This Has Been a Hell of a Week So Far
So, you know how I've been offering commissions due to being under a bit of a financial stress of late? Well, this week has taken me from "under a bit of stress" to "flat-out gazing over the precipice."
The last week and a half my wife had been feeling sick, and over the weekend we found out she has Dengue Fever, which apparently isn't a big deal so long as you've never had it before. As luck would have it, though, she *has* had it before, and things can get rather more serious the second time around. We decided the best thing would be for her to go back to the states, where the doctors at least speak the same native language as we do. So we got her a plane ticket back to the US, and she's gone to stay with her family and recuperate and heal up there.
And now here's the icing on the cake: So, I rode the bus with her from Puyo to Quito and the international airport, and somewhere along the way someone stole my laptop. I need that laptop my job, for prepping for classes and multimedia class presentations, for teaching online, and for communicating with family and friends back home. (Not to mention using it for fun stuff like updating Infinite Machine and playing RPGs and so forth.) I generally try and keep everything backed up, but there was stuff on the laptop that was definitely irreplaceable -- old personal writing, rpg campaign files, photographs.
I bought the computer last year for $800, which makes it not that expensive for a laptop, but utterly out of my reach while I'm teaching here in the Ecuadorian economy. (It's two months' entire gross salary right now.) This, plus my wife being sick and flying home, plus the preexisting strain on our finances, is pretty crippling.
At this point, I'll take any help I can get monetarily. My offer for commissions is still open, but if you don't want to mess with the story or RPG stuff, but still want to contribute, you can send a little aid my way via PayPal: [email protected]. I will really, really appreciate any amount you can give.