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The law has been described as “the most sweeping social legislation enacted in decades” by the NYT, “biggest expansion of federal health care guarantees in more than four decades” by CNN and the “culmination of a yearlong struggle with Congress to make good on the central issue of his administration’s domestic policy agenda” by NPR.

Whether you agree or disagree with Obama’s policies, it is important to know how this bill will affect you. Here are eight ways that the Health Care Reform could affect you as an independent artist:

4. Reform will prevent insurance companies from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.

This is especially important for individuals, both children or adults, with chronic conditions that will require lifetime medical support. Lifetime caps will be banned immediately and annual caps will be reduced until 2014, when they will be banned as well.

5. All new insurance plans will include preventative care and doctor checkups without a co-pay.

Also, reform will require plans to cover basic pediatric services, as well as dental, vision, and hearing needs for children.

Hopefully this gives you a little better understanding of how the health care reforms affect you personally. If there is something that I missed or a specific question that you have, please feel free to comment and I will do my best to respond with useful information.

Have you Googled your name recently? While self-searching might seem a little narcissistic, it is becoming a vital practice in managing your personal brand and cleaning up your online reputation.

Managing your online reputation is becoming more and more important, whether you like it or not. Penelope Trunk writes that you do not have to quit your day job to pursue a career in art. To help maintain or obtain that day job, let’s look at some of the things you can do right now to start cleaning up your digital dirt.

1. Start by Googling Yourself

If your employers are going to be googling you, then you should know what they are going to see. This preliminary search will give you an idea of where you stand with your online identity. Is there a lot of embarrassing stuff out there about you? Is there nothing out there about you (this is an equally important problem that I will discuss later)? Set up a Google Alert that will let you know every time a new search result appears with your name.

2. Make a list of your online profiles

Compile a comprehensive list of all your profiles on social networking sites and any other profiles that might come up in a search for your name. The object of managing your personal brand online is not becoming invisible, but rather controlling what future business contacts, employers, and colleagues will see. For profiles and accounts that you do not want to show up in search results, simply use an ambiguous display name and avatar. Use Google to remind yourself of profiles you might have that you forgot about.

3. Clean up your “Big Three”

If hiring managers are looking on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, then you definitely want to be visible in those places.

Being on these sites can give you a leg up against the competition, but only if you are conscious and cautious of the material posted. When considering any social network, keeping in mind that privacy is a precaution, not a solution. If content is online, then it is accessible one way or another.