Rachel Nabors ([info]crowhen) wrote,
@ 2008-02-27 15:23:00
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Entry tags:teeth

Wow... lookit all the donations...
I added a donation bar to the official crossbite drive page. It has to be manually updated when I can get to it, but look at how much of a difference all of your donations have made! Some of them have not even cleared yet to be added to the tally!

This just might work.


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[info]kehrli
2008-02-27 08:30 pm UTC (link)
I'm glad you found a donation bar to use! It gives everybody something to cheer for.

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[info]crowhen
2008-02-27 08:41 pm UTC (link)
Thank you :) By the way, I remember reading your comic long ago. Nice job :)

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[info]vonandmoggy
2008-02-27 09:05 pm UTC (link)
Woo hoo! That's awesome! :)

(Von and I aren't terribly flush at the moment but we threw in a little donation, anyways...if we come into more cash down the road, I'll toss more in for sure!)

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[info]crowhen
2008-02-27 09:07 pm UTC (link)
Thanks guys :) You rock! Over half of that sum came from tiny donations, so it's true that every bit helps and every bit is appreciated! And I mean it!

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[info]rono64
2008-02-27 10:12 pm UTC (link)
If I get a big pay this week I will donate another 25 bucks.

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[info]crowhen
2008-02-27 10:43 pm UTC (link)
That's lovely of you?

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[info]kimonos_house
2008-02-27 11:32 pm UTC (link)
I've updated my site to promote the drive. I've had a couple people respond to the donation incentive. Rooting for ya!

http://kimonostownhouse.com/helprachel.html

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[info]crowhen
2008-02-28 02:02 am UTC (link)
Ach, and you've put up a cute little pony wallpaper, too... awww, thank you! Ponies make everything better.

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[info]kimonos_house
2008-02-28 02:14 am UTC (link)
Ponies make everything better, and Brightly always helps a girl in need. ^_^

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[info]crowhen
2008-02-28 03:33 am UTC (link)
Brightly, a real stallion's stallion.

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[info]mckenzee
2008-02-28 02:01 am UTC (link)
I should be able to help a little next week. Also will link when I update the comic this weekend.

So, get much snow? I had to drive through the VA mountains this afternoon, on the way home from TN.

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[info]crowhen
2008-02-28 02:24 am UTC (link)
Oh thank you, McKenzee. A link would be great of you. I know I should use your first name, but your ID is so much more, I dunno, you. Can't stop calling you by it.

As for snow, no, but I am told it is colder than witch's booby out there. I am not venturing outside my home because I have a flu or something from the con that gives me tummy cramps and violent shakes. So no go-outty for me. (Which is sad because I have an order, a gas can, a hand delivery, and four bills I need to deliver. Had to postpone seeing mi madre, too.)

How was your drive? Snowy?

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Oh noes, Con-Crud!
[info]mckenzee
2008-02-28 03:24 am UTC (link)
Snowy in parts. Cutting across south-western VA we hit a couple of very snowy patches, but they only lasted a few miles each.

I've adjusted to being mckenzee to people who knew me online first :) I've been called worse.

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Re: Oh noes, Con-Crud!
[info]crowhen
2008-02-28 03:34 am UTC (link)
well, I met you offline, but I only got to know you online, to be fair.

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A better use of $100 bucks
(Anonymous)
2008-02-28 05:19 pm UTC (link)
Personally, I'd rather send a donation to a food bank, homeless shelter, or home for battered women and their children. There's no reason a perfectly healthy, able bodied person should be pandering online for charity. Shame on you, Rachel.

You've known about this for 2 years. You couldn't save up something in that time, you're just now getting around to it? Oh, wait, saving might involve, you know, not spending money on ridiculous crap and fueling your over inflated sense of self importance.

There's no freakin way that you need the total sum right now. Work out a payment plan. Tighten your belt and shut off your internet service. Get a job. Ask your family for help.

Before anyone donates to this moron, ask yourself 'who could really use the money?". In most cases, it's the person donating. Not many people have all that much extra cash these days. How about the people who go hungry and sleep in the cold every night who don't have the luxury of posting whiny rants on the net? How about the animal shelter that struggles to budget food for the unfortunate dogs and cats that wind up there? How about the food bank that turns away people because they can't met the demand.

