When something is typical in an environment, it quickly becomes invisible. Now, I don’t mean camouflage or protective coloration, but rather the tendency of the mind to ignore what it sees regularly. I mean, after a while objects on one’s desk, kitchen counter, or workbench begin to fade into the background until one actually goes looking for them, even if they’re largish or brightly colored or the like, because if they didn’t one would constantly be focusing on them rather than on whatever else one was supposed to be looking at. That’s why every so often I like to remind my readers that I rely on your financial support, even though this appears at the bottom of my column three days a week:
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
This isn’t to say things are especially tight right now; since as most of y’all know I’m nearing the end of my annex project, I don’t have as many expenses on that account as I’ve had in several years, and I’ve figured out a number of ways to trim my household budget to give myself some breathing room. But inflation is higher than it has been since I was a teenager, my property taxes were dramatically hiked this year (because Washington politicians think of homeowners as inexhaustible cash cows), and disasters are always a possibility no matter how carefully-planned the budget. Plus, I do occasionally lose a subscriber, probably because their budget is getting tight. So this is just a more direct request for support; if you can manage one of the higher levels, that would be especially nice. But if you can’t, the regular subscription levels in the right-hand column will do nicely. And if that’s still more than you can commit to, a one-time gift from my Amazon wishlist is always appreciated. Thank you for reading!
