An over-abundance of what you love

A friend messaged me a little while ago and asked me to talk about over-saturation, specifically with TV shows.  At first, I didn't know what to say, but after the last week or so, I've been thinking about it enough that I have some thoughts.

First I have to explain the pre-internet way of marketing.  Before the internet, TV shows, movies, music...just about everything in the entertainment industry had a buffer zone of popularity that companies could react to.  If a TV show was becoming the new 'in' thing, there was a span of time where the early adopters started watching it to when the late majority began watching it and the early adopters were in full blown crazy about it mode.  This buffer zone was usually enough time for companies to hash out a plan in order to capitalize upon the popularity of whatever it was, deciding where toys, lunch boxes, etc etc would go.  By the time something became unpopular or the new 'in' thing was around, companies had plenty of time to rake in the money.


Then came the internet, or at least the internet as we know it now.  Because of the internet, that buffer zone has gone from several weeks or months to a matter of days, sometimes hours.  Take for instance Gangnam Style.  Putting aside the fact that without the internet it never would have become so popular in the US, or possibly anywhere other than South Korea, the video spread like wildfire in a matter of hours thanks to websites like Reddit, 4chan, Tumbler, Twitter, and Facebook, amongst others.  Within two or three days, the internet had parody videos, remixes, reposts, torrents, gifs, blogs, and so much more.  It wasn't until months later that a commercial tried to play on the popularity it gained, and by then, most people had either forgotten about it, or were bored with it.

And that's the problem and the benefit with the internet.  Extremely quick turn around.  Sometimes the content continues, and there is plenty of time to capitalize on it.  Other times, it's just a passing fad, and the energy should be placed somewhere else.  But because there is no buffer zone, companies now have to make that decision almost immediately.  It's why so many companies try to create viral ads for the internet.  If they succeed, they get even more free advertising with the remixes and the reposts and the parodies.  A great example of that is Old Spice Guy.

However, if they fail, they don't really lose anything they wouldn't have lost with just putting out a bad commercial on TV.  In fact, it's less risky because doing a viral ad via YouTube is cheaper in the long run.  You can't fault companies for saturating the market with something they can make money on.  It's why I always say, "The only way to get large companies to listen to you is to not buy from them."  Money is the only thing that speaks to companies.

But where does the over-saturation come in?  Well, let's take 'PQ's example of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. (yes...I'm talking about it again, but it's what he was worried about.)

MLP, regardless of what your opinion about it, is immensely popular.  There is countless fan music, art, animations, remixes, fanfiction, t-shirts, vinyl statues...just about everything. Unless you started working and releasing stuff back at the very beginning of the show's popularity (and producing good content), chances are you are going to have a rough time gaining any traction in the community.  The market is completely over-saturated with content, and because of that, even the die-hard fans are going to start losing interest because they've just been flooded with content.

Any market that becomes too popular can start losing people.  Contrary to popular belief, the first group you lose are the early adopters, also known by many as 'hipsters.'  The reason why you lose them is because they will quickly move on to the next thing that is going to be big, just so they can say they were in it first.  They will occasionally return, but once they have moved on, they aren't going to spend time or money on something old.

Next, you'll lose casual fans, the people that came in a bit late, but decided to stay for a while.  The only time they will come back is for nostalgia, or nothing better to do, and again they aren't going to spend time and money on it anymore.

Finally, you'll lose the late adopters, the people that showed up towards the end and burned through so much content to catch up.  They are really only staying around so long because they have so much to go through, and they don't have to wait as long to get it.  Everything is new to them.  But once they've seen it all, they will move on.

The only people that leaves you with is the die-hard fans.  Those people that have been loyal since day one, and have sworn an oath to remain a fan.  Usually, these are the people creating your extra content. They are also the people buying everything they can afford.  If a company keeps putting out product, they will keep snatching it up.  But alas, eventually they will move on too.