Rachel, you are a selfish, self obsessed pile of crap. It's not other people's job to take care of you. I hope your teeth do fall out. The discussion on national health care is for people who need to be well to work and provide for their families, not petulant little idiots with no concept of personal responsibilty

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Re: A better use of $100 bucks
[info]crowhen
2008-02-28 06:31 pm UTC (link)
I was saving money, but there were no jobs where I lived. I spent two years trying to launch my comics career, which was really all I could do, living in the impoverished rural south. It finally happened, although meagerly, a year ago. I was hoping to save money to do this on my own. That's why when I finally was hired to make comics weekly, I used what I had saved to move to an area with better facilities, a college, and more job prospects if comics fell apart. But it's freelancing, which means I pay all my taxes and get no insurance from an employer because I technically work for myself.

Setting up a new life costs money. Rent deposits, electricity deposits, things for living like a mattress and spatula, the cable Internet. I do my work online, so I can't give that up, but I have only the most basic package I can get that lets me get online to upload my comics and seek out more freelance work.

I was going to school part time last semester working toward getting degree in communications design, which would help me get a better job. However, I couldn't be a full time student and a full time comicker, or I would have devoted myself to school. Comics pay the bills, so I had to make that my priority. Then my transportation, a motorcycle I had bought used because of improved gas efficiency, died after I had invested in the safety gear. So I did not get to return to school this semester, although my mother did end up getting a new car and handing her old one down to me. At least this means I can go back to school in fall.

I was trying to set myself up to pay for this in the long run, but the doctors did not tell me that my jaw and teeth would start wearing out so soon. I thought I had time, but I don't. It will cost even more if they have to do bone grafting or gum work. I could be doing this my whole life if I don't act quickly.

I can't ask my family because I don't have much left of one. What I do have, they have their own financial problems, as I'm sure many people do, but I'm sure if they could offer assistance, they would. And if they do, I will assuredly post it publicly as part of the drive.

I need to start raising money now because I don't expect to raise or save it all in a year. Once I start this thing, I can't stop, which means no payment hangups. The most I can find for payment deferment lasts for only about year. At my current income level and in the depressed economy and job market, I do not see how I will be able to come up with this kind of money in only a year.

It wasn't my idea to have a donation drive. I was eating lunch in the other room when I came back and my friends said they wanted to start a donation drive. I was a little hesitant, but seeing all the support and how much others wanted to help, I was touched. I did not expect anyone to donate nearly as much as they already have. I still don't know if we'll ever get close to the baseline ten grand needed for the in-house surgery. But it's worth a try and if anything, it gives me faith in my fellow man in spite of people who crouch as low as calling me names. But I think your behavior speaks for itself and needs no further comment from me.

I usually do not reply to hostile posts like this, because trolls, especially cowardly people who won't associate even a name or identity with their posts, tend to just want to cause trouble. But your questions will surely be wondered by others, so why not answer them now?

Thank you for bringing up these important questions. I appreciate your concern with my choice of lifestyle, and I assure you it was adopted with every intention of standing on my own feet. But I'm lucky that I live in a human society where if I should lose my balance, at least some good people will reach out to catch my fall. I look forward to returning the favor.

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Re: A better use of $100 bucks
[info]joamette
2008-02-28 09:10 pm UTC (link)
I applaud your composure. I'm incredibly pissed for you.

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Re: A better use of $100 bucks
[info]hoppytoad79
2008-02-29 03:18 am UTC (link)
*stands and applauds*

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Re: A better use of $100 bucks
(Anonymous)
2008-03-01 01:09 am UTC (link)
Bravo!

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Re: A better use of $100 bucks
[info]terrestrial_cel
2008-02-28 07:56 pm UTC (link)
Hi, Anon. The Anonymous name could have been used on a more worthy cause in the name internets and cake don't you think? Or maybe you're not Anonymous, but just an anonymous poster. In which case, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

There is no mistake that you are passionate. However, I feel like your post is petty. If you don't like Rachel, don't read her blog, don't read her comics, and for fucks sake, don't give her money.

If general hedenism, materialism, and illness of self-satisfaction that makes up the 1st world is your problem, there are far greater enemies. PRO-TIP: You're not going to solve any of those important issues by posting on someone's Livejournal: the campbell's chunky stew of self-interest. Especially where the topic is teeth. Holy hell.

THE INTERNET: Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom from the suppresion of ideas - whether you like them or not. You just lost the game.

