About Donating to Me

Donations Received

My situation

Well, my situation is less bad now. I wouldn't go so far as to say I don't need money, but, it doesn't feel like such a pressing, urgent need anymore, at least if I only focus on my personal bills rather than engaging in futile worrying about my family's finances which I have no authority or control over. So don't worry about me, things will probably be fine.

Since I completely gave up on my credit card bills, the only bills I personally need to worry about are my web hosting bill and Second Life - those combined are about $20 per month or less, depending on how far I can pay in advance (they both have discounts if you pre-pay). So, that's not too bad at all, though of course as always I'm keenly aware of how precarious my distressingly dependent financial position is.

However, since I've finally given up the pointless struggle to pay my credit card bills, I actually have a lot more peace of mind than before, and am much better able to focus on studying useful things which might someday make me more capable of earning a living, as well as make this website more interesting.

My credit card balances with both Capital One and Providian are both over $5,000, and rising fast due to massive late and over-the-limit fees every month. I can't get caught up because I don't have enough of an income to even make the ever-increasing minimum payment they keep demanding each month.

Fortunately, I no longer care. :-) Plus, it has helped my family a good deal, to no longer send about $300 per month to those usurious scum to repay the debt that was put in my name. My only regret is that I didn't stop paying the credit card companies sooner.

That wasn't what I had in mind for my credit card boycott. But, there is no way I'm paying Capital One and Providian thousands of dollars in late fees, over-the-limit fees, and usurious penalty interest rates on top of what we really owed. I haven't done the math yet, but for all I know, we might very well have paid so much already that everything would be paid off if not for the huge amounts of interest, fees, and "finance charges".

So, I think we're quite probably even, or actually, less than even, due to the horrendous damage that has been done to my life in terms of lost opportunities; the delay, for financial reasons, of me receiving dental care that I desperately needed, which put me through torture which could easily have been prevented, and which also might have caused me to have to get root canals rather than just fillings; deprivation of many other things I and my family needed but couldn't obtain due to the money that was being leeched from us; and the despair all of this incurred. I frankly think the credit card companies ought to be paying us reparations, as well as everyone else whose lives they've ruined or worsened.

But I'd be happy just to see them go out of business, or to see their usurious practices re-illegalized.

Until the credit card industry stops inflicting horrendous, oppressive, usurious policies on people, especially the poor, unfortunate and desperate, I will not willingly give them any support, and I will not continue to be a customer from whom they can profit. They will only regain my support if they adopt moral, ethical, compassionate, and honest policies.

I recommend a credit card boycott. For more information, see my Credit Card Boycott page.

Way back in April 2006, I cancelled my Chase and Sears Gold Mastercard cards.

Technically, I guess I probably can't get rid of my Capital One and Providian accounts unless I go bankrupt, but, I'm too broke to do that, and I'd much rather gleefully let all the bill collector scum waste their time on me instead of people who are more likely to pay. So, actually, I have no plans of going bankrupt at this time.

Which means that now, any donations to me are likely to be spent on things which are actually useful to me or which I actually wanted.

A note on microdonations

By the way, I ecstatically welcome microdonations, since tiny donations can really add up if a whole lot of people make them.

For instance, if 1,000 people each gave me $1, I'd have $1,000, which I could definitely use.

The best way to microdonate to me would be via the massive multiplayer online game Second Life. More details on how to do that are below.

What your donation will be used for

I will use it for whatever I feel might really benefit me - i.e., not bankruptcy and not credit card bills.

I'd like to declare here that how I spend the donation will be up to my own discretion. I don't want to have any strings attached to this donation.

What you'll get

Well, nothing certain, because otherwise it wouldn't be a donation - you'd either be buying something from me, or hiring me to do something.

But, I suppose you might get a warm, fuzzy feeling, and maybe if good karma exists, you'll get good karma.

Here are some other reasons why you might like to donate to me.

With every breath I exhale, I contribute precious carbon dioxide, which is vital to the survival of plant life on our planet.
Meanwhile, every breath I inhale consumes oxygen, a gas which is one of the leading fuels for fires.

Additionally, I might (or might not) update this website more often. (As a general rule, the more money I have, the less depressed I tend to feel, and the less depressed I feel, the more creative I become, potentially resulting in more stuff I could put up on this website.)

It will also help support the development of any software I write in any programming language, ranging from PHP and MySQL, to Perl, JavaScript, Inform 6, LSL (the language of scripts in Second Life), and any other programming language I might learn. All of this software will be open source and free.

The central page which links to all the software I've so far created and uploaded here is Software.

Sorry I haven't been more productive.

How to donate

I accept PayPal - and also, ironically, credit cards via PayPal. I have no way of knowing or controlling what payment method anyone uses, but, if you can only use credit cards to donate to me, please don't.

I also only recommend donating large amounts to me if you can really afford it yourself. In the past, I myself have recklessly donated to things when I probably should have looked out for myself more - so I would like to specifically advise anyone else who is inclined to do that to take care of themselves first.

I'm also very happy to accept the in-game currency of the game Second Life, the Linden dollar (L$) - since it's actually possible to sell L$ for real money.

This is an even better way to donate to me than PayPal, especially if you want to make a very small donation, because there are no fees on any transactions within Second Life (there are only fees once you cash out). I joyfully accept tiny donations, since many tiny donations can still really add up.

Second Life is also a good option if you'd prefer to make an anonymous donation to me - since, unlike PayPal, if you pay me via Second Life, that will give me nothing but your Second Life user name, and based on that information alone, I will have no idea who you might be.

Feel free to send donations of any size to my Second Life name, "Apollia Pirandello".

Donate now

To donate U. S. dollars to me, click the image below, which will bring you to PayPal. Donations in any amount larger than about 31 cents are welcome. Any smaller donations will just end up being swallowed by PayPal's fees, which are 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

To make a donation to me via Second Life, using the in-game currency of Linden dollars - while logged into the game, click the Search button, click the People tab, then search for "Apollia Pirandello". (Or you can even just search for "Apollia", since currently I and my non-anonymous alternate account "Apollia Watanabe" are almost the only names that come up). Then, look at Apollia Pirandello's profile, and there should be a Pay button visible.

I'll accept literally any amount of Linden dollars (L$).

If you're curious about the current exchange rate of L$ for U. S. dollars, you can look at this page: https://secondlife.com/currency/market.php. (You might have to be logged in to look at it, though).

The exchange rate generally hovers around L$265 per $1 USD.

Alternatives to Donating

One way to bestow money upon me, whilst actually directly getting something out of it, is to advertise on Astroblahhh.Com.
Or, you could have me proofread something.
Or, if there's some service you're interested in that isn't listed here that you think I could do, I guess you could just write to me and see if I'm interested.
Or, you could sign up with Shareapic.net via my referral link. Shareapic is a picture-hosting service which pays you some of their revenue from advertising when the pictures you uploaded are viewed.
I _still_ haven't gotten around to uploading any pictures yet, so, I don't really have much first-hand experience with this service, but, it seems like a neat concept. Apparently, with anyone who signs up using my referral link, I'll get paid for "10% of their image views forever".

A note on emailing me

Following the recommendation of SaveMeSites.Com, which I submitted this donations page to, I won't be responding to suspicious emails regarding donations, in case they're scams.

So, if you're a scammer, please don't waste your time. If you're not a scammer and I've ignored you, my apologies. Actually, even if you're a scammer and I've ignored you, my apologies. I don't like to ignore anyone, but I also can't reply to every email, especially if it's from someone who intends to rip me off somehow. I basically need to concentrate as much time and energy as possible on solving my problems.