UPDATE — Running Total: $555
. This diary is an appeal for assistance
and a status report on the current state of my life.
If you aren’t interested in this sort of diary, please move on.
Thank you.
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If you can’t contribute funds,
please REC, TIP, COMMENT and SHARE this diary
to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.
You may reach someone who can.
Even a comment saying “Good Luck” or photo of your critter(s) helps.
Also, FOLLOW me on DKos and REC, Et cetera, my posts
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I will outline my current and near future need, my justification, and my future plans to gain financial independence. I’ll start with a summary of my needs, then talk about some plans for my future including my plans to get a teaching credential.
Happie Burphdae ta moi
Also, tomorrow, September 2, 2018, is my 58th birthday.
I have been told by some that “everyone” already knows my story, so you can skip the part where I talk about my life if you wish.
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Here’s a summary of my current needs:
My current total need for September is $1300.
This includes $1000 to pay living expences, i.e. housing, utilities, gas to get to and from work, et cetera. In addition, I’m asking for $300 to pay for me to take the Multi-subject California Subject Examinations for Teachers” aka “CSET”. This is a pre-requisite for me to get into a teaching credential program.
in order to pay for my September housing, utilities, and gas-to-get-to-work financial needs.Briefly, this is because I work as a substitute teacher, and I have not worked at all this summer. I am also semi-disabled. More on this later in this post. Links to help are below.
I also have set up two Amazon Wishlists, one to provide food and supplies for my various pets, and another (new) one for clothing. I am a big guy and there is literally no place local to me within 75 miles to buy clothing, and I have not bought new pants since I graduated with my B.S. in 2005, and my shirts and underwear are all over five years old and are becoming shredded and stained.
If you can’t contribute, please REC, TIP, COMMENT and SHARE to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. You may reach someone who can. Even a comment saying “good luck” helps keep this diary in the queue.
Anyone lurking or just passing by, please take a moment to rec, tip, and comment. It can mean all the difference in more Kossacks seeing this fundraiser.
Thank you!
Thank you for your continuing assistance.
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How to Help:
Immediate Help:
PayPal (James at JamesThomasGreen dot com) |OR| GoFundMe
Pet Supplies Amazon Wishlist (feed my dogs and cats)
JTG's Clothing Amazon Wishlist (My underroos are getting threadbare)
Long Term Help:
Patreon-Monthly Set Amount • More Patreon per-creation accounts coming soon
My Online Shops (Buy a T-shirt, bag, print, etc):
TeePublic-jtg • Fine Art America
Kosmail me for my postal address or other options
If you can’t contribute funds,
please REC, TIP, COMMENT and SHARE this diary
to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.
You may reach someone who can.
Even a comment saying “Good Luck” or photo of your critter(s) helps.
Also, FOLLOW me on DKos and REC, Et cetera, my posts
(-: * * * * * * * * * * * * * :-)
Two of my baybies
My Future Teaching Credential Plan:
I am a 57-year-old disabled person, with my birthday being TOMORROW, September 2. I have spent much of my life in non-money-making ways (see next section), and my future is very uncertain, and me dying homeless is a real possibility. I am trying to do what I can to keep that from happening.
The first fan-art “Mister Green” Webcomic; more to come
I intend to apply for a multi-subject teaching credential at CSU Monterey Bay combined with an internship program. This means that if I’m successful, I will start the credential program in Fall 2019, and hopefully get my own classroom by Fall 2020. This means I have to get through the next two years as a substitute. In truth, I enjoy being a substitute, and I would continue as a sub indefinitely except that it does not pay enough, and I have to do other things to get money during breaks when there are no teaching jobs.
I am in the process of setting up other income streams. For example, I have great skill in graphic design and video production. Some of you have seen the various cartoon/memes I've been posting. I’m going to expand the type and number of those memes, and use Patreon to get income from that production.
Patreon.com is a way for people to support artists, writers, and other creators, either by a set monthly contribution or by a per-creation basis.
I have set up set-monthly-contribution Patreon which you can use if you want to generally support me in all my creative efforts. Also, all of the videos I make in the pay-per-creation Patreon accounts will be visible here to those who pledge in this monthly Patreon.
I am in the process of setting up several per-creation Patreon accounts for various projects I do. With Patreon’s per-creation accounts, you could support me in specific types of creative activities. For example, if you want to see more videos of my dogs and cats, you can pledge to that Patreon (when I set it up). If you want to see more videos of me teaching lessons with “Mister Green’s Ad Hoc Lessons”, you could pledge some amount to that (again, when I set it up). My plan at first is to make videos for each of my ideas to get content there, and the Patreon accounts that get the greatest response will cause me to make more of that sort of video.
