Thanks to very generous donors, Misha and I are fed for the month and one of our major bills is paid – just in the nick of time! Thank you so much! You’re all amazing and we love you to bits.
We’ve still got to make rent and insurance, and we’re trying to cover expenses for next month as well. I’ll be running the fundraiser all week. If you can help out, we’d appreciate it so much! Even small amounts help.
It’s that time again, my darlings! I’ve no more pennies to pinch, and essential bills to pay. I keep my expenses down as far as I can, and I am looking for outside work to help stretch the pitiful few dollars I earn through writing, but I won’t make it without your help. If you enjoy my writing and have some cash to spare, please donate to keep me and Misha fed and housed. Even small amounts help!
If you can’t afford to help out, no worries – we’ve all been there! But you can still help us by sharing my posts, and pointing people towards my other income streams:
Alas, I have closed my Etsy shop due to their distressing habit of coming up with unanticipated fees, but if you want some fine Holy Schist with Guaranteed Garnets, shoot me a message at dhunterauthor at gmail and we’ll work something out.
Thank you again for all your help and support, my darlings. I couldn’t keep the words flowing without you!
I’ve been as frugal as possible, my darlings, and managed to stretch every dollar until it hollered, but I’m now running quite low on them. I’m getting my Patreon set up, of course, but in the meantime, I’ll need some funds for rent and the car payment. So I’m going to run a bit of a fundraiser this week. If you can chip in a few dollars for me to stretch, that would be absolutely lovely.
Trying to survive while unemployed in this country is awful. Cantina friend and fellow blogger Tony is still out of a job, and this month, he’s falling short on being able to meet his expenses. If you can spare a few dollars, please give him a hand. Thank you!
Our Tony with his snazzy new goatee. Image courtesy Tony Thompson via Facebook.
****UPDATE**** The replacement machine is fully funded! I’ll never be able to thank you all enough, so I’d better go shopping for the replacement and get to writing my ass off for you all to show my appreciation. You are all so awesome! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
I could not ask for better people in my life. Thank you, my darlings!
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My darlings, I hate to ask for help, but I need it.
I’ve been making do with this underpowered, constantly-freezing Acer computer for a while now. Today, it just up and died. I tried to restart it after the cursor froze for the billionth time, and it said “preparing automatic repair” for half an hour, and is now stuck on a black screen. I can’t follow the advice to reinstall the operating system, as it is a machine with no CD ROM and therefore no recovery disk. I have no access to an alternate PC, and can’t repair it on my own.
I have no money to deal with this and no way to make money without it. I can’t write well on a tablet and certainly can’t finish and publish books on it. Applying for jobs will be difficult, if not nearly impossible, without a working computer. I have no idea what I’m going to do if this thing doesn’t manage to fix itself, and it’s not looking like it will.
So if you can help fund a repair or replacement, please use my Paypal account to donate. Even small amounts will help.
This is going to drive me mad… there was a book I read as a kid that was about a Navajo boy who was ripped away from his family and culture and sent to a residential school. I’d swear they called him Leo, but of course I could be wrong. I remember them trying to basically turn him white, and one of the major battles was making him wear underwear with his jeans. There were a lot of other struggles and confusion as they tried to remove the Indian parts of himself and he tried to hold on to his identity. I think it was set in either Arizona or New Mexico. There were illustrations, and I know it wasn’t a long book, but I don’t remember if it was a picture book or not. Anybody remember it?
Tony, a fabulous writer and fierce warrior for justice, has been unemployed for a while now. He’s been making ends just about meet, but is falling short this month on rent. All he needs is about $400, so if you can, throw a little his way to help him make it.
Another day, another black man being roughed up by police for existing while black. Tony tells us the story, and he’s got some great questions at the end for those white folks who are all, “Don’t do anything wrong and you won’t have to worry!”
They say if we follow those easy to remember rules, then we won’t face extreme violence from police officers. Well, what handy-dandy tips do they have for us when we’re engaged in the same activities that everyone else does in the course of a day? When you’re minding your own business in public, where you have the right to be, and you’re walking, which you have the right to do, and you’re attacked by cops who think you look like this *other* black person they’re looking for and don’t even bother to ensure they have the right suspect? How do we avoid that? I mean since we’re talking about the steps white people think black people need to take to avoid cops choosing to use excessive force on us. Heaven forbid we talk about cops modifying their behavior so that they don’t brutalize black folk.