So what does one do about over-saturation?  Nothing.  If you are on the creating end of it, then there really is nothing you can do short of holding a meeting with every person on the planet and saying "We can only put out this much content per week amongst us all."  If you are on the absorbing end of over-saturation, the only thing you can do is just limit your intake.  Take it in moderation.  Don't let yourself be over flooded with content that you start losing interest in what you love.  But if you feel you should purpose your energy into something new, then do so.  If you come back to it, then you'll come back stronger.  I've been an Evangelion fan since 1997, but I've limited my intake of Evangelion in order to preserve my love of it.  There is plenty of content I've never seen, and most of it I probably don't want to.  But it's there should I ever need to get a fix for something that what I currently have doesn't fill.

So 'PQ' I hope that answers your question.  If anyone else has a topic they would like me to speak my mind on, send it to me.  I'll take it into consideration, and think about it for a while.  When I have a thought about it, I'll post it in a blog.

New Post

No...I did not forget to change the title.  Lately I've been thinking about how much excitement I get when someone I follow posts new content.  I follow several YouTubers of a wide range of fame, and I read quite a few webcomics that update at various intervals.  I get quite excited when one of them posts a new video or page for me to enjoy, and sometimes when I haven't seen anything new from them in a while, I get anxious, even sad that I haven't seen anything new from them.

I mainly started thinking about this because of being gone Sunday, and Nice Peter.  For those that don't know who he is, he's one of the driving minds behind Epic Rap Battles of History on YouTube.  What some people don't know is he also posts things like picture songs, and would usually post a video every Monday that was just him vlogging a bit and opening up his mail and showing what he got.  The Monday Show was actually the reason I subscribed to him.  I liked the picture songs, and the ERBs that came after I subscribed were a lot of fun to watch evolve.  But I really liked The Monday Show.  It was just a guy named Peter, talking with people that enjoyed his music, getting excited about the random things people would send him, and every week he would have something to say that always made me happy for the rest of week.  One week, he even talked about creating something, and that was the primary inspiration for this blog.  I watched that episode and said "Hmm...I think I should start a blog.  That would be fun, and it would give me something to look forward to updating each week."  I spent the next several months figuring out what I was going to talk about before I just decided on talking about whatever I was thinking about that week.

Then the Epic Rap Battles got big, and understandably Nice Peter began spending more and more of his time working on them.  Occasionally, he'd miss a week of The Monday Show, and would make them on Tuesday.  Then he started missing entire weeks.  Eventually for Season 2, he just stopped making them altogether.  As each week went on, I understood why he wasn't making the Monday Shows, and would go back to earlier ones in order to get a small burst of joy.  But eventually, I really wanted a new Monday Show.  Something where he would talk about something new, and we'd get to see what new crazy stuff he has, and hear him talk about something insignificant that inspired him to write a little song.  But just seeing him smile behind those yellow sunglasses cheered me up.

Finally, season two of ERB was over, and Nice Peter posted a video just saying that he was returning to making videos (and that he adopted a dog) for Mondays.  I was very excited.  And the next week, we got this.



I like it, much like I enjoy the rest of Nice Peter's songs...but I was hoping for a Monday Show.  Even if it was unedited, just recorded and uploaded, I would have liked to have seen one again.

And I wondered if anyone else felt this way.  When someone you subscribe to changes their upload schedule, or changes what they upload completely.  Do you wish they would bring back the old style of posts?  And do you get excited when someone you follow posts something new, or get sad if they don't post for a while?  Let me know in the comment below.

OCD

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  If you look around you on a daily basis, everyone you see has it to some degree.  The problem with it is most people use it as an excuse to either not do something they are supposed to, or as a way to coerce people into doing something they want.  There are plenty of people out there that have an actual disorder, a chemical or psychological imbalance that causes them to do things outside of what most would call normal (whether its repeating certain tasks a specific number of times, or washing their hands vigorously so many times a day that their hands are raw)

 

The problem is that people feel that OCD is just a term for anything they just want to see perfect.  So I'd like to set the record straight on this.  If you have ever said "This is really setting off my OCD." or "I'm OCDing about this right now.", you don't really have OCD.  Take a look back at those times, and truly ask yourself if you just didn't want to do something else and used what you were currently doing as an excuse.  Or perhaps you saw something doing something and you wanted it done a specific way, and used a disorder to try to get them to do it your way.

