As some may have noticed, I have added a little paypal icon on the top right of the masthead. Allow me to explain why I put it there.
I’ve been blogging this for almost a month now. I’ve been #Occupying for almost 3. When I went to Zuccotti Park the first night, I had no idea I was going to stay as long as I did. I left home, livelihood (meager as it was) and everything else on a moments notice and I haven’t gone back. Since sometime in september, my life belongs to #Occupy.
That said, no one’s paying me for this, and since the eviction of Zuccotti Park, I’ve been living on one to two meals a day, Floors of friends, churchs and whatever else is available. I have one change of clothes (there’s a bagful out in sheepshead bay, but it needs to go to the laundry. Last year’s dirty clothes, left at a friends house.), an iPhone 3g with no cellular service used more like a pocket wifi computer than anything else (I use Talkatone for voice and text services over whatever free wifi I can find, and it runs like shit on my jailbroken 3g, although I’ve seen it run on a 4s like a rocket!), and frankly, I”m starting to burn out on this. I serve on the #OWS tech, housing, & farms working groups as principle focalizer, and I lend a hand on a half-a-dozen others, and I not only don’t have a cent to my name, I don’t even have a frickin’ bank account! I need a hand, folks, if I’m going to keep doing this.
My buddy shazzbar has been kind enough to loan me his paypal account to I can start asking for donations. I need the following stuff:
Just plain money, as much as you can spare. This is for food and clothing. I need a few pairs of levi’s, some long johns, socks, a sweater or two, and a haircut. I trip to Wo Hop would make my life right now. Joe’s Shanghai would be even better.
Next off, my computer, a 2006 macbook pro 2.33 ghz, has no battery, and no left-side cooling fan. The fan is $35, the battery, just over $100. Of course, if you’d like to donate a brand new macbook pro, I like the 15 inch model best.
An iphone 4 or 4s. I need one of these for a streaming video project I’m trying to get started here, and the same folks who thought housing michelle after she’d already gotten us thrown out of one hotel was a good idea, think my streaming video project isn’t worth their time. Mind you, #OWS tech loves it, #OWS organization & outreach loves it, and everyone on Finance loves it. A few people are blocking it in committee, and I for one can’t wait any longer. I need this now. I’d prefer the unlocked gsm version of the 4, or the sprint version of the 4s. If you’re going to spring for sprint, please keep the cost of several months bills in mind as well. My credit rating is mud.
Last of all, on my personal want list, is hearing aids. I’m 80% deaf in both ears. If someone has some way of getting around the block on ebay (try typing “siemens hearing aid” and then click onone of the links. see what happens.), I could sure use a nice pair of digital hearing aids. I’m “Severe” so this kind here is what I need. Buying them from an audiologist is prohibitively expensive, in the thousands per ear. I have no idea why. They’re a couple hundred bucks if I can get past that damned block.
That’s all just stuff for me personally. What follows is “for the cause”, as it were, but first, a little explanation:
Someone in the financial pipeline is blocking any effort to spend any money on anything that produces any kind of return on investment. They’re spending 10 grand a week on gruel, and $12000 a month to house us in churches, when we could rent a whole goddamned apartment building or a 10000 square foot loft for less. I don’t know exactly who it is yet, and efforts are underway to do something about them, but in the meantime I am trying to establish an alternative funding channel. What follows is for projects being blocked:
for streaming video:
10 - 100 iphone 4s’s, with sprint service plans. That’s for this project, here.
Housing - I promised myself when I started this that I live where the occupiers live. Right now, we’re running out of places to live, thanks to some truly brain-dead people insisting that being an insurrection isn’t enough, we have to be the department of health and human services, too!
Right now, I’m developing a proposal for a better housing solution for everyone in #OWS in association with people on #finance and #organization/outreach & #housing. In the meantime, I need to get my (personal) best people out of the churches and into a situation somewhere nearby. Probably in New Brighton, Staten Island (cause it’s real cheap, and transportation is free), but maybe somewhere closer, like eastern chinatown in manhattan. the tiny scrap of what amounts to the lower east side these days. We’re perfectly happy to live five to a bedroom if we have to. It’s the freedom to come and go and prepare meals that matters. I really want ALL of #OWS In one household again, but I’ll settle for my posse in one household for now. Being scattered is impairing our efficiency, and we seem to be thinking like a schizophrenic with multiple personalities right now —- never alone, but one head never knowing what the other is doing and some head actually wanting to hurt the others.
I have a funny feeling “official” #OWS funding could stop at any moment. I’d like to have the means to keep my own posse fed, housed and alive, and our projects moving forward, because I’m equally sure that the current crisis is temporary and will be resolved. I am determined to make sure it is. I got involved with #Occupy because of the lack of the usual radical suspects, and the plethora of genuinely smart people involved, such as Shen Tong (one of the very best and most professional people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with), for example who I’m working with to develop some of the projects named above, most especially the video and housing proposals.
Finally, as many laptops, imacs, and sundry computer stuff (external hardrives, memory sticks, etc) as people can spare the change for, and an HP laserjet with full duplex printing (greyscale, only please! Color cartridges cost too much, and we don’t need them) and ethernet would be nice. I really prefer HP. They’re easy to set up, and I seem to be stuck with doing all the setups.
Thank you, everyone! I really appreciate your reading this, and your support, whether in cash or in spirit. Vive le Terre, vive le Humanitie, vive Liberte! Damn I hope I spelled that all right. It’s been a long time since high school french.
