Funding...

I want to take a moment to talk about this journey we are taking.

The plan has been to go from San Francisco, through Mexico and Central America, to Africa and parts of Europe, into India, through Asia and eventually back to San Francisco.

While doing this, with a single backpack (well, one each), I also plan to do work along the way, including video editing, teaching at fxPHD, bartending (if necessary) and also work on podcasts and a book (which I have mentioned).

This much travel takes a long time and a lot of money. Okay, maybe not a lot of money by normal, California standards, but a lot because each day costs something.

So far, in Mexico, I've managed to eat, sleep, take shared buses and get my general expenses down to about three hundred pesos a day (sometimes three hundred fifty) for two people.

If I pull up the awesome iPhone App ConverterBot (which I use religiously), that's about $23 US per day (sometimes a bit more).

I believe I am finally in a travel rhythm, so I will assume, with some deviation ($2.00 US), a daily expense for the rest of the year.

I will also assume October is over, because it practically is, and I'm only discussing November and December right now.

That's another 60 days (rounding down) at $25 per day, which is $1,500 total or $750 per month.

I am also purchasing a NetBook, to both write my book on and to do some editing/writing/programming/etc on during the trip. I've found them locally (in Mexico) for about $300 US.

Then, there's the matter of podcasts, which require either an Internet Cafe or a laptop to record and edit on.

So, when I ask for donations, I am asking you to help fund a few things; writing the book, writing software and producing podcasts. Because, if I spend the day bartending or finding work or doing anything other than writing, programming, podcasting and traveling, I literally have no time to do anything else.

And so, it goes like this;

Donate $25 and sponsor a day, from November 1 through the end of December. Any day you want. I'll mention you on my blog, on Twitter, in my podcasts, in my book. It will be like spending $25 to get another hundred (or a thousand) people who follow you or read your blog or know who you are. That's the cheapest advertising I can think of... anywhere.

Alternately, I am dedicating my book to the person or persons who donate toward the NetBook. $300 and you are the sole dedication in the book. Less and you share the dedication with other people, listed in order of their contribution, highest to lowest amount.

Think about that for a moment. People donate to TWiT every day, which is very cool, but they don't get mentioned in the show.

Also, you are funding the development of Twangle (the Mac and iPhone Twitter client) as well as HD Speed Test (the Mac video benchmarking tool) - both of these apps have a free version and no advertising and are available at www.unscale.com

You are also helping me keep That Post Show ad-free, instead of forcing me to take on advertisers and - in my opinion - ruin the spirit of the show. Yes, I've had sponsors before, but having advertisers will make the show sound like... every show on the TWiT network, where you fast-forward through 20+ minutes of every show.

Neither of us want that...

And I love TWiT's shows, the ads just drive me crazy.

Let me know, on Twitter or in e-mail (or comments on the blog) what you think and if there's anything I can do to improve anything I am working on.

Donate to Life Zero

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]