WEBCOMICS: Some of you have seen the Webcomic I periodically post called “Random Reverberations from JTG” which covers all sorts of topics from politics to humor to my own life. I’m currently reconfiguring a Patreon page for that.
EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS: I’m in the process of setting up a YouTube channel called “Mister Green’s Ad Hoc Lessons” wherein I will teach brief lessons with a target audience being about 4th grade.
PETS AND ANIMALS: I’m in the process of setting up a Patreon account and YouTube channel called “JTG’s Critters of Casa de Verde”, wherein I shall post videos about my various pets, dogs, cats, as well as “visitors” like the opossums and birds, as well as my past pets. Note, Casa de Verde is House of Green, as my last name is Green.
GENEALOGY: I’m in the process of setting up a YouTube channel and genealogy service called JTGenealogy (JTG + Genealogy). I will talk about genealogy research, and how we all are related if we go back far enough. I’ll trace the ancestry of people who want me to do so. We are all related if we go back far enough. I like to say that my pets and I are 100 Millionth cousins a few times removed.
MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY: One of my University friends, Julie, has told me that she thinks the secret of my riches is to tell the story of my life. Now, I think she thinks in terms of book sales, but I also think that if people knew all the crazy and amazing things I’ve done with my life, I might get more support and opportunities in my life. As such, I’ll be setting up a personal autobiography Patreon per-creation page.Y
There’s more, watch for diaries announcing these Patreon Pages as they go live.
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BACKSTORY of my LIFE
Some of you know much of my backstory, so you can skip this if you wish, or read through for new information, and to those to whom I am a new or existing unknown, welcome to my life.
I am 57 and live alone in Salinas California. I am partially disabled due to a combination of being a cancer survivor with a permanent colostomy, multiple large surgical hernias, diabetic, and weigh about 400 pounds, down from a max of about 600 pounds. In the past few years, I have had multiple cases of pneumonia and infections during which I continued to work anyway because no work means no pay and no pay means homelessness. I had part of my right foot amputated, and I still have infections that I have to watch carefully so they don’t cause me to lose the rest of that foot. In fact, my doctor recently told me I need to lose about 150 pounds or I may not live more than another 5-10 years because I’m showing signs of kidney and liver failure. I’m trying but it’s not easy, especially given the financial and other stresses I’m under. I’ll post more about that in a separate diary.
Dad in Navy Boot Camp, about 1944
I was the caregiver for my elderly father until he died several years. This was a role reversal in that I was his caregiver after he was my caregiver when I had a near-terminal cancer.
In 2000, Dad went into a three-month coma due to a severe surgical infection following bypass surgery. Dad came out of his coma in part because I refused to allow his medical support to be terminated and for the next fifteen years, I took care of him. I still have a great deal of grief over his passing, and even now as I type, tears are welling in my eyes. That’s also a big story for another diary.
Dad, the day before he died, meeting his Great Great Grandaughter “Hero” for the first and last time.
My family abandoned me following Dad’s death. Without going into details, the massive ongoing family dysfunction has both my siblings and cousins informing me they will never help me. My Trump-supporting brother emaled me the day after Dad died, less than twelve hours later, to tell me he would never help me with “one red cent”.
The fifteen years of me being with Dad almost every day helping him amount to nothing to them. That’s another story for another time.
After Dad died, I had a difficult time getting employed. I had not worked in a paycheck job for a couple of decades due to having been Dad’s caregiver, and before that, I was an engineering student, but I had to drop out due to my own cancer diagnosis. As an aside, I would likely now have experiments flying on the space station and be working on ways to mine the asteroids had I not gotten cancer. My initial diagnosis was 90% death within five years, but I survived not out of miracles, but because at the time of my diagnosis, new and effective treatments were available that had not been previously available. I like to say that I didn’t beat the odds, the odds changed.
I came close to homelessness several times, and that is still a real fear and possibility for me.
My first poem from the mid 1990s, a poem about depression, which somehow still has relevance in my current life
All this has given me a sometimes-crushing depression and at times it’s difficult to see how I can go on. I’ve had the kind of depression that sometimes makes the future seem a dark pit from which hope for any happiness has evaporated. If not for my critters, I might have given up long ago. I’m working on a diary on depression.
I finally stumbled onto substitute teaching, and that was my saving, at least for now.
Herein I shall give you an update on my status as a substitute teacher, my future plans for getting a full credential.
I have not worked this summer as substitute teaching jobs in the summer are few and far between.
In winter/spring 2018, I had an infected foot for months that if untreated would have caused me to lose more of that foot, perhaps part of the leg.
