I\'m kind of broke right now. I haven\'t been working steadily for a while, and while I\'m set to start a new job next month, I won\'t have any disposable income to speak of by the time PAX East rolls around. Now, I\'ll definitely be at the con - my pass is paid for, and if worse comes to worst, I can just take the T to and from the BCEC. But the rest of it is up in the air. I\'m a diabetic, and I need to eat at regular intervals - food at and around the BCEC isn\'t likely to be cheap, and it may not be feasible to pack all the meals I\'ll need for a full day. I may need cab fare if I need to get to or from the con in a hurry, or at a time when the T isn\'t running. And, honestly, it would be great if I had some cash for the exhibit hall, or for any random expenses that might come up.
Why should you care? Because last year, I was the first female contestant to make the final round of the Omegathon at EITHER PAX - and I\'m returning as a competitor this year. By contributing to my PAX fund, you will be sponsoring my awesomeness. You\'ll ensure that I don\'t have to worry about ANYTHING but kicking butt and taking names in the Omegathon. And together, we might make a little more history.
I\'m not asking for a free ride. I want to offer you tangible benefits for your contribution. I blog regularly over at
Diary of a Random Fangirl (though a recent illness threw me off my schedule) and I want to use this to give back to my donors. So here\'s the deal:
- Everyone who contributes - EVERYONE - gets a shout-out in my blog. (Unless you wish to remain anonymous. That\'s fine. Just let me know.) I\'ll thank you personally, and if you like, I\'ll put up a link to whatever you\'re doing. Please make sure you pass any links you want me to post along in the comments, or e-mail them to me at [email redacted]
- If I hit my initial (pre-revision) goal of $400, I\'ll liveblog and livetweet from the convention (subject to the vagaries of Internet access at the BCEC). I\'ll talk about my Omegathon experience, about the panels I\'m going to, about anything cool I see on the show floor. I\'ll upload a ton of pictures whenever I find the time (and Internet access). You\'ll get an inside look at my PAX East experience.
- If I hit $700 or more, I\'ll not only liveblog/livetweet, but I\'ll also give you videos straight from the con - though I can\'t promise a live video feed, as I may need to do some editing to string things together properly. The video will come off my iPod touch, so the quality may not be great, but that leads me to my next goal...
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If I hit $1000 or more, I\'ll buy a proper video camera, enlist friends wherever I can, and give you a truly rocking glimpse of my PAX East experience. Omegathon rounds. Exhibit hall tours. Footage of the
GLBTQA Gamer Meetup. Any and all interviews I can wrangle. I\'ll take questions by Twitter and answer right on camera. And I\'ll use my iPod to take instant videos and upload them right away - no editing, no fuss, no waiting. Moreover, this will mark the beginning of a whole new chapter for my blog: with decent video equipment, I\'ll be able to do a lot more vlogging, and I have some exciting ideas on how to turn that into the birth of a new multimedia empire - with a little hard work, of course. Consider it an all-access VIP pass to three solid days of my life, and an important investment in my future endeavors.
I have over 300 followers on Twitter, and I-don\'t-know-how-many regular readers on my blog. If even half of you kicked in a few bucks, my PAX East experience could go from scraping through by the skin of my teeth to full on holy crap awesome. And if all my goals are just blown out of the water...it could seriously help me survive through whatever\'s left of this period of unemployment. I\'ll be really grateful for anything you can contribute. Thank you.
