MOOP!

ohmygods.

Forget the money¹. Because while I'm sitting here with four envelopes and four checks I'm also sitting here with four letters. Quick and long, handwritten and typed, one of them inscribed in a card that says "Happy Birthday" on the outside and "this is not a birthday card!" on the inside.

And they are all quick little notes from people who love me and want me to be happy. And I just...you guys! I don't think I've cried this hard since Elanor was stolen, I just can't actually wrap my head around the fact that people give a shit about me, and then it happens from everyone, all at once.

I am clearly going to have to shift some paradigms around now. Something about maybe me being an okay person after all.

And I don't know what I'm going to do with all the letters once I've got them, but it's going to have to be something as amazing as they deserve. <3

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Okay, please don't actually, because I am a practical person in addition to being a sentimental one, and bicycles are expensive. But goddamn, why doesn't everyone send each other letters saying how awesome we all are more often, because this feeling is flat out amazing.

Photo taken by me, art *not* drawn by me. This is the price board for the Friendly Local Bike Shop where I will be getting my new bike. Somehow, I never noticed that they have a Dinosaur on a Bicycle until today. I think this is a good omen.

So here's the deal. You people are ridiculous and seem to have decided to throw ALL THE MONEY at me, and just what is this I don't even in the extreme.

So just what has happened?

Just what has happened is that you guys have offered up about three times what I was looking for¹. jere7my is going to send/post the final total tonight, so y'all can remember how much you donated and be all "but what?!" with me.

This is ridiculous, and I'm kindof at a loss of what to do with that much money. But I have ideas...

What is your idea/plan for the Katstarter?

My idea/plan for the Katstarter is that everyone gets their bids reduced as much as they want. If you have suddenly realized that you're not actually solvent this week, or decided that because you don't know me bugger this, or whatever you are welcome to pull out, or offer half-bids or whatever. No judgement here, I know what it feels like to be poor --this is why I'm doing this, after all.

But I refuse to reduce my bid! We want you to have a really bang up bike, with kevlar tires, and a kickstand and a rack, and good panniers, and a front basket, and streamers, and a little portable bike pump, and a pull-along trailer, and a horn that goes a-ooga!

Well okay then. I want all that nonsense as well.

So here is my plan for the *money*:

My plan is that I am going to go buy a bike tomorrow, with a rack, a kickstand, and better-than-normal tires. (What is, tentatively, "the essentials").

The bike I picked out is 460$. Rack is about 20$ for bolts and installation². Kickstand is about 20$. Better than normal tires are about 50$ each³.

This means I am looking at about 600$, which seems to be still less than the lot of you threw at me. However, I need/want the bike immediately, so I am gonna go ahead and buy it tomorrow.

Buy it tomorrow? But we haven't given you money yet! How do we do that?!

Well, I'll be spending my rent money⁴ to do this, so hopefully how you do this is soon. If you want to give me money, here's how (in descending order of preference):

1. Hand me a check or cash the next time you see me. Or hand jere7my a check or cash the next time you see *him*.


2. Mail me a check (please don't mail cash) to the Somerville address listed here. If you can't access that entry, you can e-mail me at [kdsorceress at gmail] to get it.


3. Paypal me using the e-mail address [kdsorceress at gmail]. I really don't prefer this option, because I have heard some straight up horror stories about Paypal and money disappearing and I do not particularly trust them.


4. Work something out with jere7my or Sparr or me using some mysterious additional way of sending money.

The deadline to throw money at me for this is my birthday, August 28th.

And if there's extra money?

If I get more money than I spend, then all of that money will get marked down and exclusively used for bike-type-goodies. I can't promise that one of those goodies won't be streamers for the handlebars, but most of it will go to having a better cargo set up (for when I want to go on longer trips) or general tools/repairs/knowledge. I know there are general bike maintenance classes in the area, if I have the money, I'd potentially love to take one.

I promise anything you give me will be spent on bike-nonsense (or maybe possibly mailing-drawing nonsense) and nothing else.

Now the all-important question: What about those drawings you promised us?!

