Okay, so the last crisis before I start getting paychecks is here - I have a shutoff notice for my electricity, $133.85. They're coming to shut me off on Friday unless I get this paid. On the up side, I can pay it with a credit card, so if a few folks can shoot me a few bucks through PayPal today (links on any of my sites or to john@lowgenius.com), I can get this taken care of and that should be the last of the cash panics. For those bigger picture about money, let's get to the bad news first: CRITICAL: the last crisis before I start getting paychecks is here - I have a shutoff notice for my electricity, $133.85. They're coming to shut me off on Friday unless I get this paid. On the up side, I can pay it with a credit card, so if a few folks can shoot me a few bucks through paypal today (links on any of my sites or to john@lowgenius.com), I can get this taken care of and that should be the last of the cash panics. The State of Michigan has decided that *no* full-time student is eligible for food stamps, so I’m “on my own” with that one. There appears to be a limit to how many hours per work I can week without being disqualified for financial aid to pay my tuition (Pell grants/FAFSA loans). So in spite of my best attempt to run myself in the ground, it looks like the 60+ hour work week plus a full course load is just not something that can actually happen, even though I am perfectly willing to do it. I have applied for work-study both for Summer II and for the regular fall semester (and will do so in spring if I'm not in Finland), but even that I may be limited to 15 hours a week at minimum wage. That will definitely help, but it's not going to get me where I need to be. I'm getting pretty desperate for pants - I'm down to only a couple of pairs of jeans and one pair of dress pants that don't have gigantic holes in them - and I'm not just talking knees, I'm talking holes in places that are far less "trendy" than "creepy." It would really awesome to do laundry in a washing machine instead of the bathtub for once - my clothes don't get really clean that way, and it's been many, many months since I've been able to do laundry the normal way. I *must* have health insurance to go to Finland - that's absolutely required by the Finnish government - and that's going to cost me a couple thousand dollars to buy in to Western's insurance. And also, some good news: I started the janitor job yesterday, it's 20 hours a week at minimum wage, roughly $150/week before taxes. That will JUST BARELY keep my bills paid - like rent and electric and maybe $50-60 a month left over for food and everything else. Obviously, that's not enough to live on, but it *is* enough to avoid homelessness. So I'm still going to be trying to raise money for things like laundry and food and everything else that it takes to live. I'm going to be adding to the things that help generate income like my YouTube videos and web content. Contributions in any amount will of course remain welcome, and due to the observed behaviors of folks I’ll likely push out a gentle reminder of this every couple of weeks. I'm also looking at any kind of side-work that anyone needs done - business card design or logo design, web hosting, etc. I *think* I'm about due to start working on the next design for Daniel D Longdon, so that'll add a little. I should have a payment from Google sometime around mid-June. Not much, but a hundred bucks or so. End of June I start Summer II classes, which means I get a financial aid payment...however, I also owe part of that back for the emergency loan I took out to cover my rent last month, so I don't know how much of that I'll have left when it's all said and done. That’s also when my WS will start, if I get approved. End analysis: I “got a job.” I’ll still need some help, especially until the end of June, just to keep my head above water. The closer I get to really being able to stop constantly worrying about money, the more I realize that the entire system, especially in Michigan, is stacked to make sure that someone like me can not pull themselves up out of poverty…but I’m going to beat the system, and I’m going to do it with your help. I’ve said it before and it remains true: I will not be stopped. Once I get to June, I *should* be able to avoid this constant pressure and always living on the edge of losing my power or starving or being homeless, but I’ll still be a long way from being able to get ahead in any meaningful way. Number one thing is always: please share links to my work. The virality of that one little graphic this week added 40 people to my FB public figure page, with nearly a thousand likes and over 700 shares as of this writing. If all of my videos do that well and my audience keeps building, I should be to the point of earning $100 a month or more on ad revenue before fall classes start. Not only that, but let’s not forget that the point of all this work is NOT actually to make money, but to get people thinking more often and more effectively…the more people I reach, the more successful I’ll be in that regard.