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Re: A better use of $100 bucks
[info]mattbayne
2008-02-28 08:21 pm UTC (link)
not petulant little idiots with no concept of personal responsibilty

Or petualant, cowardly abusive people with no concept of tact?

One hole in the argument: If it is up to everybody to take care of themselves, why would you recommend helping out the homeless? If it is up to everybody to take care of themselves, why would you recommend helping a bunch of cats and dogs? If it is up to everybody to take care of themselves, why would tyou recommend helping starving people? If it is up to everyone to take care of themselves, why would you recommend helping battered women?

The other hole: people can give time and money to more than one person or gorup that needs help. And they can give it where and when they want. And maybe they do. Maybe they volunteer at the ASPCA. Maybe they volunteer at the food bank or homeless shelter. Maybe they teach self-defense for free to battered women, or maybe they take them into their homes for a while until they can set up a safe place? Maybe they have seen a woman or child being abused and have physically intervened and put their health and lives at risk until the cops showed up? Maybe they have adopted crack babies and are raising them as their own. And maybe they do some or all of that, and still have $10 left over, and maybe they feel like helping a young artist focus on her art and enjoying health and life, instead of worrying about her deteriorating jawbone.

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Re: A better use of $100 bucks
[info]ldragoon
2008-02-28 09:20 pm UTC (link)
Well said!

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this might help...
(Anonymous)
2008-02-28 06:17 pm UTC (link)
I don't have a LJ account but my name is Nadine. I read what the person said about you paying for it yourself and while I think it was a little harshly worded, I completely agree. However, I know how it feels to face medical expenses with no hope of paying them so I am inclined to be slightly more sympathetic. But not much.

My neighbor has a son with cerebral palsy and the boy is in a wheelchair. She needs private home nursing but no agency in the area accepts Medicare so she has to stay home and care for him--which means not working. Our state (Missouri) has undergone drastic health care reforms and because of these, she does not qualify for any coverage. Last time I spoke to her, her teeth were so badly impacted she couldn't even eat and was on a liquid diet. So there's always someone worse off than you.

But in the spirit of offering help, I thought you should know there are loans and others govt. programs you can at least look through and see if maybe there isn't some help there. The link is http://www.hrsa.gov/ . I don't think it's practical to be relying on donations for the entire amount you need.

Best of luck--Nadine

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Re: this might help...
[info]crowhen
2008-02-28 06:24 pm UTC (link)
Thanks Nadine :) I'll be sure to check out that link.

I don't expect to get donations for the entire amount, but because it's such a large sum, I need to get closer to it to take out a loan for the rest. What does break my heart is the knowledge that there are others worse off, and if anything at all comes of this it will be spreading awareness that not everyone who needs help gets it.

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Re: this might help...
[info]napoleana
2008-02-28 11:25 pm UTC (link)
That was a point I actually thought up later after my initial response post. A lot of times when there's a specific example of a friend or classmate, or in this case artist you are a fan of, people who don't normally even *think* about charity will give a little to help out. Afterwards, they realize how fun it was and how good it felt and start finding other causes to support. By offering the opportunity for people to help you out, you actually are probably doing some serious karmic good in return by showing them how cool it is to help others. ^.^

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[info]napoleana
2008-02-28 07:21 pm UTC (link)
In response to the above, I'd like to point out that some people prefer to give their money to people they know or in addition to charities they already give to. Many people identify with Rachel and her work, and that's why we're trying to help her. I've seen people donate massive amounts to a few webcomic artists' *weddings* (when they should be perfectly happy to just get it done at the courthouse or sit on it for a while), why not give to help her with much-needed medical bills?

By setting up a donation account and offering links, Rachel is giving caring fans an opportunity to do as they *requested* she allow them to do. She never said that she deserved it more or that you should pay for her bills instead of your own car repair or take the funds from what you were intending to donate to kids in Africa.

In response to the question of "Are there more important things to give money to?", I ask, "Aren't there more important things to gripe about?" The money she receives will show in itself how much people think giving to her is a good idea. We can make our own decisions, thank you.

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[info]ldragoon
2008-02-28 09:20 pm UTC (link)
Wow, napoleana, that is an incredible response. HUGS!

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[info]kadymae
2008-02-28 10:05 pm UTC (link)
Icon is for you.

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[info]crowhen
2008-02-28 10:11 pm UTC (link)
Thank you, Katherine. Thank you. It's tarting to feel that way.

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