We've used OCD so much that it's almost become an irrelevant word, much like calling someone gay over the internet for doing...well anything you feel like insulting them on.  I've known a few people that actually were OCD.  The looks on their faces when you disrupt their routine in order to feel comfortable is actually saddening.  I've seen how angry or nervous they can get.  You learn to feel bad for it.

 

Because everyone really feels that OCD is apart of them though, we now need new levels of the term.  So to everyone that just uses the term, you are now a First Degree OCD.  What this means is you have things that irritate you, that you want to see perfect, and that you would rather do yourself in order to ensure that they are perfect, but if push comes to shove (or something much more entertaining or important comes up), you can forego the task for a while, even indefinitely.  You don't really have OCD, because it doesn't come up on a daily basis.  You don't have hard set routines you must follow or you break down and curl up into a little ball.  You just have things that irritate you.  That, or you just want to make a shelf at work look perfect so no one asks you to do anything else for a while.

Now to all those people who's OCD affects their daily lives, you are a Second Degree OCD.  And my heart goes out to you.  But let's give you something more impressive to call it so the rest of the world can have the now demeaned OCD.  How about Social Routine Perfectionism, or SRP?  I like the sound of that.  But I really do feel for you.  I had one friend that needed to do many of his daily tasks in fours, and originally we thought it was just a quirk until we opened the door on his third knock and he freaked.  And by freaked I mean his face turned to that of fear, and he almost froze completely.  We managed to calm him down by going outside and closing the door and talking with him and allowing him to knock his four times before going inside.  I really felt bad for him.

I'm not saying I'm above this though.  I've used the term OCD just as much as the next person.  But every time I do it, I realize the term has no meaning to it anymore.  And there are many other words that have the same effect, especially text acronyms.  Hearing people say "LOL" and "ROFL" out loud instead of laughing irks me for instance.  Why not just laugh?

What other terms do you think have been demeaned through overuse of it's unintended meaning?  I know there are a ton of them out there.

Also, no blog-post on Sunday.  I'll be in Southern California visiting family, and I'll be away from my computer until late Sunday night.  I'll be back next Thursday.  Thank you all for reading.  I've recently reached 700 page views, which is way more than I thought I'd get in only 4 months, so I'd really like to thank you all.

Idiocracy

There have been a lot of movies that have predicted a future of earth.  Some say we'll be a prosperous, highly advanced civilization with robots and self-driving flying cars and where the normal life expectancy is 250 years.  Others say we'll be destroyed by war caused by those robots becoming self aware, or aliens coming to Earth, or even just because we want to destroy each other.  The one I hope for it Star Trek's prediction, where we no longer need money to be happy, and instead are hungry for knowledge and work hard to better ourselves and those around us.  Where we become explorers, scientists, doctors, historians...all for the advancement of what we know of the universe.

However, I have a feeling the opposite will happen.  If you've never seen the movie Idiocracy, do yourself a favor and watch it.  It will make you laugh, but if you look too deep into it, it will make you want to learn everything you can about...well, everything.

The basic idea of the movie is this.  The most average guy in the military, and a regular run of the mill hooker, are frozen for an experiment and wake up several hundred years into the future.  Through a trend of intelligent minds not breeding enough children because they want to wait for the right time, while those of, to be kind, less than average intelligence breed like wild fire, the world has become a pit of dumb.  Even the most common knowledge ideas such as water making plants grow, has become something that is hard to convince people of.

