New Year, New Goal: $100K All Time
A quick update on what to expect this year.
Happy new year, heroes!
I hope your got your 2024 off on the right foot in whatever way that looks for you. For the past few years, one of my favorite New Year’s Day traditions is getting my new Extra Life page set up for the year and getting gamin4aven.org (and all related domains) pointed there.
This year, my 9th doing Extra Life, it’s all about the major, all-time milestones.
In 2023, you helped me raise nearly $16,000 for the Children’s Health Foundation of Oklahoma. That pushed my all-time total to $84,640. This year, I’m determined to have that total hit the $100K mark by raising $15,360 in 2024.
My milestones this year will all focus on the all-time total, with milestones at every $5K step, starting at $85,000 which is just a humble $360 away. While I don’t know what I’ll do for the other milestones, I do know what I’ll do for the $85K mark.
My father-in-law, bless his heart, sent over a book by Clay Travis. He clearly has no idea I can’t stand that guy’s sports opinions (much less the non-sports ones he spews), but for donations, I’ll not only read this copy of On Rocky Top in front of me, I’ll write a review. Everyone wins but me.
Need an idea for a donation amount? How about $40.08 to honor Notre Dame’s Sun Bowl victory like I did?
Now to wrap up with a couple house-keeping things…
Firstly, I’m taking a streaming break to take care of some items on my Extra Life to-do list. The first thing on that list will be reaching out to every single donor to get a mailing address. I’m going to send a thank you package to everyone that opts in with various levels of swag based on your donation level. More details coming!
Secondly, you may have noticed that I have basically shut down my entire Twitter presence. I could have a whole rant as to why, but it’s really simple: Elon’s ruined the place. Engagement sucks because I’m sure people aren’t logging back on to deal with the hellscape. Alex Jones getting re-platformed and also launching a new show on the platform was the last straw. I don’t want to be associated in helping boost Twitter’s metrics in any fashion, including fighting for kids’ health, when they invest in a man that still owes millions to Sandy Hook families after proclaiming their children’s deaths were fake.
Similarly, news has broken as of late that Substack is making quite a bit of bank monetizing and housing the content of unapologetic Nazis. While this publication will always remain free, I do not want my writing, nor the people reading it, being included in metrics to attract people full of hate looking to make a buck spreading their garbage.
For those of you that followed me on Twitter, you can find me on BlueSky. Posts there are now publicly available so you don’t need an account to read my shitposts. If you want to dive in, I’d encourage it. Vibes are good, I have invites (and know plenty of folks with some too), and we should enjoy the place until it goes fully public. Easiest DM paths are Discord (come join the way too quiet Gamin’ 4 Aven one) and Instagram (ndtex on both).
As for Substack, this will be my last newsletter using the platform. I have a couple options of where to move and it’ll be painless for anyone reading this. Practically everyone opens my stuff through their inbox and doesn’t visit it directly at Substack. This also means that I’ll have to find a spot for my podcasts too, but I’ll figure that out.
Once I have those major things done, I’ll focus on finishing up a whole host of VoDs, revamping my overlays, and other stream improvements. My goal is to start streaming again no later than my birthday on February 8.
Again, I can’t thank y’all enough for your continued support. It’s absolutely mind-blowing that I look at raising $100K all-time as an achievable goal. The impact that you’ve helped me make for Oklahoma kids and cancer research is MASSIVE!