So, I won't start drawing things until mid-September. This is because it looks like my schedule is going to become Dragon*Con, drive cross country, and spend a week in Maryland all in rapid succession. But!

I promise to get all drawings done and sent by the end of the world, December 21, 2012.⁵

I will draw literally anything you want (although the original suggestion was dinosaurs on bicycles), though I reserve the right to shoot down a suggestion for being far too complicated or time-intensive. I work solely in physical mediums --crayons, pencil, pencil-with-ink, or pen-sketch. I used to use a lot of coloured pencils, I'm happy to try some of that again. Most of my stuff skews cartoony over realistic.

But I am not an artist, just this person who draws sometimes, so do not expect Great Art. If you want examples of what I do, you can see some less recent stuff in my DeviantArt gallery and more recent stuff in my Flickr

If you want the physical copy, you're gonna have to get me an address (or be somewhere I can hand it off to you sometime). Your name and request goes on The List once I have received payment from you, and I reserve the right to get the drawings done in whatever order I please, just so they're all done in time.

And I think that's everything. Questions, comments, etc?

You lot are completely amazing, and I just don't even know how to handle it anymore.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: According to jere7my --I am very intentionally not allowing myself to count money or think about it until tonight when the Katstarter formally closes.

2: I don't have to buy it because a friend from Squares saw a message on Leftover Soup that I was looking for a bike and what the hell friends, this is ridiculously wonderful. And you should all go read Leftover Soup. Is good comic!

3: But I'm hoping to work something out where I only pay the difference between regular tires and better tires, rather than having to buy both. This would about halve the cost of nicer tires.

4: Not as distressing as it sounds, I have about two months rent in the bank right now. But this eliminates my safety cushion.

5: It was going to be the end of the year, but then I decided I'd rather relax over winter break.

In a twist of "but I don't deserve this" and then getting glared at and being told that I am not allowed to victim blame and otherwise just being ridiculous and wonderful, jere7my has decided that he is organizing a fundraiser to see if people can get me a new bike.

In case you're too lazy to click on that link, here's his plan:

Insofar that having a bike that fits Kat and is in good shape is important, since it is her primary mode of transportation, and given that coming together to help victims of crime is one thing a community of friends is good for, with Kat's permission I would like to use her post to propose an "It's a Wonderful Bike" fundraiser.

Replacing Elanor would cost about $450; Kat says she could afford about $150 of that. I'd like to invite y'all to pledge to donate $10-$20, in hopes of raising the remaining $300. Rules like Kickstarter (Katstarter?):

1) If we don't get close, nobody pays anything. (If we get to within $50 or so, I will up my pledge, and make this my birthday present to her.)
2) If we exceed $300, everybody's pledge gets reduced proportionally. (I.e., every pledge will be multiplied by $300/$total. If we raise $400, everyone will pay their pledge x 300/400 = 75% of their pledge.)
3) Everyone who pledges gets an authentic drawing from Kat, possibly of Kat on a bike, or a dinosaur, or a dinosaur on a bike.
4) Comment here with your pledge, or email me (jere7my at gmail). I will post the total on Wednesday night. (If you want to be anonymous for any reason, let me know.)

I have no idea if this will work or not, but getting a bike stolen really sucks, especially when you can't afford to replace it. If you're so inclined, feel free to pass this on to other friends of Kat's. Thanks!

I think Wednesday night is possibly too soon, because eep, but um, there you have it.

This is...not a thing I know how to be gracious about, because I have this huge independence streak where asking people for money or gifts is tantamount to Failing Forever Ohnoes. But I've been trying to get better about accepting gifts in general, and I really do think it's sweet of jere7my to organize for me. So I will go eep, and say thank you, and if you want to do this for me, that would be lovely and awesome.

And absolutely I will draw pictures for people. Probably in crayon. Plausibly of _whatever you want me to draw_, but really, I am best at dinosaurs and vegetables. I'm pretty rubbish at drawing bicycles, but maybe this is my chance to learn or something.

Soyeah. Yay for Katstarters. And if you wanted an excuse, I *do* have a birthday coming up at the end of this month.

~Sor
MOOP!