I was reading my pal Tom Tomorrow’s weblog this morning, and came across this:
“So Andrew Sullivan spent a week or so rattling the tip jar on his blog and apparently fattened his bank account by some eighty or ninety thousand dollars.
“And it kind of makes you do a double take, if you’re keeping a blog, especially a blog with a substantial readership. Hey, you think, maybe I should start rattling the tip jar. Hell, why shouldn’t I try to get paid for my work? (And, to be honest, you think: eighty thousand f**king dollars? Jesus F**king Christ on a crutch!)”
“So what if we take that impulse and channel it in such a way that we can actually make some small specific difference in the world? Something more important than fattening an online yuppie pundit’s wallet?
“Specifically: there’s a non-profit here in Brooklyn called Hearts & Homes for Homeless Dogs, which, as you might surmise, cares for and finds homes for abandoned and abused dogs. (Brooklynites have probably seen them out finding homes for their charges at Seventh Ave and First Street on the weekends, or at Court and Montague all week long.) If you’ve been reading this website regularly, you might already be familiar with the story of my own dog, the happy fellow in the photo below, who was abandoned as a puppy with scabies, and is alive today only by the grace of someone who cared enough to take him in and nurse him back to health. So the work they do at Hearts & Homes strikes a personal chord with me.
“Of course, since this is the internet, I’m sure I’ll get email from someone saying, why a dog charity, when there are so many other problems in the world? Well, I’m starting with this particular charity–and I hope this is only a beginning–because I support the work they do, and more importantly, because they are facing an emergency situation, and they need help, right now:‘Unforeseeably, the shelter/home where Hearts and Home Inc. has worked from for the past 7 years has recently been sold. And now, they have only 2 short months to find adequate and affordable space
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Oops! Forgot to also tell you I’m going to donate to Hearts & Homes.
Tracey
Wil
I wish i could help you with this great cause, but (yes there is always a BUT) the economy really sucks the big one. I’m only working partime, and money is really tite. But when my taxes are done this next month, i will throw some your way.
I wish you, your familly and all the readers of Wilwheaton.net a very happy new year
alrighty, if tip jar rattling is acceptable, I must make the following proposition…
Just this morning I added a tip jar to my site, because I’m seriously in the red on my rent and me and my seven year-old are street-bound. Donations are great, but I’m not really comfortable with the “something for nothing” deal, so I’m selling prints of my photographs in exchange for donations over $20. This is not my only plan to stave off homelessness, but I’m reaching for straws here.
Wil, you have an amazing audience. A huge and powerful audience. I want to help the little doggies with their Scorsese accents, and I want to keep a roof over my head. For every photo I sell from my website I will donate $2 to the doggie fund.
Hope I haven’t overstepped the boundaries. Feel free to contact me directly to confirm my story. Thanks.
Nice photo’s, but how about 8 x 10s of the will with blue hair image???
I went and donated directly, but I’d buy a signed 8 x 10 of that image, even if it just came off a color printer at kinkos.
Hi Wil,
Being new to WWDN, I haven’t yet made it through all your blog archives, so thanks for highlighting the story of Ferris (and really just how cool Anne is).
6 years ago, a skinny, scared cocker spaniel ran in front of my car in traffic. I nearly got in an accident saving her, but fatefully, I did & Mei-Mei (my mom wouldn’t let us name her “Roadkill”) thrived (especially under the care of my brother). Unfortunately, she passed away this year. In Chinese, Mei-Mei means “little sister,” and losing our “lil sis” this summer was extremely difficult for our family. (Perhaps someday I will share the horrendous story of her passing, but not now.)
We are still coping with her loss and have thought often of getting another dog (our Peke Chu-Chu is lonely and misses the Mei), but we have been lucky that every dog we’ve ever had has found us… but should we ever go out to *find* another doggie for our family, we would only adopt.
Thanks for doing such a great thing on your site and encouraging folks to adopt animals… look at how many people donated from being inspired by your blog entry!
Cheers to a wonderful 2003,
Jocelyn
Dublos – I so totally second that. Blue haired pics would sell like hotcakes, Wil! Think about it!
Happy New Year Head Monkey Dude!
Message for Stacey
Times are tough, but only donating $2.00 from a $20.00 pic is outragous. I will admit, my income sucks the big one, but what you are doing sounds like a big scam ala ENRON. I think, you should start watching your soending, and quit spending beyond your means. I also would strongly suggest you cut off things you do not need.
Terry,
You have some very valid points and I don’t want to get into a back and forth on Wil’s comment space, but if I could respond to them this once…
I was selling the photos on my site anyway, as a way to raise money. Since they are being printed archival-quality it costs me around $5 a print for paper, ink and shipping. I’m trying to make money in an honest fashion in order to extricate myself from my mess. In order to do that, I need to make a profit. The price is similar to that charged by Noah Grey and Dawn Mikulich, so I thought it was reasonable.
Tom and Wil’s cause is a good one. I’d like to help. So I’m donating some of my profit toward their cause. What do I get from this? Well, maybe some folks who have never seen my photos will come check them out. It’s a fair trade.
Enron stole money for innocent folks and lied and broke the law. I’m just broke. You can disagree with me, but you don’t have to insult me.