It may be a bit extreme, but looking at every movie prediction of the future, this is the most likely.  No robot apocalypse, but instead an overpopulated world of morons living in their own filth and having the mental capacity of a four year old.  And this is coming from someone that considers himself an optimist.

I see it happening around us everyday.  I see mother's with 6 children, of various ages, all of whom are unruly little hellians and their mother does nothing about it.  Or seeing twitter feeds of teenagers and even college students who don't understand concepts like Leap Year or the phases of the moon.  I constantly see the laziness of people everywhere, who all figure that the world is owed to them and so they just do whatever they want and expect someone else to take care of it.  I see it in our government as they allow corporations to take over the legal system in order to fit their needs so they can make a profit.  I see it in our school systems where a person that can't read or write is able to pass high school.  The parents that don't teach their kids anything practical to survive in the world, yet are more than happy to teach them that dinosaurs and humans lived together less than 30,000 years ago.  The people that preach intolerance, conformity, and hate instead of helping people find their own niche in the world and loving all.  Even the people who get visibly angry with people who are just trying to do their job, but feel they need to explode in rage about a mistake that they made.

That image sums it all up for me.  Some people say that bad things happen for a reason, but there is a steady decline of intelligence in the world.  And those that dedicate their lives to being as smart as they can about a subject are being dwindled out slowly.  We live in a world where money and appearance is the only thing that matters, rather than happiness, intelligence, and togetherness.

Timing

A while ago I talked about the past and how memories from it creep up on you.  Today I'd like to talk about the present.  The events that are currently in the process of happening, and in a way, how they reflect the past.

Back in high school, I worked at a local Walgreens.  It was my second job (my first was working at a pizzeria, which I quit as soon as I got the Walgreens job) and I basically worked there as a cashier and associate for a year and a half.  It was pretty easy work.  Towards the end of my high school years, I had learned just about everything about the operations of the store other than pharmacy, which I couldn't learn because I was under the age of eighteen.  However, I had decided to join the Navy, so I could earn money for college, see the world, and experience something new.

But there was another option.  My manager asked me one day if I wanted to become an assistant manager after I graduated.  She wanted to put me on the track to move upwards in the company.  I declined because of the military I had already signed up for.  Fast forward to right now....

As I've said, I currently work at a liquor store.  It doesn't pay enough to live on, so I've been looking for another job, something full time.  About a month ago, I started taking part in a course that would help align me with a sales job that would be full time and could get me into a position where I could once again be self-sufficient.  However, at the liquor store, we've had a problem with one of the head clerks. Every employee, and even some of the customers, have noticed and expressed complaints that he has been drinking on the job.  Usually, he'll be downing at least a full bottle of wine, sometimes two or three in a five to eight hour shift.  If he doesn't drink, we've noticed he gets the shakes.  To add to this, he has been stealing these bottles of wine from the store itself if he can't seem to get his hands on an opened return bottle, or bottles from the tastings from Saturdays.

Honestly, I don't see him working there for much longer, especially after the store manager told me that the issue was out of his hands now, implying that it had gone to higher ups.  One of the associates who works there was also apparently talking with him about what would happen.  This associate told our manager he doesn't want to talk over as head clerk, and said that the position should be given to me if possible, to which the manager said "I just might..."

This leaves me with a dilemma.  One one hand, I could get a job that I don't know, but has the possibility of creating large annual incomes for myself.  On the other, I have a job I know very well, and if I could get enough hours at the right pay, I could easily live on my own again.  And both have managed to present themselves at the same time.

The timing on this couldn't be worse.  If instead, the liquor store had offered me the job a while back before I had even joined this program, I would have taken it in a heart beat.  It still hasn't been offered to me, so I'm keeping on as I have been.

These timing issues seem to happen to me a lot.  Whenever I have tons of free time, I have nothing to do.  Whenever I get something to do, I suddenly don't have nearly as much time, sometimes even so little I have to drop out of the project.  But it's how the world works.

