Once again, the old Skeptical Raptor is depressed and fighting hard, but needs your help to try to get back on the right track.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am getting on in years, and I have come to realize that I focused on my career and lifestyle rather than the things that should matter most to most people’s lives — their families.

For me, it should have been my three special daughters. They are now all adults, and I missed watching them grow up. It is time for me to be a part of their lives, as I live in California and they live on the East Coast, far away from me. They have all grown up without me because I chose a career and lifestyle over them, and now I don’t have the career or lifestyle, and I don’t have them.

Because of personal medical and spectacular financial disasters, I am stuck in California, far away from my daughters, and all of us know that the only way to be family again is if I am physically close to them. I need them since they are my only family.

I had a terrible emotional breakdown while running a startup company. I put all of my money into it, thinking that just one more dollar would get it going. I failed, which pushed me into a major depressive disorder, making it difficult to survive from day to day. I think writing this blog has been one thing that keeps my head from imploding. And no, I do not think writing a blog “cures” depression, it just helps me focus.

Speaking of this blog, despite my ongoing travesties and missteps, this website was going to be my income stream to get me close to my daughters. For about a year it worked, but Google changed its SEO algorithms, and the old Skeptical Raptor got clobbered. Many of my articles that were in the top 5 of the Google rankings are now <100. This destroyed my income stream from this website. I’ve tried everything to recover, and nothing works. I have to rebuild it as if I started it yesterday — I’ve actually been doing this for over 10 years.

And in case you don’t know, writing articles, managing the back end of this website, and answering comments and questions is nearly a full-time job. There are other writers out there who just can type out 2000 words in an hour — I don’t have that skill set. I have to read the articles, write out some bullet points, then write the article. It’s difficult and stressful.

Then other things happened to me. My car is an ongoing mess. If I had the money, I’d dump it in a junkyard and move on. But it’s important to my survival. My MacBook Pro, where I do 90% of my work is on its last breaths. The battery is gone, and it constantly crashes from what I think is a bad SSD card (or bad motherboard, which is worse). It’s four years old, just about the limit of life for a laptop. Without it, I won’t be able to write articles. I don’t even know what I’ll do if it finally dies.

So, I’m asking for your help so that I can be in my daughters’ lives and make sure I keep writing. Even if I get out there, it’s going to be difficult, but it’s the first step. I have limited years left in my life, and if I don’t do this now, I never will be in their lives.

But more than that, it helps me keep going writing about vaccines, quack medicine, and whatever else interests you and me.

I know that my story is no better or worse than anyone else’s, but I am really stuck. And I could use your help. Maybe you think I shoulda, coulda, woulda done something else, but I crashed and burned, and this is where I am.

So, there are three ways you can help me.

The first way costs you no money, other than buying something on Amazon. Just click on the image/link and buy whatever suits your fancy.

The second way is Patreon:

Become a Patron!

All you have to do is go to my Patreon Page and my latest posts from here will appear there as if they were magic, without any advertising. You get the same articles that are here, but ad-free (which I know some people want). It only costs $5 to be a Patron, but more will help too.

And the final way is on my GoFundMe page:

Oh, there’s one really easy way to help me out. Please share my articles, that really helps all the time.

Once again, the old Skeptical Raptor is depressed and fighting hard, but needs your help for funding.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am getting on in years, and I have come to realize that I focused on my career and lifestyle rather than the things that should matter most to most people’s lives — their families.

For me, it should have been my three special daughters. They are now all adults, and I missed watching them grow up. It is time for me to be a part of their lives, as I live in California and they live on the East Coast, far away from me. They have all grown up without me because I chose a career and lifestyle over them, and now I don’t have the career or lifestyle, and I don’t have them.

Because of personal medical and spectacular financial disasters, I am stuck in California, far away from my daughters, and all of us know that the only way to be family again is if I am physically close to them. I need them since they are my only family.

I had a terrible emotional breakdown while running a startup company. I put all of my money into it, thinking that just one more dollar would get it going. I failed, which pushed me into a major depressive disorder, making it difficult to survive from day to day. I think writing this blog has been one thing that keeps my head from imploding. And no, I do not think writing a blog “cures” depression, it just helps me focus.

Speaking of this blog, despite my ongoing travesties and missteps, this website was going to be my income stream to get me close to them. For about a year it worked, but Google changed its SEO algorithms, and the old Skeptical Raptor got clobbered. Many of my articles that were in the top 5 of the Google rankings are now <100. This destroyed my income stream from this website. I’ve tried everything to recover, and nothing works. I have to rebuild it as if I started it yesterday rather than being over 10 years old.

