Here's the link again:
(Remember, I'm not trying to get rich off this deal; I'm simply trying to survive!
May 2002
June 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
Situation Update: (May 4, 2002)
Well, our past due electric bill that I mentioned was paid by Hopelink (a charity organization), and due to the kind donations detailed below, we were once again able to afford a few extra groceries, so thanks everyone! You're really sweet, and Laura, Melissa and I really appreciate it. (We were even able to afford ordering a pizza for delivery and a six-pack of Rolling Rock to go along with it! Yumm! :)
We're going to re-apply for food stamps again and hopefully this time we'll qualify. (We were $50 over the limit the last time we applied a month or so ago because they counted Laura's income for December and she was still working in December; she didn't lose her job until the beginning of January). In the mean time, one of Laura's former co-workers (who's now retired and who's slightly computer-illiterate) said she'd pay Laura $20 per lesson if Laura would teach her more about using computers (she's an older lady so she's not used to using computers.)
And me? ... I'm still plugging away fiddling around with Hercules (HercGUI, CTCI-W32, etc) and keeping my eye out for job opportunities. ... Oh yeah! I forgot! Some dude in Switzerland who has a company that manufactures rainfall gauges (for meteorologists) saw my ClockMon web page and wants to pay me $200 to make some modifications to it for him so that it's a little more accurate! Cool! My first paid "programming job" in almost four years! (Yeah, I'm excited :)
So even though we're still very poor, things are kind of looking okay at the moment. (And the weather is starting to get nice here too, which is improving my emotional mood immensely. Seattle can be quite depressing during Winter.)
Anyway, that's it. Don't want to bore you by rambling any more. Thanks again to all who have donated. Keep it coming, folks! :)
Donations received so far: (since original plea)
(Note: if your donation is not listed, please let me know!)
C.B. 4/20/2002 $20.00 C.B. 4/21/2002 $10.00 R.C. 4/23/2002 $10.00 R.S. 4/23/2002 $30.00 M.D. 4/23/2002 $50.00 F.C. 4/23/2002 $20.00 A.C. 4/23/2002 $100.00 W.J. 4/23/2002 $50.00 B.M. 4/23/2002 $250.00 M.E. 4/24/2002 $20.00 J.D. 4/25/2002 $25.00 M.S. 4/26/2002 $100.00 Y.H. 4/30/2002 $25.00 TOTAL 4/16/2002 $710.00
My sincerest and heartfelt THANK YOU! to everyone who has donated so far! :`)
Situation Update: (June 14, 2002)
Sorry about not updating this page right away (i.e. at the very beginning of June), but I haven't been much in the mood to since my bicycle accident on May 24th (don't ask!) (well you can I suppose, but there's really not much to say: I crashed my bike on the way to the store one night and banged myself up pretty good. I'm still sore as a matter of fact -- almost 3 weeks later! I'm going to see a doctor at the free clinic tomorrow (Saturday) since I'm still experiencing some pain and I honestly don't think I should be, 3 whole weeks after the accident.)
Not much to report other than the donations themselves (we haven't re-applied for food stamps yet or anything for example), so I won't bother boring you with any other mundane ramblings (like Laura only has about 8 more weeks of unemployment coming), so on to the donations as promised:
Donations received so far: (since original plea)
(Note: if your donation is not listed, please let me know!)
