Ask Joe Column #11

How do you feel about charging money for songs? I personally believe it's a load of crap. Don't musicians make enough already? It should be about the music, not the money. If I ever became a musician I would let people download my songs for free. :)

Forevertobeart: Then you'd be considered a freelance artist were your music is royalty free.

I think it is perfectly fine. Lets put it into a different perspective for you. Do you think it would be okay to just get movies for free without paying? What would the point be in buy, renting, or going to see it then if you can get it for free? How would the industry survive? they wouldn't. Same with the music industry. If you take away the fact that you have to pay, what would stop people from just downloading it for free instead of buying a cd or dvd concert? That is the main reason behind the fact that you have to pay. Otherwise you wouldn't have music, the artists wouldn't get paid...

Well the artists could get paid for concerts, but I do see your point. I just don't like that someone might not have a lot of money to buy a $15-$20 CD or get an ipod, how will they ever enjoy the music? (Although if I didn't have a lot of money, I would have a friend burn/make me a CD.) Music is a beautiful thing.

(Although if I didn't have a lot of money, I would have a friend burn/make me a CD.)

^which is completly legal unless you intend on selling it.

And indeed music is beautiful.

I don't get why that is legal but downloading off the internet isn't. It's the same thing, really. Both are not paying. What if one person bought a CD and burned it for one person and they burned it for another and so on and so on? You're only getting one CD's worth of money and now the whole world has your CD! Hmmm.

Forevertobeart: To be honest, I'm not sure.

Ahwell, what are you gonna do..

Is it true that the government watches the sites you go to? I heard that if you google how to construct a bomb enough times the FBI will come to your house and you're in trouble. :P

Forevertobeart: Yes, it is true. Everything you do on the net is being monitored. If you do a search on something several times and it is something they are trying to monitor (constructing bombs, terriousm, etc.) then it will pop-up on their computers with your IP address, MAC address, house address, your name, age, sex, etc....

Scary! Not that I do that.. ;D Do they also monitor phone calls?

Forevertobeart: Sure, they can pull stuff up off the phones....

And what are your views on them monitoring basically everything we do?

Forevertobeart: Safety. It's purely for safety, it's not like they are watching ever move you make. They can't hear what you are talking about on the phone or what you are looking at unless you give them a reasonable cause. Like I said before if you say something, a keyword such as terriousm, bombs, etc. then you will get pulled up on their grid, otherwise it's just normal convo, normal searching on the web from what I understand.

Wow, what an interesting talk...

Hey Joe, just wanted to know, do you believe in global warming?

Ah, I understand. I'm going to see the new Harry Potter movie today. Do you like Harry Potter?

Abortion Murders Children: I'm pretty much neutral on the idea...I don't really believe or misbelieve it.

Forevertobeart: No, not really. Haven't seen or read one of the books or movies.

Dang, I needed a good opinion before I watched it. ;D

I've been really nervous and haven't been able to sleep lately because my driving test is in two days and school starts five days. Any advice to help me through these things, and possibly get better sleep?

Forevertobeart: Yeah, try thinking about different things, don't focus so much on your driving test...it only makes you more nervous.

A friend gave me his ipod a while ago and I just recently bought a game for it but it won't let me put it on the ipod without deleting all of the other games first since it wasn't initially synced with my computer/iTunes or whatever.. Is there anything I can do to fix this? It has the three free games that came with it and one extra game that I don't really care for that my friend put on it.

Forevertobeart: I'm sure there is a way to do that, but I am not really sure how since I've never ran into that problem before. Sorry.

Do you believe the saying "You must first love yourself before you can completely love another" is true?

Angel Tears: I indeed do believe that saying. If you don't know how to love yourself, how would you ever be able to truely love another? (retorical question)

My friend is "in love" with my stepbrother. They call and text constantly. He currently lives in Florida and she lives in Georgia, so they haven't seen each other in a couple of years. I know my stepbrother very well, I know the things he's done and the things he's doing now, but when I tell my friend this she does not believe me and says that he is changing. He's lying right to her face, and I can't seem to convince her. I don't want to make her upset, since this is her first major crush/love, but I don't want him to hurt her like I know he will. She's too innocent for him. What should I do?

Forevertobeart: Let it be known on both sides that you don't agree with it and that you don't want your stepbrother to hurt her emotionally. That's all I really can advise in this type of situation.

Do you wish to have any of your work published and are you into writing stories or mostly poetry?

~MaryAnne

MaryAnne: I've thought about publishing my work, but never took that step to pursue it. Maybe one day I will, who knows. But for the time being, no I will not be publishing my work.

I mostly write poetry. I'm not really a big fan of story writing; however, I used to write a lot of screenplays for short films with my brother. That was a lot of fun, I may take that back up if I can find the time. But other than that, I'll stick with poetry.

That's very interesting, it sounds like a lot of fun.

What clubs/activites were you in, in high school?
I am thinking of doing the school newspaper, and social justice club.

MaryAnne: I was in a club called US F.I.R.S.T. Robotics which is a club where you have to design and build a robot in 6 weeks. Then you compete in competions, it is much like robot-wars which used to be on tv, but we don't destroy each other, it is more of a friendly competition were we have to finish a set of tasks...

I was also in the Italian club.

Other than those, I wasn't in any other clubs while I was in high school.

That is neat, I have heard of such clubs with robots...The Italian club, now that sounds like fun..

Do you hope to stay on this site for a long time or at least be a mod for a long time? Do you think this website will continue to prosper? Just curious.

MaryAnne: I've been a member of this site since 2005, a mod since 2006. I plan on staying for a long time, this is my home for my poetry and my online friends. It's an outlet that I can come to, to just relax and be myself.

I think the site will be just fine, just give it time, and time will reveal.

Okay, this site has really helped me grow as a poet and person too.

Who are your top five poets on here?

MaryAnne: I don't have any top poets on here, everyone should be looked upon as equals when it comes to writing, sure some are better than others, but it is artistic expression, everything is poetry, wheather it be good or bad that's a different story, but everyone deserves to be recgonized rather than just the elite.

That is a good answer, I never thought about that, and you are very right..

(just tell me if you are getting annoyed by all this questioning! :P )

What animals do you like/love?

MaryAnne: I like/love all animals, I am an animal lover. I love dogs the most though as a 'family' pet.

Same here, I like snakes too, I find them so interesting.

Do you want to travel to any place?

MaryAnne: I love traveling, I want to travel to so many different places it would take forever to write them all down...lol

Yea, I would love to travel to India....

Are you part of a religion?

MaryAnne: Catholic

Yep, same here.

Were you raised that way or became that on your own?

MaryAnne: Raised.