I need donations in December as any other month. I am not going into details since I have explained them before and they can all be found here already. I do know one thing, mentally it is really wearing me out to always have money problems over the past few months and this problem is going to continue for the next year as thing currently stand. I hope that this problem is going to be resolved one way or an other, but that is not looking good as is. In December I am having the continued money issue as before and it does not look good currently money wise. As things stand now I won’t be able to afford anything in December and that is a lot worse status now then I was having last year. Since I need to cover many types of cost as anyone else. I also want to point out that geology is a field of patience, since often nothing can happen for a long time (as we see it). If you are bored waiting for something to happen you can pass the time by reading my short stories that I put on-line here. It is at least an way to pass the time when nothing is happening in Iceland. I update my short story website regularly when I finish new stories.
I have found a new website that allows me to add an donation button to this website. I am currently in verification process with that website and I hope to finish it in next few days. Once that progress is finished the new donation button is going to be added to this blog. If you want to donate to me regularly then it can be done by using the subscription button. I have not found this service in the same manner anywhere else then on Paypal. I am going to use Payza for one time donations. If you want to send one time donations to my Paypal account then you have to use my email address as explained here.
I also need donations to buy new hardware. This is just for repairs and to strengthen my geophone network in readability.
1: I need a new hard drive for Skeiðflöt geophone station (more details on this station below). A new hard drive costs 11700 ISK or 70,29€ (521,39 DKK).
2: I need to buy a backup power for Böðvarshólar geophone station. It costs 8950 ISK or 53,77€ (398,84 DKK). I did delay buying this due to lack of money at present time. I hope to buy the backup power in January-2014 at the latest if I can afford it. I am going to buy this backup power in December if I get donations for it.
The hard drive in Skeiðflöt geophone station is failing and has been doing so since earlier this year. I need to replace it before the hard drive fails completely. I have ordered a new one already and that is one of the reason why I don’t have any money at the moment. I need to add backup power for Böðvarshólar geophone station to deal with power fluctuation in the area, mostly during bad weather and general power issues.
Changes to geophone network
In December the geophone station at Skeiðflöt is stopping operation for good. The reason being is that the person how is hosting it for me is having personal changes and cannot host it for me any-more. This is the downside of having geophone station located in someone house. The hardware is going to be relocated to north Iceland and a new station is going to start operation. That geophone station has the name Bjarghús. I expect Bjarghús geophone station to be up and running around 20-December-2013 at the latest.
Thanks for the support.
I continue to struggle to understand why you need to require donations like this. The simple solution is surely to work for a living. I am aware that you consider the blog to be your employment, but this does not make sense to me.
Most geobloggers blog in their spare time alongside their other work. In my own case I run an active blog whilst holding a major managerial role in my university, managing my own research programs (which require extensive long haul travel), supervising my PhD students, running seminars for teachers, attending conferences and looking after two children. I do not think this is unusual. Strangely enough I do not solicit donations. I do not think I am in any way unusual in this level of activity alongside my blog – indeed many geobloggers that I know are even more busy than I am.
So, why can you not fit the management of your blog alongside a job that earns your keep? I am afraid that I cannot understand why this is impossible for you. If you invested the time you spend soliciting donations on working for a living then everyone would benefit, surely?
Dear A working blogger.
As you say I do consider this blog to be my work. It is in reality more than that. I consider my work as an writer to be my job, regardless of what I am writing about.
Now I have considered getting a job (you know 8 to 16:00 as is normal here in Denmark) to bridge the gap. I am yet to find a job that does not require a masters degree in something (or a PhD in something). I even tried to get a job at the store, but they like to hire people from the unemployment list or kids at the age of 16 to 18 (lower wages), since they like doing that to keep wage cost down. They didn’t want to hire me.
I also want to point out there is a lot of work besides this blog. It is not just about writing. I have to keep my geophone network running (using Windows XP does not make that easy), check earthquake data, I got 3 years worth of unregistered earthquakes [around 5000 so far] in my database now and it just keeps growing.
I write about 5 to 10 posts here on a week. At most I spend 8 hours on single post, this can go down to 1 hour if it is a simple post just about earthquake swarm for instance. If it is a complex matter like an eruption I can spend all day and most of the night writing a blog post about it.
That is besides other work, like monitoring and checking data from IMO. Doing so is a lot of work too.
I am not sure how I can fit that alongside a regular job in the long run. It can work in the short run I am sure, but I am doubtful on doing so in the long run. Since this is really a lot of work that I do. Since I am also working out the details my self.
I do have income from my social welfare. Unfortunately for me and other people on benefits in Iceland the model they are working on now seems to be keeping people on benefits just above the line so they can just pay there bills and nothing else. I do oppose this, but there is little that I can do since I do not have any political power and people in charge in Iceland are not at all clever (they just pretend to be some of them).
I hope that you understand. Thanks.
Hi Jon,
I think what you really should do is to declare your work activities to be a research organisation. Even with that a lot of companies will donate old computers and the like to you. My ex did that and got working electron microscopes and all sorts
What you can then do, is to register your reasearch organisation as a charity.
That way donations won’t appear to be begging and people will feel differently about giving to it. You may well get businesses to back you then as well as people giving to your charity.
You can then ask organisations to back your research too and give your organisation grants etc. Once it is
an organisation there are many places you can seek grants.
You can turn you researches into a business, then pay yourself a wage, but the informal half hearted way you are doing it at present, will not attract sufficient funds. Your bank manager may give you guidance free of charge to get started.
I plan on turning this into a company at one point in the future. I am not sure when that date is going to be. I am hoping that I can do so in 5 years time at the earliest.
I need a bigger frame around this project, but it is going to take a while to build it and some effort.
There is no time like the present. What are you waiting for? Waiting sounds like a formula to procrastinate for ever.
Start small, but get started and start claiming research grants. You can do it! Then you can grow from their, quicker because you will have funding. There is no reason to start big, just work up to that as funds (grants) allow.
Have confidence in yourself. Confidence is the main difference between successful doers and just pretenders who never quite get there. Both has vision, like you, but one does and the other dreams of doing!
What is stopping you now?
I need to learn both Danish and German properly before I do this. I also need to know if any extra education is required here in Denmark. I find it likely that is going to be case.
Then I need to short out all manner of details that I know nothing about at the moment. If I want this to succeeded properly I am going to take my time in working on this project. But once I am ready, I expect this to go on for a long time.