Welcome to Part Two of the 2013 Man Boobz Pledge Drive! (There will be 3 in all.)
If you enjoy this blog, and can afford it, please click on the “donate” button below and sending a few bucks my way. Or, if you’d prefer, a massive quantity of bucks. You don’t need a PayPal account to donate; you can use a credit card, and there are other options as well. If you’re outside the US, PayPal should be able to handle your weird foreign money that doesn’t even have any US presidents on it.
I appreciate any and all contributions. That said, if you’re broke and can’t swing a contribution now, I completely understand. There are lots of ways to contribute to this blog besides cold hard cash — as anyone who’s checked out the comments here knows well.
Your donations — and other forms of support — have kept this blog going through some tough times. At the time of the last Pledge Drive, I was broke and, frankly, more than a little discouraged, and the outpouring of support from you all made an enormous difference to me. I’ve been a bit tardy — in many cases very tardy — in getting back to people individually with thanks, but I really do appreciate the help. Thanks as well to those who’ve donated since the last pledge drive, and extra special thanks to those who’ve made a point of donating on a regular basis.
I’m not quite as broke now, but I can still use whatever financial support you can give. Thanks again!
Man Boobz has now received some 11 million page views since its inception. Even more impressive: you all have posted more than 300,000 comments. Which is amazing to me. I couldn’t do it without you.
If you really want to get into the Pledge Drive spirit, here’s thirty minutes of a 1980 Pledge Drive from PBS’s Detroit affiliate WTVS:
Seconding the recommendation to consider muscle relaxants. Glad you were able to get a doctor’s appointment so soon, kittehs!
Raccoons, like hard chairs, are misandry:
http://gawker.com/here-is-a-life-affirming-video-of-a-hillbilly-dancing-w-965489247
Internet hugs are always welcome, Marie!
(Well, from Manboobz friends like yourself – trolls need not apply.)
🙂
Thanks, cloudiah!
Never mind Dr Google, we have Dr Manboobz.
I was all going “You got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow?? What’s your secret?” and then I remembered you are not in the US.
Wait time for my doctor is about 3 weeks. BUT WE CAN’T HAVE A PUBLIC OPTION BECAUSE DEATH PANELS
Fun fact: apparently the reason Riker mounted chairs like that because of an old back injury of Jonathan Frakes’ made it difficult to sit in a normal fashion.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/riker-chair-star-trek-supercut-video_n_3245984.html
“Fribs has a vet appointment”
Is Fribs sick or is it just a check up?
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/00/cd/76/00cd7650d4078fd3d7eeecc773e3fee1.jpg
Does anybody download free music? If so, what do you use?
Medical catch-up!
@neuroticbeagle – Fribs has her six-monthly check up due, and needs more of her anti-hyperthyroid pills. I’m not sure how much time she has with us, because she’s still losing weight and is just so thin now. Yet she’s as lively as you’d expect of a cat of seventeen, not in pain, doesn’t have arthritis and enjoys her food – she just isn’t getting much nourishment from it. We’ll see what Dr Nick says.
@katz – I know, the US system boggles my mind too. Yet I’m pretty sure there aren’t any death panels around here. ::looks around:: Nope. Not a one, unless Maddie’s “destroy all the things” activities count.
I was lucky to get an appointment that quickly; my doctor didn’t have any available and she’s going on holiday for two weeks, but one of the others at the practice had the 2pm spot, thank goodness!
Anyways, I told her the sad tale of my legs, and after we talked about it and she tested my reflexes and looked for tenderness, she put me on Naproxen (an NSAID) for a month’s trial. She also suggested osteo paracetamol, upping my dose of fish oil (which I take for other things) and giving glucosamine a month’s trial as well. Thank goodness for generics, that lot cost a bundle. I’ve also had a blood test done – good timing, the Blood Man was at the clinic today* – for inflammation markers. Altogether a good visit, I think: being listened to and taken seriously, yay! She said it sounded debilitating, and that’s a damn good word for it.
I’m going to need one of those containers for All The Pills at this rate. 😛
In other news, there has been EVIL in this house. Mads decided today was the day to pull everything out of the linen cupboard.
Aww Fribbies! My dog and I send our love.
” Maddie’s “destroy all the things” activities count. In other news, there has been EVIL in this house. Mads decided today was the day to pull everything out of the linen cupboard.”
Can the US borrow Mads? I’m thinking there are a few things that need to be pulled out and destroyed in Congress…
I would be delighted to let her pull out and destroy those things in Congress! She could turn her super cat powers to good for once.
yea! Mads the Destroyer to the rescue! Best ‘fat cat’ in Washington!
😀
I just walked by her (she’s being undestructive at the moment, lying in
Fribbie’sher basket) and called her Congress Destroyer Cat.She blinked. 🙂
I’m thinking there could be a film in this.
Maybe “MADS ATTACKS!”
I’ll interpret her blinking as a sign that she approves of the plan. 🙂 Make sure she knows to really go after the repubicans.
“I’m thinking there could be a film in this.”
Documentary by Michael Moore?