And, y’know, white folk who think black folk bring police violence on themselves: encouraging cops to use maximum force in every confrontation in which they feel the least bit uncomfy, or in which they want to assert their authority over a potential “thug” (y’know, someone not wearing a tailored suit and who happens to be an older straight white cis dude), or in which they feel disrespected, or in which they encountered the person they wished to talk to while they were having a bad day, or in which they had a shiny new baton or taser or gun, or… well, I shouldn’t have to continue painting you pictures, now, should I? If you encourage the cops to use force rather than non-violent, non-confrontational techniques to approach people they wish to talk to who are darker-hued, they’re going to start using those techniques on lighter and lighter people, until everyone is subject to unreasonable force by a militarized and highly belligerent gang of assholes with a badge and a taste for blood.
We are going to have to stop telling people of color how perfect they must be in order to survive an encounter with police unmolested, and start a revolution in policing. We need to take the military toys away from our cops, fire the racists and bigots and misogynists, fire the ones who put on the badge and the gun for the rush they get from their power, and train the remaining cops how to serve the public. We need a universal ethos of protect and serve. Not “protect and serve the rich white guys while fucking over the poor and the dark.” Not “protect our own police lives at all costs, even if that means taking the lives of an endless stream of unarmed people, and roughing up the ones we don’t kill.” We need police to value the lives of everyone in the community – yes, even the criminal ones. We need to imbue our police with a social service mentality rather than a siege one. Of course there will be times when they must use force, but that should be the last resort, not the first – and for any cops who think otherwise, we must be willing to kick them out of our police forces.
Otherwise, we will continue to see the use of force escalate, until no matter how rich you are, how famous, how talented, how innocently standing still doing absolutely nothing wrong, we will be at risk of assault or death at any moment from a police force that thinks of us all as vermin. Black folk already know what that regime is like. Ask them what sort of quality of life it offers.
Public domain image modified by moi. Feel free to use.
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Tony is still looking for work, and could use help if you’ve got it to give. He just needs to raise $290 to make it through this month. If you’ve got a little to spare and would like to support his excellent blogging, you can donate here. If you’re in the market for mint-condition comics and DVDs, he’s also got an Ebay store where you can find some very sweet stuff. If you haven’t any filthy lucre to spare, signal boosting this request will help, too. Thank you, my darlings!
I’m trying to make my Mount St.Helens guides fairly inclusive. But of course I’m a cis white able-bodied childless person, so there are things that it wouldn’t even occur to me to take into account.
So I’m asking for your help. What sorts of things do you need information on? What should I be on the lookout for? When it comes to accessibility, accommodating kids, whatever, how can I help you have a better experience?
I’ve done things like look for kid-friendly hikes and activities, wheelchair-accessible adventures, short hikes for folks with mobility issues, that sort of stuff, but I’m sure I’m overlooking the fine details that would really help people, and I haven’t even begun to consider what folks with sensory, neurological, and other issues may need. I can’t make this guide perfect, of course, but I’d like it to be much better than anything else currently out there. So if you can, please weigh in, and let me know what you need.
It’s been a vicious year for fires in the northwestern United States. It seems like everything east of the Cascades is on fire up here, and we just lost three firefighters and had another few wounded when the blaze they were battling took an unexpected turn. We’re getting our asses kicked, and no mistake.
Many of us may feel helpless in the face of these infernos, but there are things we can do even if we’re not able to personally fight the fires.
If you’re in the Seattle area, Red Onion Burgers is having a fundraiser on Thursday:
Red Onion Burgers will be donating 100% of the cash tips, 50% of the credit card tips and 50% of the total sales. In addition, local firefighters will be present at the Albertson’s to help raise funds and collect food donations.
Money raised will go to the Community Foundation of North Central Washington whose relief fund benefits local families impacted by the fires in and around the Chelan Valley.
I know most of the west is on fire, and likely some other countries, too, so if there are local fundraisers going on for your state/province/etc., please do let me know and I’ll add them.
Fire crews work through the night at the Blue Creek Fire. The Blue Creek Fire located east of Walla Walla, WA began on Jul. 20, 2015 and has consumed an estimated 6,004 acres. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Image and caption courtesy USFS.