April 2002 $710.00 F.R. 5/06/2002 $20.00 A.N. 5/11/2002 $50.00 S.I. 5/13/2002 $150.00 T.S. 5/17/2002 $30.00 M.E. 5/19/2002 $25.00 C.B. 5/21/2002 $10.00 J.B. 5/22/2002 $15.00 G.P. 5/25/2002 $100.00 (subtotal) May 2002 $400.00 N.A. 6/13/2002 $30.00 E.F. 6/13/2002 $300.00 G.N. 6/14/2002 $100.00 (subtotal) Jun 2002 $430.00 TOTAL (thru 6/14/2002) $1540.00
My sincerest and heartfelt THANK YOU! to everyone who has donated so far! :`)
Situation Update: (August 2002)
Sorry again about not keeping this page updated. I've been negotiating with several people (company owners) about doing some contract programming work for them. One I've already started on and have already received $200 for (with possibly a small bit more coming in the very near future. Maybe), but the other is more serious. This other contract (which hasn't actually been signed yet; all we've done is exchange signed Non-Disclosure Agreements and talk roughly about what we'd like to do) looks to be quite involved and also quite promising. If things work out I might actually make some decent money with possibly some residuals! (i.e. a percentage from each copy sold!) But as I said, it's still at the very early stage and nothing significant has transpired yet, but I hope to get started in earnest on it very shortly (i.e. as soon as I release this version of HercGUI).
No doubt because of my own failure to keep this page up-to-date, donations have dropped off quite a bit. I guess that's my own fault. But please don't think that I'm not being honest or trying to hide something by not keeping this page updated on a regular basis! I'm working on many different things at once (or trying to anyway, but not having much luck at it unfortunately; guess I don't "multi-task" too well) and between trying to answer email and work on the GUI and CTCI-W32 and the device driver and AdCruncher* and now these paid (eventually anyway) contracting jobs, I'm extremely busy and some things like updating this web page end up getting pushed onto "the back burner." I'm sorry but that's the way it happens sometimes.
Anyway, here are the new donation totals:
Donations received so far: (since original plea)
(Note: if your donation is not listed, please let me know!)
April 2002 $710.00 May 2002 $400.00 N.A. 6/13/2002 $30.00 E.F. 6/13/2002 $300.00 G.N. 6/14/2002 $100.00 T.T. 6/23/2002 $20.00 C.B. 6/24/2002 $10.00 E.S. 6/27/2002 $50.00 (subtotal) Jun 2002 $510.00 A.B. 7/6/2002 $10.00 T.C. 7/9/2002 $100.00 C.B. 7/29/2002 $10.00 (subtotal) Jul 2002 $120.00 TOTAL (thru 7/29/2002) $1740.00
Thanks again to everyone that has contributed!
Situation Update: (September 2002)
Wow! The Hercules community is simply amazing! :`)
At the beginning of August I made a post lamenting the fact that it looked like we weren't going to be able to make our rent payment since July donations were so light and we were still several hundred dollars short. I was hoping the public announcement of my plight might manage to bring in the few hundred dollars that I needed (and in all honestly that's all I was hoping for: a few hundred), and had already prepared myself emotionally for the worse (an eventual eviction notice) should I not receive the needed amount in donations.
What I simply wasn't prepared for however was the sudden and overwhelming outpouring of generosity exhibited by my fellow Herculeans! Within literally two days of making my plight known, I had received well over $1000 in donations! So much money poured in that I had to make a post asking people to stop donating!* (Have you ever in your life heard that before? Someone pleading with you to not make a monetary donation?!)
* I was honestly concerned that too many people might feel compelled to make a donation at that time (since once someone makes a donation I don't really expect them to do so again) and I was afraid that if everyone made a donation now, then no one would be left to make a donation at some later point in time when such a situation might recur (which unfortunately is quite likely to happen). Then too, if too much money came in, it could easily appear as if I really was trying to "get rich" (which I'm most definitely not, I can assure you!). Thus the request to "save your donation for later" since I now have enough money to pay my rent, and besides, I might need your donation at some future point in time, and if you donate your money now, then you might not have it later on when I might really need it. (Remember: I'm not trying to get rich; I'm simply trying to do my best to survive!)
Anyway, enough of that. With your kind and generous donations we were able to pay our rent, so we're still "hanging
in there" (by a thread perhaps, but at least we're still "hanging" :).
