It's in here! https://www.patreon.com/posts/great-big-june-84159477
But because cohost is cool and you can do longform things here:
The great big June Update: Birthday Fundraising and things of that nature
I finally have a little energy to spare: the beginning of this month was a never ending exhaustion gauntlet.
Hi, I'm Standplaats, or Titus if you prefer government names. I'm an old Dutch punk who lives in Poland, curates memes and is chronically ill and disabled.
By now, most people will know my general situation: I got hit by a double diagnosis of chronic conditions, Parkinson's and Long Covid. These leave me unable to reliably function. Tremors and brain fog are in a fierce competition to see which of them can have the most impact on my existence.
I'm on a bunch of medications that seem to be doing their very best to keep things going, and I visit my doctors a lot. The whole situation makes it untenable for me to work though, because even on a good day I only have a very small window of being energetic enough to do anything. I tire incredibly quickly, and when I do I lose the ability to type, speaking gets really hard, and my emotions get difficult to control (I get real sad, yo.)
I have been on sick leave for well over a year by now, and while I appreciate the fact that I did not get officially fired, I haven't gotten paid since my paid sick leave ran out last June. The only thing that has made it possible to keep my head above water and to provide for my little family (my girlfriend and our sweetheart of a dog Sonya) has been the generosity of the good people of Twitter (and my beautiful Patrons.)
To keep the bill collectors at bay I need to bring in about $2000 a month, and up until now we've been able to scrape by consistently.
HOWEVER: we have a secondary huge giant sword hanging over our head: we have been offered first rights to buy our current home. We are getting an incredible deal in one of the few housing markets in Europe that have not yet bubbled out of control so we are able to buy the place for a total of a bit over $50 000, which is very good. We also already put down about 12k out of that amount, so $40k should get us home free. Getting a home at this point in life would be a game changer: it would allow me to make all the accessibility accommodations I need and it would give me the financial breathing room to focus completely on my health situation.
Problem is: I do not have 40k. I do not even have the 12k we're on the hook for in Autumn (late October.) This might become a really big issue, and financial worries are putting a big strain on our mental health and relationship.
Therefore, my plan for this Month -well, I say plan, it's more of a hope, really- is to try to get the survival fund raised by my birthday, on the 22nd of June. That's 16 days from now, so ideally we'd receive $125 every day. On my birthday, and in the remaining time we'd try to raise as much as possible of the second installment of the house payments. For every donation over $10 I will make the donor a 2000x2000 pixel abstract digital artwork as thanks!
I could really, really use every bit of help anyone could give me in reaching this goal: spread this message far and wide, boost my social media posts (Masto, cohost, bluesky, even Twitter...) and donate generously. You'd be saving my life, my relationship, and keep me able to enjoy life in the face of some really big adversity.
If you got this far, thank you very much for your attention, please help me out!
Cal, you absolute angel. Thank you SO SO much!
+$1908.98
June goal: $1938.79/2000 96.9%
House goal: $370.33/12000 3%
PP in BIO 🎂🥳🌞
June Survival fund got done incredibly fast, with huge thanks to one particular individual (you know who you are!)
This puts us in the situation that we can do the House Fund campaign for a longer period of time than planned, which is amazing news.
Just to get all the ducks in a row: we have been living in one quarter of a 4 unit Multifamily residential in a tiny village near Krakow. We got here through a family connection, who were very happy to have us live here cheaply because this place is in the sticks, and having someone take care of the place while they were unable to sell kept the place in a good condition. Now however, the Northern ring road around Krakow is almost finished, and the owner of the building has good hope to sell the place to some up and coming first time home owners.
This leaves us in a peculiar position: if we want to keep living here we have to buy it. This is not something they're willing to compromise on: the house was built over ten years ago, and the company that owns it needs income to be able to invest in building further homes and stuff. However: we're being offered a much better price than anyone new would have to pay for the place, so it's an incredible deal. (Think less than half of the book value, around 50k USD total for a 1100 foot three bed/1.5 bath with a little garden in a pretty place.)
However we are not able to work at the moment due to various issues (You know, the Parkinson's and Long Covid stuff.) This means getting a mortgage is impossible at this point. To make things a bit easier on us the seller has agreed to us paying in installments over the next two years. First payment of 50 000 PLN is finalized, but that still has us on the hook for a further 175 000 PLN (42 000 USD.)
This is split into 4 payments, 3 times 50 000 PLN (12k USD) and a remainder of 25 000 PLN (6000 USD.) Payment 1 will be on October 31, then another one March 30, 2024 and October 31, 2024, with the final one on December 31, 2024.
Because this is my birthday month I hope to be getting a few gifts from family and friends that I can put into the house, which is why I would love to get at least the first installment covered, meaning I can have a few less worries in the Summer. If we could get even more covered it would make my heart sing with relief, but we'll get there when/if we get there.
At this point I'm mostly incredibly grateful for all of you helping me live. If you're not in a position to help financially, just know that all the people I see enjoying my Thread™ are more valuable for my mental well-being than I could ever express in words!
The 'every $10+ donation gets a personal abstract' deal is also on for the house, so: PayPal in Bio, if you're a Euro: DMs open where they exist, standplaatskrk@gmail.com where they do not for bank info!
Please feel free to spread the word of this weird pipe dream to any and all folks who might get a kick out of watching me try to spin a future out of thin air!