I was out of work for a while and I’ve cut back on a lot and I’m trying to make up the difference using my skills and talents and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Skepticsm is a good thing, Terry, but cynicism will kill your soul.
Grasshoppers,
What’s with the mean-spirited attacks on this last day of the year? Wil’s trying to do a good thing here, as is Stacey, and a million others of us who do what we can to make things better for others. Call a moratorium on the personal scud missiles here for a while and let’s just revel in being alive and human, eh?
Wil, best of the season to you and your family. It’s been a pleasure reading you this year and I look forward to visiting here regularly in 2003!
Long-time reader, first-time poster…
I wish I had the money to donate. I truly do. In fact I’d just posted about wanting a signed picture of you, Wil, when I read this post. Now I’m really tempted to get one…but what if I’m not one of the next ten? How can I be sure my money goes to the charity? I can make the purchase a lot more appealing to my girlfriend that way! 😉
Did I mention how doubleplusgood Wil is?
This is kinda OT from your post, but I was just watching the Trek Marathon on TNN (ST IV is currently showing) and was wondering about your “5 assed monkey people” comment.
Wil, this is why you are so amazing. I’ll always remember something you said on your blog once: “I defy anyone to tell me that we don’t have the power to change the world.”
Thanks for being such a beautiful person. 🙂
Just felt like posting again to say:
WIL FARKING RAWKS!!!!!
Dear Wil
This just to wish you a Happy New Year to you and your family.Also,is this the year we get to see a little one from you and Anne.
Cathy
Sent in five bucks. Good for you Wil. You can do some real good with this website.
FURY OF THE FIVE-ASSED MONKEY PEOPLE!
Fucking classic.
another great way people can help an animal shelter is by adopting a pet…these days many people are obsessed with getting a pure-bred pet with “papers”…the best pet i ever had was no pure-bred…she was, close as we could figure, part collie, part german shepherd…and she was my friend for 15 years…suzy was dumped in our neighborhood by someone who didn’t want her and she adopted us…many of the animals in shelters would be wonderful pets…a good pet doesn’t need to be a big investment in money…but it can be a big investment in love…and that is something money can’t buy…so buy wil’s pic and help the shelter…or help a pet shelter by adopting a pet…or do both!
Always happy to see a Depeche Mode reference…
I live in Brooklyn, and know this rescue well. They are good people. Their dogs always make my neighborhood walks a treat, and it’s terrible to hear about their building. Real Estate in Brooklyn, especially Park Slope, is outlandishly expensive. I hope that they can find something.
Thanks for participating in something that makes a difference in my community.
I went ahead and donated $10.00. I wish I could have donated more to them, but I figured that giving a little something is better than giving a big nothing.
Thanks for helping them out Wil! My dog (Chief, a Black Lab) is from an animal shelter as well, and I’ve never had a better animal friend in my life.
🙂
Echoes SpaceWriters comments LOUDLY!
Never posted here before and aside form the usual pop-in make fun of Geeks idiots who sometimes post here, the comments seem especially harsh for people who seem to have relatively the same value system. Living at or even slightly below your means, and doing something other than soul-sucking convenience store work is difficult at best, impossible most of the time. One should not criticize if one does not know the full extent of ones condition.
/rant off
And Wil….great cause, worthy of support as soon as I get some spare buckage, I will donate to both, photo notwithstanding.
Let me relate a little story that just happened last night:
My son is the sweetest person I have ever met….period. We recently started giving him an allowance to start him on the track to better money management (something my Mother never taught me, and for that I paid dearly) So I hopped out of our car to grab some essentials, and left my wife and son in the car. When I returned I found them both in deep conversation with an obviously downtrodden woman asking for money for medicine for her son. Now I’m no dummy, I used to live in New Haven CT, home of Creative Excuses for Acquiring Illegal Drugs Inc. And I am well aware that through my jaded 35yo eyes this woman was probably looking to score.
Well anyway my boy, Mr. Giving, decided that he would give her his last dollar, she initially refused, but he insisted.
Now I
I have nothing whatsoever against animals, and I think that helping out a group like this one is a fine undertaking.
But Mr. Day-before-yesterday’s snideness about Andrew Sullivan simply reeks of typical Liberal.
Andrew’s blog is simply excellent, and he deserves to be paid. Perhaps what the insipid Progressive cartoonist is most upset about is that the nearly six-figured figure came from VOLUNTARY donations. I doubt any group of people would be so generous to him, and I’ll bet he does too.
If Tom Tomorrow wants to raise cash for some New Yorkers who rescue animals, did it occur to him to, rather than slagging Andrew, ask him if he’d like to help the effort? Picking on him for saying “no” would at least have some *relevance.*
THIS is why a former long-haired spliff-smoking rock-n-roller (me) wound up a DittoHead. Not only are most modern liberals mean, they’re dishonest on many levels and entirely too blinded by hate to be very smart, overall. After looking over all sides, I’ve concluded that Conservatism without Jerry Falwell and his bothersome ilk is the best our silly species can do for itself for the forseeable future. Tom Tomorrow is, infact, so very yesterday…
…but I wish all of you luck with saving the critters.
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