I have a few items of other good news to report too however (and one item of [temporary] "bad" news):
1) Laura received notice from the State of Washington that they've instituted some sort of "Emergency Unemployment Fund" (or some such) and she applied and her application was accepted so we'll be continuing to receive her unemployment compensation payments for another six (or sixteen? I forget) weeks or so, so that will help things somewhat, 2) she was also able to land a short (two week) temporary job filling in for somebody while they were on vacation at a local Children's Hospital and her salary, while meager, is slightly more than what unemployment would pay so we won't be "as poor" this month as we'd normally be, 3) Melissa got a promotion at where she's working which came with a raise so she too is now making a bit more money than before ($7.90 / hour rather than the minimum wage rate of $6.90 / hour. Big whoop, right?, but hey, at least it's a raise! Every little bit helps).
The somewhat [temporary] "bad" news is my Windows 2000 system crashed -- HARD! -- and I'm only now just about finished with getting it all the way back onto its feet. (It was my own fault: I deleted a user profile that I thought wasn't being used but which ended up being the system account (I think), thereby making it impossible for me to boot and/or sign onto my system. And yes, I had "backups", but not of that particular part of the system. My backup procedure had a "bug" in it causing critical system files to not get backed up and as fate would have it I didn't notice it until too late. Hopefully I've got it right now).
Anyway, here are the new donation totals:
Donations received so far: (since original plea)
(Note: if your donation is not listed, please let me know!)
April 2002 $710.00 May 2002 $400.00 June 2002 $510.00 $1620.00 (previous) $120.00 P.G. 7/30/2002 $40.00 July 2002 $160.00 A.B. 8/7/2002 $30.00 S.S. 8/7/2002 $20.00 J.B. 8/7/2002 $25.00 A.O. 8/7/2002 $40.00 D.W. 8/7/2002 $60.00 J.H. 8/7/2002 $20.00 R.S. 8/7/2002 $50.00 L.H. 8/7/2002 $25.00 M.L. 8/7/2002 $100.00 M.S. 8/7/2002 $175.00 M.R. 8/7/2002 $100.00 A.C. 8/7/2002 $100.00 P.W. 8/7/2002 $50.00 J.P. 8/7/2002 $100.00 J.T. 8/7/2002 $40.00 G.B. 8/8/2002 $100.00 A.K. 8/8/2002 $100.00 N.M. 8/8/2002 $5.00 J.T. 8/8/2002 $50.00 R.A. 8/18/2002 $50.00 K.P. 8/24/2002 $30.00 C.B. 8/27/2002 $10.00 T.Z. 8/28/2002 $100.00 August 2002 $1380.00 TOTAL (thru 8/31/2002) $3160.00 (avg: $632 / month)
Thanks again to everyone that has contributed!
Situation Update: (October 2002)
Apologies up front for tardiness. I've been going through a stretch of bad luck lately, causing me to have to rebuild my system from scratch -- twice! :(
First it was a slip of my fat fingers (I deleted a file I shouldn't have) that crashed my system to the point where it would no longer boot, and then no sooner had I recovered from that mishap when my hard drive decided to go bad on me! (sigh!) (it never rains, but it pours...)
The good news however is my system is back up (for the most part anyway; just a few minor things here and there, but at least all the major shi...stuff is reinstalled and up and running, so that's good) Then too, Laura managed to land another temporary job too, this one much longer term (until perhaps December or so), so while things are still "touch and go" at the moment, they are starting to look up.
BUT... what I'm perhaps most excited about is the latest opportunity that's presented itself to me. I'm working on a deal right now that, if it goes through, should help to solve my current monetary problems! :D (Well, for the most part anyway)
I'm really not at liberty to say anything more right now, but as soon as I'm able I'll be sure to let you all know about it. I promise. (If I can of course. I don't know. We'll see.).
Anyway, it's a completely different deal from the other one I mentioned before. A much BETTER deal this time (i.e. much "sweeter", financially speaking), so yeah, I'm rather excited about it. :))
So anyway, enough rambling already. On to the new donation totals:
Donations received so far: (since original plea)
(REMEMBER, if your donation is not listed, please let me know!)
