It's time once again for me to jangle my cup and beseech Blinkin' Blog readers for donations! Only this time I'm gonna do it smart and work my panhandling around a theme. See, I've figured out that people are pretty reluctant to pay for online content, but apparently they do respond to hard-luck stories: I read a magazine article a couple weeks ago about an unemployed single mother who set up a web site to solicit money so that she could afford to put her kittens through college or flight-attendant school or something.

At least, I think it was kittens; I was reading the story over someone's shoulder on the subway, it was late, and I was coming home from a night on the town. Anyway, the suckas, I mean big-hearted fellow citizens, actually responded to the lady's entreaties for help, and she ended up raking in a couple thousand bucks to defray her expenses.

Now, my needs are much more modest than that poor woman's -- I'm just trying to scrape together an extra $90 per month so that I can afford to continue my kung fu lessons. My parents paid the introductory fee and uniform costs as a birthday present back in November, and I thought then that I'd be making plenty from my freelancing to cover the monthly tuition. But things have gotten a little tighter than I expected, and it now looks as though I'll have to discontinue my twice-weekly kick 'n' punch sweatathon, because obviously, groceries and such get priority.

Unless, of course, I can get some donations from Blinkin' Blog readers -- so won't you dig deep into your pockets and help me transform my body into a sweet-and-sour killing machine? Your contribution, via PayPal or Amazon, will allow me to master the Five Animal Forms passed down by generations of Shaolin monks! I've gotta have a readership in the low dozens; if each of you coughed up just five bucks, that would keep Throbert up to speed in the deadly fighting arts for at least a couple months...

posted by Throbert | 2/28/2003 03:47:00 AM |

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