site was because I didn't have the budget for that, and I was running out of the time it would take to raise more, but now look at me. For the time and aggravation that attempting to hire a freelance designer took, I may as well have hired two corporations!

I can't believe getting ripped off by a freelance web designer has actually happened twice now within a year.  The first time I was taken by a designer for $500 (last year) because of her incompetence regarding not saving her work.  A designer that doesn't save her work...  Wow.  She assumed that the host would always do that for her...  wow, WOW.

(For the record, her name is Lynn Weintraub.  Stay away--far away.)

But also, in general, my experience with freelance web designers over the last year has been strange to say the least.  Seriously exasperating.  I don't know what their problem is, but lots of them seem to have one.

I.E. - After the first freelance designer screwed me over, I sought out a second one on Craigslist (probably a big mistake right there).  I told each designer about what happened, and that because of getting ripped off previously I might now want to go a little slower, taking my time to think about things before a deal is made.  For some super-natural reason, more than half of these "potential designers" responded to that request very irrationally.  They did things like scolded me for not following standard protocol, or not knowing what I want, and one of them even freaked out and grew paranoid that I was a spammer/hacker of some kind.  I then posted a fairly vexed remark about this on Facebook, and wouldn't you know--suddenly tons of web-designer "friends" came out of the woodwork to continue scolding me before they even knew my case.  Excuse my french thinking, but what assholes!  (If anyone has earned the right to say that right now, it's me.) One even gave me a link to a client horror stories page so that I could "understand."  I went to this link, read it, and noticed that all of the clients in these stories were total morons.  I hate to boast, but they were all a far cry from my case.

For instance, here are two of these stories:

June 25, 2012

Client: Can you make this blue redder?

Me: Like, purple?

Client: No. A red blue. Or even a blue red. Are you colour blind?

After receiving a paid invoice… 

Me: This says you deducted 10% from the the price we agreed on for income tax. Do you know my Tax Identification Number? How did you file the amount to the government under my name?

Client: You don’t understand. If you’re a human being, 10% of all money you earn must be deducted from your earnings.

Me: Are you sure that’s how taxes work?

Client: My hands are tied. I’d give you the full amount if you weren’t human…

I really don't think I need to point out how these cases don't apply to me at all, and yet all of a sudden I was public enemy number one without anyone even asking questions.  At this point, someone needs to start a Freelance Designers From Hell website for the rest of us.  My theory about these designers is that they've had so many idiots as clients through the years that now many of them are impatient and hyper-paranoid.  This is no good for clients like myself who are just trying to get something done, and are simply not authorities on the matter (which is why we hire).  We require patience and cooperation, and most importantly, designers who are not basically criminals.

How did I fall for that guy's conn?  I thought I had finally found someone who was cooperative, so I totally missed all of the signs.  The name of his "design" company is Image IZ Everything.  This guy seemed so cool that I didn't even mind the fact that he was across the country in New York or his requirement that I wire him the cash.  That's how he suckered me.  Mind you, I still didn't send him the entire amount upfront.  Oh no.  It wasn't until after I had taken a week-and-a-half too long getting him the website content that he was able to guilt-trip me into paying the rest of the entire job.  After that, he simply strung me along for a month, basically refusing to do the job.

(If you care to read the more-detailed story about what happened, read my review of his "business" on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/image-iz-everything-bronx.  I will also be filing a report with the BBB soon.)

People like these last two designers should not be allowed to work.  Even freelance.  I'm surprised no one else has complained about either of them (unless that's just some search engine trick they've pulled).  So I will be reporting the both of them very shortly and writing a few bad reviews.  That is really all I'm left with being able to do at this point, when you consider the major hassle an out-of-state small claims case would be.  Compared to my real objective, that just wouldn't be worth it.  What is my real objective?  Getting this website finished and finally getting the label relaunched.  Through all of this error and emotion, the label and website is still the most important goal, so I'm going to try and keep my eyes on that prize.

But believe it or not, I'm really doing a great job of holding back my true anger and frustration right now.  I don't need this cr-p, any more than the rest of you do.  It's hard enough for us all to juggle the normal stuff in life, besides being taken by companies and/or people who feed off the aspirations and dreams of those of us who simply need help and support.  

I decided to take this year off from my travel project to try and heal my wounds, make some money and get a grip on my life again.  So far, within the last four months, all I've managed to achieve is: I crashed my car, got screwed over by a private car dealer after buying a lemon, ended up in new tax debt, helped my partner get over the death of her father, had a falling out with a long-time music colleague, and got screwed over by two web designers.  After all of that, somehow I still have the same "important list of things to do"--and it's still a mile high.  But to say I did a poor juggling act before the bottles went crashing to the ground would not be accurate.  These bottles blew up in my face as I was juggling them. 

It's just so amazing though.  To top this off: I've had over two dozen Fateless artists and colleagues waiting for this website for like... over 3 YEARS NOW.  Sure, this is partly because I've been on the road doing my travel projects SMP and TR, but excuses excuses.  Obviously many of these potential Fateless artists had to move on.  The road just took too long.  Even some of the folks who were helping me had to move on, which made my delayed task even harder.  And after all of my own personal trails and errors along that road so far, I now have to disappoint the remaining loyal artists a little further, due to a lack of ethics in the world.  It's astoundingly ridiculous.  