What I'd like to leave you with is that whenever you are faced with timing issues like these, especially when making the decision can change your future, take the time to actually weight the pros and cons.  Play devil's advocate for both sides.  Try to convince yourself not to take one, then convince yourself not to take the other.  See which side wins.  I'm currently leaning hard towards a new job, but if I'm offered the job in time, and the questions I have about it are to my liking, I may lean back and stick with my current one.  But I have a list to convince me both ways.  We'll see which way I jump.

Customer Service People

Though I've been working various customer service jobs since the day I decided to join the work force, I have to say, I hate working customer service jobs.  There are many, MANY reasons for that, but unfortunately, even though in the back of my head I'm screaming at people, I still seem to be good at it. It's not that the work is grueling, and in fact, on most days, it's quite easy.  It's the various people you have to deal with in customer service that make the days go like hell.

Because I like listing things though, I thought about it for a while and decided to write a nice little list of the people you will have to deal with in customer service, and why you will hate them.

1: The talker - This customer just likes to talk.  Whether they are lonely or just have a lot to say they insist on taking up your time with anecdotes about themselves and talking about current events all day long.  If you try to break it off with them so you can do something else, they follow you or hang around until it looks like you are doing nothing and then they talk with you some more, essentially preventing you from doing what you need to do.  There are only two things that stop them.  One is them leaving, and two is being rude towards them.  Since you don't want to do the latter, you end up waiting for the former.

2: The cheapskate - He wants $100 stuff, but he want's to spend $5.  This person, regardless of what you attempt to do, will always buy only the cheapest thing you can find to suit his/her needs, even when you tell them they will be in every week purchasing the exact same thing over and over again, and if they'd just spend a little more, they'd get something that lasts much longer and would save them money.

3: The know-it-all - This person knows everything about everything you sell (at least they think they do) and must correct everything you say about something.  Sometimes they'll even rub it in your face saying that they know more than you so you couldn't possibly help them with what they are searching for.

4: The unconsolable - They walk in angry, cause a scene, and even after hearing their situation and knowing what happened, and trying to explain things calmly, they still want to yell and rant until they get their way.

5: The stranger - Usually a tourist or someone that just doesn't know how to speak your language, they are really hard to understand, if at all, even when they talk slowly.  Yet, you have to try to help them as much as possible, and you feel really bad when communications break down to a point where you just start trying to get rid of them by telling them you don't have something.

6: The man on the mission - He'll walk in, head straight for what he gets every week, and walks out.  Never talking, never changing his routine.  You can't sell him anything, or show him a new item that came in that he might be interested in.  In fact, you can't show him anything.  And if he has to wait in line for check out, expect him to start letting everyone know that his time is valuable.

7: The big spender - This person comes in and basically wants everything from all around the store.  This person isn't so bad, and is the person you kind of want to come in every so often, especially if you earn commission.  They want the most expensive items, and they want a lot of it.  You usually have to take the time to go the extra mile just to ensure that they feel like a VIP, but at least you made an impressive sale.  I only mention this person to mention....

8: The fake spender - This person wants to be The Big Spender, but they don't have that kind of money.  But they'll make you go through all of the motions, get all the nice items, and eventually bring them up to the register, only to find out they don't have a valid card, or no cash, or worse yet, they aren't legally allowed to purchase the items.  Then they just leave, and you are left with a cart full of items to put back away, and about an hour or two of your shift completely wasted by one person.

9: The looky-loo - They walk in, and look through the entire store for an hour, sometimes more.  They never purchase anything, and sometimes will break something while they are there.  The only redeeming quality about them is they don't take up your time talking to you about nothing.

10: The closing staller - This person comes in with less than 5 minutes left before you lock the doors.  With they way they were running in, you'd think they were going to be in and out, but nope.  Instead they walk around looking at everything, grabbing little things here and there.  Fifteen to twenty minutes later, they finally decide they are done and you can finally close.  It's really aggravating on slow days when the store is already front and faced, everything is stocked, and the last till in the registers should only take five minutes to count, and they come in and purchase a bunch of stuff, and pay in cash.  One person just forced you to be there for another twenty minutes AFTER they leave.

