What’s next on the TMR schedule

I’ve been hemming and hawing regarding this post for a couple of days now, mostly because I don’t like talking money, but here’s the TMR situation as we hit late July:

1. The prospect tournament and training camp are going to be held as early as they can be held his season, and as a result, I’m starting the fundraising drive for the events today. I don’t have the luxury of waiting till mid-August to make most of the money before I go and then earn the rest while I’m there–mom’s illnesses drained my bank account, so it’s time to get ‘er going. https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport is the Paypal link, https://patreon.com/TheMalikReport is the Patreon subscription link, you can email me directly for my addy at rtxg@yahoo.com, and I will add more services as necessary.
2. This year I’m also going to have to raise funds for the server costs. On August 31st, I get a bill for about $700 for the year for the various WordPress server costs, and for the past two years (yes, TMR was once a “secret blog”), I’ve eaten the costs, but the familial stuff means that it’s gonna be a raise-2K-for-TC + $700 for the server situation. That’s ambitious.
3. Just as importantly, I may end up going to the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, for which I would not raise funds, but I still may end up going on my annual family vacation to Grand Marais, MI, and that’s scheduled for the same week. If I could commute to Plymouth, I would, but that’s an 800-mile round trip, so that’s not possible.
4. I’m gonna be blunt about the whole draft analysis thing that didn’t happen but might still happen: I do pay attention to the comments, and the suggestions that I couldn’t possibly offer an remotely objective draft analysis was discouraging. Combine that with some health setbacks in the family department and I didn’t have the time or motivation to get shit done there, and now I’m reconsidering it. Let me know if that has any interest to you, because next week will be busy assuming that I’m going on vacation, but not too busy to write five draft analyses.
5. Raising funds long-term, which is going to be the key to this site’s survival, means motivating readers to buy something. That includes more original content, that includes merchandising–so if you want to make some money designing some t-shirts or hats or mugs or pillowcases or whatever and getting a cut thereof, send me an email at rtxg@yahoo.com–and yes, there is a more eventual goal of paying someone a nice chunk of change to redesign the website.
6. So that’s that for now. If you have some constructive suggestions as to how to make TMR better for you (for example: I find the podcasting world to be too crowded to enter, but you may not, especially if the podcast includes TMR readers like you), I am open to suggestions. This blog is small, and it may always be small, but there is a positive to that in that the community members play a big part in the present and future of the blog and the blogger.
7. Thank you for reading. I hope that you are staying as cool as possible in this oppressive summer heat.