April 2002 $710.00 May 2002 $400.00 June 2002 $510.00 July 2002 $160.00 August 2002 $1380.00 (subtotal) $3160.00 M.B. 9/3/2002 $10.00 R.S. 9/4/2002 $100.00 (FUTSH!AW) 1 A.A. 9/9/2002 $25.00 September 2002 $135.00 A.G. 10/8/2002 $50.00 D.C. 10/11/2002 $25.00 J.K. 10/16/2002 $50.00 (by check) 2 October 2002 (so far) $125.00 TOTAL (thru 10/16/2002) $3420.00 (avg: $526 / month)
As you can see, donations have fallen off considerably (probably because I haven't been as active in the Hercules community lately as I have been in the past, but that's only because I'm currently involved in other more pressing (important) business that, hopefully, will earn me some decent and/or steady income so I won't have to bug you guys about making donations (which again only serves to prove I'm not trying to get rich off this; rather, I'm only trying to survive!)), so if you haven't made a donation yet, I'd really appreciate it if you would. I'm still struggling and I'm far from being "out of the woods" yet and I really, really need, for the time being, to rely on your donations in order to survive, so please make one if you haven't already. Thanks.
As usual, Thank you! to everyone (from the bottom of my heart!) who has contributed so far. :`)
Situation Update: (November 2002)
Okay, NO RAMBLING this month! ;-)
On to the donation totals...
Donations received so far: (since original plea)
April 2002 $710.00 May 2002 $400.00 June 2002 $510.00 July 2002 $160.00 August 2002 $1380.00 September 2002 $135.00 (subtotal) $3295.00 (previous) $125.00 F.B. 10/22/2002 $50.00 B.W. 10/23/2002 $20.00 D.T. 10/25/2002 $50.00 R.R. 10/28/2002 $100.00 (by check) 2 October 2002 $345.00 TOTAL (thru 10/31/2002) $3640.00 ( mean: $520 / month; SD: $396 / month )
Once again, Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far!
Situation Update: (December 2002)
"The deal" is still moving along, albeit slowly. I just recently (on Friday) finally got their first offer "in writing" (more or less), and now need to hire a lawyer (although I have no idea how the heck I'm going to be able to pay him) to look it over for me, and possibly take over negotiations for me (because, quite frankly, I have serious reservations regarding its fairness. I mean, giving me only 3% of their Net Revenues and them keeping 97%?! Does that sound fair to anyone, for them simply marketing a program that I wrote?? Because it sure doesn't seem fair to me). :(
On top of that, the uncaring government (U.S. Congress) decided to break for the Holidays without extending unemployment benefits, which means once Laura's unemployment runs out on December 28th, we'll be completely without any income whatsoever (except for Melissa's meager $1 above minimum wage income from the job she has. You know, it's pretty damn sad when your own 23 year old daughter ends up having to support you and the rest of the family because you can't). :(
And of course, with the holiday season rapidly approaching, I'm sure most everyone is thinking more about what to buy their loved one's for Christmas than concerning themselves too much about people like us, because I only received four donations totaling only $175. :(
(((sigh))) (I hate begging for money...)
Well, enough with the self pity. Here are the donation totals for November...
Donations received so far: (since original plea)
April 2002 $710.00 May 2002 $400.00 June 2002 $510.00 July 2002 $160.00 August 2002 $1380.00 September 2002 $135.00 October 2002 $345.00 (subtotal) $3640.00 T.G. 11/3/2002 $100.00 W.R. 11/11/2002 $20.00 T.B. 11/15/2002 $25.00 G.B. 11/27/2002 $30.00 November 2002 $175.00 TOTAL (thru 11/30/2002) $3815.00 ( mean: $477 / month; SD: $388 / month )
A sincere Thank You! to everyone who has contributed so far. I really appreciate it.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Here's the link again:
(Remember, I'm not trying to get rich off this deal; I'm simply trying to survive!
My Promise to You
I hereby promise to update this page as my situation changes and donations come in (or not), and if you're one of those people who needs proof, (just to be sure I'm not making all this shit up just to "get rich" somehow), I stand by ready and willing to work with you in providing whatever evidence you might need to satisfy yourself that what I say above is absolutely true.
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