11: The dog walker - Oh look...they have a dog (or cat, or lizard, or ferret, or whatever else), and they decide that that dog needs to go into every store with them.  Never mind that there is food to contaminate and breakables around just waiting for a dog tail to smack them.  Nope, it's just a cute doggy.  Next time I see a dog, or any other pet, in a grocery store though, I'm lighting up a cigarette in the store.

12: The mother/father - Parents...I completely respect what you guys do, especially with the little ones.  But if you have little ones that like to run around, scream, touch everything, and are generally hard to handle, at least allow someone working there to assist you so you can concentrate on controlling your little hellians.

13: The stoner - As soon as they walk in, you can smell it.  The definite aroma of marijuana.  It could be B.O., but as you look at them you can see the blood shot eyes and they are kind of giggly.  The scent is strong enough you are getting a contact high from it.  Do us all a favor.  Either smoke after you get what you need, or at least stand outside and air out a bit.

14: The moron - They are looking for something.  They don't know what, but they know what the label looks like.  Unfortunately, that label is the most generic label in the world, and they don't even describe it well enough to narrow it down to one thing.  They don't know the name of the product, or even what to call it.  After a minute of trying to figure it out, they start questioning whether it was a real item or if they just dreamed it.

15: The price comparator - Insists on telling everyone that works in the store about other stores selling the same item for cheaper.  If you suggest that he tells corporate (the people that actually can do something about it), he just shrugs like he doesn't care.  You wonder why he doesn't just go to that store, but week after week he's back and he has new items to complain about the price to you about.

16: The eternal adder - They come up to the register all ready to go...oh wait...they want to get one more thing.  Well, you've already started the transaction and no one is in line, you'll just wait.  Next thing you know, they've added twenty items and now there are seven people in line waiting on this person to finish up.  Every time you are about to try and just cancel it, he comes back up, looking like he wants to close out.

17: The rearranger -  They come in and grab something, but then they see something else and put their original item someplace it doesn't belong.  Then it happens again.  And again.  Next thing you know there are items all over the store.

18: The phone caller - They walk in and are on their cell phone, talking about who the hell cares.  They never get off the phone though, the entire time they are in the store, even when they check out.  You can't say anything to them to loud for fear of them getting offended that you interrupted their call.  Forewarning, if you come to my store and talk on your cell phone while I ring you up, I don't care what you think.  I will talk loud, fast and I won't repeat myself.  You want to be rude to me, so I'll be rude right back.  Finish your call outside before you shop, or at the very least finish it before you check out.  You can always just say "I'm about to check out.  I'll call you back in 10 minutes."

19: The thief - They come in many forms, shapes, sizes, and colors, but you still know them when the come in.  Sometimes they are good and you don't know if they took something.  Others are terrible at it and you just groan, especially if your store has a policy that you can't do anything about it for one reason or another.

20: The questioner - They have questions.  Lots of questions.  Questions about EVERYTHING.  Most of the stuff they ask questions on they aren't even going to buy.  After a while of explaining so many things to them, you start realizing it and just want to get away where your efforts will be more profitable.  Yet, they always have one more question.  Always one more.

Oh nice...I made an even twenty of them.  It's almost like I planned that. >:)

Most of these, people can't change.  It's part of who that person is.  I know myself I'm a number 1 and 6, with sometimes a number 9.  Being anything on this doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad customer, just annoying after a long day.  So which ones do you see yourself as?

E-Rage and E-Security

This past Monday, there was a bombing at the Boston Marathon.  The first thing I would like to do is express my deepest sympathies to those that were injured or the families of those that were lost.