This begins my third year as a substitute teacher. School has begun, but there aren’t many sub assignments in the first couple of weeks of each year, and in fact, this year is starting out slower with assignments than the past two. I’ve got an assignment next Wednesday in a “Special Day Class”, which is a combination of students with learning disabilities, traumatized students, as well as behavior problem students. Hopefully, long-term, I will work almost every day until next May.
I am applying to enter a credential program at CSU Monterey Bay. I expect to begin the program at the start of the next session, Fall 2019, and become an “intern teacher” the following fall 2020.
The past few years have been among the worst of my life, starting after my father died after me being his caregiver for fifteen years. I am partially disabled with multiple surgical hernias and a partial amputation of my right foot. I am a cancer survivor and have a permanent colostomy and I am approaching my 25th year. In the past couple of years, I have had multiple cases of pneumonia and infections, during which time I went to work anyway. More about that in a future post.
After dad died, I had a lot of economic difficulties. I had not worked consistently in a paycheck job for about 30 years because I had been a university student, then I was a caregiver for my mother in her final days, and then I had cancer with an initially dire prognosis, but I survived, and then I was Dad’s caregiver for the final fifteen years of his life. Employers were not impressed and I applied for about 200 jobs and got almost nothing. More on that in a future post.
I stumbled into Substitute teaching, which is one of the few professions where having 12 college degrees doesn’t get many employers to back away.
This fall, I had hoped to get hired as a “provisional teacher”, meaning I could be hired as a full teacher with my own classroom of students, but that didn’t happen, probably due to a combination of enough people with credentials combined with being bilingual, which is either a requirement or a strong preference in all local districts. In addition, there are legislative legal limits on the number of provisional teachers a district can use, and I heard last year one district had 60+ provisional teachers. I figure that most are still there progressing towards their own credentials to be full teachers.
I have a little hope that I might be hired as a “super sub” with one eight districts in which I work. It’s probably a long shot as the super-sub positions are more sought after due to higher pay, and they also want people with full credentials and bilingual, but I’ve put in my app anyway.
WHY SHOULD ANYONE HELP ME?
In the past, inevitably someone will either comment or kosmail me with some comment about “why should I help you?” That’s a good question. I don't expect someone who has little or no resources to help me, because you need your own help. I also hope that those who are in more dire straites will get some help before me.
I hope that people will not merely look at me as a charaty case, but in providing me with assistance and support, I can in turn provide a benefit to the community and world. As a substitute teacher, I often have a significant effect on children, and they remember me. I am always being yelled at “MISTER GREEN” when I walk throught communities. Some children I have had for three years running. In one recent class, I taught a second grade class in which about ¾ of the class had me before, some in Kinder, some in First, and some in both Kinder and First and now Second.
Doing my Secretariat Dooties
I am also an active member of the local Monterey County democrats. I am currently the secretary of the County Central Committee and tomorrow, on my birthday, I will be working at the Monterey County Fair registering Democratic voters.
I believe I have a lot to share with my aquired knowlege and experiences and keeping me going helps me contribute to the many communities of which I am a part.
There’s a lot more I could write, and this document will be the basis of a much more expansive diary updating my teaching status and my life soon. I’ve been intending to post a full diary about my teaching situation, but things keep being uncertain and changing, but with the new year beginning next week, things should stabilize soon and I will post that and several other status diaries in the near future.
OK, that’s a ramble. If you read through all that, thanks. I could go on and on, and probably will in the f,uture. For now, Thank you all for your support.
#jtg
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Summary of what I need:
That’s my Great-Great Grandmother on the wall behind me
I need $1000 in order to pay for my August housing, utilities, and gas-to-get-to-work financial needs. I will probably need some amount in January. Briefly, this is because I work as a substitute teacher, and I have not worked at all this summer nor during the Winter break. More on this later in this post. Links to help are below.
If you can’t contribute, please REC, TIP, COMMENT and SHARE to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. You may reach someone who can.
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(-: * * * * * * * * * * * * * :-)
How to Help:
Immediate Help:
PayPal (James at JamesThomasGreen dot com) |OR| GoFundMe
Pet Supplies Amazon Wishlist (feed my dogs and cats)
JTG's Clothing Amazon Wishlist (My underroos are getting threadbare)
Long Term Help:
Patreon-Monthly Set Amount • More Patreon per-creation accounts coming soon
My Online Shops (Buy a T-shirt, bag, print, etc):
TeePublic-jtg • Fine Art America
Kosmail me for my postal address or other options
If you can’t contribute funds,
please REC, TIP, COMMENT and SHARE this diary
to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.
You may reach someone who can.
Even a comment saying “Good Luck” or photo of your critter(s) helps.
Also, FOLLOW me on DKos and REC, Et cetera, my posts
(-: * * * * * * * * * * * * * :-)