LOL no, he might detract from her credibility.
Though CNN seems to be on it already …
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iawvusUqKns/TlR0guiOsiI/AAAAAAAAAYo/2RtNY-MuUFA/s320/CATS%2BBUSH.jpg
At least it’s not fox news.
Here. This should give Mads some ideas.
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fb/87/ae/fb87ae3d5fcb2612310025996b10ed00.jpg
As someone in the music business who knows starving musicians, I can’t get behind something like Pirate Bay. Pay for it.
Thanks again to everyone!
Cloudiah, r/mr is really outdoing itself with its gullibility these days. I think they’ve had fake screenshots on the front page practically every day for a while now, sometimes more than one.
Dammit! I want to contribute, but I refuse to use Paypal because they’re a terrible company and I don’t have a credit card! David, do you have a PO box where I can send a money order (in US funds) or perhaps a box of assorted Canadian change? (We have Beavers and Caribou and Loons and The Queen on ’em! …that would be Elizabeth II, not the band with Freddie Mercury, btw.) … or, barring that, is there another way I can donate? (If only you had a debit online option!)
I buy all my movies, music, and software*.
My one vice is TV shows, since I can’t justify the $100+/month for cable + PVR I’d need to get the few shows I actually want, and streaming options in Canada are relatively limited.
Even then, if it’s a series I love and re-watch, I do my best to pay for it, although buying TV series is usually pretty damn expensive.
*or use that which is legally free.
What’s wonderful about that Chicago Tribune kitten mistake was that the kitten was featured in their “pets in need gallery.” His name is Benton and he’s up for adoption. I think his odds of finding a good home are greatly enhanced now. http://gizmodo.com/q-a-with-the-chicago-tribune-editors-who-put-a-cat-on-t-968979032
Let me rephrase the question: Does anybody know where I can pay a small (maybe monthly) fee for unlimited free music downloads? So I could still pay something for it, but not $0.99 a song? Cause that adds up real fast and I can’t afford that.
Kate, I just emailed you an address you can send a money order to. Thanks!
Also, yay for kitten adoption!
neuroticbeagle — it isn’t downloads, and you can’t exactly pick what it spits at you, but last.fm internet radio is how I discovered Emilie Autumn and thus one of my favorite things ever. (It is free, which is why you can only sorta control what it plays, but I’ve had good luck with it’s definition of related artists)
@David:
Woop! Thanks! As soon as the magical Payroll Fairies visit me on Friday I’ll mail off a crisp little US funds money order! Yay!
neurotic, no service is going to offer unlimited downloads for a monthly fee for obvious reasons. There are limited downloads, but you can do the math and it’s about the same as just buying them direct. Our there are streaming services.
If a site offered unlimited free downloads how would anyone make any money? The music business is a business. I’m all for both bands and labels trying to adapt to the reality of illegal downloading and find creative ways to get consumers to buy, but this idea that there should be something like a service that offers unlimited free downloads for a nominal fee is why the business is in financial trouble (and why some of the labels are being so stubborn about the whole thing, since they feel like consumers are being unreasonable).
Emilie Autumn is great (fav songs: Fight Like a Girl and Marry Me)
I also love Heather Dale and Heather Alexander.
Cassandrasays: I love bands that give free music, but ask for donations. I’m far more likely to give them a generous donation.
Happy to chip in 😀
*makes rat claws at Melody* totally with you on Fight Like a Girl, but Marry Me is lower on the list, mostly because Unlaced, the entire album, causes my brain to cease functioning, in the “omgs amazing” way. (That violin! The beautiful magnificent violin! *swoons*)
Whatever you go with, don’t do emusic. It’s a terrible model designed to reel you in with a sorta-free trial and then make you lose money with its confusing, nonsensical policies.
Lots of very generous people donating today! Thanks again!
And on the music thing: eMusic was pretty good in its early years, I thought. You did get unlimited downloads, but their selection was limited. Which was fine with me — they had enough stuff I liked to make it worth it. Then they changed to limited downloads, but priced them cheap enough so that it was worth it. Now, not so much.
Their prices are cheap (49c/track for many) and it’s all DRM-free, but the actual execution is so terrible. Just one example: You have to install their download manager. It’s buggy and I have not been able to uninstall it.
I wish I could donate but I’m pretty financially unstable at the moment. However, I do have a suggestion. I listen to a lot of podcasts and they tend to have referral links where listeners can click if they plan on buying things through amazon. Amazon gives them a small percentage of the profit (not sure how much exactly, but it’s something). So for all the podcasts that I use to enrich my life on a regular basis, I try to split up my amazon purchases between them. You should definitely look into that. I’d definitely add you to my list of affiliates to buy from. I THINK this is where you sign up.
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/join/?ld=AZAssocMakeM&ref=az_mm_aa
For those interested in supporting websites that way, there is a firefox app to help you do so too
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amazonreferralsupport/
And hopefully I’m not necroing this thread too much (it’s only been a couple days dammit!) but I can finally donate! 😀 Especially since I’ve got more money than I thought :3 So as soon as I put my money in the bank I’ll donate :3