–Domani Spero

Dear blog funders and supporters, thank you for your generous support!  I hope I have thanked each of you personally.  For the few anonymous donors who did not leave their contact email, please know that you have our deep gratitude for supporting our efforts.

Our crowdfunding project concluded over the weekend. We raised a total of $4,110.  Several additional contributions were sent through our Friends of Diplopundit via PayPal.  The total raised was not an unexpected result.  We know there are folks who consider what we do to be merely a “stamp your little foot hobby,” but we consider it work that requires time, dedication and energy. We  set the  goal of 40k to approximate what your blogger earned as an analyst some years ago.

The truth is that while your blogger is doing this kind of work, the hubby is responsible for bills.  And he’s not getting any younger.  In the real world, this has created what we would politely call a low-intensity conflict in the domestic front.  He means well.  He’s worried that your blogger may end up as a bag lady with bad teeth.  In any case, to avoid that end and further conflict, your blogger is looking at 2014 as a make or break year.  That means cobbling together enough funds this year to show that she can sustain what she’s doing financially.  In addition to the funds you have contributed, we are actively looking at ads, and sponsorships. We are also talking to a few “angel bundlers” who are interested in helping sustain the blog.  Whether that comes in separate funding or institutional support we still don’t know. We will update you when we know more.

In the short term, your blogger won’t be working the floors at WalMart.  The blog will continue as before.  Whether or not the blog remains after 2014 depends on what happens this year.

This past week, we learned that somebody we featured in this blog finally received the  help they needed.  What wonderful news!  To those reading this blog and made that happen, thank you!

In any case, we’ve got work to do — but for now, being alive is what counts.

And as our favorite Doctor would say, “We’re all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?”  We hope to make it our best one yet.

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