So now the tea party has something to do with the oil mess? Can’t you see how Obama totally dropped the ball here? A Louisiana poll showed that more people think Bush handled Katrina better than Obama is handling the oil mess. But regardless. Blame those “drill, baby drill” Republicans, because if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll recall that only 2 weeks before the rig explosion, Obama said we needed to expand offshore drilling!!!

It wasn’t the tea party or the GOP or the big oil fatcats that said it – it was OBAMA!!!

Besides, it is everyone’s fault for living as if we’re never going to run out of oil. Gore can dictate to us telling us how we need to live our lives to save energy – from his multi-million dollar mansion. John Travolta, too – with his 747 parked in his driveway.

And most of the liberals who claim to somehow hold a higher ground on the environment. As they sip their lattes in an air conditioned coffee house while pounding away at their laptops. (None of which would be possible without oil by the way)… meanwhile, the conservatives are the fishermen, the campers, the mountain climbers, the hikers, the boaters, etc… so please – let’s stop acting as if the right wing hates nature or something. This oil leak is making me sick. No one wants to see all those animals dying and livelihoods ruined and prestine beaches turning into oil-ridden wastelands. It’s horrible.

And Obama could have done – and still can – and should – but isn’t doing – ALL HE CAN to fix it.

Let’s start with that 20 billion he’s getting from BP to be put into a slush fund and use it to put unemployed people to work cleaning up the beaches. Let’s also take some prisoners (non violent, relatively healthy ones) and let them help with the clean up, too… it’ll give them something to do during the day and they’ll sure be happy to be out there on a beach somewhere. Even though they’ll be there to work.

Just an idea.

There are people out there that are willing to do stuff purely for the fun of it that enjoy challanges & might not neccesarily require financial compensation or a say in how the project is run.

I think you should do something to get dbasr going, but I also think you should be more specific about what you need to reach that goal. A few months of room & board is… roughly how much? It sounds like you’ve ruled out help entirely, but on the other hand… if you’ve asked people about it: are there segments you could parcel out and pay someone to do, to save yourself some time? If so, how much would that cost?

I know financial are awkward & annoying, but if you could break it down, then you can say “If I raise $X, I can pay someone to do some of the annoying bits, and that will save me weeks of annoyance.” Or “If I raise $Y, I can work on this full time for a few months and that will get me within reach of the finish line.” Or whatever. It’s also worth thinking about timing. Forget the how’s and just make a list: what’d be the best response, what would be almost as good, at what point does the cost outweigh the benefit? Like: “$10,000 instantly would be beyond my wildest dreams. $2000/month for a 3 months would be a huge help. $800 instantly would give me some breathing room. $100/month for six months would be nice, but not enough to make a difference.” Or whatever.

You sound overwhelmed, and I truly understand that feeling, but those kinds of numbers would make it easier to answer the hows. When you have a set of goals, start again with “I want to raise this much money — what’s the best way to get it that won’t undermine my ability to finish this project?” And if the answer’s not feasible, you go down to your second-best goal, and so on.

I hope I’m not being obnoxious here; I really do get the stressed & overwhelmed thing because I’ve been there, and I know it’s a lot easier to troubleshoot from the outside.

If you go the Kickstarter route, you’re going to have to blow the whole thing open, otherwise folks aren’t going to give a damn and won’t be interested in giving you money. Additionally, there’s the chance that you don’t reach your quota, which means that you’ve then blown the whole thing open and haven’t received anything to show for it.

Chances are, if anyone’s going to beat you to market with something similar, they’ve also been working on it already. Someone with money and a team of people working full time could turn it around quick, but it won’t much matter if they do it before you release or right after, because if they’ve got money they’ll probably be in a better position to market it, even if they’re not first.

Good ideas are a dime a dozen. You’re going to have to depend on great design and great execution and great service.

So if you need cash to pull it off, you might as well ask for some, is what I’m saying.