And I'm recalling something else: a close friend and colleague of mine recently started a label with another friend of mine, and it's doing pretty well.  They are also both web designers, and about 5 months ago they offered to do the Fateless website for free if Fateless would affiliate with their label.  I definitely respect their label (A&H).  It's a totally happening brand, so that would've all made sense as a green light, right?  Well, I would have done it if it hadn't been for this one little mantra of mine; I've had a lot of past friendships turn bad because we were involved in important work ventures together; so, at one point I vowed to not share any venture that is highly important, with a friend.  I would only share ones that we could get over easily if they went bad.  A new label and it's website venture isn't exactly easy, is it?  I turned my friends down because our extremely-slight difference in aesthetic vision made that venture too risky when considering it's potential size in the long run.  I turned them down because I wanted to keep them as friends, with no risk.  Should I be kicking myself in the ass for that?  Really.  I can't tell any more.

I mean, I've successfully preserved some of these friendships, but after all of that track-record tripe with "designers" just now, I'm having problems deciphering some of my mistakes.

I can safely say this much though: whichever artists remain standing by my side whenever this is all done, are truly the artists that deserve to be represented by Fateless.  Bless them in advance, if they exist, and I have a feeling they do.

Wish me luck,

Dean

Again, most of what you just read no longer applies.  The top of the page does, but not the angst so much. Everything is pretty much looking better, so just try to appreciate drama for it's entertainment value.  (smirk)

Dean

Website FINALLY Near Completion - Apparently

Dean here.  Good to be back.  Not sure if I'm going to keep this particular blog up.  Have actually had a hard time accessing it.  ;)  Friggin' Google.  So, naturally it has been anything but updated--for months. Just don't have the time for even minor complications.

Before anything else, the big news is that I've decided to name the label in honor of both my original company, and my original artist collective.  The record label will now be called Fateless Flows Records.  Just sounds better, and there is a whole backstory behind the name that you will be able to read about on the actual website.  Clarity is awesome.

Due to a new need for surgery, I am home this year, which turned out to be anything but a break.  Amidst getting back to all of the obligations pending while on the road for the last two years, relaunching Fateless and it's website has def been a long hard road.  The first web designer did not work out at all.  I had to leave on tour last year in the middle of our work, and when I got back, everything she had done basically amounted to nothing.  My server had erased her work because of "phishing" (apparently a plugin she had used that made our site vulnerable), and when I went to her for the master files, she told me that she never keeps any, ever.  This person never keeps copies of her work.  She actually found it odd that I would even ask for them.  I had just payed her $500 to work hard on nothing that I could possibly use. And now she was about to put my account on her back-burner because I had been out of town.

For the sake of etiquette, I won't divulge her name here, but if anyone ever wants to know, please feel free to ask.  I'll tell you.  Clients deserve to be safe from people like that.

So this was a major monkey wrench.  I obviously ditched her and started my long search for another designer.  That was a whole other adventure.  After telling each new potential designer the story of my original designer, many of them actually got paranoid that I was a spammer for some reason, and/or they were extremely impatient with my new tentativeness.  This made me crazy, and I seriously wondered about designers in general.  What could make them all so unstable?  Some people told me that they are trigger-happy because of how many bad clients they are used to getting.  Bad? Good?  That stuff really doesn't matter when you are simply trying to get something done.

I finally seem to have secured a dependable and professional designer and developer.  The developer part is what made him so enticing.  It was tricky at first, because he requested payment in unusual and non-secure ways, so I didn't know if I could trust him.  So far, he has turned out to be just the blessing I needed in my life this year.  All I've had to do now is my own job (creative management and basic info architecture) which is almost a novelty at this point.

Still, it took quite a while to compile the info and files for the site, so he wouldn't have to do any of my job for me.  Amidst all of the music projects and collaborations I'm in the middle of, this one (the label website), had to take me out of the entire game for a bit.  When you get a big job like that, you have to be able to concentrate/crunch.  Had to put all my other work on hold.  There was a lot of compiling the various artist's info, and rewriting it.  I also had to rethink the label policies and decide on a basic look.  Mission accomplished though!

The rest is all up to the designer now.

Back to my projects, which have not gotten any less congested since I started on the website months ago.  Also, I seem to have achieved another falling-out with a long-time colleague during this period.  ???  Amazing.  I apologized profusely for anything I might have done, but he didn't seem to soften up at all.  That always amazes me.  I guess I should stop apologizing for things, even when I know I made a mistake.  No none-life-threatening mistake deserves this kind of treatment.  Sure, I do work exceptionally slow because of my lack of talent for multi-tasking, and my signals get a little confusing sometimes because of all my stress, but I'm not that different from everyone else trying to juggle the same magnitude.  Doing work like this, or any work, takes patience, and you have to be able to not take little disagreements along the way personally.  Imagine taking every little disagreement personally in a corporate conference room.  You're career would basically end right there.  There's no room for ego when it comes to achievement--you have to focus on the work, not the disappointment.  It really seems like a "mad world" to me when I have to deal with this.  I guess more than any learning experience that my ex-colleague might think he's getting out of it, I should take this to mean that I should choose my friends and colleagues more carefully, and keep some distance between us.

As usual, the stress is oddly high right now for not getting payed, but I have no doubt that all of the seeds I'm planting will lead to something, monetarily or not.  I just have to keep meditating, taking breaks and getting acceptable sleep.  Sounds easy, doesn't it?

Dean

Cancelation Canceled

Hello everyone!

We have changed our plan to cancel this blog so it can now serve as a logbook/chronicle for the official Fateless website while it's under construction.  Our apologies for all of the mix-ups and miscalculations.  Then again, it wouldn't be Fateless if there really was some kind of grand plan to it all (or one that worked, anyway).

Over a year has gone by since the website's initial completion date was determined, and Dean's travel projects have consumed much of that time, so we've now chosen to keep you updated on the steps we're taking to finish it.  Until otherwise determined, on here you will find all of the Fateless stresses, successes, blood, sweat and tears until our site is up.  And the reports may be brief sometimes, but they should be on here none-the-less.

Welcome to our world...