The second thing I would like to do is say to all the conspiracy theorists and racists out there making horrendous comments about it, shut up.  You don't know anything about who did this, just as much as I don't.  Hell, the government doesn't know who did this yet.  You're making claims that are racist and asinine.  These are some of my favorites.

Congratulations Katie...your fear of the Muslim people has reached a peak.

Jayce...if it was North Korea, they would have probably done something a bit larger than this.

Sure Holden, except let me make one change.  How about instead we send all the racist assholes and people who insist on being intolerant dumb fucks to an island and then maybe we could make even larger improvements to the American way.

Oh Mrs. Hunman.  I'm sure that the sexual orientation of individuals with the Boston area is the reason why this happened.  I mean, the Boston Marathon isn't a gay pride thing, and I'm sure the 8-year old boy that died deserved it, but that's besides the point.

When 9/11 happened, we also knew exactly who it was that attacked us.  Obama is doing what he can right now with the information he has.  Also, I'm sure a white boy like you is really a hardcore thug drinking that Chocovine wine.

The point is, why do so many people express their rage via twitter before they know anything definitive?  And why do so many people fear it's necessary to post their racist comments when, as I've said before, once it's on the internet it never leaves.  It's because they obviously aren't thinking.  Think people.  Think.  These were just a few of the ones I liked...there are countless others.

Because of the Boston Bombing, there was another issue that became overshadowed.  Our fantastic government, headed by men and women that know little to nothing about the internet, are attempting to pass another internet security measure that would infringe upon our rights.  Some of the key notes are:

It lets the government spy on you without a warrant.

In other words, the government can simple keep tabs on everything and anything you do on the internet, regardless of your intentions.  So everyone better stop looking at all that porn, looking up how to hack their phones or download anything illegally even for the purposes of education.  Big Brother is watching.

It makes it so you can’t even find out about it after the fact. 

Even if you want to know if the government is watching you, you can't until they've pretty much found out what they want to know.  

It makes it so companies can’t be sued when they do illegal things with your data.

Y'know how so many companies, especially retail, have little cards that you fill out so you can get discounts? Well, this will allow them to pass that info onto anyone.  ANYONE!  They could give it to Westboro Baptist, or Neo-Nazi groups.  They could plaster it on their website, or on other websites.  And they can't be sued.  While this is the extreme case, its still possible.

It allows corporations to cyber-attack each other and individuals outside of the law. 

Another extreme case, but y'know all that music, all those movies, all those programs you downloaded over the years without paying for it?  This would allow companies to basically attack your computer to find it all.

It makes every privacy policy on the web a moot point, and violates the 4th amendment.

Self explanatory.

When we say that your information can be shared with “The Government” it’s not hyperbole. Federal Agencies from the Fish & Wildlife Service to Amtrak to the NSA could access your data. 

Oh good...because I love fishing so much and I never use my car to go anywhere.

The basic idea of it is that net-neutrality, internet privacy, and freedom of knowledge would be at risk.  I'm not saying that everyone that illegally downloads anything is in the right or wrong, there is some truth the matter of having the freedom to use a program for nothing more than learning.  I use programs such as Maya, Photoshop, and Final Cut, all of which I legally own.  However, I use ROMS for certain games, and technically that would be theft.  They are for games that are no longer available from the Genesis and SNES days, and most of the games I play I owned at some point.  So why shouldn't I be allowed to play them for free now?  I already shelled out my money for them years ago.  I touched on this when I wrote my On Console Design post.

This is actually a scary thing.  Bloggers, vloggers, anyone with an opinion out there would be easily targeted for having a voice of any kind.  I've kept my real name on this blog mainly because I have nothing to hide from the government, so if they want to watch me, they can go right ahead.  No skin off my nose.  But I also know my rights.  However, should this pass, I can foresee a downslide of other laws on the horizon, up to and including being able to arrest people for talking smack about anyone in the government, or even so much as making a passing joke.  Freedoms could be lost.

To read more about the CISPA bill, you can go here.  And if you want to know who to contact about this, go here.