And in case you don’t know, writing articles, managing the back end of this website, and answering comments and questions is nearly a full-time job. There are other writers out there who just can type out 2000 words in an hour — I don’t have that skill set. I have to read the articles, write out some bullet points, then write the article. It’s difficult and stressful.

Then other things happened to me. My car is an ongoing mess. If I had the money, I’d dump it in a junkyard and move on. But it’s important to my survival. My MacBook Pro, where I do 90% of my work is on its last breaths. The battery is gone, and it constantly crashes from what I think is a bad SSD card (or bad motherboard, which is worse). It’s four years old, just about the limit of life for a laptop. Without it, I won’t be able to write articles. I don’t even know what I’ll do if it finally dies.

So, I’m asking for your help so that I can be in my daughters’ lives and make sure I keep writing. Even if I get out there, it’s going to be difficult, but it’s the first step. I have limited years left in my life, and if I don’t do this now, I never will be in their lives.

I know that my story is no better or worse than anyone else’s, but I am really stuck. And I could use your help.

So, there are three ways you can help me.

The first way costs you no money, other than buying something on Amazon. Just click on the image/link and buy whatever suits your fancy.

The second way is Patreon:

Become a Patron!

All you have to do is go to my Patreon Page and my latest posts from here will appear there as if they were magic, without any advertising.

And the final way is on my GoFundMe page:

I thank you for your support.

For those of you who don’t me, I have had a difficult relationship with my three daughters. I had spent more time in my career than with them, and now they are adults and we have no relationship. Because of personal medical and spectacular financial disasters, I am stuck in California, far away from my daughters, and all of us know that the only way to be family again is if I am physically close to them. I need them since they are my only family.

Unfortunately, despite my ongoing travesties and missteps, this website was going to be my income stream to get me close to them. For about a year it worked, but Google changed its rankings for this website, and I’ve gotten clobbered. Many of my articles that were in the top 5 of the Google rankings are now <100.

So, I’m asking for your help so that I can be in my daughters’ lives. Even if I get out there, it’s going to be difficult, but it’s the first step. I have limited years left in my life, and if I don’t do this now, I never will be in their lives.

I know that my story is no better or worse than anyone else’s, but I am really stuck. And I could use your help.

So, there are three ways you can help me.

The first way costs you no money, other than buying something on Amazon. Just click on the image/link and buy whatever suits your fancy.

The second way is Patreon:

Become a Patron!

All you have to do is go to my Patreon Page and my latest posts from here will appear there as if they were magic, without any advertising.

And the final way is on my GoFundMe page:

I thank you for your support.

Like those Public Broadcasting System fundraisers, I’m here to ask (beg?) for contributions to keep this website going. And as annoying as it is to you, it’s more annoying for me. But this website isn’t supported by anyone but myself and your kind support.

I am hoping that some of you will contemplate making a financial contribution to the old feathered dinosaur, also known as the Skeptical Raptor so that we can continue to be that valuable resource that we have been in the past.

Although some may consider this a hobby, it is almost a full-time job for me. Researching and writing an article takes several hours of my time – I think it would be irresponsible of me to just write an article from the top of my brain. Setting that aside, all the other costs of this website are borne by me and through contributions.

I want to grow this blog to another level. Why? Because I want this blog to be at or near the top of the search results for topics that I focus on – vaccines, diabetes, GMOs, cancer, nutrition, and a few other narrow areas. I want to make sure that when someone is “doing their research” they get viewpoints beyond what the science deniers provide.

Please consider supporting this blog with a financial contribution of whatever level you think the old dinosaur deserves. It can be little. Or if you feel like it, it can be a lot, I’m really not going to complain.

How do I use your contributions?

• Operating expenses such as web hosting, paid services, ISP charges, and other small but regular charges.
• The hiring of contractors to regularly maintain the website or fix major issues (like the requirement to switch to https).
• Cost of literature – reading an abstract on PubMed is hardly the proper way to analyze published research. Although there are several websites that allow one to get full articles illicitly, they are generally taken down through intellectual property claims, and I’m reluctant to violate intellectual rights.
• Subscribe to a couple of journals that are the focus of this website.
• Maintenance of hardware that is used to support the website.

This website will always remain free to use. I need your support to keep that happening. Many of you have made generous and continue to make generous contributions to this website that keeps it running. And I’m hoping some more of you will also contribute so that I can maintain and grow this website.

There are two ways you can help support this blog.

First, you can use Patreon by clicking on the link below. It allows you to set up a monthly donation in the form of a subscription.

Please help out.