I'm posting this to the few forums where I've been active for a while to expand its reach. tl;dr - I am accepting money donations via Paypal to neoexmachina@gmail.com .

I have not mentioned it here yet, but I'm essentially homeless and I'm currently jobless. I have tried to obtain jobs over the summer before going back to school but with no success. I've finally reached my official worst point financially. I have $165 in my bank account and around September 4th or 5th my storage room auto-pay will take $147, leaving $18 if I don't touch it or $13 if the monthly service fee does; starting a 9-day counter for storage room . After that, a $25 minimum payment is due on my credit card (which I only originally had for overdraft protection, but now had to use it to pay bills directly) on September 16, a card with only an $800 limit and currently drawn at $796; 21-day counter for credit card . The next day my monthly $20 fee for the gym is due and that's on auto-pay; 22-day counter for gym . Phone bill of $38 is due the 22nd; 27-day counter for phone .

Essentially, if I don't put $250 or so into my bank account in the next 21 days I'd get hosed for credit card, 22 days hosed for gym, 27 days for my only phone, and get hosed for the next month for my storage room. That's not even counting transportation to school once my monthly pass expires in 30 days.

I don't know if my financial aid is gonna kick in soon enough, my work study award is in limbo and I don't know if I'm going to have my on-campus job again, and I don't know if I'm going to get any other paying gig soon enough. I do have applications submitted to many places, but don't know about the timeliness of positive results from them.

I'm at my wit's end here and I don't know what to do. PLEASE HELP ME. Those who would like to help please send donations via Paypal to neoexmachina@gmail.com .

N E O, I'm a bit speechless, I've always that you an adequate programmer, aren't there any shops 'round town that do web development? I'd also drop the gym subscription for a bit until I'm back on my feet, but that's me.

I've donated a bit only because I've known you through Sphere and seem to be a nice guy. Hope all goes well for you. What about the payment for these forums --  whose covering that?

Agree about the gym thing; that's the first thing to drop.
I'm not exactly in a great situation either, but not nearly as badly as you describe things. I can send you a bit in a week or so.

N E O, I'm a bit speechless, I've always that you an adequate programmer, aren't there any shops 'round town that do web development? I'd also drop the gym subscription for a bit until I'm back on my feet, but that's me.

I've donated a bit only because I've known you through Sphere and seem to be a nice guy. Hope all goes well for you. What about the payment for these forums --  whose covering that?

Re web dev shops - I've put in applications, but positive results won't be timely enough. A lot of places over the past year have rejected me because they think I won't be able to put in the time they want while still going to school.

Re gym - I'll definitely consider it, I've held out ending it for a long time because it's one of the few things in my life that has gone well.

Re forums - I've bought the domain name for a 10 year span when I did it, and whatever casiotone is doing to host it has worked well so far.

Thank you Radnen and DaVince for your help, I very much appreciate it! Please let me know if there's anything I can do.

I'm sorry to hear that!

Does TopCoder.com still pay out money rewards?

I'm not doing that well myself (things went south after the Mozilla internship and never really picked back up). I'm living paycheck to paycheck, hand to mouth myself, so I really have very little to spare. My job goes part time in a week, and then I won't actually be making enough to pay rent anymore (I really have no idea how I'm going to manage this). Otherwise I would certainly help out!

I'm sorry to hear that!

Does TopCoder.com still pay out money rewards?

I'm not doing that well myself (things went south after the Mozilla internship and never really picked back up). I'm living paycheck to paycheck, hand to mouth myself, so I really have very little to spare. My job goes part time in a week, and then I won't actually be making enough to pay rent anymore (I really have no idea how I'm going to manage this). Otherwise I would certainly help out!

TopCoder seems to still have bounties, but the ones that I feel even remotely qualified to attempt seem to all be accounted for, and I have no idea how quickly I would be able to submit a thing and get paid.

I understand the feeling of things going south after a great experience, Jester, and wish you success in your own attempts to live and thrive and make lemonade from your lemons!

make lemonade from your lemons!

I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought is could give [you] lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's going to burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!

Anyway though, I'm not in very good financial shape myself having only a part-time job or I'd definitely donate some money myself.

make lemonade from your lemons!

I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought is could give [you] lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's going to burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQjC9Ds3bBM

@DaVince: That was awesome.

Am I the only one here with a steady job? The only downside for me is the inability to spend a lot of time on personal projects. But I've been trying to make time here and there when I'm not playing games or watching TV.

I suspect that's why others left too - from tung to rjt, they had jobs other than Spherical, but meh I'm just sticking around because talk's cheap. Wish I could help out more than I could though.

I have a full-time job+. Not only working at least 40 hours a week I have to head off each year for a couple months and do technical training, so I'm constantly without much spare time at all. Doesn't seem to matter which season it'd be, I tend to be tied up with work and sports. Which in turn means minimal time for sphere and my projects.

Sent you a bit, hope it'll help. I also hope things will be going better for you in the future!

On-forum and off, I continue to be humbled by those willing to stick with me in my time of need; thank you, DaVince!

@radnen: Steady job too. To be honest, to balance work, kids and house... requires full time. I can do forums, but that is sleeptime I use.
My skillsets now include being able to sing all "frozen" sons. And I need more Unix admin skills, because that is rusty at the moment. Sigh... back to the books again.