About Donating to Me

My Situation

My situation is fortunately not as bad as it used to be. There is of course still a massive amount of debt in my name, which is probably still increasing all by itself due to late/overlimit fees and interest - but, I no longer care, because ever since 2007, I simply decided I wasn't ever going to pay it. I just had enough of Capital One and Providian's despicable huge late and overlimit fees and jacked-up interest rates, so I stopped paying them.

That wasn't my original intention for my credit card boycott, but, since it was (and still is) impossible for me to make enough money to pay the ever-increasing minimum payments (massively enlarged by multiple monthly late and overlimit fees of about $35-$39 apiece), it was pointless to even keep struggling to pay my bills.

Happily, ceasing to pay my credit card bills turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. Not worrying about my bills anymore, and not paying those despicable legalized scammers, gave me a lot more peace of mind, and hence more ability to concentrate on useful pursuits - even though it didn't give me back the years of my life lost to the miserable pursuit of money, nor make up for all the lost opportunities and deprivation of needed health care, all resulting from the lack of money.

I turned my attention to enhancing my programming skills, and over time, managed to create some rather useful things, such as the Astrosorting Music Organization Database (AMODB), my blogging software WordsPlatz, and Astroblahhh Desktop (which currently consists of just a web links organizer which is like an enhanced Delicious).

All of those programs are free, open source, and public domain, because I think free, open source software is a lot more useful, trustworthy, and overall beneficial to society than closed source software. Many of the reasons why I feel that way are explained in Richard Stallman's essay, Why Software Should Be Free.

Another reason I like to give stuff away is because the average person in our society is victimized by so many financial rip-offs, such as income taxes, usury, and being charged unfairly and unnecessarily high prices for essential goods and services, or practically essential things like housing and utilities, that I think the more truly useful and beneficial tools and information I can give away for free at no loss to myself, the better it will be for the world (as well as myself in the long run).

I may not have tons of money to give away, but at least I can give away various useful, time-saving tools. Hopefully that will help reverse some of the damage inflicted on individuals and society at large by despicable, vampiric thugs like tax collectors and lenders.

I live with my family and, unfortunately, am still financially dependent on them, which is very worrisome at times because I have no control over how my family handles money, and I also still don't feel fully confident that I would be able to support myself if necessary. (Though, as I improve my programming skills, I am getting less worried, even though there probably aren't that many freelance jobs available for anyone who is unwilling to sell full, exclusive copyrights to their code to anyone.)

I'm just hoping that people like the stuff I release for free enough to send me donations of any size. I guess I should also probably start creating some products people can buy - not sure what, though. Probably nothing that anyone will really need, because I feel best about charging for "luxuries" or merely enjoyable but unnecessary "fluff", like art or fiction stories or something - because if something can improve someone's life in a really significant, tangible way, it just feels wrong to withhold it for a price, at least if whatever it is can be infinitely reproduced and distributed at no cost or inconvenience to me, like software.

I really don't like having to waste time on creating useless "fluff" that never would have existed if I didn't need money, instead of working on really significant, useful stuff that I want to give away, though. I also detest Google AdSense and any other pay-per-click advertising (one reason being because I think it's simply impossible for pay-per-click to be rendered fraud-proof), and even Project Wonderful (a non-pay-per-click ad broker) pissed me off by nagging me to improve my ad box's performance. Besides, I know a lot of people hate ads anyway.

So, for now, until inspiration strikes me and I get in the mood to create some useless but entertaining "fluff" to sell, that leaves donations as the main way in which money can come to me.

I will happily accept donations of any size. The only thing I wouldn't be happy about would be accepting an excessive amount of money from someone who really can't afford it and should be taking care of themselves first instead of me.

I am very fond of the concept of microdonations, because a tiny amount of money sent by a great many people can add up to a really significant amount of money.

I'm not really sure how much money I need. My family is good to me, so I don't have to pay for most expenses, but, the stress of feeling that I'd probably be doomed if my family totally goes under financially is one of the numerous non-financial costs I pay. The sense of being helplessly dependent on the support of others is a truly terrible feeling, at least for me. I don't know how much money I would need in order to stop feeling like I'm on the brink of doom.

Technically, though, the only bills I have to personally handle myself 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). Also, anything other than food and shelter, I'm largely on my own in obtaining (with the result that I rarely buy anything at all).

In any case, whatever amount anyone wants to send me which is comfortably affordable to them will be happily accepted.

A Note on Microdonations

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/uneasy/doomed/panicked I tend to feel, and the less bad 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.

How to Donate

I 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 prefer the in-game currency of the game Second Life because there are no fees on any transactions within Second Life - I only have to pay fees when I get my money out of Second Life. This makes Second Life even better than PayPal for accepting microdonations.

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.

To make a donation to me via Second Life, using the in-game currency of Linden dollars - you can either go to this location and pay the donation box there, or, 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$260 per $1 USD.

I also 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.

To donate to me via PayPal, 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.

Alternatives to Donating

If there's some service you think I could do that you're interested in paying me for, I guess you could just write to me and see if I'm interested.
Please don't assume that I'm ignoring you if you don't get a prompt response, or any response - I've been told that sometimes my email address bounces mail, and in the past, numerous emails I was waiting for have gotten lost. Also, often I just take a long time to respond to anyone. Sometimes I don't even check my mail for days, since I get so little interesting email. Repeated email is fine.

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.